Chapter 8: A Huge Profit
After the two walked away, Xinghui said happily, “Sister, just now Shen Zhiyuan’s face turned black, he was so angry.”
Shen Xingnong: “That’s nothing. When you pass the Xiucai, Juren, and Jinshi exams in the future, he will be even angrier.”
Xinghui: “…”
Does his sister think too highly of him?
“Sister, do you know how much silver it takes to take the Xiucai exam?”
Shen Xingnong said nonchalantly, “How much?”
“You need to ask someone to write a letter of recommendation, send gifts, and pay for the exam fee. It costs at least one tael of silver. And that’s just for the Xiucai exam. The Juren exam is held in the prefectural city, and the cost of accommodation, food, and other things is even higher.”
Shen Xingnong: “Oh.”
Xinghui: “…”
What kind of reaction is this?
She sounds like they have a lot of silver and don’t care about one tael.
God knows their family’s savings have never exceeded five hundred copper coins.
Xinghui was speechless. Forget it, he should review his lessons and earn more silver in the future to let his sister see.
The journey was a bit far, it would take nearly an hour to walk. Xinghui seized the time to review his lessons, muttering to himself.
But after calculating for a long time, he still couldn’t figure it out.
Shen Xingnong: “Twenty-three pheasants, twelve rabbits.”
Xinghui was stunned for a moment, “What?”
“There are pheasants and rabbits in the same cage, with thirty-five heads above and ninety-four feet below. Question: How many pheasants and rabbits are there? The answer is twenty-three pheasants and twelve rabbits. Thirty-five heads above…” Shen Xingnong repeated the problem and his calculation method.
This is a problem from the 《Sun Tzu Suan Ching》, which she had finished learning when she was four years old.
After listening, Xinghui calculated in his mind, and it was really true!
Xinghui was extremely surprised, “Sister, how do you know how to do this arithmetic problem?”
The imperial examination in Chu Kingdom did not include arithmetic before, but this year the imperial court had a new rule that starting from next year’s spring examination, arithmetic would be included.
The students in the academy had just started learning arithmetic, and no one could solve it. How did she know?
Shen Xingnong blinked her beautiful fox eyes, “I saw you doing problems on the ground at the entrance of our house every day, I’ve seen it so many times that I learned it.”
Xinghui: “…”
That works?
He had indeed taught her simple calculations because she sometimes went to the market to sell things, and he was afraid that she would be cheated.
But he didn’t teach her anything else, many of which he didn’t know much about, and she learned it just by watching him do it?
Xinghui tested Shen Xingnong with a few more arithmetic problems he had done before.
Shen Xingnong answered them all, and the answers came instantly.
Xinghui: “…”
He thought he was quite smart and learned everything quickly, but now he was doubting his life.
While Xinghui was doubting his life, Shen Xingnong was also thinking, this child’s arithmetic skills are not good! I need to help him with it later.
As they were walking, Shen Xingnong saw a hunchbacked old man pulling a cart full of blue bricks, struggling to move from the small path to the main road.
Shen Xingnong immediately went forward to help push the cart.
Xinghui also ran over to help.
The old man pulling the cart was immediately relieved as they went up the slope and onto the main road. He hurriedly thanked them, “Thank you, I’m still strong enough. Are you going to the city to sell chickens? Go quickly, don’t mind me, get into the city early and find a good spot.”
“No hurry.” Shen Xingnong continued pushing.
Xinghui: “Uncle, are you going to the city? We’re going the same way, we’re not in a hurry.”
“That’s too much trouble, I can manage on my own.” No matter what the old man said, the two kept pushing from behind, and he hardly had to exert any effort, so he just kept thanking them.
A luxurious carriage made of Huanghuali wood happened to pass by and saw all this.
~
Half an hour later, they arrived at the county city. Shen Xingnong and Xinghui helped push the cart to its destination, then parted ways with the grateful old man. Xinghui went back to the academy, and Shen Xingnong went to sell chickens.
Shen Xingnong found the largest restaurant in the city and walked in.
This restaurant had a good reputation, even the original owner had heard of it, but she didn’t dare to go near it.
