After making a few simple preparations, Jin Shanyao slung a basket on her back, picked up the two children, and headed into town.
Little River Village was some distance from the county town. An ox cart offered rides at the village entrance for five wen per person. When Jin Shanyao arrived, there were already passengers aboard. Seeing her with two children, one of them laughed.
"Little Auntie of the Meng Household, are those two children lumps of gold? You take them everywhere. Don't you get tired?"
The faintest hint of a smile curved Jin Shanyao's lips. Ignorant humans... These two are far more important than lumps of gold.
She put the children on the cart and took five wen from her sleeve to hand to the driver. His face clouded with reluctance. "Little Auntie of the Meng Household, you're taking up too much room. You'll have to pay double."
Hearing this, Jin Shanyao promptly took out another five wen. The others wore a variety of expressions. She must have money to burn. A round trip on the ox cart would cost twenty wen.
There were so many better uses for twenty wen than throwing it away on the road. This girl really didn't know how to manage a household.
Two quarters of an hour later, the ox cart trundled toward the county town. Jin Shanyao and the two children were all country bumpkins who had never ridden an ox cart or been to town before.
Everything was a novelty, and they looked around all the way until the cart stopped at the town gate.
Holding the children's hands, Jin Shanyao stood beneath the gate. The one adult and two little ones all looked up at the plaque in unison. "Willow and Poplar County."
Three characters and two kinds of trees. It was a good name.
Jin Shanyao looked down and said, "We're going in now..."
"Going in..." the two little tots called out together. They were thrilled, and the unfamiliar buildings were full of novelty.
The three of them held their heads high and strode through the gate. They had barely taken two steps when a cry rang out beside Jin Shanyao. "Wow... Little Auntie, look! That soldier is so tall!"
"Little Auntie, Little Auntie, look at the carriage!"
"Little Auntie, look! That house has two stories! There's nothing like it in our village."
Little Auntie... Little Auntie... Little Auntie...
Tugged first from the left and then from the right, Jin Shanyao couldn't take it all in. She was just as excited as the two children.
Ah... so this was the human world.
Though the three were excited, they hadn't forgotten what they had come to do. They went into several apothecaries in succession and made some general inquiries about prices.
They settled on a fairly good apothecary, and a shop assistant came to greet them as soon as they entered.
"What medicine do you need, honored customer?"
Jin Shanyao smiled. "Young man, does your shop buy medicinal herbs?"
The assistant glanced at her basket. "May I ask what herbs you're selling, miss?"
"Astragalus, schisandra, lingzhi, deer antler, ginseng... and-" Before she could finish, the assistant interrupted her. "Miss, this isn't a convenient place to talk. Please come with me."
The assistant led Jin Shanyao into an inner room. "Please wait a moment, miss. I'll fetch the shopkeeper right away." With that, he turned and went out.
It was the first time Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci had seen such a luxurious room. They stood awkwardly, not even daring to approach the chairs for fear of damaging them and being unable to pay.
To their surprise, their little aunt put down her basket and plopped into a chair. Their hearts skipped a beat, and they hurried over, lowering their voices. "Little Auntie, it's expensive... Get up, quick."
Jin Shanyao was puzzled. "What's expensive?"
Meng Anci pointed at the chair, then at the room around them. "This house is nicer than even the village head's." He grew more anxious as he spoke. Children didn't know what it meant to feel inferior.
He only felt that this wasn't a place he belonged. If they hadn't come to sell herbs, he might never have set foot inside in his life.
Jin Shanyao laughed. "A pinewood chair... what's so expensive about it?"
Meng Anci scratched his head. "Isn't it expensive?"
Jin Shanyao raised an eyebrow and sized up the structure of the house. "Not a single tree in this house is worth more than me."
"Ha ha ha..." A hearty laugh came from the outer room, and a man of about forty walked in. "You must be joking, miss. Of course a person is worth more than wood."
Jin Shanyao disagreed. How was she worth less than a person? Wasn't that species discrimination?
