Jiang Cheng is just fourteen years old this year. He has grown rapidly recently and is almost as tall as his third uncle.
Although he had grown taller, he was still a thin boy. He was so tired that he was sweating profusely after walking five or six miles with his little cousin on his back.
After all, Yingbao now weighs twenty kilograms, which is very heavy, almost as heavy as a piglet.
After finally reaching the market town, he sat on a stone by the roadside to rest for a while, then stood up and walked inside.
Seeing this, Yingbao took out a cooked water chestnut from her pocket and handed it to her cousin.
Jiang Cheng took it and ate it in a few bites. He felt a warm current flowing through his body. After a while, all his fatigue disappeared without a trace.
The boy was naive and thought he was hungry from walking, so he ate a water chestnut to feel better.
He didn't know that this water chestnut was a test product that Yingbao had soaked in Wudingzhi for a night.
Yingbao, who was in the backpack, was now standing on tiptoe, looking around for her second cousin.
There are not many people at the market today, much less than during the New Year holidays.
However, there are quite a few stalls, most of which sell seasonal vegetables, eggs, goose eggs, and chicks and goslings.
There are also people selling baskets, bamboo plaques, chicken cages, and straw sandals, as well as fortune tellers.
Many small vendors set up their stalls with bamboo fences and displayed colorful silk threads, five-poison embroidered bags, mugwort tigers, mugwort men, and women's evil-repelling headwear such as peach wood hairpins, owl talismans, and so on.
The so-called Aihu and Airen are made by weaving dried mugwort into the shapes of tigers, humans, scorpions, centipedes and toads, and hanging them around the waist to ward off evil spirits.
Of course, these woven moxa talismans are dyed with red cinnabar to become bright red. The more exquisite ones have a few tassels and silk threads hanging underneath, which are very beautiful.
The owl symbol is a feather hairpin made from owl feathers dyed red and inserted into the bun, representing fighting poison with poison and resisting the five evil poisons.
Because the day after tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival, vendors also want to take this opportunity to make a fortune and put out all the goods related to the festival.
Yingbao immediately saw her second cousin Jiang Quan squatting on the side of the road, bargaining with a few old ladies carrying baskets.
"Auntie, these are water chestnuts I brought from the county town. I won't sell them for less than ten cents a bag. You can't just give me seven cents."
The old lady glared at him, "You are such a wicked man, what can be worth ten cents a bag? There are only twenty in a bag, and I think these are just water chestnuts from the paddy field. Giving you seven cents is already enough."
Jiang Quan was not happy: "Look at what you said, can the water chestnuts in the paddy field grow so big? Auntie, can you be reasonable?"
"I only have seven cents left, no more..." The old lady acted like a rogue, picked up the water chestnuts in the cattail bag and was about to leave.
Yingbao asked her eldest cousin to put her down, and ran to her second cousin, put her hands on her hips, and said arrogantly: "You liar! You just sold me a bag for 20 cents, but now you sell it for 10 cents. Give me back the extra money! Humph! I just bought five bags, and now you have to pay me back 50 cents!"
Jiang Cheng and Dani were stunned. Before they could say anything, Yingbao turned her head and winked at them.
Jiang Chengli immediately shut his mouth, pulled his sister to another stall, and pretended to look at the goods.
Jiang Quan was quite clever and reacted immediately. He said pitifully, "Little sister, it was this lady who kept bargaining. I always sold it for 20 cents a bag."
Then he turned to the bargaining lady and said, "Madam, why don't you just not buy it? I'm still selling it for twenty cents a bag."
"What?" The old lady was unhappy when she heard it. "You are so cunning, you said ten cents a bag, and then you asked for twenty cents. No! I want ten cents."
After saying that, he left ten cents, picked up a bag of water chestnuts and left.
Seeing this, two bystanders each spent ten cents to buy a bag of water chestnuts, and then hurried away, fearing that the salesman would go back on his word.
In a blink of an eye, two more deals were made. Jiang Quan was grinning from ear to ear. Just as he was about to talk to his little cousin, he saw her frowning and glaring at him fiercely, "Liar! You ran away by yourself without me!"
Jiang Quan touched his nose guiltily and whispered, "I'm just afraid of losing you. Don't be angry. I'll buy you some candied fruit later."
