Damn Lu Hanbai. You aren’t even willing to spend money on me.
Lu Hanbai was a local native and didn’t understand medicine or biology.
Naturally, he didn’t grasp the hidden meanings in Jiang Queyun’s words. He merely sensed from Jiang’s ill-intentioned gaze that nothing good was being said, gave him a warning look, and completely ignored him after that.
Jiang Queyun didn’t dare spell it out for him either, fearing Lu Hanbai might throw salt at him. Thus, the rather bland day passed quietly by.
Early the next morning.
Jiang Queyun woke up early to pack his things, making sure he was neat and tidy. The medicinal roots were meticulously arranged inside a bamboo back basket and covered with a piece of scrap cloth.
He quickly mixed up some flour, pinched off pieces to boil a steaming pot of hand-torn noodles, and after eating, waited for Lu Hanbai.
Ultimately worried about leaving Lu Yu alone at home, Lu Hanbai asked a neighboring aunt to keep an eye on him for a while, specifically letting her know that they would be back before noon and that there was no need to bring food over for Lu Yu.
“Are we really walking there?” Jiang Queyun stood helplessly at the village entrance, his back basket feeling as heavy as a thousand catties at that moment.
Didn’t time-travel novels always feature a cow cart to ride in?
Lu Hanbai glanced down at him, his stern face carrying a hint of malice as he scoffed, “What? Were you daydreaming about riding in a horse-drawn carriage instead?”
“You’ve got a sharp tongue and it’s really annoying. Don’t talk to me anymore.” Jiang Queyun frowned slightly, clearly displeased with his attitude, and simply strapped the bamboo back basket to his back before heading down the road leading out of the village.
Lu Hanbai didn’t chase after him.
After walking just a short distance, Jiang Queyun began to pant. Glaring at the unfamiliar path ahead, a wave of stifled frustration welled up inside him, and he kicked angrily at the roadside bushes.
This hateful Lu Hanbai, his heart must be made of stone! He didn’t even bother to come after him!
Right after that, Jiang Queyun heard the sound of ringing bells. He inexplicably felt a bit awkward walking alone on the road, an overwhelming sense of maladjustment washing over him, making him want to dive right into the bushes.
Just as he was hesitating whether to dive in or not, he heard a familiar, hearty voice.
“You walk pretty fast. We almost had to chase you down with an ox cart.”
“Thank you for your trouble, uncle.” Jiang Queyun put on a demure, submissive posture, standing dejectedly in front of the ox cart, completely ignoring the looks of shock and disgust from the others on board.
Lu Hanbai loved seeing him look so frustrated and immediately waved for him to get on the cart. Had this been the old, vicious Jiang Queyun, he certainly wouldn’t have received such treatment.
To know one’s errors and be able to change them is the greatest virtue.
He wasn’t an unreasonable person; he could assume Jiang Queyun’s past misdeeds were just the result of a sudden bout of illness. Now that the other man had genuine intentions to reform, he wouldn’t hold onto the past excessively.
However, his patience had limits. If Jiang Queyun dared to revert to his old ways, he wouldn’t hesitate to finish the fellow off with his own hands.
The ox cart jolted and swayed all the way to town. Jiang Queyun nimbly hopped down, rubbing his stiff lower back and numb buttocks.
“I’ll take you to sell the medicinal herbs first,” Lu Hanbai said.
Jiang Queyun immediately followed closely behind him into the apothecary, step for step.
The moment the two entered, a shop clerk hurried over, smiling warmly as he asked, “What herbs are you two looking to buy?”
“Do you have madder root and black bupleurum here?” Lu Hanbai had heard Jiang Queyun mutter about them so often that he had memorized the names.
“Both of those are commonly used, and our shop has plenty of them!” Assuming Lu Hanbai wanted to buy in large quantities, the clerk patted his chest in reassurance.
Lu Hanbai nodded with a sudden realization, “Then does your shop buy these two herbs?”
The clerk blinked, surprised that they had come for this exact reason, but quickly smiled again, “Naturally we buy them! If the quality is good, the price is negotiable!”
Hearing this, Jiang Queyun immediately handed his back basket forward, a polite smile plastered across his face, “Have a look then, how much can we get for these!”
