CHAPTER 256: CHAPTER 252: FOOD COUPONS (PART 3)

About half a month later, the people who had been surrounding the Yu Family’s house finally began to disperse.

Yu Xiaolian and Zhao Erya took the opportunity to restock the goods at Taotao Residence and reopened for business.

Zhao Erya remembered the letter delivered by the posthouse officer when Yu Xiaolian was absent and took it out from under the counter, handing it to Yu Xiaolian.

It was a letter from Fu Zihan.

Yu Xiaolian unfolded it.

She wondered how Fu Yi had rushed to Luocheng to get her papers; it turned out Fu Zihan had a hand in it.

In this letter, Fu Zihan candidly revealed her identity and mentioned that she was about to get engaged to Prince Jin.

Yu Xiaolian continued reading.

As expected, Fu Zihan mentioned Xiao Fangfei’s name and said that Prince Jin had already made Xiao Fangfei a concubine and favored her greatly.

At the end, Fu Zihan wrote a line, "The beloved is not the one desired."

Yu Xiaolian sighed and picked up a pen to write a letter back to Fu Zihan, in which she recounted the story of the solitary woman and a certain Mr. Yang. Does Yang love the solitary woman?

The answer is yes.

So why did he betray their love? Love has a shelf life. No matter how beautiful, love becomes tiring and weary over time, losing its novelty.

Yu Xiaolian subtly reminded Fu Zihan that love is unreliable, men are unreliable, and that she is the most reliable herself.

In love, give it your all; when it’s gone, don’t let people pity you. You should find your own happiness.

After all, living happily is a day, and living unhappily is also a day. Why not choose to be happy?

No matter how favored Xiao Fangfei becomes, isn’t she just a concubine? In the future, when she meets you, Fu Zihan, won’t she have to greet you and ask for your well-being?

At the end, Yu Xiaolian told Fu Zihan to maintain her status as the official wife and instructed her not to be defeated by her.

She placed the letter in an envelope, added two cartoon-patterned bookmarks as a small gift for Fu Zihan, wrote the receiving address on the envelope, and then asked Zhao Erya to take the letter to the posthouse.

After Zhao Erya went to deliver the letter, Yu Xiaolian stretched lazily at the shop entrance and looked around.

Only then did she realize that both neighboring shops were closed.

Curious, Yu Xiaolian waited for Zhao Erya to return and asked, only to find out that the neighboring Shopkeeper Li, who was just in the last place on the list, had passed and moved his whole family to the Capital to temporarily stay at the Wu clan’s house in preparation for the impending palace examination.

"I remember Shopkeeper Li’s family was from Taohua Village, right?"

Zhao Erya replied, "Yeah, the house your fourth great uncle bought was Shopkeeper Li’s parents’ house."

Yu Xiaolian’s eyes widened. How come Shopkeeper Li sold the house and land and went to the Capital with his parents if he’s just going for the palace examination?

Even if you can become an official after passing, it’s not certain your son can be a Capital Official, right? Besides, houses in the Capital are so expensive; if you can’t afford a house, your whole family can’t just keep staying at the Wu clan’s house, can they?

She had heard before that Shopkeeper Li’s parents were difficult to deal with and always exploited the Wu clan’s money. Wu felt guilty towards her parents-in-law due to her inability to bear a child, so she always tolerated them.

Even before, the whole family depended on the Wu clan for support, yet this occurred after Shopkeeper Li passed, so his parents would probably become even more excessive, right?

Even considering the Wu clan’s patriarch, who wouldn’t let Shopkeeper Li divorce her, would probably arrange concubines for him, wouldn’t they?

After all, their son is now rising.

"So, the shop next door...?"

"Shopkeeper Li has already sold the shop to a broker."

Yu Xiaolian asked again, "Then why is the Sheng family’s rice shop not open?"

Zhao Erya replied, "Now, only official shops can sell grains, salt, and iron. The notification came out the day you came back."

Has the control become that strict?

It seems the shortage of food is more severe than she imagined.

"I’ll go take a look around." She needed to find out what the current prices of grains were.

Zhao Erya nodded, "I heard that you now need a household registration card to buy grains, get a ticket from the Government Office, and buy grains based on the number of people; no overbuying is allowed."

She had only stayed home for a few days bottling shampoo and such, yet so much had changed outside?

Needing ration tickets for grains, does buying meat also require meat tickets?

When she reached the market and saw the empty butcher stalls, Yu Xiaolian realized she was naive. If there wasn’t enough food to eat, who could afford meat?

Yu Xiaolian went to the official shop, where a long queue had formed, and everyone held a piece of paper with a red stamp.

She approached, choosing an elderly woman with a kind face to ask, "Madam, do we need tickets to buy grain now?"

"You must be from outside. If you’re not local, you can’t buy grains; there’s no point in queuing," the elderly woman kindly advised Yu Xiaolian. "Have your local relatives come and buy it. Before buying, you need to get a certificate from the Government Office; each person can buy three pounds of fine grain and three pounds of coarse grain, but only once every ten days."

"Madam, how much have grain prices increased to now?"

The elderly woman sighed, frowning, "Fine grain is fifty wen per pound, and coarse grain is thirty wen per pound."

Yu Xiaolian acknowledged, noting that Luocheng’s grain prices were still reasonable. According to Su Jingchen, over in Bohai City, fine grain was already two hundred wen per pound, and coarse grain was a hundred fifty wen per pound.

Compared to Bohai City, Luocheng’s grain prices were considered fair.