The next day, before the sky had even begun to brighten, the four siblings went to the cloth shop.
It was still early, and the shop had not yet opened. However, quite a few people were already gathered at the entrance—mostly old women and housewives who had come early to grab bargains. When tall men like Zhao Dashan and his two younger brothers stood there, they stood out like cranes among chickens.
They did not expect that there would be men competing with them for cloth today. All of them looked guarded and kept pushing their way inward.
Zhao Dashan was thin-skinned when dealing with women and blushed so hard it looked like blood could drip from his face. He could only call out, “Third brother, third brother…”
“Make way, make way! If I fall, I won’t take responsibility!” Zhao Sandi squeezed in and directly took the central spot near the door. Joking aside, he had never been afraid of women since childhood. Even when his wife and the village women argued, he would step in and say a few words to support them.
“What are two grown men doing here?”
“This isn’t a place for you!”
“Go call your wives! Why are you squeezing in here, kid? If you keep pushing, I’m going to get angry!”
“Why can you come but I can’t? It’s not like I’m not paying.” Zhao Sandi suddenly felt someone secretly pinch his waist. The pain made him suck in a cold breath. “Who’s touching my waist in the chaos? A young man’s waist isn’t something you can just grab! Let me make this clear in advance—men and women should keep proper distance. Don’t act recklessly. I already have a six-year-old son!”
“Pah!”
“Don’t you feel ashamed saying that?”
“Calling yourself a young man? I’ve never seen anyone so shameless!”
The area erupted in noise. The young women blushed and moved a little farther away from Zhao Sandi. Only the older women stood with hands on their hips and cursed loudly. So what if they touched him? If you don’t want to be touched, stay farther away—don’t squeeze in with them!
While the chaos continued, the cloth shop doors finally opened. Several shop assistants quickly carried out rolls of damaged cloth and placed them on wooden tables. The cloth itself was fine, but the colors were blotchy, as if a beautiful girl’s face had been splashed with dark stains. There were all kinds—red, yellow, purple, green, dark cyan, indigo blue…
The moment the cloth was placed out, it was instantly snatched up.
Zhao Dashan was pushed to the corner by the women and only managed to grab one bolt of dark sauce-colored cloth. Zhao Sandi stood in the center and was extremely quick. He grabbed three bolts—one was stone blue, which he had been eyeing. A young woman nearby also wanted it, but she was not as fast as him.
The other two were deep blue and ginger yellow. He did not like the yellow very much because it reminded him of the family’s latrine. He glanced at the woman beside him; she had grabbed green and dark sauce-colored cloth. He tentatively handed over his ginger-yellow piece, and she immediately gave him her dark sauce-colored one. They quickly exchanged items.
The grabbing was chaotic, but when it came to payment, everyone lined up in order.
Zhao Dashan had already asked yesterday: one bolt cost 280 cash coins, regardless of color. Whatever you grabbed was what you got, all at a fixed price.
Their family had tall, strong men, so they used more cloth. For ordinary families, one bolt could make seven or eight sets of clothes, but for them, it could only make at most five. Even children used a lot of fabric. In their household, younger children wore hand-me-downs from older ones, and older ones wore altered clothes from their father. They patched and repaired them for years until the clothes were completely worn out, then cut them up for shoe soles.
Four bolts of cloth cost a total of 1,120 cash coins. Zhao Dashan paid without hesitation. Even though the cloth was damaged, if taken to town, people would fight over it.
In their town, a bolt of indigo cloth alone cost 340 cash coins—very expensive!
They had gotten a great bargain.
After collecting the change from the shop assistant, they left once the crowd dispersed. Zhao Dashan took his younger sister into the shop and picked out a lotus-pink dress for her. He was not very good at choosing, so Zhao Xiaobao picked it herself. She tried it on, and it fit perfectly, making her fair and round little face look even more adorable, like a young lady from a wealthy family.
Zhao Xiaobao spun in place twice and looked up at her three brothers. “Big brother, second brother, third brother, do I look good?”
“Good-looking!” Zhao Sandi exaggeratedly shouted, making her laugh loudly.
Zhao Dashan nodded in agreement. “Good-looking. Our Xiaobao is the best-looking!”
Zhao Sandi’s exaggerated expression made her laugh even harder.
“Excuse me, how much does this dress cost?” Zhao Dashan asked a smiling young woman beside them.
“Sir, ready-made clothes are more expensive. This lotus-pink dress costs 240 cash coins.” Her tone was gentle and warm.
Zhao Dashan felt it was a bit expensive. He had seen earlier that there was a bolt of lotus-pink cloth on the counter priced at 420 cash coins because the color was popular among young women. Xiaobao was small; one bolt could make more than ten sets of clothes for her. Cloth would be more cost-effective.
But 400-plus coins was still not cheap. Moreover, ready-made clothes were well designed, and their family women likely could not make such nice styles.
After thinking it over, he could not decide which was better, so in the end he bought both the cloth and the dress.
The ginseng was dug up by Xiaobao—why not buy her good cloth? If the dress looked good, she might as well just wear it directly.
