You are my golden finger

When they arrived in the town, Uncle Dashun told Lin Xijin that the ox cart would be waiting for everyone at the town entrance and would return home at noon, and he pointed her in the direction of the pharmacy.

Lin Xijin thanked Uncle Dashun and followed the crowd to the medicine store in the direction Uncle Dashun pointed. Looking up, she saw the three big characters "Ren'antang" written on the plaque of the medicine store.

The clerk at the door looked at the herbs in Lin Xijin's basket and said, "Little girl, these herbs are worthless. We won't accept them if they are not prepared yet."

Lin Xijin said, "You can't make the decision, so call your shopkeeper. I have some good medicine under my basket!" The pharmacy clerk didn't quite believe it, but still turned around and called the shopkeeper. While no one was paying attention, Lin Xijin pretended to sort out the herbs, took out two red Ganoderma lucidum from the space, and put them in the basket.

After a while, the waiter came out with the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man in his forties, a little fat, with a chubby face, a smiling face, and looked very kind.

When he saw Lin Xijin, he said to her: "Little girl, I heard that you are here to sell medicinal herbs. Come with me, I will see what medicinal herbs you have."

Lin Xijin followed the shopkeeper to the backyard, put down the backpack, and took out the medicines one by one. At first, the shopkeeper didn't care, but when he saw the ganoderma and wild ginseng, his eyes widened. He asked anxiously: "Little girl, I want all your medicines, how much do you want?"

Lin Xijin was thinking that she would need to find someone to cooperate with for a long time when selling medicine in the future, so she might as well test whether the owner of this medicine shop was honest, so she pretended to be ignorant and said: "Uncle owner, I don't know how much these medicines are worth, just give me what you think is right."

The shopkeeper said, "Little girl, since you call me uncle, I won't lie to you. I'll give you two hundred taels for the wild ginseng and one hundred taels for the two ganoderma lucidums. As for the other herbs, they haven't been processed yet, so our shop wouldn't accept them. But for the sake of the wild ginseng and ganoderma lucidum, I'll take them as well. How about giving you two more taels of silver?"

When Lin Xijin heard this, she realized that the price was about the same as what she had in mind, which showed that the shopkeeper was a trustworthy person who would not cheat anyone. So she said readily, "Okay, let's do as the shopkeeper says."

The shopkeeper ordered someone to bring three hundred taels of silver notes and two taels of silver to her, and said with a smile: "Little girl, next time you have medicine, bring it back to us, and uncle will collect it for you."

Lin Xijin agreed with a smile, collected the silver and left the pharmacy.

Thinking that the clothes of herself and her younger brothers and sisters were all tattered, she decided to buy two sets of clothes first. Lin Xijin was walking on the street. When she came to a clothing store, the clerk in front of the door looked at Lin Xijin in tattered clothes and shouted, "Go away, country bumpkin, you can't afford our clothes. Go away and don't affect our business."

Lin Xijin didn't want to take care of the business of such a person who looked down on others, so she ignored the guy and left without looking back.

After walking a short distance, they came to a cloth shop. The shop assistant smiled and said to Lin Xijin, "Young lady, do you want to buy clothes or fabrics? Come in and take a look. There are many styles!"

When Lin Xijin saw the attitude of the clerk, she thought, "This is how business is done. There are so many ways to make money, so you should enjoy high-quality service." So she followed the clerk into the store.

Lin Xijin didn't know how to make clothes, so she went to look at ready-made clothes. She first chose two sets of fine cotton cloth for herself, and then two sets for her brother and sister. Seeing that the cloth shoes on the counter next to her were nice, she bought two pairs for herself. When she checked out, she spent more than one tael of silver in total, and felt that the prices in ancient times were still quite worthwhile.

Lin Xijin went to the grocery store again and symbolically bought a few kilograms of rice and flour and a small bag of salt. There was plenty of food in her own space and she could cheat at any time, so there was no need to buy more.

Thinking about how skinny her younger brother and sister were, she decided to buy some meat for them. After going to the butcher shop and buying a few pounds of pork bones and streaky pork, Lin Xijin headed home.

Carrying the meat in the basket, he felt it was a bit heavy, so he walked to a corner where no one was paying attention, threw the meat, clothes and shoes into the space, and walked easily towards the direction where the ox cart was parked, carrying a few kilograms of rice, flour and salt.

There were already several people sitting on the ox cart. When they saw Lin Xijin coming back with the basket on her back, they all asked her what she bought. Some of the gossipy ones even stretched their necks to see. Lin Xijin said she bought a few kilograms of coarse grains, and the aunts kept silent, thinking that when Lin Xijin's stepmother Jiang broke off the relationship with the three siblings, she only gave them two taels of resettlement money. A basket of herbs would not sell for much money, so Lin Xijin would not dare to spend it carelessly.

Lin Xijin was happy to be alone and didn't bother to care what they thought. She gave four cents to Uncle Dashun and sat quietly.

The ox cart was moving slowly along the way. Lin Xijin looked at the scenery along the road. Although the mountains were covered with green, the water was like a belt, and the air was really good, he could see the sparse crops in the fields and the low thatched houses in the villages. Lin Xijin lamented the poverty of the people of this era, and suddenly felt his shoulders sink. He felt that it was a long way to go to live a leisurely life.

Sitting on the oxcart, swaying, although the oxcart was moving slowly, Lin Xijin still felt that the shaking made his bones fall apart. "To get rich, build roads first." The modern wise saying rang in Lin Xijin's ears. Buying a carriage and building roads should also be included in the short-term goals.

Lin Xijin walked towards home. When she arrived at the door, she took out the clothes and shoes she bought, pork bones, and some pots and pans she needed at home from the space. She called out loudly: "Huier, Jiajia, sister is back."

When the younger brother and sister heard their elder sister's voice, they ran out like a flash. The seventh grandmother also came out behind the two children. The two children were overjoyed to see that their elder sister had bought so many things, and hurriedly took the things from their elder sister's hand and put them in the room.

Taking the opportunity to put down the backpack, Lin Xijin took out a bag of loose cakes, handed them to her younger brothers and sisters, and said, "Come, here are some cakes, eat with Qipo." Xijia took the cakes and began to distribute them excitedly.

Grandma Qi waved her hands and said, "Grandma Qi, no, leave it for Hui'er and Jiajia. Jin girl, you bought so many things, it must have cost you a lot of money. You are just the new head of the family, you should spend money frugally and buy more food to store, otherwise you will have a hard time in winter and next spring."

She could hear the worry and concern in Grandma Qi's words, and she could not help but feel warm in her heart. Although she was older than Grandma Qi in her mind, she would not reject the kindness of others. So she said to Grandma Qi with gratitude: "Grandma Qi, don't worry, I know what I am doing. I picked a lot of herbs in the mountains this morning, which can be sold for money. The owner of the medicine shop and I have agreed to collect the herbs I picked. The mountains are full of treasures, and I can make money."

Grandma Qi smiled and said, "Jin girl, it's good that you know what's going on. Grandma Qi hopes that you and your two siblings can live a good life, so that your parents will not waste their time raising you."

Lin Xijin sincerely thanked Qipo.

When Aunt Qi saw Lin Xijin coming back, she said goodbye and was about to leave. Lin Xijin insisted on staying for dinner. Her younger brothers and sisters also pulled Aunt Qi away and refused to let her leave. Aunt Qi couldn't persuade the three siblings, so she stayed.