Chapter 49 New Year's Eve

  Wang Kuang hastily put on his clothes and arrived at the side hall, where Sun Ming was chatting with the visitor.

  This is a short and thin man, his face is full of dark circles, mostly due to malnutrition. He wears very shabby clothes, it's already the New Year, but the robe on his body still has many patches sewn on, and it's too big and doesn't fit him well. Normally people wear robes that are just below the knee, covering the top of their boots, but his robe is almost down to his feet. He wears straw sandals on his feet.

  This is not someone from the Lin family, Wang Kuang thought. Probably this is another case of several brothers wearing one robe together. Usually, this robe is a family's most valuable treasure, and they only dare to wear it when going out.

  The young man who came knew that he was the one he wanted to find, and the visitor took out a cloth package from his pocket and handed it over hesitantly, staring at Wang Kuang with hope: "They said, if Xiaodong likes it, there will be a reward?"

  Wang Kuang was at a loss. He hesitantly took the bundle, opened it and looked inside, and couldn't help but be overjoyed. "Reward? Of course there's a reward."

  There were several white seeds quietly lying in the cloth bag, and on the outside was still a bit of yellow solid material, which was none other than pumpkin seeds.

  He was originally called Huang Da, a native of Yanping, and was a porter who often ran to Lingnan. He usually helped merchant teams carry things to make a living, and his older brother was bedridden at home, making life very difficult. On the road, he heard traveling merchants talk about the young master of Jian'an Fuli Guest House liking to listen to strange stories or collect rare vegetables, fruits, and melons. Therefore, he paid attention to it. At the end of autumn, he arrived in Lingnan and saw a family growing a kind of vine that produced bright yellow, large gourds, some of which were even bigger than human heads. He begged the family for several seeds with the price of helping them work for a day. According to the family, they didn't know if the gourd was edible, but they planted it because its yellow flowers were beautiful.

  He had originally planned to return home with a few bundles of goods, and the family would have a good New Year's celebration together. However, on the way back, the merchant group encountered robbers who killed everyone, but he managed to escape with his life because of his strong legs from carrying heavy loads all day. When he returned home, it was already the 29th of the lunar year, and with the New Year approaching, there wasn't even any rice at home for cooking. Seeing his two nephews weak from hunger and his sister-in-law struggling to cope, he touched the unknown seeds in his pocket, gritted his teeth, and set out early that morning towards Jian'an, thinking he could arrive before noon, get some rewards, and return home before dark. However, due to the snowfall the night before, the road was difficult to travel, and with an empty stomach, what was originally a hundred or so miles of journey took him a whole day to complete, arriving in Jian'an only after dark, and then he had to ask for directions to the Fula Guest House, where he was called to meet someone, and by the time High Three arrived, it was already very late.

  After listening to Huang Da's labored and intermittent speech, even Sun Han Shi, who had rushed over upon hearing the news and was hiding behind to listen, was also tearfully instructing the servants to bring food for Huang Da.

  Wang Juan has seen a lot, even in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, before that, Wang Juan had heard his father say that during the Chinese New Year, some rural families could only afford to buy one yuan worth of meat, which was meant to be eaten by the children. (This is true, Grey Sparrow's father worked at a grassroots food station, and Grey Sparrow personally saw a woman give her father one yuan on the eve of the Lunar New Year several years ago, saying it was to buy meat for her child. Her father then cut about two pounds of meat for her, which Grey Sparrow still remembers vividly.) If even in economically developed Fujian Province things were like this, it's not hard to imagine what rural areas in the underdeveloped western regions were like. Not to mention during the early years of the Zhenguan era, when the country had just emerged from war.

  Huang Dawolf was gobbling down the leftover cold rice brought by others, looking like he was extremely hungry. However, among the several dishes of leftovers, there was a dish of fish and a pot with only a few pieces of chicken left, which he didn't even touch with his chopsticks. Seeing this, Wang Kuang understood Huang Da's thoughts and said to him: "Eat up, eat your fill and you'll have energy, then you can hurry on the road. Since your family is waiting for food to be cooked, I won't keep you here. Later, I'll give you some ready-to-eat food to take back home." Wang Kuang had a respectful attitude towards this man who was thinking of his family, especially his brothers, and turned to ask Sun Mingqian: "Uncle, why not let him ride the old horse back home? It's better than rushing on foot at night. This way, he should be able to make it back home before midnight."

  Sun Ming had indeed been through a lot in his youth and was more considerate than Wang Kuang, so he ordered the servants to wrap the old horse's four hooves with hemp cloth and have two bags of rice oil and other things placed on the horse's back. Sun Han's wife even rummaged out some old clothes that her two sons had worn before and stuffed them in as well.

  Before Huang Da left, Wang Kuang asked Sun Mingqian to give him two strings of cash: "It's not very safe to walk at night, so I won't give you too much money. Take this back and have a good New Year's celebration first. After the new year, come back and I'll make up the rest."