Qin Baitang smiled. "My surname is Qin. You may simply call me Shopkeeper Qin." He paused, then continued, "May I take a look at the ginseng you brought?"
Normally, he didn't receive individual sellers like this, but the assistant had said she had ginseng, deer antler, and lingzhi, so he had come to take a look himself.
White Head Mountain was best known for its medicinal herbs. Villagers often dug up good finds and brought them to him to sell, but hardly anyone could produce all of these at once.
Jin Shanyao opened her basket and took out the herbs one by one. When Qin Baitang saw the ginseng and deer antler mixed in with a pile of schisandra, he cried out inwardly that they had been ruined.
The ginseng was at least ninety years old and would be worth a good deal in the capital. The deer antler was the best he had seen in years, too. The lingzhi lay crookedly on the ground, its spore powder...
Qin Baitang peered into the basket again, then shot to his feet in shock. "Lion's mane mushrooms?"
Jin Shanyao paused and casually held one up. "Does the apothecary buy mushrooms too?"
"Oh, dear..." Qin Baitang couldn't bear it any longer. In the past, he could have kept up appearances and bargained the price down, but this young woman was treating fine goods so carelessly that he simply couldn't stand it.
"These lion's mane mushrooms are a mountain delicacy, fit to be presented as tribute to the emperor." As he spoke, he cupped his hands and bowed toward the heavens, leaving Jin Shanyao utterly baffled.
"Miss, I'll take these lion's mane mushrooms. Name your price."
Jin Shanyao put the mushrooms back in the basket and smiled. "Shopkeeper, let's look at the medicinal herbs first."
Qin Baitang swept a hand through the air. "I'll buy all the herbs you brought." Then he called for the assistant to bring the scales. "Schisandra at 100 wen per jin, astragalus at 1 tael per jin, and ginseng at 200 taels of silver per liang. What do you think?"
Jin Shanyao didn't know how to negotiate a deal and didn't dare speak rashly.
When Qin Baitang saw her remain silent, he thought the price was too low. "Miss, ordinary ginseng goes for 10 taels of silver per liang. Yours is about a hundred years old. At 200 taels of silver per liang, that's the highest price I can offer."
Jin Shanyao considered it, then nodded.
Seeing her agree, Qin Baitang continued, "How about 10 taels per jin for the deer antler and 16 taels per jin for the lingzhi?"
"All right, we'll do as you say, Shopkeeper."
Qin Baitang glanced at the assistant, telling him to weigh everything and calculate the price.
"Miss, how much are you planning to sell those lion's mane mushrooms for?"
"Ah, I'm not selling them."
"What?" Qin Baitang sprang to his feet. "Miss, your lion's mane mushrooms look excellent and are a good size. Sell them to me. I won't let you take a loss."
Jin Shanyao smiled and explained, "Shopkeeper, to tell you the truth, I want to save them for the children to eat."
Qin Baitang was shocked again. Was there something wrong with this young woman's head? She was actually going to feed such fine lion's mane mushrooms to children.
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci both looked at Jin Shanyao at the same time. They wanted to speak but didn't dare, and could only keep their eyes fixed on her.
Unfortunately, Jin Shanyao wasn't looking at them.
Qin Baitang felt he had lost his composure. He sat back down, poured himself a cup of tea, and drank it in one gulp. Tugging at his collar, he asked in puzzlement, "If you weren't going to sell them, why did you bring them?"
"Lion's mane mushrooms aren't common on the mountain. I brought them down to see what they were worth. If they were cheap, I'd sell them. If they were expensive, I'd keep them to eat myself."
Qin Baitang thought he had misheard. Who kept something expensive to eat themselves?
By then, the assistant had finished his calculations and handed him the account book. "Shopkeeper, the total is 1,700 taels."
Qin Baitang wasn't surprised. The goods were fine, and their value could double twice over in the capital.
"Please wait a moment, miss. I don't have that much money in the accounts. I'll go to the money house and withdraw it right away."
With that, he told the assistant to serve some tea and refreshments.