The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

Zhang Ping'an helped his father unload the things. It was still early and there were not many people at the market, mainly people selling vegetables and food.

Zhang Laoer felt sorry for his son who had to get up early in the morning, and said, "Son, why don't you sleep in my arms for a while? We can't go home until the gathering is over at noon!"

"No, Dad, I'm not sleepy anymore. I'll sit next to you and help you sell things." Zhang Pingan replied sweetly. He woke up from his sleepiness and couldn't fall asleep now. It would be better to accompany his father and let him cool down. Hehe!

"You, what are you doing here?!" Zhang Laoer smiled helplessly, but with his son by his side, he did feel that things were much easier.

Unlike food, which people buy every day and can last for a long time without breaking, bamboo utensils have a low replacement rate. The father and son waited until daybreak before a middle-aged woman came to ask about the bamboo hat.

"How much is this?" the middle-aged woman asked after taking the hat in her hand and looking at it carefully.

"Sister, this eight-cent coin is made of bamboo as thick as a bowl. I weaved it tightly so it can be used for a long time," Zhang Laoer replied with a smile.

"This is too expensive. I didn't buy the one that was selling for six cents just now," the middle-aged woman bargained.

"Goods are different from each other. Take a closer look. Mine is indeed solid. This bamboo hat is not big, but it requires a lot of skill and is not easy to make. I really can't sell it for six cents," Zhang Laoer explained with a good temper.

"Forget it, I don't want it anymore," the middle-aged woman put down her hat and left.

"Dad, are we selling this stuff so cheap? You work so hard, chopping, grinding and weaving it, and you only sell it for 8 cents!" Zhang Ping'an felt a little sorry for his father.

"Oh, it's nothing. It's okay if I work hard. It's good enough if I can sell it." Zhang Laoer still smiled.

"Aren't you angry about the bargaining that the aunt just made? It's obvious that our things are better."

"Bargaining is normal. I'd be so angry every day that I can't handle it. Besides, you said it yourself, our products are obviously better. If she wants to buy sincerely, she'll come back." Zhang Laoer was calm and composed. He had met all kinds of people in his years of selling things, so it was nothing.

Zhang Ping'an actually understood this truth. In his previous life, when he was helping the orphanage to sell goods at charity sales, he would also meet all kinds of people. However, his father had really shed blood and sweat to make this bamboo craft. He didn't know how many times his hands had been cut. In the end, he had to bargain over the price to sell it for a few cents.

For a moment he was depressed.

Fortunately, more and more people came, and Zhang Laoer soon opened his shop and sold a few winnowing baskets and scoops, which he bought to prepare for the busy farming season.

"Dad, did you guess it, so you brought extra winnowing baskets and other things?" Zhang Pingan asked.

"Yes, the busy farming season is coming soon, so these will sell better," Zhang Laoer was very happy about the opening of the shop and replied with a smile. Besides, these are more expensive than bamboo hats, so they are very good today.

"Dad, you're so awesome!" Zhang Ping'an immediately followed up with flattery.

"What's so great about Dad? I've been selling for so many years, how could he not know these things?" Zhang Laoer felt a little embarrassed by the praise, but he felt happy in his heart.

"Dad, after we finish selling, can you accompany me to sell my things?" Zhang Pingan smiled and gave Zhang Laoer a back massage.

"Are these your honeysuckle? You brought those here too," asked Zhang Laoer. He knew that his son took Jinbao to tinker with honeysuckle, cicada shells and the like every day.

"Yes, that's it. Can we go and ask?" Zhang Ping'an prayed.

"Can those be sold? They are everywhere in the village, and there are only a few of them, not a large quantity," Zhang Laoer asked doubtfully, but he did not want to discourage his child. He really loved his son to the core.

"Just go with me and take a look!"

"Okay, when I'm done with my work, I'll accompany you to the pharmacy to ask. Don't cry if you can't sell it," Zhang Laoer agreed with his son in advance.

"I definitely won't cry!" Zhang Ping'an vowed.

Zhang Laoer took out a pancake from his pocket and gave it to his son. The father and son ate it first. Zhang Laoer was still worried about his child, so he bought his son a bowl of eggnog, which is rice wine mixed with eggs, boiled water, and sugar. It tastes sweet. This bowl cost three cents. Zhang Pingan was heartbroken. His father worked so hard to earn money, so this was really a bit extravagant.

