Chapter 27: Mu Feng

Xia Tian went to the meat stall first to buy pork intestines. She originally wanted to buy more, but the boss only had three sets left, so she took them all.

She saw that there were pig heads available. Thinking that braised pig head meat was also delicious, she bought one too.

The pig head weighed about twenty jin and cost her eighty copper coins.

The boss, seeing that she was buying so much, gave her two big bones and a piece of pork liver for free.

Pork intestines and pig head meat were usually the hardest to sell at the stall, but since Xia Tian was a regular customer and took all of them, the boss even gave her a small discount.

Xia Tian asked the boss to save the pork intestines and a pig head for her every day from now on—she would come pick them up herself.

The boss agreed happily and promised to reserve the freshest and best ones for her each day.

Since three sets of intestines weren’t enough, Xia Tian went to other meat stalls and bought another three sets.

She also bought ten jin of dried tofu, like always.

After all, she had space—no fear of spoilage even if it didn’t sell.

They were out of wine at home, so she also bought a ten-jin jar.

By the time she finished shopping, it was about 9 a.m.—just in time to get home and make lunch.

Once she left town and the road was empty, Xia Tian put her load into her storage space. Just before reaching the village entrance, she took everything back out.

As soon as she stepped through the door, Shen Nian looked up in surprise. “Why are you back so early today?”

“You wouldn’t believe it, Brother Shen. This morning, when I got there, there were already a ton of people waiting for me—it gave me a scare. I thought something had happened.” Xia Tian set down her shoulder pole as she spoke. “Turns out they were all lining up to buy my braised goods.”

“You must be exhausted. Here, have some water first.” Shen Nian poured her a cup and handed it to her.

Xia Tian took the cup and drank it in one go. “Not too bad. I’m not tired, just had too many customers in the morning. It kept me busy.”

“Looks like business is doing really well.” Shen Nian’s eyes crinkled with a smile.

“Yeah, I sold out in less than half an hour. Some folks didn’t even manage to get any and asked me to make more tomorrow.”

“That’s great.”

“Brother Shen, you must be hungry. I’ll go cook.”

“Rest a bit first.” Shen Nian helped carry the baskets under the shed.

“It’s fine, I’m not tired.”

She carried the buckets to the kitchen, lit a fire, and started cooking rice.

Then she fetched water to clean the buckets, basins, and bowls, and picked some chives and a bunch of baby bok choy from the backyard garden.

She stir-fried the chives with pork liver, then made another dish with the bok choy, a chopped chili egg dish, and reheated the bone broth from yesterday for soup.

After the meal, Xia Tian went to take a nap. She’d gotten up early and had been busy nonstop, so she was feeling a bit sleepy.

Once she woke up, she prepped the pig head and dried tofu for braising.

The pork intestines were braised separately to avoid mixing flavors.

She had bought six sets of pork intestines today, and it took her two full hours just to clean them.

By the time she finished, the pig head was done braising.

Xia Tian took out the pig head and tofu and soaked them in broth to enhance the flavor.

Then she started braising the pork intestines.

By her estimate, it was around 3 p.m. She went to wash some clothes and made a few trips to fill the water jar.

Shen Nian noticed she was low on toothpicks, so he sat in the courtyard sharpening more.

For dinner, Xia Tian cooked rice again, made chive scrambled eggs, stir-fried garlic sprouts with pig head meat, and prepared a cold bamboo shoot salad.

After dinner, she remembered she hadn’t counted today’s earnings yet.

She took out her money pouch and poured the coins onto the table. After counting, she had made a total of two strings and seventy copper coins.

After deducting her costs of eighty copper coins, she had made a net profit of one string and ninety copper coins.

Today’s profit mostly came from selling all ten jin of dried tofu, which brought in about forty copper coins alone.

She put the money away and went to wash up and rest—tomorrow would be another busy day.

