Chapter 40: An Idea

They didn’t have anything at home right now. They bought some necessities on the way, gradually filling Qi Wanfeng’s basket on his back to about half-full.

An’an licked his bing tang hu lu as he walked, removing the outer layer of sugar. He took a bite of the red fruit, the sourness making him happily squint his eyes. He couldn’t bear to eat the last one.

“Baba, eat.” After a moment of hesitation, An’an decided to give his last bing tang hu lu to his A-mu [Father], wanting to share the most wonderful thing with his A-mu.

“Good boy, An’an eat it. A-mu doesn’t want it,” Qi Wanfeng said, stroking the child’s head, his face always wearing a smile. He felt deeply warmed by his child’s filial piety. While holding the child’s hand, he also paid attention to his husband, who was walking with a cane, reaching out to support him whenever he looked tired.

As they walked along the road out of town, they passed a pork stall. Cao Xiangnan’s gaze, which had been wandering, suddenly fixed on the pork stall, and he stopped, standing there without moving.

Qi Wanfeng stopped with the child, following his husband’s gaze. Seeing that it was a pork stall, he said, “Husband, do you want to buy pork? We still have pork at home, enough for a few days.”

So the implication was that they didn’t need it, so there was no need to buy more.

A thought flashed through his mind, and a look of joy appeared on Cao Xiangnan’s face. He grabbed Qi Wanfeng’s hand and said excitedly, “Wanfeng, I’ve got an idea! I’ve got an idea!”

“Mm?” Qi Wanfeng looked puzzled, not knowing why his husband was so happy. He followed his words and asked, “What idea did you have, Husband?”

Cao Xiangnan was truly overjoyed. He had been thinking all along about what they could do, and now he finally had a plan in his mind.

People of this era only ate the meat of the pig, and even the meat attached to the bones was trimmed off and sold. The remaining bones were unwanted. Offal like the pig’s organs were very cheap, but such smelly things, even the poor didn’t buy them to eat because no one knew how to prepare them, and they always had a taste that made them hard to swallow.

But if these things could be cleaned properly, they would be delicacies. Cao Xiangnan had an idea, and the cost of these items was very low, basically free for the taking. He knew what he could do.

“Little husband, do you want to buy pork? There’s a little bit left, I’ll sell it to you cheap,” the owner sitting in front of the stall said, seeing the person standing not far away staring at his stall. There was still a little pork left on the stall, and he wanted to sell it quickly so he could go home, so he thought of selling it cheap.

At this time in the afternoon, most of the pork had already been sold. Most people bought pork in the morning, and by this time there was only a little left. Fortunately, the weather wasn’t hot yet, or the meat would have gone bad by now.

Cao Xiangnan waved his hand to indicate that he wasn’t buying pork. He turned to Qi Wanfeng and said, “Wanfeng, I know, we’re not buying pork. I have an idea in my mind, I’ll tell you when we get back. Now, let’s go to a place to buy some things we’ll need.”

Qi Wanfeng was puzzled, but he had no choice but to follow.

They visited several grain stores and places selling sundries. The seasonings of this era were not as complete as in later generations, so he only bought a few items. For the rest, Cao Xiangnan wanted to think of a solution when he got back.

The sun was setting in the west when they left the city gate and boarded the cart they had come on. The family of three sat on the cart, along with a few other ge’ers. Everyone had bought a lot of things, some with full loads going back, others returning empty-handed.

The old man sitting in the front drove the cart, and the ox cart headed back to the village.