After paying for a month's worth of tuition for Little s.h.i.+tou and an additional three taels to buy the donkey cart, Xiaocao had about four taels left in her purse. She decided to take advantage of being in town to buy whatever else her family needed.

　　The father and daughter pair deposited the donkey cart at the entrance of the ox and horse market and paid the attendant five copper coins. Xiaocao had especially given the old man her water pouch and repeatedly instructed him to give the donkey a bowl of the special water every hour. 

　　The two of them then went to the town's largest food market. At the market, the selection of vegetables and produce was as pathetic as before. The vast majority of vegetables on sale were cabbages, radishes, and sweet potatoes. It was obvious that all of them had clearly been stored in people's cellars for a long time. There also weren't a lot of people selling meat or chickens. 

　　Xiaocao first went to the general store to buy some spices, soy sauce, and vinegar. This time, she had a decent amount of money on hand, so she could weigh each seasoning separately. She bought two ounces of each spice she needed, which would last her for about ten days.

　　In addition, she also brought along seven to eight bamboo tubes of differing sizes which had all been made by her father. As soon as she entered the stall, she gave the shopkeeper the new containers to replace the ones she had borrowed from him last time. She then asked the shopkeeper to put a catty of soy sauce into each of the remaining large tubes

　　The shopkeeper had only remembered that she was the little girl who had bought seasonings previously when she returned the bamboo tubes to him. He smiled, "Little girl, did you finish using the spices so quickly? Your family must sell food to other people, right?"

　　"That's right! How did you know?" Xiaocao gave him the weights of the condiments that she wanted and smiled sweetly at this honest and kind shopkeeper.

　　The shopkeeper grinned, "Other than selling food, what normal, average family would be willing to spend so much money to season their food? Oh ho! You're buying more spices than last time, looks like you made some money! Congratulations ah!"

　　Xiaocao flashed a grin at him and said, "I sold some appetizers at the docks and managed to make a little money. I'm not sure when I'll have enough money to be like you, Uncle Shopkeeper, and open up a store in town."

　　The shopkeeper guffawed and said, "This older uncle is also only making a little money, just enough to survive that is. Don't think that it's all suns.h.i.+ne and rainbows opening up a place. When you add up the rent and money spent on goods and other things, there's really not much leftover, right? Don't look down at selling food. In fact, as long as you make good salted and pickled vegetables, you can still make a good amount of money. Do you see that pickled vegetable store over there? They've been flaming popular these past two days. In fact, my wife really loves that stall's sweet and crispy dried radishes and spicy pickled cabbage. If she doesn't have any with every meal, she won't be able to finish her food…"  

　　"The town is truly a good place to earn money, even salted and pickled vegetables can sell out so quickly!" Yu Hai exclaimed in wonder as he left the general store.

　　Xiaocao smiled knowingly and said, "Father, when we make enough money one day, we can also rent a stall here in town. The store would only sell different types of braised dishes. As the only stall in town to sell braised food, we can definitely make money that way…"

　　Yu Hai happily replied, "When our family has more money, we should buy some more farmland. We only have three plots of dry, sandy land. The yield from the land is not enough to feed our whole family."

　　"Once we open up a stall in town and make some money, we can buy more farmland then! Father, most of the land in our village is dry and sandy. If we want to buy land, we should buy plots that are closer to town. At that time, we can even move our entire family to town. That way we can avoid Eldest Aunt coming over to bother us all the time…" Xiaocao really despised Madam Li's bad habits and small tricks. The woman also had a gossipy tongue that never stopped, and she never had anything good to say of others. 

　　Yu Hai frowned and quietly reprimanded her, "How could say something like that about your eldest aunt. Be careful to not let anyone else hear you, they'll start saying that you're a bad child."

　　Xiaocao sneered slightly and grumbled inwardly, 'Isn't Eldest Aunt the most shameless one around here? She's completely a troublemaker!'

　　Suddenly, they heard a familiar sounding voice calling out to them, "Brother Dahai, Xiaocao! You guys are also in town now? Looks like you've bought a lot of things ah!"

　　Xiaocao twisted her head around to look and saw that their neighbor, Madam Fang, was waving her hand at them. The basket in front of her had a couple plump and fat hens in it, and the basket next to it was empty.