Chapter 83 - Famous Scholar (1/2)
On the docks, there were at least ten teams who worked on loading or unloading cargo from the ships. The largest groups were run by Foreman Sun and Old Six. At their largest, there were at least a hundred or so dock workers working under these two foremen, and they could load or unload five to six ships at the same time. Thus, the biggest customers were monopolized by these two men.
Naturally, these two men regarded each other as their competitor. Their struggle wasn’t out in the open, but behind the scenes, the two of them fought over business. Foreman Sun had consecutively acquired the business of two big clients over the past two days with the help of a little girl’s food. He was as happy as a clam and started to ponder whether he should carefully bring this little girl onto his side.
The dock workers worked like mad men. Originally it would have taken them around an hour and a half to finish unloading the ship they were working on. However, today they had managed to finish it in less than an hour. The owner of the cargo was amazed and thought that this team of workers were more efficient than the others. Due to that, the man decided to ask for this team the next time he needed his goods to be loaded or unloaded. Inadvertently, Xiaocao had helped Foreman Sun retain another customer.
“Xiaocao, give me two portions of your meat dish today. Yesterday evening, I had brought some of your braised food home to the family, and my two children really loved eating it. My wife even complained, asking me why I didn’t buy more of this inexpensive braised food and bring it home!” Her first customer from yesterday, Old Hao, had rushed over to greet her today. His whole body was dripping with sweat but he couldn’t be bothered to wipe it off.
“Okay! Two portions of braised food, Shitou, take his money!” Xiaocao had noticed that there was a sea of people running towards her behind Old Hao and quickly gave her little brother some work to do.
“Okay! Uncle Old Hao, two portions will be two copper coins!” Little Shitou stretched out his hand and grinned until his large eyes formed into crescent shapes. He looked like the prime example of an auspicious little boy who brings good fortune.
Old Hao happily paid the money and took the two oil paper packets from them. He then went to buy two steamed rolls and put the braised food between the rolls, eating them in large bites. When he opened the packets, he found out that the braised food today was different from yesterday’s packets. In fact, the food from today tasted even better and more delicious than yesterday’s. A hint of regret ran through him, he should have bought an additional portion earlier…
He looked back to see where the two siblings were selling their braised food. At this point, the small statures of the two children had long been dwarfed by the sea of people around them. If he tried to squeeze in right now, it was unlikely that he’d be able to buy more. Old Hao sighed and started to slowly take small amounts of the braised food to eat, as if he was afraid that he would miss out on savoring the flavor if he ate too quickly…
“Xiaocao, I want a portion…”
“Shitou, Shitou! Take my money first, haha...make sure you hold onto those two copper coins!”
“I want three portions, make sure to leave me three! You guys are all animals, don’t take it all away, I didn’t get to try any yesterday…”
“I just paid, give me a portion...hey!! Huzi, why are you pushing so hard? You almost pushed the little girl onto the ground!” ……
Little Shitou’s hand started to ache from all of the money he had to take. He felt like there were countless hands just pushing copper coins to him. Afterwards, he couldn’t even tell exactly who gave him money. He frowned and puffed up his face due to his inward distress.
Luckily, the vast majority of the dock workers knew the ways of the world, and none of them cared too much about one or two copper coins. Thus, no one made any trouble for the two of them.
Fortunately, they had prepared more braised food today than yesterday. After the workers all finished their rush to buy, they still had around ten portions of braised food left in the basket. Because they had some manufacturing problems, the portion size of one packet was slightly smaller than yesterday’s. However, it was still enough to fill about half the volume of a small bowl and was definitely enough for one person to eat with their steamed buns.
The passenger ship had already reached the store. After all, this area was close to the town and markets. The passengers who disembarked from the ship looked around with curiosity at the bustling scene around them.
“Eh? There’s a lot of people surrounding that area, what’s going on over there? Ah, Yunxi, go over and check out the situation…”
The person who spoke was an old man with a head full of white hair and a hale, ruddy complexion. He had a full mustache and beard, and his eyes seemed to shine with wisdom. Every move he made was imbued with an elegance that seemed to attest to his scholarly position. However, at this moment, the old man seemed to have a hankering for gossip, which was a bit at odds with his outward appearance.
The person whom he called by the name ‘Yunxi’ was a young boy around ten years old. He wore a long, white colored robe with a light blue lined jacket over it. His small face was delicately pretty and at first glance could be taken as male or female. His good-looking lips were pursed into a straight line, as if he felt helpless regarding his grandfather’s penchant for gossip.
Although he personally had no desire to squeeze into a bunch of rough workers to find out what was going on, he understood his grandfather’s personality quite well. If he didn’t find out, his grandfather would not give up until he got all of the details. The ten year old youth strolled steadily at a speed that was neither fast nor slow towards the crowd of people.
“Teacher Yuan! You must be tired after travelling so far. There’s a horse-drawn carriage over there, please come this way…” A man came over who was dressed from head to toe in ornate and expensive clothing, as if he wanted to make sure everyone around him knew he had money.
Yuan Sinian was a famous scholar from the previous dynasty. In fact, the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty esteemed him for his scholarly achievements and had invited him several times to come to the imperial palace to teach the imperial princes. However, these offers had all been politely declined with the excuse of poor health. Later on, when the country fell into turmoil and the future was uncertain, he had brought his family to live in seclusion deep in the mountains and had lived in hiding for a few years.