The next morning when Lin Wu got up, she had barely stepped to the door when she felt the wind blowing against her face was noticeably cooler than the day before.
She looked up, and saw the sky was overcast and heavy, looking like it would rain any moment.
Lin Jing had already dragged a small stool to sit under the eave, holding his little wooden bowl and brushing his teeth earnestly. The little boy had naturally brushed his teeth back when they lived in the palace, so there was no need for Lin Wu to teach him, and his movements were perfectly proper.
Lin Wu walked into the kitchen, planning to cook a pot of bean porridge. She glanced around the room, which had only been tidied up the day before, and every corner still looked rather bare.
Neatly stacked beside the earthen stove was a small pile of firewood they had bought the previous day. In the city, there were firewood sellers carrying their loads through the streets and alleys every day, so you could stop one to buy what you needed at any time. Leaning against the corner was a small cloth bag that held less than two sheng of rice. On the chopping board lay five eggs, a handful of the Chinese cabbages left over from the day before, and several jars holding oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar, with nothing else in sight.
She scooped out the rice, put it in a clay pot, washed it clean, added water, and set the pot on the stove.
Once she lit the fire, she turned and called out to the outside, "A Jing, help watch the stove fire. Before the rain falls, I'm going to the market to buy a few things to make our breakfast."
"Okay!" Lin Jing had just finished rinsing his mouth and was washing his little wooden bowl. He looked up and replied in a clear, crisp voice.
Lin Wu turned to leave the kitchen, carrying a bamboo basket to the courtyard gate. Then she thought better of it, and gave careful instructions to Lin Jing who had followed her to the door, "A Jing, bolt the door properly. Unless you hear it's A Wu's voice, don't open the door for anyone no matter who calls. If there's really an emergency, shout for Auntie He next door loudly. Do you remember?"
Lin Jing tilted his little head up and nodded, "I remember."
Lin Wu then knocked on the next door, explained what she needed to Fourth Sister He, who agreed readily. Only then did she head for the market.
The alley was quiet. The market on the main street was not exactly far away, but not exactly close either, so it took a good walk to get there.
On the way, she silently calculated the remaining money in her mind. All the items she bought the day before had cost nearly three hundred wen in total; she had also bought an iron kitchen knife for one hundred and eighty wen. Adding the scattered small expenses of the past few days, and the three months' rent she had paid all at once, she only had about twelve guan left now.
The rent was really the biggest expense. Converted, that meant thirty-seven wen was gone the moment she opened her eyes every day. Twelve guan sounded like a large sum, but it would not last long if spent carelessly.
With these thoughts in mind, she arrived at the market. She first stopped at the seafood stall, picked two handfuls of green shrimp, and then asked for a fresh fish, which cost her thirty wen in total. In Huzhou, a place so close to the water, fish and shrimp were easier to come by than ordinary pork or mutton, and their prices were much lower. She had heard that in those fishing villages, you could carry a small fish away for just two wen.
But fish was expensive where transportation was needed. In the capital, a catty of fish cost a hundred wen, even more expensive than mutton.
After that, she went to the grain shop to buy a dou of rice, which cost her seventy wen, and then spent twenty-five wen at the salt shop for a catty of salt. The salt price in Huzhou was not too expensive, but not cheap either. Salt prices varied drastically across different regions. She had heard that in those coastal places in the south where private salt was widely available, the salt was much better than official salt, came in full weight, and cost only ten wen a catty.
As she walked through the market, she noticed that some food stalls used a kind of wheeled cart.
That cart looked remarkably well thought-out and practical. It was fitted with wooden wheels at the base, so it could easily be pushed or pulled around. The wide flat platform had built-in stove openings that were still giving off faint wisps of heat, with a cooking fire setup tucked underneath. Along one side, there was a foldable board that could be propped up to serve as a chopping block, and the body of the cart had several small partitioned wooden compartments built into it, perfect for stowing cash, chopsticks, bowls, and seasonings. At the rear of the cart, there was a movable wooden frame where a bamboo pole could be slotted in at any time to hold up a canvas awning, keeping off the sun and the rain.
For all how handy this cart was, not many stall owners at the market used them. Most peddlers still carried their goods on shoulder poles, or simply laid out their wares in bamboo baskets and wicker trays on the ground. The slightly more organized vendors did no more than set up a folding wooden table. It stood to reason that the materials and labor to make such a small pushcart would not come cheap, far out of easy reach for the average street peddler.
