The road to wealth of a peasant widow

After entering the inn, Chen Cui showed her household registration documents, paid a deposit, and checked into a herringbone room.

The rooms here are divided into three levels: "Heaven", "Earth" and "Ren". The Tian rooms are naturally the most expensive, which are luxury suites. The Di rooms are second, and the Ren rooms are average. Below that are the cheapest dormitory rooms.

Of course Chen Cui would not sleep in a dormitory, so she chose the cheapest room, which cost twenty-two cents a night.

In fact, this room is similar to the one she lived in the county town, with similar size and furnishings, but because it is in a different location, the price is 7 cents more expensive.

But she could understand this. After all, it was a provincial capital. The rent, land, labor and prices were not comparable to those in a small county town. It was natural that it was a little more expensive.

Chen Cui was really tired and didn't want to go out for dinner, so she asked the waiter to bring some food over and a bucket of hot water after dinner.

Meals and hot water are charged separately and are settled at check-out, just like in modern hotels.

After Chen Cui finished her meal and soaked her feet, she lay down to rest early. She had been curled up in the carriage all day and was extremely tired.

She slept very deeply and did not wake up until dawn.

After a simple wash, she did not have breakfast in the inn, but chose to go out for a walk first.

The street where Yuelai Inn is located is quite lively, with more people during the day than at night. In addition to the shops on both sides of the street, there are also many street vendors.

It was breakfast time and there were many food stalls around. Chen Cui chose a bun shop and sat down.

She originally wanted to order a few vegetarian buns as usual, but when she smelled the aroma of meat buns at other tables, she couldn't help swallowing.

She had been eating vegetarian food every day these days and was actually very greedy. However, in order to keep up appearances in front of her children, she had to endure it and did not even dare to eat meat in the county town.

Now that she's in the city where no one knows her, she can finally eat meat!

So Chen Cui ordered four meat buns and a bowl of porridge, and ate them with the pickled vegetables provided by the store. She ate until her mouth was drooling.

After breakfast, she began to stroll along the main streets of the city.

Of course, this is not just wandering around aimlessly, but rather searching for a goal.

Before leaving the inn, she asked the waiter which grocery stores were nearby and how to get there, and she memorized it all.

The one that came into view was one of them, a grocery store called Huipintang.

Chen Cui felt that it was worthy of being a provincial capital. Even the name of a grocery store sounded so unconventional, as if it were some high-end store.

Huipintang lives up to its name. The shop's facade is more spacious than that of ordinary shops. The five-bay door is open and you can see what's going on inside from the entrance.

Chen Cui walked in and found that the items were quite complete. Almost all the items that ordinary people use in their daily lives were included.

Of course, there is charcoal in the store, and Chen Cui took a rough look and found that there are at least three types of charcoal.

She first carefully examined the types of charcoal before asking about the price.

"Hey, buddy, how much do these kinds of charcoal cost?"

There were two waiters in the shop. One was introducing a new porcelain pillow to the customers, and the other was standing aside, as if waiting for customers' inquiries at any time. Chen Cui was asking the idle waiter, who was standing closer to the charcoal.

"Sister-in-law, there are three kinds of charcoal in our store. The most expensive one is silver charcoal, which costs 15 cents per pound. It is not easy to ignite, but it is very durable, not easy to extinguish and smokeless. The charcoal ash produced by burning is silvery white. This kind of black steel charcoal costs 10 cents per pound. It is made from hardwood, durable and produces less smoke. The cheapest kind of black charcoal is made from loose miscellaneous wood, which costs 5 cents per pound, but it has a short burning time and produces more smoke. Which one do you want?"

In fact, she had noticed it just now. The black steel charcoal was similar to the charcoal they made from burning iron oak, but whether they were exactly the same depended on what the store said.

"Actually, my family makes charcoal, and I wanted to ask if our store accepts charcoal!" Chen Cui stopped beating around the bush and simply stated her purpose.

The waiter was obviously a little surprised. He looked at Chen Cui's clothes and the basket on her back, and said hesitantly: "I can't make the decision on this. You have to ask our shopkeeper."

"Thank you for your help." Chen Cui said quickly.

The clerk nodded, said hello to another clerk, and went out through a small door in the store to the back.

After a while, a middle-aged man with a goatee came in through the small door with a waiter. He was very polite and enthusiastic to Chen Cui, offering her a seat and serving her tea, which made Chen Cui feel flattered.

"Sister-in-law, my surname is Xu, and you are the manager of Huipintang. I wonder where you are from and whether your family is in the charcoal business?" The middle-aged manager Xu was not in a hurry to talk about charcoal. Instead, he first inquired about Chen Cui's background.

"I'm from Yinping County. My family only started burning charcoal in the past two years. The weather is cold this year, and I thought our city should need more charcoal, so I came here to ask." Chen Cui calmly explained her basic situation.

Shopkeeper Xu nodded and said, "Would you mind giving me your charcoal?"

As soon as these words came out, the waiter had already cleverly taken a charcoal brazier and placed it on the ground in front of the two men.

Chen Cui took out a few pieces of charcoal from her backpack and placed them in the charcoal basin.

Shopkeeper Xu took one of them and observed its texture carefully. Seeing that the wood was fine and dense, he broke it open with both hands. There was a crisp sound and the broken cross-section was intact without any breaks. Then he threw them into the charcoal basin.

The young man glanced at Manager Xu, and when he nodded, he took out a flint and some straw paper to light the charcoal.

When Shopkeeper Xu saw that the charcoal was easily lit and emitted a red light, he couldn't help but nodded, thinking that this charcoal was good.

While waiting for the charcoal fire to burn, Shopkeeper Xu seemed to be chatting with Chen Cui from time to time, but in fact he was asking hints about the situation in her family.

Unfortunately, although Chen Cui was dressed in rustic clothes, she was not the ignorant village woman he thought she was. She said what she should say and what she shouldn't say without revealing a single word.

Shopkeeper Xu is also a veteran, and although he was a little disappointed that he failed to get the truth out of the man, he didn't show it on his face and still had a kind look on his face.

After a while, someone came over from behind to report something that needed to be handled by Manager Xu. He apologized, went to the back, and signaled with his eyes to let the waiter keep an eye on the charcoal basin.

Chen Cui didn't care. Whether he really had something to do or was just too impatient to sit with a peasant woman like her, she didn't really care.

What she cared about was whether their store would accept her charcoal and at what price.

Now it seems that the store needs charcoal, otherwise the owner of a big store would not condescend to sit with a peasant woman like me for so long.

While Chen Cui casually looked at the dazzling array of merchandise in the store, she was thinking about her future countermeasures, imagining the attitude of the shopkeeper and how she would respond.

Chen Cui didn't have to wait too long. As soon as the charcoal burned out, Manager Xu appeared. The two sat opposite each other again and began a formal confrontation.