Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Seeing that some people were buying, and that the vendor was giving generous amounts and even extra, the onlookers started ordering one or two pounds at a time. Xia Yu and Chang Yun were responsible for collecting money and remembering how much each person ordered. The deposit for the shrimp would be paid separately when weighing them. People have this herd mentality; for the first half hour, no one bought anything, but once a crowd gathered, some people became curious about what was going on and came over to take a look. Many well-off families, seeing the large shrimp, were also curious and, seeing everyone else buying, they bought some too. A bucket of forty pounds of shrimp sold out in less than half an hour. Xia Yu quickly reached into an empty bucket behind them when no one was looking, and instantly dozens of pounds of shrimp and more than half a bucket of water appeared inside.

Because of the large crowd gathered around them, the business of several vegetable stalls nearby also improved significantly. The old woman who lent them her scales, seeing how busy their business was, felt embarrassed to ask for them back. So she simply divided the vegetables into piles, charging two coins per pile, and told them to choose whichever pile they wanted. Xia Yu and Chang Yun, seeing the old woman's actions, felt a little apologetic. After whispering a few words to each other, the siblings decided to give the old woman a pound of shrimp as a token of their gratitude for lending them the scales.

Later, not only were there people buying shrimp, but also people returning items one after another. Xia Yu and Chang Yun were even busier, not only collecting money but also remembering the deposits for the bowls and basins people were returning. The two buckets of shrimp weighed about sixty or seventy catties, and the group worked for almost two hours. Most people bought half a catty or a catty at a time; very few bought two catties like the second customer, so there weren't many shrimp, but it was still quite a busy time. There were still about two catties left in the second bucket. When Liu returned the scale, she gave the vegetable vendor a catty of shrimp as a gift. The vendor was clearly pleasantly surprised, probably because she hadn't expected to get a catty of shrimp in return for just borrowing someone's scale. She had been listening attentively by the plate; a catty cost thirty coins.

"Oh dear, I can't accept this. I'm just borrowing the scale for a little while; how could I possibly exchange it for so many shrimp? Please take them home for your children," the woman said, declining the offer.

"Auntie, take this back for your family to try. We still have some at home!" Liu Shi sincerely wanted to give it to the old woman, and seeing that she couldn't refuse, she accepted it.

After waiting a while longer and confirming that all the basins and bowls had been returned, the group prepared to go to the town's restaurants to see if they could sell some more. As before, her father carried two buckets, Liu carried one, and Xia Yu and Changyun carried the remaining miscellaneous items. They first went to the nearest restaurant, Haoyunlai. It was late noon, and perhaps because it was past lunchtime, there were only a few scattered customers on the first floor. Zhang Youtie placed the buckets on the ground opposite the restaurant, telling his mother and children to wait outside, while he carried the bucket containing over a pound of shrimp towards the restaurant's entrance. The waiter at the door saw someone approaching and quickly greeted them with a smile. However, upon seeing Zhang Youtie's attire, his smile instantly faded. Still maintaining some professional ethics, despite noticing Zhang Youtie's poor clothing, he forced a smile and said, "Esteemed guest, would you like to have a meal?"

Zhang Youtie clasped his hands in a fist and said to him, "Young man, my family has some prawns. I was wondering if your restaurant would like some?"

The waiter sighed inwardly, "So they're not here to give money, they're here to make money." However, he couldn't make the decision himself and had to ask the manager. So he said to Zhang Youtie, "Brother, please wait a moment, I'll go get the manager." He then turned and went inside to fetch the manager. Zhang Youtie could only wait at the door. After a while, a man dressed in a golden brocade robe, with a gold hairpin as thick as a finger in his hair and a gold abacus larger than his palm hanging from his waist, appeared. Xia Yu and the others, being farther away, couldn't see as clearly as Zhang Youtie, but the dazzling gold was overwhelming.

He walked up to Zhang Youtie, clasped his hands in a respectful greeting, and before he even spoke, a smile appeared on his face. "Brother, I heard you have some prawns you'd like to sell."

"Yes, it's fresh, and as long as my palm."

"Oh? Such big shrimp? Are they in the bucket?" the shopkeeper asked.

"Yes, that's right," Zhang Youtie said, opening the lid of the wooden bucket. The shrimp inside were quite cooperative, jumping out as soon as the lid was opened. Zhang Youtie reached out and grabbed two to show the shopkeeper.

