Chapter 9: The Business of a Basket of Stones

No, no, no!

Hearing Ergouzi’s analogy, Song Daya shook her head frantically.

Ergouzi couldn’t keep a secret; he was sure to blab to his brother the moment he got home.

If Ergouzi’s brother ever wrote an essay in the future saying, “The sun is a shining pearl,” Song Daya would be entirely to blame.

“The sun is a burning fireball,” Song Daya scrambled to cover up. “Only the moon on the sixteenth is a shining pearl!”

Ergouzi accepted the instruction humbly and asked, “Then why isn’t it the moon on the fifteenth?”

“Haven’t you ever heard that the moon is rounder on the sixteenth than the fifteenth^[1]?” Song Daya said generously, holding nothing back.

“Nope.” Ergouzi shook his head honestly.

Well, all right then…

“One day while sitting by the door, I heard a passing peddler say it,” Song Daya improvised once more.

Song Daya was confident that as long as she covered her tracks quickly enough, Ergouzi would never find a hole in her story!

The honest Ergouzi accepted this explanation and asked, “Then who is the Number One Moon of Songjiatai?”

Ergouzi nearly led Song Daya off track.

“A shining pearl, it’s a shining pearl!” Song Daya corrected.

Then she thumped her chest and declared proudly, “The Number One Shining Pearl of Songjiatai is me, of course!”

Shock was written all over Ergouzi’s face.

What? The Number One Moon of Songjiatai… no, the Number One Shining Pearl was actually Song Daya?

Why wasn’t it his brother?!

Without giving Ergouzi a chance to argue, Song Daya clapped a small hand on his shoulder and asked, “Ergouzi, want some candy?”

Ergouzi’s eyes lit up. “You have some?”

Song Daya reached into her small satchel, pulled out a little paper packet of candy, and peeled back a corner for Ergouzi to see.

“You really have…” Ergouzi’s eyes instantly locked onto it, drool flowing, “…candy!”

In terms of wealth, Song Dalang’s household was only about average in Songjiatai.

But when it came to doting on children, Song Dalang was famous for ten li around.

Look, even Ergouzi knew about it.

Truly, comparing mothers wasn’t so bad.

But comparing fathers made you want to throw yours away^[2].

Ergouzi stared at Song Daya with a mix of craving and resentment. Song Daya crooked a finger and pointed to several smooth, rounded little stones by the threshold. “See those stones?”

Ergouzi nodded vigorously.

They were that big, and he wasn’t blind, so how could he miss them?

Song Daya said, “One basket of those stones in exchange for one piece of malt candy.”

Even though Song Daya was offering malt candy for stones, that glutton Ergouzi actually had the sense to haggle.

“A basket of stones is so much, and your piece of malt candy is way too small!”

Song Daya didn’t yield an inch. “You know it’s candy, right? Candy!”

Ergouzi looked deeply aggrieved. “But stones aren’t easy to find either…”

Songjiatai was situated on the plains; the village had rivers, lakes, and hills.

But the riverbeds were mostly silt and mud, with no stones to be found.

The hills weren’t very high either, little more than oversized dirt mounds, and they certainly didn’t produce granite or anything like that.

But in Song Daya’s view, as long as someone set their mind to it, stones could be found.

“Stones don’t cost a single copper, but malt candy costs real money! Other families can’t even bear to buy it for the New Year!”

The two went back and forth until Song Daya generously gave in by half a piece.

“One basket of stones for one and a half pieces of malt candy,” Song Daya said with a flick of her hand. “If you weren’t my friend, you wouldn’t even get that for two baskets of stones!”

Ergouzi was deeply touched, but still worried.

“You’re saying all this nice stuff now, but what if you go back on your word later?”

Song Daya couldn’t help rolling her eyes.

Was this tiny bit of malt candy really worth ruining her reputation?

Back in her day, she had been-

Ah, forget it. A hero doesn’t boast of past glories, and besides, there was no making a little brat understand anyway.

Song Daya pulled a large copper coin her mother had given her straight from around her neck and said, “See this? My mother gave it to me.”

The meaning was clear:

I! HAVE! MONEY!

Ergouzi was finally convinced.

In all his years, though he had never touched money before, he certainly recognized it!

“All right, I’ll bring the stones over today!” Ergouzi said, finally reassured.

“Let’s get this straight first: you’re not allowed to go into the rivers or lakes! If you go into the rivers or lakes, no malt candy for you!” Song Daya warned.

She wanted to get things done, not stir up trouble.

If something happened to Ergouzi over a trivial matter like this, it really wouldn’t be worth it.

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t dare!” Ergouzi said, patting his chest. “My mother said that if I dare go into the rivers or lakes, she’ll break my legs!”

And with that, Song Daya was reassured as well.

Old Mother Wu had witnessed the entire exchange. Holding her tongue until Ergouzi left, she finally asked, “Daya, what do you need stones for?”

“Granny, once I’ve got it made, you’ll see!” Song Daya replied.

In her mind, she tried calculating the era she was currently in, attempting to match it with history.

Unfortunately, she was an engineering student whose history was abysmal. All she could tell was that Great Xia resembled the Tang Dynasty but wasn’t Tang, seemed like the Song Dynasty but wasn’t Song, and whatever connection it had to the Ming Dynasty was completely beyond her.

In the end, she couldn’t match it to a single dynasty.

Still, there was one thing Song Daya had managed to figure out: not many years had passed since the founding of the dynasty.

That was a good thing!

Generally speaking, this was an era when a new dynasty sought stability and was on the rise.

After all those years of warfare, in order to allow the people to recuperate and to maintain the new dynasty’s rule and stability, the imperial court’s policies and taxation were relatively lenient.

It was hardly a golden age, but times were good enough.

Pretty good, in fact!

Song Daya smacked her lips as she thought about it.

Only in times like these would she have opportunities to seize!

By evening, before Song Dalang and Mei-Shi had returned, Ergouzi arrived first.

He was already out of breath before he even reached the door.

“Aiyo, Daya, hurry and take this!”

Ergouzi truly lived up to his reputation as an honest fellow. He had swiped his mother’s vegetable basket and filled it more than halfway with small stones.

After all, he was still just a child and lacked the strength, having had to lug and drag the heavy load all the way to Song Daya’s door.

Song Daya inspected the quality. Finding it decent, she readily paid him the candy.

“Even though this isn’t a full basket, I keep my word. Here is a piece and a half.”

With the malt candy in his mouth, Ergouzi sat at Song Daya’s doorstep, feeling that every bit of exhaustion from the day had been entirely worth it.

Song Daya sat down next to him and asked, “Ergouzi, is picking up stones tiring?”

“Of course it’s tiring!” Ergouzi rolled his eyes.

If it weren’t for the malt candy, only an idiot would do it!

“Then do you want to get malt candy the easy way?”

Ergouzi’s eyes went wide. “There’s an easy way to do this?”

“How about this: you find people to pick them up. For every basket of stones like this, I’ll give them a piece of malt candy, and give you half a piece,” Song Daya said.

Ergouzi’s eyes sparkled. “I won’t have to pick them up?”

“You won’t have to. But you’ll be in charge of supervising and inspecting them. I won’t take any useless junk.”

“If one person gathers a basket, that’s half a piece,” Ergouzi calculated. “Then if two people gather a basket… oh, no, if two people gather two baskets… that’s… that’s a whole piece!”

Ergouzi was hopeless at calculating anything else, but when it came to food, he managed just fine.

After all, no one had ever properly taught him.

“Right!” Song Daya encouraged him. “See? You won’t even have to do the work yourself. Just watch them do it, and you’ll get candy. So, what do you say? You doing it or not?”