The next day, Yingbao and Chunniang got up early.
Chen Zhao, who was sleeping on the bed next to him, also quickly got up and put on his clothes, shoes and socks.
After they had finished packing, two maids, Xiaoqing and Xiaodai, came over with water.
"Hey, little doctor, you got up so early, why don't you sleep a little longer?" Xiao Qing asked with a smile.
Chunniang quickly took the kettle and said, "We want to get up early and go to the West Market to have a look. Please ask Miss Xiaoqing to tell your young mistress."
The internal affairs of the Duke's Mansion are managed by the Crown Prince's wife, and Xiaoqing and Xiaodai are also people in the Crown Prince's wife's courtyard, so Chunniang only needs to tell Xiaoqing that she and her daughter are going out.
"Since you are going to the West Market, would you like me to inform the prince's wife and ask her family to send a carriage to take you there?" Xiaoqing asked.
Chunniang said quickly, "Don't bother. Yingbao and I are just going out for a stroll. It would be inconvenient to take a carriage."
Xiaoqing did not force them. She stood by and talked for a while. Then she asked a maid from the guest house to follow Chunniang and others to serve them. Then she left with Xiaodai.
After they washed up and had a quick breakfast, Yingbao and Chunniang Chen Zhao followed the maid out.
Li Qing, who originally lived opposite, had long been taken away by his grandfather Doctor Li to live in Wen Jingyan's home, so Chunniang and Chen Zhao were the only two people left in the entire guest house, along with two gatekeepers and two cleaning maids.
Led by a maid, the three of them walked out of the Duke's Mansion through a side door, passed through the alleys of the outer courtyard, and finally arrived at the main street.
There are big shops on both sides of the street here, such as gold and silver jewelry stores, silk and cloth shops, antique calligraphy and painting stores, perfume shops, restaurants, singing houses, money houses, and carriage and horse shops.
After walking for a while, the maid started to get impatient and complained to Chunniang, "Madam, the West Market is five or six miles away from here. I am old and cannot walk such a long distance. Why don't we hire an ox cart to get around?"
Chunniang looked at her daughter and saw that she had no objection, so she nodded and agreed: "Then hire an ox cart."
They had not walked far when the maid called for an ox cart.
The driver was an old farmer who had been carrying vegetables into the city to sell early in the morning. Now that the vegetables had been sold to the vendors, he was about to return home when he met someone who was looking for a ride.
The maidservant agreed with him that she would take them from here to the West Market and then take them back home, for a total of two hundred coins.
The old farmer was very happy. He cleaned the car floor and let several people sit on it.
The ox cart moved slowly along the street, and whenever it came across snacks being sold on the roadside, Yingbao would jump off the cart to buy some and share them with everyone.
The baked crispy and fragrant sesame pancake has a layer of fragrant sesame on the outside and delicious mutton filling inside. It is very delicious.
Yingbao bought thirty at once and also weighed five pounds of uncooked raw sesame seeds from the shopkeeper.
He took out a few cakes and shared them with everyone, and gave the rest to A-niang to keep as dry food on the way back home.
We also met someone selling fried white sausage, blood sausage and mutton offal, as well as mutton wontons, pepper goose offal soup, fried tripe and lungs, fried cakes, eel soup, etc. I bought some for everyone to try.
Soon everyone had eaten their fill, including the old farmer driving the cart, who kept burping while touching his belly.
Seeing Yingbao still buying those mutton buns, beef patties, lotus biscuits, and crispy ring biscuits, the maid said to Chunniang, "My dear, you can't spoil your child like this. The weather is hot now. If you buy so many things and bring them back, they will go bad in one night. Isn't this a waste of food?"
Chunniang smiled and said, "It's a rare trip to the capital, and we'll be returning home tomorrow. Bao'er bought these for us to eat on the way, so they won't be wasted."
The maid rolled her eyes secretly and said nothing more.
The ox cart passed by a fruit shop, which was a large business that wholesaled fruits and vegetables.
All fruits and vegetables from other places that come into Beijing must first enter a fruit market before they can be sold, so there are many varieties of fruits and vegetables here.
Yingbao picked out some ripe watermelons, longans and papayas and weighed them, and also bought a lot of lychees and honeydew melons.
