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After breakfast, Lu Xinghe took the two turtles from the wash basin and put them in a bucket. He then loaded the bucket and the backpack containing the herbs onto the cart and, together with Chu Yue, pushed the cart towards the village entrance.
As they passed the village entrance, they saw Fourth Aunt Jiang Xiuqin standing in her yard waving to them.
On the road, sitting on the cart, Chu Yue looked at Lu Xinghe. “Husband, now that our family’s circumstances are better, should you consider continuing your studies for the imperial examinations?”
Lu Xinghe was slightly stunned and didn’t speak.
How could he not want to?
He also wanted to find his father’s whereabouts when he was capable enough.
But with the current state of their family, and without a man to support them, he couldn’t bear to leave.
As if knowing Lu Xinghe’s concerns, Chu Yue continued, “Actually, you don’t need to worry about the family. I’ll slowly help Mother recover, and Xingping and Xing’an are of age to start their education. If it really doesn’t work, we can rent a house in town. Our family can go back and forth between the town and the village, so we don’t have to be separated, and you can still look after the family while studying.”
Lu Xinghe thought this was a good idea.
“But they say ‘rely on the mountains to eat from the mountains.’ If we do that, won’t our family lose its source of income?”
But Chu Yue didn’t think so.
“Husband, what do you think of this year’s harvest?”
“It’s bad.”
Only in Banpo Village, where there are many trees and two ponds, is the situation better. Other places are completely dried up.
Chu Yue continued, “With a bad harvest, there’s no income from the fields, and taxes still have to be paid. Farmers who rely on their fields for a living have no money. When it gets colder, those families who are struggling to make ends meet are sure to sell their land.”
In a famine year, the price of land will naturally not be high.
When the time comes to buy these fields, they can be rented out again next year. The rental income alone will be substantial.
Chu Yue didn’t say anything more, but Lu Xinghe had already guessed what she meant.
He looked at Chu Yue in surprise.
“Your little head… it really is…”
“Clever, right?”
Chu Yue finished Lu Xinghe’s sentence, a hint of smugness on her face.
These days, the two of them had been eating and living together and had gradually become more familiar. Sometimes, they could even exchange a few jokes.
Looking at her bright smile, Lu Xinghe shook his head helplessly.
“You’ve got so many ideas.”
“And that’s not all,” Chu Yue continued. “Didn’t Fourth Aunt come to our house yesterday and ask us to sell her herbs? I was thinking, we don’t have to go out and dig herbs every day. We can collect herbs from the villagers.”
Lu Xinghe raised an eyebrow. “Collect herbs?”
“Yes.” Chu Yue tightened her grip on the backpack on the cart. “Think about it. Valuable herbs like ginseng rely on luck to find. Most are ordinary herbs, and pharmacies don’t pay much for them. If we collect them and sell them to pharmacies, earning the difference in price wouldn’t that be much easier? Those villagers who don’t understand herbs might not even get a good price selling them themselves.”
Thinking about it, Lu Xinghe smiled.
“That’s true. We can return to the village every half month or month to collect herbs and then sell them in town.”
He then looked at Chu Yue.
“However, if we collect a large amount of herbs, we can’t rely on our two legs alone.”
“We don’t need to rush this. Moving to town will probably be next year. This year’s harvest is bad; let’s just get through it first.” At this point, Chu Yue’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Husband, since we’re not in a hurry to go back today, and we have time, shall we go to the real estate agency?”
Looking at the girl’s sparkling eyes, Lu Xinghe nodded.
“Okay.”
The two chatted and laughed along the way. Chu Yue would jump off the cart to help Lu Xinghe push when they encountered an uphill slope. After an hour, they finally reached town.
Because they had ginseng, after arriving in Nanping Town, they directly pushed the cart to Chen’s Pharmacy.
Because there was a doctor seeing patients at Chen’s Pharmacy today, there were more people than usual.
Two clerks behind the counter were busy dispensing medicine, somewhat flustered. The shopkeeper, Chen, whom they had met before, was sweating profusely while operating an abacus. He glanced out of the pharmacy, and upon seeing Chu Yue and Lu Xinghe, he paused, momentarily confused by their familiarity, then seemed to remember something and set the abacus aside.
“Are you two here to sell herbs today as well?”
Lu Xinghe carried the backpack into the pharmacy, and Chu Yue, glancing at the bustling scene inside the shop, approached the counter.
“Shopkeeper Chen, do you have a moment to speak privately?”
As she spoke, she slightly opened the basket she was carrying.
Upon seeing the ginseng, the shopkeeper’s eyes widened. Just now, someone had rushed in to buy ginseng at a high price. Unfortunately, such precious herbs were rare, and his shop was out of stock.
What a coincidence! Turning around, someone had delivered it to him.
Shopkeeper Chen beamed and stepped out from behind the counter, gesturing towards the back yard.
“Please, come inside.”
Lu Xinghe followed Chu Yue to the back yard, where Chu Yue carefully presented the ginseng from the basket.
“Shopkeeper Chen, this isn’t my first time here. Please take a look and tell me what you think of this ginseng.”
Shopkeeper Chen took the ginseng and examined it carefully. After a moment, he said, “This ginseng has seven root crowns, so it should be about ten years old.”
Chu Yue nodded; his assessment was consistent with hers.
“Shopkeeper Chen, give us a fair price.”
Shopkeeper Chen smiled. “Of course. Ginseng is rare these days, and a complete one is even rarer. For ten-year-old ginseng, I can offer this much.”
He held up one hand.
“Fifty taels.”
Chu Yue was delighted. She exchanged a glance with Lu Xinghe and nodded.
“Okay. Shopkeeper, please take a look at these other herbs as well.”
Having obtained the ginseng, Shopkeeper Chen, in his haste, didn’t want to haggle over the other herbs. “You two came at just the right time. I’m very busy at the front right now. These other herbs seem to be ordinary ones, so I won’t calculate them individually. How about we round it up to two taels of silver?”
As if afraid Chu Yue would disagree, he quickly explained, “Actually, as you know, if we calculate it precisely, it might not even reach two taels of silver.”
Chu Yue took the top-grade Panax notoginseng that Fourth Aunt had given her yesterday from the backpack.
“Shopkeeper, it’s not that I’m being stingy, but there’s a top-grade Panax notoginseng in this basket of herbs. If we sell it for two taels of silver, we’ll be at a loss.”
Shopkeeper Chen was taken aback.
“I didn’t consider that. In that case, how about two and a half taels? Any more, and I’ll lose money.”
Chu Yue smiled and nodded.
“Okay, two and a half taels then.”
The two received fifty-two taels of silver from Chen’s Pharmacy, which Chu Yue put into the backpack in her pouch. Lu Xinghe carried it on his front, while the remaining five hundred wen was placed in the basket Chu Yue was carrying.