On her way back, thin strands of rain had begun to drift down through the air. Passing a carpenter's shop, Lin Wu's thoughts drifted to that convenient pushcart she had seen at the market. She paused in her steps, then turned and walked inside.
The shop was not large. Shavings and sawdust were scattered across the floor, and stacks of pre-sawn timber planks were piled up against the walls. Two young apprentices had their heads down, brushing tung oil onto several newly finished long benches, while an older master carpenter was hunched over, chiseling out a mortise. He looked up when he heard her come in.
"Madam, are you here to order some furniture?" the master carpenter asked, setting down his chisel and speaking in a friendly tone.
Lin Wu stepped forward. "Shopkeeper, I wanted to ask, do you make those wheeled food stall pushcarts at the market, the ones that can support an awning? How much would the materials and labor cost for one?"
The master carpenter wiped his hands on the cloth slung over his shoulder. "Oh, that cart? We can make those. Quite a few stalls around here use the ones that came out of our shop. They need to be sturdily built, the wheels, the axles, the supports that take all the weight—they use a lot of good wood and take a lot of work. If you make a simpler version, just with the stove openings and the chopping board, it would still cost around one thousand seven or eight hundred wen. If you want to add all those partitioned compartments and the movable awning frame, the work and materials get more complicated, so it would cost upwards of two strings of cash."
Lin Wu was startled by the price, and she could not help but draw a sharp breath.
One of the young apprentices who had been brushing on tung oil looked up and added, "Madam, that is a perfectly fair price. That little cart is not all wood, either. The wheels have to be fitted with iron hoops, and the axles have to be forged from iron, all that adds to the cost. Just look at all those mortise and tenon joints, the movable boards, the little drawers—every single part takes careful handiwork." He pointed over to a half-finished small wooden boat hull in the corner. "Even that little boat, which is pretty simple to make, still costs a full string of cash."
Lin Wu glanced over at it, then nodded. "Thank you for telling me. That price is really quite steep. Let me think it over for a while."
She had already thanked them and was about to turn to leave, when she spotted a large wooden box against the inner wall, heaped full of odd-shaped offcuts of wood. There were square strips, small triangular pieces, and some chubby round blocks, all the leftover scraps from other projects.
An idea popped into her head. She stopped in her tracks and turned back to the master carpenter. "Shopkeeper, would you be willing to sell me some of these leftover wood scraps? I want to take them home for my child to play with, and let him learn to tell different types of wood apart."
The master carpenter glanced up at the box and waved his hand dismissively. "These little bits of scrap? They just pile up here and end up being used for firewood. If you want some, just take a handful, no charge at all."
Lin Wu shook her head. "That won't do. Even if they are just leftover scraps, I can't possibly take them for free."
As she spoke, she squatted down next to the big wooden box and started picking through the pieces carefully. She selected quite a few smooth, splinter-free bits, mostly even square strips and triangular blocks.
Seeing how determined she was, the old master chuckled and said, "Then five wen coins will do, madam, just as a lucky token. Next time you come to have a pushcart made, I'll definitely give you a fair price."
"Thank you so much in advance, shopkeeper," Lin Wu replied crisply. She counted out five wen coins neatly and set them on the side counter, wrapped the selected wooden blocks in an old scrap of cloth, tucked the bundle into her bamboo basket, and only then turned to step out of the shop.
Fine rain began to drift down, darkening the sky further, and a cool breeze carried a distinct chill.
She quickened her pace heading home, and before long she reached the alley. Standing before the gate of her own courtyard, she rapped gently and called, "A Jing, I'm back."
The words had barely left her mouth when a rapid patter of footsteps approached from inside, followed by the click of the door latch being lifted.
The wooden gate creaked open just a crack, and a small head poked out through the gap.
When he saw it was Lin Wu, his eyes lit up bright, and he pulled the gate all the way open forcefully. "A Wu! You're home!"
Lin Wu carried her bamboo basket into the house with him, then turned back to bolt the gate securely.
She took things out of the basket one by one. "We're making shrimp paste steamed eggs for our morning meal today. Look, I also bought a live fish. We'll keep it in the wooden basin for now, and cook it for our afternoon meal."
