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Chapter 690: Chapter 680: Purchasing New Year Goods
"Haha, sister-in-law, you really think highly of me. Since when have you seen me with a needle and thread? Still, these were indeed made from the down I collected, which I then took to the tailor. But getting duck down isn’t easy; I’ll save up slowly. When I have enough, I’ll make some for the kids." During the New Year festivities, Shen Yunfang didn’t want to argue with anyone, so it was no big deal to agree to requests within her means. Besides, when it came to having enough materials, wasn’t it up to her to decide?
"Mommy, I want to play with brother too," Manman timely provided her mother with an escape.
"I want to go down too; I don’t want to ride in the cart," Sandan squirmed as if he had nails in his pants, unable to sit still.
Goudan, along with Erdan and Pangpang, played and ran around in the snow, thoroughly enjoying themselves and making the two little friends in the cart quite envious.
"That’s not happening. The snow is so deep down there; after a few runs, your shoes will be soaked and your feet might freeze off," Wang Dan frightened the children. Although the children weren’t that young—the least among them, Sandan, was three or four years older than Pangpang—she still instinctively liked to keep the youngest by her side.
"Daddy!" Manman directly called for her own backup, then stretched out both arms.
Li Hongjun walked beside the cart, and upon hearing his daughter’s call, he naturally strode over and effortlessly lifted her down from the cart.
"Don’t play too long, okay? And you can’t take off your hats or gloves, understand?" Shen Yunfang did not object.
Compared to sitting motionless in the cart, she reckoned the children would be warmer if they ran around below.
"Mom, look, little sister got to go down, now I want to go down too," Sandan protested vehemently and, regardless of his mother beside him, broke free from her grasp and leaped down from the cart.
This startled all the adults; Li Hongjun, on the other side of the cart, couldn’t even reach to catch him.
Fortunately, Sandan dived into a pile of snow by the roadside. Li Hongjun hurried over, pulled him out of the snow, and found him completely unharmed.
Wang Dan on the cart finally patted her chest, cursing, "This foolhardy kid, always scaring people."
Li Hongxing, seeing everything was okay, cracked his whip again and the donkey cart continued on its way.
Along the way, Wang Dan busily pried Shen Yunfang for details about Z Province, to which Shen Yunfang only shared some unimportant tidbits. This made Wang Dan envious to no end; she even mentioned that when she had the chance, she’d bring her man and kids to visit her in Z Province.
This time, Shen Yunfang didn’t dare to agree carelessly; her sister-in-law was someone who said what she meant and did what she said. If Shen Yunfang casually agreed, and her sister-in-law ended up taking the whole family to Z Province to visit her like last time, it would be quite the event.
After letting the children run around for twenty minutes, Shen Yunfang called the two back to sit and rest in the cart. With occasional running and stopping, it took about forty minutes before the donkey cart reached the big marketplace.
This place used to be the people’s commune; it was quite large, and naturally, it was teeming with people.
Shen Yunfang had frequented markets around the Capital for the past two years, so such scenes were nothing new to her and she wasn’t surprised. She just knew she had to keep a close eye on the children because of the crowd.
After informing Wang Dan and her husband, they split up to act separately with the kids; it was impractical for so many people to stick together.
Shen Yunfang took Pangpang, while Li Hongjun carried Manman. The family of four started browsing the bustling market.
The markets had begun to operate on a larger scale, and now you could buy almost anything at the big marketplace.
"Let’s check out the grains first," Shen Yunfang thought. It seemed better to take care of necessities like rice and flour first—after all, supplies at home were running low.
"Alright, over there, let’s walk along that way," Li Hongjun, being tall, could see clearly.
Shen Yunfang naturally followed Li Hongjun, but she hadn’t taken more than a few steps when she saw someone selling vegetables. Of course, there wasn’t much else available now, just cabbages and radishes, the kind stored in the autumn, being sold off of small carts covered with quilts.
"Wait a minute, there’s someone selling carrots here. Let’s buy some." Shen Yunfang thought of the two large cabbages left at home, which wouldn’t last many more days, and even though she had some in her ’space’, she still needed a reason to take them out, so seeing vegetables for sale, she wanted to buy some.
"Alright, I’ll take the kids. You go pick some." Li Hongjun took the kids, letting his wife select the vegetables.
Shen Yunfang, not standing on ceremony, asked for the price, then had the vendor give her a burlap sack and she started picking.
There were not only carrots here, but all the common autumn vegetables. Shen Yunfang took advantage of the sack to fill it up, and in the end, she spent fourteen yuan. Cabbages were the most expensive, at seven and a half yuan per jin, which was two and a half yuan more expensive than in the autumn; one cabbage cost almost one yuan and fifty cents, so filling the sack with five cabbages came to almost ten yuan.
By the time Shen Yunfang had finished buying, Li Hongjun had effortlessly picked up the sack and was on his way back. The vegetables were susceptible to freezing, so they needed to be delivered quickly to the donkey cart and covered with quilts. Otherwise, after a round at the market, the vegetables would probably freeze.
Shen Yunfang then led the two children to amble forward slowly.
Li Hongjun found them again by the time Shen Yunfang was waiting for him with another sack by her feet and the children.
"I bought some potatoes and sweet potatoes, as well as some noodles. Can you take them back too?"
Well, Li Hongjun picked up the sack and turned back again.
Later on, when the family arrived at the grain seller’s area, they just happened to run into Wang Dan with a few kids.
Li Hongxing was watching the donkey cart on the edge of the market.
"Yunfang, are you going to buy grain?" Wang Dan had spotted the family of four from afar and, noting that Shen Yunfang had stopped to speak with the grain seller, she hurried over.
"Oh, big sister, you’ve made it here too. I was just enquiring about the grain prices, thinking of buying some to take back if they were reasonable," Shen Yunfang said cheerfully.
"Goodness, what are you saying? If you don’t have grain, why didn’t you tell your big sister? Your big brother and big sister are right next door, there’s no need for you to come out and buy it. Really." Wang Dan quickly pulled her to the side, "Come on, don’t buy grain out here. The prices are all raised for the New Year. When we get home, I’ll have your big brother bring you some. As your big sister, I surely can’t cheat you. We’ll just go with the normal price."
Shen Yunfang glanced discreetly at Li Hongjun; this big sister really had a way. She had listened before and thought this was an offer of free grain. It turned out this was a sales pitch.
Li Hongjun’s face was expressionless as he looked at his wife, meaning it was up to her to decide.
Shen Yunfang laughed a little, thinking it didn’t matter where she bought it. Instead of giving the money to someone else, it was actually better to let a relative earn it, but these things needed to be clarified upfront.
"Alright, since my big sister has some, it will save me the trouble of carrying it all the way back. But as for the price, let’s stick to the market price after all; nobody’s grain is brought by the wind. How’s this? Here, the price is two yuan and four jin for rice, two yuan and one jin for white flour. Big sister, please get me one hundred jin of each." She did some calculations. They were going to stay at the ancestral home for about twenty days. With the New Year and the household having many people, both old and young, one hundred jin of grain definitely wouldn’t be enough. Skimping wouldn’t be fitting, so she decided to buy extra, which could always be given to big sister Li if they couldn’t eat all of it.
"Ah, yes, yes," Wang Dan laughed so hard her teeth nearly showed, as this summed up to forty-five yuan.
"Well, that’s settled then. You go on and enjoy your market, big sister, we’ll be on our way," Shen Yunfang said, waved goodbye, and continued to lead her party forward.
"Ah, I don’t really have anything else to buy either. I might as well join you all for a bit longer," Wang Dan’s eyes rolled and she followed.
