Translator: 549690339
Disliking the heaviness of the copper coins in her sleeve pocket, she dumped some of them into the basket and then took them all out, placing them on the wooden tray that held the goods. She carried it in, “In total, the goods fetched 990 copper coins. Rabbit meat sold for 100 cents, beef for six cents, and all the brown rice fetched four hundred cents. That makes 1,496 cents.”
“Eight hundred cents equal one tael. So it’s less than two taels.” Zhou Fuquan also helped with the calculation, “Adding the one and a half taels I borrowed, it makes three taels and 296 cents.”
“We have 200 copper coins at home.” Yuchuan chimed in, “The most profitable price for selling the snake poison piece by piece is only 150 cents per jin. Snake poison is expensive, ordinary people can’t afford it, nor would they buy it. Even if we take it to the town, the price might be tens of cents cheaper per jin, and it’s hard to find buyers. Even if the snake meat sells for 400 cents by luck, our family has nothing else valuable left. There is still a deficit of about one tael, which we simply cannot make up.”
The room falls into silence.
Zhou Fuquan ruefully said, “I can’t think of any way out. My family will have to resort to borrowing in the coming days…”
Su Qingyue simply said, “Brother Zhou, don’t worry so much. I have a solution.”
“What solution could you possibly have as a woman?”
“Didn’t I pick two large bundles of herbs yesterday? Maybe selling them will fetch a tael of silver.”
“Are those medicinal herbs rare?” Wang Cuihua asked.
Qingyue shook her head, “Apart from the Seven-leaf-one-flower used for snake venom treatment which is a bit rare, the rest are common herbs. But we must keep the snake venom treatment herbs. We barely have enough for our own use, we can’t sell them.”
Wang Cuihua also looked disappointed, “If we can only sell common herbs, then that’s just what you gathered in one day. I’m afraid it won’t fetch much money. There was a villager who tried selling herbs before, he spent two days on the mountain and brought back two large bundles of herbs, but it only fetched five copper coins in the town. The pharmacy said that half of it was misidentified and not herbs. One bundle sold for just five cents, so no one in the village thought about selling herbs after that.”
Su Qingyue looked surprised, her eyebrows raised slightly, “Really, just five copper coins? That’s only ten coins for two bundles. You frightened me!”
“Wife, Fuquan’s wife is not frightening you.” Yuchuan said, “It was sold by Qian Duotian, Qian Zhang’s husband. Although Qian Duotian is a bit lazy, he’s not a fool. When the villagers saw that he had misidentified the herbs and only earned five cents after two days, and had to travel so far to the town, they figured it would be more profitable to grow and sell vegetables, so no one in the village has tried selling herbs since.”
Su Qingyue twitched the corner of her mouth, “I was thinking of taking two bundles of herbs to the town, maybe I could exchange them for one tael of silver…”
“Wife, don’t be naive.” Yuchuan shook his head, “Unless it’s rare herbs, it won’t fetch one tael of silver.”
“You’re calling me naive?” Su Qingyue huffed, “Didn’t you say you’re worth thirty to forty taels? We could sell you and have money to spare.”
“I wish. Only if others think I can do hard labor would I be able to sell.” Yuchuan looked miserable, “Look at me, weak as I am, even if we were willing to pay others, no one would want me.”
“Maybe I’ll try borrowing again…” Zhou Fuquan hadn’t finished speaking when Wang Cuihua said sorrowfully, “I’m afraid we can’t borrow. Plus, the parents don’t know about the one and a half taels of silver we’ve borrowed. If they find out, it would be on us, and it would be hard to borrow again. We still have a child to raise.”
“It’s okay, Yuchuan still has one tael of his private money.” Su Qingyue said,
“Added together, it should be enough..”