As she spoke, she lowered the still wriggling fish into the wooden basin filled with clean water.
Lin Jing immediately squatted down beside the basin, eyes wide and unblinking as he stared at the fish. The fish seemed to regain its strength all of a sudden, and its tail lashed out hard, splashing a whole sheet of water right onto Lin Jing's face.
"Whoa! It's trying to escape!" Lin Jing yelped, not even bothering to wipe the water off his face as he reached out to press down on the slippery fish.
"Don't grab it with your bare hands!" Lin Wu quickly wrapped her fingers around his wrist. "Watch out, the fish scales might cut you."
She grabbed the old cloth towel nearby and wiped his little face and his damp front clean.
Held back by Lin Wu, Lin Jing could only watch the fish splash around in the basin, looking a little anxious. "But what if it really gets away?"
"It won't get out, look," Lin Wu said as she stood up, found a wooden board just a little bigger than the basin opening to cover the top, then set a stone on it to hold it down. "Now it can't leap out."
Once the fish was settled, Lin Wu wiped her hands, then took out the small bundle wrapped in the scrap of cloth, revealing the two dozen smooth little wooden blocks inside.
"I bought these at the carpenter's shop, they're for you to play with," she said, leading Lin Jing over to sit at the table. She poured the wooden blocks out onto the tabletop, picked up a triangular one and a square one, and quickly stacked them into the shape of a simple little house. "See? You can build a little house, or anything you want."
Lin Jing's eyes lit up, and he stretched out his small hand to touch the wooden blocks. "I'm going to build our little courtyard!"
Lin Wu nodded with a smile, then stacked some long wooden blocks one over another to build a neat little tower. She stopped when she got to seven or eight layers high, then carefully pulled one wooden slat out from the middle. The little tower stayed perfectly steady, it didn't fall over.
"A Jing, try it. Pull one slat out and see if it topples," she said.
Lin Jing caught on right away. He held his breath, leaned forward so his little face was almost touching the tabletop, stretched out two fingers, and pinched one wooden slat extremely slowly and carefully, pulling it out little by little.
The moment the slat was fully pulled out, he immediately looked up at Lin Wu. "It didn't fall!"
"That's amazing!" Lin Wu ruffled his little head affectionately. "You keep working on building your courtyard here, A Wu is going to make the morning meal now."
She walked over to the stove and got busy. She cracked the eggs open, whisked them, mixed in warm water and a pinch of salt, stirred it evenly, and set the mixture aside for later.
She cleaned the fresh green prawns one by one, twisting off their heads, peeling off their shells, picking out the dark veins along their backs, and laying them out on the chopping board after a final rinse. She chopped them finely into smooth prawn paste, then squeezed the paste between her palms to form tiny, plump little balls.
By the time the water in the steamer came to a rolling boil, she set the bowl of beaten egg inside and covered the lid. When she guessed the egg had almost set, she lifted the lid, carefully placed each of the prawn paste balls on top of the half-cooked egg, and covered the steamer again to let them finish cooking.
In the lull while they waited, the rich, savory aroma of prawns and steamed eggs slowly filled the small kitchen. Lin Wu glanced over at Lin Jing, who was sitting at the table. The stacked wooden tower game he had been playing with was now teetering unsteadily, on the verge of collapsing, and his tiny hand hovered mid-air, seeming to size up the next block to pull out. Lin Wu stepped over to him quietly.
"Oh my, our A Jing's pagoda looks like it's got a wobbly foundation now, doesn't it?"
At Lin Wu's words, Lin Jing's already cautious little hand drew back even further. "It's shaking so bad I don't dare touch it anymore," he said.
"Then let A Wu have a try, see if I can save it," Lin Wu said with a smile. She reached out, pinched the bottommost small wooden block, and pulled it out slowly. The moment the block was halfway out, the little tower clattered and scattered all across the tabletop.
"Oh no, A Wu lost," Lin Wu said, setting the small wooden block down on the table with a laugh.
Lin Jing stretched out his little hands, herding all the stray blocks that had rolled to the edge of the table back into the pile. As he gathered them, he mumbled softly, "That block just didn't want to stay there anymore. I saw it wiggling around ages ago. It must have gotten tired of standing, and gotten mad."
