The once-noisy oxcart fell silent in an instant. Everyone averted their gaze, pointedly avoiding looking at Lin An Yuan.
“What’s this…”
Old Sun, the driver, glanced at San Ya and Ye Wan.
So this was the new woman Lin An Yuan had bought. She didn’t look like the type who could endure hardship. Would she run off again after a while?
Lin An Yuan tossed four wen onto the cart, and Old Sun immediately shut his mouth.
As long as he got paid.
Ye Wan looked at the broken wooden planks, which were stained with some unknown droppings, and forced herself to sit down, suppressing her discomfort.
“Wang Ergou, if you look again, I’ll gouge your eyes out!”
Lin An Yuan’s gaze suddenly turned vicious as he spoke to a man with a pointy chin and monkey-like cheeks sitting nearby.
Wang Ergou trembled and didn’t say a word.
The oxcart was exceptionally quiet for the rest of the journey; not a single person spoke.
When they finally arrived in town, the people on the cart only started to complain after seeing Lin An Yuan get off with Ye Wan and San Ya.
Wang Ergou cursed, “Old Sun, how could you let someone like him ride your cart? If you give Lin An Yuan a ride again, I won’t take your cart anymore. It’s bad luck to sit with someone like him.”
“He paid, you know. Why didn’t you say something to him?” Old Sun thought to himself, And what makes you any better?
Wang Ergou wiped his nose with his hand. “I was afraid of getting beaten up.”
Ye Wan overheard this and wondered what on earth Lin An Yuan had done. Such a handsome man had a reputation that made people both fear and loathe him.
Beside her, Lin An Yuan suddenly spoke, “Where to first?”
Ye Wan snapped back to reality, glanced at his excessively handsome face, and suppressed the questions in her heart.
“Let’s buy some fabric first. Does anyone at home know how to make clothes?”
She didn’t, and it seemed the original owner of her body didn’t either. Her skills were limited to threading a needle and sewing a patch. The original owner had never had new fabric to make clothes with her entire life; she always wore the hand-me-downs from her two older sisters.
San Ya spoke up, “Mother, my eldest sister knows how.”
Hearing this, Ye Wan felt relieved. The problem was solved. She would just buy more fabric and have Da Ya make the clothes, feeling not a shred of guilt about exploiting child labor.
Ye Wan wasn’t familiar with the town, so Lin An Yuan led her to a small shop with a low-hanging storefront.
Ye Wan chose enough fabric for each of the three children to have a new set of clothes, then picked out enough for two sets for herself and Lin An Yuan. They were all coarse fabrics. Lastly, she chose half a bolt of a slightly better quality fabric to be used for undergarments.
The colors of these fabrics were all rather dark, which made them look resistant to dirt.
Although the money she had was enough to buy the best materials in the shop, it was better not to flaunt her wealth.
“That will be six hundred wen in total.”
The shopkeeper had just finished speaking when Lin An Yuan said, “Three hundred wen.”
Ye Wan looked at Lin An Yuan. Good heavens, was this the legendary haggling technique of cutting the price in half?
“Who haggles like that? Seeing as you’re buying so much, I’ll give you the lowest price of five hundred and eighty wen.”
The shopkeeper glanced at Lin An Yuan several times. Such a handsome man—anyone who didn’t know better would think he was some young master from a noble family, yet here he was, haggling like a housewife.
“Three hundred wen. This fabric has yellowed, and there’s a dirty spot here. A mouse must have peed on it. If you keep it any longer, the mice will chew through it, and then who would buy your things?”
Lin An Yuan pointed to a stain, his tone serious.
The shopkeeper’s face turned green. “The lowest I can go is three hundred and fifty wen. No lower. If you don’t want it, then leave.”
If it weren’t for the principle of maintaining harmony to attract wealth in business, he would have thrown the man out.
After selling so much, he would only make ten wen. What was the point of doing business like this?
“Thank you, shopkeeper. We’ll be back to patronize your business again.” After speaking, Lin An Yuan went to collect the fabric.
“Please don’t come back. A few more visits from you and I’ll be too broke to afford food.”
The shopkeeper waved his hand as if shooing away a fly.
“I never expected a grown man like you to be so good at haggling.”
Once they were out of the shop, Ye Wan looked at Lin An Yuan, a little delighted.
