The Fleeceflower Roots Sold for Six Taels of Silver

Zhou Wanwan took the medicinal herbs straight out of her back basket. The shop assistants laughed. "Hahaha... this is killing me! You call these clods of dirt medicinal herbs?"

"Exactly! I've never seen herbs like these. Little girl, these are just tree roots from the mountains. They aren't worth much.

"But seeing how hard you worked, how about I give you twenty wen for them?"

Liu Su'e's eyes lit up. Twenty wen was a good price for these things-at least it would buy some coarse grain.

Zhou Wanwan scoffed inwardly. These people were dreaming if they thought they could pull that off. These were clearly top-quality He Shou Wu.

To put it plainly, how could these assistants possibly not recognize He Shou Wu?

They just thought the family came from the countryside and knew nothing about medicinal herbs, so they wanted to line their own pockets.

Zhou Wanwan shook her head. "Then forget it! Since they're tree roots, we can't harm your shop. We won't sell them. Let's go!"

"Hey! Girl, you're already here, and we're willing to buy them, so why don't you want to sell?" one assistant said, growing anxious.

With a half-smile, Zhou Wanwan said:

"You're only assistants. We can't let you take a loss!

"Even if I throw these things away, I can't let them harm you."

"What are you saying, girl? It's all right. You don't need to worry so much about us. How about thirty wen? Will you sell us these things?"

Zhou Wanwan sneered and made to leave. The assistants grew even more anxious. "All right, all right! We'll give you a hundred wen. Surely that'll do?"

Zhou Wanwan couldn't be bothered with them. These He Shou Wu roots were all over ten years old, and a few were even as much as fifty years old.

They took their things and left. Zhou Fusheng was outside keeping an eye on the piece of wood. When he saw them come out, he asked anxiously, "Did you sell them? Did you sell them?"

Liu Su'e shook her head. "No..."

Zhou Fusheng sighed. "I thought so! They look a bit like tree roots, so I was afraid they wouldn't sell. But that's all right. We can take them home and burn them for firewood."

He watched Zhou Wanwan's expression carefully. Liu Su'e sighed. "They offered a hundred wen, but your daughter flat-out refused."

Zhou Fusheng was dumbfounded. "A hundred wen? Daughter, why don't we sell them?"

Zhou Wanwan shook her head. "Isn't there another pharmacy up ahead? Let's go have a look there."

The assistants caught up with them and looked at Zhou Wanwan.

"Little girl, a hundred wen is already a sky-high price. We can't go any higher. How about this?

"Seeing as you're all from the countryside, digging up so many tree roots can't have been easy. I'll give you two hundred wen. That's my limit.

"These tree roots are still good for something if I take them home. Otherwise, I wouldn't offer such a high price."

Zhou Wanwan scoffed. "I'm not selling. Even if you offered two thousand wen today, I still wouldn't sell them to you."

"Hey! You little brat, are you tired of living? Two thousand wen? What kind of spring-and-autumn daydream are you having?"

Zhou Wanwan couldn't be bothered with them. These people were dishonest in business, and she wouldn't deal with them.

Even if this He Shou Wu were of poorer quality, it still wouldn't sell for as little as two hundred wen.

She went straight to another pharmacy. There was only one physician in the shop, and he was dozing.

Zhou Wanwan asked softly, "Hello, do you buy medicinal herbs here?"

The old man looked at her blearily. It took him quite a while to come to his senses. "I do, but it depends on what kind. I don't buy ordinary herbs here."

Zhou Wanwan took out a few He Shou Wu roots. "Do you buy these?"

"Oh my! Little girl, you're quite something, aren't you? You dug up so much He Shou Wu, and the quality is pretty good too.

"I'll buy them. He Shou Wu of this quality is hard to come by. Let me weigh these twenty-year-old ones and see roughly how many jin they are."

The old man weighed them. "There are three jin of twenty-year-old roots. How about one tael per jin, for three taels of silver in total?"

Zhou Wanwan nodded. The old man looked at the fifty-year-old He Shou Wu.

"This one must weigh a jin. A fifty-year-old He Shou Wu is a little more expensive. I can give you two taels of silver for it.

"For the other, smaller He Shou Wu roots, I can give you one tael of silver at most. That makes six taels of silver altogether. What do you think?"

Zhou Wanwan looked them over, then nodded. "All right. Six taels it is!"

They were in a remote corner of the north, after all. No matter how good the He Shou Wu was, it couldn't fetch a high price here.

Liu Su'e was dumbfounded. She swallowed and asked, "How much did he just say he'd give us?"

Zhou Qingyan said softly, "Six taels... Is there something wrong with my ears?"

"No, I heard it too. It really was six taels. Heavens! I've never seen so much silver in all my life!"

Liu Su'e laughed. "As if any of us have! Our daughter's really made something of herself. She just went up the mountain and did a bit of digging, and she actually dug up this much silver."

Zhou Wanwan then pointed to the dead wood beside her. "Could you also take a look at this piece of wood and see if it's worth anything?"

The old man sniffed the wood.

"Goodness! You little one really are something, finding such a big piece of agarwood. What a pity, though!

"It's too small. I can give you one tael of silver. If you're willing, sell it to me."

Zhou Wanwan quickly nodded. "Sold."

The dead wood looked completely worthless. Someone without the knowledge wouldn't recognize it at all. The old man was willing to pay one tael of silver for it, and she could accept that.

Once she had the silver, she hefted it and said, "We made quite a good haul today. Let's go!"

Liu Su'e, Zhou Fusheng, and Zhou Qingyan didn't even know how they had walked out of the shop.

Zhou Wanwan looked at them. "Let's go buy rice now! I plan to spend all this silver on rice and flour."

In ancient times, having grain was what mattered most.

Liu Su'e looked at her. "All right. Our family will do as you say."

Zhou Wanwan grinned.

"I remember we have a cellar at home. We can put some of it there.

"But I plan to dig another cellar, and we won't tell anyone about it.

"Then we can use it just for storing grain. It's getting dark, so let's go straight to the grain shop!"

Zhou Wanwan arrived at the grain shop. The assistant was getting ready to close. When he saw them, he said, "Want to buy grain? Come early tomorrow!"

Zhou Wanwan looked at him. "My family wants to buy a lot of grain. We can't come tomorrow instead."

"A lot of grain? Do you have silver?" The assistant looked them up and down.

Zhou Wanwan nodded. "Of course we do."

The assistant explained:

"First, the polished rice I mentioned. We have two kinds here.

"One is white rice, with plump, round grains. The water barely turns cloudy when you rinse it. It smells wonderful steamed and is soft in the mouth.

"The other is long-grain rice. It's a little longer than the white rice, not as white, and more of a creamy yellow.

"It has a chewy bite and makes the thickest congee, with a layer of rice oil on top. It's easy for old people to digest."