The other street was quite far, and it took the two of them over twenty minutes to walk there.
This place was essentially the same as the previous market, with both shops and stalls. However, a separate area had been designated specifically for setting up stalls, and there were dedicated personnel responsible for cleaning during the market hours.
Lai Yi led Neil from the shop area to the designated stall area. At the entrance of the road, an aunt had occupied a spot selling various bird eggs. There were common Red Plains Bird eggs, as well as larger eggs with green shells, similar to duck eggs but about the size of goose eggs.
“Aunt, how much for the Red Plains Bird eggs?”
The egg-selling aunt looked up at Lai Yi and Neil, probably estimating how much the two could buy.
“Four copper coins each.”
“Can it be cheaper if I buy more?”
Lai Yi asked.
“How many do you want?”
“Fifty.”
“Fifty, huh.” The aunt hesitated. “I can’t lower the price, but I can give you five extra.”
“What about one hundred and fifty?”
“One hundred and fifty!”
The aunt was somewhat surprised.
“Child, why are you buying so many bird eggs? How many people are in your family? You won’t be able to finish so many in a short time. Bird eggs will spoil if kept for too long.”
This aunt was honest and didn’t immediately agree. Instead, she inquired about Lai Yi’s family situation, worried that a young person buying too much on their first shopping trip might get scolded by their parents when they returned home.
“It’s fine, my family is large, and they all love bird eggs. Aunt, just sell them to me.”
The aunt calculated to herself how much it would cost at the original price: one hundred and fifty bird eggs would amount to six hundred copper coins, which is six silver coins. Her stall typically only sold two to three hundred Red Plains Bird eggs in a whole day.
Most of these eggs were purchased at three copper coins each, and some were laid by their own birds. She and her husband raised fifty Red Plains Birds in the countryside.
Once they had gathered enough, they would bring them to their eldest son’s home in town, and their daughter-in-law would help sell them. Today, the daughter-in-law had gone back to her parents’ home, so she had come to sell them herself. She hadn’t expected to encounter such a big customer as soon as she started.
The aunt made up her mind and said, “I’ll charge you thirty fewer copper coins and give you ten extra Green Peel eggs. These eggs are even more expensive than Red Plains Bird eggs!”
The Green Peel eggs were also laid by their own geese, so the cost wasn’t high, and she didn’t mind giving away ten.
“Deal.”
After agreeing on the price, Lai Yi handed her basket to the aunt.
She took out the items from the basket, first laid a roll of straw at the bottom, then spread chopped dried grass over it, and carefully packed one hundred and sixty eggs in layers, alternating between eggs and dried grass.
“Aunt, we’ll leave the items here for now. My brother and I will look around a bit more and come back to pay and collect the eggs when we leave.”
“Alright, alright. I’ll be here selling eggs until dinnertime and won’t leave.”
The aunt promised to keep an eye on the items, and only then did Lai Yi take Neil to continue browsing.
There were many stalls selling fresh vegetables here, and one vendor was selling early potatoes.
The potatoes at home had been planted late and were growing slowly; now they were only about the size of two bird eggs. It would be a pity to dig them up and eat them directly. Worried about crushing the eggs, Lai Yi spent twenty copper coins to buy just eight potatoes.
Further ahead, there was a stall selling edamame. Edamame is immature soybeans, commonly known as yellow beans.
After returning home, wash them clean and braise them in a large pot with spices—the flavor is absolutely superb, perfect with alcohol. Pair them with braised peanuts, braised chicken feet, and spicy crayfish, and you’ve got the snacks all sorted. It’s just a pity that for now, this can only remain a thought.
Lai Yi bought a few pounds to prepare as snacks later; they’d also be excellent to give some to Haggard for his drinks.
Carrying the edamame, the two continued forward. Suddenly, a vibrant red at one stall successfully caught Lai Yi’s attention.
Wasn’t this the chili he’d been longing for!
Calming his excitement, Lai Yi approached the chili stall and picked one up for a closer look.
The bright red chili skin had a lovely sheen, with a slender, slightly twisted shape—it was the common long chili. A small pile of bird’s eye chilies was set to the side, looking somewhat similar to the small Thai chilies often sold in supermarkets, though they weren’t the same variety.
“Young sir, this vegetable has a very strong flavor—it’ll make your throat feel like it’s on fire when you eat it. You’d better look at other vegetables instead.”
The stall owner meant well, seeing that Lai Yi and Neil were young and worried they couldn’t handle it.
“Is this vegetable selling well?”
Lai Yi asked.
“Fairly well. Beastmen buy it more often. Some people just love the taste and specifically buy it to eat, but most don’t even dare to try it.”
“Do you have any green ones?”
“There are some, but they’re not in great condition. I can sell them to you cheaper if you’re buying.”
The stall owner replied honestly.
“What’s this vegetable called?”
“It doesn’t have a name. Beastmen call it ‘Red Fruit.'”
“I think I might have seen it in a book before, called something like ‘chili pepper.'”
Lai Yi added his own twist, making up the part about seeing it in a book.
“Chili pepper? That’s a good name, and it fits well.”
The stall owner nodded as he spoke.
“So, how much for these two types of chili peppers?”
“The long ones are four copper coins per pound, and that small pile of short ones sells for two copper coins per pound. The green ones can also be two copper coins per pound.”
Since few people bought them, and chilies have a long fruiting period with high yield, they were relatively cheap.
“Pack fifteen pounds of the long ones, five pounds of the short ones, and three pounds of the green ones.”
Lai Yi said. Not wanting to miss the sale, the stall owner quickly packed the chilies, and Lai Yi paid.
