Crazy Shopping Spree
Moreover, Xu Xiu had many things to buy today.
The first thing she did upon arriving was go to the clothing shop and buy ten sets of clothes; five people in the family, two sets each.
It wasn't that Xu Xiu was complaining, but the clothes they wore now were not only gray and shabby, covered in patches, but they also didn't even have replacements.
They wore the same set every day; if they absolutely had to change, they had to wash their clothes right after bathing and sleep naked that night.
Therefore, Xu Xiu bought two sets each in one go.
"Can't you make it a bit cheaper since I'm buying ten sets at once?" Xu Xiu asked the shop assistant at the clothing shop with a smile.
She swore she had never been so calculative in her life, talking until her mouth was dry just for a few copper coins.
"Madam, I have already given you a discount of five wen; I really can't reduce it any further."
"I'm buying ten pieces, how about another three went off?"
"Alright, alright, I can only give you another two wen off at most; if I reduce it anymore, the shopkeeper will scold me."
"Deal! Wrap them all up for me!" Xu Xiu said with a smile.
Next, she went to the grain and rice shop and bought fifty jin of rice, fifteen jin of flour, and fifteen jin of soybeans.
However, what surprised Xu Xiu was that the fifteen jin of soybeans only cost thirty-five wen.
Calculated, that was less than three copper coins per jin.
After all this shopping, nearly one tael of silver was spent.
After that, Xu Xiu bought some pots, bowls, ladles, and basins.
When passing the blacksmith's shop, she even bought an iron pot.
Adding it all up, Xu Xiu was almost scared to death.
Because that iron pot alone cost Xu Xiu nearly two taels.
Thinking it over, it made sense; iron was particularly expensive here, so she felt somewhat relieved.
But there was no choice; she had wanted an iron pot since the first day they moved to the end of the village.
Unfortunately, she didn't even have a single copper coin then and had to endure it.
After all this, plus the clothes earlier, nearly five taels of silver had been spent in total.
Thinking about it, this silver really didn't last long.
Finally, she went to buy salt.
Not buying it, she didn't know; buying it, she realized salt was also outrageously expensive here.
Although she had known salt was expensive, she truly hadn't realized it was this ridiculously expensive.
The ordinary rice she bought was only fifteen wen per jin, yet this salt was five wen more expensive than rice.
A full twenty wen, and that wasn't all.
The salt was also mixed with many small sand grains and stones; cleaner, finer salt cost forty wen, and completely impurity-free salt directly cost sixty wen.
Given Xu Xiu's current situation, she could only buy the twenty-wen kind; she bought three jin.
There was no choice; she planned to make soy sauce.
Besides soybeans, the most important ingredient in soy sauce was salt.
Moreover, after taking this salt home, she would have to filter it.
Speaking of filtering, people here probably didn't know about such a thing.
Looking at the premium salt they sold, it was probably picked clean manually, bit by bit.
Next, Xu Xiu went to the weapons shop and bought a bow and arrows and a dagger.
Only upon asking did she realize how expensive weapons were there were.
"Shopkeeper, can't you make it any cheaper?" Xu Xiu asked, looking at the dagger in her hand.
"Madam, I really can't go any lower. You have a good eye; you spotted this unremarkable dagger at a glance. Seeing you are a kindred spirit, I'm already giving you a good price."
Hearing this, Xu Xiu gritted her teeth and ultimately decided to buy it.
Just like that, Xu Xiu spent over one tael of silver to buy this dagger she really liked.
Adding the cost of the bow and arrows, another two taels of silver were gone.
However, she believed she would earn this silver back very soon.
Most importantly, Xu Xiu genuinely liked this dagger; she even felt she had gotten a good deal.
On the surface, the dagger seemed unremarkable, but upon closer inspection, one could see the material was smelted very well.
During the apocalypse period, the weapon she used most frequently was also a dagger.
She liked this one at first sight; once she refined it a bit after returning home, it would be perfect.
When Xu Xiu found Zhang Zhiyong, he was already waiting for her there.
Fortunately, he hadn't left; otherwise, carrying all these things back by himself would have been truly difficult.
"Sister-in-law, why did you buy so many things?" Zhang Zhiyong asked curiously.
Actually, he wanted to ask more why she had the silver to buy so many things.
They hadn't sold their plantain grass yet; he didn't understand where she got the silver.
After all, a rough estimate of the things she bought would require several taels of silver to afford.
