By the time they returned to town, it was already afternoon. Shen Song had only eaten half a wild-vegetable ball that morning—one his eldest brother had given him.
After getting off the ox cart, Shen Song was drawn to a food stall not far away.
A big pot was steaming away, and Shen Song stood curiously in front of it, staring inside.
"Would you like a bowl of wontons, ge’er? Big wontons with thin skins and generous filling—only seven wen a bowl!" Seeing Shen Song stop and stand still, the stall owner hurriedly called out.
Boiled wontons didn't have much of a smell; standing in front of the pot, there was only the damp heat of rising steam. But Shen Song was both hungry and curious, wanting to know what wontons looked like and what they tasted like. Since arriving here, he hadn't eaten anything but wild greens, so he sat down.
The wonton stall had only one square table with a broken leg, propped up on a small block of wood, plus four long benches, each with its own defects.
There was no one at the stall right now, so Shen Song sat at a table by himself and said he wanted a bowl of wontons.
The stall owner smiled at once and told him to wait a moment.
Boiled wontons were quick to make. Shen Song sat on the bench watching the people come and go, and it felt like he had barely watched for a moment before the stall owner brought over a bowl of wontons.
Before setting them down, he even wiped the table with a cloth.
The bowl and spoon were rather worn, but still much better than what the Shen family used at home.
The stall owner was an honest man—the bowl held ten wontons, each with a thin skin and generous filling.
The filling wasn't pure meat; it was wild greens and meat.
But the wild greens here were seasoned and cooked with meat, so they tasted far better than the plain boiled wild greens at home.
Shen Song ate until his forehead was covered in sweat and his belly was full.
He wanted to take some home for his family to try as well.
The stall owner said he could sell Shen Song uncooked ones, which would be easier to carry, and if he bought a lot, he could give a discount.
Shen Song counted on his fingers how many people were in the family.
Including him, there were eighteen. But since he had already eaten, that meant one hundred and seventy wontons.
Seven wen per bowl, so seventeen bowls would cost one hundred and nineteen wen.
The stall owner had suddenly gotten a big order, and uncooked ones at that, so he said he'd knock off nine wen—one hundred and ten wen.
Shen Song was about to take out the money when his hand touched the stone at his waist.
He tentatively took it out and opened his palm to show the stall owner.
The wonton stall owner was busy wrapping wontons; he glanced at the silver in Shen Song's hand and looked somewhat troubled.
Shen Song, following Yi An's advice, always paid close attention to people's expressions.
Watching faces.
Seeing the troubled look on the stall owner's face, Shen Song thought that this stone really was useless after all.
He was about to throw it away when he heard the stall owner cautiously suggest, "Sir, this silver is really too much. My little stall can't make change for it. Could you pay me in copper coins instead? Or perhaps a smaller piece of broken silver?"
Shen Song's hand paused mid-throw. So it wasn't that the silver was worthless—it was too valuable?
He put the silver away and counted out one hundred and ten copper coins from the money he'd gotten from selling the snake to give the stall owner.
This was the third time he had spent money, and Shen Song felt that his movements in handing over payment were much more practiced than the first time.
With so many wontons, it was hard for Shen Song to carry them, so the stall owner packed them into a small basket and told him to bring it back the next time he came.
Shen Song agreed, and carrying the heavy basket, headed home.
When the Shen family returned from the fields and saw the basketful of wontons Shen Song had bought, they were momentarily too stunned to react.
Liu Chunxia was the first to speak, asking where they had come from. Shen Song said he had bought them.
When she asked where he'd gotten the money, Shen Song told them everything that had happened that day.
The family listened, going from shock and fear to worry, then lingering dread, and finally relief.
No one could believe that so many things had happened to Shen Song in a single day.
Aside from catching the Five-Step Viper, selling wild greens, receiving silver from a noble benefactor, selling the snake, and being robbed by five local ruffians but successfully escaping, the Shen family simply could not understand how Shen Song had spent one hundred and ten wen on one hundred and seventy wontons.
It pained them, even.
The child meant well, truly, but he really didn't know how to manage a household.
What kind of condition was the family in, spending over a hundred wen on wontons? It was truly wasteful.
