Chapter 11: First Business

Chapter 11

Jiang Sheng knew that Zhang Auntie was suffering, and she had known for half a year. In Jiang Sheng's mind, if you get beaten, you run away; if you get scolded, you talk back.

She didn't understand why Zhang Auntie had endured it bitterly all this time - why, after she recovered from her injuries, she stayed on, working diligently and obediently. Fôllôw new stories at novelhall.com

Once, little Jiang Sheng really couldn't stand it anymore. She grabbed Zhang Auntie's sleeve and said, "Auntie, why don't you leave? He keeps hitting you - he's a bad man."

Zhang Auntie turned around and stroked little Jiang Sheng's head. "Auntie can't leave. I can't abandon my children, and I have nowhere to go."

From then on, Jiang Sheng understood - a married girl has no home.

Even though Auntie Zhang could endure it, Jiang Sheng felt pained for her.

"Big brother, how can we make it so Auntie doesn't get hit anymore?" she asked.

Zheng Ruqian thought hard about it. "My mother once said that some customers would act inappropriately and grope the girls, so the turtle lords at Yihong Brothel would break those customers' hands and feet so they couldn't do that anymore."

So it was that simple.

Jiang Sheng nodded and clenched her fist by her side.

The siblings went to another house to collect mushrooms. When they first knocked on doors, the villagers were always wary and suspicious, thinking it was the little beggar kids from the village coming to ask for food.

The kindhearted ones would give half a steamed bun, while the stingier ones waved their hands to shoo them away, saying "Go, go, we don't have anything to eat."

But Jiang Sheng was not angry. She poked her head in the door and smiled. "Uncle, we want to buy mushrooms from your family. Can you sell them to us?"

"Buy mushrooms? You kids have money to buy mushrooms?" The villager's eyes bulged wide.

In the village, everyone knew Jiang Sheng was a little beggar who survived by wandering around begging and rummaging through trash.

If she had money, the whole village would be rich enough to overflow with oil.

Jiang Sheng knew they didn't believe her, so she reached out and dragged Zheng Ruqian over. His clean, fine cloth robes and chubby little figure added a sense of affluence.

Jiang Sheng held out both hands, speaking rapidly, "This is my cousin from far away. His family does business, and when he heard our village had mushrooms, he came specifically to buy some through my connection. Uncle, if you're not willing to sell, we'll go check somewhere else."

After she finished, she turned to leave without hesitation.

"Hey, wait!" As expected, the villager became anxious.

A dozen or so mushrooms at home weren't even enough for one meal. Selling them wasn't worth a trip, but leaving them to dry was troublesome too. Since this silly kid wanted to buy them, he might as well just sell.

As for the price, that was up for negotiation.

After a bout of bargaining, they finally bought the mushrooms at the regular market price.

"Uncle, don't worry. My cousin's family is very wealthy, with hundreds of taels. As long as he's willing, he'll come back to buy mushrooms from us in the future."

The morning of waiting had not been in vain.

Zheng Ruqian almost cried out loud.

Fortunately Jiang Sheng kept her composure. She briskly weighed and packed up the mushrooms, saying, "Uncle, look - a full nine jin. That's thirty-six coppers total."

Without any fuss, the middle-aged man threw down thirty-six copper coins.

The man was richly dressed, in fine thin robes finer than Zheng Ruqian's. He spent the dozen-odd coppers casually, not counting them as money.

He didn't seem like a local townsman, but more like someone from the county seat...

Jiang Sheng's mind lit up sharply. Just as the man turned to leave, she shouted, "Uncle! We have a lot more mushrooms like these. Do you want them?"

The middle-aged man paused, then looked back. "If they're just as fresh, I'll take them all."

"Fresh, they're all fresh!" Jiang Sheng was extremely excited. "Uncle, we can even deliver them the same day if you don't need to dry them."

The middle-aged man didn't reply. He had his servant take the mushrooms.

Just before leaving, he leisurely said, "I can buy them, but I won't come to town again. If you kids want to do business, deliver them to Yuanran Residence in the county seat."

Perhaps because he was certain these children couldn't manage the long distance delivery, he left after saying this.

Yuanran Residence.

It sounded very prestigious.

Jiang Sheng had been to the county town before. She had found Zheng Ruqian behind Yihong Brothel, so she was fairly familiar with the town, though not every restaurant and teahouse. But she had never heard of a Yuanran Residence!

"Could it be newly opened?" she couldn't help muttering to herself.

Glancing at Zheng Ruqian, the perpetually silly and happy fat boy had fallen into an inexplicable gloom, evidently recalling some unpleasant memories.

"Big brother," Jiang Sheng had no choice but to hug his arm and coax him. "Big brother, are you scared to go to the county town? Are you?"

Zheng Ruqian turned back with feigned boldness. "Who's scared? We just earned a neat profit of sixteen coppers. Forget a county town, even if it were Knife Mountain or Flaming Mountain, I'd go!"

Jiang Sheng laughed. "Good. I'll go with you, big brother."

Fang Heng didn't understand why going to the county town was being compared to ascending Knife Mountain or entering Flaming Mountain, but seeing the silly smiles on the siblings' faces, he couldn't help quirking up the corners of his mouth.

Although they had left prosperous, wealthy Fengying and their privileged lives behind, meeting these kids didn't seem so awful after all.

Fang Heng lifted his head to gaze in the direction of Fengying and let out a long breath.

Suddenly Jiang Sheng pounced over to grab his sleeve. "Third brother, I have a request for you!"