Chapter 15.1

Responding to her brother’s call, Cheng Xiao Xiao join the family at the dinner table.

After dinner, Mrs. Cheng sent the young ones to bed and kept Cheng Xiao Xiao in the yard with her.

Looking at her mother who obviously had something on her mind, Cheng Xiao Xiao asked curiosity, “Mom, what is the matter?”

“Nothing, Xiao Xiao,” replied Mrs. Cheng as she shook her head, but still looking like she had something on her mind.

Cheng Xiao Xiao paused for a second and smiled, “Mom, it’s alright, you can tell me.”

“Xiao Xiao, really nothing!” Looking into the pure eyes of her daughter, she picked up her hands and said ever so lovingly, “Xiao Xiao, thank you for helping our during these difficult days!”

“Mom, don’t say that, we are a family. And, right, I have harvested my rice crop from the dimension, let me get them out in a bit. From now on we can have white rice every day!” Seeing that her mother didn’t want to share, she changed  the subject.

Mrs. Cheng looked ecstatic and asked, “You have harvested the rice crop already?” She just said she planted them yesterday, and it has already harvested in a day. She was utterly surprised!

After seeing her daughter’s nod, her smile brightened and said, “Xiao Xiao, in that case, why don’t we go to the market again in two days? Your dad needs some better herbs, let’s go exchange for some taels!”

“Sure, mom, let’s go in a few days!” Since she was harvesting everyday, she didn’t care about selling these things. Right now her family have meat on the table everyday, that’s much better than most villagers!

“Yes, no rush. Your dad seems to be getting better these last few days. We got time!”

Since she brought up the father’s injury, Cheng Xiao Xiao couldn’t help her curiosity and asked, “Mom, can you tell me who was it that hurt dad, please?”

“Xiao Xiao, you don’t need to worry about that!” Mrs. Cheng looked at her daughter and looked to be in dismay. She avoided the subject, “It’s a blessing that you couldn’t remember the past. So don’t worry about it. Your brothers and sister are still young. Our current lives aren’t too bad!”

“Mom, I’m an adult now, I think I should know what had happened. Please, tell me?”

“Okay, Xiao Xiao, go get some rest. I will tell you later!” In order to avoid the subject, Mrs. Cheng quickly got up and went inside her own quarter!

Looking at the back of her mother disappearing into the house, Cheng Xiao Xiao felt very frustrated. She couldn’t understand why her mother would want to hide that from her. Being unhappy for a short while, she, too, returned to her own quarter.

Speaking of, there had been lots of servants on the street. If you were in the know about things, you would know these are all employees of Ning House and words on the street were they were looking for a mother/daughter pair.

But the servants of Ning House were destined to be disappointed. After a few days of searching, they were still unable to locate the two, it was as though they have never been there.

The few elders who were waiting at Ning House were also disappointed. They have been waiting for the mother and daughter to show up. They really wanted to find out where did these mythical animals come from.

Since they weren’t able to locate the two, one by one they had bid old man Ning farewell. At the same time, they also asked him to inform them if he hear anything about the mother and daughter and they’d return right away.

Old man Ning promised them and saw them out.

What they didn’t know what that the ones that they were searching for were about to show up in the marketplace shortly! ___

Mrs. Cheng tallied up all the goods from the dimension: 80 jin1 of white rice, 20 chickens, 30 rabbits, 15 jin of Chinese cabbage. These items were probably quite difficult for the two of them to bring to the market by themselves.

“Xiao Xiao, I think we will need to borrow a cow-drawn carriage. There is no way we can carry all these ourselves all the way to the market!” Mrs. Cheng realized that it was quite troublesome to have too much items for sale.

Although Cheng Xiao Xiao wanted to produce these items after they have go to the market, but she knew that would draw too much unwanted attention, so she had to agree to her mother’s suggestion.

Even though Mrs. Cheng weren’t close to the residents of Willow Village, but they have been in their current place for over three years. She has some connections with the villagers. After finding out that Mrs. Cheng wanted to borrow a cow-draw carriage and looking at the two Chinese cabbage, the patriarch of Willow Village agreed to let them borrow his carriage.

It was much easier to get to the market place with a carriage. Plus, since they didn’t need to get there on foot, it also saved them quite a bit of time.

More importantly, with the carriage, the three young ones also climbed inside and also wanted to go to the market.

Since it’d only take about half a day to and from the marketplace, Mrs. Cheng finally decided to take all four kids with her, leaving her injured husband at home by himself.

“So this is the marketplace?!”

“There are so many things for sale here! Big sister, look! They have tanghulu!2”

Tanghulu

Photo credit: niubball.com

“They are selling steamed buns! Mom, I want a steamed bun!”

The three young ones all talking at the same time while looking around excitedly at everything on the street. Mrs. Cheng was too focused on looking for an empty spot to pay them any attention.

Cheng Xiao Xiao weren’t paying them too much attention either. She was more concerned about how to sell all their merchandises. Honestly, if they were trying to sell these items one by one on the street, she didn’t think they would be able to sell them all off in a day. It’d be great if she could find a place who’d buy all their stuff in one go.

Even though the cow-drawn carriage along with a few kids did get some attention from the pa.s.sersby, but nothing too out of the norm. After all, most of the folks in the marketplace came from villages all over, it wasn’t too unusual to see a cow-drawn carriage as a mode of transportation.

Mrs. Cheng stopped the carriage and wiped away her sweat, “Xiao Xiao, let’s sell our stuff here, this spot is available!”

“Here, mom?” Looking at the quiet surrounding, Cheng Xiao Xiao frowned, this is a dead end street, n.o.body would walk down this way. But all the good spots were already taken by other vendors, plus they have a bulky carriage with them, their options were very limited.

“But mom, do you think anyone will walk down this street?” Asked Cheng Xiao Xiao, her voice full of doubt.

Cheng Zheng Bin nodded in agreement, “She’s right, mom. n.o.body will walk down here!”

“Mom, I can go with my brothers to bring people over, what do you think?” Asked the innocent little Lan Lan.

Mrs. Cheng looked at them helplessly, “Well, other spots are all taken, let’s just settle down here. If anyone’s interested in our merchandise, I think they’ll walk over!”

“No, Mom, don’t unload the carriage!” Seeing her mother was getting ready to unload the carriage, Cheng Xiao Xiao immediately stopped her. “Mom, I don’t think this is a good spot and we won’t be able to sell much here. Why don’t we go look for an inn or a rice store and sell our stuff to them directly?”

“Well…”

Mrs. Cheng felt that what her daughter’s said was quite reasonable, after a slight hesitation, she nodded, “Okay, let’s go try an inn. If they don’t want it, the we will go hit a rice store. See what we can sell!”

“Okay, let’s go to an inn!”

When they arrived at the only inn in town, luckily it wasn’t lunch hour and they weren’t busy. Cheng Xiao Xiao said to her mother, “Mom, you wait here with them, I’ll go get the inn keeper to come check out our goods!”

“Um, okay, you be careful!” Mrs. Cheng was a bit worry, but she didn’t have any better ideas so she followed along with what her daughter proposed.

Cheng Xiao Xiao smiled confidently and said, “Don’t worry, mom. I’ll be back before you know it!”

___

1.     An old measurement for weight, 1 jin is about 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb.

2.     Tanghulu, a traditional Chinese snack of candied Crataegus pinnatifida, also known as mountain hawthorn, Chinese haw, Chinese hawthorn or Chinese hawberry. Not to be mistaken as candied fruit. (I’ve had it once, believe me when I said it looks better than it tastes. LOL) _

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