Chapter 6: Large Purchase

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Li Qingfeng woke up in a daze. Seeing that they have already reached the town, he smiled at Li Qingling a little embarrassed. He didn't expect to fall asleep as soon as he sat in the basket.

Li Qingling picked up the basket again, held his hand, and followed Liu Zhimo into the town.

Today is the market day, the town is very lively, there are hawkers shouting everywhere. In her memory, Li Qingling has not been here a few times. Not to mention that she is from the modern times, where have she seen such a scene.

For a time, she was very fascinated.

When passing a steamed buns stall, Li Qingfeng swallowed his saliva when he smelled the aroma of steamed buns, but pursed his lips and turned his eyes away. He knew that his family had no money and could not afford steamed buns.

Li Qingling noticed his reaction. She touched the wild ginseng in her sleeve and turned to ask Liu Zhimo, "Zhimo Ge, do you know where there is a pharmacy?"

They came out so early, didn't eat anything, and walked so far, not to mention Li Qingfeng, even she was hungry.

So she planned to sell the wild ginseng early, eat something to fill her stomach, and then stroll slowly.

Liu Zhimo was quite familiar with the town. He took Li Qingling to another street. This street was called South Street. There were many shops and restaurants, and it looked very prosperous.

Li Qingling saw the difference from the North Street to the South Street. The North Street is mostly for the common people, and the South Street is for the rich.

"Let's go to a medicine hall called Ji Shi Hall later. This medicine hall is honest. The next time you want to sell medicine, go to this medicine hall." Liu Zhimo said, and told her about all the medicine halls in the town.

Li Qingling came to the conclusion from this that Ji Shi Hall serves the rich and the poor no different, while the Bai Cao Hall, which is as famous as Ji Shi Hall, is very bullying and only serves the rich.

"Little Master Li, are you here? Are you going to buy medicine?" Seeing Liu Zhimo and the two with him, the medicine boy greeted them and asked with a smile.

When Liu Zhimo's parents were ill, they were seen by the doctor from Ji Shi Hall. He had been here several times to get medicine, and the medicine boy knew him.

Liu Zhimo shook his head, he pointed to Li Qingling and said to the medicine boy, "My sister wants to sell medicine, I wonder if the medicine hall will accept it?"

Only then did the medicine boy look at Li Qingling, with the same smile on his face, "Excuse me, what kind of medicine is the little sister selling?"

Li Qingling nodded secretly, the service of this medicine hall was really good. They didn't look down on her because of her young age and shabby clothes.

She took out the wild ginseng from her sleeve, opened the handkerchief and handed it to the medicine boy, "Xiao ge ge, I want to sell this wild ginseng, what is the price?"

"This has to be shown to our shopkeeper, please wait a moment." The medicine boy took the wild ginseng in Li Qingling's hand and entered the inner room.

Not long after, a middle-aged man with a short beard came out with her ginseng, Liu Zhimo saw him, and called out Shopkeeper Zhou with a smile.

"It's Young Master Li, I haven't seen you for a long time." Shopkeeper Zhou smiled, he had a very good impression of Liu Zhimo, but it was a pity that Master Liu left early, and this young student also dropped out of school, otherwise his future would be promising, which is a pity.

"This is shopkeeper Zhou." Liu Zhimo introduced to Li Qingling, and Li Qingling immediately bowed to the shopkeeper Zhou cleverly.

"Hello shopkeeper Zhou!"

Shopkeeper Zhou stretched out his hand and brushed his beard, "Little girl, I saw your ginseng, it was well dug, and the roots are all there, but it's not very old, so I can only give you one or two silver liang, what do you think?"

Li Qingling also knew that ginseng would not be very valuable if it was young, and she was very satisfied that it could be sold for one or two silver liang.

"Yes!" She stretched out her hand to take the one or two silver liang handed to her by shopkeeper Zhou, "shopkeeper, if I dig up other medicinal materials, can I still sell them here?"

"Yes, we'll look at the price of the medicinal materials at then."

