Chapter 23: Shopping

“Manager Zhang, please take a look at our young lady!” the constable shouted anxiously.

Manager Zhang immediately instructed them to help her into the clinic.

But before Qin Hanyu could take a few steps, her body went limp and collapsed onto the ground.

Two constables rushed forward and grabbed her arms, trying to lift her up. But no matter how much they strained, she didn’t budge an inch.

She was simply too heavy to move—they had no choice but to let her lie flat on the floor.

Manager Zhang went over and conducted a brief examination, attempting to retrieve the foreign object with tweezers, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t locate it.

“Manager Zhang, that’s not going to work.

She’s already unconscious. If we don’t remove the obstruction soon, it’ll block her airway and she’ll suffocate to death.”

Manager Zhang stood up and humbly turned to Chu Xiaoqi. “In your opinion, young friend, what should we do?”

Seeing that Qin Hanyu was on the verge of meeting her maker, Chu Xiaoqi couldn’t be bothered with the whole “love rival” business anymore. She turned to the constables behind her and ordered:

“You! Bring a few more people and flip her over.”

The constables glanced at Manager Zhang. Seeing him nod, four of them stepped forward and flipped Qin Hanyu over.

“Everyone here, bear witness—I’m saving her, not assaulting her, got it?”

The surrounding onlookers all nodded vigorously.

“Don’t worry, we saw everything…”

Chu Xiaoqi reached out and felt along Qin Hanyu’s esophagus area, then checked her pulse. Confirming that something had indeed entered the windpipe, she clenched her fist and began forcefully pressing into Qin Hanyu’s back.

The woman’s body fat was simply too thick—she couldn’t be lifted for the Heimlich, so Chu Xiaoqi had to resort to direct pressure. Over and over again she pressed, for nearly ten minutes, before Qin Hanyu finally tilted her head and coughed up the date.

She then let out two weak coughs, burst into tears, and slowly regained consciousness.

Chu Xiaoqi sat beside her, panting, and muttered with disdain:

“Ball… you owe me a life.”

Even though Qin Hanyu had passed out, she was vaguely aware of what had happened while she was unconscious.

Though she was unwilling to admit it, it had indeed been Chu Xiaoqi who saved her.

Struggling to her feet, she pouted, turned her head away with a proud expression, and said hoarsely:

“Hmph. It’s not that big a deal—I’ll pay you back someday…”

And then, with a thunderous stomp, she ran off.

With the drama over, the crowd dispersed, full of praise and admiration.

Young Master Chen, carrying his still-dazed father on his back, also left after offering many heartfelt thanks.

Chu Xiaoqi was about to leave with her basket when Manager Zhang called out to her.

“Young friend, please wait!”

Chu Xiaoqi turned back, confused.

“I noticed your medical skills are quite unique. Would I be fortunate enough to invite you for a cup of tea and discuss a few things?”

Chu Xiaoqi thought something serious was coming.

“You mean Lord Chen’s heart problem, or the magistrate’s daughter choking on a date?”

“Both!”

“Phew… it’s not that I don’t want to share.

It’s just… this is part of a very large system. The knowledge involved is incredibly broad—it’s not something I can explain in just a short chat.”

Manager Zhang didn’t take it as an excuse. He understood well—human anatomy was extremely complex. No one could explain it all in a few sentences.

“Young friend, your medical skills are truly outstanding.

I have a humble request: if my clinic encounters a particularly difficult case in the future, may I call on you to consult with us?”

Chu Xiaoqi nodded earnestly in agreement.

She had promised the heavens—if she was allowed to live, she would become a good doctor who saves lives and helps the world.

“No problem. My name is Chu Xiaoqi, and I live in Ji Family Village.

If you ever need my help…”

…can come find me there if you need help.”

“Good, good! If you ever have nothing to do, feel free to visit our clinic too,” Manager Zhang said warmly.

Chu Xiaoqi nodded and was about to happily take her leave when Manager Zhang stopped her again and asked:

“Miss Xiaoqi, did you come to our clinic today for something in particular?”

Chu Xiaoqi pointed to the herbs in her basket. “I came to see if your clinic accepts medicinal herbs. But before I could ask, I ran into Young Master Chen.”

The assistant behind the counter who had been grinding herbs lowered his head in shame upon hearing that Chu Xiaoqi hadn’t mentioned how he tried to drive her away earlier. He dared not meet her eyes.

“Let me see what you brought. If the quality’s good, I’ll buy them all.”

“Great!”

Chu Xiaoqi quickly set her basket down and began placing the herbs neatly on the counter.

Manager Zhang picked them up one by one to examine, nodding approvingly. “These herbs are in good condition and very clean. How about I pay you the supplier rate?”

Chu Xiaoqi immediately beamed and nodded.

The total came to five hundred and fifty copper coins.

After bidding farewell to Manager Zhang and his son, Chu Xiaoqi left the clinic, sighing as she held the 550 coins on her way to the academy.

This is what you call cheap labor…

She had collected, dried, and processed several large baskets of herbs over many days, producing about seventy catties of dried herbs. Yet all she got was 550 coins—barely enough to buy a single dan (roughly 100 catties) of rice.

Herbal trade isn’t the way to go—it’s exhausting, time-consuming, and the returns are too low. Not doing this again.

Better to focus on perfecting the street food business. Who knows, her winter meals might depend on that food cart.

At the academy gate, Ji Jingxuan and Ji Jinglan were pacing anxiously. They had waited for nearly an hour but still didn’t see Chu Xiaoqi.

Ji Jinglan wanted to go look for her on the street, but Ji Jingxuan stopped her, worried they might miss each other in the process and end up searching in circles.

Finally, the Ji siblings saw Chu Xiaoqi slowly approaching with her basket, and both let out a breath of relief.

