"Mother, I want to buy a shop that’s for sale."
"Oh?" Ms. Wang didn’t hear clearly at first, but when she realized, she widened her eyes, "You want to buy a shop?" Hearing Ms. Wang’s voice, Yang Dachuan and the two children all looked at her simultaneously.
"Yes, I want to buy a shop."
"Do we have enough money in our family to buy a shop?" Yang Dachuan was relatively calm, thinking about the money issue first. In his impression, a shop would cost a lot of money.
Yang Chuxia glanced at their current location and didn’t answer Yang Dachuan’s question. Instead, she said, "Dad, Mom, let’s go to the grain shop to buy things first, then go buy vegetables. We can talk about this after we get home."
Yang Dachuan also realized that this was not the place to talk and nodded.
Next, they went to the grain shop and bought thirty catties of white flour, thirty catties of rice, and they didn’t need to buy corn since they had some at home. Yang Chuxia also bought about twenty catties of sorghum flour from other places and some salt, oil, and vinegar for home use.
"Mother, shall we buy some lard later?"
"Lard is too expensive, isn’t it? This oil is already very good. Many families can’t even afford to use this oil." In Wangquan Town, people still eat vegetable oil. Like lard, meat is scarce and expensive, so few people eat it.
"Let’s buy some. When we go home and render the lard, we can use the oil residue to make dumplings." She wanted to buy lard mainly because the vegetable oil of this era was not very pure and its quality was not great. It seemed like a lot of oil was poured into stir-fries, but the dishes still tasted as if they were lacking oil, and they weren’t delicious at all.
Lard is different; it can be rendered by themselves and is quite pure.
Ms. Wang was a bit reluctant, but Yang Dachuan thought that his daughter wanted to eat dumplings with oil residue, so he said, "If our daughter wants to eat, just buy it. After all, our daughter has money. When we go home and rend the lard, let your mother make dumplings for you. Later, I’ll go buy some eggs and let your mother make egg dumplings for you."
"Ah, I knew Dad loves me the most." Yang Chuxia chuckled.
Then, the family went to the meat stall, bought two large pieces of pork belly, some fatty meat, and big ribs.
"Brother An, do you want to buy some of this oil too?"
"Will you help me render it?" Ye Zi’an asked eagerly.
"Sure, I can help you."
"Alright, uncle, give me a piece of pork belly too."
The butcher laughed and said, "All right, young man, you’re in luck; this is the last piece I have."
After buying the pork belly and remembering Little Yunyun at home, they went to the pastry shop to buy some cakes and fruit puddings. They bought two portions, one for Land Officer’s young grandson and the other for Yunyun.
After purchasing everything, they didn’t eat lunch in the town but drove the ox cart home.
At home, Yang Chuxia told Yang Dachuan and Ms. Wang separately about the shop. When they heard that their family’s money was enough to buy the shop, they both agreed.
However, Ms. Wang couldn’t believe it. How could their family afford to buy a shop? In her impression, only wealthy families would do things like buying shops, not ordinary farmers like them.
Little did she know that in other people’s eyes, her family, the third branch, was considered wealthy.
After taking out the silver bill from home again, Yang Chuxia, Ye Zi’an, Yang Dachuan, and Yang Dayong went back to the town. After arriving in town, Yang Chuxia didn’t go to the grocery store to pay first, but went to ask Shopkeeper Li about the shop.