After loading all these onto the ox cart, the maid was too lazy to say anything and just dozed off with her eyes closed.
Chen Zhao was very happy. He helped to move things one trip after another and didn't feel tired at all.
After buying the fruits, Yingbao asked the old farmer to continue driving the cart and walked slowly along the street.
If I see someone selling charcoal, I will buy a basket from him, as well as a charcoal stove, two copper kettles for boiling water, and a pot for cooking soup and rice.
We saw another dragon beard noodle shop, which sold various kinds of dried noodles, and Yingbao also bought two big bags.
Afterwards, she watched the shop for a long time, watching how they made and dried the noodles.
Next to the Longxu noodle shop is a grain shop. Yingbao went in and bought a lot of local vegetable seeds and grain seeds, such as eggplant, radish, celery, turmeric, spinach, broad beans, lentils, gourds, etc. She bought a big bag of each.
Chunniang was very pleased when she took the seeds handed to her by her daughter.
I didn't think so much, but my daughter thought of everything.
By bringing back local vegetable seeds, not only will your family have vegetables to eat, but the villagers will also benefit greatly.
The ox cart moved slowly, and Yingbao and Chen Zhao did not get on the cart. The two of them just strolled along the way.
Whenever I saw something new, I would buy some and put it on the cattle cart, like shrimp paste, crab roe paste, aged vinegar, pickled radish, pickled cucumber, sweet pickled garlic, etc. I bought two jars of each.
Finally they came to a big wine shop, and Yingbao bought two jars of lychee wine, two jars of sour plum wine, two jars of koji, and two jars of fermented glutinous rice.
After the autumn harvest, the family would use koji to brew some wine, which would be saved for drinking during the New Year and other festivals.
Anyway, her family had plenty of rice, so they didn't have to sell grain to pay taxes. As long as she didn't sell the wine she brewed, the government wouldn't care.
On the way, we came across a shop selling iced drinks. We saw two young ladies standing by the counter, eating from bowls in their hands. The snow-white meatballs in the ceramic bowls were garnished with two slices of apricots, and they were emitting a hint of cold air, looking very tempting.
Chen Zhao swallowed and looked at Ying Bao pitifully.
She didn’t have a penny in her hand. If she wanted to eat, she could only ask the little kid for help, “Senior Sister…”
Yingbao wiped the sweat off her forehead and said, "Take whatever you want to eat, I'll pay."
Chen Zhao had helped a lot along the way, and he was not a particularly stingy person, so it was okay for him to treat her to a bowl of ice drink.
"I'll eat that!" Chen Zhao pointed to the ice bowls in the hands of the two young ladies.
So Yingbao bought three more bowls of ice sugar balls, one bowl for A Niang, one bowl for herself, and one bowl for Chen Zhao.
It is really refreshing to have a bowl of ice drink in the dog days of summer. It’s a pity that I don’t have ice, otherwise I could make it for my dad and younger brother when I get home.
After eating the ice dumplings, they got on the ox cart and returned to the Xiao Mansion.
The maid called two servants to help move things into the guest house.
The maid Xiaoqing looked at the scattered things in the room and couldn't help but asked in surprise: "Young lady, you bought so many things, how are you going to take them away?"
Yingbao: "It's okay, I can just move two boxes to fit it."
Xiaoqing took a look at the things on the floor, then looked at the wooden boxes piled next to them, and was speechless for a moment.
There are only a few wooden boxes. Let alone freeing up two, even if all of them were freed up, they wouldn't be able to hold so many things.
Chunniang was also worried, "Bao'er, can it really fit?"
"Yeah." I have to pretend even if I can't. As long as my mother and the others don't see me pretending, it'll be fine.
In the evening, Yingbao asked A Niang to take Chen Zhao to the next room to wash up, and she quickly opened the box and put the things she bought today into it.
Fruits, mutton, steamed buns, pickles, wine jars, etc. were all put into the cave, some seeds were also put in, and the rest were locked in a wooden box.
When Chunniang and Chen Zhao came back, they saw that their daughter had cleaned up everything in the house. She packed everything into boxes and locked them. They were surprised.
"All in the box?"
"Well, it's all packed in. We can leave tomorrow."