Although it might sound like a lot was bought, it didn’t amount to much in the cloth bag. Chilies have high water content; by the time they’re dried at home, they’d weigh at most four pounds.
With all the necessary purchases made, they strolled around for another half hour. The chilies were the biggest unexpected delight of this trip to town.
After paying Aunt, retrieving their baskets, they headed toward Black Clinic to pick up Iru and go back together.
By the time they arrived, the potion had been ready for a while. Iru was resting and drinking water on the second floor, with the wooden mask placed beside him.
“Let’s go.”
Iru put on the mask and followed Lai Yi downstairs.
“These are Golden Pears and apples. Big brother specially saved them for you and Dr. Black.”
Neil handed the fruit to Jack.
“Thank you for the fruit.”
Jack expressed his gratitude politely.
“Thanks, Lai Yi and little Neil.”
“You’re welcome!”
Neil replied.
Black and Jack saw them to the door, and they all waved goodbye.
“Would you like to ride back with us on the ox cart?”
Lai Yi asked Iru, who waved his hands repeatedly.
“Better not. It’d be too easy to be discovered that way. I’ve rested enough just now, and I’m fast—it won’t take long to get home.”
Lai Yi didn’t press the matter. After loading the items onto the oxcart, he saw Iru off at the city gate.
Sitting under a tree while waiting for the others to return, Lai Yi and Neil each ate half a buttered bread. Neil insisted on giving his other half to Lai Yi, who could only break off a small piece to share with him.
After finishing the bread, the two started on hard rusks. After a long wait, everyone finally gathered, and they drove the oxcart back to the small mountain village, arriving home at last.
Following a brief rest, Lai Yi busied himself again.
He washed the red chili peppers with clean water, drained them, and selected the intact ones with minimal damage to place in a large wooden basin. Then he found a long needle and hemp cord, threading through the stems of the peppers one by one, alternating left and right to string the long chili peppers together. Neil imitated Lai Yi by threading the facing heaven peppers.
The brothers worked diligently for over an hour, finally stringing up all the peppers. There were four large strings of red chili peppers and two smaller strings of facing heaven peppers.
With the autumn weather being hot and dry with little rain, hanging them in the sunny part of the yard was just right. Looking at the fiery red peppers dangling in the courtyard, Neil felt a deep sense of accomplishment.
After handling the peppers, Lai Yi lit a fire to prepare the brine.
Unable to measure the ratio precisely, he added salt to the water bit by bit until the brine tasted slightly bitter, then stopped. Once boiled, he poured it out to cool. After scrubbing the pot clean, Lai Yi continued by preparing the pickling liquid for the vegetables.
This time, he strictly followed the ratio. Using a bowl as a measuring tool, he poured water and vinegar into the pot in a 1:1 ratio and heated it. When small bubbles appeared in the vinegar water, he added half a packet of sugar, roughly half a pound.
Once it boiled, he removed the firewood and similarly poured the mixture into a clean container to cool.
Vinegar was a product of over-fermented alcohol, and since distilled liquor was almost unavailable on the market, most vinegar here was dark in color, resulting in a somewhat deep-hued sweet and sour sauce.
By now, the room was filled with the pungent smell of acetic acid.
Lai Yi opened the window for ventilation, while Neil sat by the door washing bird eggs. After cleaning them, he dried the eggs with a clean cloth and carefully arranged them in a basin.
“Brother, do we need to wash the Green Peel eggs?”
“No, just set them aside. Set aside twenty bird eggs for daily consumption.”
“Understood, brother.”
“I’m going to the garden to dig up some garlic. If you need anything, come find me in the garden.”
“Okay.”
Lai Yi took a fork and went to the garden to dig up garlic.
The weather had been excessively hot, causing the soil to harden. Whereas he could usually pull out entire green garlic plants directly, he now had to use the fork.
He dug up over a hundred heads of garlic before stopping. Bringing the green garlic to the edge of the garden, he shook off the soil, removed the undesirable outer layers, and chopped them into garlic heads on a wooden board.
The garlic was somewhat mature by now, but it didn’t matter—it would still pickle successfully if left longer.
Lai Yi didn’t discard the garlic scapes either. He peeled off the outer garlic leaves, kept the tender parts of the scapes, and cut them into evenly sized segments.
After processing all the green garlic, including the scapes, he had a full large basin.
He washed them thoroughly and soaked them in brine. Before going to bed that night, he would change the brine once more, and by the next afternoon, after rinsing them with clean water and drying, they would be ready for pickling sweet and sour garlic.
By the time he finished soaking the green garlic, Neil had already washed and dried all the bird eggs. As the brine hadn’t cooled yet, Lai Yi first went to discard the unwanted garlic roots, leaves, and other scraps into the compost pit he had dug. Come next spring, he would dig them into the vegetable patch to enhance the soil’s fertility.
After returning to the house and washing his hands clean, Lai Yi brought the bird eggs into the storage room. The two clay pots he had bought last time were neatly placed by the cabinet.
Lai Yi carefully arranged the bird eggs in the pots. One pot wasn’t enough, holding only eighty-five eggs. He marked the remaining forty-five eggs and placed them in another pot, along with the already pickled bird eggs that hadn’t been finished. He poured the cooled saltwater into the pots, just enough to cover the eggs by a few centimeters.
After washing the previously empty clay pots, he rinsed their interiors with boiling water to sterilize them, let them dry, and set them aside to continue pickling sweet and sour garlic tomorrow.
After working hard for most of the day and finishing all the tasks, he could finally rest properly.
The weather was too hot, so he had little appetite. For dinner, Lai Yi only made two bowls of cold noodles, which he and Neil ate to get by.
Today was truly a fulfilling day.