Lin Wu couldn't help but chuckle at how serious he looked, his little face set in a firm pout as he said it. "Hearing A Jing put it that way, it means A Wu actually did it a favor, right? Now it finally gets to come out and rest for a bit."
Lin Jing beamed and nodded his little head in agreement.
Just as they were chatting and laughing, the steamer began to huff and puff noisily. Lin Wu hurried over and lifted the lid, and a cloud of hot steam billowed out, carrying a wave of mouthwatering aroma. The egg custard was fully done. She sprinkled a small handful of chopped scallions over the top, drizzled a few drops of light soy sauce, then covered the lid again, letting the residual heat warm it for a little while longer.
"A Jing, time to eat," she said, carrying the bowl of steamed egg custard over to the table and setting it down.
Lin Jing had already quickly gathered all the scattered wooden blocks, stuffed them back into their small cloth bag, and cleared the table completely. The egg custard was pale golden, silky, and tender, with the prawn paste balls a soft white blushed with pink. It looked so fresh and delicate, and when they took a bite, it was smooth, savory, and springy, carrying the natural sweet bounce of fresh prawn meat.
On this cool, drizzly morning, this simple, steaming hot meal made their hearts feel warm and steady.
After they finished their breakfast and tidied everything up, the rain outside had picked up, falling thicker now, pattering and rustling nonstop against the roof tiles. Lin Wu sat with Lin Jing at the table, and they kept playing with the small wooden blocks, stacking them into all sorts of little houses.
Lin Jing had just finished putting up his new little tower when the courtyard gate was suddenly banged on, hard, with loud, heavy thuds. Lin Wu had barely stood up to call out and ask who was there, when the person outside started yelling before she could even reach the door.
"Jing! Jing! Open up! I've come to play with you!" Tigerhead's loud, booming voice carried through the gate, and they could even hear the faint sound of him bouncing up and down on his feet.
Lin Wu quickly grabbed an oilcloth to hold over her head and hurried to open the gate. There stood Tigerhead right below the steps, with Little Zheng holding an umbrella over him from behind.
"Come in quickly, why did you run out on a rainy day?" Lin Wu said, stepping aside to let them in.
Tigerhead slipped in like a little fish, chattering nonstop as he came through the door. "I went over to Auntie Wang's place first looking for A-jie and Jing. Auntie Wang said you don't live there anymore, that you'd moved here. So I got Brother Zheng to bring me right over! I just knew you had to be here! Rain's nothing, I had an umbrella, look A-jie, not a single part of me is wet!"
Lin Wu led him inside, and the first thing Tigerhead spotted was Lin Jing sitting by the table. He immediately bounded over to him all chummy and warm. "Jing, I finally found you! How come you didn't tell anyone you were moving?"
Lin Jing shrank back a little as Tigerhead pressed up against him. "We were busy tidying up the yard, we didn't have time to tell anyone."
"Ugh!" Tigerhead smacked his forehead, equal parts frustrated and chiding. "I should have come yesterday! I could have helped you carry things and pull weeds! It's all my grandpa's fault, he made me finish all my schoolwork before I could leave the house. Look now, I missed all the fun!"
Just then he caught sight of the pile of small wooden blocks on the table, and his attention was instantly hooked. "Huh? Jing, what are you playing with?"
Lin Jing picked up a square wooden strip, answering concisely. "It's block jenga." He pointed to the small tower he had just built. "Stack them up like this, then pull the strips out one by one, and you can't let the tower fall."
Tigerhead got the game right away, rolled up his sleeves with a mighty show of confidence. "Oh I'm great at this! Watch Tigerhead do it!"
He dropped to his knees, his chubby fingers carefully pinching one of the wooden strips, and yanked it out hard.
"Crash!"
The little tower Lin Jing had barely finished building collapsed instantly, blocks rolling all across the table. Tigerhead froze, still holding the pose of having just pulled the strip, eyes wide and stunned.
"Tigerhead lost," little Lin Jing stated coolly from the side.
"Huh? No that doesn't count! That block was just placed wrong!" Tigerhead snapped back to his senses immediately, yelling in protest as he scrambled to gather all the blocks back into a pile. "One more round! I'll get it right this time, I promise!"
Seeing the two little boys huddled heads together to start building the small tower again, Lin Wu turned around to sort through the laundry she had just brought in.
