Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 114 Selection

"Thank you for your good words." Tao was full of joy and took out the purse. "Is the price still the same as before?"

Boss Zheng thought for a moment, thinking that since the Superintendent of Education personally selected him to enter the academy, the boy from the Yuan family must have done very well in his studies, and he might even be able to pass the imperial examination. He said, "This is a great event, I'll also share in the joy. The price of straw paper will remain the same, and the price of large petition paper will be 200 coins per knife."

Tao smiled and thanked him repeatedly, and praised Boss Zheng for his generosity to Li, then took out 640 copper coins and handed them over.

Song Ying did some calculations and found out that the price of straw paper that Boss Zheng sold to Tao was 40 wen per piece.

She glanced at Li, thought about it, and still didn't remind her.

The Yuan family is a real old customer of the paper shop, so it is normal for the boss to give them a more favorable price. On the large presentation paper, the boss has already made a lot of concessions. If they continue to argue over 5 cents, the boss might get angry and sell it to them at a lower price.

The two families paid and walked out. There were no other customers in the store, so Boss Zheng walked them to the door and said, "Yuan boy, when you go to study in the county, you must introduce more of your classmates to my store to buy paper. I will give you a discount."

Yuan Qing smiled and nodded: "Of course, of course."

Boss Zheng patted Song Yuan's head again and said, "You will become a scholar in the future. You must study hard and learn from this big brother."

There was the Lantern Festival riddle-guessing event, and Song Yuan admired Yuan Qing very much, so he didn't reject what Boss Zheng said and nodded in agreement.

After thanking Boss Zheng again and again, the group left.

After walking a distance, Li said to Tao: "Thank you so much for today, sister. Without you, I don't know how long I would have to grind. Oh, this paper is so expensive!"

"That's right," Tao felt the same way. "What makes it difficult for children from poor families like us to study is not the tuition, but the writing brush, paper and inkstone.

By the way, have you bought the brush, inkstone and inkstone? These are not cheap, but if you are careful, they can be used for a long time, unlike paper, which will be used up quickly. "

"No, I was just planning to buy one. The Mo family still has half an inkstone left. The inkstone Tianwa used to use when he was in school is still here. I'm only going to buy a pen today." Li paused and made an invitation, "Where are you going next? Let's go back together after you finish shopping. My family has brought a bullock cart."

The Song family had an ox cart, and whenever they saw a neighbor going to the county town, they would give him a ride, not to mention that Tao had helped just now.

"That's great." Tao is old, and when he comes in the morning, the sun is not so hot, so it's no big problem for him to walk slowly.

But the sun was very hot at noon, and if we stayed in the county for too long and were hungry, we would have to take a ox cart on the way back.

Although they won't stay in the county town for too long today, they naturally don't want to walk if they can get a ride.

She smiled and said, "Qingwa is where he is today, thanks to Mr. Wang's teaching. I thought of buying a piece of pork and sending it to Mr. Wang as a token of my gratitude."

"We passed by Zhuangyuanfang on the way here. Didn't you buy some first? The pork is fresh in the morning and you can pick the best ones."

As she spoke, Li pointed to the basket Yang was carrying, "We bought it when we passed by, along with the six gifts for Mr. Wang."

Tao said, "It's not that I don't want to buy it on the way. Most of these people who do business with scholars are very particular. After buying meat, my hands are greasy, and some shopkeepers are very disgusted."

"Why should we dislike oil?" Li was puzzled. "It's a good thing. Don't these people eat meat?"

"That's not the case. The things of scholars are naturally different from those of us farmers. If they are stained with oil, it will be difficult for the store to sell them."

"So that's how it is. Fortunately, sister, you told me. We have to be more careful in the future."

As she spoke, Li looked at Song Ying and the other two and warned them, "Wait a minute, be careful and don't touch anything in the store casually. If you make it dirty, we can't afford it."

After saying that, she looked at her hands. When she was selecting the pork just now, she turned it over and over for a long time, so her hands were naturally stained with oil.

She rolled up the inside of her sleeve and wiped it, but it wasn't clean, so she frowned.

Just now, she and her daughter-in-law Yang had touched the pork, and the children were not picky...

Li glimpsed Yuan Qing from the corner of her eye, and an idea came to her mind. She said, "Sister Tao, there are many scholars in your family, so you can tell the quality of pens. Please help us choose which pen is easy to use and cheap."

Tao hesitated for a moment and said, "Let Qingwa go with you to choose. He knows best whether the pen is good or not.

It’s getting late, I have to hurry to buy meat, otherwise there won’t be any good ones left. After all, it’s a gift for Mr. Wang, so it can’t be too bad.”

"That's fine." Li looked at the increasingly scorching sun and said, "How about this, Yang, you take the children to your aunt Wang's house to pull the bullock cart, Qingwa and I will go buy pens, and we will meet at the city gate later. Go back early to avoid being too hot."

Having spent quite a bit of money today, Li felt really bad about it and didn't want to buy any more snacks for Song Tian and Song Yuan.

The Aunt Wang she mentioned was a good sister of hers before she got married. She married and moved to the city, and her home was not far from the city gate.

It is faster to walk than to drive a ox cart on the crowded and narrow streets. When the Song family goes to the city, except for Uncle Song who has to drive a ox cart to sell eels, the rest of the family park their ox carts at her house.

Yang took Song Ying and the other two to Wang's house. After expressing her gratitude, she prepared to leave in the ox cart.

The old lady Wang said, "You guys are going to wait if you leave the city, so just sit for a while. You adults can stand the scorching sun, but three children can't."

Yang smiled and said, "Thank you, Aunt Wang. We will sit for a while."

Given the choice, who would want to go out in the hot sun?

Song Ying's three siblings also said in unison: "Thank you, Grandma Wang."

Old Lady Wang went back into the house and poured them some sugar water to drink. Soon, they saw Tao walking out of the city.

Yang hurriedly called out to her, thinking that she had rested for a long time and it would be inappropriate to let Tao wait alone outside the city, so she said goodbye to Old Lady Wang.

The group left the city and waited until noon, but Li still hadn't come out.

Tao was a little anxious: "Did something happen? Why hasn't he come out for so long?"

Song Ying touched the tip of her nose. Based on her understanding of Li, he must be bargaining with someone.

After waiting for a while, Li Yuanqing finally showed up. Tao breathed a sigh of relief and walked over quickly. She looked Yuanqing up and down and asked worriedly, "What's going on? Why did it take so long to buy a pen?"

Yuan Qing's expression was hard to describe. Farmers were used to bargaining when buying things, but he didn't expect Li to be so calculative. He bargained with others for a long time just for a penny.

He had already told Li very bluntly that the price offered by the boss was the price that regular customers like them could usually buy at, but Li still refused to give in and kept asking the boss to give him a lower price.

Finally, the boss was annoyed by her and agreed to pay the less penny.

In response to Tao's inquiry, he said vaguely: "It's okay, I'm bargaining."