The bit of sesame oil at home really couldn’t bear being squandered, so the next day after selling the meat, Jiang Chun went to the home of Village Head from the Zou family to rent a horse cart, hurriedly rushing to the county town to get soybean oil.
However, after entering Hongye County Town, she didn’t go to Zhang Family Oil Mill right away, and instead took a detour around to the east ring street.
In the past two days, she had accumulated 4 check-in points, so she needed to use them up.
After these past days of clocking in and signing in, she had more or less guessed the reward rules of this sign-in system.
That is, it randomly copies one or two items from within the checked-in shop.
In other words, the bigger the shop, the richer the rewards she could receive.
In this way, if she signed in at a shop in the town, it would be relatively a loss.
The best method is to come to the county town to check in and sign in.
But for them countryside people, on normal days there’s no reason to come all the way to the county town, and shops of the same type share a 24-hour cooldown. If she saves too many check-in points, she wouldn’t be able to use them.
However, check-in points don’t expire, and excess points can be saved to be used later after entering the capital in the future.
The scale of the shops in the capital—Hongye County couldn’t compare to them. Clocking in there would be the most cost-effective.
—
[Ding! Successfully checked in at 【Hongye County Medical Hall】, obtained 1 jin of star anise, 1 jin of cinnamon.]
[Ding! Successfully checked in at 【Hongye County Pharmacy】, obtained 2 liang of ginseng, 4 liang of musk.]
[Ding! Successfully checked in at 【Hongye County Money House】, obtained 328 wen in copper coins.]
[Ding! Successfully checked in at 【Hongye County Blacksmith Shop】, obtained 1 iron shovel, 1 floral hoe.]
—
The four check-in points were used up, and overall the harvest was not bad.
Especially with the 2 liang of ginseng from the pharmacy reward—next month when she came to prepare medicine for Song Shi’an, at least half the silver could be saved.
As for the other medicinal materials, she didn’t plan to sell them for now. The price difference between buying and selling was huge and not worth it. It was better to first store them in the system space. What if they came in handy someday?
If they ended up being useless, that’s okay too—just sell them later then.
As for the iron tools drawn from the blacksmith shop, she didn’t plan to sell those either.
Adding the ones from last time’s reward, she had already accumulated 4 iron tools in her warehouse.
Winter was about to come. With Song Shi’an’s body that gets knocked over by just a gust of wind, relying only on a brazier for warmth definitely wouldn’t cut it.
She planned to accumulate more iron tools, then find a blacksmith to make a modern-style heating stove for her, and then buy some charcoal to warm up by burning it.
The Great Zhou did have coal, called stone charcoal (石炭). Because its smell was choking, and burning it for warmth might choke someone to death, it was currently mostly used by blacksmith shops for forging iron.
However, a heating stove plus an iron pipe to lead out the smoke would require quite a bit of iron. She hoped she could gather enough in these two months before winter came.
If she really couldn’t gather enough, then she would have to spend extra money to make up for the iron shortage.
After finishing the check-in sign-ins, she went again to the silver building and sold off the gold earrings and silver bracelet she got from the jewelry shop last time.
A pair of gold earrings sold for 6 liang 8 qian, and a silver bracelet sold for 1 liang 6 qian—adding up to 8 liang 4 qian.
She originally planned to go to the pawnshop to pawn off the xuan paper and pine soot ink she got from the bookstore check-in last time, but on second thought, she gave up on that.
Although xuan paper and pine soot ink are good paper and good ink, they’re not famous paper or famous ink. Taking them to the pawnshop wouldn’t pawn for much money.
It’s better to just leave them for now—anyway, with Song Shi’an this scholarly person in the household, sooner or later they’ll come in handy.
Cough, mainly because right now there’s no shortage of silver money on hand.
If someday she truly encountered an emergency needing her to smash pots and sell iron [砸锅卖铁, idiom meaning “to go all in, sell off everything to solve a crisis”], she would definitely, without hesitation, pawn off all the materials in the system space.
After finishing the matters that needed doing, she finally turned toward the Zhang Family Oil Mill to retrieve the pressed soybean oil.
Sent four hundred and twenty jin of soybeans, received forty-one jin and two liang of soybean oil.
Fatty Zhang wiped off the fraction, only counted it as forty-one jin, at a processing fee of three wen per jin, totaling one hundred and twenty-three wen.
Jiang Chun cheerfully paid the money, took down from the mule cart a ceramic jar that could hold fifty jin of oil, and asked Fatty Zhang to pour the soybean oil into it.
Fatty Zhang finished pouring the oil and was about to call a worker from the oil mill to help carry it onto the cart, when he saw Jiang Chun wave her hand at him.
Then, with a casual scoop, she picked up the ceramic jar with soybean oil—altogether fifty to sixty jin—and lightly walked to the mule cart, slowly placing it into the rear compartment.
Almost made Fatty Zhang’s eyeballs pop out.
Although he’d long heard that this “Pork Meat Xi Shi” had boundless strength, hearing about it was one thing, seeing it with his own eyes was another.
