Chapter 76

Chapter 76: Honeyed Claws

The amount of cotton needed for making clothes was entirely reported from Sang Lou’s original memory.

Having grown up in a modern world where clothes were bought rather than made, this was the first time she had ever seen such a large bag of cotton weighing a catty.

After leaving the cloth shop, Sang Lou placed the purchased cotton on the cart and pulled it along to where Chen Youtian and the others were at the grain shop.

She herself had no money left to buy grain today, only about seventy-plus wen on her, so she kept it close and continued saving for the next time she needed to buy cotton.

Before reaching the grain shop, she noticed from a distance that the crowd of people who had been lining up there dispersed dispiritedly. When she approached, she saw Chen Youtian and Zhou Cunzheng’s group looking dejected.

“Uncle Youtian, what’s going on?” Sang Lou asked.

Chen Youtian looked troubled. “The grain at the grain shop hasn’t reached our turn yet, but it’s already sold out.”

Sang Lou glanced towards the grain shop and indeed saw a sign hung up indicating that today’s grain was sold out, with the shop’s door shut.

Not seeing Uncle Lu, she asked again, “Where’s Uncle Lu?”

“He’s waiting in line at another shop. Not sure how it’s going,” Chen Youtian replied.

As soon as he finished speaking, Uncle Lu returned from the other side. He hadn’t been able to buy grain at the shop he queued at either, as it had also closed its doors.

Zhou Cunzheng shook his head. “Looks like we won’t be able to buy any in these two days. The city gates probably opened a bit late this morning, allowing the residents from the county town to queue up at the grain shops first.”

At this time, the residents of the county town were buying grain. Some had heard rumors and stocked up, while others hadn’t gathered enough taxes to pay yet, so the authorities naturally prioritized them.

In fact, even if the city gates didn’t delay, those who hadn’t gathered enough taxes would still have been standing outside several grain shops before dawn, even if they had to walk in the dark with torches. Without the city gates opening, they could only wait outside.

Unable to buy grain, everyone had no reason to stay in the county and headed back to the village to work in the fields. So, while talking, they all headed towards the county gate to return home.

Uncle Lu took over the cart from Sang Lou.

“Ninth Uncle, are we really not coming for the next few days? I noticed today’s grain price is ninety-eight wen per dou,” asked Zhou Lizheng’s son.

Zhou Cunzheng sighed. “Even if we come, we won’t be able to buy any.”

Until the grain taxes were collected, the city gates would likely continue to open at a certain time.

Zhou Cunzheng didn’t understand why the county government could meddle in such minor details. Why couldn’t they communicate with the grain merchants, even if it didn’t stabilize grain prices? Even if they just released a little more grain, it wouldn’t create the current situation where grain was so scarce.

But soon he realized he was thinking too much. If the county magistrate could easily influence the grain merchants, the grain prices wouldn’t fluctuate daily like this.

He hadn’t been lucky enough to encounter such a good official in all these years.

They returned to the village in silence. Sang Lou took a detour along a small path on the side of the village road, while Zhou Cunzheng’s group was immediately surrounded by villagers who were already concerned about grain prices.

Finally, someone couldn’t bear the anxiety in their hearts and decided to buy some grain at a high price, but hesitated because they were unwilling to spend the money from selling their fields and the daily cost of going to the city. So, they thought of asking Chen Youtian and the others to help them bring some back.

After waiting anxiously for half a morning, they only saw Chen Youtian and the others returning empty-handed, and their expressions changed immediately.

Regardless of how the villagers were faring, Sang Lou didn’t care.

Upon returning home, she neatly stored away the kilogram of cotton she had bought.

Shen An and Shen Ning curiously gathered around. They had never seen such fresh and snowy white cotton before. Soft and fluffy, Shen Ning pinched it with great interest.

“Sister-in-law, is this for making quilts?”

Sang Lou nodded. “Yes, let’s save up a bit more. When we have about three or four kilograms, we’ll make them. Recently, the three of us can huddle together and cover two beds with quilts. We can also use the unused fabric to pad the quilts.”