"Thank you, shopkeeper!" Li Qingling bowed happily to shopkeeper Zhou again, and shopkeeper Zhou waved his hand, saying no need to be this polite, but in his heart he sighed that this child is sincere.

After leaving Ji Shi Hall, Liu Zhimo took the two books he copied and went to the bookstore. When Li Qingling saw that Liu Zhimo had copied two books and only got twenty wen, she was shocked. Such a thick book, and it's only ten wen, which is too cheap. She deeply realized how difficult it was to make money in this era.

Walking out of the bookstore, Liu Zhimo saw Li Qingling glance at him from time to time, he touched his face suspiciously, "What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"

"No!" Li Qingling shook her head. She just felt a little distressed for him all of a sudden. From the wealthy family to the days of having one meal but not the next, it must have been very hard for him to come here alone. "I'm dying of starvation, let's go get something to eat! "

She pulled one person in one hand, walked towards the north street, and to a bun stall. The boss saw the business came to the door and hurriedly opened his mouth, "Does the little girl want to buy buns? A meat bun is two wen, a vegetable bun is one wen. The bun has a lot of fillings, and you surely will come back after eating it. "

"Then I want six meat buns and six vegetable buns." As soon as Li Qingling opened her mouth, Liu Zhimo looked at her in disapproval.

"You buy so much, can you eat all of it?" It's so difficult to make money now, and she spent 18 wen at once, with another 2 wen she can buy two jin of brown rice.

Originally, Li Qingfeng was quite happy to hear that Li Qingling wanted to buy so many buns, but when he heard Liu Zhimo's words, he became confused, and after hesitating for a while, he tugged on Li Qingling's clothes, "Sister, it's better to buy three. It will cost a lot of money to buy so many."

Li Qingling asked the boss to wrap the buns and said, "The three of us plus my mother, Zhiyan, and Rourou, there are six people in total, just two buns per person, why can't we finish it? And we won't buy it often, just this rare once."

Hearing this, he was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect that she even thought of his younger siblings. At this moment, his mood was quite complicated.

Seeing that she wanted to give the money, he quickly stopped her. He took out from his arms the 20 wen he had obtained from copying the books and was going to buy with it 20 wen worth of polished rice for his sister, counted 18 wen and handed it to the owner of the bun stall.

Li Qingling raised her eyebrows, and retracted her hand very simply. In the previous life, she heard people say that to see if a man loves you or not, it depends on whether he's willing to spend money for you.

Although she didn't know whether Liu Zhimo loved her or not, she felt that he was someone who would love and take care of his people.

"It's delicious..." Li Qingfeng finally ate the meat bun he was longing for, he was so happy that you couldn't even see his eyes.

"Hot, eat slowly." Li Qingling put the other six buns into the back basket. Seeing that Li Qingfeng was eating in a hurry, she quickly spoke up.

Li Qingfeng nodded, but the speed of biting the buns did not change. Li Qingling didn't care about him when she saw this, as long as he didn't choke.

She also took a meat bun, took a bite, and felt that the taste was not bad. At this time, the people were very real, and the bun was quite big. After eating a bun, she's afraid she will be full.

"Aren't you hungry?" Li Qingling ate half a bun, but saw that Liu Zhimo hadn't started eating, "Hurry up and eat, we have to go buy other things!"

Liu Zhimo glanced at her and was a little hesitant in his heart, but seeing how delicious she was eating, he finally took the bun and ate it.

It's a new experience, he had never done this before, and it felt so good now.

Li Qingling watched while eating, but after watching for a long time, she did not find a way to make money. Even if it is to set up a stall, she have to have money too!

At this time, she saw a cloth shop with sharp eyes, and asked Liu Zhimo and Li Qingfeng to wait for her outside, and she went in to take a look.

There were many people shopping in the shop, she looked up, and when she saw the Luo Ze knots hanging in the store, her eyes lit up.