Yingbao snorted and turned to look for her eldest cousin.
She wanted her eldest cousin to take her to the saddle shop so that they could make a custom-made saddle for Youyou, so that she wouldn't have to be carried by others wherever she went.
Humph, it’s better to rely on oneself than on others. She will definitely be a self-reliant person in the future.
So Jiang Cheng carried his little cousin on his back and took his older sister to the market.
I saw a food stall selling owl soup, which was served with steamed glutinous rice dumplings or water chestnut rice dumplings.
The owl soup is made from owl meat, with salt, spices, and dogwood powder added to it, and then mixed with wheat flour. It is thick, spicy, and very delicious.
Owl soup is also a common food eaten by people in the poisonous month of May, implying the use of poison to fight poison and resist evil spirits.
Jiang Cheng smelled the fragrance and couldn't help swallowing his saliva. He asked his little cousin:
"Yingbao, are you hungry? How about we have a bowl of owl soup?"
"good."
In fact, Yingbao didn't want to eat the soup made from owl meat, but her eldest cousin and sister Dani both wanted to eat it, so she just gave in.
So the three siblings sat down and asked the stall owner for three bowls of xiao tang and six qing tuan, which cost them a total of 18 wen.
The stall owner stirred the pot with a large spoon and filled three large bowls with a rich aroma.
He took out six more green dumplings from the steamer, wrapped each of them in a mulberry leaf, and placed them in front of the three people.
Yingbao only ate one green dumpling and drank a small sip of soup, then said she was full.
Jiang Cheng took his cousin's bowl and ate it all up without looking down on it, even the shredded meat at the bottom of the bowl.
After eating and drinking, the three of them continued to stroll around.
Seeing the winter melon candy, Yingbao bought a few packs, kept one pack for herself, and asked her eldest cousin to take the rest back to share with grandma and aunt.
"Big brother, where can I find a leather saddle? I want to order one for Youyou." Yingbao asked in the backpack.
Jiang Cheng knew this. "There is a saddle shop on North Street. But a saddle costs a lot of money."
"I have money." Yingbao said proudly while sitting in the backpack, "I have a lot of money, enough to order the best saddle."
Jiang Cheng said "oh" and didn't take it seriously.
The three of them walked and looked, and soon arrived at the saddle shop.
There were a lot of people gathered in front of the shop, including a few mules and horses.
Two men were trimming the hooves of a mule and horse and nailing shoes on them.
"Does your family make leather saddles?" Jiang Cheng asked.
A clerk stood up and asked, "Of course. What kind of leather saddle do you want? For a donkey or a mule?"
"Match with a deer." Jiang Cheng said.
The guy thought he heard it wrong, "What?"
"To match a deer." Jiang Cheng said, "I have a deer at home and I want to match it with a leather saddle."
The waiter was displeased and glared at Jiang Cheng: "You are joking. No one here has ever wanted to put a saddle on a deer."
"Who is joking with you?" Jiang Cheng was also a little unhappy, and said coldly: "Just tell me if your family can do it."
The clerk curled his lips and ran into the shop to ask the owner.
The people standing at the door laughed, and one of them said, "Young man, why don't you bring the deer here so that we can see what kind of deer needs a saddle."
Jiang Cheng ignored them and just looked towards the shop.
After a while, the waiter came out and said in a muffled voice, "The shopkeeper asked you to bring the deer here so that we can measure its size."
Jiang Cheng turned to his little cousin and asked, "Should we bring the deer here?"
Yingbao nodded, stood up from the backpack, and asked the waiter, "How much does a saddle cost?"
Seeing that the person asking the question was a little kid of two or three years old, the waiter twitched his eyes and reluctantly answered, "A pair of cowhide saddles costs one tael of silver."
Yingbao: "You mean the big saddle for mules? My little deer is a little smaller than a donkey, but it also costs 180 yuan?"
The waiter wiped his nose and said, "No, the smallest saddle here is for donkeys, and it costs one tael and two taels."
"Oh." Yingbao nodded to the waiter, "I'll bring the fawn here tomorrow."
The guy turned his head away and sneered secretly.
He would never believe it even if you kill him. A two or three-year-old kid could be the head of the family and bring a deer with him. Tsk!