When the pears are green

When Yang Jing opened the door, she saw two young men she didn't know. She asked in confusion who they were looking for.

"Excuse me, is this the Yang family? We are here to look for Miss Yang Jing." Wu Mingde quickly stated his purpose.

Yang Jing looked at Wu Mingde in surprise. She pointed at herself and asked again, "Are you here to see me? But I don't know you."

"I am Wu Mingshu's third brother. I came here today to personally thank the young lady for her kindness to my eldest sister." After Wu Mingde finished speaking, he handed the cake in his hand to Li Yun'an and bowed to Yang Jing.

Yang Jing quickly returned the gift, saying that she and Wu Mingshu were good friends and that what she did was the right thing to do.

As the two were talking, a vicissitudes of life voice came from the yard: "Jing'er, who is it? Don't talk at the door, please come home."

"Okay, mother." Yang Jing hurriedly invited Wu Mingde and Li Yun'an into the courtyard. She introduced them to Yang Zhang as Wu Mingshu's third brother and friend.

Yang Zhang looked up and down the two young men in front of her. She invited them to go into the main room to rest for a while, and then told Yang Jing to call Yang Yu to entertain the guests.

Wu Mingde handed the gift he brought to Yang Zhangshi, who refused with a smile: "You are here, why bring gifts? Ever since Mingshu married into Yang Cheng's family, Jing'er has been following Mingshu all day long. She is closer to Mingshu than to me, her mother."

"Since this is your first visit, you must bring something. I came in a hurry and didn't bring much. I hope you don't mind, aunt." Seeing that Yang Zhang didn't take any, Wu Mingde took the initiative to put the things on the eight-immortals table in the house.

Yang Yu and Yang Jing came in. Without waiting for Yang Jing to introduce them, he recognized who was Wu Mingshu's brother. Wu Mingde and Wu Mingshu had similar eyebrows. He had sketched those curved eyebrows countless times in his mind, so he could tell at a glance.

"I guess this must be Sister Wu's third brother. I remember seeing you at Brother Cheng's wedding." Yang Yu bowed to Wu Mingde and Li Yun'an, and they quickly returned the greeting.

Yang Zhang told Yang Yu to entertain her well, and after Yang Jing poured the water, she took Yang Jing outside.

"The person Mr. Yang met that year should be my second brother Wu Mingxuan. I was sick at that time and stayed at home. This is my friend Li Yun'an, and my name is Wu Mingde." After Wu Mingde finished speaking, he picked up the water cup and took a sip of water.

Yang Yu actually forgot whether he had met the Wu family before. What he said was just an introduction. When he saw Wu Mingde introducing himself, he continued, "The way of the university is to manifest virtue, to be close to the people, and to stop at the highest good. Mingde is a good name, Mingde, you don't have to call me Yang Xianggong, it's too formal. I call you Mingde and Yun'an, and I'm a few years older than you, so you can call me Brother Yang."

After the three of them called each other's names, Yang Yu asked about their college entrance examination results.

Li Yun'an told Yang Yu about his and Wu Mingde's college entrance examination results. Yang Yu smiled and said, "Mingde and Yun'an both ranked well. They can try for the provincial examination in two years. I plan to take the exam in two years. We can go together."

Yang Yu then told the two about the situation of the county school. The county school has one teacher and two instructors, and the subjects are divided into etiquette, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. If you don't want to continue to take the imperial examination, you don't have to go to the county school, but you must take the annual examination every three years. If you rank sixth in the annual examination, you will be demoted to a commoner.

"If you don't want to live in the county school, you can rent a house outside. When I was studying in the county school, many of my classmates rented houses in Xinghua Lane, north of Haiyan Street." Yang Yu told Wu Mingde and Li Yun'an everything he knew.

Wu Mingde and Li Yun'an looked at each other. He said that he could give it a try in two years, and then thanked Yang Yu for informing him about the situation of the county school.

After several rounds of discussion, the sun was setting and Wu Mingde and Li Yun'an hurriedly said goodbye.

When Yang Yu sent the two of them to the entrance of the alley, he met Yang Jing who came hurriedly from outside. He hurriedly asked Yang Jing what she was doing.

"Third brother, I went to buy Sister Mingshu's favorite braised chicken, but because there were so many people, I was a little late. Fortunately, I didn't come back late. Can you please bring it to Sister Mingshu for me?" Yang Jing hurriedly handed the braised chicken wrapped in lotus leaves to Wu Mingde. Wu Mingde wanted to say that he would not go back today, but after seeing Yang Jing's innocent smile, he took it.

When the two of them walked to the main street of the town, Li Yun'an pointed at the braised chicken in Wu Mingde's hand and asked what to do with it, as it would definitely go bad if left until tomorrow.

