Farming for Three Meals a Day [Farming Life] 28

Chapter 28

By the time they reached town, the sky had completely brightened. Various stalls were set up along the streets, selling steamed cakes, steamed buns, and even calligraphy and painting services.

The most popular stall was the lamb offal soup shop. A bowl of steaming hot lamb offal soup for ten wen, paired with a coarse grain pancake for one wen, provided both meat and fullness.

The good spots were already taken by vegetable sellers. Lin Jiangshan picked up the firewood and prepared to find a spot on the back street, instructing Ye Xi, “Just buy whatever you need, don’t worry about the money. If you buy too much, just wait for me at the city gate, and I’ll carry it back.”

Ye Xi nodded, and they parted ways.

The streets were bustling with people, and hawkers’ cries filled the air. Ye Xi clutched his money bag tightly and inquired about prices. Pickpockets loved to target people in the market, even elderly vegetable sellers had been robbed before.

He came to town today for livestock. The town had designated market areas, and the government collected stall fees. Vegetable sellers had to pay two wen, food vendors three wen, and livestock sellers had to go to the east market and pay six wen.

Ye Xi made his way through the crowd and went to the east market, where chickens, ducks, and geese were sold. Further inside, there were cattle, mules, and other large livestock.

Ye Xi glanced inside, wondering when he and Lin Jiangshan would be able to afford a cow or a mule. Having a cow or a mule would truly improve their lives.

There were several vendors selling chicks and ducklings, all at the same price: eight wen for a chick, ten wen for a duckling, and thirteen wen for a gosling, all half a month old and healthy.

Ye Xi thought that since they were just starting to raise livestock, and the chicken coop hadn’t been built yet, they shouldn’t raise too many, just enough for their daily eggs and for slaughtering during the winter and New Year.

“I want ten ducklings and fifteen chicks, can I get a discount?” Ye Xi bargained with the vendor.

The vendor, a middle-aged man in his forties, looked at the handsome young man with delicate features and picturesque eyes. Seeing his hair tied up in a bun, he knew he was a married young man.

“Young Master, it’s not that I’m unwilling to sell, but this is the market price. Even the wealthy masters in town buy from me, and even if they buy hundreds, they still pay the same price. Look, my chicks and ducklings are healthy and easy to raise. If any of them die from illness within a month, you can come back and I’ll replace them.”

Ye Xi thought for a moment, then inquired about the prices at other stalls. This vendor wasn’t cheating him, it was the same price everywhere in town, so he returned.

“Then please choose some healthy ones for me, my family is relying on these chicks for eggs.”

The vendor enthusiastically agreed and picked a few gray chicks with fluffy downy feathers and yellow beaks from the bamboo basket. “Look, they’re lively, they’ll grow quickly.”

Ye Xi nodded with satisfaction. “They’re good. If they grow well, I’ll come back to buy more from you next time.”

The vendor was pleased and asked, “How many males and how many females?”

Ye Xi thought for a moment. Two people could manage with seven or eight chickens for eggs, and they would need a few for winter stew and selling for extra income.

“Eight female chicks, seven male chicks, and five female ducklings.”

He had a clear plan, managing the household well. The vendor praised, “Young Master must have just gotten married recently, starting a family. You seem like someone who can manage the household, so virtuous and capable, rare to see.”

Ye Xi smiled. “We’re a small family, if we don’t manage our finances carefully and save diligently, life would be difficult.”

The vendor put the selected chicks and ducklings into Ye Xi’s basket and added a layer of straw at the bottom. “With a husband like you, your family will definitely prosper. Take care, and come back next time, I’ll save some healthy ones for you.”

Ye Xi took out two small pieces of silver and a few dozen copper coins from his money bag and smiled. “Alright, give me a discount next time!”

After buying the chicks and ducklings, he still needed two piglets. Ye Xi looked around but couldn’t find any he liked. They were either too small and weak or too expensive. After wandering around for a long time, he still hadn’t bought any.

Seeing the sun rising higher, Ye Xi could only go to the shops to buy household supplies first.

They were running low on salt and soy sauce at home, and the lard was almost gone, so he needed to stock up. Salt was more expensive, fifteen wen for half a catty. Ye Xi bought two catties, thinking it would last for a while. He bought a jar of soy sauce, which was cheaper, for twenty wen.

As for lard, Ye Xi inquired about the price at the oil shop, forty wen per catty, then went to the pork stall and asked about the price of pork fat, twenty-five wen per catty.

He calculated that although rendering lard would result in some loss, the crispy fried pork skin could also be used for cooking and provided some meaty flavor. Buying ready-made lard was not cost-effective.

Ye Xi then spent eighty wen on a string of pork fat, enough to last through winter after rendering. It was cold and damp in winter, and they couldn’t survive without some fatty food.

