sjar Chapter 14 A father who reformed, a mother who realized her mistake.
Chapter 14 A father who reformed, a mother who realized her mistake.
After the man left, Lin Xi took out all the copper coins and counted them.
This morning I brought over 36 steamed buns, and he ate one.
There were only 35 left, and each one was worth two coins. They sold them for 70 coins!
After packing her things, Gao Mengli glanced at Zhao Chen, who was still waiting at the city gate for the villagers to return to their villages.
After she finished packing, she led Lin Xi to the front of the oxcart. "Here are four coins for the oxcart fare back, but we need to go into town to buy things, so let's put the things on the oxcart first."
Zhao Chen looked nervous as the two approached. He was shocked to see them setting up a stall, thinking that pigs had climbed trees!
He was even more astonished to find that the oxcart fee was being paid upfront. He was completely dumbfounded that he could actually receive payment for the oxcart from these two people in one day.
He nodded blankly and mechanically took the coin with his "ghostly hand".
Gao Mengli placed the steamer, iron pot, and water bucket on the oxcart.
Then, carrying his basket, he turned around and led Lin Xi into the city.
Ancient county towns were bustling with activity every day.
Gao Mengli and Lin Xi walked along the bustling street, surrounded by various hawking noises and noisy voices.
The shops lining the street were dazzling, selling fabrics, jewelry, and all sorts of snacks. Looking at this bustling scene, Gao Mengli felt that this was true vitality, this was the kind of place where people should live.
Instead of constantly fighting endless zombies and eating frozen meat and canned food every day, she felt that if they stayed in the apocalypse for a few more years, she and Lin Xi would almost turn into zombies themselves.
Lin Xi looked around excitedly, filled with curiosity about everything.
Gao Mengli held Lin Xi's hand and carefully avoided the crowd.
They walked and asked questions along the way, and finally arrived at the rice shop in the county town.
She inquired and found that flour cost 12 copper coins per pound, and rice cost 15 coins per pound. Gao Mengli then calculated in her mind that she originally had 90 copper coins, and the round trip by oxcart would cost 8 coins.
I just earned 70 copper coins, which brings my total to 152 coins.
"Boss, I'd like 10 jin of wheat flour and 1 jin of rice!"
Brown rice is cheaper, around 10 coins, while broken rice is even cheaper, around 5 or 6 coins, similar to dark flour. Broken rice is indeed broken rice, but it contains a lot of fine bran, and the broken rice itself is only a sparse amount.
But for Gao Mengli, even if it meant wronging Lin Xi, she would never wrong her master. She would definitely buy the best rice, like brown rice, because in her eyes, that's not something a human could eat!
She had completely forgotten how hungry the two of them were on their first day after they arrived, but none of that mattered.
The important thing is that they made money. Within her own financial means, she wanted to live more comfortably. After all, in her previous life, she and Lin Xi had scrimped and saved every penny to accumulate a lot of resources, which they hadn't even had a chance to squander before arriving in this place.
Looking back now, I feel so guilty!
So the money you earn is only truly yours if it goes into your own stomach; otherwise, it's just a "wedding dress" you've worked so hard to make for someone else.
Unless, of course, they have more money than they can spend!
Upon hearing her speak, the shop owner smiled broadly and readily agreed, "Okay! I'll weigh it for you right away."
The shopkeeper was very enthusiastic towards customers who bought flour. He quickly took out two cloth bags, weighed out the flour and rice, and put them into the basket on Gao Mengli's back.
Lin Xi quickly paid the shopkeeper 135 coins, and now they only had 17 coins left.
The two went to the pork stall and bought half a pound of pork with alternating layers of fat and lean meat, which cost 9 coins.
The shop owner didn't mind that they bought too little, but Lin Xi and Gao Mengli were a little annoyed.
At 18 coins a pound of meat, even without setting aside money for their oxcart fare for tomorrow, they wouldn't have enough copper coins to buy a pound.
Gao Mengli looked at the "tiny bit" of meat and curled her lips.
After refining the oil, there wasn't much left at all...
Lin Xi was quite happy. The conditions were tough, but the world was safe. Besides, she could earn money later and buy it then.
"Wife, let's make do with what we have today. We'll buy more tomorrow when we've earned some coins!"
Lin Xi gently pulled Gao Mengqi's hand and shook her lightly.
The boss glanced at the two of them, feeling like he'd been force-fed a mouthful of "dog food." It was an unpleasant experience; anyone who'd tried it knows.
"This is the only way..." Gao Mengli reluctantly turned and left.
Tomorrow, she'll come back to buy "pig gaga" to eat.
When the two returned to the city gate, there were already three or four people sitting on Zhao Chen's oxcart.
These are the same people who jumped off the train this morning.
Those people wouldn't be able to walk back, and Zhao Chen assured them they would be absolutely safe, so they mustered up their courage and took the ride.
However, they underestimated the shadow the two had cast on their hearts. When they saw the "plague god" duo again, their hearts still pounded. They gripped the edge of the carriage tightly, as if their souls had fled but their bodies remained rooted to the spot.
Ignoring the villagers' fearful stares, the two calmly climbed onto the oxcart and sat down in front of the iron pot that had been placed there earlier.
Throughout the journey, everyone in the cart dared not breathe, holding onto the edge of the oxcart. If the two men attacked them, they could jump off the cart and escape immediately!
Even if I break my arms and legs, it's better than being beaten to the point of barely breathing by the two of them.
They were nervous the whole way, barely daring to blink.
They were afraid that the two of them would attack them in the blink of an eye, leaving them no time to react.
Fortunately, the two of them didn't cause any trouble today; they just closed their eyes to rest and didn't even glance at them.
This allowed everyone in the car to breathe a sigh of relief, as they "safely" returned to the village.
Da Niu calculated the time it would take for his Uncle Zhao to return in his oxcart and waited at the village entrance early.
"Father, mother!"
When Da Niu saw the oxcart, he happily waved to Gao Mengli and Lin Xi.
The people in the car, including Zhao Chen, were all stunned.
This was the first time I'd ever seen Da Niu smile. Most importantly, the smile was directed at Gao Mengli and Lin Xi.
Could it be that he was badly "beaten up"?
The oxcart stopped, and Da Niu quickly ran over, greeting each person on the cart. Then he took the water bucket from Lin Xi and waited for his parents to get off.
"How did you end up here?!" Lin Xi asked softly, affectionately stroking Da Niu's head.
Da Niu looked at his father with a smile on his face, "I was thinking that Uncle Zhao would be back soon, and you guys would probably be with him too, so I came to help carry things!"
"Sweetie, you must be starving. Go back and ask your dad to make you noodles!"
Gao Mengli glanced at the sky; it was already past 1-3 pm. The child hadn't eaten lunch yet.
"Huh?! Hmm!" Da Niu was a little confused. Everyone ate two meals a day, breakfast and dinner.
But if his dad makes him lunch, he'll eat it too!
Because he discovered that even the insoles his father made were incredibly delicious.
The people on the oxcart watched as two men led the large ox in the middle towards the end of the village.
This scene feels so "outrageous"—these two people are actually acting so amicably.
You look at me, I look at you, and nobody knows what happened between the two of them.
The father reformed his ways, and the mother realized her mistakes and returned to the right path. If they hadn't witnessed this change with their own eyes, they would definitely think that others were bragging.
Even though they saw it with their own eyes, they still couldn't quite believe it.
Could this be a new scheme by these two?
"Old habits die hard," and their thoughts were exactly the same as those of the Lin family in the old house. They always felt that these two were probably up to something bad.