89: Chapter 78: Saliva Flows Profusely 89: Chapter 78: Saliva Flows Profusely Manbao hugged her eldest brother’s neck and said, “Big brother, we earned a lot of money today.”

Zhou Dalang thought of the money he had spent just now on buying cotton and fabric, and his face turned a bit bitter, “We also spent quite a bit.”

“We earned five hundred wen selling Chinese yams.”

Zhou Dalang was stunned and quickly asked, “Who did you sell them to?”

“We sold them to the county magistrate’s family,” Zhou Wulang promptly took out his share of the money to hand over, “Twenty wen per jin, a total of twenty-five jin and a bit, Manbao let them off the extra, and even gave them an additional Chinese yam.”

Zhou Dalang frowned and said, “Isn’t that swindling people, raw ones are only twenty wen.”

Zhou Wulang hung his head and said in a low voice, “The county magistrate also charged us an entry fee into the city.”

Manbao completely agreed but couldn’t say that to her elder brother, so she whispered, “Big brother, fresh Chinese yams are rare items, and we still sold them too cheap.”

She gave him a simple summary of what Keke had said, leaving Zhou Dalang dumbfounded.

He never expected such a huge price difference in the trade of medicinal herbs, and he couldn’t help asking, “Did you hear clearly, the dried Chinese yams sold at the pharmacy, one qian for one wen?”

Manbao nodded; Keke wouldn’t deceive her.

Zhou Dalang felt his heart pounding wildly, uttering, “My goodness, how much would that be for a jin?”

Anyway, he couldn’t figure it out.

Manbao said, “About one hundred and sixty wen, I guess.”

Zhou Dalang felt a painful sting.

As if thinking he wasn’t in enough pain, Manbao continued, “The herbs mother picked include ligustrum, I’ve seen the prescription, there are eight kinds in total that mother got from the county town for twenty wen, and the ligustrum costs three qian, and I heard the most expensive among mother’s herbs is dong quai.”

Zhou Dalang did some calculations and felt ligustrum shouldn’t be cheap, but it was only fifty wen per jin.

Zhou Dalang then said, “Next time we’ll prepare mother’s medicine ourselves.”

Manbao had suggested this as well, and at the time her sister-in-law had even scolded her for it, so now she mercilessly teased her elder brother, “Our family only has one kind of herb, and other people’s medicines are mixed in prescriptions, who buys just one kind at a time?”

Zhou Dalang fell silent and stopped talking.

Zhou Erlang felt a bit uncomfortable too, but he was more open-minded and said, “People earn their money with skills, as Manbao said, transporting and delivering these herbs also cost quite a bit, let alone the risks involved, and doesn’t running a pharmacy require having a doctor on site?”

Zhou Erlang was quite envious, “That’s the benefit of having skills, as Uncle used to say, everything in the world can belong to someone else, but the skills you learn will always be your own.”

Zhou Dalang nodded, then thought about it and glared at him.

Manbao, who was already curiously asking, “Second Brother, which uncle are you talking about, his words make so much sense, after we return to the village, I want to discuss them with him.”

Zhou Erlang gave a forced smile and said, “You heard wrong, it wasn’t Uncle, it was the Chief who said that, and he’s a big official, you should keep your distance when you see him later, understand?”

Manbao muttered dissatisfiedly, “I’m not deaf, you clearly said it was Uncle.”

But Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang didn’t give her a chance to ask again, they simply picked her up, placed her on the handcart, and pushed the cart away.

After walking a good distance, Manbao remembered, “Big Brother, Second Brother, I haven’t bought you any sesame cakes to eat.”

The brothers laughed and said, “We’re not hungry, and besides, the county town isn’t far from home, we’ll get there quickly if we hurry.”

How could it not be far?

Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang stuffed the little bit of dry food they had left into their brothers’ mouths; well, it filled their stomachs a bit, at least.

The return trip seemed lighter.

Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang were sensible too, taking turns helping their brothers push the cart, with Manbao and her four nephews and nieces taking turns sitting on the cart, which wasn’t particularly heavy.

It just required quite a bit of effort going uphill.

So Manbao always found various excuses to slide off the cart, insisting on walking.

Zhou Dalang and his brothers all thought she was very understanding, knowing she cared for them, but they also cared for her as she was still young.

Little did they know how happy Manbao was, looking for places with grass by the roadside to let Keke scan the flowers and plants that had not been recorded, and sure enough, she plucked a fair amount along the way, secretly stashing them for Keke whenever no one was paying attention.

Everyone was used to Manbao’s habit of pulling and plucking at plants.

Ever since she was a child, she would tug at even the ugliest flower along the road, sometimes even insisting on uprooting someone’s flower and then tossing it away after playing with it for a short while.

Several times, she even wandered into other people’s vegetable gardens, mistaking vegetables for weeds and pulling them up, so it wasn’t only the Zhou Family that knew about Manbao’s habit, it was well-known throughout the village.

Thus, no one was surprised as she cheerfully made her way to both sides of the road, diving into the woods one moment to tug at a plant, and the next moment to pull off a piece of a branch.

They returned home amidst laughter and chatter.

Not only were the Zhou brothers hungry, but Manbao was too, so as soon as they arrived, she rushed into the kitchen, clamoring for Junior Ms.

Qian to prepare dinner.

Junior Ms.

Qian glanced at the sun still high in the sky and couldn’t help saying, “Who eats dinner at this hour?

If the young mistress is hungry, may I bake a pancake for you?”

“And there’s Big Brother and Second Brother.”

Junior Ms.

Qian also felt for them, but the family had just sold two bags of grain recently; they had to eat sparingly.

Inside the house, having heard about the money earned today from Dalang, Ms.

Qian called out, “Since the children are hungry, let’s put on the pot and cook rice, dry rice, cook extra for a little later to make porridge and fill our stomachs, let’s have dinner earlier today.”

The children cheered, and even Zhou Wulang was particularly eager to help in the kitchen.

Junior Ms.

Qian quickly shooed the boys out, saying, “Please don’t make a mess.”

She let Daya and Erya into the kitchen to help with making the fire and cooking.

Manbao went to fetch the mutton, bouncing over to hand it to Junior Ms.

Qian, “Sister-in-law, we’re having mutton today, stewed with Chinese yams.”

“What are Chinese yams?”

Zhou Wulang brought out the Chinese yam, boasting about how amazing it was and how much money it had earned them, claiming it was something only the rich could afford to eat.

Junior Ms.

Qian was astonished, “Medicine is always partly toxic, why eat it if we’re not sick?”

“This is medicine that can be used as food,” Manbao said, “and it’s quite delicious.”

Junior Ms.

Qian asked her, “Have you eaten it?”

Manbao drooled and shook her head while in her mind Keke cheekily brought up several images from an encyclopedia collection of meals made with Chinese yams, all looking sumptuous, especially chicken stewed with Chinese yams; it seemed so delicious.

Seeing Manbao’s drool, Junior Ms.

Qian burst into laughter, wiping it off for her while chuckling, “You little thing, you haven’t lacked food, why are you so greedy?”

However, she also agreed to take it and even asked how to cook it.

After learning that it just needed to be peeled, cut into chunks, and put in for stewing, she confidently proclaimed, “This is easy, your sister-in-law will make it for you shortly.”