Thinking of last time, when she delivered soybeans, her live-in husband was curled up in the back of the mule cart, face white like paper, lips bloodless, skinny as a stick, the whole body not even carrying two liang of meat…
Tsk tsk, with that kind of body, how could he withstand the ferocious demands of the Pork Meat Xi Shi? Afraid his little life won’t last long.
Jiang Chun carefully placed the ceramic jar on top of the straw piled in the rear compartment. Still feeling uneasy, she picked up a hemp rope and tied it to the side board of the mule cart.
She was about to greet Fatty Zhang before leaving, when she noticed Fatty Zhang had a strange expression and kept “tsk tsk”-ing with his mouth.
She glared at him: “Tsk what?”
Fatty Zhang’s expression froze, and he hurriedly laughed it off: “I’m tsk-ing that today’s weather is really nice, high autumn and crisp air, makes one feel delighted.”
“Boss Zhang is in quite the mood.” Jiang Chun teased him with a sentence, jumped up onto the cart shaft, gave the mule a light whip, and casually said: “Let’s go.”
Boss Zhang let out a sigh of relief and bowed with nods at the rear of the mule cart: “Take care, come again next time!”
—
Because the cart was carrying a jar of oil, Jiang Chun didn’t dare to drive it too fast. She spent over an hour getting to Hongye Town.
The town was uncommonly lively today, especially near Matchmaker Wang’s house, where a large circle of women had gathered.
Some women were even holding handfuls of sunflower seeds, ka-ba ka-ba munching away.
Obviously, this is a melon! [这是有瓜啊 – Literally “There’s melon here!” This is slang meaning “There’s juicy gossip or drama happening!”]
But reason told Jiang Chun: when there’s a scene, don’t go squeeze into it, be careful not to get yourself covered in scandal.
So she forcibly held back her urge to eat melon, and drove the mule cart down the road heading to Daliushu Village.
“Hey hey hey, Pork Meat Xi Shi—no, Jiang niangzi, wait a moment, don’t leave yet!”
That woman munching sunflower seeds, who knew how, caught sight of Jiang Chun and immediately waved at her while shouting loudly.
A fat woman next to her also shouted: “Jiang niangzi, your second aunt is currently making a scene at Matchmaker Wang’s house. As the niece, aren’t you going to take a look?”
Jiang Chun perked up at once, hurriedly drove the mule cart over, eyes shining as she asked, “What happened, what happened? Why is my second aunt making a scene at Matchmaker Wang’s?”
The fat woman, with no filter on her mouth, said: “What else could it be? It must be your second uncle having a thing with Matchmaker Wang.”
Jiang Chun put on a disbelieving face, gave a cold laugh and said: “That can’t be. There are plenty of men in our town who have a thing with Matchmaker Wang, but I haven’t seen any other wife go make a scene.”
“Peh.” The woman cracking sunflower seeds spat the shell onto the ground and said with certainty: “I heard it clearly. Your second aunt said your second uncle stole the silver bracelet from her dowry and gave it to Matchmaker Wang. She’s at Matchmaker Wang’s place demanding it back.”
The fat woman curled her lip: “The way I see it, even if she asks for it, it’s asking in vain. Don’t you know what kind of person Matchmaker Wang is? Once something enters her pocket, don’t even think about getting it back.”
At this point, she raised her eyes and looked at Jiang Chun. Changing her tone, she said with a grin: “But if Jiang niangzi steps in to help, then it definitely could be gotten back.”
Pork Meat Xi Shi versus Matchmaker Wang—that scene would surely be a spectacle.
Jiang Chun gave a snort-laugh: “Auntie sure knows how to enjoy the drama without fearing it’ll get out of hand. But let me disappoint you—my father was kicked out of the family by my grandmother more than ten years ago. My family and Second Uncle’s family have no ties whatsoever. Want me to help Second Aunt? That’s absolutely out of the question.”
She was just about to raise the whip to drive the cart away, when suddenly—“dong”—something rolled out from Matchmaker Wang’s house.
Jiang Chun looked carefully, and inwardly gave a “whoa-ho” sound.
Her Second Aunt, Ma shi, and Matchmaker Wang were rolling on the ground in a tangle, your hand pulling my hair, my hand pulling your hair, you kicking me with one foot, I kneeing you right back—locked in combat.
Her Second Uncle, Jiang Hu, came trotting out after them, stomping anxiously by their side: “You two stop it! Stop fighting, stop fighting! What does this look like? You’re making a joke of yourselves for others to watch!”
Ma shi cursed: “You weren’t afraid of people laughing when you stole my dowry bracelet to give to this whore, and I should be afraid of people laughing when I’m asking for my own dowry bracelet?!”
Matchmaker Wang wasn’t one to back down either, and shouted: “You’ve got no ability yourself, can’t even keep your own man’s waistband in check! If you want to make a scene, go home and do it—don’t come slandering decent people here! This old lady didn’t take any damn dowry bracelet of yours!”
Jiang Hu saw that a crowd had gathered around and was utterly embarrassed. Just as he was about to open his mouth to shoo people away, his peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of Jiang Chun.
Like seeing a life-saving straw, he immediately shouted: “Chun niang! Chun niang, come quickly—pull your second aunt and Matchmaker Wang apart!”