Lu Hanbai frowned slightly, casting his gaze toward the clerk, “Madder root aside, I’ve heard black bupleurum is quite expensive. Can it fetch ninety wen per catty?”
The clerk wore an awkward expression. “What are you saying? Eighty-three wen is the absolute ceiling, where would you get ninety wen?”
“Then please take a good look at the quality. My husband tends to these herbs with exquisite care, and he puts more effort into them than he does into me.” Lu Hanbai deliberately exaggerated, purely to drive up the price. “If we can’t sell them for a high price, we might as well just destroy the rest of them at home.”
Taking advantage of the moment to adjust his sleeves, Jiang Queyun curled his lips in silent scorn. This man was entirely too used to spouting nonsense; looking at him, he didn’t look like he was going to destroy any herbs at all, but rather like he was about to destroy the clerk instead.
The clerk gave two dry laughs. “Let me look, let me look. The quality is indeed very good. The apothecary can offer eighty wen.”
Jiang Queyun’s eyes lit up, but then he remembered Lu Hanbai’s earlier bluff and chimed in, “Since I take such good care of them, throw in a bit more. Eighty-three wen! Whenever we have more in the future, we’ll bring them all to you to sell, and you’ll get the very best ones!”
“Alright, alright!” The clerk was somewhat helpless, and partly intimidated by Lu Hanbai’s towering stature. He carefully unloaded the medicinal materials to weigh them. “There are two catties and two liang of black bupleurum, which comes to one hundred and eighty-two wen. The madder root is one catty and five liang, which is twenty-seven wen. That makes a total of two hundred and nine wen.”
Before long, Jiang Queyun had a small pouch of copper coins resting in his hand.
He followed Lu Hanbai out of the shop with a beaming face. Earning a living off the bounty of nature was truly satisfying!
“Are we heading home now?” Lu Hanbai asked.
Though he asked, his gaze fell squarely on Jiang Queyun’s money pouch.
Jiang Queyun narrowed his eyes at him and clutched the pouch tightly against his chest, “This is mine. If you want anything, you can tell me, but you aren’t allowed to forcefully rob me. Understand?”
Lu Hanbai stared at him in utter silence.
He had truly worried over nothing.
He really didn’t care about such a pitiful handful of scraps.
Yet, he felt a mischievous urge to tease Jiang Queyun a bit.
“Since you put it that way, we should buy a few more things for the house. Ah Yu also likes the pastries from the Xuxiang Bakery, so you should buy him some. And he needs a new set of clothes too, so you might as well buy the fabric all at once.”
The pastries at Xuxiang Bakery were expensive. When Lu Hanbai was home, he would occasionally buy them for Lu Yu, while Jiang Queyun could only watch from the sidelines, well aware of just how precious those pastries were.
As for clothing fabric, that went without saying. Lu Yu was still growing; if they made clothes for him today, he would likely outgrow them tomorrow, making it an utter waste of money.
Digging through the original owner’s memories for reference, Jiang Queyun looked at Lu Hanbai with great dissatisfaction. “I only earned two hundred wen, not two hundred gold pieces. Stop treating me like an easy mark.”
“Such a stingy fellow,” Lu Hanbai remarked.
“Then I’m leaving.” Jiang Queyun lifted his foot and walked off, pacing slowly and deliberately while using the opportunity to eye the surrounding shops.
Lu Hanbai immediately followed. This troublemaker had never been to town before; losing him would be a disaster.
Jiang Queyun didn’t yet fully understand Dongling’s prices, so he peppered various shopkeepers and peddlers with questions until he realized that the purchasing power of a single copper coin was actually quite respectable. To many impoverished households, the two hundred wen in his hand was an absolute fortune.
If he bought the pastries Lu Yu loved, it might not be entirely out of the question.
However, being so eager to please would raise suspicion; it was better to just let things happen naturally. Besides, why pretend? He actually felt a bit reluctant to part with the money.
“Don’t you have anything you want to buy?” Lu Hanbai couldn’t help asking. They were nearly finished walking the entire street, and he had only asked questions without buying a single thing.
