Chapter 15: When you see injustice on the road, you just have to yell
"You're talking nonsense." Hu San retorted, "Twenty-five cents for food and two cents for cloth bags. I gave a total of twenty-seven cents. What's wrong with that?"
"The cloth bag here, Shopkeeper Wan, costs three cents each. I just deceived you, but you ended up cheating."
Nanzhi looked like she was showing off her secrets, which made Hu San very angry. How could this beautiful little woman speak so irritatingly?
"I remembered it wrong. I gave him a total of twenty-eight cents." Hu San continued.
"Wrong again." Nanzhi shook his head. He didn't know who invited this rogue. What could such a person accomplish?
Hu San's face had turned the color of pig liver, and he was afraid he wouldn't be able to make any money this time.
"Tell me, what went wrong?"
"Shopkeeper Wan is kind-hearted and never charges money for the food and cloth bags."
A woman who was watching couldn't stand it anymore and answered in a disdainful tone.
No one here is a fool. How can they still not understand the situation?
I'm afraid it was Shopkeeper Wan who provoked someone, which led to this unfortunate incident.
Hu San was also dumbfounded. Seeing the people around him disperse from their busy work, Shopkeeper Wan also led Nanzhi and his party into the grain store, and suddenly felt a little frustrated.
"Thank you madam for your help." Shopkeeper Wan bowed solemnly. He was also a scholar in the past, but unfortunately he took the exam several times without any results, so he returned home and inherited the family business. An An has been living happily for so many years, but today he was cheated by a gangster. On.
"It's okay." Nanzhi waved her hand. When the road is rough, good people are rewarded, as long as God drops a few more pies for her.
"Madam, do you want to buy grain?" Shopkeeper Wan asked, looking at the three strong men following Nanzhi holding grain bags.
"Yes, I just don't know if food prices have gone up."
"It's a coincidence that you're here. It hasn't gone up today, but it should go up by a penny tomorrow."
Knowing that the price had not changed, Nanzhi felt relieved. Just as he was about to look at the food, he felt his sleeve being pulled by someone. He turned around and saw Aunt Liu.
Nanzhi was a little confused. Knowing that Aunt Liu had something to say, she asked in a low voice, "Auntie, what's wrong?"
Aunt Liu looked at Shopkeeper Wan, who was greeting the waiters, and lowered her voice and said, "Girl, didn't that person just say that the food at this store is more expensive than others? Let's take a look first, and I'll ask Yuntian to go check out a few more stores."
Nanzhi hesitated a little and just nodded.
She has bought food here, but Aunt Liu has never been here. Aunt Liu's family has a large population, so she probably buys a lot of food. If it is cheaper, she can buy more food with the money she saves.
She happened to be calculating the appropriate amount of food to buy for her family. She had no land and was unable to be self-sufficient. There was no problem in buying more, but she didn't know how to store the excess.
She remembered that there was a cellar at home, but the family had been poor for more than two years and there was no food to put into the cellar.
Shopkeeper Wan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his son coming down from the attic. Then he looked at Nanzhi and his party and asked, "I wonder how much food the lady wants to buy?"
The fourteen-year-old boy yawned. He seemed to have heard some noise just now, but he was too sleepy to go downstairs.
I was just called by my father.
How did the young man know that his always kind-hearted father had almost been blackmailed by a gangster just now?
"It should be quite a lot, but I don't know if it can be cheaper if we buy a lot."
"Food prices are indispensable, but we can send some soybeans."
The young man pointed to the soybean beside him and said.
Shopkeeper Wan, who was about to say that it could be cheaper, closed his mouth in a sarcastic manner and did not refute his son's words.
On weekdays, his wife often tells him that he always sells grain cheaply, and the family does not generate much income in a month.
Nanzhi didn't hesitate to give a discount. Beans are also food, so it would be nice to get some soybeans.
Shen Yuntian moved quickly and ran to two other grain stores within a quarter of an hour. When he came back, he shook his head at Aunt Liu.