The two of them pushed each other and shared the drink. Zhang Laoer felt very happy. His son was so filial at such a young age. Few children in the village could compare to him.

When the crowd dispersed at noon, Zhang Laoer tied the unsold items back to the donkey cart, and the father and son walked towards the clinic together.

Ji'an Hall was the largest clinic in town. At noon, the number of patients was low, with only a few patients and doctors and pharmacists present. Zhang Laoer parked his donkey cart in front of the door, and soon a pharmacist came up to him and asked, "Brother, are you here to see a doctor?"

"No, no, no, it's my son's business if he doesn't treat the disease," Zhang Laoer said, waving his hands. But he felt it difficult to say that he was here to sell herbs. Just these two or three pounds were not enough for anything!

Seeing his father hesitating and blushing, Zhang Ping'an simply stepped forward and said crisply, "Hello, we're not here to see a doctor. I just dried a few pounds of herbs and want to sell them. Can you buy them?"

The little medicine boy was surprised for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "I can't make the decision on this. I have to ask the head doctor. But we have our own fixed place to get herbs."

"Then can we go in and ask?" Zhang Pingan asked, still wanting to try again.

"Okay, come in with me!" Xiao Yaotong was not very old, and he led the two of them in, and was quite polite and courteous.

Zhang Ping'an observed the situation inside the store. Both the doctor and the pharmacist were dressed neatly, in good spirits, with gentle eyes. This clinic should be quite good.

"Doctor Qu, this father and son want to sell herbal medicine. What do you think?" The medicine boy respectfully asked a middle-aged doctor who was changing the ointment for a patient.

"Oh? What are you selling?" The doctor surnamed Qu asked without stopping his work, his tone quite gentle.

"I sell cicada shells, snake skins, and honeysuckle," Zhang Ping'an took the initiative to step forward and replied.

"Then you guys take a seat for a while until I'm done."

"Okay, Doctor Qu, you go ahead and do your work. We're not in a hurry," Zhang Laoer replied stiffly. This was his first time coming to the clinic in his life, and to be honest, he was a little nervous.

After waiting for about half a minute, Doctor Qu finished his work. A little medicine boy brought water over to wash his hands. Doctor Qu looked up while wiping his hands and said, "Bring out the herbs so I can see them."

Zhang Ping'an was overjoyed and quickly took out the cloth bag. He held it in his arms all the way, just like a treasure.

Doctor Qu took it and looked at it, then took out the small bag of honeysuckle, handed the remaining snake skin and cicada shell to the little medicine boy, and said, "Weigh the cicada shell."

Zhang Pingan looked at Doctor Qu expectantly after hearing this.

"Did you find all these? Where do you live?" Doctor Qu asked while stroking his beard with a smile.

"Well, I found them all myself. Our home is in Zhangjia Village below the town. It's the first house you see when you enter the village. I heard from the old people in the village that cicada and snake skins are both medicinal herbs." Zhang Ping'an nodded and replied.

"Yes, both of them can be used as medicine. Honeysuckle is also a suitable herbal medicine for clearing away heat and reducing internal heat. However, we have our own fixed supply channels, and we will not easily accept herbs whose details we do not know."

"Ah..." Zhang Ping'an's eyebrows drooped visibly. Didn't he ask the medicine boy to go and get on the scale?

"But I see the snake skins you brought are quite intact, and the cicada skins are also of good quality. These two are hard to find, and the pharmacy happens to be short of them right now. There are five snake skins in total, so I'll charge you three cents each, and six cents per pound of cicada skins. Honeysuckle is not worth much, I estimated it's about five pounds, so I'll charge you ten cents for both honeysuckle and gold."

Zhang Ping'an was so shocked that he didn't reply for a moment. "Over five pounds of dried honeysuckle, ten cents? You're not mistaken, I toiled for over two months, picking twenty or thirty pounds to dry, and that's all it's worth? And then there's the cicada sloughs, three or four hundred of them make up one pound, so at best it's three pounds. That means he'd worked all summer with Jinbao for less than fifty cents...

God, money is so hard to make!!!