Chapter 175: Buying Chickens

They had bought sheep but couldn’t eat them. When Yan Lao’er saw someone selling roosters, he bought two, along with some seasonal vegetables—after all, they couldn’t keep serving only wild herbs.

“Dad, buy a few more.” Yan Yu looked at the small roosters, already imagining what they would look like plucked—scrawny and thin.

Yan Lao’er weighed them in his hand. Indeed, there wasn’t much meat.

These small roosters weren’t raised specifically for meat. They were hatched along with hens and grew up together.

Hens were kept for laying eggs, and only one rooster was needed.

There was no fixed price, ranging from twenty to forty wen depending on size.

The two they bought earlier had cost a total of sixty wen.

Yan Lao’er then bought out a farmer who had four more small roosters for sale, haggling the price down to ninety wen after some back-and-forth.

As they walked out of town, Yan Yu keenly spotted a woman selling potatoes.

She got so excited!

The first batch of corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes she had bought from the platform—aside from the corn that had been eaten—the potatoes and sweet potatoes had been carefully stored away, waiting for an opportunity to plant them. Some of the potatoes had even sprouted…

Chickens and potatoes—what a great combination!

They had to buy them!

She called her dad and pointed.

Yan Lao’er jumped off the ox cart and ran over like the wind.

Bought them all, no question about it.

It was only half a sack, but Yan Yu wished she could touch each one.

She used to worry there were no potatoes in this world and kept them hidden. Now, she could finally plant them without concern.

On the way back, everyone talked about the price of pork at the market.

“That vendor is really greedy. Seeing we were unfamiliar faces, he wanted thirty wen from us,” Da Ya muttered unhappily.

Yan Xiangheng said, “Not a good person. We all live in the same town, see each other all the time, yet he still tried to rip us off when he knew the seller was in urgent need of money.”

“Dad, if someone is selling piglets, we should buy a few to raise,” Yan Yu said seriously. For a foodie like her, this was a major decision. She was willing to endure the stink if it meant eating home-raised pork.

“We need to ask around and see who sells piglets,” Yan Lao’er said.

Yan Yu added, “Dad, there are plenty of wild animals in the nearby mountains, right? When you’re free, why don’t you try your luck?”

Yan Lao’er played along. “Yeah, I should head into the mountains. Master Lu and his men are working for us, so we ought to serve them a proper dish. If I can hunt some wild game, it’ll save us a lot of money.”

Yan Xiangheng quickly estimated the daily meat consumption. The sound of copper coins vanishing rang in his head. He said seriously, “Second Uncle, I’ll go with you.”

Yan Lao’er eyed his scrawny frame with disdain. “I’ll go with Qi Da and the others. You know your second uncle’s skills—big wild boars are nothing to me.”

Yan Yu struggled to hold back her laughter.

So full of it. When her dad went hunting, he was basically a walking map—good at finding pigs, but not at hunting them.

“Dad, the medicinal herbs we collected before—should we sell them now?” Yan Yu knew exactly what they had at home.

Yan Lao’er said, “This small town won’t fetch a good price. We’ll wait until we get to Yongning City. Big places charge more for everything, and the herb prices will be higher too.”

Yan Yu was actually thinking of finding a well-stocked pharmacy and buying every kind of herb they had…

Her family’s cat was just lounging around all day at home.

That wasn’t right—it should be out in the mountains gathering herbs, especially ginseng! If it could bring back an aged one, say a thousand-year-old ginseng, they’d strike it rich instantly!

Speaking of which, who exactly was supposed to eat a thousand-year-old ginseng? Wouldn’t it cause a blood vessel to burst?

…

When they returned to the village, Yan Yu finally found out where Nanny Rong’s river shrimp came from.

A few unfamiliar children were holding a net full of river shrimp, trading them with Nanny Rong for flatbread.

The net was more than half full, and Nanny Rong gave them a flatbread, even adding two chopsticks’ worth of pickled vegetables on top.

The kids rolled the flatbread up and took turns biting into it, finishing it quickly.

Licking their lips, they eagerly asked, “Do you want more tomorrow?”

Nanny Rong smiled and nodded.

“We also catch small fish. Can we trade those too?”

Nanny Rong nodded again.

The children cheered but stopped talking when they saw the Yan family returning. They immediately ran off.

Yan Yu: …

What, is my family a bunch of monsters? Why are they running like that?!

Nanny Rong put down the net, wiped her hands, and gently helped Li Xuemei off the cart. Then, without being asked, she started unloading and organizing the goods from the cart.

When she saw the mother goat, Yan Yu thought she saw a glint in Nanny Rong’s eyes.

Like Yan Lao’er, she reached out to touch it, but not on the belly…

Before long, the Yan family was drinking freshly heated goat milk.

Nanny Rong used rice vinegar to remove the gaminess, giving the milk a slightly tangy taste that perfectly balanced the strong flavor of goat milk.

Yan Yu blew on the steam and took a small sip, her eyes narrowing in bliss.

Another sip, and she sighed in delight.

If only they had tea leaves—she missed milk tea.

Li Xuemei felt completely pampered by Nanny Rong’s care.

Comparing this to the “level one access” her husband had, the benefits of being pregnant were far superior!

For a moment, she even thought that staying pregnant indefinitely might not be so bad…

Da Ya helped peel potatoes.

Nanny Rong killed, plucked, and gutted the chickens in one smooth motion.

As expected, the two slightly larger roosters had very little meat.

One wasn’t enough, so they stewed both together with potatoes.

Braised Potato Chicken.

A big pot of coarse rice.

Four duck eggs beaten with salt and warm water, stirred well, made into stir-fried spinach with egg.

The diluted egg mixture made the flavor mild, but there was a lot of it—two large overflowing bowls. Lu Shifu and the others nearly fought with their chopsticks over it.

This time, they had two tables.

While Yan Lao’er was in town, Nanny Rong had built another set of tables and chairs with bricks…

At the men’s table, Yan Lao’er and Lu Shifu’s group noticed that while the heads and tails of both chickens were intact, three of the four drumsticks were missing, both wings were gone, and the chicken breast was also scarce. The plate was mostly full of bony, hard-to-eat parts…

They thought: If not for Yan Lao’er’s “level one access,” this table probably wouldn’t have gotten a single drumstick.

Yan Lao’er felt obligated to claim the last remaining drumstick.

But in the blink of an eye, Lu Shifu’s son snatched it away.

Yan Lao’er: …

Missed out on a fortune!

After dinner, the Yan family kept looking into the distance.

Yan Huaiwen and Liang Manshan still hadn’t returned.

Qi Wu ran over to Yan Lao’er and said, “Yan Lao’er, I found some great wood in the mountains. I marked it—when should we go get it?”

Qi Wu was talking about wood for the main beam. It needed to be tall, straight, and sturdy.

Yan Lao’er asked, “How tall? Can a few of us carry it back?”

“It’s really tall.” Qi Wu gestured wildly.