"Did Lingjun miss his dad, hmm?" Shen Xuanqing sat down with his little shuang'er in his arms, smiling as he asked.
Little Lingjun couldn’t speak yet. He was held upright, his little feet standing on Shen Xuanqing’s thighs. Knowing the adult was talking to him, he tilted his head to listen. When Shen Xuanqing finished speaking, he responded with two "uh-uh" sounds that no one could understand.
"You missed me? Dad knew our Lingjun is the most well-behaved." Shen Xuanqing pretended to understand, answering his own question happily.
"Woof." Guaizi sat obediently at his feet, raising his head to look at him and little Lingjun, as if trying to mimic the child’s speech.
Shen Xuanqing was so used to speaking softly to the child that he didn’t adjust his tone and casually comforted Guaizi, laughing, "Alright, alright, you’re good too."
Little Lingjun turned his head at Guaizi’s sound, and the dog tilted his head, wagging his tail.
At noon, there had been half a bowl of stir-fried winter bamboo shoots with cured meat left, so Lu Gu only stir-fried a bowl of cabbage to serve quickly.
No matter how simple the food at home was, it couldn’t be compared to outside. Shen Xuanqing ate five large steamed buns in one meal. After finishing, comfortably full, he took a sip of hot tea and said with a smile, "Everything in the shop is sold out. The old chickens and ducks were sold at market price, didn’t make much, but didn’t lose money either. There were forty rabbits in total. The first two days, since the price was lower, they sold the fastest, seventeen were gone in just two days."
He put down the tea bowl and took little Lingjun into his arms again, saying, "The pork was sold cheaply, but since we had the initial capital, the rabbits still made the most profit. In just eight days, the rabbits brought in over nine qian, almost a full tael of silver."
[1 tael = 10 qian]
Hearing this, Lu Gu’s eyes brightened. By this calculation, the rabbits earned about one qian a day, that was really good.
The shop was small, so naturally, it couldn’t earn as much as larger stores, which surely made more in a day. However, Lu Gu didn’t often go out, so he didn’t know these things. Even if he did, he wouldn’t be too surprised. They earned what they earned, steady and reliable was enough. There was no need to compare with others.
Besides what they sold themselves, every month they also delivered seven or eight, sometimes over a dozen rabbits to the brothel in Fenggu Town. The ones sent there were priced higher - forty-five copper coins each, so they made at least two or three qian a month from that alone.
"Right now, we sell live rabbits for thirty-eight copper coins each, no bargaining. Skinned ones go for twenty-five copper coins, also with no haggling. But that’s for walk-in customers. For Brother Yang’s tavern, since the rabbits aren’t as plump now as in autumn and winter, I charge him thirty copper coins per live rabbit. He wants to collect rabbit furs to sell, and he’s not an outsider anyway. Besides, he’s generous and straightforward, he mentioned this to me openly. Since he’s honest, I’m not going to be stingy either."
"Thirty copper coins is a round number. He’s helped a lot, this is only fair."
Shen Xuanqing kissed his little shuang'er and added with a smile, "Other taverns and eateries pay two copper coins more, thirty-two copper coins per live rabbit. Restaurant owners don’t slaughter them immediately, most take them back to raise for a few days."
Lu Gu listened carefully, memorizing the rabbit prices so he’d know how to sell them if he ever went to town.
Lingjun didn’t want to sit anymore, so Shen Xuanqing had to stand and walk around the main hall with him in his arms. "Since there’s nothing left to sell in the shop, I thought I might as well close up and come back. Rest tonight and go again tomorrow."
"Mm, rest tonight. Change your clothes later, I’ll wash them for you tomorrow." Lu Gu then asked with a smile, "Where’s the other set you changed out of?"
When they returned from Jixing Town the other day, Shen Xuanqing had been wearing a different set of clothes.
"Got dirty the day before yesterday. When Shiniang came by and saw it, she had me change, then washed it for me in the backyard," Shen Xuanqing replied.
Lu Gu nodded in understanding. Since Shen Xuanqing had to slaughter livestock in the shop and meat scraps would splatter while chopping, he had been wearing old clothes lately, even if they got stained with blood, it wasn’t a big loss.
Her second son had returned, so after finishing her work at the new house, Wei Lanxiang hurried back to the old home. Only after confirming he had eaten did she relax.
The wind was blowing outside, and Lingjun’s skin was tender, so Shen Xuanqing couldn’t bear to take him out. He kept pacing around the main hall and said when she returned, "Mother, later, could you borrow Auntie Gu’s loom to weave some hemp cloth? We can use it to cover the meat on the racks. It’s fine now, but when the weather gets hotter, if flies and bugs land on the meat, it’ll look filthy. Make the covers for the pork and mutton longer, and cut smaller ones for the chickens, ducks, and rabbits."
"Of course, that’s no trouble at all. I’ll go to your Auntie Gu's tomorrow to weave," Wei Lanxiang agreed readily, then asked, "How did you eat these past few days? Did you go to your master's place?"
Shen Xuanqing smiled. "Mostly like that. Master would come by my place every day when he had nothing to do. At mealtime, either he or Shiniang would call me over. I also ate at the noodle shop a few times. I didn’t cook for myself, so later I thought, why not just move the rice, flour, and vegetables to master's place?"
Since he needed to eat in town, Wei Lanxiang had packed him a sack of rice and a sack of milled white flour. Though he couldn’t knead dough well, he could at least cook rice porridge. The butcher shop never lacked meat, and for vegetables, he had taken ten cabbages and a small jar of pickled vegetables - more than enough to last a while.
Young men were often like this, not keen on cooking, so it wasn’t unusual.
Wei Lanxiang thought it was just as well and said, "Fine, from now on, just go there to eat. Don’t stand on ceremony."
She then added, "Ask your Shiniang to steam some buns for you to take back to the shop. If you get hungry at night, there’s still the pickled vegetables, better than going to bed on an empty stomach."
As a mother, there wasn’t much else she could do to help, so she could only fuss over his food and clothing.
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