Chapter 9

PS: New book period, please click, recommend, and collect!

Songjiang's North Street is a very bustling street, lined with shops on both sides. At the eastern end of the street stands a tall shop, which is somewhat special. A fence is set up in front of the door, seemingly to deliberately prevent customers from entering. On the shop's door hangs a sign with four large characters: "Dingfeng Pawnshop."

Xu Manager, dressed in a tattered cotton robe, came out of the pawnshop with a look of anger. After bypassing the fence in front of the door, he turned around and spat at the pawnshop door. Then he turned and, while cursing the unscrupulous chief manager inside the pawnshop, touched the empty purse in his chest and slowly left.

Today, just as dawn was breaking, Xu Manager left home with a package of clothes. The Zhou family's residence is in the south of the city, and he is quite familiar with the pawnshops in that area. He knows that the pawnshops there are one more unscrupulous than the other. Additionally, he was worried that people might see him going to the pawnshop and lose face for the Zhou family, so he specially went to a pawnshop in the north of the city. However, as the saying goes, "crows are all black," and today he only got two taels of silver for the two packages of clothes he brought, which was not enough for them to get through the New Year. Thinking about this, Xu Manager couldn't help but turn around and spit at the direction of the pawnshop again.

Actually, it's not entirely the fault of the pawnshop. When people pawn items, the pawnshop will always try to depress the price as much as possible. Unlike jade or antiques, new clothes might be worth more, but once they are worn, their value drops by half. So, no matter how good the clothes are, once they are taken to the pawnshop, they won't fetch much. Of course, fur coats are an exception.

Braving the cold morning wind, Xu Manager returned to the south of the city with the money and went to the market. There was still some rice at home, but they couldn't drink porridge every meal, so he needed to buy some vegetables.

Songjiang's market is also located in the south of the city, two streets away from the Zhou family's residence. The so-called market is just an open space where various vegetable vendors push their carts to set up stalls. When it gets light, the local constables will come to collect taxes, usually a few coins per stall, which is not much. However, some bold and stingy vendors hide when they see the constables, and as long as they are not caught, they can save a few coins. If they are caught, however, they will be heavily fined and might even get beaten.

As soon as Xu Manager stepped into the market, he immediately felt a wave of hot and noisy atmosphere. The market is divided into five rows of vegetable stalls, with narrow paths between the rows. People buying vegetables crowd the paths, haggling with the vendors on both sides. Various shouts and calls rise and fall, and one has to shout to be heard.

Although it is winter, the market is still rich in vegetables. The most abundant and cheapest are naturally the common cabbages and radishes. These vegetables have a high yield and can be stored in winter. Many farmers dig cellars to store large quantities, which they can sell to vendors or transport to the city during the winter, providing them with some income during the idle winter months.

In addition to cabbages and radishes, there are also spinach and coriander. Although these vegetables don't look very fresh, they are transported from the warmer southern regions. The temperature in the south is not yet too low, so these vegetables can still survive. However, in a couple of months, even the south will not be able to grow vegetables.

Xu Manager went directly to the stalls selling cabbages and radishes. As for the southern vegetables like spinach, they are all transported from the south and are very expensive, mostly bought by wealthy families. Ordinary people can't afford them. With the little money he had, he could only buy the cheapest cabbages and radishes.

Originally, it was just the beginning of winter, and the prices of cabbages and radishes should be at their lowest. Xu Manager estimated that he could buy a pile of cabbages for a few coins. However, to his surprise, the prices this year were much higher than he expected. He visited several stalls, and the prices of cabbages and radishes were all far beyond his expectations.

Finally, Xu Manager came to an elderly vegetable vendor. The vendor looked to be in his fifties or sixties, with gray hair and a tattered, dirty, and even shiny black cotton robe. He was idly rubbing the dirt off his neck. There were not many vegetables left in front of him, just a small pile of cabbages and a few poorly shaped radishes, which were probably left over from others' selections, so the prices were a bit cheaper than at other stalls.

Xu Manager, realizing he wouldn't be able to get cheap vegetables today, picked some cabbages while casually asking the old vendor, "Old brother, why are the prices of cabbages and radishes so high this year? In previous years, they were five pounds for one coin, but today, I've been looking around, and only you are willing to sell three pounds for one coin. The cheapest at other places is only two and a half pounds for one coin. What's going on?"

The old vendor patted his red neck and answered somewhat indifferently, "Young brother, your question shows you're not very experienced. Look at the weather this year; it's already so cold in October. The vegetables planted late in the fall were all frozen in the fields. Plus, many places in the south can no longer grow vegetables, so the prices are twice as high as in previous years. I only lowered the price because I have these few leftover roots. If you had come earlier, I would have sold them for two pounds for one coin."