In September, the days were still tolerable with new autumn clothes. By October, adding the old ones would suffice. During this time, it only got a bit colder in the mountains at night, so cotton jackets could wait, but quilts had to be made first.

But since they were making them, it wouldn’t be right to make quilts with just one kilogram of cotton. Could that even be called a quilt?

Fortunately, they had exchanged plenty of fabric with three families, enough to make several sets of clothes. They used two sets of bed sheets and added a few extra clothes on top. The three of them could huddle together and sleep, which would be enough to get through September.

When they heard they needed three or four kilograms of cotton to make a quilt, Shen An and Shen Ning’s eyes sparkled.

When their eldest brother was around, they could wear cotton jackets and sleep under warm quilts. After he left, they had none of these luxuries. Even the good cotton was taken away by their third aunt to exchange for other things. Their jackets were made of old, stiff cotton mixed with some rushes, and their quilts were the same. They looked like cotton jackets and quilts, but they couldn’t withstand the cold. Winter was truly cold.

After storing away the cotton, Sang Lou took out the grain bags she had brought back today, washed them clean, and hung them up to dry. These were real treasures, only given when buying a large amount of grain from the grain shop. When buying small amounts, you had to bring your own cloth bags.

After finishing all the chores, she drank a bowl of water in the kitchen and didn’t rest. She got up and prepared to pick sour jujubes and leaves from the Fairy Tree to earn money to buy cotton quilts.

Lately, sour jujubes were still okay, as the trees were always there, and jujubes would occasionally fall. However, they could hardly find any usable leaves from the Fairy Tree nearby. They had to walk quite far, so after the stone path outside the courtyard was repaired, Sang Lou mostly took Shen An, who had better endurance, with her to go into the mountains, leaving Shen Ning at home.

Today was no different. The two of them wandered around in the mountains for more than an hour, turning to the other side of the village from where they rarely came. They didn’t find many usable leaves from the Fairy Tree.

Shen An worried, “Sister-in-law, can we still make Fairy Tofu today?”

In fact, Shen An was worried not just for today. He had realized that they might not be able to sell Fairy Tofu anymore this year.

When you lose one source of income, it means you have less money. Their family was short of money now. They still had to pay for the things they bought on credit and the bills from Dongfu Building. They couldn’t get any money from selling tofu these days. They had exchanged it for fabric to make clothes, and winter was coming, so they needed a lot of cotton for jackets and quilts.

Shen An didn’t know the price of cotton, but his eldest brother had bought cotton before.

Shen An remembered that his eldest brother and another person had gone into the mountains for several days to hunt and sell the prey in the county before they could exchange it for cotton.

They hunted big game.

Both his eldest brother and the other person got injured that time.

The cotton they exchanged for after all that trouble must have been very, very expensive.

When his eldest brother brought back so much cotton, Third Aunt’s eyes turned red. His eldest brother gave some to Shen Jin and the others. Only then did Third Uncle and Third Aunt have smiles on their faces.

Because of this, cotton was as precious to Shen An as grain. Moreover, they could grow grain in their fields, but they couldn’t grow cotton. In their area, no one planted cotton. It seemed that in the neighboring county, just a stone’s throw away, some people did plant cotton. It was warmer there than here, so cotton could grow.

Therefore, there were expenses everywhere, but one less way to earn money. How could they not worry?

Sang Lou looked at the Fairy Tree leaves she had found after searching for more than an hour today. She knew that they had eaten enough Fairy Tofu this year. Seeing Shen An’s worried face, she smiled and said, “It’s okay, don’t worry. Sister-in-law has a way to make money.”

She looked at the slightly deeper part and said, “Let’s go a little further in and find some more Fairy Tree leaves. With what we’ve picked today, we’ll at least be able to make a few blocks. Even if we don’t sell them, we can keep them for ourselves to eat and give some to the familiar families. It’s been a busy year, and in the end, everyone in the family should have a taste to wrap things up.”

Shen An nodded and followed behind his sister-in-law to the other side of the mountain.

