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Ye Caiping, relying on the vague memory in her mind, quickly arrived at Ping’an Hall.
There were only two pharmacies in town, and Ping’an Hall was the one with the best reputation and the most integrity.
The shopkeeper was busy with his abacus, and when he saw someone coming, he looked up and asked, “Little lady, are you buying medicine or seeing a doctor?”
“I dug up a ginseng root on the mountain, does the shopkeeper buy it?”
The shopkeeper’s eyes lit up, “I do. Let me have a look.”
Ye Caiping placed the ginseng on the table.
The shopkeeper saw that the ginseng was plump and large, and couldn’t help but be surprised, but upon closer inspection, he frowned, “This ginseng… grows very well, but it’s too young, it looks like it’s only seven or eight years old.”
Ye Caiping thought to herself, it’s modern cultivation, of course it grows well!
However, this ginseng wasn’t seven or eight years old, it was ten years. The reason the shopkeeper assessed it as only seven or eight years old was because its medicinal properties were not as good as wild ginseng, so he judged it as seven or eight years old.
The shopkeeper looked regretful, “Look at its appearance, its growing environment must have been very good. If you gave it enough time, it would grow for forty or fifty years, it would definitely be a top-grade product!”
Ye Caiping thought to herself, this is grown in a greenhouse, even if it grows for forty or fifty years, it won’t be a top-grade product, it can only be considered a high-end item.
“What a pity, what a pity, why didn’t you wait a few more years before picking it,” the shopkeeper said with a tone of regret and disapproval.
Ye Caiping frowned, “If I wait a few more years, will I still be the one picking it? Maybe I won’t even sell it to your shop.”
The shopkeeper finally came to his senses, his expression awkwardly smiling, “Yes, yes, I was being presumptuous. Let’s see, the ginseng is young, its medicinal properties are average, I can only give you seven taels.”
“Ten taels!” Ye Caiping raised an eyebrow.
The shopkeeper thought for a moment and nodded, “Alright! Ten taels it is.”
After all, it was ginseng, even though it was young, there were still many people willing to buy it.
Ye Caiping was already very satisfied, one hundred copper coins exchanged for ten taels, a hundredfold increase in value.
After leaving the pharmacy, Ye Caiping went to a deserted alleyway.
She opened the system panel, because no one could see the panel, so she didn’t need to hide too much.
Now she had ten taels, and she could buy a good wild ginseng.
Wild ginseng was grown from the seeds of wild ginseng, sown by humans in mountains or forests, without pesticides or insecticides, allowing it to grow naturally.
Its medicinal properties were almost the same as real wild ginseng, but it had a higher price-performance ratio.
In modern times, a thirty-year-old wild ginseng could sell for around ten thousand yuan. Converted in the system, it was ten taels!
After buying it, she could sell it in the county town and probably make 100 to 200 taels.
Ye Caiping rubbed her hands together and began to choose items.
[The customer has chosen a 30-year-old wild ginseng, priced at 10 taels. Sorry, the customer does not have permission to continue trading. To obtain permission, please upgrade your space.]
Ye Caiping choked a bit; this system really inherited the essence of modern apps!
Right now, her space was only 0.1 cubic meters, and she needed to upgrade it to 1 cubic meter. But she remembered that upgrading to 1 cubic meter would cost 10 taels.
Ye Caiping hesitated.
She only had 10 taels and 2 copper coins, and if she upgraded, she’d be left with nothing.
Should she upgrade, then go back to the village and borrow 100 copper coins, and then operate like yesterday?
She remembered that she had only traded four times, and if she upgraded, she would have at least four more trading opportunities. That would be enough for her to get wild ginseng and earn 100 to 200 taels.
Ye Caiping hesitated for a moment, then clicked to upgrade her space.
[Sorry, the customer does not have permission to upgrade.]
Ye Caiping was stunned, then muttered, “What the hell?”
No permission? How could she get permission?
Ye Caiping searched the entire system panel, but couldn’t find any information on how to obtain permission.
If she couldn’t upgrade, she couldn’t continue trading. So, wouldn’t this system be useless?
Ye Caiping’s face turned gloomy, and her heart sank to the bottom of her stomach.
She felt awful for a while before taking three deep breaths to try and compose herself.
It was incredibly frustrating; it felt like she’d won the lottery, only to discover the ticket was missing.
But who was Ye Caiping?
She was someone who had come from an orphanage, starting with nothing, working in a factory, and finally, through street vending, climbed to the top as a powerful female CEO! She’d weathered many storms!
At least she had ten taels now! Enough to start with.
Sigh… If only she’d borrowed money to buy a more expensive ginseng, she could have earned more!
She pressed her hand against her forehead.
“Alright, hindsight is 20/20. There’s nothing left to say at this point.”