"Well, they were needed. Let's go!"
"Alright, sister-in-law, sit steady." With that, he drove the ox-cart back.
On the way, Xu Xiu couldn't avoid being questioned by others.
"Xu Xiu, be honest, when your Zixuan was doing escort work before, did you two secretly stash away a lot of private money without handing it over to the family coffers?"
In the ox-cart, one of the women smiled and gossiped with Xu Xiu.
"Old Auntie, whose eye of yours saw my husband and I are embezzling a lot of private money? I, Xu Xiu, dare to swear to heaven: if we really did embezzle any, may my whole family be struck by lightning and die a horrible death. Is that sufficient?"
It wasn't that Xu Xiu had to be so harsh on herself, but if you didn't stop these gossipy women in the village promptly,
One tells ten, ten tell a hundred, and soon the whole Zhang Village would be spreading rumors that they had embezzled private money.
She didn't care much about herself, but it wouldn't be good for Liu-Tou and Qi-Tou's reputation.
Once they embarked on the path of imperial examinations, not the slightest mistake could be tolerated.
In such cases, even rumors could affect their future prospects.
"Oh, look at what you're saying, I was just joking," the old woman said indignantly.
"Old Auntie, it's better not to say such things carelessly. I might not take it seriously, but others might think you have ulterior motives, and that wouldn't be good."
"What ulterior motives could I have? Xu Xiu, you can't say things like that!"
"Look, look, I just gave an example, and you're reacting so strongly. If I had reacted like you did to what you just said about me, wouldn't I have to grab a big knife to chop you?"
Old Woman: "..." How come she never knew Xu Xiu was so sharp-tongued?
Seeing the old woman shut up, Xu Xiu then closed her eyes and rested in the corner.
Of course, actually sleeping was definitely out of the question.
Not to mention the bumpy ox-cart ride, even without the bumps, her mind was full of things to think about, so she couldn't sleep.
Tonight, she needed to go bring back those bamboo shoots.
Tomorrow, she wanted to go deep into the mountains again to see if she could hunt something valuable.
If she could earn another sum of silver, she could send Liu-Tou and Qi-Tou to school.
The silver she had left should also be enough to build a satisfactory blue-brick house with a tile roof here.
Most importantly, she wanted to go deep into the mountains to see if she could earn a bit more points.
Although Zhang Zixuan hadn't mentioned it, Xu Xiu knew he wanted to stand up again more than anyone.
Just sitting in that wheelchair the other day had already made him so happy.
Thinking like this, they soon arrived in the village center.
"Sister-in-law, wait a moment. I'll take you to the village end in a bit; it's inconvenient with so many things. Anyway, I also need to go there to ask Brother Zixuan about something," Zhang Zhiyong said with a smile.
Hearing this, Xu Xiu immediately understood. He was telling her he also intended to go pick plantain grass.
Because she had many things, she didn't stand at the ceremony with Zhang Zhiyong.
"Mother's back! Mother's back!"
Before Xu Xiu even entered the thatched hut, she heard the excited voices of Liu-Tou, Qi-Tou, and Er-Ya.
"Have you eaten lunch?"
"We're not hungry!"
Hearing this, Xu Xiu knew they definitely hadn't eaten.
Saying they weren't hungry was just to save food.
Shaking her head helplessly, Xu Xiu put down the things she was carrying and went to cook for them first.
Earlier, while they weren't paying attention, she had also quietly hidden the bow and arrows and the dagger she bought.
These two things couldn't let them know, otherwise, it would inevitably lead to a lot of explaining.
They say that after telling the first lie, you need countless more lies to cover it up. Xu Xiu deeply believed this saying.
Looking at the makeshift stove platform in front of her, Xu Xiu found it utterly unsatisfactory no matter how she looked at it.
But it didn't matter; soon she could abandon this stove.
Now she still had over forty taels, plus what she would get from selling the plantain grass – she should be able to get another ten or eight taels.
Also, did she still planning to go hunting deep in the mountains?
Adding all this up, building a blue-brick house with a tile roof should be possible, right?
Besides, did she still have the bamboo shoots?
If nothing unexpected happened, Shopkeeper Wu would come looking for her tomorrow.
"Mother, mother, mother, did you buy new clothes for all of us?" Once the meal was ready, Liu-Tou in the room pointed at the pile of clothes Xu Xiu bought and asked.
"Yes, try them on after eating."
