After leaving the System Space, Shen Qingyuan stepped out of her room.
In the courtyard, Sanya was sitting between Dabao and Erbao, basking in the sun.
“Sanya, are you feeling unwell anywhere?”
Sanya quickly stood up, ran over to Shen Qingyuan, and looked up to answer.
“Mother, I’m fine! Are you hurt anywhere?”
Shen Qingyuan gently patted Sanya’s little head.
“Don’t worry about me. It’s good that you’re fine. If you feel unwell, go back inside and rest. Stay home and be good. I’m going to town to sell the wild berries and will be back soon.”
With that, Shen Qingyuan picked up the basket filled with wild berries and headed out.
Sanya took a couple of steps forward, wanting to follow, but was held back by Dabao and Erbao.
Dabao reminded her.
“Little sister, don’t be fooled by our stepmother’s act. Maybe she just wants us to let our guard down so she can secretly sell us for money!”
Erbao chimed in.
“That’s right, she’s not our real mother. Don’t call her that!”
Sanya whispered in protest.
“But Mother has been really good to me!”
…
Meanwhile.
After walking for over half an hour, Shen Qingyuan finally arrived in town.
Pingxi County, located in the north of the Great Zhou Kingdom, experienced distinct seasons and was under the jurisdiction of Lin’an Prefecture.
Further north lay the border with the neighboring nomadic tribes.
Although Pingxi County was inland, it was situated along the Black Dragon River.
There was a dock in the town where boats stopped daily.
These were merchants passing through—some transporting goods from afar to sell in Pingxi County, while others collected goods from Pingxi County to sell elsewhere.
With goods being transported, strong laborers were needed. Every day, employers at the dock required workers to carry heavy loads and move cargo.
After selling the wild berries, Shen Qingyuan spotted Shen Dali among the crowd of laborers carrying heavy loads.
She hurried over to him.
“Big brother, didn’t you go to bring Sister-in-law back?”
“Why should I bring her back after how she treated you!”
Shen Dali was still angry. Today, he had come to the dock to carry loads to avoid hearing his parents urge him to fetch Wu Huiniang.
Shen Qingyuan sighed helplessly.
“I already said I don’t mind.”
“But I do! I won’t stand for her insulting you!”
Shen Qingyuan had no way to deal with her doting older brother.
“Alright, alright, big brother, you’re the best to me. Go back to work for now. I’ll come find you later to go fetch Sister-in-law.”
Only then did Shen Dali realize.
“You still have a head injury! Why did you come to town? Go home and rest! Don’t worry about my affairs.”
A faint smile touched Shen Qingyuan’s lips.
“I’m fine.”
The overseer, seeing Shen Dali standing still and chatting, began to urge him.
“Hurry up, hurry up!”
Shen Dali had no choice but to rejoin the cargo-moving team, but he didn’t forget to remind Shen Qingyuan.
“Go home quickly!”
Shen Qingyuan waved at Shen Dali.
“I’ll come find you later!”
With that, she left the dock.
First, she went to the pawnshop and pawned her dowry silver hairpin, exchanging it for one tael of silver.
Then, she headed to the market, hoping to explore business opportunities there.
The market was bustling, filled with the sounds of vendors hawking their wares and crowded with shoppers.
Looking at the fine goods on various stalls, she really wanted to buy some to take home. However, with limited silver on hand and needing startup capital for her business, she didn’t dare spend recklessly. She could only browse for now.
As she walked, she glanced at the stalls on both sides of the street. Unintentionally, she felt as though someone was following her.
She abruptly turned to look, but among the passersby, there were no suspicious figures.
Could it be that she was overthinking?
She raised an eyebrow in confusion and continued walking.
Arriving at the pork stall.
While watching the butcher cut the meat, she noticed he was discarding the pig’s offal.
Suddenly, she remembered that people in this era didn’t yet know that pig offal could be eaten.
She thought of the pig intestines from later generations.
Spicy stir-fried pig intestines—delicious and perfect with rice—wouldn’t that be a great choice?
She hurried over to the pork stall owner.
“Boss, are you not keeping those pig offal?”
The owner didn’t even look up as he replied.
“That’s right!”
“Then could I have them? I’m willing to pay!”
The owner paused, looking up to size up Shen Qingyuan.
Who would want such foul-smelling garbage like pig offal?
Seeing that she didn’t seem too bright, he figured he might as well give her the offal—saving himself the trouble of disposing of it.
He impatiently kicked a nearby wooden bucket.
“They’re in here. Take as much as you want, no charge!”
“Thank you, boss!”
Seeing the owner’s generosity, Shen Qingyuan didn’t hold back and packed up the offal from two pigs.
With the pig intestines secured, she still needed to buy some chili peppers—the spicier, the better.
But after searching the entire market, she couldn’t find any chili peppers for sale.
Just as she was about to leave the market, she finally spotted a chili pepper seller at the edge and hurried over.
The vendor was an old man in his fifties.
His stall was piled high with chili peppers, both red and green, all fresh, yet no one was interested.
Shen Qingyuan approached.
“Uncle, how much for the chili peppers?”
Before the old man could answer, a passerby nearby spoke up first.
“What he’s selling is called chili peppers or something—expensive and awful to eat. After eating them, your mouth and throat burn painfully. He’s a fraud, tricking people out of their money. You definitely shouldn’t buy them, or you’ll be cheated!”
The old man didn’t even look up, sighing softly.
He had been setting up his stall for several days, selling chili peppers—a new type of vegetable never seen before in the Great Zhou Kingdom.
At first, people found it novel and bought some, but after tasting them, they couldn’t handle the heat.
Especially since these peppers were of an extra-spicy variety, everyone felt the old man was scamming and harming them, rushing back to demand refunds.
Once word spread, no one came to buy chili peppers anymore.
As for passersby warning others not to buy them, the old man was used to it by now.
He just lamented that no one recognized their value.
These chili pepper seeds were bought by his son from a foreigner who had crossed the sea.
And he had carefully cultivated them himself.
Not only was the yield good, but he had also cooked and eaten them himself. Though a bit spicy, they paired deliciously with various ingredients.
Such a fine thing, and in the entire Great Zhou Kingdom, he was the only one who had it!
Hearing that the old man’s chili peppers were very spicy, Shen Qingyuan’s face lit up with joy.
She crouched down, picked up a chili pepper, and sniffed it—the pungent spiciness was unmistakable, indeed very hot.
At the same time, she realized that spiciness as a flavor hadn’t yet been introduced in this era, so it was normal for people to struggle with chili peppers.
But it didn’t matter—she knew the benefits and uses of chili peppers.
She wanted everyone to discover the deliciousness of chili peppers.
Smiling, she said to the old man,
“This is exactly what I want. Uncle, how much for these chili peppers? I’ll buy them!”
The old man looked at Shen Qingyuan in disbelief.
“You really want to buy them?”
“Of course! Your chili peppers are a rare treasure, no doubt about it!”
The old man hadn’t expected that the one who recognized the value would be a young woman, which came as quite a surprise.
“My chili peppers are ten wen per jin. Are you willing to buy them?”
Nowadays, pork costs only twenty wen per jin, so selling chili peppers at ten wen is indeed not cheap.
But who could argue when this was an entirely new variety throughout the entire Great Zhou Kingdom!
As the saying goes, rarity increases value—even selling them at twenty wen per jin wouldn’t be excessive.
Shen Qingyuan nodded.
“I’ll take five jin!”
The old man hadn’t expected Shen Qingyuan to buy so much and immediately beamed with delight.
“Alright, I’ll pack them up for you right away.”