She wanted to ask how much it was, but after looking around, she saw that there was only one person busy in the shop, probably the owner of this shop. Helpless, she could only stand aside and wait until everyone else paid the bill before she stepped forward.

"Shopkeeper, do you accept this kind of Luo Ze knots here?" She pointed to the Luo Ze knots hanging inside the shop.

In fact, as soon as Li Qingling entered the store, the lady shopkeeper saw her, it's just that she was busy, and saw that she only looked around, but didn't speak.

But she didn't expect that the little girl would wait so patiently for her to finish greeting other guests before asking her politely.

This patience made her have a good impression of Li Qingling.

"I accept it. Simple ones like this one is one wen, and those with complicated styles is three wen each." The lady shopkeeper pointed out different Luo Ze knots to show Li Qingling, so that she would know what to expect.

Li Qingling nodded, remembering that Zhao shi knew how to embroider purses, she asked the lady shopkeeper if she would accept the purses, and the lady shopkeeper also said yes, the simple one is for two wen and the exquisite is four wen.

After listening to the lady shopkeeper's words, she thought about it, and still felt that it would be better to make Luo Ze knots. It took a long time to embroider purses, and Zhao shi would be tired.

"Shopkeeper, how much is a bundle of colored threads?"

"A bundle is 6 wen."

Li Qingling immediately bought three bundles of colored threads for 18 Wen. She knows how to tie Chinese knots. There are no Chinese knots for sale here. When the time comes, she will show it to the shopkeeper to see how much the price is. If the price is high, she will teach Zhao shi how to make it.

"Sister, what did you buy?" Li Qingfeng asked curiously when he saw Li Qingling coming out.

Li Qingling stretched out her hand to hold him, "I bought some colored thread, I will ask mother to tie it up to exchange for money." After finishing speaking, she looked at Liu Zhimo again, "Zhimo ge, how can I go to the rice shop?" It's been so long since they have been out, it's time to go shopping then go back.

Liu Zhimo said follow me, and walked to the front silently to lead the way.

After walking for a quarter of an hour, they arrived at a rice shop. Li Qingling asked about the price, and bought 10 jin of polished rice, 20 jin of brown rice, three jin of rapeseed oil, one jin of soy sauce, and one jin of salt. The total cost was 455 wen. looking at the money swishing out, she felt distressed, she has spent so much money.

"Here, this is yours." Li Qingling handed five jin of polished rice and ten jing of brown rice to Liu Zhimo. Liu Zhimo looked at her steadfastly, neither reaching out nor making a sound.

She simply put it in his back basket, and said without shyness, "Just remember to be nice to me in the future." She always remembered his kindness to her family.

Liu Zhimo pursed his lips and nodded heavily, he will treat her well for the rest of his life.

"Go and buy some meat, then we can go home." Li Qingling felt like drooling when she thought of the long-lost pork.

"Sister, do you want to buy meat?" Li Qingfeng stared at Li Qingling with wide eyes, and when he saw Li Qingling nodding, he grinned and laughed. He hasn't eaten meat for a long, long time, and finally has meat tonight.

Li Qingling felt a little sad seeing him like this. She must work hard to earn money so that her family can eat meat every day.

"Uncle, how do you sell this meat?" Standing in front of the meat stall, Li Qingling asked.

"Fifteen wen for the fat ones, ten wen for the lean ones." The owner of the meat stand smiled heartily, "The pig that was slaughtered today is good. Look how fat the meat is! How much does the little girl want?"

People here like to eat fatty meat, the fatter the better, Li Qingling shivered, "Uncle, help me cut a jin of fat meat and a jin of lean meat." Seeing the clean bones, "Uncle, give me this bones!"

"Okay, I'll give you all these bones, come and help me next time!" The owner of the butcher's stall quickly tied up some bones. Anyway, no one will buy this bone, so it is a favor to give it away. "Little girl, a total of 25 Wen."

Li Qingling counted twenty-five copper coins to him, took the pork, put it in the basket, smiled at Liu Zhimo and Li Qingfeng, "Okay, let's go home."