But then again, the money was earned by Shen Song himself, and the wontons were bought for the whole family to eat—everyone got a share.
It was well-intentioned.
But with that one hundred and ten wen, if they had bought flour and meat themselves, even adding some other seasonings, they could have made far more wontons.
The wild greens they dug up at home tasted even better.
And from what they could tell, Shen Song didn't think there was anything wrong with it at all—he was even happy that the vendor had given him a nine-wen discount.
The Shen family understood now: this child truly had no concept of money.
Liu Chunxia knew the child meant well. However much it pained her, she didn't say anything else, only told Shen Song that if he wanted wontons in the future, he should just let the family know.
They could make them at home too.
Before today, Liu Chunxia would never have been able to say such a thing.
But the silver Shen Song brought home today amounted to ten taels, plus over four hundred copper coins.
The money from the Five-Step Viper was a windfall for the Shen family.
Only the money from selling wild greens was something the family could reliably earn.
Liu Chunxia managed the household money. The family had not divided into separate households, so all money went into the common pot, and they lived together as one.
Liu Chunxia put the money away safely. Thinking that with these savings the family could live comfortably for the next few years, she couldn't help feeling overjoyed.
Come to think of it, Song-ge’er had reached the right age—it was time to start arranging a marriage for him.
This money would also have to go toward his dowry. The more they prepared, the less his future in-laws would mistreat him.
That evening, the Shen family ate boiled wontons.
Liu Chunxia was in high spirits, and since Shen Song's wish was for the whole family to eat their fill for once, she had them boil every last wonton.
Xu Hongmei, Zhou Gu, and Li Maizi all pitched in with the work, while Shen Sanqiu, on the other hand, found himself with nothing to do, sitting in the courtyard watching the sunset glow, waiting for dinner.
There was still a bit of wild greens left at home. Zhou Gu washed them clean, blanched them in boiling water, then chopped them up fine, added salt and a bit of lard, and tossed them together into a cold wild green salad.
Li Maizi tended the fire and boiled the wontons.
It happened to be the end of the spring planting, and Liu Chunxia had declared that since they were eating, they might as well eat well.
Once they were full and had their energy, the men of the family would go out tomorrow to look for work, while the wives and husbands would stay home and open up the plots in front of and behind the courtyard—it was time to plant melons and vegetables.
So Xu Hongmei took the wild greens and went to the village to borrow soy sauce.
Though most people in the village tended to keep their distance from the Shen family, as long as one came bearing goods to exchange, favors would be returned—they wouldn't refuse outright.
Xu Hongmei soon returned with the borrowed soy sauce and used it with lard to make a soup base.
Shen Song had already eaten his fill outside, so he hadn't bought a portion for himself, but each family member gave him one of theirs, and his bowl ended up with the most wontons in the whole family.
"I can't eat this much." Shen Song drooled over the wontons. He loved wontons—they were delicious!
But he really wasn't that hungry, so he said, "I'll just eat a few."
Liu Chunxia said, "If you can't finish them, leave them in the bowl and eat them tomorrow morning."
Shen Song immediately started eating.
The wonton wrappers were thin and the fillings generous, seasoned with a bit of spice powder. Both the meat and wild greens were full of flavor, and with the tender, slippery wonton skins, the taste and texture were wonderful.
The soup base was flavorful too. One bite of wonton, one sip of soup—the whole family ate until they were sweating, their appetites wide open.
They couldn't remember how long it had been since they'd had such a delicious meal.
The children buried their heads in their bowls. This was their first time eating wontons, and even burning their mouths couldn't make them stop.
Food this delicious—they couldn't even get it at New Year.
Shen Song ate with great relish too, though he couldn't finish after five, but he drank all the soup.
The remaining twelve stayed in his bowl, and Shen Song went to sleep that night full of anticipation, thinking of those twelve wontons waiting for him.
He wasn't the only one—the little ones at home were the same. They were small with small appetites, and nine big wontons apiece was simply too much.
The youngest got full after just two. Sanqiu, Siping, and Wuxi each ate five plus a bowl of wonton soup, their bellies warm and round.
All of them looked forward to morning coming soon so they could keep eating wontons.
