After turning the corner at the end of the street, they spotted a clothing shop.
Inside, the shopkeeper sat behind the counter, staring blankly at the empty street in a daze.
Lin Zhiyue tugged Lin Yan over.
The moment the shopkeeper noticed customers entering, he hurriedly put on a smile and rushed out from behind the counter.
“Customers, come in and have a look! Everything’s being sold cheaply!”
“Do you have clothes my size?” Lin Zhiyue asked after glancing around the shop.
“Only cotton clothes.”
“Yes, yes, of course!”
The shopkeeper quickly responded while hurrying to a corner and hauling out over a dozen cotton outfits for children.
Lin Zhiyue stepped forward to choose.
Anything with overly bright colors—rejected.
Anything with complicated or fancy designs—rejected.
After carefully picking out several pieces for the children in the family, she and Lin Yan also selected several outfits for the adults.
Seeing them buy so much, the shopkeeper’s smile became even more sincere.
Although they only chose plain cotton garments instead of silk, they were still major customers.
In times like these, being able to sell clothes at all was already fortunate.
“The total is six taels and three hundred copper coins.”
The shopkeeper clicked his abacus beads while speaking to Lin Yan.
Lin Yan frowned slightly.
The clothes hadn’t increased in price much.
Wasn’t he supposed to be selling cheaply? This didn’t seem cheap at all.
Maybe prices here were simply different?
“Shopkeeper, we won’t haggle. But could you throw in those fabric scraps for us?”
Lin Zhiyue pointed toward a large sack half-filled with leftover cloth scraps in the corner.
“Sure. Since little customer here is so straightforward, I’ll give them to you.”
Those scraps weren’t useful for much anyway.
After paying, Lin Zhiyue accepted the change in silver notes and copper coins while Lin Yan carried the pile of clothes out of the shop.
The main reason for buying clothes was simple:
She truly couldn’t stand the sour smell clinging to their current clothes anymore.
Now that they had Pei Guang accompanying them, their safety was much more guaranteed.
They no longer needed to dress quite so miserably.
Another reason for shopping was to exchange large silver notes into smaller currency.
After leaving the shop, they continued down the street.
Before long, they reached the end of another road.
Father and daughter exchanged glances.
Silently, they both turned around and began walking back.
“Hey—hey! Want some buns?”
At that moment, the door of a closed storefront cracked open slightly, and a woman poked her head out, quietly calling to Lin Yan.
“Yes, yes, we do.”
Lin Yan immediately responded and hurried toward the door, with Lin Zhiyue following closely behind.
The woman opened the door a little wider, letting them inside.
Judging by the setup inside, the place had previously been a food shop.
“Auntie, why are you secretly selling like this?”
Lin Zhiyue looked at the steaming buns stacked in bamboo steamers on the stove.
Hopefully the meat inside wasn’t suspicious…
The woman sighed.
“There’s no helping it. Do you see anyone openly selling grain on the streets now? Two days ago, a food stall got robbed outright.”
She moved behind the stove as she continued,
“Our family is planning to flee and seek refuge with my maiden family too. We can’t carry that much flour with us, so I’m steaming buns to sell first. Better to exchange them for silver.”
“Don’t worry. The pigs were raised by our family. There was only one left, so we slaughtered it before leaving. The filling is packed full of meat.”
As she spoke, she tore one bun open and held it toward Lin Yan.
Inside was indeed packed with meat.
Grease soaked through the edges of the bun surrounding the filling.
Lin Yan swallowed unconsciously.
He hadn’t tasted meat in so many days that he’d almost forgotten what it tasted like.
The more he thought about it, the more saliva filled his mouth.
“Daughter, should we buy forty?”
Lin Yan mentally calculated the family’s size as he asked.
The woman immediately brightened and hurried to fetch wrapping paper.
“These buns are absolutely worth it. Grain prices are skyrocketing now, and we stuffed way more meat inside than usual. Normally they’re three coins each, but I’m only charging you five. That’s already very fair.”