If it had been her, she would have definitely paid the six hundred wen. Good heavens, how much money would that have been? She was dirt poor right now, wishing she could split one coin into two.
Hearing her words, Lin An Yuan’s gaze turned cold for a second, a sarcastic remark on the tip of his tongue.
The next second, he heard Ye Wan say excitedly, “It was the right decision to bring you along. I’m so impressed! Let’s go, let’s go to the next shop. I’ll treat you to something delicious with the money we saved.”
Lin An Yuan’s icy gaze softened slightly as he looked at the woman beside him, who was smugly chatting with San Ya.
She seemed genuinely happy about saving money?
Ye Wan had taken several steps while holding San Ya’s hand before she realized Lin An Yuan hadn’t moved. She turned back and called to him, “Let’s go. Why aren’t you moving?”
“I’m hungry,” Lin An Yuan said lazily. He wasn’t even standing up straight, yet he exuded an indescribable, roguish charm.
Ye Wan averted her gaze and swallowed. “Hungry? I’m hungry too. Let’s go get some noodles first.”
The bone broth noodles from last time had smelled so fragrant.
“It’s you. Just a bowl of broth again?”
When they reached the noodle stall, the waiter recognized Lin An Yuan and asked.
Ye Wan raised an eyebrow. Was Lin An Yuan a regular customer?
“Two bowls of noodles, with extra broth,” Lin An Yuan said, pointing at Ye Wan. “She’s paying.”
The waiter glanced at Ye Wan, his mouth twitching for a moment. This kid. The noodles were fifteen wen a bowl, yet every time he came, he only drank the broth. He had just been wondering why he was being so generous this time.
Turns out he’d become a kept man, relying on a woman to eat.
The noodle broth was made from pure bone stock, the noodles were pulled perfectly chewy, and it was sprinkled with scallions on top. It was incredibly fragrant.
Ye Wan, who hadn’t eaten noodles in a long time, was so satisfied her eyes were about to squint shut.
She turned to look at San Ya. “San Ya, is it enough? If not, I’ll order more for you.”
She had given half of her portion to San Ya.
“It’s enough. The noodles are so delicious.” San Ya didn’t even lift her head as she ate.
Ye Wan thought to herself that this little girl must have been truly starved. For such a small person, she could eat so much; her appetite was almost as big as her own.
“You two eat first. I’ll be right back.”
Lin An Yuan suddenly put down his bowl and stood up.
“Why is your father so busy? He only had a few bites and…”
Ye Wan’s words trailed off as she looked at his clean bowl, speechless for a moment. Eating that fast, wasn’t he afraid of burning his esophagus?
Ye Wan finished the broth in her bowl, breaking into a sweat, but Lin An Yuan still hadn’t returned.
“Ma’am, would you like another bowl?” the waiter came over to clear the bowls and ask.
“No more, thank you.”
Ye Wan led San Ya out of the stall. They would wait nearby so Lin An Yuan would see them when he came back.
“San Ya, let me buy you a hair flower to wear.”
Ye Wan heard a vendor hawking his wares. The hair flowers were only a few wen each. Little girls should be raised to be pretty.
San Ya shook her head. “Mother, I don’t want a flower. I want to buy meat.”
Hair flowers weren’t edible, but meat was the most delicious.
“You little glutton. Alright, let’s go buy some meat.”
Ye Wan waited in place for a while, but there was still no sign of Lin An Yuan. She simply told the waiter that if Lin An Yuan came back and asked, he should tell him to find them at the market.
It was already very hot by this time. The market was bustling and noisy, selling all sorts of miscellaneous things.
Ye Wan bought two different kinds of fish, thinking about the endless supply of fish she would have back home. She asked the people around where to buy chicks; she would raise anything that was edible.
Last night, a thought had suddenly occurred to her. In the apocalypse, her spatial dimension only had a storage function because there was simply nothing for her to plant.
Now that she had come to this place with its beautiful mountains and clear waters, it was finally beginning to shine.
Thinking about it this way, transmigrating didn’t seem so tragic after all. At least everything she ate was green and all-natural.
While Ye Wan was shopping with San Ya, Lin An Yuan followed a tall, sturdy man into a secluded alley.
When they reached the gate of a small courtyard, the sturdy man vaulted over the wall and disappeared.
Lin An Yuan’s brow furrowed. If he wasn’t mistaken, that man looked like the one from the mountains last night.