Chapter 116 - The Prince (1/2)
There was a burgundy colored horse tied not too far from Little Gray. At this time, it was no longer interested in the fine fodder beans within its own trough. It craned its neck and tried to eat the coarse hay in front of the little donkey. But its range of activity was restricted by the reins. The feelings of not being able to eat something that it wanted to eat made it feel very grumpy. It could help but kick backwards as it raised its head and neighed ceaselessly.
As soon as its owner came out of pickled vegetables shop, he swiftly strode forward upon hearing the furious cry of his beloved horse. Seeing the scene, the handsome youth laughed and scolded, “Red Cloud, you’re seriously acting so shamelessly! Why aren’t you eating the fine fodder beans but coveting others hay instead? You’re really such a disgrace to be fighting for food with a little donkey!!”
The burgundy horse seemed to have understood its owner’s words and made several long augmentative sounds as it struggled hard to break free from its reins. The youth loosened the reins, and the little red horse immediately rushed towards the little donkey. It strongly pushed Little Gray aside and devoured the remaining fodder. It even neighed fiercely at Little Gray with dissatisfaction, as if it was blaming Little Gray for not leaving more hay for him!
Little Gray had a mild temperament and didn’t make a scene despite being robbed of its food. It only stared at the burgundy horse with its big, gentle eyes. The burgundy horse seemed somewhat embarrassed and stopped making a fuss. It turned around, with its butt facing Little Gray, and chewed the hay in its mouth several times as if it was savoring the delicious taste of the fodder.
“This beast, you’re seriously shameless! If you like hay, then I’ll tell the horsekeeper to prepare some for you when we get home!” The youth gently touched Little Gray’s polished and smooth hair. He patted it and said, “Sorry about that, buddy! Old man, give my bag of fodder beans to the donkey’s owner as compensation later!”
The old man, who was in charge of taking care of the horses and livestock, also smiled merrily and promised.
The youth led his beloved horse, who was still reluctant to leave, out of the food market, and rushed all the way to the capital.
His mother was worried about his younger brother, who had gone on an oceangoing voyage recently. So, her appetite hadn’t been very good. They had changed several cooks, but there still wasn’t any improvement to her appetite. Madam Wu, whose husband served in Tanggu Town, told them that there were several types of tasty and refreshing pickled vegetables in Tanggu Town’s food market. After his mother tried the tasty crispy pickled radish that Madam Wu sent over, she ate one more bowl of congee than before.
After all, Madam Wu didn’t bring a lot of pickled vegetables back to the capital. It was only enough for his mother to eat for two days. After finishing the pickled vegetables, his mother returned to the state of not having any appetite. As a dutiful son, he couldn’t bear to see his mother get any thinner, so he took advantage of his break and rushed to Tanggu Town. After asking around, he finally found his mother’s favorite crispy pickled radish!
In order to ensure that this trip was not in vain, he even packed all the different kinds of pickled vegetables available in the shop! If his close friends found out that he, the dignified son of Prince Jing, had traveled busily between the capital and the small town of Tanggu within a day for the sake of a few crude pickled vegetables, they would definitely laugh their heads off. However, for the sake of his mother, he didn’t mind letting them laugh a bit!
Today, they had arrived just in time for the five major markets. Small businesses, vegetable vendors, peddlers… They were all gathered in this food market. As soon as Yu Xiaocao took out the fresh, green vegetables, they were surrounded by a group of people.
“Hey! There are actually fresh greens for sale during this time of the year! Look at this bok choy, it’s so tender that water could come out of it! It looks so appetizing!! This big brother, how much is this bok choy?” The person who asked was a well-off matron, who wore a fine cotton jacket and silver hairpin in her hair. She looked as if she came from a family with good living conditions.
On the way to town, the father-daughter pair had already decided on the price for the vegetables. Yu Hai chuckled and said, “The bok choy is twenty copper coins per catty and the spinach cost fifteen coins a catty. It’s eighteen copper coins for the leaf lettuce, while the romaine lettuce cost twenty-five coins. Older sister, take a look. Which one do you want?”
“Oh! Your vegetables aren’t cheap. It’s almost as expensive as pork! The common folks won’t be able to afford it!!” The matron’s chubby face was crumpled up and she seemed very dissatisfied with the price.
With a smile on her face, Yu Xiaocao sweetly replied, “Auntie, as the saying goes, the rarer something is, the greater its value! As you know, the heavy snowstorms this winter had been disastrous. There were also two more snowfalls in spring! What vegetables wouldn’t freeze to death in that situation? So it’s quite difficult for us to grow these vegetables!”
Although the onlookers were curious about how these fresh and juicy vegetables survived the early spring snowstorm, no one asked because they knew that only a fool would reveal their own secret money-making method. However, most of the people who came to the market were villagers from the surrounding villages. There were very few people who could afford vegetables that were about the same price as meat.
The fat woman genuinely felt that the vegetables were expensive, but she still had the money to eat them once or twice. Moreover, her pregnant daughter in-law would vomit whenever she ate and craved for some green vegetables. She also knew that none of the vegetable seeds had been planted yet at this time of the season, so there was no way she could find leafy greens.
She had come out with the intention of trying out her luck to see if she might find them. If she couldn’t find any, she was going to buy some garlic and grow garlic sprouts, which could also be considered a greenery. But she hadn’t expected to be so lucky and find vegetables. Moreover, it seemed like they had all the different types of spring vegetables.
Although it was expensive, for the sake of her unborn eldest grandson, she gritted her teeth—buy!
Under the envious gazes of the crowd, the fat matron put on a proud smile and pointed at the bok choy, spinach, and romaine lettuce with her chubby finger. As if she was afraid that others couldn’t hear her, she raised her voice and said, “Little girl, this, this, and this. Give me half a catty of each! If it’s good, Auntie will come back to buy some more tomorrow!”
“Okay!” Yu Xiaocao swiftly weighed the vegetables that the woman wanted. She lifted them up high as she handed them to her and said, “Auntie, it’s a total of exactly thirty copper coins!”
“Thirty copper coins ah! That’s enough to buy a catty of pork! In the previous years, that small portion of greens would be the same price as one and a half catties of pork. Who would be willing to eat that!”
“That’s right, that’s right! I originally wanted to buy some for my family to taste, but I didn’t expect it to be that expensive! Forget it, I’ll just bear with it! We just need to wait one or two more months and there should be vegetables for sale at that time!”