Chapter 18: The Peasant Girl’s Splendid Manor
Chapter 18: Arrival in the Capital
In the backyard of Xiangmanlou, Manager Wang watched as the helpers brought back basket after basket of large radishes. He couldn't help but stroke his beard happily. He immediately instructed the chef to cut open one radish the size of a basin. With a crisp sound, the radish easily split in half, and transparent juice flowed out along the knife, emitting a hint of sweet fragrance.
Unable to resist, Manager Wang took a bite of the radish. It was crisp and sweet, even more delicious than radishes that had endured frost and snow in winter. After tasting a few more bites, he looked meaningfully at Mo Yan and said, "I thought that even if radishes could grow this big at this time of year, they wouldn't taste good. I didn't expect your family to produce such delicious radishes."
Pretending not to understand his implications, Mo Yan replied innocently, "It's just that my family got lucky! We've tried before in previous years, but no matter how carefully we tended to them, we couldn't produce any. This year, we didn't pay much attention, yet we ended up with so many. I find it strange too!"
Manager Wang had wanted to see if she had any secrets he could buy from her. If so, he could pay a hefty sum to have his people cultivate them. Being able to offer radishes to customers in the summer would make Xiangmanlou unique in Longshi Town.
Seeing that he still seemed curious, Mo Yan suggested with anticipation, "How about I write down the process of growing these r
adishes? If Manager Wang is interested, I'll sell it to you for fifty taels of silver."
Manager Wang choked at her proposal, looking at her with an expression of speechlessness. He suddenly had no other thoughts.
Mo Yan lowered her head, smiling like a little fox.
Manager Wang was very satisfied with this batch of vegetables, especially the radishes. He offered a high price of ten copper coins per catty for them, which Mo Yan found quite satisfactory. Considering that during winter, one copper coin could buy two catties of radishes, ten copper coins was quite a lot!
After weighing the radishes, there were a total of 420 catties. This amounted to 4,200 copper coins just for the radishes alone. Adding the cabbage, tomatoes, and corn, which totaled more than 500 copper coins, Mo Yan received over 3,700 copper coins in total.
With one thousand copper coins equivalent to one tael of silver, Mo Yan left Xiangmanlou feeling pleased with four taels of silver and over seven hundred copper coins in her pocket.
Arriving at the dilapidated house at the end of the street, Mo Yan released another batch of vegetables. To avoid arousing suspicion from Manager Wang and causing trouble, she decided not to release any more radishes since there weren't many left in her space. Keeping them for herself wouldn't be a bad idea.
After completing these tasks, Mo Yan went to the seed shop in the street and spent more than ten copper coins to buy seeds for cucumber, eggplant, and green beans, among others, that were not available in her space. She then went to the market and bought ten catties each of potatoes and sweet potatoes to keep for planting. Finally, she spent over a hundred copper coins at the butcher's shop to buy six catties of high-quality pork belly, asking the butcher to divide it into two portions, one for herself and the other for Granny Ah.
It was still early, and there were many people trading in the market. Mo Yan easily found Granny Ah and helped her sell pears. Granny Ah's pears were plentiful and sweet, gradually attracting many repeat customers, and they could sell two baskets of pears every day.
After selling the pears, the two of them left the town, laughing and talking. When they parted ways, Mo Yan quickly put the meat into Granny Ah's basket without waiting for her reaction and ran off with her belongings, ignoring Granny Ah's loud calls from behind.
On previous trips to the town, Mo Yan had bought a lot of things and almost all the money she earned from selling vegetables went into buying them, leaving no silver coins to improve their lives. This time, she earned money to buy meat, finally allowing her family to have some meat.
Stomachs that hadn't seen meat for a long time were easily stimulated, leading to diarrhea. Mo Yan cut some lean meat and made a pot of tomato and pork soup. Despite having only one soup, it wasn't particularly tasty, but the family ate it with great satisfaction.
After dinner, Li Yan took the initiative to clean the dishes. The longer she spent with Mo Yan's family, the more grateful she felt towards them. She and her grandfather were going to the capital to seek relatives. Without someone to help them along the way, they might have starved to death. Although she knew that Mo Yan's family was kind-hearted and wouldn't abandon them, she didn't want to freeload without doing anything.
After resting for a few days, Grandpa Li's illness had improved significantly. However, due to his age, they needed to wait until he fully recovered before continuing their journey to avoid any complications.
Meanwhile, Mo Qingze had the idea of settling down in Longshi Town. It was unaffected by the drought, and people lived and worked in peace. It was a completely different world from the war-torn south. After discussing with Mo Yan, she thought about it for several days before ultimately vetoing the idea.
Although Longshi Town was small, its geographical location was excellent, situated on the official road, it was a must-pass place for merchants and travelers going north and south. This also meant that Longshi Town was wealthier than other towns nearby. If one wanted to settle down in Longshi Town or the surrounding villages, they had to grease the wheels with money. Bringing wealth to Longshi Town was the only way to gain acceptance; otherwise, settling there would be impossible.
Mo Yan had the space and could grow vegetables and grains to accumulate capital, but this was a lengthy process. Without fields to hide her activities, there was a high risk of her secret being exposed. She didn't want to take that risk, so she didn't mention these concerns to her father. The lack of silver coins alone was enough to dispel his thoughts.
In the following days, Mo Yan's cooperation with Xiangmanlou went smoothly. With an income of over five hundred copper coins per day, her purse quickly filled up. However, she didn't tell Mo Qingze about doing business with Xiangmanlou because it was hard to explain. Sometimes, under his worried gaze, she could only silently apologize in her heart.
After seven days, Mo Yan's collaboration with Xiangmanlou came to an end. When settling the final payment for the vegetables, Manager Wang gave her an extra five hundred copper coins because Xiangmanlou's business had improved significantly due to the vegetables from her space, earning them much more than just five hundred copper coins.
Mo Yan couldn't refuse, so she accepted it. Finally, under Manager Wang's regretful gaze, she left Xiangmanlou.
After returning the rented dilapidated house, Mo Yan went to settle the medicine debt she owed to the old doctor who had treated Grandpa Li. He was a good doctor with medical ethics, but when she didn't have money, there was nothing she could do. Now that she had money, she didn't want to owe him anymore.
Then, she went to the market and bought more than twenty chicks and two old hens. After throwing the chicks into her space where no one could see, she carried the old hens to find Granny Ah and forced them upon her as a repayment for her help.
Granny Ah was reluctant to accept them when she learned that Mo Yan and her family were leaving and wouldn't come back. Seeing that she couldn't refuse the old hens, she reluctantly gave Mo Yan the remaining half basket of pears to take with her on the road.
Mo Yan didn't refuse either and bid farewell to Granny Ah with the basket in her arms, tears in her eyes.
Back at the ruined temple, Mo Yan had her father slaughter the old hens and stew them into a delicious chicken soup. With the chicken soup, the six of them had their last lunch in the ruined temple, feeling full and satisfied.
After half a month of roughing it out, the six of them, dusty and weary, finally arrived safely in the capital...
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