As she folded the clothes, her mind wandered to practical matters. The days were getting colder and colder, and neither she nor A Jing had thick enough winter clothes. It was time to get some warmer pieces. Should she buy ready-made ones, or buy fabric and sew them herself? Money was tight right now, and every penny saved was a penny earned, so she might as well make the time to sew them herself.
Then she thought about the food stall cart at the market. The money she had on hand was almost enough to buy it, but this was her first time trying to run a business, and she hadn't even figured out the basics yet. Having to shell out several strings of cash right at the start made her feel uneasy, and she hated to spend that kind of money without being sure.
Besides, even if she had the cart, there were so many other supplies she would need. She couldn't do without a big pot and a large steamer. She could not just rely on the tiny earthen pot in the kitchen, which could only steam three or five buns at a time. If she did that, she would be working from dawn till dark and barely make any buns at all. When she added everything up, every little thing cost money, and before she even had anything to show for it, her capital was slipping away like water.
People say that starting a new business is the fastest way for rich young masters to burn through their family fortune, and that saying was spot on. If you haven't even set up your stall yet, but you've already bought piles of equipment and poured all your capital into it, who knew how long this tiny little business would take to earn that money back? No one could say for sure.
This line of work was never going to bring in big profits. Whether setting up a stall at the market or the docks, one could mostly only sell affordable, filling food like steamed buns and flatbreads. The cost of these items had to be kept low, and the profit margin was slim at best. A steamed bun with meat filling could sell for no more than five copper coins, while a plain vegetarian one went for three.
Working alone, she could not make very much at a time. Kneading the dough, letting it rise, and steaming it all took time. Making a hundred steamed buns would probably take two or three full hours, which meant she would have to get up before dawn every day to start preparations. After that, she would have to carry all her supplies and food out to the streets to call for customers, draining both her physical strength and energy.
Everyone said the food vending trade was backbreaking, and after running the numbers, she could see that was absolutely true. And that was only if she stuck to selling steamed buns alone. If she tried to add more varieties, she would barely have any time left to sleep, and would end up spending every single day slaving away in the kitchen. At that rate, she would probably collapse from exhaustion before her business even got off the ground.
Even if she bit the bullet and only made the more expensive meat-filled steamed buns, and somehow managed to sell every single one in a day, she would only bring in 500 copper coins in total. Once she subtracted the costs of flour, firewood, pork and other supplies, how much would she even have left in her own pocket? What was more, the streets were full of people selling steamed buns and flatbreads. There was no way she could guarantee she would sell out every single day.
She thought back to the sights she had seen in the market that day, and realized that far and away the most peddlers there were the ones carrying goods on shoulder poles or in woven baskets slung over their arms. She ought to start out the same way, taking small careful steps instead of trying to do too much too fast.
But if she went with the basket peddling approach, selling steamed buns would no longer make sense. Once steamed buns went cold, their texture and taste turned noticeably worse. She would have to think very carefully about what exactly she should make instead.
As for the price of a small pushcart, it is set mainly with reference to the price of ordinary small boats in folk records. In his poem *Boating on the Lake on the Third Day of the Tenth Month*, Lu You wrote, "Now the scene is entirely new, one thousand coins buys a short-canopied boat", and in *The Fisherman*, he wrote, "One thousand coins buys a boat, one hundred coins buys two oars". That puts the price of an ordinary small folk boat at one string of copper coins apiece.
As for the price of salt, according to *Research on Prices in the Song Dynasty*, during the Yuanfeng reign period, in the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangnan, one sheng of salt cost five coins: "Salt is five coins per sheng, several times cheaper than in Zhejiang". In Jiangdu County, Yangzhou, six liang of salt sold for 15.5 copper coins, which worked out to 28 copper coins per jin: "The original purchase price of salt is 28 full coins per jin".
As for grain prices, *Research on Prices in the Song Dynasty* records that in the ninth month of the fifth year of the Yuanyou reign, Su Shi stated: "Last year, in the eighth and ninth months, the market price of rice in Hangzhou was 60 full coins per dou, and by the eleventh month it had risen to 95 full coins... Now the current market price of rice in Hangzhou is 75 full coins... I have recently learned that the market price of rice in Suzhou has already reached 95 full coins". The price of rice in Hangzhou fluctuated between 60, 95, and 75 full coins per dou.