  Huang Da left without saying a word, only making a slight bow. He who had been wandering around understood one truth: great kindness doesn't need to be thanked, and after his elder brother recovered from illness and he had settled down with his sister-in-law, he would come back to sell his life to the Xiao family again; anyway, this life of his had already died once a few days ago.

  "Second son, what's this again? Is it worth a horse?" Huang Dajun took the lead and walked away. Sun Ming suddenly remembered that he was a businessman. In his opinion, since the horse had been given away, it was gone and there was no reason to ask for it back. Although it was an old horse, it was still worth over ten guan of money. The total number of horses in Jian'an didn't even reach two palms.

  "Hey, Uncle Wang, now that the old horse is gone, can't we get a new and better one?" Wang Ke knew what Sun Mingqian was thinking - he was calculating whether this deal would be profitable or not. But it couldn't be blamed on Sun Mingqian, after all, there were 50-60 people in the Sun household and the guesthouse who were all counting on Rich Come Guesthouse to make a living; they rose and fell together. As long as Sun Mingqian put himself in the position of the guesthouse owner, he was being a true businessman.

  Seeing Sun Ming's anxiety, he didn't sell the goods anymore. He waved the cloth bag in his hand: "Good things, later when eating, there will be a few more varieties, and also an extra snack."

  It's said that if you can get one more piece of fabric, Sun Han's wife became interested and stared at the bundle of cloth in Wang Kuang's hand: "Second Brother, is what you're saying true? Are you not cheating me?"

  "Even if I wanted to cheat, it would be cheating Uncle, how dare I cheat Auntie." Wang Jing had always been extremely respectful of Sun Han's family, and from Sun Han, he had always felt the same affection as his mother.

  Upon hearing this, Sun Han's wife couldn't help but glance at Sun Mingqian with a hint of pride. Sun Mingqian raised his hand as if to hit him: "You little scamp, you've been teasing your uncle!" But he didn't actually hit him, just lightly patted Wang Kuang's head and grabbed hold of the boy who was trying to run away: "So how do you plant this thing? Is it easy to grow?"

  "It's easy to grow, and as long as there is empty space in front of or behind the house, it can be grown with minimal care. However, if taken good care of, the gourd can grow to be as big as a bathtub. This thing is called a calabaza, and it was probably introduced from Persia to India and Annam, and then spread to Southeast Asia. Later generations' pumpkins are not just as big as bathtubs, but much bigger than that, with the heaviest ones weighing over a ton. Currently, this pumpkin looks at the seeds, which are quite large and thick, so it should be a good variety. I suppose if taken care of properly, growing several hundred pound pumpkins shouldn't be a problem."

  "Still Erlang is clever, even Persia and Tianzhu have heard of it." Sun Han sighed, thinking that he had compared his two sons with Wang Kuang again.

  "Madam, don't worry, as the saying goes, 'heaven-born talents must have their uses.' Some people find it easy to learn literature but difficult to learn martial arts, while others find it easy to learn martial arts but difficult to learn literature. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Look at me, I'm not good at learning literature, am I? If Haohan and Haiying can learn what they like, they will surely have a bright future."

  "It's a good thing I have you, Erlang. After the New Year, I'll make sure to find a skilled martial arts teacher for him. Since he likes martial arts, let him learn it. As for Jiahan, I'll have to rely on you, Erlang." At that time, there was no emphasis on literature over martial arts, and even craftsmen's social status was not low, so Sun Mingqian didn't force his two sons to study literature, and inviting Mr. Liu was just a way to discipline them.

  Got the pumpkin seeds, Wang Kuang was not excited at all. He just saw the pumpkin seeds and thought of the fried pumpkin leaves his mother used to make. Then he thought of the steaming hot cabbage tofu, on a cold winter's day, if there was a pot of cabbage tofu, adding some chili sauce and simmering it on the stove while eating, that feeling of comfort was hard to describe.

  But it seems that later generations have never heard that Chinese cabbage came from outside the domain, could it be a native product of China? Thinking of this, he asked Sun Mingqian: "Uncle, have you ever heard of Chinese cabbage?"

  "What's this 'big bok choy'? What is it? Uncle only knows there's bok choy, where did this 'big' come from?"

  My god, how could I have underestimated the ancient times again? Always being cautious, not daring to ask this or that. Wang Kuang couldn't help but despise himself deeply in his heart.

  After gesturing with Sun Mingqian for half a day, Wang Kuang finally understood that white cabbage had existed since ancient times, but it was not native to Fujian Province. Because the white cabbage tasted slightly bitter (the kind with dark green leaves and thick stalks), few people cultivated it, and most still preferred to eat Chinese cabbage. As for napa cabbage, Sun Mingqian had seen it before in northern China, but at that time, it was still rarely grown in Fujian Province, probably because it hadn't spread there yet.

  As for Wang Kuang, the harvest of the New Year's Eve was not small. Now there are pumpkins, Chinese cabbage and napa cabbage. Wang Kuang decided to let go next year and operate well. By next winter, Fuli Inn will be another scene.

  Division

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