Chapter 23: Buy Buy Buy


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    Upon hearing these words, Shopkeeper He beamed even brighter. “I’ll have the kitchen try it out today.”


    “Sir, I wille to see you again when I have more new dishes,” Qiao Xiaomai said further.


    “No problem, you’re wee anytime,” Shopkeeper He cheerfully agreed. “Practice makes perfect. Next time, I’ll surely give the youngdy a better deal.”


    Qiao Xiaomai responded with a bright smile. She would bring tofu over tomorrow!


    Seeing that Qiao Xiaomai had offered another recipe, Shopkeeper He gave her a pound of maltose as a thank-you gift.


    Maltose is not as sweet as sugar, but due to thegging sugar production technology of this era, sugar was expensive and maltose was whatmoners ate.


    However, for the Qiao Family, even maltose was a rare treat.


    Other than the asional wild fruit they could pick in the mountains, the Qiao Family rarely tasted sweetness throughout the year.


    Qiao Xiaomai put the maltose into her basket and led Qiao Dami out the back door of the restaurant. Once the door closed behind them, she immediately unwrapped the maltose, tore off a piece, and handed it to Qiao Dami. “Taste it now!”


    Qiao Dami reached out his small hand to take it, then licked it with his little tongue, his face showing a look of amazement. “Wow, it’s so sweet!”


    Qiao Xiaomai, watching his joyful face, couldn’t help butugh.


    Although maltose isn’t much sweeterpared to sugar, seeing Qiao Dami’s delighted expression, she ruffled his little head, “Come on, let’s go shopping.”


    The main purpose of her visit to Bailu Town today was to shop. The Qiao Family was so poor, there were many things they needed.


    First, she went to the grain shop and bought five pounds of flour and one pound of rice.


    After buying the grains, she went to a bookstore and bought a copy of the “Daqi Laws”. Seeing that they sold rice paper, she hurriedly bought some.


    To be honest, one of the most awkward issues for Qiao Xiaomai after going back in time was what to use to clean herself after using the bathroom.


    The technology of paper-making in this era was underdeveloped, and paper was valuable, so mostmoners used bamboo strips to clean themselves after defecating. This was historically known as ‘toilet tally’.


    The toilet at the Qiao house had four of these bamboo strips. You would scrape with a bamboo strip after defecating, then wash it clean with water for next time’s use.


    At the beginning of her transition, Qiao Xiaomai was shocked by this situation.


    In order to use the toilet paper she stored in her space, she had been going to the mountain to defecate for the past few days.


    The Qiao family’s toilet habit had to be changed!


    After leaving the bookstore, she went to buy some seasonings.


    The avable seasonings here were quitepletepared to the future, including oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns, and star anise, etc. Qiao Xiaomai bought some coarse salt and white vinegar, then went to a pastry shop.


    Having finished the green bean cake, she bought a red bean cake this time.


    She gave a piece to Qiao Dami, and finally visited the pork stall.


    By this time, the best cuts had been sold out, so she carefully selected a pound of lean meat and a pair of pig’s feet.


    Her current body was good looking, but too nutritionally deficient. At fifteen, she hadn’t even started her menstruation yet, so she needed to nourish her body.


    With this thought, she bought an old hen and after binding it properly and stuffing it in her carrying basket, she finally went home, leading Qiao Dami by the hand.


    Old man Han’s ox cart was outside the town, but all of the vige people were waiting there. Considering the basketful of goods she was carrying, she decided not to go there.


    It took half an hour to reach Anping Vige. It was noon, and the sun was scorching hot. Qiao Xiaomai was a bit thirsty, and Qiao Dami mentioned he was thirsty as well, making the siblings unconsciously quicken their pace.


    However, when they turned into the street where their home was located, they saw two people sitting at the entrance from the distance.


    One was Qiao Changshun.


    The other was Zhu Cuiying..