Nobody dared to stay any longer after hearing that. Everyone slipped away.
"Tell me, Miss An."
An Jiuyue coughed uncomfortably and said, "Uncle Lin, my father left two months ago."
"Left?"
Manager Lin blinked and raised an eyebrow, not understanding her words.
"He was living well here. Where did he go so suddenly? Is there somewhere better than our Sunset Town?" He looked at An Jiuyue as he spoke, his eyes filled with confusion.
"If your father left, why didn't you follow him?"
An Jiuyue was extremely shocked.
Can I really follow him there? I don't want to die so early!
"Ahem, well… Uncle Lin, I'm still young, and I still have two children to take care of. I don't want to go to that place yet," she replied softly.
Upon hearing that, Uncle Lin finally understood. So this is what this young lady meant when she said he left!
He suddenly felt embarrassed and coughed lightly.
"How could this be? Old Tu might be over 60 years old, but he is still strong. How could he leave just like that?"
An Jiuyue sighed and explained, "He encountered a tiger in the mountains. Although he escaped, his injuries were too severe so he couldn't survive."
It was a rather cruel fate. If she had transmigrated two months earlier, she might have been able to save him. However, she was late by two months.
"Oh, let's not talk about this anymore. Why are you here today?"
The manager saw that the young lady was sad and quickly changed the topic.
"I hunted a hibernating snake on the mountain, so I brought it over for you to take a look. Would you be keen to take it?" Without saying anything else, she put the bamboo basket down and lifted the large banana leaf that was covering it.
"Gasp!"
Even Manager Lin was frightened by the snake in the bamboo basket.
The snake was so big that even if it had already been skinned and chopped into pieces, he could still make out how big the snake was originally. It was as thick as a grown man's calf.
"Miss An, you're really something! It's such a cold day, and yet you even managed to bring this huge snake here."
"Uncle Lin, are you willing to accept it?" An Jiuyue asked. There was joy written all over her face.
"This is good stuff! Of course, we have to take it," replied Manager Lin.
This was such a fine good from the wild, and it had already been cleaned and cut up well. How could they reject it?
"Miss An, you're Old Tu's daughter so I won't pull any tricks on you. If you sell the whole snake, it would be worth 60 copper coins per half a kilogram. However, I'll offer you 80 copper coins per half a kilogram since you've already skinned it. What do you think?" he asked.
"Okay."
An Jiuyue readily agreed.
80 copper coins per half a kilogram were much better than what she had imagined. There was so much snake meat—there should be more than 15 kilograms worth. That was more than two taels of silver and would be enough for her to buy a lot of food.
She didn't expect to sell this prey so easily.
However, she knew that only the rare prey would be hot-selling. Common prey such as a pheasant would be sold for 40 to 50 copper coins at most. It wouldn't be sold for too much.
Manager Lin called a servant over to weigh the snake meat.
Just as An Jiuyue had estimated, the snake meat weighed about 15 kilograms. Manager Lin also calculated the amount of money she would be paid for it. It totaled two taels of silver and 438 copper coins.