Chapter 8 — Spending Money, Spend Spend Spend

Compared to making money, Chu An’an actually preferred spending money.

Not recklessly, and not by simply buying the cheapest things.

What he liked was carefully choosing things and getting something genuinely useful in return.

That gave him an especially strong sense of satisfaction.

Their household was lacking practically everything, and he wanted to buy practically everything too.

But he didn’t have much money, so he could only prioritize the essentials.

In fact, he’d already decided what to buy today yesterday:

A little fine rice, some pork, and half a bolt of fine cloth.

The fine rice and pork were to reward himself after all the running around and hard work he’d done to make money.

The coarse rice at home had been scraping his throat every time he ate it.

Fortunately, they’d finally finished it.

He didn’t need much pork either.

A single liang would be enough to stir-fry a small dish and let him enjoy the taste of meat.

And finally, there was the fine cloth.

When he’d been planning what to buy today, a thought had suddenly flashed through his mind:

Zhao Junyi was missing a decent set of clothes.

Chu An’an himself had two new outfits to change between, so he wasn’t lacking clothes.

As for Zhao Junyi…

If you only looked at his face, it was easy to overlook the fact that practically everything he wore was covered in patches.

Zhao Junyi treated him quite well.

Besides buying him new clothes and expensive snacks, he’d even rebuilt the wall around their house.

The wall had been added later and was made of proper bricks and quality materials.

It had only recently been finished.

A sturdy brick wall surrounding a thatched house with mud floors gave the whole place the feeling of putting a gold rim around a chamber pot.

Chu An’an guessed Zhao Junyi had built it because he thought An’an was still foolish and was worried he might accidentally wander off.

But, accidentally or not, it had actually done him a huge favor.

Thanks to that impressive wall, he’d been able to keep his grilled-fish recipe completely protected.

Nobody could spy on him.

So everything he was doing was simply to repay Zhao Junyi’s kindness.

Sure, Zhao Junyi was handsome.

He had a straight, well-built figure, a narrow waist, long legs, and even the way he walked looked good.

But how could he possibly buy someone new clothes just because of that?

Obviously not.

There was absolutely no connection.

Since he planned to do some serious shopping today, Chu An’an was so excited that when the final customer came to buy something, he practically gave them part of it for free and closed early.

His first stop after closing was the pork stall across the street.

“Give me one liang of pork tenderloin.”

The pork seller was a large, heavyset man.

He had such a fierce presence that it looked like the word butcher had been carved right into his forehead.

“Young fellow, business must be good today. You’re only buying one liang? Don’t you want more?”

Chu An’an shook his head firmly.

“Just enough to taste some meat.”

He took the tiny piece of pork, paid seven wen, and headed toward a vegetable stall farther away.

The two people who had whispered about him being pampered on his first day happened to have stalls next to the pork seller.

“Looks like we were wrong about him. He’s actually incredibly frugal.”

As neighboring vendors, they knew better than anyone how good Chu An’an’s business was.

A young, handsome ge’er who was also so good at making money would normally have a proud personality and spend lavishly.

He might buy himself pretty clothes, jewelry, and so on.

But they hadn’t expected him to be so economical.

His business was doing so well, yet he’d only bought a tiny piece of meat.

It was barely enough for a cat to take two bites.

The pork seller couldn’t help but interrupt.

“So he’s delicate-looking, that’s all. Does that mean I’m terrifying because I look like I must’ve killed someone?”

The two vendors looked embarrassed.

“That isn’t what we meant.”

“Forget it. Don’t say anything about him not lasting long anymore.”

“With business like his, even if we couldn’t survive, he definitely could.”

The pork seller added,

“There is one other possibility, though.”

“What possibility?”

The man selling flatbreads pointed toward the expensive storefronts behind them.

“He rents one of those and starts doing business all day.”

Everyone fell silent.

Enough talking.

The more they talked, the more depressing it became.

Chu An’an picked out an eggplant for himself.

As he handed over the coins, he thought about the little vegetable patch behind his house.