Ji Jingxuan hurried up to her and took the basket from her back to carry it himself.

“Where were you? We’ve been waiting for almost an hour—we were so worried.”

Chu Xiaoqi had been busy saving lives at the clinic and hadn’t noticed the time. Only now did she realize it was already afternoon.

She looked apologetic as she spoke to the siblings: “Sorry, I’m so sorry…

I went to the clinic to sell herbs and got held up.”

“Didn’t go well?” Ji Jingxuan asked with concern.

“It was… okay, I guess. At least I sold everything,” Chu Xiaoqi said vaguely, not wanting to explain the whole rescue situation.

She quickly changed the subject. “You two haven’t eaten yet, right? Let’s eat first—then we’ll go shopping.”

The Ji siblings didn’t think too much about it and followed her to a small shop selling clay pot soup, where they grabbed a quick meal.

Next, Chu Xiaoqi accompanied Ji Jingxuan to buy school supplies—500 coins for five sheets of xuan paper, 250 coins for half a jin of ink, and 100 coins for a new brush. Watching that money fly out nearly made her cry.

Are ancient stationery supplies really this expensive? No wonder people say “poor scholars”—

Studying is a money pit. No way you’re not poor if you’re chasing books like this!

But Ji Jingxuan held his new supplies like a child with a beloved toy, turning them over carefully, admiring them from every angle, and even taking a whiff with a blissful expression on his face.

Chu Xiaoqi saw how happy he was and let out a deep sigh in her heart.

At first I was all bold about raising ten or eight little puppy boys. Looks like just raising this one might be enough to bankrupt me…

They then went to the market and bought:

2 dan of rice, 1 dan of flour, 2 dan of millet, 10 jin of cooking oil, 2 jin of coarse salt, 2 jin of meat, 300 jin of napa cabbage, 100 jin of radish. Then, following Mother Ji’s shopping list, they bought cotton, fabric, and sewing supplies.

By the end of the afternoon, eight taels of silver had vanished into thin air.

Chu Xiaoqi clutched her money pouch tightly, feeling a deep pang of heartache—this was what real financial strain looked like.

She had earned less than three taels today, but ended up spending eight.

For the first time in her life, she was seriously worried about money.

They had bought so much stuff that the three of them couldn’t possibly carry it all home on foot. Chu Xiaoqi spent 50 copper coins to rent an ox cart to haul everything back.

By the time they returned to the village, it was already dark. Hardly anyone was outside, so nobody saw them bringing home a cart full of food.

As soon as the ox cart reached the courtyard gate, Ji Jingze, who had been waiting there, ran up excitedly.

“Sis-in-law, you’re finally back! I was about to go out and look for you!”

Chu Xiaoqi reached out and touched his forehead. “Were you good today? Did you take your medicine?”

Ji Jingze nodded eagerly like a pecking chick. “I did, I did! I had two doses during the day.

Look at me now—I’m all lively again!”

“Good! Since you were so well-behaved today, I’ll make meat pies for you later.”

“Mm-hmm! Sis-in-law, I really was good…”

As the siblings-in-law chatted and laughed, Ji Father walked out of the house and rolled his eyes at Ji Jingze. “Well-behaved? That bit of medicine—if I hadn’t chased you around with a stick, would you have taken it willingly?”

Hearing his father expose him, Ji Jingze quickly ran over and covered his mouth. “Dad, don’t say that—!”

Ji Father swatted his hand away. “Next time you act up, I’ll tell your sis-in-law. Then you won’t get any of the good food.”

“Alright, alright! I’ll be good, okay? Just please don’t tell her on me anymore!”

Ji Jingxuan watched the father-son exchange with a smile, then turned his gaze to Chu Xiaoqi, who was busy unloading supplies, a warm feeling blooming in his heart.

This home no longer felt lifeless—it finally had warmth and vitality again. And it was all thanks to Chu Xiaoqi.

Regardless of whether he succeeded in earning a title in the future, he was determined to treat her well.

The second branch of the Ji family had never stored grain in their cellar since it was built—it had always been empty.

Every year, they barely harvested enough to feed themselves. How could there possibly be any left to store?

Even with the hundreds of catties of vegetables they bought today, only about a quarter of the cellar was filled. To fill it completely, they’d probably need another ten taels of silver.

But Chu Xiaoqi wasn’t in a hurry. The snow hadn’t started yet—there was still time to stock up.

She’d be going into town every day to run her business, so buying food wouldn’t be a problem. At the very least, this big family wouldn’t go hungry.

After putting everything away, Chu Xiaoqi asked Ji Jinglan to cook a pot of millet porridge while she kneaded dough and began chopping meat and cabbage.

An hour later, steaming bowls of millet porridge and crispy cabbage-and-pork meat pies were placed on the table.

The weather was starting to turn chilly. Taking a bite of warm meat pie and washing it down with hot porridge—now that was satisfaction.

The Ji family no longer felt like life was endless suffering. Instead, they felt that life was truly… a blessing.

After eating and cleaning up, everyone returned to their rooms to rest.

Chu Xiaoqi, however, still hugged her little money box, deep in thought, planning the path ahead.

She looked up and saw Ji Jingxuan pouring water into his old inkstone and brushing it out with his writing brush for a long time before finally writing on paper.

“Ji Jingxuan, you’ve scrubbed that old inkstone cleaner than your face. It’s already worn out—you’re not going to get any more ink out of it. Why are you still fussing with it?

Didn’t I buy you half a jin of ink today?”

Ji Jingxuan didn’t look up. He just kept brushing inside the old inkstone.

“Saving it… so it lasts longer.”

Chu Xiaoqi pouted. “It’s for studying—it’s a consumable. Use it when you need to. What’s the point of scrimping on that little bit of money?”