She should be grateful that the system had passed through her world, and she at least managed to snag a hair from it! It wasn’t like she got nothing at all.
Ye Caiping took a while to calm down before she walked out of the alley.
“First things first, buy ingredients!”
She already had an idea for what to make: Spicy Beef Soup.
In the modern world, her first time setting up a stall was selling breakfast.
Later, she discovered that Spicy Beef Soup sold the best, so she focused on that. It was a unique recipe she had painstakingly developed and improved over time.
And according to her memory, Spicy Beef Soup didn’t exist in this era.
The weather was getting colder day by day, and everyone was wearing coats. Spicy Beef Soup would warm them up, so she was confident in this business.
As for the spices, according to her memory, the grocery stores only had oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar. The other spices she needed would have to be bought from a pharmacy. Clearly, this era didn’t yet use spices in cooking.
Thinking this, Ye Caiping walked to where Ye Bajin had parked his oxcart.
Ye Bajin was lying on the cart fast asleep.
“Bajin.”
Ye Bajin jolted awake, rubbing his eyes. “Ah, is it time?”
“No, I think it’s still early. Why don’t we take a trip to the county town? I need to buy some things.”
Ye Bajin glanced at the sun. It was roughly Shen time (around 3 PM). A round trip to the county town would take about half an hour; they could be back by You time (around 5 PM).
“Okay.” Ye Bajin readily agreed.
Ye Caiping took out two strings of copper coins and slipped them into his hand. Ye Bajin pushed them back a couple of times before finally accepting.
To buy spices, she had to go to the county.
The town is so small, if she sells Spicy Beef Soup here in a few days, the shopkeeper of Ping’an Hall will definitely recognize her, and he could easily find out the recipe.
Therefore, she had to go to the county to buy them.
Soon, they arrived at the county town.
It was much more bustling than the town.
Following her vague memories, Ye Caiping arrived at a pharmacy in the county town.
Star anise, chili peppers, and cassia bark, one jin each; cumin, bay leaves, and Sichuan peppercorns… a total of 13 different spices.
Ye Caiping bought six kinds of spices from this pharmacy, then went to another one to buy the remaining seven.
In total, it cost a hefty three taels of silver.
Ye Caiping couldn’t help but feel a pang of pain. These spices were incredibly expensive!
However, in this era, no one cultivated them on a large scale, and few people knew about herbal medicine and collecting herbs, so the high price was understandable.
After buying the spices, Ye Caiping and Ye Bajin returned to town together.
Seeing that they still had some time, Ye Caiping went to a grain store.
She bought 3 jin of soy sauce, 3 jin of salt, 5 jin of flour, 1 jin of sesame seeds, 1 jin of starch, half a jin of sugar, and 30 jin of fine rice.
These past few days, she’d been eating rice bran porridge and cassava every meal, and she was practically sick of it. Now that she had money, she needed to improve her diet, at least treat herself to something good.
It has to be said that salt and sugar were truly expensive in this era. Salt cost 50 copper coins per jin, and sugar cost 40 copper coins.
All in all, it cost over 800 copper coins.
Ye Caiping first moved the goods onto Ye Bajin’s oxcart, then went to a butcher shop.
“Boss, how much is the meat?”
“What kind of meat? Fatty pork is 25 copper coins per jin, Belly pork is 20 copper coins, lean meat and ribs are 15 copper coins. Large bone-in pieces are 10 copper coins.”
Ye Caiping remembered that they didn’t have much oil left and needed to render some:
“I’ll take 10 jin of fatty pork, 5 jin of belly pork, and 3 jin of ribs.” Then, she glanced at the offal beside it and her eyes lit up. “How much is the offal per jin?”
“5 copper coins! It’s quite difficult to make this stuff taste good. Only the head chefs at the restaurants have the skill.”
Ye Caiping understood. The people of this era knew how to appreciate offal.
It’s just that poor families lacked the ingredients and culinary skills, and they were also reluctant to use oil and spices, resulting in poorly cooked offal, which naturally meant fewer people bought it.
“Then I’ll take 3 jin of pig liver!”
Ye Caiping, carrying the meat, returned to where the oxcart was parked, feeling very satisfied.
Note:
Characters
Other Characters:
Heigou – Ate poisonous roots
Heigou’s mother
Doctor Zhao
Zhao Facai – Neighbor
Village Head Ye- Sometime Ye Lizheng (Lizheng is a title that refers to Village Head/Chief)
Ye Bajin – Village Head’s Son
Fubao – Village Head’s Grandson
Tie Niu and Zhuzi – two women who helped Caiping
Ye Bajin – Son of Ye Lijeng
Places:
Qinghe Village: FL’s Village
Li Family Village
Great Zhou Dynasty
Nice. Seems we’re gonna get some good cooking scenes. Yum