“The house is lacking nothing,” Jiang Queyun replied. He certainly wanted to buy all the delicacies from the restaurants to take home, but who told him he only had two hundred wen?
It wouldn’t even be enough for a few meat dishes, so he might as well save it to use as travel expenses later.
Lu Hanbai narrowed his eyes. This money-waster actually had such self-awareness? Could it be that he was saving the money to secretly hand it over to the Jiang family later?
“Besides, what can this little bit of money buy anyway? You’re not even willing to spend money on me, so I sure hate to spend my own.” Although Jiang Queyun knew the man didn’t have much money either, he still couldn’t help poking fun at him.
Who asked this guy to always glare at him with those judgmental eyes?
Lu Hanbai didn’t feel guilty in the slightest and said righteously, “Silver needs to be saved so Ah Yu can study.”
At the mention of this, Jiang Queyun’s grievances instantly vanished. He knew how important studying was; for the poor, although it was a money-burning path, it was also the only shortcut to success.
“I know,” he replied without anger.
Education could change one’s destiny.
“Still, since it’s not enough anyway, I suppose I could scrape together a bit to buy you something.” As he spoke, Lu Hanbai glanced sideways at him, eager to see if this spendthrift would agree.
“Are you out of your mind?! Doesn’t that mean we’d have to borrow even more money?” Without a second thought, Jiang Queyun punched him in the arm, the solid muscles jarring his hand with pain. “You don’t have any external debts, do you? Speak!”
“None,” Lu Hanbai answered with absolute certainty.
Yet, Jiang Queyun simply didn’t believe him.
The man kept talking about borrowing money outside to pay for schooling; who knows if he already had outstanding debts? The guy guarded against the original owner in everything he did, and there was nothing useful in his memories either. He had no desire to live his life buried under a mountain of debt!
“I don’t believe you. We’ll talk about this when we get home. I want to eat wontons, do you want some?” Jiang Queyun said with exceptional candor.
The male protagonist wasn’t a petty person; many things were better laid out in the open.
Sure enough, Lu Hanbai was stunned for a moment before saying, “If you’re buying, I’ll eat.”
“I’m treating you, but you have to remember my kindness,” Jiang Queyun said with a beaming, opportunistic smile. “Hear that?”
“Fine then,” Lu Hanbai scoffed, accepting the favor.
Satisfied, Jiang Queyun led him over to the wonton stall and ordered two large bowls of wontons. Eighteen copper coins vanished in an instant, but now that he was actually spending the money, he didn’t care at all.
Jiang Queyun had only been craving them. Once someone who had already eaten breakfast tried to eat a whole bowl of wontons, they could only manage two or three to fill the cracks.
“Why are you pushing this to me?” Lu Hanbai looked at the bowl pushed in front of him, then met Jiang Queyun’s flattering, curved eyes. “I don’t eat leftover bowl bottoms.”
What a joke, why on earth should he?
Jiang Queyun frowned. “We don’t have much money at home, and you still want to waste food? You haven’t even made your fortune yet, why are you acting like a soaring official?”
Lu Hanbai was taken aback by his words. He coughed twice and pulled the bowl of wontons a bit closer.
He actually didn’t talk back, nor did he glare?
Jiang Queyun looked at him with a mix of suspicion and wariness. This fellow definitely wasn’t plotting anything good!
Unaware of Jiang Queyun’s twisty thoughts, Lu Hanbai neatly finished both bowls of wontons. Though his eating habits looked a bit rough on the surface, every bite was taken one by one, slow and deliberate.
However, Jiang Queyun didn’t notice.
Waterside Town sat nestled against the mountains by a river, making it slightly more prosperous than other townships. The common folk wrung their brains trying to do business and earn silver, and many households ran joint family stalls; one didn’t really get the sense that they looked down upon women or young men here.
That was exceptionally rare.
“If I were to start a business, would that work?” Jiang Queyun bumped his elbow against Lu Hanbai’s, tilting his head to look at him with a smile in his expressive eyes.
“What business? Face-changing?” Lu Hanbai shot back with a sarcastic remark.
Jiang Queyun instantly deflated.
You’re the protagonist, I’ll endure this!