"It's not small, but there's too little in your bucket; it's not enough for our needs."

"There's still some in that bucket over there, but I don't know how much our restaurant needs?"

"How much is it?" the shopkeeper asked in return.

"We just sold it for thirty coins at the market," Zhang Youtie said truthfully, without giving him a higher price.

"Thirty coins, that's not cheap. How much do you have? We brought about forty catties left today."

"You brought another forty catties today. Do you mean you have more at home?" The shopkeeper was also shrewd and immediately seized on the loophole in Zhang Youtie's words.

"Um, there's still some at home, but not much."

"It's a pity you came too late today. If you had come in the morning, I could have taken more. Now it's only evening, so please save ten pounds for me!"

"Alright, thank you for your patronage, shopkeeper."

Xia Yu followed her father's hand gesture, opened one of the buckets, put in over ten kilograms of shrimp and some water, and added a few drops of her spatial water. When her father came to pick up the bucket, Xia Yu whispered a reminder: "Dad, tell them not to throw away the water in this bucket. If we don't sell all the shrimp today, they can live a few more days in this water."

"Okay, I know," Zhang Youtie said, then took the bucket to the restaurant to weigh it.

Xia Yu and the others were standing outside, bored. Yu noticed a wonton stall near the plate and, remembering that they had only been busy selling shrimp and the family hadn't eaten yet, said to Liu Shi, "Mother, I'm hungry. I want to eat those wontons."

Liu turned her head and saw the wonton stall, which was only a few steps away from where they were standing and could also see the entrance of the restaurant. So she took her son and daughter over and prepared to let the children eat something first.

"Auntie, two bowls of wontons, please," Liu said to the stall owner.

"Mom, why only two bowls? There are four of us," Xia Yu asked, puzzled.

"You two eat first, I'll wait for your father," Liu said to her daughter, smoothing a strand of hair from her temple.

"Dad and the others have already agreed on the price. Going in is just a matter of weighing them; they'll be out quickly. Let's cook it all together so it'll be ready to eat when Dad comes out."

"Alright then," he said, then turned to the shop owner and said, "Would you please cook us four bowls of wontons, ma'am?"

"Okay, I'll start cooking now. You all can sit down and rest for a while." The old lady at the wonton stall was very happy that there were still customers at this hour.

"Old man, come back quickly, stop talking, we have guests!" the old woman called out to an old man who was talking to someone at another stall.

Upon hearing the voice, an elderly man who had been facing away from them turned around and glanced over, seemingly to confirm if they were calling him. He then stood up and walked over.

He first scooped a ladle of water from a bucket and washed his hands. Seeing his actions, Xia Yu and Liu Shi couldn't help but nod. The boss seemed to be a meticulous and efficient person, and clean.

The mother and her children whispered amongst themselves. Xia Yu said there were still several hundred pounds of shrimp in the pond, and they wanted to sell them in the county town; they couldn't sell enough in the town. Chang Yun said, "What if someone asks where all those shrimp came from? What are we supposed to say? We can't just say we caught them in the river every time, can we? There aren't that many big shrimp for us to catch; nobody else can!" They murmured amongst themselves, afraid of being overheard. However, Chang Yun's words had struck a chord with her. If she could justify the shrimp's origin, no one would question how many shrimp she sold in the future.

Just then, the old man brought out the cooked wontons in large, coarse porcelain bowls. Each bowl contained more than twenty large wontons, their wrappers thin and translucent, revealing the pink meat filling inside. The soup contained dried shrimp, chopped scallions, and a few drops of sesame oil. The aroma made my already hungry stomach rumble even louder.

Ignoring the heat, she scooped up a wonton with her spoon and took a bite, only to burn herself. She couldn't swallow the piece of wonton in her mouth, yet she didn't want to spit it out, so she just kept turning it around on her tongue while breathing out air, trying to cool it down. Seeing her like this, Liu felt both sorry for her and amused. "Eat slowly, no one will take it from you," she said, pouring a bowl of cool boiled water from the kettle on the table and feeding it to her.

"Father, we're here!" Changyun suddenly stood up, waving his hand and shouting loudly. It turned out that Zhang Youtie was carrying two buckets out of the restaurant.