“If we weren’t fleeing, I wouldn’t even sell them. I’d keep them as our own rations.”
As she wrapped the buns in oil paper, she nervously glanced up at Lin Yan, clearly afraid they’d think the price too expensive and change their minds.
Lin Yan didn’t complain.
At this point, anything related to food cost far more than usual.
He was gradually becoming accustomed to current prices.
Lin Zhiyue also said nothing.
The buns really were generously filled, and price increases were understandable.
Once the woman finished packing the buns, Lin Zhiyue handed over a fifty-tael banknote.
Seeing neither father nor daughter object to the price and pay so readily, the woman became even more enthusiastic.
Her smile deepened warmly as she personally escorted them out.
“Dad, let’s go over there. I’ll take some rice out. I remember there’s still a bag at home.”
As they neared the pharmacy again, Lin Zhiyue pointed toward a nearby alley.
After entering the alley, she grabbed one of the newly bought outfits from Lin Yan’s arms, along with the sack of fabric scraps, and entered the space.
Inside the space, Lin Zhiyue rushed eagerly into the bathroom.
After bathing and changing into clean clothes, she instantly felt much more refreshed.
Once she finished tidying herself up, she headed toward the kitchen.
Outside the space, Lin Yan squatted quietly in a corner, the clothes piled beside him as he patiently waited.
A quarter of an hour later, a smiling little girl with fair skin, rosy lips, white teeth, and sparkling eyes suddenly appeared before him out of thin air.
“Dad, look! There’s still more than half a bag of rice left at home. If we save it carefully, it’ll last us quite a while.”
Using the sack that had originally held the cloth scraps, Lin Zhiyue carried out over half a bag of rice and happily spoke to Lin Yan.
“Mhm… Daughter. That’s wonderful.”
Lin Yan smiled softly, his voice slightly vague.
It was unclear whether he meant having grain was wonderful—or having such a daughter was wonderful.
Quickly stepping forward, he grabbed the sack.
The rice grains inside were plump, round, crystal clear, and perfectly white.
Under the sunlight, they resembled tiny pearls glowing faintly.
“This rice… it looks like pearls. So beautiful.”
Lin Yan scooped up a handful in amazement.
“Mhm. It’s actually called pearl rice. There isn’t any coarse grain from this era at home, only this kind.”
Lin Zhiyue sounded slightly uneasy.
She didn’t know whether her family would find the rice suspicious.
How was she supposed to explain it?
Rice like this simply didn’t exist in this era.
Lin Yan handed the buns over to her before stuffing the clothes into the opening of the sack.
Not only did it free his hands, it conveniently covered the dazzlingly white rice.
“Daughter, remember this well—your father spent a huge amount of money to exchange for this rice.”
Hoisting the sack onto his shoulder, Lin Yan gestured for her to follow as he headed toward the alley exit.
If anyone had questions, they could all come to him.
Actually, questions from the family weren’t the main issue.
The bigger concern was Pei Guang.
He wasn’t some ignorant mountain villager who’d never seen the world.
After leaving the alley and returning to the pharmacy, they collected the medicinal powder.
Father and daughter then reappeared before everyone carrying large cloth sacks on their shoulders, medicinal packets hanging from their arms, and several oil-paper bundles in hand.
“Second Uncle! Yueyue! You’re back!”
Sharp-eyed Lin Zhili spotted them first and immediately ran over shouting excitedly.
Lin Zhixing followed closely behind.
“Yueyue—”
Lin Zhixing stopped in front of Lin Zhiyue and stared blankly at her face.
She completely ignored her second uncle standing beside her.
“Hehe… wow… Yueyue is so pretty!”
Oh no.
Her silly cousin’s weakness for pretty faces was acting up again.
Black lines filled Lin Zhiyue’s forehead.
“Wow! Yueyue, you changed back again! You’re even prettier than before!”
Lin Zhili exclaimed loudly while circling around her twice.
Now dressed in clean clothes, Lin Zhiyue’s skin looked fair and spotless.
Even the fake freckles had disappeared completely.