Owner Wang had made it clear there was no haggling, which saved a lot of bickering. The buying went quickly, and soon it was Shen Yuntan’s turn.
Her herbs were all fresh, sorted and bundled by category, every one of premium quality. The moment they were laid out in the sieve, they caught Owner Wang’s attention.
“You there, miss. Bring your things over here.”
Owner Wang beckoned from behind the counter. Shen Yuntan immediately carried everything over and said, neither servile nor overbearing, “Greetings, Owner Wang. My herbs were all gathered in the deep mountains yesterday afternoon.”
“Mm, not bad.”
Owner Wang examined her herbs carefully. Seeing that every plant was excellent, he nodded in satisfaction.
Only after finishing with the herbs did he look at her. Seeing an ugly girl with a very unsightly birthmark on her face, his eyes showed no disgust or disdain. He said, “Your herbs are very good. The fleeceflower root and Solomon’s seal are of high age, and the Paris root is exactly the good medicine we’re short on. These three red lingzhi are also excellent, caps intact, top quality. I won’t use the ordinary purchase price from outside. I’ll give you a separate price.”
“Very well. Thank you, Owner Wang.”
Shen Yuntan stood before the counter, quietly observing his expression and movements.
She had seen too many people in the apocalypse. Who was honest and who was sly, she knew in her bones.
This Owner Wang examined the herbs very carefully and could say something specific about every one. He didn’t have that little trick of deliberately finding fault with the quality to drive the price down, and his hands were steady when weighing. He wasn’t shorting her.
After weighing everything, Owner Wang worked his abacus and asked, “Miss, were these herbs gathered from the Great Green Mountain?”
“Yes,” Shen Yuntan answered briefly.
Owner Wang nodded and bent over the abacus, calling out prices as he calculated. “Solomon’s seal at sixty-five coppers a catty. Yours is under three catties, so one hundred seventy-five coppers total.”
“Three red lingzhi. Red lingzhi fetch a higher price. Goods like these buy at two hundred coppers each. That’s the price throughout Changshan County. Six hundred coppers for three.”
“And this Paris polyphylla, also called chonglou, is good medicine for snake venom. There are many venomous snakes in spring and summer, and this herb is in desperately short supply. Renji Tang is nearly out of stock.”
“You’ve solved our urgent need today. I’ll give you a high price. Fresh at one hundred twenty, dried at three hundred coppers a catty. You have exactly two catties fresh, so I’ll count it as two hundred forty. Bring more in the future and I’ll pay this price.”
“And this fleeceflower root, good age. I’ll give you the highest purchase price for it too.”
The other herbs were all premium as well, all able to fetch a high price. Owner Wang finally rattled off a total. “Altogether, two taels of silver. What do you say?”
Villagers came to sell herbs often, and Shen Yuntan had heard them talk about the approximate prices. Owner Wang’s offer was indeed very fair. At another pharmacy, it might have been driven down to a tael and a half.
So she said nothing more and agreed readily. “Fine.”
Owner Wang settled the account with her briskly. As she turned to leave, he added, “Miss, next time you have good herbs like today’s, come straight to the counter and find me. No need to queue outside. Also, if you find chonglou, bring it at the price we discussed. Renji Tang will buy as much as you can supply.”
This herb was one hundred twenty coppers a catty fresh, and pork was only twenty coppers a catty. The chonglou was six times the price of pork, a valuable commodity.
There was plenty of chonglou in the deep forests of the Great Green Mountain Range. She had come across many small seedlings yesterday and had even pulled some to plant in her space, so she could supply it at any time in the future.
“All right. If I have any, I’ll bring it to you.”
After settling the account, she left Renji Tang. Shen Yuntan glanced at the sharp-faced man by the entrance whose eyes darted about shiftily. She said nothing and, with her basket on her back, headed to Sifang Restaurant.
The owner of Sifang Restaurant, recommended by Uncle Zhao, did indeed do honest business. One pheasant and two hares, at fifteen coppers a catty.
In the end, the two hares weighed ten catties, the pheasant three and a half. Two hundred coppers in hand.
“Big sister, weigh me a catty of salt, half a catty of sugar, a bag of flour, and two catties of peach pastries.”
“Uncle, give me an iron pot, a small one, and a kettle. Also a small dagger and a chopping knife. And this little bow and arrow too.”
“Young waiter, give me ten steamed buns. Five meat, five sugar.”
“Owner, what price do you buy cotton at?”
“Forty coppers a catty? Is that the price for cotton from two years ago, or last year’s new cotton?”
She made a round of the county town, buying some supplies and asking about the prices of daily goods. Only at the end did she go to the pork stall.
“What do you want?”
The pork vendor was a burly man with a greasy, gleaming apron tied at his waist, chopping meat for a customer. One cut of his knife, clean and decisive.
Having lived in the apocalypse for years, where most food was contaminated by the virus, she hadn’t eaten rich, oily pork like this in a long time. This main-soul body had lived frugally with Grandmother. Every month, Grandmother would buy a little meat after selling her embroidery, just to give them a treat. It had been half a month since the last time she ate meat.
“Uncle, weigh me three catties of pork belly, two catties of ribs, and this lard,” Shen Yuntan said, pointing.
The woman who had been buying meat glanced at her coarse cloth clothing and ugly face and shuffled two steps away in disgust, as if afraid of catching something dirty from her.
Now, seeing her order so much meat in one go, she couldn’t help but interject. “Buying that much, do you even have money?”
The money from selling the herbs was in her space. Half the money from the game was already spent, leaving about a hundred coppers, strung together on hemp rope.
Shen Yuntan couldn’t be bothered with her. She simply took out a string of copper coins and set it on the counter, motioning for the pork vendor to cut the meat.
Seeing she really did have money, the woman said nothing more. She picked up her half catty of meat and sashayed off, swinging her plump hips.
While the butcher chopped and weighed the meat, Shen Yuntan’s psychic power swept over a familiar face in the alley behind her. She turned slowly, pretending to have just noticed the person, and deliberately needled her. “Oh, this pig head looks a little familiar.”
Standing at the alley mouth was Liu Xiuyu, the Liu family’s only daughter, Madam Qian’s darling, her precious pearl. She was only two or three years older than Shen Yuntan, and one of the people who had bullied her most in her memories.
Calling her an “ugly little wretch” was routine. The worst time was when she had kicked her off a bridge into the river. If Grandmother Liu hadn’t arrived in time to fish her out, she probably would have drowned.
“Pig Bajie! Ugly freak!”
Shen Yuntan slapped two more nicknames on her, her tongue sharp as poison. “Carrying a pig’s head on your neck, and you still come buy your own kind’s meat to nourish yourself?”
A snort of laughter escaped even the pork butcher.
The one with the birthmark was actually rather pretty, just with an ugly mark. The other one, whose features were completely indistinguishable, her face indeed swollen up like a pig’s head, was too ugly to look at directly.