Chapter 14 That is a Disease, Needs Treatment_1

"Of course, we accept." Manager Wang's eyes brightened upon hearing Nanzhi's words.

Actually, their restaurant used to have hunters who regularly supplied game, but since two months ago, those hunters have only delivered five wild rabbits and three wild pheasants, and since half a month ago, there has been no news from them at all.

Old Master Xu in town is fond of game, and now the game, though valuable, is impossible to find. Not many people can hunt in the surrounding mountains. If Mrs. Shen really has something, he might be able to make a good profit.

"What do you intend to sell this time?" Manager Wang asked with a friendly smile, glancing at Nanzhi as though he were looking at a pile of silver.

Nanzhi reached out and pulled the wild rabbit from a basket beside her.

As the rabbit was yanked by its ears, causing it pain, it kept kicking. It made Manager Wang very satisfied.

"I wonder how much a pound of this wild rabbit costs now."

"Two hundred and ten wen."

The one who said it didn't see anything wrong, but the one who heard it was taken aback.

Nanzhi doubted there was something wrong with her ears. When she looked around and saw everyone else was also shocked, she confirmed she hadn't misheard.

Although during her last sale, her grass mushrooms fetched the outrageous price of sixty wen per pound, she had some impression of the prices for game. Her late husband had been a hunter, and wild rabbits were just fifty wen per pound. She would have considered herself lucky if she could sell it for a hundred and fifty wen per pound after three years of poor harvests.

Even if there was a drought, there are so many mountains in the territory and they must have game. Selling even a wild rabbit for two hundred and ten wen per pound seemed a bit unreal to her.

"Madam Shen, do you find the price acceptable?" Manager Wang gently reminded her, causing everyone to snap back to reality and stand up straight.

"Sold."

Seeing that Nanzhi had agreed, Chef Zhang called over a few apprentices to carry over the two sacks of chestnuts for inspection. He took over the subtly struggling rabbit from Nanzhi.

Feeling the rabbit's vitality, Chef Zhang was curious. There was no blood or wounds on the rabbit, how had it been caught?

Could Mrs. Shen have some remarkable skills?

However, he did not ask, just weighing the rabbit, which came to six pounds and six tales.

The two sacks of chestnuts were inspected and weighed, with one weighing a hundred and fifty-three pounds and the other one hundred and eighty-four pounds.

In the end, Nanzhi received two thousand one hundred and fifty-one wen coins, while Mrs. Liu got nine hundred and twenty wen coins.

Looking at the two strings of copper coins, Nanzhi felt as if she had been hit head-on by a pie falling from the sky.

A few days ago, she was on the verge of starving to death, but now, she had a considerable amount of money.

Feeling the weight of the copper coins in her hand, Mrs. Liu was all smiles, her teeth showing in her grin. With this nine hundred odd wen, plus the six taels of silver she brought, they could buy quite a lot of grain.

Mrs. Liu and Shen Dazhu had a daughter and three sons together. The eldest daughter, Shen Jinlan, got married early. The eldest son, Shen Xing, had a son and a daughter with Miss Wan. The second son, Shen Yuan, had a son with Mrs. Liu. The youngest son, Shen Yuntian, just turned eighteen and was not yet married. In total, their family consisted of ten people.

In order to buy more grain, the family kept only three taels of silver for emergencies. They never expected that they could sell the chestnuts for so much money.

After saying goodbye to Manager Wang, the group hurried to the grain shop with their donkey cart.

The round-faced boy scratched his head and asked, "Manager, is the price of wild rabbits so high now?"

Manager Wang just glanced at him, "Later, you go to the Xu family and convey a message that we have game available in our Hongfu Building today."

"Sure."

The young boy listened to the order and left the restaurant.

Nanzhi went to the same grain shop as last time, but when she arrived at the door, she found the shopkeeper arguing with someone. He seemed unable to win the argument and his face was flushed red.

