Chapter 17 - 17 17 Buying Meat_1

Words : 1429 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

17: Chapter 17 Buying Meat_1 17: Chapter 17 Buying Meat_1 The mirror was round and simple, with no complicated decorations. It carried a thick patina, suggesting some age. On the back was a layer of greenish-blue rust, covering any designs on it. Gifts from the elderly should not be refused. Cai Wei thanked him and took the mirror, not having time to examine it carefully. She stuffed it into her chest and urgently said to Manager Li, “It’s about to snow, let’s figure out how to move the elderly man into the shelter of the house quickly.” Manager Li rubbed his nose, stood up straight, and started yelling, “Monkey boy, monkey boy, where did you go?” “Ah, here I am...” After a loud affirmative response, a young shopkeeper squeezed his way through the crowd into the cloth shop. Cai Wei was a little stunned. This shop boy was the same one from whom Cai Wei and Lady Du had bought their cloth. The shopkeeper also recognized Cai Wei, paused for a moment, and didn’t pay much attention to her. He immediately turned and said to Manager Li, “Old shopkeeper, the carriage is ready, let’s carry the man back...” ... With Cai Wei’s assistance, the old beggar was lifted back into the cloth shop. Once settled, Cai Wei told Manager Li she was worried about her mother in the small eatery and then left. By now, it was past Shenshi (3-5pm), and the sky was as dark as if night had fallen, with large snowflakes fluttering in the air like goose feathers. The market had closed early, and the townspeople who had come to the market were rushing home... Inside the small restaurant, Lady Du was pacing anxiously like an ant on a hot pan, frequently glancing outside the door. Her daughter had been gone for two to three hours and still hadn’t returned. Had she come across a robber? Or perhaps, had she been kidnapped? The more she thought about it, the more scared she became. Unable to stay still due to worry, Lady Du almost set out in search, but at that moment, a familiar figure appeared in the street opposite, braving the snow and rushing back. Lady Du, overjoyed as if she had found a treasure, hurried to meet her and scolded, “Girl Wei, where have you been? Why were you gone so long? You’ve almost scared your mother to death...” Feeling a surge of warmth in her heart, Cai Wei remembered something she had once read in a book: the happiest thing in the world is that no matter where you are or what you are doing, there is always someone silently caring about you... At that time, she felt the statement was pretentious. How does it matter if someone is worrying about her or not? She is who she is, and wouldn’t change based on someone caring about her. However, when she saw her mother’s anxious face and the immense relief in her mother’s smile when she returned, she truly understood that having someone worry about her indeed brought happiness. Holding her mother’s hand, Cai Wei softly comforted her with a few words, changing the topic. She didn’t want her mother to know about those upsetting incidents. Her mother was kind-hearted and learning about an accidental harm caused by Cai Wei’s carelessness, she might cast a lifelong shadow on her mind. Hence, Cai Wei would never let her mother know about that accident. Seeing her daughter return made Lady Du’s heart at ease. She took Cai Wei to another street. Because Uncle Zhou’s horse was startled and couldn’t be contacted for a while. With the snow falling, which made the road slippery, the mother and daughter had to hire a horse carriage to return to Mu Family Village. The village was not far from the town, only about twenty miles away. On a normal day, they could hire a covered carriage for only thirty copper coins, but due to the snowfall today, they had to pay an additional ten copper coins to hire the carriage. Lady Du didn’t think it was a good deal. The horse carriage charged by the head. Even if mother and daughter came empty-handed, they would still be charged 40 copper coins. Harbor resentment, Lady Du decided to take advantage of the situation. She planned to buy a cartload of household necessities, so that the 40 copper coins wouldn’t be wasted. Most of the shops on this street sold food. There were shops selling grains, meat, fish, and even fresh fruits and vegetables. Outside the shop, some small business people had set up stalls selling pancakes, noodles, steamed buns, and wontons. Pancakes cost two copper coins each, vegetable noodles three copper coins a bowl, noodles with shredded meat eight copper coins, wontons five copper coins a bowl if they were filled with vegetables, if filled with meat, another five copper coins were needed. Vegetarian buns were one copper coin each, and buns filled with meat were two copper coins each, steamed buns were two for one coin, although the buns were coarse maize buns. Lady Du had bought ten meat buns and ten pancakes, merrily planning to take them back to improve the living condition of her kids. Cai Wei was not impressed. She pointed at a meat store and said, “Mother, buns are not enough, we might as well buy some meat.” Lady Du couldn’t bear to refuse her daughter, so she nodded helplessly. In the butcher shop, the grease-slicked butcher looked up and saw customers approaching. He immediately put on a full-face smile and said, “Sister, buying meat? This is a fresh, fat pig slaughtered this morning, it’s fresh! Look, how thick is this fat...” As he was speaking, he was flipping over the fatty meat on the chopping board to attract the attention of the mother and daughter. Ordinarily, pork was twenty coins per jin. Because of the approaching New Year, the price rose, and now pork was being sold for thirty copper coins per jin. Lady Du was selecting from the meat on display, planning to buy a slab of fat back home, which could be used to render oil. The remains from the rendering could be used to make dumplings, which were delicious! “Boss, how much is a jin of pork?” “Thirty coppers a jin, that’s the rate all over the town, and our shop is absolutely honest,” said the boss, beating his chest, keen to close the deal. “Fine, if it’s thirty coppers then it’s thirty coppers. If I buy ten jin, could you throw in those things for me?” As Cai Wei spoke, her eyes were fixed on some scraps of pig skin and clean big bones thrown in the corner of the shop. The boss was taken aback. Those things were for his dog and were worthless. If he could make a deal for 300 copper coins with those things, he would be happy to give them away. “Sure, sure, sure!” The boss readily agreed, as if he feared Cai Wei would change her mind. Quickly taking out a grass woven basket, he put the pig skin and big bones from the ground into it. Then he quickly went back inside the chopping board, took up the gleaming boning knife, preparing to cut the meat. Lady Du hesitated a moment and said, “Wei’er, we can’t eat that much meat. I think two jin is enough for now.” “Mother, it’s freezing now. If we can’t eat it, we’ll freeze it and we can eat it any time. Besides, Aunt Zhou has helped us a lot these years. The wild boar this time was brought back with the help of Uncle Zhou and Nine Jin. We should thank them, shouldn’t we?” Hearing her daughter’s words, Lady Du was touched. Her daughter was grown up and understood social etiquette. She, as the mother, naturally couldn’t hold her back. She immediately took out her purse and paid the bill. Ten jin of meat was not light. Added to the big packs of cotton cloth and cotton fluff already purchased, it was impossible to continue shopping around. Lady Du and Cai Wei decided that Lady Du would sit in the carriage and watch over the purchases, while Cai Wei was in charge of shopping for the household items. Finally having her mother’s purse, Cai Wei breathed a sigh of relief. She could finally buy freely, instead of seeing her mother’s pained expression!

Chapter 17 - 17 17 Buying Meat_1

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