Sheng Tang: What is Liu Jianjun going to do today?

Chapter 7 Very sweet
Li Xian and Liu Jianjun pulled the cart and headed towards the West Market.

Liu Jianjun said, "Since we're already here, I might as well go with you to buy rice and flour, so your wife won't have to make a special trip next time."

Li Xian thought to himself that next time he would definitely not let his wife and children come to buy rice and flour, but would do it himself. He felt a little sorry for his wife and children having to walk such a long mountain road every time they bought rice and flour.

But Liu Jianjun makes a good point. Since we're already here, we might as well buy it now and save ourselves the trouble of making another trip next time.

Liu Jianjun was very familiar with this place. He led Li Xian around and around until they arrived at what looked like a market.

Li Xian had never traded with anyone before and was somewhat at a loss.

But then he thought about how his wife and children had always lived a life of ease, and how they had started buying rice from someone else for the first time.
The more I think about it, the more I blame myself.

"Let me tell you, each copper coin you have is worth one wen. All the money you have can probably buy thirty catties of millet. These merchants are shrewd. Seeing that you look dull and can't speak the Sichuan dialect, they will definitely try their best to rip you off!"

Liu Jianjun kept talking.

Li Xian thought to himself, although he didn't have much experience in the daily life of the city, did he look like the kind of person who didn't even know that a copper coin represented a penny?

But... he really didn't know that these copper coins could be exchanged for thirty catties of millet.

As they were talking, Liu Jianjun was already haggling with a rice merchant. Li Xian couldn't understand what they were saying, but he could tell that Liu Jianjun was very eloquent. Before long, the rice merchant showed a look of compromise on his face.

At this moment, Liu Jianjun turned around and said, "Alright, a dou of rice costs twenty-three qian, and you have one hundred wen there. You can exchange it for four dou of rice and still have eight wen left. Don't you have a daughter at home? Buy some preserved plums or something to take back to her. That's perfect!"

Li Xian thought to himself, one dou of rice is about seven and a half jin, and four dou of rice is exactly thirty jin.

So he took out eight copper coins from the string in his hand and handed the rest to the rice merchant.

After the rice merchant counted the money, he turned around to pack the rice. Liu Jianjun followed him, not knowing what they were going to do. Li Xian looked around the rice shop and saw a sign in the corner that said the rice there only cost four qian per dou.

Li Xian felt confused. Could Liu Jianjun have colluded with rice merchants to cheat him?
But then I thought, this money was originally given to me by Liu Jianjun, so why should he go through all this trouble?

So Li Xian kept that question to himself again.

A short while later, Liu Jianjun followed the rice merchant out, carrying a large sack on his shoulder. He walked to the cart, tilted his shoulder, and the sack slid off and landed on the cart.

Liu Jianjun clapped his hands and said, "Alright, let's go back!"

Li Xian couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "I saw rice in the corner that costs four coins a dou. Why don't we buy that? One hundred coins can buy twenty-five dou."

Liu Jianjun glanced over there and said disdainfully, "That stuff isn't rice, it's bran, which is rice grains crushed with the husk on. The boss just named it rice to make it sound nice. I followed him in just in case he mixed bran into your rice! These merchants are cunning!"

Li Xian then asked curiously, "What about the rice we bought?"

"This is the finest rice. I was just worried that you might not be used to coarse rice since you come from a wealthy place like Chang'an."

Li Xian pursed his lips again. He felt that Liu Jianjun had underestimated him, and he was prepared to suffer.

"Alright! Let's go!"

Liu Jianjun pulled on the rope on the cart and threw one end to Li Xian. Seeing that Li Xian was still standing there in a daze, he said, "What are you doing? This cart is mine, but the rice is yours. Let's pull it together. It's very fair!"

Li Xian shook his head: "No, I was just spacing out."

As he spoke, he grabbed the rope and walked over to Liu Jianjun.

"I really don't know what you're thinking all day!" Liu Jianjun muttered, then tied the rope around his waist and walked forward. Li Xian thought to himself, "I know what you're thinking too," but looking down at the rope around Liu Jianjun's waist, he thought it would save him a lot of effort. He was about to tie it around his waist like Liu Jianjun, but then he felt that it would make him look like a tethered animal. So, he gritted his teeth and continued to pull on the rope with his hands.

Liu Jianjun glanced at Li Xian, smiled, and said nothing.

On the way back, the two did not take the same route they had come by. Liu Jianjun said, "We took this route when we came, it was shorter. To get back, we need to leave the city, so we'll take this road."

Li Xian didn't understand, but he just needed to follow Liu Jianjun.

But after walking for a short while, Li Xian suddenly stopped.

He saw the old lady who had bought his radishes earlier; she was squatting at the intersection selling Liu Jianjun's radishes, and it seemed she really intended to sell the radishes she couldn't finish eating.

Li Xian remembered what Liu Jianjun had said about how sweet his radishes were, so he asked Liu Jianjun to stop for a moment, walked over to the old woman, and asked, "Auntie, how much are your radishes?"

Just as the old lady was about to respond, Liu Jianjun stepped forward with a smile: "Oh! Auntie! What a coincidence!"

As a result, Li Xian couldn't understand their conversation again.

But after a short while, the old woman finished chatting with Liu Jianjun, turned to look at Li Xian, and said with a hint of reproach in her laughter, "You young man! There's plenty of radish in here! Why are you saying you want to buy it!"

As she spoke, the old woman picked out a very thick radish from the sack and handed it to Li Xian: "Take this, it's for you!"

Li Xian took the radish, lost in thought.

The old woman's tone reminded him of how his father scolded him when he was young. Although her words were scolding, her tone was also somewhat doting, and even her expression was very similar.

It wasn't until Liu Jianjun patted him on the shoulder and said "Let's go" that he realized what was happening, thanked the old woman, and then pulled the rope up again.

"You've never seen such a big radish before, have you?" Liu Jianjun suddenly said.

"Huh?" Li Xian looked at Liu Jianjun in confusion, then smiled awkwardly: "I... I've never seen what a radish looks like. The radishes I've seen are all cut into squares or slices, so... so I don't know if your radish is big or not."

Liu Jianjun looked defeated and said, "Well, I've realized that talking to you about this is like casting pearls before swine! You know, the current situation is like me having a rare and precious jade, but no one recognizes its value!"

Li Xian retorted, "So what if your radish is big? Aren't there bigger radishes in the world?"

"Hey!" Liu Jianjun raised his voice and said, "Let me tell you, there really isn't a bigger radish in this world than mine! Does anyone in this world know about potassium fertilizer? Does anyone know about nitrogen fertilizer?"

Li Xian didn't understand the "fake fat" and "egg fat" in Liu Jianjun's words, but he was unconvinced.

Liu Jianjun seemed to be deliberately trying to provoke Li Xian's defiance. He snatched the radish from Li Xian's hand, broke it in half with force, stuffed one half into his own mouth, bit it, and then grabbed the other half and stuffed it into Li Xian's mouth.

"Don't believe me? Try it! Have you ever tasted such a sweet radish?"

Caught off guard by Liu Jianjun's rude actions, Li Xian instinctively bit into the half-eaten radish.

Then, he froze.

Really sweet.

Liu Jianjun did not cheat the old woman.

……

(End of this chapter)