Seeing the horse growing farther and farther away from them, Mu Zhongli gritted his teeth, took some silver, and hired a cab to chase after it.
On this side, Mu Caiwei, Lady Du, and the owner of the Zuixian Residence have agreed on the price. The wild boar was sold to the Zuixian Residence in its entirety for a one-time price of ten taels of silver.
Once the deal was completed, when the manager handed over a large silver ingot, Lady Du's eyes were so excited that they turned slightly red. Her rough hands stroked the ingot like caressing a gentle baby.
"Wei'er, tell me, is this real? Do we have ten taels of silver?"
Caiwei laughed and said, "You certainly do have ten taels of silver now. But, don't blame me for not reminding you- if you continue standing here wiping your tears, I promise that by the time your father and uncle come back, this ten taels of silver won't be yours anymore!"
The sentence reminded Lady Du, she quickly hid the silver in her bosom and grabbed her daughter's hand, saying, "Wei'er, hurry, let us hide."
Caiwei patted her hand and said, "Mother, don't worry. The horse was scared and won't stop for a while. Even if it does, who knows how far it might have run? They will take some time to come back. Why don't we take this opportunity to look around and see what we lack at home, and buy some things?".
Lady Du also had this intention. She had too many things lacking at home, and the New Year was approaching. Now that they had money, they could arrange to buy a few things and would be able to bring some cheer to the house.
The mother and daughter agree and walk out of the Zuixian Residence onto the street.
This was Caiwei's first time going around the streets after crossing over. The streets of the ancient period, paved with green stones, were a classic version of spacious and clean elegance. On both sides, there were many restaurants, medical centers, grocery stores, pawnshops, money lending institutions, tea houses, cloth shops, and so forth, all hanging their respective signboards in front of their shops.
At this time it was nearing the end of the year, the weather was surprisingly cold, but there were still a lot of people on the streets. Caiwei and her mother held hands, picking and choosing with excitement. A lot of rural folks led cow carts, carried baskets around, wandered on the streets, some were doing their New Year shopping, some were selling local specialties from their farms. Black fungus mushrooms, cornmeal, steamed buns, hand-woven baskets, wooden basins, horse troughs, some were selling rice wine they brewed themselves, some were selling frozen tofu. There were also several peddlers carrying a load-carrying pole that attracts a crowd mainly of young girls and daughters-in-law. Caiwei also squeezed in to take a look with interest. She bought two yards of the red hair tie for Fei'er from a load-peddlar, which only cost five copper coins, and spent six copper coins to buy two sugar figurines to give to Wen'er and Wu'er that night.
After shopping for a while, Caiwei was pulled into a cloth shop by her mother.
The cloth shop was not big; the cloths inside were all coarse cloth and cotton, without any higher-grade goods like brocade.
"Madam, are you buying cloth?"
From behind the wooden counter, the shop assistant sluggishly called out a greeting. His narrow, shrewd eyes slid from Lady Du's patched cotton-padded clothes to see Caiwei's jacket, where the cotton lining was visible. Although he didn't say any inconsiderate words, he looked down on the two people in front of him from the raised chin and squinting eyes.
"Yes, it's time for the New Year, I plan to make a new jacket for each of the children." The mood of Lady Du was very good, not affected by the shop worker's disdain.
Hearing that there was indeed business to be done, the shop assistant immediately seemed to switch faces, becoming enthusiastic: "Oh! Madam, you really are a compassionate mother. Come, come over here!"
He led Lady Du directly to the coarse cloth counter.
"Madam, look, these coarse cloths were just delivered a few days ago and their quality is definitely good. It's just that they haven't been dyed properly, so some have faded. Therefore, we are selling them cheaper. How about that?"
"Shop assistant, we are not buying coarse cloth!" Caiwei spoke.
Hearing the words, the shop assistant looked towards the girl who spoke.
The girl was young and was yet to mature, her malnourished little face had not yet fully developed, and her body was extremely thin. But she had a pair of extremely clear pupils, those eyes were as deep and cold as the water in a deep well, profound and indifferent, making it impossible for people to resist.
For some mysterious reason, the shop assistant shivered, stopping in his tracks.