So they spent another 660 cash coins.
After leaving the cloth shop, they went to the grain store.
This street was the busiest main road in the southern city, lined with shops selling everything. The four siblings blended into the crowd and were not noticed.
The price of coarse rice had been checked yesterday: five cash coins per dou (about twelve jin). Coarse flour was one coin more expensive than in town, at nine coins per jin. Zhao Dashan entered and came out in less than fifteen minutes, carrying a sack of grain on his shoulder and another of flour in his hand. He signaled to his siblings at the door and walked toward a less crowded place.
They bought 120 jin of coarse rice and 10 jin of flour, costing a total of 140 cash coins.
Compared to cloth, grain suddenly felt cheap.
Of course, that was just an illusion. Normally, even buying two jin of flour required careful calculation of how many meals it would last. Now they were spending freely simply because they had money and confidence.
In a deserted alley, Zhao Xiaobao secretly stored the goods into her wooden house.
Then, Zhao Dashan gave money to Zhao Ertian and Zhao Sandi, letting them take turns buying grain. The brothers followed their mother Wang’s teachings well—they knew not to put all eggs in one basket.
So they bought grain in batches to avoid attracting attention.
Even in the city, shop assistants served countless customers daily. Even if someone bought hundreds of jin of refined rice, no one would care—as long as you could pay.
Still, Zhao Dashan believed caution was better.
After several trips, they bought nearly 400 jin of coarse rice and 30 jin of flour. They originally wanted to buy old grain, but after calculation, it was not worth it; better to buy more flour for steamed buns, which were filling and durable.
Thinking this way, they bought another 20 jin of flour.
That day, they basically explored most of the southern city and gained a lot.
At night, Zhao Dashan poured out the money from his pouch onto the table and started counting.
The money they brought from home had been almost spent. It was not enough, so they took five taels from the ginseng money Zhao Xiaobao had earned. Today they spent:
1,120 cash coins on damaged cloth
660 cash coins on dress and lotus-pink cloth
600 cash coins on grain purchases
Total spent today: about 2 taels and 3 mace (approximate).
Zhao Dashan exhaled deeply. In truth, he was not even sure if Zhao Sandi’s calculation was correct, but it should be close.
Five taels had been cut down by half in just one day.
Money really flowed like water.
Zhao Ertian patted Zhao Sandi’s shoulder. “This kid used to sneak off to Zhoujia Village to listen to lessons from an old scholar. Turns out it was useful after all.”
Zhao Sandi smiled proudly. “Of course. That’s why Mom sent me to the city.”
Zhao Xiaobao clapped her hands. “Third brother is amazing! I want to learn counting too!”
Zhao Sandi groaned. “Last time I taught you, you couldn’t even count to a hundred properly!”
Xiaobao ignored him and took out the last half basin of wild vegetable pancakes. Zhao Sandi immediately forgot everything and started eating.
They finished the pancakes. Since they would be staying in the city for several more days, food was running out. Tomorrow they would have to buy steamed buns again, which meant more spending.
That night, Zhao Dashan calculated everything again and felt his head ache—money was truly hard to keep.
After eating, they rested in the wooden house while the two brothers locked the doors tightly. Even if there was a fire outside, they would only open it the next morning.
This was inconvenient—once Xiaobao entered her divine space, she could not hear anything outside.
That night, the main household in the courtyard argued loudly until dawn.
The next day, they went out again.
After the salt price increase last year, it remained high at 45 cash coins per jin. Zhao Dashan bought 10 jin directly.
Salt was essential for life—without it, people had no strength.
They also bought soy sauce, vinegar, a jar of wine for their father, silk flowers for their mother and wives, and candies and snacks for the children. The last items were strongly insisted on by Xiaobao.
“Mother is a young lady, sisters-in-law are young ladies, and I am a little young lady—we all must wear silk flowers!”
In the end, Zhao Dashan gave in and bought them. He even added a wooden hairpin with cloud patterns for their mother.
All expenses for the day were about one tael of silver.
The four siblings wandered through the city, coming in with full baskets and leaving with almost nothing.
In two days, they had spent nearly four taels of silver—almost a year’s living expenses.
At night, Zhao Dashan thought about how he would have to face his mother’s accounting when they returned home and felt a headache coming on.
But they had already bought everything, so there was nothing to regret.
That night, after eating steamed buns, they went to the night market.
They enjoyed the bustling city until curfew, then slowly returned.
Just as they closed the door, a loud explosion sounded outside, followed by a brilliant flash like fireworks lighting up the dark sky.
Zhao Dashan carried Xiaobao out to the courtyard. The main household also came out. Everyone looked up at the sky.
“Grandma, is that fireworks?” a child asked excitedly.
“Probably,” an old woman said, puzzled. “But it’s not a festival—why set off fireworks?”
“I don’t think so… isn’t that fire over there? And smoke everywhere?” an old man frowned, looking toward the west.
“West City… that’s where the nobles live! Even the governor lives there. Who would dare start a fire there?!”