She knows her son better than her mother. Aunt Liu asked her youngest son to go because she knew he was smart. She was afraid that there was something wrong with the other grain store, so she felt relieved.
If it's really expensive, then it's more expensive. Food must be eaten with confidence.
After discussing for a long time, Nanzhi finally decided on fifty kilograms of old rice, twenty kilograms of white flour, two hundred kilograms of black flour, two kilograms of salt and four kilograms of oil. Finally, he looked at the potatoes piled aside and thought about it. Forty pounds.
After settling the account, Nanzhi only had one hundred and ninety-three cash left.
Looking at the bags of food piled aside, Nanzhi felt inexplicably relieved. In this case, he and the dog should not be hungry for the time being, right?
Aunt Liu had enough money and bought four hundred kilograms of black noodles alone. In addition to various kinds of old rice and white noodles, the bags were piled all over the floor, and more than five taels of silver were spent.
Looking at the things on the ground, Shopkeeper Wan spoke first: "I'll ask the man to drive the mule cart to follow you later and deliver the food."
Seeing the hesitation of Nanzhi and the others, he explained: "It's free of charge, just treat it as a thank you gift for rescuing my life just now."
After hearing that there was no charge, Nanzhi nodded and agreed. The young boy packed two bags of soybeans smoothly. The big one weighed thirty kilograms, and the small bag weighed ten kilograms.
Originally, Nanzhi thought of going back after buying the grain, but Aunt Liu said to put the grain here first, took Nanzhi's hand and went to the butcher shop.
"Aunt Liu, are you going to buy meat?"
"Meat is expensive!" After hearing what his mother-in-law said, the dog's little face wrinkled up and his mouth turned up high.
If you don’t buy meat, you can buy cheap potatoes and your mother will be full, so you don’t have to give yourself food and then get sick from hunger.
"You little kid is so smart." Aunt Liu pinched the dog's little face, laughed and scolded, and then looked at Nanzhi, "Auntie will take you to buy some pork suet, and you can boil it when you get it home. Okay. Leave it for a long time. When you boil some meat oil and cook it, add a little bit for the dog to eat."
Nanzhi blinked and realized that the meat fat Mrs. Liu was talking about was lard. She was raised by her grandmother since she was a child, so she naturally knew how good lard was, so she nodded gratefully.
It seemed that it was afternoon, and almost all the meat at the pork stall was sold. Only some suet and bones were left. The only piece of meat was pure lean, without any fat.
People at this time generally like to eat fatty meat, thinking that fat meat is oily and watery, and the price of lean meat is two cents lower than that of fat meat.
"Auntie, are you here to buy meat?" The butcher shop owner saw Aunt Liu and a group of people standing in front of the stall and quickly put down the things in her hands and came over to greet her.
"How do you sell suet here?" Aunt Liu didn't say much and got straight to the point.
Logically speaking, lard suet can be used to make meat oil and should be the easiest to sell. However, since soybean oil, which is cheaper and has no fishy smell, appeared five years ago, lard suet has gradually lost its advantage. In recent years, it can It is said that the price keeps falling again and again.
That is to say, now that the price of soybean oil has gone up, there are slightly more people buying suet.
"Twenty cents a pound of pork suet."
After hearing this, Aunt Liu didn't say whether it was more expensive or cheaper, she just looked left and right, and the butcher shop owner didn't rush anyone.
After looking at it for a long time, Aunt Liu nodded with satisfaction and pointed to the piece of suet on the desk, "I want all this suet."
The shopkeeper was also generous. He took the suet and weighed it, and then asked Aunt Liu how many portions she wanted to cut.
Aunt Liu also turned to look at Nanzhi, "Girl Lin, how much do you want?"
After thinking about the one hundred and ninety-three cents left in his hand, Nanzhi no longer had any confidence: "Just four kilograms."
The shopkeeper nodded, and it was exactly four pounds with one cut.
After giving the money, the group headed back to the grain store. Naturally, the things were carried by three men from the Shen family.