The traveling merchant probably hadn't expected a woman in this small town to buy so many. Seeing she was a big customer, he became even more enthusiastic: "A pink one is five hundred coins each, a gold one is two taels of silver each, and a white one is also two taels of silver each. A total of... eighty-five taels."
Yang Haiyan has quite a few pearl necklaces in modern times. Take this pink flower bead for example, a string of the same kind costs about six to eight thousand. But here, twenty-five taels of silver.
Don't look at it as only twenty-five taels. Each tael is equal to fifty grams. According to the modern silver price of five yuan per gram, it still costs six thousand.
So the price of pearls is almost the same as it is now.
However, she bought the pearls not for the trading platform, but for herself.
Yang Haiyan negotiated the price with the vendor: "I want all of them. Give me a few small ones, fifty of them." She pointed to the tiny white pearls, each about 5mm. A 2mm difference in pearl size can make a big difference in price.
The peddler hurriedly said, "No, no, one is one hundred coins each, and fifty will cost five taels of silver."
Yang Haiyan: "Forget it then." After saying that, she stood up.
The traveling merchant called her anxiously:
"Madam…..this lady..."
Yang Haiyan turned around and said, "I'm a straightforward person. If you sell it, I'll buy it. If you don't sell it, don't call me. I don't like procrastination." In fact, she felt that the price could be negotiated a little lower, but in her opinion, the lower selling price was worth it, so she was too lazy to pay too much.
This was the first order from a traveling merchant, so for a good omen, he had no choice but to sell it:
"Alright, alright, I'll give it to you. You're really good at bargaining, young lady."
Yang Haiyan smiled and said, "I wish you a lot of money."
When the traveling merchant heard this, he was delighted and said, "Young lady, you are really good at talking. Young lady, don't you like this jade?"
Yang Haiyan shook her head. She didn't like gambling or taking risks, so she decided not to try it.
After receiving the beads, Yang Haiyan was in a good mood. Besides the ones she had collected herself, the fifty given by the traveling merchant could be used as rewards or gifts.
Then, she bought some seeds from other vendors, some kind of flower seeds.
She didn't buy them to plant flowers, but to use the bags of flower seeds to store the fruit and vegetable seeds she'd bought on the platform. Besides seeds, she also bought some saplings. The vendor said they were fruit saplings, but it didn't matter; she'd mix them in with the fruit saplings she'd bought on the platform.
After buying some things, she went to the backyard of the pastry shop, and put the fruit tree seedlings and fruit and vegetable seeds she bought from the platform into the basket, and then went to find Mrs.Lu.
The arrangement was so perfect that no one would find out.
Mrs. Lu bought a few pieces of leather and some odds and ends. When she saw Yang Haiyan's basket, she was stunned: "What did you buy? What is it all?"
Yang Haiyan explained with a smile, "Flower seeds, vegetable seeds, fruit seeds, and even fruit tree seedlings all looked interesting to me, so I bought some. I'm going to plant them all around the house tomorrow. I don't know what they are, but it's so much fun."
Mrs. Lu didn't know what to say, and she couldn't say anything. After all, Haiyan was rich, unlike her, so their ways of life were also different.
When they had almost bought everything, they returned home.
As soon as Yang Haiyan entered the door, she saw Qin Siya walking back and forth at the door. Seeing her return, Qin Siya ran out happily: "Sister-in-law."
Yang Haiyan could guess a little from looking at her:
"How was your calligraphy study today?"
Qin Siya flipped open the book in her pocket and said, "Nanny Lian taught me ten Chinese characters today, and I remember them all. Besides Chinese characters, she also taught me arithmetic."
The arithmetic that Nanny Lian taught was naturally Qiguo arithmetic, the simplest numbers, and later on, addition and subtraction. Yang Haiyan felt that this was enough for Qin Siya. She wouldn't teach multiplication and division that weren't from this era, just like she wouldn't teach pinyin that wasn't from this era.
After Qin Siya finished speaking, she looked at Yang Haiyan with anticipation.
Yang Haiyan naturally knew what she was thinking:
"Sister-in-law promised you before that as long as you remember ten words, you will be rewarded with a penny, right?"
Qin Siya nodded, "Yes." If she earned a penny, she could save it, one penny at a time, and then buy something she liked. Like Hua Ling in the village, she had a beautiful necklace that she also liked, but her family had no money.
Hua Ling is the daughter of a hunter in the village.
Yang Haiyan said, "Then let me ask you, if you remember ten words now, will you remember ten more tomorrow? Will you remember ten more the day after tomorrow? And the day after tomorrow?
Can you guarantee that you will always remember these ten words?"
Qin Siya was only nine years old, with three older sisters and four older brothers. As the youngest girl in the family, even if the Qin family was poor, she was rarely needed for laundry, cooking, or rough housework. As a result, she was a bit lively and naive. Children who grew up carefree are naturally naive. Yang Haiyan mentioned tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, but she didn't quite understand.
