Chapter 14

Yang Cunzhi looked at the desolate street and said to Yang Lan'er, "Let's go to the market and sell the wild vegetables, wild chickens, and wild rabbits first."

Yang Lan'er noticed that there was an inn with its door open ahead of them. "Let's go to the inn and ask. In times of disaster, food should sell well."

Approaching the inn, Yang Lan'er looked up at the signboard - "Happiness Inn." The two entered the inn, and the lobby was empty, with seven or eight tables vacant. The waiter at the counter on the left was dozing off.

"Bang bang bang," Yang Cunzhi knocked on the counter. The waiter raised his head in a daze and rubbed his eyes. "Are you staying or just eating, sir?"

Yang Lan'er said to the waiter, "We're looking for the innkeeper. Do you know if he's available?"

The waiter didn't understand and asked, "What do you want with the innkeeper?"

Yang Cunzhi took the bamboo basket off his back and showed it to the waiter. "Do you want these? They're fresh, just picked today."

The waiter was stunned when he saw the wild rabbits and chickens in the basket. Then, his eyes lit up, and he nodded his head like a chicken pecking at food, "Yes, yes. Please wait a moment, and I'll go find the innkeeper." He didn't finish his sentence before running into the backyard.

The innkeeper came out with a smile on his face soon after, bowed and said, "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. My surname is Qian, and you can call me Qian Innkeeper. What is your name, sir?"

"Glad to meet you, I'm Yang Cunzhi," Yang Cunzhi replied and bowed back.

Yang Lan'er rolled her eyes. These ancient people were such a hassle.

Qian Innkeeper smiled and asked, "May I know what you're selling, Yang Sir?"

"I'm not sure if your shop will accept what we have. Can you take a look?" Yang Cunzhi handed the bamboo basket to him.

Qian Innkeeper saw the wild rabbits and chickens in the basket and rubbed his beard happily. "Yes, we'll take them. It's a severe disaster year, and I won't say much. Normally, we buy wild rabbits and chickens for fifteen wen per catty, but today we'll give you fifty wen per catty. The wild vegetables will be sold for twenty wen per catty. Shall we settle it together?"

Yang Cunzhi hesitated for a moment and glanced at Yang Lan'er, who nodded. "Alright, let's do as the innkeeper said."

Qian Innkeeper had the waiter weigh the items and said to Yang Cunzhi, "It's rare to be able to catch wild game during such a severe disaster. If you catch more in the future, please bring them to our Happiness Inn first. Qian is very grateful." He bowed again.

The waiter came back after weighing the items and whispered something to Qian Innkeeper.

Qian Innkeeper smiled and said, "Yang Sir, the seven wild rabbits and chickens weigh a total of 35 catties. It's 1,750 wen in total. The wild vegetables weigh ten catties, which is 200 wen in total. The grand total is 1,950 wen." He took out a couple of silver and 950 wen copper coins from the counter and gave them to Yang Cunzhi.

After taking the money, the siblings bid farewell to the money manager and left the inn.

"Lan'er, where are we going now? Do you need to buy anything?"

Yang Lan'er smiled faintly. "We're going to the herbal medicine shop to sell some herbs," she said, winking at her brother, who understood immediately.

"Heh heh, okay, let's go to the herbal medicine shop."

They first went to Ren Shantang and walked into the lobby, seeing not many people around. The young pharmacy attendant asked softly, "Excuse me, are you here to buy medicine or to see a doctor?"

"Do you buy herbs here?" Yang Lan'er asked.

The pharmacy attendant smiled and said, "It depends on what kind of herbs you have."

Yang Lan'er lifted her basket to show him. The pharmacy attendant politely said, "Please follow me."

They followed him to the back hall and had just sat down when they saw an old man with kind eyes and a benevolent expression walk in. The siblings quickly stood up to pay their respects.

"I heard you're selling herbs. What kind of herbs are they? Can I take a look?" the old man asked, smiling.

Yang Lan'er took out the herbs and placed them on the table: three purple lingzhi mushrooms, as well as some other herbs such as tianma, fuling, and tianqi.

The old man's eyes lit up when he saw the lingzhi mushrooms on the table. He leaned forward to examine them carefully and then he even sniffed them. "These are top-grade purple lingzhi mushrooms. The smallest one is fifty years old, the largest one is at least two hundred years old, and the other one is over a hundred years old."

The old man pondered for a moment and said, "Sixty taels of silver for the fifty-year-old one, one hundred and fifty taels for the hundred-year-old one, and three hundred and fifty taels for the largest one. What do you think?"

Yang Lan'er didn't know the current market price, but seeing the old man's clear eyes, she knew that he was giving them a fair price in this small county. She nodded and said, "Let's do it as you say."

The old man was happy that Yang Lan'er agreed so readily. "Good, this young lady is straightforward! My surname is Hu, and if you don't mind, you can call me Doctor Hu."

He glanced at the basket on the ground and asked, "What about the rest of the herbs?"

"Doctor Hu, if your pharmacy buys them, we'll sell them all," Yang Lan'er quickly replied.

"Okay, little Li, go weigh these herbs," Doctor Hu instructed the young pharmacy attendant.

The herbs was sold for a total of six hundred taels of silver, and Yang Lan'er took all of it in cash, putting the silver into her basket. But the truth was , she had already put it into her storage space.