Little vegetable patch, little vegetable patch…

Once you all grow up, I won’t have to buy vegetables anymore.

With the whistle of a patrolling constable, the morning market came to an end.

Chu An’an had already pushed his food cart over to Sun Li’s storage area.

He then brought out the wheelbarrow he’d left in the courtyard that morning.

By the time he returned to the main street, the morning market had completely dispersed.

The shops behind it were gradually opening.

Fabric stores, ready-made clothing shops, tea shops, and other businesses that didn’t produce much smoke and needed larger storefronts were all located toward the end of the main street, closer to the county government offices.

Chu An’an entered a fabric shop.

A shop assistant immediately came over.

“What can I get for you?”

“I’d like half a bolt of fine cloth.”

“Of course.”

The assistant enthusiastically began introducing the fabrics.

The shop mainly carried hemp cloth, ramie cloth, and fine cloth, with silk and satin above those.

Chu An’an didn’t have the money for silk or satin right now, nor did he need them.

Fine cloth had a finer texture than hemp or ramie.

Clothes made from it also looked neater and had a better overall quality.

The only thing he couldn’t decide on was the color.

Dark colors were easier to keep clean.

But Zhao Junyi only had two or three sets of clothing, and all of them were black, gray, or other dark shades covered in patches.

This time, Chu An’an wanted something lighter.

If he were choosing a light color, pure white would obviously be the most elegant.

He really wanted to see Zhao Junyi wearing pure white.

It would definitely look good.

Unfortunately, pure white looked best in silk or satin.

Fine cloth couldn’t quite achieve that effect.

There were still plenty of other colors.

Ivory white, lotus white, sky-water jade, pale cloud, lake blue…

Chu An’an’s eyes practically blurred from looking at them.

He really wanted to buy half a bolt for himself too.

But he eventually restrained himself.

He chose Pale Cloud.

It was even whiter than a pale blue, a very soft, gentle shade of light blue.

The shop assistant measured out half a bolt for him.

As Chu An’an prepared to pay, he noticed a pile of scraps on a table beside the counter.

The pieces were different colors and sizes, and at first glance looked like a messy pile of leftovers.

But when he looked closer, he realized the quality was surprisingly good.

They were smooth and glossy.

They were all silk and satin scraps.

Chu An’an pointed at them.

“What are these?”

Almost everyone who came into the shop asked the same question and ended up taking some home.

The shop assistant was used to it and explained smoothly:

“These are leftover silk and satin scraps. They’re the pieces left over from cutting larger bolts of fabric. You can still make things like coin pouches from them, and most importantly, they’re cheap.”

Chu An’an was tempted.

He picked out one white piece and one sky-blue piece.

He planned to make himself two pairs of underwear.

After paying, Chu An’an went to the ready-made clothing shop next door.

The shopkeeper had several seamstresses working under her.

And the seamstress assigned to him turned out to be someone he knew.

It was the second customer he’d had on his first day.

Her mischievous little son had spotted his display from far away and persuaded his mother to come buy bamboo cakes.

Everyone called her Embroiderer Wan because of the Wan in her name.

She recognized him immediately and warmly welcomed him.

“Little boss, making clothes?”

“No. They’re for someone in my family.”

As he spoke, he pulled out an extremely old, heavily patched set of clothing.

He didn’t know Zhao Junyi’s exact measurements.

Guessing would inevitably lead to mistakes.

Bringing an old set of clothing was much more accurate.

For little practical matters like this, Chu An’an rarely made mistakes.

Embroiderer Wan immediately understood.

Her eyes started blinking mischievously.

Chu An’an didn’t understand.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Little boss really cares about his husband.”

“What? Husband?”

Chu An’an’s voice suddenly rose.

Embroiderer Wan hesitated.

“I thought… the measurements are much bigger than yours, and the style is young…”

She was already preparing to apologize.

She’d misunderstood.

Maybe it was clothing for one of the little boss’s brothers.

But Chu An’an stiffly nodded.

“That’s right. Take his measurements first.”

“Oh, okay.”

