A tragic journey through ancient times, trying to make money

"Okay." Zhang Yunyue filled a bamboo bowl with about half a pound of chili oil for the uncle and placed it aside.

"Uncle, it's ready. I'll put it aside for you. When you finish eating here, remember to take it away when you go back."

"Okay, I won't forget. Here, Miss Yueyue, 30 cents. Keep it. I'll come back to buy more after you finish eating."

The weather has been getting hotter these days, so even though we brought a lot of mung bean jelly and cold noodles today, they were still sold out by noon.

"Uncle, Aunt, after we finish cleaning up, let's go to the grocery store first. We need to buy 10 more basins, otherwise we may not have enough to fill tonight."

"I know this. We'll go there after we finish packing."

After all the items are loaded into the wheelbarrow and the backpack, the stall is also cleaned.

Zhang Yunyue and three others pushed a wheelbarrow towards the grocery store.

"Uncle Xie, I'm here again. I'm here to buy another pot, and I want 20 kilograms of vegetable oil."

"Yueyue, come in quickly and choose. The pots are all here."

"Thank you, uncle. I want fifteen of this size basin."

"Okay, but Yueyue, didn't you just buy several two days ago? Why did you buy so many again this time?"

"There's not enough at home, so I'm going to prepare more this time."

"Okay, wait a minute, I'll get it out for you."

Uncle Xie took out all fifteen pots and wanted to tie them all on the wheelbarrow, but it turned out that the wheelbarrow was not enough after only three of them.

Uncle Xie: "Yueyue, I have a wheelbarrow in my grocery store, which is also used to deliver goods. Your car can no longer fit it. Please use my car to send it back first, and then send it back to me tomorrow."

"Okay, thank you for your trouble, uncle. We will send it back to you tomorrow morning."

Uncle Xie went to the back of the grocery store and took out the wheelbarrow, and together with Zhang Cheng, he tied all the remaining basins to the wheelbarrow.

Zhang Yunyue handed 180 coins to Uncle Xie. After buying the basin, Zhang Yunyue thought that the amount of mung bean jelly tomorrow would be large, and a lot of chili oil would be needed, so he decided to go to the oil mill to buy vegetable oil.

"Uncle, there's not much chili oil left. I need to make more. The vegetable oil at home is almost gone. I have to go to the oil mill to buy some more vegetable oil today."

"We have to buy more, otherwise there won't be any chili to go with all the mung bean jelly tomorrow. Let's go straight to the oil mill."

Arrived at the oil mill.

Zhang Yunyue said to the boss who was busy at the oil mill:

"Boss, I want thirty kilograms of vegetable oil, packed in the pottery jars in your store, thank you."

The oil mill owner said: "Okay, wait a moment, my dear. The pottery jars in our workshop are big and small. If you want 30 jin, you can choose this one that can hold 10 jin directly. Two will do. They are 10 wen each and are convenient to put in the backpack. Otherwise, the small one can only hold jin."

"Then, boss, I'll buy 40 kilograms of vegetable oil, and I'll need two -kilogram pottery jars."

"Okay, I'll install it for you right away."

The oil mill owner took out two clay jars each holding 20 kilograms of oil, weighed the jars before filling them, and then started pouring oil into them. When the two jars were almost filled, the oil mill owner weighed the two jars again, and only stopped when the vegetable oil was exactly 40 kilograms.

The oil mill owner put the two filled oil cans in the backpacks carried by Zhang Yunyue and the others, and spent another 600 coins at the oil mill.

Finally, Zhang Cheng pushed his own wheelbarrow, Zhu pushed the wheelbarrow from Uncle Xie's grocery store, and Zhang Yunyue and Zhang Xinghao each carried an oil can filled with 20 kilograms of vegetable oil and walked home.

The group of four returned home.

"Finally home." Zhang Yunyue entered the yard, put down the backpack, and spread it on the lounge chair in the middle of the yard.

The rest of the people did the same. When they got home, they put their wheelbarrows and backpacks on the ground and sat on the benches in the yard.

Normally, they come back empty-handed, with at most some stuff on the wheelbarrow, but today, everyone came back carrying something on their backs or pushing something on their wheels.

Even though I stopped to rest for a while, I was still much more tired than when I came back a few days ago.

When Zhang's mother saw several people collapse on the stools as soon as they entered the yard, and then looked at the things they brought back, she felt distressed.

He hurried to the main room and brought out some water to quench everyone's thirst.

"Come on, drink some water, quench your thirst, and rest for a while before eating."

After Zhang Yunyue and the other three drank some water and rested for a while, they finally recovered with the cool breeze blowing in from the yard.

While they were resting, Zhang's mother brought out the food from the kitchen and placed it on the table in the yard.

"It's almost time to rest. You must be hungry now. The food is ready. Come and eat."

The four of them then sat down at the table and began to eat. Zhang Yunyue thought that next time he might as well not come back to eat, but eat in town at noon before coming back, or bring lunch from home, otherwise he would be tired and hungry every time he came back.

However, Zhang Yunyue thought that she should talk about it tomorrow and eat first.

I was delayed in town today as I was buying pots and cooking oil. When I got back it was already noon and the rest of the family had finished their naps.

After dinner.

Everyone gathered in the main hall again. Because they bought basins and cooking oil today, they brought back fewer copper coins. However, after counting, they still had more than 700 coins left, which was still good.

After counting the copper coins, Zhang Yunyue, Zhang Cheng and his wife, and Zhang Xinghao all washed up and went back to their room for a nap.

Grandpa Zhang watched Zhang Yunyue and the others go for a nap, and prepared to go out to see which families in the village had green beans, dried chilies and peanuts for sale.

Early this morning, the people in the Zhang family were busy grinding mung bean milk. A lot of mung beans were soaked last night, so it took two or three hours to grind the milk this morning. Four large basins were used to hold the mung bean milk.

So Grandpa Zhang didn’t have time to go to the village to ask in the morning, so he could only go now.

"Wait until they fall asleep. I'll go to the village to see which families have mung beans and then ask them to send them over. Last time, Zhang Lei's father said that his family has several dozen kilograms, and Lao Qi's family at the head of the village has one or two hundred kilograms. I'll ask them to send them over first, and then check with other families. We have an agreement with these two families last time."

Zhang Xingyun stood up and said to Grandpa Zhang: "Grandpa, I will go with you."

"Okay, Xiaoyun will come with you. If anything happens later, I can still help you. Let's go."

Grandpa Zhang and Zhang Xingyun went to Zhang Lei's house first. His house was not far from Old Zhang's house, and they had agreed before to buy their house first.

Grandpa Zhang and Zhang Xingyun walked to the door of Zhang Lei's house and saw Zhang Lei playing with stones:

"Leizi, is your father home?"

Zhang Lei looked at Grandpa Zhang and Zhang Xingyun at the gate and said, "Grandpa Zhang, my father is at home. Please come in and sit down first. I will go to the house to call my father."

Zhang Lei let Shitou play by himself and then ran to the inner room.

"Dad, Grandpa Zhang is here. He wants you. Come out quickly."