After the Scholar Rejected Me, I Married the Rogue and Got Rich - Chapter 11

The two children were fast asleep. Lin Sang called them several times but they didn’t respond. She deliberately put on a stern face, stood in front of the bed with her hands on her hips, and said, “If you don’t get up, the oxcart won’t wait for you! I’ll go to town by myself then, and you two can stay home and watch the house!”

These words were more effective than anything else. Lin Song sat up with a start, and Lin Miao rubbed her sleepy eyes and mumbled, “Get up, get up, big sister, wait for us.”

After the family quickly finished breakfast, Lin Sang took her younger siblings to the village entrance.

Lin Song and Lin Miao were extremely excited as they boarded the swaying oxcart. They rarely had the opportunity to travel to town by cart. Watching the trees and fields slowly recede by the roadside, the two chattered incessantly.

“Sister, look at that bird! Its feathers are so beautiful!”

“Sis, are all the houses in town particularly tall?”

The child’s innocent words made the older women on the bus laugh, and they teased, “Little Sang, are you taking your younger siblings to see the world?”

Upon arriving in town, the rows of shops, the bustling crowds, and the smooth cobblestone streets dazzled the two children. They felt they couldn’t take it all in, and everything seemed new and exciting.

Lin Sang grabbed them by the arm: “Let’s take care of business first. Once we’ve sold the herbs and have some money, I’ll show you around properly. If we’re late, the oxcart won’t wait for us on the way back.”

The two children were very obedient and immediately followed closely behind Lin Sang as they walked towards “Ji Ren Tang”.

The shop assistant was somewhat surprised to see Lin Sang return so quickly. When he saw the several perfectly intact Solomon’s seal plants she had brought out, he nodded repeatedly and said, “Young lady, you have excellent skills. These Solomon’s seal plants are dug up intact and of superior quality.”

He fiddled with the abacus. “Based on market price, these few Solomon’s seal plants will cost you 140 coins. Adding these herbs, the total is 165 coins. What do you think?”

Lin Sang was overjoyed, as this was more than she had expected, and quickly nodded, “Okay, thank you, sir!”

The shop assistant counted the money and gave it to her. Just as Lin Sang was about to take her leave, the shop assistant called her back and took out a small money bag from under the counter: “Miss Lin, please wait. This was left by the owner who had an acute abdominal pain a few days ago. He said that thanks to your wonderful ginger soup, he was able to get better. He specially left these copper coins to express his gratitude and asked us to make sure to give them to you.”

Lin Sang quickly waved his hand: “How can this be? It’s just a folk remedy from the countryside, and it just so happened to match the symptoms. I don’t deserve such a generous reward.”

The shop assistant smiled and stuffed the money bag into her hand: “Please accept it, young lady. The owner is sincerely grateful, and it’s good to make a good connection. Our manager also said that you are a discerning person.”

Lin Sang couldn’t refuse, so she had to accept it.

She weighed the money in her hand and realized there were about thirty coins inside. Feeling grateful, she took out five more coins and handed them to the waiter: “Please convey my thanks, young man. This little bit is just a small token for you to have a bowl of tea.”

The waiter accepted it with a smile, becoming even more enthusiastic.

Stepping out of the pharmacy with nearly two hundred coins in his pocket, Lin Sang felt that the sun was shining exceptionally brightly today, and even the noisy hawking sounds on the street sounded pleasant and lively.

She waved her hand and said to her younger siblings who were looking at her expectantly, “Come on! I’ll take you to buy meat. We’ll have braised pork for dinner tonight! And then we’ll go get some big meat buns!”

“Wow! That’s great!” the two children cheered.

Arriving at the butcher’s stall, Lin Sang asked the price. The pork belly with alternating layers of fat and lean meat cost ten coins per pound. Without hesitation, she said, “Shopkeeper, give me five pounds!”

The butcher and his wife both looked at her in surprise. In ordinary farming families, buying one or two pounds of meat is already a rare treat, but this girl ordered five pounds right away. She was really generous. The man quickly cut off a large piece of good quality pork belly and weighed it.

Lin Sang paid fifty coins and glanced at several large, cleaned bones on the side of the stall.

Seeing that she had two children with her, the butcher woman understood and offered, “Miss, there’s not much meat left on these bones, but they’re excellent for making soup. They’re perfect for giving children calcium. If you don’t mind, you can have them all for two coins.”

Lin Sang glanced gratefully at his straightforward sister-in-law, readily paid two more coins, put the meat and large bones into his basket, and then took his younger brother and sister-in-law to buy salt and lamp oil, which were in short supply at home.

Walking down the street, Lin Song and Lin Miao’s eyes were drawn to the bright red candied hawthorns by the roadside. Farm children don’t go to the city and can only eat candied hawthorns a few times a year. Lin Sang’s heart softened, and she took out six coins to buy one skewer for each of them. The two children held up the candied hawthorns, their eyes crinkling with joy as they ate, saying sweet things to Lin Sang, which made her laugh.

The group chatted and laughed as they walked along when suddenly, Lin Song, who was looking around, accidentally bumped into a little girl dressed in silk clothes and dressed like a lucky doll.

“Ouch!” The little girl stumbled from the impact, the sugar figurine in her hand fell to the ground and shattered, and she immediately burst into tears.

A well-dressed old lady with her hair neatly combed immediately hugged her granddaughter with heartache and scolded Lin Song, “Where did this wild boy come from! Don’t you have eyes? You hurt my girl, can you afford to pay for it?!” Her eyes swept over Lin Sang and the others’ simple clothes with undisguised contempt.

Lin Song was startled, his face turning pale.

Lin Sang shielded her younger brother behind her and said to the old lady in a humble yet assertive manner, “Grandma, the child accidentally bumped into us. It was our fault. I apologize on behalf of my brother to you and this little girl. We are willing to compensate for the broken sugar figurine.”

“Compensation? Can you afford it? Look at your poor, wretched appearance!” The old woman raised her chin scathingly. “My granddaughter is precious and delicate. Can you afford to take responsibility if she frightens you? You look like country bumpkins with no manners!”

Lin Sang frowned slightly, and his tone turned colder: “Old man, it’s true that we are country folk, we earn our living with our own hands, we do things uprightly, we apologize when we bump into someone, and we compensate for things we break, that’s only right and proper. But if we’re talking about manners, constantly calling people ‘wild boys’ or ‘mud-legged peasants’ is probably not something a cultured and respectable family would do.”

“You…you dare to talk back!” The old lady was so choked up that her face turned red, and she raised her hand to hit Lin Sang.

Just as the slap was about to land, a large hand with distinct knuckles and thin calluses firmly grasped the old lady’s wrist.