Hearing the old vendor's words, Xu Manager sighed. As the saying goes, misfortunes never come singly. The family is already short of money, and now even the vegetable prices have risen. It's clear that life at home will be even harder in the future, and the burden on his young master will be even greater.

"Old brother, you've been picking for so long, are you going to buy or not? This is the cheapest in the market today. Once this village is gone, there won't be another. I heard that Shandong has suffered a disaster, and many refugees are coming here. The prices of grain and vegetables might rise even more in a few days. I advise you to buy more now, or you won't be able to get such cheap vegetables later!" The old vendor said, a bit impatient. He only had a little bit of vegetables left, and he wanted to go home early, but the person in front of him was still picking and hadn't decided to buy or not, so other customers didn't want to come and ask for prices.

"Buy, of course, I'll buy!" Xu Manager knew that this was probably the lowest price in the entire market, and the family indeed needed vegetables, so he naturally agreed. However, he glanced at the few oddly shaped radishes on the stall and said, "Old brother, you don't have much left. I'll buy all the cabbages, and these few radishes won't fetch much. How about you give them to me as a bonus?"

"Sure, a few radishes aren't worth much. You can buy them, and I can go home early and have a few drinks to warm up!" The old vendor, though a bit impatient, was very straightforward and immediately agreed without haggling.

Then Xu Manager and the old vendor weighed the cabbages together, which totaled 93 pounds, exactly 31 coins. The old vendor deducted one coin, which was equivalent to giving Xu Manager three pounds of cabbages for free, making Xu Manager very happy, and he repeatedly said he would come back to buy from him next time.

Xu Manager borrowed the old vendor's wheelbarrow to transport the cabbages and radishes, which weighed over 100 pounds, back home, and then returned the wheelbarrow. However, he didn't leave the market immediately but went to the west side, where the fish and meat vendors were concentrated. The family had been without meat for a long time, and yesterday, Aunt Luo brought two dishes to satisfy everyone's craving. This reminded him that his young master and young miss were raised in luxury and couldn't even tolerate plain meals, let alone the others.

Compared to the vegetable stalls, the fish and meat stalls were much quieter. Songjiang has a population of several million, with 200,000 to 300,000 people in the city alone, but only a few could afford meat. Even in some well-off families, they only buy meat once or twice a month to satisfy their cravings. Most of the people Xu Manager saw were from such families, and some were servants from wealthy households, who were well-dressed and needed a lot of meat, so they were the most generous and the most welcome by the meat and fish vendors.

The Zhou family used to send people to buy regularly, but as the chief manager, Zhou Manager wouldn't personally handle such matters. There were dedicated managers in the household responsible for purchasing, and he only checked the accounts. Therefore, Xu Manager was not very familiar with the market.

Xu Manager first went to a few fish stalls and found that most of the fish sold were sea fish. After all, the east and south of Songjiang are by the sea, and many people make a living by fishing, so there are plenty of seafood, and the prices are not high. A ten-pound fish costs only a few coins, and smaller fish are even cheaper.

However, Xu Manager didn't buy the sea fish after some thought because no one at home liked sea fish. The only one who liked fish, Miss Zhuo'er, preferred river fish, disliking the strong smell of sea fish. Of course, some vendors sold river or lake fish, but the prices were twice as high as sea fish. Xu Manager touched the empty purse in his chest and couldn't bring himself to buy them.

There were many pork stalls, and Xu Manager wandered around a few times to understand the prices. He finally came to the busiest stall. The owner of this stall was a young man in his twenties, with a thick and honest face, extremely strong and robust. Despite the cold, he only wore a single layer of clothing and held a sharp knife in his right hand. Whenever a customer came to buy meat, he would cut a piece with one stroke, and the meat was always more than the customer asked for. Some regular customers didn't even weigh the meat and took it away directly.

"Little brother, how much meat do you want to buy?" Xu Manager asked as he approached the stall.

"Fat meat is twelve coins, lean meat is ten coins. How much do you want to buy?" The honest young butcher smiled and asked. Although Xu Manager was dressed in tattered clothes, his physique clearly indicated he wasn't a poor person, and the young butcher had the eye to recognize a big customer, so he was very enthusiastic.

"Um..." Xu Manager had checked the accounts of the household's purchases before and knew the price of pork. If he remembered correctly, pork in the fall was only eleven coins. Normally, pork should be cheaper in winter because it is easier to preserve, but now the price had risen instead. It seemed the old vendor who sold vegetables was right, and the disaster in the north had indeed affected the prices in Songjiang. Even before the refugees arrived, the prices had already risen so much. Who knows how much they would rise after the refugees arrived?

Thinking about this, Xu Manager sighed and was about to ask for one pound of lean meat and one pound of fat meat, but at that moment, he heard someone call out, "Hey, isn't that Manager Xu? I was just thinking of finding you, and here you are!"

Page break for Page break for AD end