Yang Haiyan said, "Let's say you remember ten words now, and your sister-in-law rewards you with a penny. Then tomorrow you forget those ten words, or the day after tomorrow, you forget those ten words. So, does that mean you haven't remembered ten words at all?"
Qin Siya thought about it and decided that if she forgot, then it didn't count as remembering. This was not wrong.
Yang Haiyan continued: "If you don't remember it, then the sister-in-law rewarded you with a penny now, shouldn't she also reward you?"
Qin Siya was about to cry, it seemed to be the same reason. "Then….." She didn't know what to say.
Yang Haiyan smiled and said, "How about we make a deal and take the test every three days?"
Qin Siya was puzzled: "What do you mean by taking the test every three days?"
Yang Haiyan said, "I'll test you in three days. If you can still remember the characters you learned in those three days, then you'll be considered to have memorized them. Ten characters a day, that's thirty characters in three days. If you remember them all, I'll give you three cents as a reward."
Qin Siya's eyes lit up when she heard this: "Really?"
Yang Haiyan: "Of course it's true, so you have to work hard and don't forget it after three days."
Qin Siya held the book and said, "I will do my best."
At noon, Qin Shoucheng came back from school with Kun Daying.
Seeing Qin Shoucheng coming back, Yang Haiyan told Nanny Lian to serve dinner: "Shoucheng, how was your study this morning at the private school?"
Qin Shoucheng replied respectfully, "There are ten students in our class at the private school. The teacher taught us... and he also said he assigned us homework, which we need to hand in tomorrow when we go to the private school."
Yang Haiyan nodded and said, "Then take a half-hour nap after lunch, then get up and do your homework. After you finish, it's your free time. The private guards went hunting with your eldest brother today, so you don't have to practice martial arts in the afternoon."
Qin Shoucheng said, "Yes." He was very grateful to his eldest sister-in-law. She had given him the opportunity to continue his studies, so he respected her very much. It could be said that he respected her even more than he respected his eldest brother.
Then, Qin Shoucheng and Qin Siya returned to the east wing. Yang Haiyan asked someone to call Uncle Hong over: "How's the situation with the land?"
Uncle Hong said, "We've only bought five acres so far because my wife wants to join all ten acres together, but the owner of the land next to the five acres doesn't want to sell."
Yang Haiyan wanted to connect the ten acres of land together for easier management. When the time came, the ten acres of land would be fenced off and outsiders wouldn't be able to get in. But for the time being, it was really hard to buy ten acres of land together. After all, land was the lifeblood of ordinary people, and many were reluctant to sell it.
Yang Haiyan thought for a moment and said, "Let's deal with these five acres of land first. Is the house next to the land under construction?"
Uncle Hong: "I just came back from the fields. There are enough villagers to build houses, so it can be completed in two days. According to your instructions, it will be built according to our lower courtyard, with a total of two courtyards."
Each courtyard cost about ten taels of silver.
Yang Haiyan nodded: "You can hire people to plant the land, mostly vegetable seeds and fruit seedlings.
These seeds and fruit seedlings are not cheap, so ask them to be careful when planting. The bags can be numbered, different numbers are different seeds, and the same seeds are planted together. The fruit saplings are tied with cloth, and the same color of cloth refers to the same kind of fruit saplings. The fruit seedlings and vegetable seeds should be planted separately. As for how to plant them, you can find some old farmers who are familiar with the land."
Because Yang Haiyan herself didn't know.
Uncle Hong picked up the basket and said, "Yes." The seeds and fruit saplings in the basket were very heavy. In fact, after returning home, Yang Haiyan had secretly put a lot of fruit saplings in because she couldn't carry too heavy ones on the street.
However, the saplings she bought were very, very small, about the thickness of two fingers. Otherwise, any sapling that was too large would not fit into the basket, even if it was just one.
She prepared apple and pear saplings, and fruit and vegetable seeds like cauliflower, broccoli, tomato, and watermelon. She would wait until early April for the county market and "buy" some more seeds to store. If one batch died, she could always get another. She had to have enough seeds ready so the farmers could grow something.
Uncle Hong walked out of the main courtyard carrying a basket full of things. Fortunately, Uncle Hong was a local, and he was very fast whether buying land or hiring people. In addition, he had Qianfu's support, which made it even more convenient for him to do things.
I have to say, it was a good decision to buy Uncle Hong.
Qin Fang and his five private guards came back from hunting two more wild boars. When the two big wild boars were dragged into the family quarters, many people saw it.
"Mr. Qin Qianfu is really amazing. He hunted two wild boars today and hunted some more tomorrow.
Mrs. Qin is so lucky."
"If you ask me, it's a shame that Mr. Qin is paired with Mrs. Qin. Mrs. Qin is a spendthrift woman who knows how to spend money."
"Who are you being sarcastic about? I don't know if Mrs. Qin's pastry shop is any good. She spends money, but it's her own money."
"What? If she married Qin Qianfu, wouldn't the money she earned also be the Qin family's money?"
Mrs. Lu went out to fetch water and heard the women talking.