Song Sanniang's Journey to Wealth

Song Laoer took out the sweet soup for Qin Haodong and his brother and put it in a basket. Song Sanniang also bought two big buns for them for lunch.

After selling a few portions of sweet soup, the two brothers came back. They both looked clean and neat after washing. Song Sanniang handed them the buns.

"Here, fill your stomach first, so you can have the strength to run later." Qin Haodong took the bun, thanked him and ate it with his brother. After watching the two of them finish eating, he picked up his food and went to the county government office to handle the deed.

Song Sanniang had asked Song Zuen last night about all matters related to the indenture contract, and the Qin Haodong brothers also knew the way to the place where it was handled.

Along the way, the three of them were silent and the atmosphere was a bit awkward.

The county government office was not very big. It looked slightly larger than an ordinary house from the outside. When they entered, a bailiff came up to ask questions. After Song Sanniang reported her purpose, he led the three of them into a room.

There were four tables inside, and someone was working at each table. There were several people waiting in line in front of two of the tables.

The yamen runner took Song Sanniang and the other two to a table where no one was waiting in line, and said to the clerk who was writing furiously, "We are here to process the indenture."

After saying this, he left Song Sanniang and the other two here and then went out.

The clerk with a mustache and a slightly thin face asked, "Which of you three wants to apply for a personal indenture?" He looked a little strange.

Because in the past, those who came to process the indenture were always brought by the human traffickers with their parents, elders, or husbands who had influence in the family. This was the first time I saw several children coming.

Song Sanniang stepped forward and replied, "Your Excellency, I am the buyer. The two brothers are homeless and are willing to sell themselves to my family as slaves in exchange for a full meal. I am here to sign the contract."

The clerk was shocked when he heard this, but he remained calm on the surface. He looked at Qin Haodong and his brother and asked, "Is what she said true? Did you two sell yourselves voluntarily?"

"Sir, we are here voluntarily. Our parents are both dead, and our property has been taken by our stepmother. We are now kicked out of the house and have no food to eat. In order to have a full meal, my brother and I can only sell ourselves."

After listening to Qin Haodong's words, the clerk suddenly remembered something. When he came to file a complaint with the official before, it was considered unfilial for a son to file a complaint against his mother, and he would be caned. However, because she was his stepmother and she also sold his sister, the county magistrate exempted him from punishment because of his kindness for his sister. Unexpectedly, the two of them were kicked out of the house.

The clerk sighed, then asked for names, wealth, etc. and began to draft the document. After a while, he finished it, stamped it with the official seal, and gave it to Song Sanniang and the other two.

"Can you three read? Do you want to sign or put your fingerprints on it?"

"I can't read, so I'll put my fingerprints on it." Song Sanniang replied first.

"My brother and I will also put our fingerprints on it." Although Qin Haodong could write, Song Sanniang put her fingerprints on it, so he and his brother also had to put their fingerprints on it.

The deed reads:

"In the twentieth year of Chen Wu, my elder brother Qin Haodong and younger brother Qin Haonan, due to lack of food, voluntarily sold themselves to be servants under the name of Song Jixiang, and received a gift of twenty taels of silver. They were required to run errands for him, deliver and sell food, and were not allowed to keep the money for themselves. If any of the above is violated, they will be punished without excuse."

After both parties confirmed that it was correct, they put their fingerprints on the document. The document was made in triplicate, with one copy for each party, the buyer, and the government.

By the way, the deed was charged a 5% tax based on the price of the deed, one tael of silver. Yes! One tael, all the money I earned yesterday was spent.

Song Sanniang was heartbroken. One tael of silver could buy everyone in the family a nice set of clothes, and the rest could be used to buy shoes and rice to eat for a month.

She couldn't think about it anymore. Thinking about how they would have to earn it back for her in the future, she forced herself to suppress the heartache.

Qin Haodong and his friend saw with their own eyes the painful expression on Song Sanniang's face when she took out one tael of silver. They were a little nervous. Qin Haodong calculated that if he could sell all the sugar water every day, it would only be 15 cents. He and his brother would have to spend money on food, drink and accommodation. He didn't know when he could make the money back.

"It's okay, just work hard and try to help me earn the money back as soon as possible. I'm counting on you." Song Sanniang clenched her right fist and pulled it down from top to bottom, making a gesture of encouragement to the two of them.