As they went deeper, Sang Lou did find a few Fairy Trees. Just as she was reaching out to pick some leaves, she heard Shen An’s excited voice from behind.

“Sister-in-law, look what I found!” Sang Lou turned around and saw Shen An holding a short, dry tree branch?

Shen An had already happily come over to Sang Lou’s side, holding up what he had in his hand excitedly. “Sister-in-law, honey jujubes, these are so delicious!”

Sang Lou blinked at the mention of honey jujubes, then smiled when Shen An approached. “Jujubes?”

Taking what Shen An offered, what else could it be but jujubes?

Shen An presented it like a treasure. “Sister-in-law, do you recognize this? We call it honey jujubes around here. Big brother used to bring them for me and Ning when he went into the mountains.”

Sang Lou smiled. “I recognize them. We call them jujubes where I come from.”

Thinking that the name might not be the same as in the original owner’s hometown, she added, “There used to be a servant at home who liked to go to the mountains in his spare time. He brought these back once, calling them jujubes.”

Shen An didn’t think much about it. He smiled so much his eyes squinted, picked one, removed the fruit part, leaving the edible part, wiped it with his hand, and handed it to Sang Lou. “Sister-in-law, try one.”

As Sang Lou took it, he picked another and tossed it into his own mouth.

“I’ll go look for more to bring back for Ning.”

Shen An wanted to find the tree, but Sang Lou laughed, saying, “Look on the lower branches and the ground nearby. These fruits only fall when they’re ripe, and the ones on the ground are sweeter.”

Although Shen An had eaten these before, he really didn’t know what the tree looked like. Upon his sister-in-law’s reminder, he quickly changed his perspective and indeed found many fallen jujube branches on the nearby trees and bushes.

He was so happy that he momentarily forgot about the fairy tree leaves altogether.

Sang Lou found it amusing and, while picking the fairy tree leaves, casually picked up jujubes she saw, pinching them in her hand. When she had collected a few, she placed them in Shen An’s basket.

“You pick some more; these can also be sold.”

Shen An: “!!! These can also be sold?!”

Of course, they were so sweet; he loved eating them too.

Sang Lou smiled. “Yes, they can. We can pick as many as we can. Maybe we can save up the cotton for making quilts a little earlier.”

With renewed vigor from Sang Lou’s words, Shen An, missing one fairy tofu but gaining jujubes, grinned from ear to ear, feeling blessed by the heavens.

The speed at which they picked jujubes was astonishing, their eyes agile, darting around to ensure not a single spot or branch was missed. They circled around a tall fairy tree, picking like they were sweeping.

This was an old fairy tree with lush branches and leaves, meaning there was quite a large area where the jujubes fell, much to Shen An’s delight.

When both baskets were filled to the brim, there were still many jujubes left around.

Since they had already picked a lot of sour jujubes before and some fairy tree leaves, both of their baskets were already full.

“Let’s go home, empty the baskets, and we’ll come back again soon.” Sang Lou looked around and said, “We can at least fill up two baskets again.”

Shen An, hearing they would come back soon, felt no regret. “Then let’s hurry.”

They were excited all the way back, and the closer they got to home, the happier they became. When they reached the foot of their mountain, they could see Shen Ning squatting by the chicken coop outside the yard, but they couldn’t see what she was doing exactly.

Shen An, excitedly holding the back straps of the baskets with both hands, bounced up the hillside to their home. From afar, he waved the jujube branch he was holding and called out, “Ning, Ning, look what I brought for you!”

Shen Ning was crouching by the chicken coop, her waist bent, almost touching the ground as she looked into the coop. Suddenly, she reached inside and smiled. When she pulled her hand out, there was a warm egg in her palm.

She was even more excited than Shen An. Smiling, she stood up straight, and even before Sang Lou and Shen An had reached halfway up the hillside, she shouted excitedly to them, “Sister-in-law, second brother, our chicken laid an egg! Look, one egg, and it’s still warm!”

She held up the egg high for them to see. She wanted to shake it, but she was afraid of breaking it. The smile on her face was brighter than the warm autumn sun.

Sang Lou looked at the siblings, her eyes curved with joy.