"Mother, why did you buy so many things?" Qi-Tou asked, looking at the items laid out on the ground.
"These are all things we need to use and eat. Mother earned some silver selling things today; we can't let you keep going hungry, right?"
While saying this, Xu Xiu naturally also noticed Zhang Zixuan's gaze lingering on her.
So she cleared her throat lightly and asked with a smile, "Do you know how much silver I sold that pig offal recipe for today?"
"Judging by your expression, it should be quite a lot. Ten taels?" Zhang Zixuan said indifferently.
Actually, he didn't care about the amount; as long as they could earn silver, so that she and the children wouldn't go hungry, he was already satisfied.
"Far from it, guess again!"
"Could it be twenty taels?" Zhang Zixuan asked curiously.
At that moment, he was genuinely starting to feel a bit incredulous.
Seeing Zhang Zixuan like this, Xu Xiu mysteriously held up five fingers. "This number."
"You scared me! I thought it was twenty taels. Five taels is actually pretty good too, this..."
"It's fifty taels!" Xu Xiu directly interrupted Zhang Zixuan's words.
"What? F... fifty taels?"
"Yes, isn't it unbelievable? But that's really the number. And that pork too. Shopkeeper Wu bought it from me at the market price of fifteen wen! I thought he wouldn't want it since it had been sitting for two or three days and wasn't fresh anymore. Who knew, he's quite a good person..."
Xu Xiu was still chattering away when she suddenly noticed that Zhang Zixuan remained frozen in his previous posture.
He looked completely stunned.
"What? You don't believe me?" Xu Xiu asked again.
After saying this, she took the silver out of her bosom, handed it to Zhang Zixuan, and said excitedly:
"Look, after buying some things today, I still have over forty taels left. It's all here. I'm not lying to you, am I?"
"I believe you. I just can't believe we have over forty taels... no, over fifty taels just like that."
"Right? I can't believe it either. Tell me, should we use this silver to build the house first? Or send Liu-Tou and Qi-Tou to school first?"
Unexpectedly, as soon as Xu Xiu finished speaking, Liu-Tou and Qi-Tou inside the room said simultaneously:
"Mother, we don't want to go to school yet. We'll go after the house is built."
"I also think it's better to build the house first before sending them to school," Zhang Zixuan also agreed.
This thatched hut was possible for short-term living, but it definitely wouldn't do for the long term.
Never mind winter; even if the rain was a bit heavy, it might leak inside.
He himself didn't care, but he was afraid the children would suffer.
Actually, Xu Xiu also leaned towards building the house first; sending Liu-Tou and Qi-Tou to school could wait a bit longer.
It's just that the house she wanted to build involved many ideas, and she wasn't even sure if the silver she had would be enough.
"Zixuan, how much silver did the village chief's family spend building that blue-brick house?" Xu Xiu asked curiously.
In the whole Zhang Village, only the village chief's family and Scholar Zhang's family had blue-brick houses.
Scholar Zhang's family had a three-section compound, while the village chief had a five-section one.
If they were really going to build one, she had two sons and one daughter; a five-section house even felt insufficient to her.
Most importantly, this entire area at the end of the village belonged to her.
There was no need to worry about the land at all.
"I think it was almost twenty taels! The exact amount, we can ask Zhiyong when he brings the plantain grass back; he'd know best."
"Less than twenty taels? That cheap?"
"Cheap?" Zhang Zixuan widened his eyes to Xu Xiu.
Xu Xiu: "..." Her tone might have been a bit too casual.
Thinking about it, twenty taels was an amount some families in Zhang Village might never earn in a lifetime.
The Zhang family could afford to send Da-Tou to school only because of the silver Zhang Zixuan had risked his life for during his escort days.
If not for that, without selling their land, it would have been completely impossible to support Da-Tou.
Thinking this way, her remaining forty-plus taels were already a huge fortune.
"Coco, Coco..."
"Master, I'm here!"
"Do you have design blueprints there?"
"You mean blueprints for building a house?"
"Yes."
"I do, but you need to use points to buy them!"
"Can't you just look them up?"
"I can provide some very common knowledge, but the blueprints from the supermarket are better; they'll guarantee a satisfying result when built."
"Are they for our time? Don't give me those flashy apocalypse-style ones."
"Master, of course they are for this time. This supermarket is part of me, and I'm your assistant, so naturally, it provides things useful right now," Coco explained very patiently.
"Alright then, how many points does that blueprint cost?"