Chapter 25 Preparations
"The key now is that we don't have a scale at home. I went to the town to ask, and I was told that it would cost at least one or two taels of silver to buy a scale, and our family can't afford it for the time being. Is there anyone in the village who has a scale that I can borrow?" Qianhuan suddenly remembered that the most important weighing tool had not been solved yet.
"The village head should have a scale at home. Every year when it's time to collect taxes, the village head has to assist the county magistrate in going to the villagers' homes to weigh the grain. I'll go borrow one." Liu suggested.
"Okay, then you go to the headman's house and borrow a scale. I'll go to the back mountain to pick up more firewood. I'll bring the iron stove back tomorrow morning, and we can set up a stall in the county town the day after tomorrow."
Qianhuan went to the back mountain and picked up several bundles of firewood. It was already past five in the afternoon, and Liu also came back with the borrowed scale.
Qianhuan helped to light the fire while Liu started to cook dinner.
In the afternoon, several people ate up five pounds of roasted chestnuts without leaving a single one. For the first time ever, there were some left over from dinner.
Liu and Liang Laoer fetched some water, washed up, and went to bed early.
Qianhuan was doing stretching exercises in the room at this time. She stretched for almost an hour before lying down to sleep.
Stretching before going to bed is her modern habit. Dancers stretch their bodies frequently to improve their body flexibility.
She used to live in a small compartment in the old house, with her parents living next door, so she had no conditions to stretch her body.
Now that she has her own room, she does stretching exercises for about an hour every night before going to bed.
Dancing is one of her hobbies, and even in this time and space, she will not lose this talent.
The original owner's body was very flexible and she was born to dance. Even though she couldn't make money by dancing now, she would continue to do so.
Early the next morning, Qianhuan went to the town to get the iron stove back.
The family of three picked out all the remaining chestnuts in the house according to size.
Liang Laoer is responsible for making small cuts in the chestnuts. They have to complete all the preparations today so that they can set up the stall in the county town tomorrow morning.
"Dad, just take out 55 kilograms of chestnuts and cut some small holes in them. I plan to take 55 kilograms to the city to try selling them tomorrow."
"Okay." Liang Lao Er replied happily.
After breaking his leg, he had been lying in bed for several months, unable to do anything, and he had been feeling very guilty.
Now that he can finally help out at home, his whole spirit is refreshed. This is probably the power of a sense of value.
Only when a person feels that he is useful and valuable can he be confident and happy from the bottom of his heart. Liang Laoer is full of energy precisely because he has this sense of value.
Qianhuan took a knife and went to the back mountain to cut some thin bamboos. She asked Liang Laoer to use the bamboos to help her cut a lot of thin bamboo sticks. These thin bamboo sticks were a bit like modern toothpicks, but they were longer than modern toothpicks.
She plans to use this thin bamboo skewer to stick chestnut meat for everyone to taste when she sets up her stall tomorrow.
Liu and Qianhuan went to the mountain and picked up a lot of firewood. The firewood was enough for them to set up their stall for several days.
At night, the family of three went to bed early.
Qianhuan only did stretching exercises for half an hour tonight and forced herself to go to bed early.
I have to get up early tomorrow to go to the county town. I’m afraid I won’t be able to get up if I sleep late.
The next morning, it was still dark and gray outside.
Liu had already gotten up, washed, and tidied herself up. Then she went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
Today she made whole grain pancakes, and she deliberately made twice as much as usual.
After the family of three finished their meal in the morning, they would leave two coarse-grain cakes for Liang Laoer to eat at home, and she and her daughter would take two cakes to the county town as dry food.
"Dad, you stay at home today and cut the remaining chestnuts first. Mom and I will go to the county town to see how the chestnuts are selling. If they are selling well, you can come with us to the county town to help tomorrow." Qianhuan said to her father while eating a pancake.
She was dressed like a man today. In this evil feudal society, it was not good for a girl to show her face in public, so she just followed the local customs.
"Okay, Dad, I'll listen to you. Do you want to cut open all the remaining chestnuts?"
"Well, I'll mark as many as I can. If they sell well, I'll bring more to the county town tomorrow." Qianhuan was still very confident about the sugar-roasted chestnuts. She believed that they would be able to be sold.
After breakfast, Qianhuan went to Old Man Wang's house to rent an ox cart. Because her family had a lot of things to bring, she could only ask Old Man Wang to drive the ox cart to her door to pick her up.
Seeing that business was coming, Old Man Wang pulled his ox cart towards Old Man Liang's house.
Old man Wang helped move all the heavier items such as the iron stove, firewood, chestnuts and sand onto the ox cart.
Qianhuan and Liu each carried a bamboo basket. In Liu's basket was a small jar of syrup, a small jar of cooking oil, an iron spatula, a scale, a bowl and other small items.
In Qianhuan's bamboo basket was a bag of thin bamboo sticks that she had asked Liang Laoer to sharpen, two whole-grain cakes, a pot of water, oil paper bags, a kitchen knife and other items.
After all the things were loaded onto the cart, Liu and Qianhuan also climbed onto the ox cart.
"Grandpa Wang, I have a lot of stuff at home, so they take up some space. I'll give you an extra penny. Here's five cents. Please keep it."
Originally, it cost 2 cents per person to take a oxcart to the county town, but Qianhua had a lot of stuff, so she decided to pay one cent more.
Old man Wang refused several times, but finally accepted it.
Today, except Qianhuan and Liu, no one from Yunfeng Village went to the county town.
When Wang Laotou passed through other villages, he received several more customers. These men were all regular customers who came to the city to work. Every morning, they would wait for Wang Laotou's ox cart at the intersection. After work in the evening, they would ride his ox cart back.
When they arrived at the county town, Qianhuan found a busy street spot and asked Old Man Wang to park the car. She unloaded the things and put them in order.
"Grandpa Wang, where do you usually wait for guests? When we are done with our work, we can ride in your ox cart on our way back." Qianhuan said sweetly.
"I'll be waiting for guests at the foot of the west city wall. The last trip back to the village is at 5 p.m. You must not miss the time. When you are done, you can call me over there and I will drive the ox cart to pick you up." After all, because they gave them an extra penny, Old Man Wang thoughtfully said that he would drive the cart to pick them up.
"Okay, then I'd like to thank Grandpa Wang in advance."
After Old Man Wang drove away in his ox cart, Liu put the iron pot on the stove and started to make a fire.
Qianhuan poured the sand into the pot. This was the cooked sand she had fried at home, and it was already black in color.
She didn't plan to fry too many chestnuts for the first pot, just about ten pounds would be enough. After all, it was her first day in business, and she was unsure.
As the fire started, Liu began to stir-fry the sand, and the "swishing" sound continued.
This scene first attracted the vendors on both sides of their stalls. The vendor on the left was an uncle selling masks, and the vendor on the right was an aunt selling vegetables and fruits.
They both looked over here with curiosity, wanting to know what these "mother and son" were cooking.
Before the sand could get heated up, the legendary protection fee collector Mr. Cai showed up.
"New face, you've heard of me, Master Cai, right? Do you know the rules of setting up a stall here?"
Young Master Cai, holding a piece of dogtail grass in his mouth, spoke to Liu with a ruffian look on his face, and there were three or five younger brothers following him.
Liu was just a country woman who had only been to the county town a few times. How could she have seen such a scene? She stared at Young Master Cai in a daze and was so frightened that she couldn't hold the spatula and it fell into the pot.