Embroiderer Wan quickly began measuring.

As she worked, she secretly glanced at Chu An’an from the corner of her eye, checking whether she’d offended him.

Then she saw Chu An’an suddenly cover his face with both hands.

His ears slowly turned red.

Embroiderer Wan immediately understood.

Ah.

The clothes couldn’t be finished immediately, so Chu An’an went home first.

He made himself salt-and-pepper crispy pork and eggplant in savory sauce.

For the crispy pork, he cut the meat into pieces, coated them in beaten egg and batter, then deep-fried them until golden.

Finally, he sprinkled them with pepper, chili powder, and salt.

They smelled unbelievably good.

The eggplant was crisp on the outside and soft and glutinous inside.

It was incredibly good with rice.

And, finally, today’s rice didn’t scrape his throat.

Chu An’an was so happy that he ate three bowls in one sitting.

After eating, he went to check the vegetable patch behind the house.

He added some fertilizer, then took out his needle and thread and began sewing his underwear.

Fortunately, underwear was extremely simple.

After some rough stitching, he’d actually managed to make it work.

That afternoon, he made the bamboo cakes he needed to sell the next morning.

That night, he put on his cool, smooth silk-like underwear.

His mood immediately improved.

Sure enough, spending money to make yourself comfortable was one of life’s great pleasures.

At present, he sold around 75 fruit-flavored bamboo cakes per day and around 30 red-bean ones.

The fruit-flavored cakes gave him a net profit of one wen each.

The red-bean cakes earned him half a wen each.

That meant he could make roughly 90 wen a day, or around two to three taels of silver a month.

Anyone hearing those profits would think he was extremely capable and had a very promising future.

But making money wasn’t that simple.

If someone copied his bamboo cakes later and sold them at a lower price, his business would definitely be affected.

Or the people in the county might simply get tired of them, just as they’d eventually gotten tired of grilled fish.

And he still had plenty of things he needed to spend money on.

He needed to build connections so he could find a way to see his parents.

He needed clothes, shoes, daily necessities, furniture…

Every single one of those things cost money.

Thinking about it, the excitement he’d felt earlier gradually cooled.

Fine.

He wouldn’t spend money for the next few days.

After ten days of selling bamboo cakes, Chu An’an had become extremely efficient.

He prepared the cakes for the next morning early enough that he still had time to go visit Zhou Run.

“Zhou Run, are you home?”

His voice was as cheerful as a little bird’s.

Just hearing it made people happy.

“I am. The front door isn’t locked. Just come in.”

Zhou Run was squatting in the courtyard, putting yam after yam into a basket.

Chu An’an squatted down beside him.

“What are you doing?”

“I dug these yams out of the mountains. I’m going to sell them to the medicine shop in the county.”

Chu An’an poked one of the yam stalks.

“Don’t touch it.”

Zhou Run stopped him.

“Touching the skin of the yam will make you extremely itchy.”

“Then why did you dig them up?”

“To sell them to the medicine shop in the county.”

Zhou Run frowned unconsciously.

He was naturally brave and strong.

He’d had to dig these yams out of the mountains with considerable effort.

The problem was that the medicine shop in the county was extremely unscrupulous.

It was the only medicine shop within a radius of several li, so it took advantage of that monopoly and bought medicinal herbs at ridiculously low prices.

Then it turned around and sold them for much more.

But there was nothing he could do.

Could he really walk for several days just to sell the yams in another county?

He was being squeezed because they had him over a barrel.

Still, there was no need to tell Chu An’an about it.

It would only give him something else to worry about.

But Chu An’an noticed his unhappy expression.

“What are you worried about?”

Only then did Zhou Run explain.

Chu An’an introduced him to a new term:

“Monopoly.”

He explained what it meant.

Zhou Run thought about it.

It really was exactly that.

Wasn’t the county’s medicine shop taking advantage of the fact that it was the only one around to forcefully lower its buying prices?

There was indeed nothing he could do about it.

But Chu An’an had an idea.

“Keep these yams for me.”