"Eat it when I get home, and buy more when I go home tomorrow." Wu Mingde felt that this was the only feasible method.

Li Yun'an asked Wu Mingde with a smile if he knew which store the braised chicken came from, as there were three or four stores selling it in the town.

Wu Mingde looked at the lotus leaves wrapping the chicken and decided to just buy one from any store.

As agreed with Li Yun'an, Jiang Qingzhou delivered the chickens and eggs to Li's shop early the next morning. Li Ying, who was guarding the shop, settled the bill for Jiang Qingzhou as instructed by Li Yun'an yesterday.

"Ten chickens are three hundred coins, and eggs are fifty coins. Yun An said he has already paid a deposit of thirty coins, so I will give you another three hundred and twenty coins. Here are the copper coins, count them." Li Ying handed the strung copper coins to Jiang Qingzhou.

After Jiang Qingzhou took it, he just took a quick look at it and put it directly into his purse.

Li Ying realized that keeping the chickens in the shop really affected his business, so he closed the shop directly when there were not many customers, and asked Jiang Qingzhou to help deliver the goods to his home.

Jiang Qingzhou agreed with a smile. He put the things on the cart and pushed it to Li's house.

Hu Zhimin and Kai Xin arrived at Jiangjia Village before Jiang Qingzhou. Some villagers saw a horse-drawn carriage parked in front of Jiang Qingzhou's house and secretly asked who the owner of the carriage was.

"Madam Jiang, the reason I came here this time is that I want to order some dried vegetables from you. The dried vegetables sent last year are very much to my grandfather's taste and he still misses them until now. So I want to buy more from you this year. I wonder if you can make ten kilograms of dried vegetables. Secondly, I want to buy a pig from you." After saying this, Hu Zhimin looked at Song Li with a smile.

Song Li pondered for a moment, then nodded and told Hu Zhimin that she could make ten kilograms of dried vegetables.

Hu Zhimin first asked Kai Xin to pay Song Li a deposit of one hundred coins, and then gave Song Li the prepared receipt.

Song Li took a careful look and saw that it only said "advance deposit" and nothing else. She easily dipped her thumb into the ink that Kai Xin had taken out, and a red handprint appeared on the receipt.

Hu Zhimin was not surprised that Song Li could read, after all, he had heard from Lingling that Jiang Qingzhou could read. He took the receipt and gave it to Kai Xin, and told Kai Xin to bring the shop assistants to buy pigs in the afternoon.

"There is one more thing. I remember that Madam Jiang knows how to grow bean sprouts. Our restaurant needs a lot of them during the Mid-Autumn Festival, so I want Madam Jiang to deliver 20 kilograms of mung bean sprouts and 10 kilograms of soybean sprouts to the restaurant every day from August 12th to August 15th. The restaurant's previous purchase price was two cents per kilogram for soybean sprouts and three cents per kilogram for mung bean sprouts. I wonder if Madam Jiang is willing?" Hu Zhimin really likes dealing with sensible people like Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou. Although these things can be bought everywhere, he still wants to spend money comfortably.

Song Li calculated in his mind that although the price was a little lower than what they sold at the market, it was extra quantity and would not affect their business at the market, so he agreed directly.

"Mr. Hu, I need to explain something in advance. Qingzhou and I plan to take Qingye to the county town on August 15th, and we may have to deliver the things to the restaurant very early." Song Li thought about it and decided to tell Hu Zhimin about this matter in advance.

Hu Zhimin smiled and said it was okay. He said if he was happy, he could stay in the restaurant and he could just knock on the door when the time came.

When Song Li saw Hu Zhimin and Kai Xin off, some villagers asked Song Li about the situation after the carriage left.

Song Li casually said that it was the owner who sold the mulberry seeds to her. He owed her some silver at that time, so he came to collect the debt.

The people who were asking about this immediately dispersed. Some of them whispered as they walked away, "I was wondering how they could afford to buy so many seeds. It turns out they bought them on credit. They are really bragging."

"That's right. This young daughter-in-law doesn't know how expensive oil and salt are because she doesn't manage the household. She just thinks about things at random. If she were to grow crops like everyone else, she wouldn't be like this." Another woman continued with a smile.

Song Li turned a deaf ear to what they said. When she saw Jiang Qingzhou, she ran over with a smile.

"Why are you so happy?" Jiang Qingzhou asked with a smile.

Song Li put the purse in her hand into Jiang Qingzhou's hand. While pulling the cart, she told Jiang Qingzhou about Hu Zhimin.

"That's really worth being happy about." Jiang Qingzhou helped Song Li push the cart. He really liked this kind of busy but profitable life.