The adults hadn't eaten so heartily in a long time either—not wontons this delicious. Everyone ate until they felt full of energy. The men thought about finding work the next day to earn money, while the women and husbands thought about opening up land properly and planting melons and vegetables. Once they ripened, they could sell them for copper coins to add to the family savings.
The whole family had something to strive for, their hearts united, their strength pooled together—all so the family's days could get better.
Early the next morning, except for Shen Dashu, the men of the Shen family ate wild green buns and set off together out of the village to look for work.
The women and husbands also rose early, shouldering hoes and tilling the ground around the house.
By the time Zhou Niandong arrived, the ground in front of the house had already been tilled.
He had come to discuss supplying wild greens to the restaurant with the Shen family.
The wild greens they delivered today were all sold out by midday—they didn't even last until the evening meal.
Every customer who came in and ordered stir-fried wild greens would order a second plate.
Quite a few people ordered some to take home. The praise poured in—not a single person said they weren't tasty.
Those who hadn't gotten to eat them yesterday, as well as people who had tried digging wild greens themselves after eating at the restaurant but found them not tasty—all of them got to eat today.
Everyone praised the stir-fried wild greens, saying they'd come back tomorrow for more.
Shopkeeper Xu saw how well the wild greens were selling, netting two copper coins of profit per plate. That wasn't much money to him. But the number of customers coming in for the wild greens had increased today, and along with them, plenty of other dishes and wine were sold as well.
Overall, today's earnings were higher than usual.
Looking at his account book, Shopkeeper Xu finally decided he wanted to secure a supply of spring wild greens from the Shen family.
The condition was that the quality of the vegetables had to match those two baskets.
Since Zhou Niandong was related to the Shen family by marriage, the matter of negotiating was left to him.
Liu Chunxia had Zhou Gu pour Zhou Niandong some water. There was no tea leaves in the house, only well water.
Zhou Niandong had indeed gotten thirsty on his walk over. He downed a big bowl and relayed the conditions Shopkeeper Xu had offered: "Any wild greens you have from now on can be delivered directly to the restaurant. The owner says one basket is twenty catties, and he'll pay us twenty copper coins per basket. But the quality can't slip—they have to be just like the ones before."
Twenty wen a basket. If they dug more—say, just two baskets a day—that would be forty wen in a single day.
At the thought of all that money, Liu Chunxia's heart quivered again and again.
When the men of the family went out to do hard labor, even the strongest and most capable of them, the eldest and the second son, could only bring home thirty wen a day at best—and that was considered very good pay.
But their work was steady day after day, whereas finding wild greens as good as those wasn't guaranteed every day—it all depended on heaven's will.
In Liu Chunxia's view, digging wild greens wasn't a lasting gig, especially since the buyer had such high standards. Wild greens as tender and fresh as those—they'd only managed to dig up some for the first time this year.
Still, she wasn't going to turn her nose up at money. If they couldn't find any nearby, they'd search other places; if there was nothing outside, they'd go into the mountains.
Twenty wen a basket! Where else could you find work that paid so well?
She wouldn't even dare dream of it.
Liu Chunxia agreed, though she wouldn't promise daily deliveries—she only said she'd bring them over once she'd gathered enough.
Zhou Niandong knew daily deliveries weren't realistic either. If they could deliver every day, even his employer would want to buy the entire supply.
Plenty of customers at the restaurant wanted stir-fried wild greens.
Zhou Gu saw Zhou Niandong out of the village, and only then did Shen Song wake up.
Last night, he'd stayed up late thinking about the wontons he'd eat the next day, and only fell asleep in the small hours, so he got up late today.
When he woke, he found his mother and sister-in-law getting ready to take Sanqiu out to dig wild greens.
Second Brother-in-law Zhou Gu and Fifth Brother-in-law Li Maizi were staying home to keep clearing the land.
When he learned that the Xu Family Restaurant in town was buying wild greens—as long as they were the same quality as the batch they'd delivered before—Shen Song immediately said he wanted to go too.
Without his supernatural ability, the family could turn every hilltop upside down and still never find any of that quality.
Since the boy would just be idle at home anyway, Liu Chunxia waited a bit and took Shen Song along to dig wild greens.