Chapter 18: Return Journey
The two of them walked lightly out of the county government office and soon saw a bookstore across the street. Yang Lan'er said to her older brother Yang Cunzhi who was walking in front of her, "Second brother, let's go to the bookstore ahead and take a look."
"Okay," Yang Cunzhi replied, although he didn't know why his younger sister wanted to go to the bookstore. He kept his doubts to himself and followed her into the shop.
Inside the store, Yang Lan'er saw a thin middle-aged man sleeping with his head bobbing up and down on the counter. She rolled her eyes, thinking that people could fall asleep anywhere. In the 21st century, if a store employee had such an attitude, we all know what the outcome would be, cough cough!
The bookstore wasn't very big, with only a few rows of bookshelves. Yang Lan'er casually looked around and saw mostly handwritten books. She picked up a copy of the "Records of the Grand Historian," the "Three Character Classic," the "Hundred Family Surnames," and the "Thousand Character Classic."
She put the books on the counter, and it wasn't until the middle-aged man woke up slowly that he saw a man and a woman standing in front of him. Yang Lan'er smiled at him and gestured to the counter.
He lowered his head and saw the books on the counter. The middle-aged man flipped through them indifferently and said, "Three books for three hundred coins, deal. I'll take three taels of silver."
Yang Lan'er looked behind the counter and waved her small but luxurious hand, saying, "Please give me a paper cutter, ten small brushes, five inkstones and inksticks, all of medium quality."
The middle-aged man turned around, got what Yang Lan'er wanted from behind the counter, and handed them to Yang Cunzhi. He then calculated for a moment on an abacus and looked up again with the same indifferent expression, "The books and stationery you requested come to a total of twelve taels and five hundred and twenty wen. With a discount of twenty wen, that's twelve taels and five hundred wen."
Yang Lan'er took out thirteen taels of silver and placed them on the counter. The middle-aged man gave her back five hundred wen. The siblings glanced at him and left the bookstore speechlessly. They looked at the sky, hurried back to the inn, and asked the innkeeper for a refund on their room.
Once they returned to their room, Yang Lan'er put all the items from her backpack into her space. Then she took out a quilt from her space. She was really fed up with the old, hard, and torn quilt at home. She stuffed the quilt on top of her backpack, and from the outside, no one could tell that her backpack was empty.
Yang Laner was really determined to carry less, because, the journey was too long and her body was too weak. Just as they were ready, her second brother knocked on the door and asked if she was ready. "Lan'er, are you ready?"
The siblings picked up their bamboo baskets and said goodbye to the innkeeper before heading towards the city gate without delay.
As they left the city, they saw groups of refugees outside, eyeing their full baskets with hunger. This scared Yang Cunzhi, who grabbed his sister's hand and ran towards the main road. They ran until they were out of breath, but fortunately, the refugees didn't catch up. "Oh, I'm exhausted. It was really dangerous just now, fortunately they were too hungry to chase us, or it would have been really dangerous." Yang Lan'er looked around and found no danger
After catching their breath, they continued on their journey until they reached a mountain pass about half an hour away from the town. Yang Laner spotted three people lying on the side of the road, a man holding a middle-aged woman and a boy who appeared to be unconscious. The man also seemed to be in a daze.
Yang Cunzhi was worried that it could be dangerous, but Yang Laner reassured him "Second brother, don't be nervous. It seems that they have passed out, let's go over and have a look." Yang Cunzhi had no choice but to follow her. Upon closer inspection, they realized it was a family of three, and the woman and boy were unconscious. The man was barely conscious himself.