Although the two did not understand what this gesture meant, they both breathed a sigh of relief.

"By the way, I'm telling you two, don't go towards your home. Go to the pier, the private school, and the rich street. Try not to run into that bad woman. If you do, and she wants to do something to you, just come back to me. You are mine now. I'll protect you." Song Sanniang warned worriedly.

Qin Haodong and the other were deeply moved, and Qin Haonan couldn't help but say, "Thank you, Miss Song."

"You are younger than me, so you can just call me Sister Song from now on. I have two younger sisters who are about your age. I will let you two play together when we have the chance."

"Okay, Sister Song."

Song Sanniang watched the two of them leave talking and laughing at the fork in the road, and then she went to the West Market again.

Before entering the West Market, you can see the West Market Archway standing there, and the noise and smoke from the bustling crowds have penetrated through the archway and come out.

Walking into the West Market, what you see is the dense flow of people moving around in the market. On both sides are neatly lined rows of shops, some simply decorated, some luxuriously decorated, all hanging their own signs.

There are some small vendors in front of each store, shouting and selling their wares, and customers are coming in and out, with a constant flow of people.

Perhaps in order to protect the income of shops, stalls outside shops are not allowed to sell the same things as the shops. This protects the shops and avoids vicious competition.

Along the way, there are many kinds of goods in the shops, including salt, rice, wood, wine, fish, meat, oil, cloth and silk, medicinal materials, Guangdong goods, Beijing goods, mountain groceries, food, etc.

Along the way, steamed buns and steamed buns were steaming hot, and the aroma of sesame cakes filled the air. There were also many other foods.

There are also people selling chickens, ducks, geese and pigs. The small animals are put in bamboo cages. The chicks are fluffy, some are yellow, some are yellow-brown, and they are huddled together, making chirping sounds.

The ducks made strange quacking sounds, some piglets grunted and pushed their cages, and some were so scared that they demonstrated in public what it meant to poop a lot.

The small vendors were greeting customers. In order to show their products to customers, they would occasionally reach into the cages to grab chickens, ducks, pigs, etc., which scared the customers so much that they ran away in all directions. The scene was very interesting and Song Sanniang stayed there for a while.

Then walking further down, there are all kinds of vendors selling vegetables, fruits, medicinal herbs, rattan and bamboo handicrafts, rouge, powder and hair ornaments, fortune tellers, and letter writers. It is very lively and bustling.

The straight road split into two branches in the middle. Song Sanniang randomly chose the branch on the right. It had the same layout as the main street, with shops on both sides. There were no stalls in the narrow branch, and the main road was paved with bluestone slabs.

Before you reach the end of the road, you can see the open dock connecting to the end. Workers on the dock are busy moving goods, boatmen are stopping and starting boats and shouting orders, and small vendors are walking around hawking their wares.

There are also large and small boats docked at the shore. A little away from the boats, there is a bustling fish market where freshly caught fish are sold.

Each bucket was filled with fish, shrimps, crabs and clams. From time to time, a fish would roll in the water, trying to jump out, accidentally splashing the passers-by. Some guests could only consider themselves unlucky, while others simply stopped and bought the lively and short-lived fish.

The stall owners who have business swiftly chop the fish head with a knife, then gut the fish, scrape off the scales, rinse it, and then cut it into thin slices as thin as a cicada's wing for sashimi, or into thin slices for stir-frying, or chop it into pieces according to the customers' requirements. It is a breathtaking sight.

Song Sanniang was almost done with what she had seen. In such a huge market, from beginning to end, there were a few people selling tofu pudding, jelly and mung bean soup with baskets on their shoulders. From time to time, workers who were sweating profusely from the heat would come to buy a bowl of these to quench their thirst.

Song Sanniang felt that there was a lot to be done in the West Market, but her target was not these workers. These workers only earned a hard-earned living by moving things up and down the street all day. Who would be willing to spend most of their money on a bowl of sweet soup?

Her clients were the merchants who came and went. They were wealthy, and a bowl of sweet soup at ten cents was just a casual tip for their servants.

Having made up her mind, Song Sanniang went to find the yamen runners of the West Market to learn about the stall settings in the West Market, and then returned to the East Market.