Mrs. Cheng tallied up all the goods fromthe dimension: 80 jin1 ofwhite rice, 20 chickens, 30 rabbits, 15 jinof Chinese cabbage. These items were probably quite difficult for the two ofthem to bring to the market by themselves.
“Xiao Xiao, I think we will need to borrowa cow-drawn carriage. There is no way we can carry all these ourselves all theway to the market!” Mrs. Cheng realized that it was quite troublesome to havetoo much items for sale.
Although Cheng Xiao Xiao wanted to producethese items after they have go to the market, but she knew that would draw toomuch unwanted attention, so she had to agree to her mother’s suggestion.
Even though Mrs. Cheng weren’t close tothe residents of Willow Village, but they have been in their current place forover three years. She has some connections with the villagers. After findingout that Mrs. Cheng wanted to borrow a cow-draw carriage and looking at the twoChinese cabbage, the patriarch of Willow Village agreed to let them borrow hiscarriage.
It was much easier to get to the marketplace with a carriage. Plus, since they didn’t need to get there on foot, italso saved them quite a bit of time.
More importantly, with the carriage, thethree young ones also climbed inside and also wanted to go to the market.
Since it’d only take about half a day toand from the marketplace, Mrs. Cheng finally decided to take all four kids withher, 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”
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Tanghulu
Photo credit: niubball.com
“They are selling steamed buns! Mom, Iwant a steamed bun!”
The three young ones all talking at thesame 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 toomuch attention either. She was more concerned about how to sell all theirmerchandises. Honestly, if they were trying to sell these items one by one onthe street, she didn’t think they would be able to sell them all off in a day. It’dbe great if she could find a place who’d buy all their stuff in one go.
Even though the cow-drawn carriage alongwith a few kids did get some attention from the pa.s.sersby, but nothing too outof the norm. After all, most of the folks in the marketplace came from villagesall over, it wasn’t too unusual to see a cow-drawn carriage as a mode oftransportation.
Mrs. Cheng stopped the carriage and wipedaway her sweat, “Xiao Xiao, let’s sell our stuff here, this spot is available!”
“Here, mom?” Looking at the quietsurrounding, Cheng Xiao Xiao frowned, this is a dead end street, n.o.body wouldwalk 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 walkdown 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 bringpeople 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’sinterested 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 Xiaoimmediately stopped her. “Mom, I don’t think this is a good spot and we won’tbe able to sell much here. Why don’t we go look for an inn or a rice store andsell our stuff to them directly?”
“Well…”
Mrs. Cheng felt that what her daughter’ssaid was quite reasonable, after a slight hesitation, she nodded, “Okay, let’sgo try an inn. If they don’t want it, the we will go hit a rice store. See whatwe 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 hermother, “Mom, you wait here with them, I’ll go get the inn keeper to come checkout our goods!”
“Um, okay, you be careful!” Mrs. Cheng wasa bit worry, but she didn’t have any better ideas so she followed along withwhat her daughter proposed.
Cheng Xiao Xiao smiled confidently andsaid, “Don’t worry, mom. I’ll be back before you know it!”
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1.Anold measurement for weight, 1 jin isabout 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb.
2.Tanghulu,a traditional Chinese snack of candied Crataegus pinnatifida, also known asmountain hawthorn, Chinese haw, Chinese hawthorn or Chinese hawberry. Not to bemistaken as candied fruit. (I’ve had it once, believe me when I said it looksbetter than it tastes. LOL)
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