When the three of them arrived ho, Sun i was cooking in the kitchen. She was surprised to see that they had brought back a rabbit.
Afterward, Zhao Zhitong ran into the kitchen and recounted the story to Sun i.
Sun i nodded and fell silent for a mont, thinking about Wu Da’s situation. She was aware of the rumors about him, but she didn’t necessarily believe them. As far as she knew, Wu Da’s current mother was not his biological mother, but his stepmother. Just because of this, she had doubts about the rumors. However, they were not related and had no interactions, so it was none of her business. Still, since he had given their family a rabbit this ti, Zhao Dong should go and give him the money for it another day.
She thought this, and that evening, she told Zhao Dong as much.
Zhao Dong imdiately nodded, saying he would take the money to him the next day.
After finishing his work the next day, Zhao Dong took the money and a bag of flour to the burial ground at the foot of the back mountain. It was called a burial ground, but it was actually Mass Grave Hill, where naless people were buried.
There was a dilapidated bamboo hut there, where Wu Da lived.
As he approached the bamboo hut, he saw that although it was rather dilapidated, it was kept quite tidy. Several rabbit pelts and a deerskin hung outside. The door was wide open, but there was no one inside.
He stood at the entrance and called out a few tis, but there was no response from inside. Just as he thought no one was ho, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him.
Zhao Dong turned around and saw Wu Da looking at him warily. Wu Da was holding a knife, and blood was still dripping from it.
To be honest, such a scene in this burial ground was quite frightening.
"What are you doing here?" Wu Da spoke first, his voice sowhat hoarse, as if from not having spoken to anyone for a long ti.
Fearing a misunderstanding, Zhao Dong quickly smiled and explained his purpose.
"Thank you for the rabbit you gave my daughter yesterday. I’m not sure about the price of rabbits, so here’s so money and a bag of flour for you. Do you think this is enough?"
Wu Da, still holding the bloody knife with one hand, glanced at what Zhao Dong was holding. He thought for a mont, then wordlessly turned aside, put down the knife, washed the blood from his hands, and then walked towards the hut.
Zhao Dong watched as the other man remained silent, ignoring him and busying himself. He felt a bit awkward for a mont.
Just then, Wu Da ca out of the hut. He was holding three animal pelts: one snow-white fox pelt and two gray rabbit pelts.
He ca up to Zhao Dong and reached out to take the bag of flour, but he didn’t take the money pouch.
Then, he handed the three pelts to Zhao Dong.
Zhao Dong was stunned for a mont. He pointed at the pelts, then at himself. "For ?"
"Mhm," Wu Da grunted, pushing the pelts a bit closer to Zhao Dong.
Zhao Dong repeatedly waved his hands. "No, no, I can’t accept these. They’re too valuable."
Good heavens, these were real animal pelts! Especially that white fox pelt, it must be worth a lot of money.
However, Wu Da was stubborn. If Zhao Dong didn’t accept them, he just kept holding them out to him.
In the end, unable to refuse, Zhao Dong had to accept them. Wu Da wouldn’t take his money. Zhao Dong looked at the bag of flour he had brought and thought he would just bring him an extra bag of flour later.
When Zhao Dong returned ho, Sun i was quite shocked. "Wait, didn’t you go to give him money? How co the money wasn’t given, and you brought back more things from him instead?"
Zhao Dong was also very helpless. That Wu Da was very stubborn; he wouldn’t even let him refuse the pelts.
After this, Zhao Dong’s family began to, intentionally or unintentionally, look after Wu Da a bit, occasionally sending him so grain.
Perhaps because he hadn’t eaten grains for a very long ti, Wu Da really liked things like flour and rice. He wouldn’t accept anything else; he just liked grains.
However, their family also received quite a few pelts from Wu Da, bit by bit.
As autumn approached and the weather gradually cooled, Sun i used the pelts Wu Da had given them to make two pairs of knee guards. Zhao Dong took one pair to Wu Da, and Zhao Zhitong took the other pair to Scholar ng on the Mid-Autumn Festival.
As for the remaining fox pelt, Sun i planned to make two capes for the two young girls in the family.
「 」
Ti flew by, and soon it was late September. The construction of their courtyard house was proceeding very smoothly.
anwhile, Zhao Dong’s family also received the profits from the dicinal vegetables sent by Wang Fuhai. In one and a half months, their family had supplied Guang Ju Restaurant with vegetables three tis—five cabbages and five radishes each ti—and by today, they had earned over sixteen thousand silver taels!
When he received the money, Zhao Dong was completely stunned.
Wang Fuhai was beaming when he arrived, saying only that the dicinal vegetables had now beco a red-hot item in the elite circles of Luoyang City.
The first ti, they set the selling price at one thousand taels of silver per vegetable. At that ti, everyone complained it was too expensive, and very few people ca to buy.
However, Boss Feng was a marketing genius. After one free tasting event, the vegetables were instantly snatched up.
Afterward, as word continued to spread, the fa of the dicinal vegetables gradually grew in Luoyang City. Because they could strengthen the body and improve health, they were even hailed as being comparable to ginseng.
Later, because the quantity was limited, dicinal vegetables beca a scarce commodity. The price soared, and eventually, they beca sothing that even money couldn’t necessarily buy.
By today, the fa of the dicinal vegetables had already spread to the cities surrounding Luoyang City. Even on the streets of their own Anyang County, one could hear discussions about dicinal vegetables everywhere. However, because dicinal vegetables were currently only sold at Guang Ju Restaurant in Luoyang City, most people had only discussed them; not many had actually seen them.
The fifteenth and the end of each month were the sale days set by Guang Ju Restaurant for dicinal vegetables. As these two days approached, countless wealthy rchants and nobles would flock to Luoyang City.
After Wang Fuhai finished delivering the money to Zhao Dong, he was reluctant to leave. He insisted on staying for a al at their house before happily taking a bundle of water spinach Zhao Dong gave him and departing.
anwhile, in Anyang County town, Lady Zhao and her family had finally found out the secret to Zhao Dong’s family’s wealth.
And so, she wrote a letter to her third brother overnight.
At that ti, Zhao Chun was packing up his tavern, preparing to move to the county town, when he received the letter from his younger sister. Upon seeing it, he was completely stunned and exclaid, "How is this possible!"
Xiao Wang was startled by her husband’s reaction and hurriedly asked what was wrong.
Zhao Chun took several deep breaths to calm himself before saying, "So, Second Brother made his fortune this way!"
As he said this, there was more than a hint of jealous, gritted-teeth resentnt in his voice.
Then, looking at the bewildered Xiao Wang, he said, "Do you know about dicinal vegetables?"
Although Xiao Wang was a woman, dicinal vegetables were so hot right now that it was hard not to have heard of them. Therefore, she nodded. "They’re being discussed all over the streets. What’s wrong? What do dicinal vegetables have to do with Second Brother’s family?"
She would die before she connected dicinal vegetables with Second Brother’s impoverished family.
At this mont, Zhao Chun’s hands began to tremble. "Do you know that the dicinal vegetables were introduced by Guang Ju Restaurant?"
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