Chapter 34 Probing
The following day, after a simple meal, they went to the patriarch’s house to borrow an ox cart and went straight to town.
They met the Huang mother and daughter on the way, who was going to town to deliver embroidery work.
The two of them had initially wanted to just ignore them.
However, when Mrs. Huang saw them, she greeted them warmly. “Chengrui, are you two going to the town to buy stuff?”
Gu Chengrui had no choice but to reply to them. “That’s right. Aunt Huang, you are…?”
“You all know the situation at home. I am going to town to get some embroidery work to supplement the family’s income.” Mrs. Huang replied with an aggrieved expression.
Gu Chengrui did not agree with what she said and complained about the Gu family together. Instead, he said, “That’s good. Since we’re going the same way, let’s go together.”
After that, the ox cart slowly came to a stop.
“Then we don’t mind if we do.” Mrs. Huang immediately responded and pulled her daughter, Gu Ziqiong, onto the ox cart.
After sitting down, Mrs. Huang looked at Zhou Ying and asked, “Yingying, I heard that you two made a lot of money by digging up medicinal herbs. Is that true?”
“Who did you hear this from? If we’re wealthy, wouldn’t we be able to buy a house in town?” Zhou Ying asked in surprise.
“But I heard you guys spent a lot of money building your house?” Gu Ziqiong said.
“Not really. It’s all thanks to the help of the clan leader and the village chief. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have enough money to eat after the house is repaired.” Zhou Ying shook her head with a worried look.
Gu Ziqiong wanted to ask more, but Mrs. Huang pulled on her sleeve and interrupted her.
She knew they wouldn’t be able to get anything out of her, so she changed the subject and asked, “What are you going to buy in town? Do you need our help?”
“The weather has been getting colder recently, so I thought of buying a bed and two sets of cotton-padded clothes to get through winter. We would only buy the rest slowly.”
“That’s true. Frost falls every morning now. I really can’t do without cotton-padded clothes.” After Mrs. Huang finished speaking, she glanced at the clothes on Zhou Ying’s body and then remembered that the family had not given them anything to spend the winter with.
Therefore, they didn’t probe further and started to chat.
However, Zhou Ying just grunted and laughed in response. She didn’t give a reply, nor did she express her opinion.
But she listened with great interest to the stories of the two women about their wits and courage in trying to get the housework done.
When they arrived in town, Mrs. Huang got out of the cart and said, “The embroidery workshop I am going to sells cotton and cloth. Do you want to go and take a look?”
“No, Aunt Huang. We have to take a look at buying a water tank and other big items first. We’ll consider the rest when we come back.” Gu Chengrui said.
“Alright then, we’ll head over first.” Mrs. Huang turned around and left after she finished speaking.
After they parted ways, the young couple went to buy one big and two small tubs, followed by ten pounds of millet and fifty pounds of black flour.
When they pa.s.sed by the market, Zhou Ying went around to see what kinds of vegetables were available in the current season.
She didn’t expect that there were only radishes, cabbages, and winter melons available. Furthermore, the winter melons were quite expensive. They cost two coppers per pound. It seemed that the gift from the clan leader was worth quite a bit.
The most popular goods sold were eggs and all kinds of dried vegetables. There was also a place that sold pickled vegetables.
Zhou Ying saw that the stall’s business was quite good, so she spent ten coppers on buying a pound of pickled cuc.u.mbers. After that, she met up with Gu Chengrui.
Finally, the two of them went to the cloth shop. They didn’t expect to see the Huang mother and daughter still waiting inside.
Seeing them looking over, Zhou Ying stepped forward and asked, “Aunt Huang, Ziqiong, you haven’t handed over your work yet?”
“Not yet. The manager is currently serving two important clients, so we can only wait for them to finish.” Mrs. Huang said as she pointed to a place not far away.