An orphan girl from a farming family: Everyday farming in the mountains during natural disasters

"What?" The shopkeeper thought he had heard wrongly.

Xia Qingyue's palms were facing upwards, revealing the silver and money, and she glanced around the shop. At this moment, there were only two of them in the shop.

"It's mine, and I also bought it for my parents. It has a household registration, so our names can be registered on it."

The shopkeeper had sharp eyes and saw that she had at least three to five hundred coins in her hand.

"Of course, it would be best if we could make it an integer." As she spoke, she raised her hand and the money in her palm moved.

"This..." The shopkeeper looked embarrassed. In a flash, he smiled and picked up the book that recorded the purchase of salt and said, "Oh, look at my memory. This person named Zhao Qian clearly bought six catties of coarse salt, but I recorded it as one catty."

He picked up a pen and made some changes.

Seeing that he was so understanding, Xia Qingyue handed him the money in her hand and said, "Give me some more brown rice."

Rice is classified from the worst to the best, including brown rice, aged rice, and polished rice.

Brown rice costs eight cents per liter, ten liters equals one dou, and ten dou equals one shi (about 120 jin).

Considering that they had bought a lot of things today and would need to buy some meat and pork fat later, she said, "Let's have three buckets."

"My dear, if you have enough money, you might as well buy some more flour, millet, etc."

The shopkeeper looked around with a vigilant expression. He moved closer to Xia Qingyue, covered his mouth with his hand, and whispered:

"Didn't it get reported not long ago that Prince Xiang and Prince Yun had a falling out? My uncle's cousin's brother-in-law is serving in the military camp, and he sent a letter home saying that a fight was about to break out.

I am not exaggerating. In the past two days, people from the government office suddenly searched every household with household registration books. The reason they did so was to prevent foreign invasions, but in reality, it was for safety reasons..."

He bit his tongue and hissed, then glanced at the door with a nervous look on his face. "They should be checking how many men there are. When the war breaks out, they need to verify the exact number so they can prepare for the war!"

"I've been anxious to sell off the items in my shop these past two days. I'll keep the items that can't be sold and then close the shop and stay at home."

After the shopkeeper finished speaking, he slapped his forehead twice with a look of deep resentment and said, "When will this day end?"

He sighed and went to fill it with coarse salt.

Xia Qingyue raised her eyebrows slightly and looked surprised when she heard this.

It is not known whether those words are true or not. She lives in the mountains and is isolated from the news. It is possible that they are true, or it is possible that the shopkeeper deliberately scared her in order to make money from selling things.

After thinking about it, Xia Qingyue asked for an extra bucket of coarse white flour, at the same price as the brown rice.

After buying rice, flour and salt, she went straight to the pork stall carrying the heavy basket on her back.

After asking, I learned that a pound of lard costs ten cents, and there are both fatty and lean meats. Meat like front leg meat, hind leg meat, and pork belly costs twenty cents a pound.

The others are relatively cheap, with lean meat costing 15 wen per pound, pig's trotters and heads costing 9 wen per pound, and pig's liver, large intestine and other internal organs costing 3 wen per pound.

"Boss, I want all the pig fat, and two pounds of front leg meat, and two pig trotters, too. Can you give me some pig liver and large intestines?"

"Okay, there are ten catties of pork fat, which costs one hundred coins. Two catties of pork meat costs forty coins. There are more than nine catties of pig's trotters, so I'll charge you nine catties and eighty-one coins, a total of two hundred and twenty-one coins."

As he spoke, the shopkeeper skillfully weighed and cut the pork, then moved all the pig offal into the pile of meat that Xia Qingyue wanted, meaning that he wanted to give it all to her.

Xia Qingyue took the basket to put the pork in, and said thank you, "Hey, shopkeeper, my family and I live in the mountains, and we rarely come out. I heard that the King of Xiang and the King of Yun have fallen out."

As soon as these words came out, the pork stall owner immediately became nervous, looking around. He nodded and whispered, "Brother, there are too many people outside. Go home quickly after you finish shopping."

She kept her mouth shut and didn't ask any further questions.

After buying the things, she returned to the clothing store and tied the four pieces of cloth horizontally on the backpack, and asked the shopkeeper to find some banana leaves to cover them.

After she was done, she still felt unsafe, so she went to the shopkeeper's chicken coop to get some poop and rubbed it on the banana leaves and the backpack. The basket of pork she was carrying was not spared either.

We bought a lot of things, all added up to at least 130 kilograms, which is a bit heavy, but within an affordable range.

After leaving the town and walking to the vicinity of Xiushui Village, Xia Qingyue took a detour and walked a little far away from the village. She stopped, panting, and put down the backpack against a large rock behind her.

As soon as I let go, my whole body relaxed.

I’m tired. I’m so tired!

She raised her hand and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, looked at the towering mountains in the distance, and sighed in her heart.

It will take at least three hours to walk back to the tiankeng.

It was almost noon and she was feeling a little hungry. Fortunately, she had the foresight to buy two meat buns in the town.

A meat bun the size of a fist costs five cents, and a white flour bun costs three cents.

She was wondering whether she should eat something before continuing on her journey.

"Woooooooo..."

The sudden sound of miserable crying interrupted Xia Qingyue's thoughts. She looked upwards in the direction of the sound, but could not see anyone due to the trees.

She picked up the backpack and called Heihei to hurry on.

Even in the daytime, it is still quite creepy to encounter such a situation in the wilderness.

Xia Qingyue wanted to leave this place quickly, but not long after she walked up, a person stumbled out. When she looked closely, she saw that it was a woman wearing dark blue floral clothes.

The woman had delicate features and a well-proportioned figure, and looked no more than twenty years old.

"Wuwuwu, little brother, my name is Tan Xiaozhu, and I'm from a village at the foot of the mountain. My family wanted to sell me to a wealthy family in town as a maid. I had no other choice, so I ran to the mountain to hide. Please save me!"

The woman fell to her knees in front of Xia Qingyue, crying with tears in her eyes, looking pitiful.

Xia Qingyue wondered how she could save him. She was not a savior. Besides, this person was a stranger and she knew nothing about him.

I don’t know if it’s the influence of her original family and the living environment since childhood, but even her closest relatives could abandon her so cruelly, let alone other people. As a result, when she first gets along with anyone, she is always suspicious and hostile. She will only slowly relax as she gets to know the person better and better.

"Girl, you get up first. I am just an ordinary person with no money, no power, and no ability. I have the will but not the ability. The mountain is full of dangers. You should go down the mountain and return to the village to talk to your family."

Xia Qingyue turned around and wanted to leave.

Behind him, he heard the footsteps of a woman chasing him, "Brother, I have nowhere to go. If I go back, I will die. Please have mercy on me and take me away.

From now on, I am yours."

The woman spoke earnestly, her tearful eyes sweeping from the basket of vegetables in Xia Qingyue's hand to the backpack, and her gaze paused on the backpack.

She took two steps forward, smiling flatteringly, her smile was as beautiful as a flower, tears welled up in her eyes, showing her fragility and beauty, and stretched out a pair of slender hands as soft as boneless, "Brother, you are going up the mountain, right? You have so many things to carry, I will help you carry them.

From now on, I will be your slave and servant, at your disposal."