It was still early, there were no customers. When the restaurant’s shopkeeper saw her, he came up and said politely, “Miss, are you here to sell old hens?”
Although the restaurant had its own farm to raise chickens, they would still buy good chickens brought by villagers, after all, the restaurant’s business was good.
✿✿✿
Shen Xingnong nodded, “Could you please take a look, shopkeeper, how much can this chicken be sold for?”
“Let me see how much it weighs.” The shopkeeper took out a scale and started weighing the chicken.
“This old hen looks good. It weighs five jin and nine liang. 25 wen per jin, let’s count it as six jin, I’ll give you 150 wen, how about that?”
25 wen was the best price, the general price for old hens was 23 to 25 wen.
Some stingy people would only give 23 wen per jin, but this restaurant had always been fair and honest.
“Okay.” Shen Xingnong nodded.
The shopkeeper took out a string of copper coins and added half a string to give to Shen Xingnong.
“Thank you, shopkeeper.” Shen Xingnong took the coins, didn’t even count them, and stuffed them into her pocket.
“Shopkeeper, does the restaurant buy recipes?”
The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment, then laughed, “I’m sorry, our restaurant has specialized chefs who research dishes. I can’t afford to offend them! I wouldn’t dare to buy recipes from outside.”
Shen Xingnong nodded, “Farewell.”
The shopkeeper didn’t expect her to say nothing more, she seemed to have good judgment. He smiled, “Take care, Miss. In the future, if you have any old hens or other good mountain products, you can bring them here to sell.”
“Okay.” Shen Xingnong replied.
The shopkeeper personally escorted Shen Xingnong out of the restaurant, then took the chicken to the kitchen for his wife. When the owner came, he would stew it into soup to nourish his body. It was rare to find an old hen that had been raised for so many years.
~
Shen Xingnong walked out of the Welcome Inn. She originally planned to find a restaurant that was hiring chefs to sell her recipes and earn silver, but when she passed by a bookstore, she saw a wooden sign outside the bookstore that said they were buying all kinds of storybooks in large quantities.
Seeing this, she couldn’t help but walk in.
There were many people dressed as scholars in the bookstore. When they saw her walk in with her ragged clothes, they all looked at her in surprise. Some even showed disgust in their eyes, holding their books, covering their noses, and moving to the inner part of the bookstore.
Someone even shouted, “Shopkeeper, even beggars are running into the bookstore now, why don’t you get rid of them? They’re affecting my young master’s reading!”
But someone else said in a clear voice, “Everyone who comes here is a guest, scholars should be more polite!”
“You shut up!”
Then no one made a sound.
Poor families couldn’t afford to study, so the people who came to the bookstore were usually from wealthy families. Everyone was dressed in bright and beautiful clothes, and even if they weren’t, they wouldn’t have patches.
Shen Xingnong was also a woman, and the bookstore had never seen such a person before.
The shopkeeper was an old man in his fifties or sixties, with a scholarly air and an extraordinary demeanor. He showed no surprise on his face, stood up, and said politely, “What can I do for you, Miss?”
Shen Xingnong stood there calmly and composedly, “She pointed at the sign at the door, “Do you buy storybooks here?”
“Yes, we do. What kind of storybooks do you have, Miss? I need to see the story before I can set the price.”
“Can I write it here? I don’t have brush, ink, paper, and inkstone at home.” Shen Xingnong said calmly and confidently.
“Pfft.” A few laughs came from the bookstore.
They had never seen anything like it!
The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment, then smiled, “Please follow me, Miss.”
He led Shen Xingnong into a small study room, which was specially used for people to write and copy books.
~
Two hours later, it was lunchtime, and there were no other customers in the bookstore.
The shopkeeper, no longer the polite and scholarly figure from before, enthusiastically sent Shen Xingnong away, then hurried back, holding a thick stack of storybooks, as if he had found a treasure, unable to put it down, excited, yet carefully flipping through it again and again!
Amazing!
Amazing!
After a while, he touched the unrestrained, elegant, and free-flowing characters, which were also charming and graceful!
These characters, even if they didn’t sell the storybooks, would definitely sell well as calligraphy models!
He had struck it rich!
He had struck it rich!
