Setting down the basket, Su Zhen hurried over and retrieved the small bundle.
The bundle must have drifted downstream with the current, snagging on a dead branch, which prevented it from continuing its journey downstream.
Su Zhen opened the bundle to find several pieces of clothing and a small rosewood box inside.
Su Anyu also ran over, squatting down curiously. “Whose bundle is this? The fabric of the clothes looks quite nice!”
The fabric was indeed good, smooth to the touch, but there were no distinctive markings to indicate who it belonged to. Most importantly, the clothes were torn to shreds!
“These clothes probably belong to a young man,” she said, holding up the torn garments against herself. “He must be quite tall.”
The two then turned their attention to the rosewood box. Inside was a jade pendant broken into two pieces, carved with flowing, water-like patterns.
Su Zhen couldn’t help but mutter, “Others pick up boxes filled with priceless treasures, but when it comes to me, it’s just old clothes and a broken jade pendant?”
And it was clearly something someone had discarded. Even so, she had no intention of throwing it away. The fabric of the clothes was still decent, and the colors were similar. With some alterations, she might even be able to make a new outfit!
Su Zhen didn’t know whether the jade pendant was valuable, but the rosewood box looked nice enough to use as a money box in the future.
Stuffing the small bundle into her basket, Su Zhen and her sister hurried down the mountain.
Su Anyu carefully wrapped the pheasant eggs in large leaves and cradled them in her arms. “What a shame we didn’t catch a pheasant. Maybe I should sleep with these eggs tonight?”
Su Zhen chuckled. “With how restless you sleep, you’d crush them all by morning! I remember Sister-in-Liu keeps chickens. Let’s take these pheasant eggs to her house and ask her to help us hatch some chicks.”
Sister-in-Liu was an honest woman, and her husband, Liu Dagen, was a diligent and good-natured man. When Su Erlang was still alive, the two often worked together outside. They would surely be willing to help with something as simple as hatching chicks.
By the time the sisters returned home, dusk had fallen. Mrs. Song was in the kitchen, tending the fire and preparing dinner—a pot of cornmeal porridge with soft Chinese yam cooked inside, both nutritious and delicious.
Su Zhen placed the basket in the main room and took out the raspberries and wild berries wrapped in leaves, calling out to A-Qiao, “A-Qiao, look! We have something tasty!”
The little girl’s eyes sparkled as she hugged the berries and ran to the kitchen to show them off to Mrs. Song.
Su Zhen smiled, and while no one was paying attention, she hid the small bundle in her bedroom.
She hid it carefully, after all, these were men’s clothes. If anyone found them, her reputation as a young woman would be ruined.
Three days later, the sky finally cleared. After three days of rest, Su Zhen felt restless and eager to make porridge and head to the city to earn money.
Unfortunately, there were no ready-made pig’s trotters at home, so Mrs. Song and Mother Zhao’s peanut and pig’s trotter soup would have to wait another day.
As she helped her daughter pack the basket, Mrs. Song repeated excitedly, as she had done countless times before, “The pig’s trotter soup you made was so popular! Even without salt, it smelled wonderful. People from Li Village said their own pig’s trotter soup had a fishy smell, but yours didn’t!”
“Two jars of soup sold fourteen bowls, earning a full seventy copper coins! After deducting twenty coins for costs, we made a full fifty coins! Ah, what a shame—we only sold for one day before it rained, and today we’ll have to delay another day. That means we’ll miss out on a lot of money!”
After saying this, she frowned and glared at her daughter: “Mrs. Zhao and I already agreed that you’d take the larger share of the earnings, and we’d split the smaller portion, but you just wouldn’t accept it. You silly girl, turning down money that’s handed to you.”
Su Zhen repeated what she had said many times before: “Mother, I just casually made the soup; I didn’t do much. You two are the ones walking the streets and alleys, earning hard-earned money. I won’t take a share; you two can split it.”
Knowing her daughter’s stubborn temper, and considering that the nutritional porridge was more profitable, Mrs. Song didn’t press further. She could only remind her daughter: “Don’t forget to bring back the pig trotters. You must use the money I gave you to buy them. Since you’re not taking a share of the earnings, you shouldn’t have to cover the costs either.”
Su Zhen nodded eagerly like a pecking chick, quickly slung her basket over her shoulder, and went out with Su Anyu to catch the ox cart.
It had just rained, and the road was difficult to walk on. Fortunately, Su Zhen and Su Anyu took the ox cart into the city; otherwise, their shoes and pants would have been covered in mud.
Taking advantage of the early hour, the two first found a medicinal shop to sell the ganoderma.
Since it was their first time selling medicinal herbs, Su Zhen was extra cautious. She visited three different medicinal shops to compare prices before finally selling it for five taels of silver.
The shopkeeper was straightforward and directly told the two sisters that if they ever gathered more good herbs in the future, they should bring them straight to him—he would buy them all.
A single ganoderma fetched five taels of silver—a huge sum. Not only was Su Anyu overjoyed, but even Su Zhen was ecstatic.
Combined with the monthly wages she had received from Yingkelai earlier and the money earned from selling nutritional porridge during this period, Su Zhen now had nearly seven taels of silver in hand.
As she walked, she calculated in her mind: First, set aside three taels to repay the debt to the Gao family. Then, use one tael to make bedding for everyone in the family. The quilts they were currently using were the two lumpy ones they got when the family split up—neither warm nor comfortable.
To ensure everyone had something to cover themselves, Mrs. Song had split one quilt in half, giving one half to Su Zhen and the other to Su Anyu. She and A-Qiao squeezed under the other quilt, unable to turn over while sleeping without exposing half their bodies.
Thinking of this, Su Zhen’s heart ached. Before, they had no money and couldn’t afford to spend on new bedding. Now that she had money, she couldn’t let her family suffer from hunger and cold any longer.
The two returned to the market and set up their porridge stall. After three days of rain without setting up the stall, many regular customers rushed over to buy porridge. The nutritional porridge, which usually sold out in an hour, was nearly gone in just over half an hour today.
The sisters lowered their heads to pack up the stall, eager to hurry to the cloth shop to buy fabric for the bedding.
A gentle and kind voice suddenly spoke up: “Boss, are you closing up so early? Is there any nutritional porridge left?”
“Sorry, business was good today, and it sold out quickly,” Su Zhen replied with a smile as she looked up. “Please come earlier tomorrow… Huh? Mrs. Gao?”
The visitor was indeed Mrs. Gao and her daughter, followed by two unfamiliar nannies and a young maid.
No Nanny Liu!
Mrs. Gao’s smile remained unchanged, but Gao Qinglian beside her frowned slightly, looking very disappointed. Her eyes searched the empty jars inquisitively.
“The porridge you make is truly delicious, my daughter and I have been craving it for days! It’s just that it’s been raining these past three days, and you haven’t set up your stall. I didn’t expect to still come late today.”
Su Zhen was very confident in her porridge—anyone who had tasted it would surely remember and long for it.
However, she could also tell that Madam Gao and her daughter hadn’t come today solely for the nutritious porridge.
Madam Gao held her daughter’s hand with one hand and pulled Su Zhen aside to a secluded spot with the other, whispering, “Miss, last time you said that when you’re sick, you don’t necessarily have to see a doctor—you can also try Medicinal Cuisine. Is that true? What other kinds of Medicinal Cuisine can you make?”
Su Zhen discreetly glanced at Gao Qinglian, whose face was half-covered, and understood the situation.