"You are so uncivilized!" Shopkeeper Wan was furious and trembling.

He had always been an upright person and had never engaged in deceptive business practices, but now he had encountered such a rogue who accused him of mixing sand and mud in the black rice he sold!

"You unscrupulous vendor!" The hooligan put on an unconcerned face, yelling as he was about to lie on the ground, "Come and see everyone! The owner of the Wanyong Grain Shop is a heartless one! Not only are his prices higher than other grain shops, but he also mixes sand into the black flour!"

Gradually, the crowd gathered around to watch the commotion. Entertainment in these times mostly consisted of watching people argue.

"No way, we know Mr. Wan, he's not the sort that would resort to such measures."

A middle-aged woman said.

She lived on the next street, and the grain her family ate basically all came from the Wanyong Grain Shop. They ate it for years and never found any stones in it.

"That was the past! People change." The hooligan spoke again without lying on the ground, he opened the bag of grain to show the onlookers, "Look for yourselves, aren't there stones mixed in with the black flour? It's pitiful for my old mother, she could break her teeth with such a pancake in her old age."

Watching the hooligan covering his face with his hands, pretending to cry, Mr. Wan wished he was strong enough to punch him.

"Mommy, what is that uncle doing?" Gougou pulled at Nanzhi's sleeve, curious about the uncle who kept crying and yelling.

"Gougou darling, that uncle is ill, he needs treatment." Nanzhi stroked Gougou's head, feeling the clean and soft hair, all prickliness from before was gone.

"What kind of illness?" Gougou asked.

The three men standing by their side were also listening with their ears pricked, isn't the man just a hooligan? How does it relate to an illness?

Even their old mother, Ms. Liu, was watching Nanzhi, waiting for her to explain.

"He is, you know, insane." Nanzhi spoke without purposely lowering her voice, the hooligan forgot his lines once he heard her.

It took him a moment to realize who had spoken, and he turned to stare fiercely at Nanzhi, hesitating when he saw her.

The young woman looked quite attractive, just a bit skinny.

Hu San thought to himself but remembered his purpose for the day.

"Who are you calling insane?" Hu San's tone was less sharp than before, but he asked defiantly as he was paid to do this job.

"I would direct my words to whoever spoke to me." Nanzhi had no fear of him, with the three men of the Shen family around, Ms. Liu would not stand by and let any harm come to her.

"You!" Hu San was speechless, Nanzhi's words were choking him.

"You said you bought the black flour from the Wanyong Grain Shop." Nanzhi pointed her chin towards the grain shop, "Then I'll ask you, when did you buy it, how much did you buy, and how much did it cost?"

"I bought it the day before yesterday, five pounds of black flour and it cost five wen a pound."

Nanzhi smiled and said, "What a coincidence, I also bought grain here the day before yesterday, also black flour, and it also cost five wen per pound."

Hu San raised his eyebrows in triumph, he had inquired about the prices at Wanyong Grain Shop beforehand.

"But, the black flour I bought didn't have any sand or stones mixed in."

"Did Mr. Wan invite you to speak for him?" Hu San looked at Nanzhi and asked. He had never seen this young woman before.

"I am here to buy grain, but I am curious now. You said you came to the Wanyong Grain Shop the day before yesterday to buy black flour, so let me ask you another question: how much did you pay in total for the grain?"

"Of course, it's twenty-five wen." Hu San said, he was not a fool, damn it, but couldn't he do arithmetic?

"Wrong, you bought grain, twenty-five wen is the price for the grain, but the cloth bag for holding grain costs two wen."

Hu San did not know what to say as he'd never cooked or bought grain before, how was he supposed to know they charged for the grain bag?

But under the gaze of the surrounding people, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and reply, "That's what I forgot, I paid twenty-seven wen."

When they heard his words, the people around looked at each other, causing Hu San to be puzzled, what was going on?

"See, you clearly haven't bought any grain from here." Nanzhi spread out her hands and said.