Thinking that they didn’t have any meat at home, he asked about the price of pork, twelve wen per catty. Ye Xi had just spent eighty wen on pork fat, and if he bought two more catties of meat, he would have spent a whole piece of silver.

The pork vendor, seeing that Ye Xi had spent so much at his stall, said generously, “Young Master, if you’re reluctant to buy meat, how about these offal? They’re also meaty, just require more preparation. But if you’re willing to spend the time and are a good cook, these offal can be even more delicious than meat.”

Ye Xi often handled offal at home. With a large family, two catties of meat were usually not enough, and they couldn’t afford to eat meat frequently. Liu Xiufeng liked to buy offal, and when Ye Xi cooked it, the family could enjoy a good meal.

“How much is this pig liver?” Ye Xi looked at the piece of pig liver on the chopping board, bloody and red, looking fresh.

The vendor lifted the string for Ye Xi to see clearly. “This was just taken out from a freshly slaughtered pig today, about two catties. Since you bought such a large piece of pork fat from me, I’ll give you a discount, ten wen.”

This was a good price. Usually, the offal Liu Xiufeng bought cost six or seven wen per catty, and fresh pig liver sometimes cost around eight wen.

Ye Xi nodded and smiled. “Alright, please wrap it up for me.”

After buying all these things, he went to the wall by the city gate to wait for Lin Jiangshan.

After a while, Lin Jiangshan arrived with a shoulder pole.

“Did your firewood sell well?” Ye Xi asked.

Lin Jiangshan nodded and replied, “My firewood is dry and burns well. There are a few families in town who know me, and they bought it as soon as I arrived today.”

He took out two strings of copper coins from the lining of his clothes. “These two bundles of firewood are from a poplar tree, they fetch a higher price, fifty wen each. This is the money for both bundles, a total of one hundred wen. I thought we might need some loose change, so I didn’t exchange it for silver.”

Ye Xi happily took the two strings of copper coins and carefully put them into his money bag. “I spent a lot of silver at the market today, my wallet has thinned considerably, it’s good to have some money back, to make it fatter.”

Seeing his miserly look, Lin Jiangshan took out another ten wen and smiled. “This is the money I earned for delivering firewood for a customer. The woman lives by the west gate, and her family is short-handed, so she paid me ten wen to carry it home for her. Otherwise, I would have come to find you half an hour earlier and helped you carry your things.”

Ye Xi put the ten wen into his money bag. “I could have carried them myself, but earning these ten wen is more worthwhile.”

Lin Jiangshan took the basket from Ye Xi’s back and looked at the chirping chicks and ducklings inside. “Anything else you need to buy?”

Ye Xi shook his head and pointed to the pork fat wrapped in lotus leaves and the salt wrapped in oilpaper by his feet. “I’ve bought everything we need at home, I spent quite a bit today, we can buy the less urgent things later.”

Lin Jiangshan naturally listened to his husband, bent down, and carried everything, not letting his husband exert any effort.

Ye Xi enjoyed being free of burden and walked beside his husband, counting their expenses on his fingers.

“The chicks and ducklings cost a bit more, but we’ll earn it back after they grow up. We can collect eggs and slaughter them for meat, and sell the extra ones in town, probably thirty or forty wen each.”

“I didn’t find any piglets I liked, they don’t look healthy. I’ll go back and ask around the village if anyone has new piglets, maybe they’re cheaper than the ones in town.”

“I didn’t buy any meat today, just a piece of pig liver, it’s also delicious when cooked.”

“Salt is two wen more expensive than before, they say there was a flood in the inner river prefecture, delaying salt production, so the price here has increased. But it’s not a big increase, so I bought some to last for a while, enough for pickling vegetables.”

Lin Jiangshan listened quietly to his husband’s muttering, a faint smile on his lips. “So, how much salt did you buy, husband?”

Ye Xi said, “Two catties, and it cost eight wen more than last time.”

Lin Jiangshan raised his eyebrows and asked, “Is two catties enough?” Wasn’t that a bit too little? Now there were two of them.

Ye Xi looked at him. “How much did you buy before, husband?”

Lin Jiangshan replied honestly, “I usually buy five or six catties at a time.”

Ye Xi’s lips parted slightly in surprise. “You were alone before, what did you need so much salt for?” Their family of four only used three or four catties of salt in half a year.

Lin Jiangshan pursed his lips. “I don’t know why, but I use salt quickly. The salt jar is always empty after a short time, so I have to buy more every time I come to town.”

He looked at his husband. “The salt shop owner even asked me if I ran a restaurant, asking why I buy so much salt, like someone from a restaurant.”

Ye Xi rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache. His husband had wasted so much money on salt. No wonder the cured chicken and salted fish he made were so salty, he used salt like it was free.

He warned, “Stay away from the salt jar from now on!”