Translator: 549690339
“No problem, I met Wang Crippled yesterday and asked him to wait for me today.” She responded and had already stepped out of the courtyard door.
In the village, Wang Crippled drove a cow’s cart to town every day, and it cost three cents per person per ride. He would leave early in the morning and return in the evening, making his living from driving the cart.
Chen Laogen’s family also had a cow’s cart, but their cow was mainly used for plowing fields. During the harvest season, when there were many people going to town, he would occasionally drive the cart to make some extra money.
However, on heavy rain days, there would be no cart to town.
It was said that hiring a cart to go to town cost fifteen cents. Even the three cents for one trip by cart was a lot for many people, who would rather walk for hours instead.
It took almost four hours to walk to town. Su Qingyue’s basket weighed over 70 jin, and carrying such a heavy load was too much of a burden.
If Wang Crippled didn’t wait for her, she decided to hire a cart herself. If Chen Laogen refused, she’d walk. It would be more exhausting, but she couldn’t afford to waste a basket of stir-fried fern.
She had borrowed a bowl of salt from Aunt Zhang’s house and used up a lot of it, and the oil at home was also gone.
If she didn’t make money to replenish the supplies, there would be no oil and salt to eat.
As she walked out of the courtyard door, she noticed the little bastard had followed her again. She turned around and saw the little bastard looking up pitifully, with its little tail wagging furiously as if it was about to break.
“Little guy, go back home first. I have to go make money to support the family.” She said.
It still followed her, so she put the basket down on the spot and quickly carried the little bastard back into the Xiao Family’s courtyard. She rushed directly to the secondary bedroom, placed it in the corner ‘nest’, and commanded, “Stay here and don’t run around!”
It was frightened by her stern tone and obediently lay down with a whimper. She rubbed its head as a reward. “That’s a good listener.”
She closed the secondary bedroom door and went with the basket to the main road by the village, where she saw a cow’s cart with four people already on board. The cart hadn’t left yet, which was great!
“Wife of the Xiao Family, what took you so long?” One woman sitting on the cart with a basket of eggs complained, “We’ve been waiting for you.”
“Enough complaining, Liu’s. You just got here too, didn’t you?”
“Alright, alright, sit down quickly!” Wang Crippled shouted. Su Qingyue placed her basket firmly on the cart and climbed aboard.
The cart bumped along on its way to the town.
“Auntie Hua, you were at the Wang Family in Wang Family Village for a wedding, and you’re back so soon?” Su Qingyue engaged in polite conversation.
“Yes, I was busy at home and had to return after having lunch yesterday.” Auntie Hua glanced at the basket next to Su Qingyue, which had large leaves spread over it. “What’s in your basket? It smells so fragrant.” Su Qingyue replied, “It’s just some stir-fried fern I made to sell.”
“Fern, huh.” Aunt Liu had a disgusted look on her face, “It’s bitter and astringent, tastes terrible. Even if you are giving some away with money, I doubt anyone would want to eat it now that we’re not experiencing famine.” Su Qingyue just smiled without responding.
Auntie Hua was still kind, “Don’t listen to the Liu’s, you might be able to sell a few jin.”
“Hey, Auntie Hua, when you went to Wang Xiaoliu’s wedding yesterday, was the bride pretty?” Aunt Liu asked curiously, “I heard many people attended
Wang Xiaoliu’s wedding, so they must have received a lot of gift money, right?”
“She’s quite decent-looking.. As for the gift money, they didn’t tell me, so how would I know how much they received?”