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The next morning, when Xia Tian arrived at her stall, there were even more people gathered than the day before.

She laid out her braised goods, and before long, the pork intestines and tofu were completely sold out. The pig head meat was sold by weight—Xia Tian set the price at eighteen copper coins per jin, which was a bit expensive for the average villager.

After all, eighteen coins could buy two jin of pork belly.

Still, from a twenty-jin pig head, only about ten jin of meat could be used after braising.

So pricing it too low just wouldn’t be worth it.

Those who hadn’t gotten any pork intestines ended up buying small amounts of the pig head meat instead. Xia Tian sold it to them even in small portions.

Even so, everything was sold out in under an hour.

She didn’t pack up right away. Instead, she got a bowl of wontons from a nearby stall. Just like the aunty had said—they were incredibly flavorful.

In the days that followed, Xia Tian didn’t increase her output. She stuck to six sets of pork intestines, one pig head, and ten jin of tofu each day, selling until she was out.

Interestingly, more and more people started buying the pig head meat.

Now, every time she set up her stall, everything was gone in under half an hour.

After subtracting the cost of goods, her daily income was about five hundred copper coins, which meant her monthly net profit would be about fifteen taels of silver.

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That day, after Xia Tian finished selling her goods and sat down to rest like usual, a man in black martial garb walked over and asked, “Excuse me, sister-in-law, do you know how to get to Liu Family Village?”

“Head out the north gate of town and go east. It’s about an hour’s walk,” Xia Tian replied without much thought.

But after pointing the way, the man didn’t leave. Xia Tian asked curiously, “Is there something else?”

“Do you know someone named Mu Yang? He lives with his brother in Liu Family Village,” the man asked next.

“Mu Yang?” Her guard went up. “Why is he looking for Mu Yang? Isn’t that the same as looking for Shen Nian?”

But she kept her face calm, lowered her gaze, and said, “I don’t know him.”

The man didn’t press further. He clasped his hands in thanks, said “Much obliged,” and turned to leave.

Xia Tian noticed he was carrying a sword, and her nerves immediately tensed. “Could he be an enemy of Shen Nian, come to settle a score?”

Absolutely not!

She had to hurry home and warn Shen Nian.

She quickly packed up, stopped by a few stalls to collect her pre-ordered pig heads, and rushed straight home.

As soon as she stepped through the door, she didn’t even set down her load before calling out urgently, “Brother Shen! Someone in town was asking about you today—hurry and hide! That guy didn’t seem like anything good!”

Shen Nian was in the courtyard and hadn’t even had a chance to speak when a figure appeared from the backyard.

It was the man in black who had asked for directions earlier.

“You?” The man looked surprised.

He recognized Xia Tian too.

Xia Tian dropped her basket and rushed in front of Shen Nian, holding her shoulder pole across her chest as she barked, “What do you want?”

The man looked stunned and glanced at Shen Nian as if to ask, “Who is this?”

Shen Nian ignored the look.

Seeing Xia Tian still tense and on guard, Shen Nian smiled and gently patted her shoulder. “It’s okay. He won’t hurt me.” As he spoke, he reached out to take the pole from her hands.

“Who is he? You know him?” Xia Tian asked, turning to him.

“Yeah. He’s Mu Feng.”

“Mu Feng? Mu Yang’s brother?”

“Mm.”

So it was fine, then.

As long as he wasn’t an enemy.

Xia Tian finally let out a breath and realized her clothes underneath were damp.

She had rushed all the way home, and coupled with the earlier panic, she’d broken into a sweat.

Shen Nian pulled her to sit on a stool in the courtyard and poured her a glass of water.

Seeing Shen Nian’s gentle actions, a flicker of surprise passed through Mu Feng’s eyes. His lordship has really changed a lot.

Judging by how they got along, their relationship seemed far from ordinary.

Mu Feng felt a bit confused. He walked up to Shen Nian and asked, “Master, who is this young lady?”