“Manager, please feel free to speak your mind!” An Xia said straightforwardly.
“The mushrooms you brought last time—if you can still forage for more, could you send them to my restaurant?” Manager Ge asked, looking a bit embarrassed.
“Oh?” An Xia looked at him with some surprise.
“It’s like this: a distinguished guest bought your mushrooms last time and had our kitchen prepare them. When they were served, the aroma was overwhelming, and many other diners asked me what it was and wanted a serving for themselves,” Manager Ge explained.
Hearing this, An Xia smiled with understanding. “So that’s how it is. Those mushrooms aren’t exactly abundant, but if I find more, I will send them to you.”
“Besides, we sisters don’t come to town every day, so we will dry any mushrooms we forage.”
Manager Ge laughed heartily. “That doesn’t matter at all! As long as you have the goods, we can negotiate the price!”
He pointed to the basket on An Qiu’s back. “Do you have anything else good? Bring it out and let me have a look!”
An Qiu took off the basket. “These are wild fruits from the mountain; they are very sweet.”
When the manager saw the vine pears and August melons in the basket, his eyes lit up.
He, too, had scratched out a living from the mountains, so he naturally recognized what was in the basket.
For rural families, these weren’t particularly rare, but they were indeed a hard-to-find delicacy.
For those living in the town and the county seat, these would be even rarer, and they would surely be curious enough to try them!
Seeing the manager’s expression, An Xia took the initiative. “Manager Ge, why don’t you try one to see how they taste?”
With that, she took a vine pear and an August melon from the basket and handed them to him.
The manager took the vine pear, peeled half of it, and took a bite. The fruit was fragrant, sweet and sour, and had a delicate texture.
He hadn’t tasted this flavor for many years.
“Delicious! The sweetness is just right, with only a slight tang!”
After saying this, Manager Ge peeled an August melon. It was fragrant, soft, and sweet, with small seeds and plenty of flesh—quite different from the ones he had eaten in the past, which were mostly seeds.
He waved his hand. “I’ll take this whole basket of vine pears and August melons.”
“If you can find more in the future, just send them here!”
Manager Ge knew that a stable supply of these things was unlikely.
He called an assistant over to weigh them: there were three jin of vine pears and five jin of August melons in total.
“I’ll give you fifty wen for each quail, one hundred wen for each wild pigeon, and fifty wen for all those eggs together.”
“Twenty wen per jin for the vine pears, and thirty wen per jin for the August melons.”
“Can you accept this price?” he asked, looking at An Xia.
“Yes!” An Xia nodded readily.
Manager Ge had someone fetch four hundred and ten wen to give to An Xia.
After leaving the restaurant, they went straight to Xuanhu Hall.
The shop assistant had a deep memory of An Qiu. “The little girl is here to sell herbs again?”
An Qiu nodded. “Yes.”
“I’ll say this upfront: we aren’t accepting common herbs like plantain or motherwort this time,” the assistant said, scratching his head.
An Xia took off the bamboo basket from her back and placed it in front of him.
“These herbs are harder to find, and some are of high quality—I have already processed them!”
The assistant frowned. “You know how to process herbs? If the processing technique is crude, our Xuanhu Hall won’t accept them.”
He then proceeded to look through the herbs with a regretful expression!
After all, the girl in front of him was still young; just knowing the herbs was already impressive. Even if she could process them, he assumed the technique would be quite inferior.
However, when he saw the processed herbs in the basket, he looked at An Xia in disbelief. “Little girl? Did you process these yourself?”
“Yes,” An Xia nodded calmly.
The assistant still found it hard to believe. Even their manager couldn’t process herbs to this standard.
“Young lady, please wait a moment. I need to show these herbs to our manager!”
He picked up the basket and took it to the back room for the manager to inspect.
When the manager saw the herbs, his eyes lit up, and he immediately stood up and went to the front hall.
He smiled kindly and asked, “Little girl, were these herbs truly processed by you?”
An Xia nodded again patiently and said politely, “It was indeed me.”
“May I ask who your mentor is?” the manager of Xuanhu Hall asked after hesitating for a moment.
An Xia shook her head. “I’m afraid I cannot disclose that.”
Hearing this, the manager of Xuanhu Hall did not press the issue and continued, “Would you like to come and work as a pharmacist at my Xuanhu Hall? With your level of skill, I can offer you ten taels of silver a month.”
An Xia pursed her lips. “Sorry, I don’t have any interest in that for the time being.”
If she came to work as a pharmacist at Xuanhu Hall, she would lose her own time and be working for someone else!
She refused to be an employee; if she was going to work, she would work for herself!
Although ten taels of silver sounded quite tempting.
An Chun could not believe it either—the herbs that Xia’er had casually processed were actually valued by the manager of Xuanhu Hall.
She turned to look at An Xia and said, “Xia’er, do you want to reconsider?”
Xia’er could earn ten taels a month; in the future, she could live well without being bullied.
“No!” An Xia shook her head.
The manager of Xuanhu Hall was not one to pester her. He laughed openly, “Since the young lady is not willing, then so be it. But if you change your mind, Xuanhu Hall welcomes you at any time.”
He then instructed the assistant to categorize and weigh the herbs.
After the assistant reported the number, the manager said, “I’ll give you thirty taels for this basket of herbs!”
“Deal!” An Xia smiled.
This basket, while lacking exceptionally precious items like ginseng or Lingzhi, contained many other rare herbs, as well as Geda Qi and He Shou Wu, so this price was reasonable.
An Qiu covered her mouth in excitement.
Thirty taels—even a wealthy family in Hulu Village would have to earn that much in a whole year, yet her second sister had spent only ten days or so.
No wonder her second sister didn’t want to be a pharmacist at Xuanhu Hall.
An Xia took the money and led her sisters away.
The manager of Xuanhu Hall looked at An Xia’s retreating back, lost in thought.
The scar on her face was clearly an old one, yet for some reason, the surface seemed to show signs of softening, and the color was much lighter than at the edges.
Who exactly was this little girl?
Was she a disciple of the Medical Immortal gaining life experience? But he hadn’t heard of him taking on a new disciple!
Or was she a disciple of the Apricot Valley?
“Second Sister, shall we head home now?” An Qiu asked obediently from behind her.
An Xia shook her head. “Let’s look around a bit more before going back.”
The clothes the sisters were wearing were full of patches, looking too miserable. Their cloth shoes were also split open, with their toes exposed!
She took them to a fabric shop and bought two bolts of fine cotton cloth and six pairs of cloth shoes, spending a total of one tael of silver.
Then they went to a grain store to buy twenty jin of white rice, ten jin of white flour, and one jin of glutinous rice flour, which cost several hundred wen.
Finally, they went to a butcher shop to buy five jin of pork, which cost nearly a hundred wen.
Seeing that she bought so much, the boss threw in a marrow bone for free.
Watching An Xia spend money so lavishly, An Chun felt her heart ache with every bit.
“Xia’er, we won’t be able to finish five jin of pork at once; isn’t that too much?”