Farmhouse Green Plum

They arrived at the county safely. Uncle Song took the eels to find a wealthy businessman he knew, while Daya and others accompanied Li to sell eggs.

The egg market is on West Street, not far from the city gate. Follow the main road into the city to the first fork in the road, turn left into the alley, and at the end you can see a large archway standing there.

There were two big characters engraved on the plaques on the second floor of the middle gate of the archway. Daya was illiterate, but she heard from others that they were the words "Zhuangyuan", so the West Street Market was also called Zhuangyuan Archway.

She was patient and finally accompanied Li to sell the duck eggs at noon. Li was going to help Xiaoxiang choose meat and buy tofu for Lai Di's family. Daya suggested: "I will go find my second uncle and ask him how long it will take."

As she said this, she glanced at Xiaoxiang.

Li did not object, but only instructed: "Go quickly and come back soon."

Xiaoxiang was quick-witted and said, "There are too many people in the market, and I can't squeeze in with the basket on my back. Daya, please help me carry it first."

"Okay." Daya agreed while glancing at Li's expression. Seeing that she had no doubts or objections, she felt relieved.

After Xiaoxiang reminded her, Li was worried about the beggars, so she said, "Take your little brother with you, hold him tightly, and don't let him get lost."

Daya agreed, took Song Yuan around a corner, and immediately went to the clinic.

"Sister, this doesn't seem like the way to find Daddy, right?"

Uncle Song has regular customers for selling eels. Although Song Yuan is young, he has come here many times and has memorized the route. When he saw Daya turning into an unfamiliar street, he hurriedly asked.

Daya looked around the crowd and made sure there was no one she knew, then she lowered her voice and said, "Let's go to the clinic and sell medicine."

Song Yuan's eyes lit up instantly, and he looked at the basket on Daya's back belatedly: "The medicine is in the basket? When did you put it there? How come I didn't know about it?"

As he spoke, he pulled at the backpack and stretched his neck to look inside through the gap.

Daya thought to herself: If a little kid like you can see through this, then what's the point of talking about making money by selling medicine today? I'll just get a beating.

But he said seriously, "Be quiet, don't let anyone see you."

Song Yuan immediately withdrew his hand, looked straight ahead, tried to maintain a serious face, swung his arms and took steps, looking heroic and high-spirited.

It's just the same hands and feet, which makes people want to laugh.

Soon, when they arrived at the clinic, Daya went straight to the medicine boy and smiled brightly: "Little brother, do you still remember me?"

The medicine boy smiled and said, "Of course I remember."

People come and go in the clinic, most of them paying money. She is the first one who wants to sell medicine to the patients' families in the clinic, so it is hard for the pharmacist not to have a deep impression of her.

Daya put down the backpack and pushed it in front of him: "I'm here to sell medicine."

"So fast?" The medicine boy was surprised. Only one day had passed and the efficiency was too high.

Daya smiled sheepishly, "My friends and I picked them when we had some time. My parents happened to be coming to the county today, so we came together."

The medicine boy quickly suppressed his surprise and said, "Wait a moment, I'll let the master know and I'll weigh it for you."

There were many people coming into the city at the market today, and the clinic was also busy. It took about a quarter of an hour for the medicine boy to come back and take out the medicine scale to weigh it for them.

"Our clinic's purchase price is 2 wen for 2 jin. This bag is a little over 2 jin, and the other two bags are less. So, I'll charge you 3 jin each, which is wen in total."

Although it was much less than expected, Daya was still very happy because it was the first time she made money.

And this is only what they earn from picking the food once. If they pick the food every day, they will earn 365 copper coins a year!

No, if you can have more time and pick more in a day, you can earn more than 365 coins, 400 coins, 500 coins, or even one or two taels of silver!

Seeing that she was not disappointed but had a pair of bright eyes that burst with infinite hope, the medicine boy couldn't help but sigh that life is not easy for children from poor families.

Not even a penny is enough for daily pocket money for many children in the city.

Sighing, he handed three copper coins to the girl and took out a herb from the medicine basket beside him: "This is plantain. Our clinic is out of stock recently, so the purchase price can be higher than usual."

Daya's eyes lit up, and she took it and carefully identified it. As usual, she asked about various details such as the growing environment, and tried hard to recall whether there was anything like this in the "weeds" she had seen before.

After recognizing the plantain and thanking her again and again, Daya took Song Yuan away. Just as they walked a short distance, Song Yuan shouted anxiously, "Sister, candy, candy! Let's go buy some candy!"

Daya suppressed her excitement and said, "Let's go find your father first. We have already wasted a long time. If grandma asks about it later, she will be suspicious."

"Okay." Song Yuan pouted and agreed reluctantly.

The place where the rich people lived was quiet and there were not many pedestrians. Daya and her brother quickly found their ox cart at the door of Mr. Qian's kitchen.

Next to the ox cart, Uncle Song was sitting on a long bench with one foot, bending over and concentrating on cutting open a yellow eel.

With skillful movements, he gently nailed the eel's head to the bench with a wooden wedge, then used a bamboo stick to scratch the eel's belly and pull out the internal organs. In this way, the eel was cut open.

At the same time, he was also chatting with the Qian family's kitchen manager.

The steward Daya recognized him. It was said that he and Uncle Song were apprentices in the same blacksmith shop when they were young. Both of them could not bear the hardship of blacksmithing, so Uncle Song returned home to learn how to catch eels. The steward's family was poor, so he sold himself to the Qian family and gradually became the steward in the kitchen from a low-level servant.

Uncle Song was able to sell eels to those rich families because of his connections.

Daya walked forward and greeted the manager, who was of medium build and had thinning hair, and then said to Uncle Song, "Uncle, we have sold out our eggs. Grandma asked when you will be done."

Uncle Song stood up and rubbed his sore waist. "It will take a while. Wait for me near the city gate."

Daya agreed and politely said goodbye to the manager again.

After leaving the Qian Mansion, they ran all the way to the bustling street market. Daya was thinking about the way to the candy shop, while Song Yuan was attracted by the buns on the roadside.

Pulling her sleeve, he said, "Sister, let's eat buns."

Daya followed his gaze and saw plump white buns arranged in an orderly manner in the steaming steamer, with red and yellow oil stains oozing out of the tops. When the wind blew, the strong aroma of meat drifted into her nostrils, and she couldn't help swallowing.

"it is good."

She walked over to the steamer and asked, "Auntie, how much are the buns?"

The lady selling buns had a face as white as a silver plate, as plump and white as the buns she sold, and she was also very friendly.

"Two vegetable buns and sugar buns cost one cent each, and one meat bun costs one cent each."

Daya looked at the steamer. All the buns had yellow oil stains on the top. She couldn't tell them apart. She had no choice but to ask, "Which one is a meat bun? Which one is a vegetable bun? Which one is a sugar bun?"

“This is a meat bun.”

As she spoke, the old lady picked up the top layer, revealing a basket of large buns with some green vegetables on top, "These are vegetable buns."

He then lifted up the top two layers, revealing the buns with brown sugar liquid on top, "These are sugar buns."