Chapter 15

Why Did You Stay?

When they arrived in the city, the two of them went straight to the medicine shop.

The shopkeeper of the medicine shop was a white-haired old man. Although the shop was not big, it was kept very clean and simple. The whole shop was filled with a strong medicinal fragrance.

Mo Ruyue took off the bamboo basket from her back and pointed to the entire basket of herbs. She said to the shopkeeper, “Shopkeeper, take a look at these herbs. They are all top-quality wild herbs. I’ve also done a simple treatment. Do you accept them here?”

The shopkeeper leaned down from behind the high table and motioned for her to take out the herbs one by one. Baiji, Chonglou, Codonopsis, Astragalus root, Licorice root...

Many of them were the most common herbs that could clear away heat, detoxify, reduce swelling, and ease blood stasis. Of course, there were also relatively more expensive herbs such as Lingzhi, Solomon’s Seal, and black wolfberry.

And just as Mo Ruyue had said, almost all of the herbs had gone through a simple preliminary treatment so that they could better display their medicinal properties and save the time needed for the drug refiner to process the herbs.

“It seems that this lady is a person who knows the trade. If you just pick it and send it over like that, the price will naturally be a bit lower.”

As the saying goes, once an expert makes a move, he will know whether there is an opportunity or not. Mo Ruyue’s actions made the shopkeeper put out his thoughts of haggling the price. After all, people who knew how to deal with medicinal herbs naturally knew that the price of processed and unprocessed items was different. It was impossible to fool them.

“Shopkeeper, please tell me what you think of these herbs. If you don’t accept them, I’ll go to the next shop.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Mo Ruyue didn’t want to waste time on this matter. Her main purpose in coming to the city this time was still to visit the restaurant. She wanted to ask about the price of buying meat and, at the same time, establish a more stable and long-term working relationship.

The shopkeeper didn’t expect Mo Ruyue to be so direct. All the words he wanted to say were stuck in his mouth. For a moment, he was somewhat tongue-tied and didn’t know what to say next.

He had been running a medicine shop for decades, and he could tell what kind of herbs were good or bad with one look.

The herbs that Mo Ruyue had brought were indeed wild in the mountains, especially the ginseng that was almost ten years old. Coupled with the appropriate treatment, the color and value of this basket of herbs were indeed not low.

Mo Ruyue saw that he didn’t speak for a long time, so she started to put the herbs on the counter into the basket and was ready to call Da Bao to leave together.

“Wait! Why is this lady so anxious!”

The shopkeeper was in a daze for a moment when he saw Mo Ruyue start to pack her things and quickly called her back.

“So, are you going to take my herbs or not?”

Mo Ruyue asked one last question. She had made up her mind that if he beat around the bush again, she would immediately pack her things and leave.

“We will definitely buy it, and the price is negotiable. Lady, you are really anxious.”

The shopkeeper began to list the names and prices of the herbs while fiddling with the beads on the abacus. After a while, he stopped and gave her a number.

“How about this? I’ll give you five taels of silver for all the herbs.”

When Mo Ruyue was calculating on the shopkeeper’s abacus just now, she had already done a quick calculation in her heart. Although the shopkeeper had wiped out some small numbers, it was not much different, so she was too lazy to care about those dozen copper coins.

“Alright, then we’ll do as you say. Five taels.”

When the shopkeeper saw that Mo Ruyue was straightforward with her words, he didn’t delay any longer and directly took out five taels of silver from the money cabinet and handed it to her. He also took the basket of herbs.

“Shopkeeper, please help me change these five taels of silver into loose silver and copper coins. Otherwise, it’s really inconvenient to spend them.”

Mo Ruyue was not in a hurry to take the money. In this county, one tael of silver was not a small amount, let alone five taels. An ordinary shop would not be able to find such a large amount of change.

“Alright, I’ll help you change then.”

The shopkeeper took back the five taels of silver and then handed over two strings of copper coins and three ingots of silver.

Mo Ruyue stuffed the three silver ingots into her purse and threw them directly to Da Bao. She kept the two strings of copper coins in her pocket and then left the medicine shop.

“Why?”

Da Bao’s voice suddenly came from behind. Mo Ruyue stopped and turned to look at him in confusion. “What, why?”

Da Bao touched the purse in his arms and looked at her with a complicated gaze. “With money, you can get rid of our burdens. In the past, you couldn’t wait for us to die so that you could run far away. Why are you staying now?”

This question had been in Da Bao’s mind for a long time. He finally asked it today.

“Why do you need so many whys? If you think the money is too hot to hold, I can keep it for you.” Mo Ruyue said indifferently.

She couldn’t possibly tell him that without her as a stepmother, they would all turn crooked and become big villains.

Da Bao didn’t get the answer he wanted, but he didn’t persist. Instead, he followed Mo Ruyue silently, his arms subconsciously protecting his chest.

The city was not big, but there were several restaurants. Except for two restaurants, which had good scale and decoration, the rest were just small inns with restaurant brands.

The two restaurants stood opposite each other on both sides of the main road. Because of their similar size and style, the two restaurants had been secretly competing for customers. In recent years, they had won and lost against each other many times, and no one could do anything to the other.

When Mo Ruyue brought Da Bao over, they had walked on the right side of the road. Naturally, they chose the restaurant on the right called “Heavenly Fortune Tower.”

The waiter came over and was about to greet him when Mo Ruyue went straight to the point. “Little brother, we are here to sell meat. I wonder if you are interested in buying it. If you are, what is the price?”

When the waiter saw that this was not a customer who had come to spend, his enthusiasm was reduced by half, and the smile on his face also disappeared.

He sized up the mother and son, not believing that they could take out anything good, so he said perfunctorily, “Of course, we’ll take them, but we don’t take everything. What meat do you have? Let us see it first, and then we can set the price.”

This time, Da Bao didn’t need Mo Ruyue’s reminder. He put down the bamboo basket on his back and took out rabbits and pheasants. Other than that, there were also a few non-poisonous grass snakes and a small beast that looked like a fox but couldn’t be named.

Those rabbits were extremely fat. Other than the injuries to their eyes, there was no damage to their fur at all. Mo Ruyue had originally planned to skin the fur and use it to make boots and gloves for her babies. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was about to run out of money, she wouldn’t have taken them out to sell.

“You guys are here to sell such small things?”

The waiter’s chin rose even higher, almost as if he was looking at people with his nostrils.

“Forget it. It wasn’t easy for you and your mother to get these things, not to mention bringing them all the way to the city to sell. It’s only because you met a kind-hearted person like me that I’ll accept it. Let me see, I’ll pay you 20 cents for a wild rabbit, but the chicken meat is worth much less, 15 cents.”

“Snakes can be slightly more expensive. Forty cents per snake, that’s all. As for that unknown thing, no one knows what it is and whether it’s edible or not. What if it’s poisonous? So, the price won’t be too high. It’ll be 40 cents.”

After he finished speaking, he even put on a gracious expression as if waiting for Mo Ruyue and her son to thank him.