Is there anyone selling ginger at the market?
There was no ginger on the street stalls. Zhou Erlang saw them wandering around like headless flies, so he grabbed Zhou Wulang by the back of his collar, made him turn around half a circle, and pointed to the door of the old doctor's house: "He is the only one who sells ginger."
Ginger can dispel cold and remove the smell of mutton, so during the Chinese New Year, if people want to cook mutton, many people will go to the pharmacy or doctor's house to buy some ginger.
Wulang is not young anymore, it’s time for him to be sensible.
Zhou Wulang looked at the door of the old doctor's house and had a bad feeling. He and Liulang led Manbao there.
The old doctor had already opened the door and was sitting in a rattan chair, rocking back and forth to catch up on his sleep. When he saw two teenagers and a child standing in front of him, he narrowed his eyes and looked carefully at Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang. He found that they looked familiar, but he could not quite remember their names, so he looked at Manbao.
Well, this is an acquaintance.
The old doctor waved to Manbao and said, "You look rosy, you don't look sick. What's wrong? Is your mother sick again?"
When Manbao was younger, she fell ill every other day. The old doctor was very familiar with her. Many times, she was carried to the Zhou family's house by the Zhou brothers late at night.
Manbao was also deeply impressed by the old doctor, because every time he saw her, he either gave her an injection or gave her bitter medicine, so Manbao was very afraid of him.
She pointed to her little finger and whispered, "I want to buy ginger."
"Oh, that's a good thing, how much do you want?"
"One pound!"
The old doctor's forehead twitched, and he looked at the little thing and asked with a smile, "What do you want so much ginger for?"
"To make soup. My third brother is going to serve in the army. I need to make ginger soup for them."
The old doctor thought for a moment and said, "It's a good idea to drive away the cold and warm up the body, but ginger is expensive. One pound costs sixty coins."
"Ah, why is it more expensive than Ligustrum lucidum?"
The old doctor was stunned for a moment and then smiled: "You also know about Ligustrum lucidum."
He thought for a while and said, "The number of times Ligustrum lucidum is used in prescriptions is not as many as that of ginger slices. Besides, rich people like to use ginger in cooking and drinking tea. Ginger is precious because it is rare. Ginger is collected less and used more, so of course it is expensive."
“But ginger is easy to grow.”
"Hmm?" The old doctor sat up straight and asked with a smile, "Can you grow it?"
Manbao said without any concern: "Jiangxi's soil is fertile and moist. As long as you bury a piece, you can harvest a large piece."
This is noted in the entry. Koko also said that ginger is very easy to grow. In the future, due to the large-scale migration of humans, many species will disappear or decrease. However, some species will not only not decrease, but will become more and more numerous. Ginger is one of the species that is very easy to survive.
The old doctor seemed to be thinking about something. He stood up, took out a piece of ginger and gave it to her, saying, "Ginger can be divided into fresh ginger and dried ginger. I only have dried ginger. Dried ginger must be buried in the ground for three years. It has a strong smell and is mild in use. You probably want fresh ginger. If you want more, come back next time at the market."
He added, "It's cold now, so in addition to ginger, you can also boil more radishes. In fact, ginger slices are better to eat in summer, and radishes are better to eat in winter. Instead of boiling ginger soup, you might as well boil radish soup."
The old doctor smiled at Manbao and winked at , "Radish and meat go better together."
Manbao swallowed her saliva, wiped the corner of her mouth, and asked in a low voice, "Besides radish, what else can be put in it?"
"It's a pity that it's winter now, and there are no other vegetables except radish. Otherwise, we could put some vegetable leaves in it, and the soup would be delicious after a while."
Wulang and Liulang saw that their sister was drooling and thought that the old doctor was unreliable. They came here to buy ginger, so how could he teach them how to make soup?
And did he mean soup?
That was a big deal. Zhou Wulang quickly pulled Manbao to say goodbye, fearing that his younger sister would be persuaded and insist on doing that. If that happened, they would not make money from this business, but would lose money.
Wu Lang wanted to pay for the piece of ginger, but the old doctor was very generous and waved his hand and said, "It's just a small piece of ginger. Just give me two cents."
Zhou Wulang felt that two cents was too expensive. They wanted to boil a large pot of water and planned to use a lot of ginger.
If two cents can only buy this piece, how much ginger will it take to boil a pot of water?
Zhou Wulang was a little worried.
Zhou Erlang was satisfied when he saw his two younger brothers coming back with sad faces, but the expression on Manbao's face didn't match the truth. He asked, "Did you buy ginger?"
Manbao nodded repeatedly, still thinking about the white radish stewed with meat. She asked Zhou Erlang with drool, "Second brother, do white radish and meat go well together?"
Zhou Erlang looked down at Yaomei and felt that the corners of her mouth were a little shiny. He nodded and said, "Yes, they are a good match."
Zhou Wulang immediately said, "Manbao, don't listen to the old doctor. One penny for a bowl of soup with meat and carrots, that's not just a loss, that's going to cost you your entire fortune."
"Then I'll sell it for two cents."
"Two cents won't make any money," Zhou Wulang was not Manbao. He knew how much meat cost and could probably calculate how much meat was needed to make a pot of soup fragrant. So he said, "A bowl of meat soup with ginger, meat and radish will cost at least four or five cents to make back the cost. You have to sell it for at least six cents to make money. Who would be willing to spend six cents on a bowl of soup every day?"
Zhou Wulang reiterated, "Two cents doesn't make any money."
Manbao swallowed and said, "Let's go take a look at the meat first."
There are also people selling meat at the market, but there are few of them. There are basically only two stalls, one selling mutton and the other selling pork.
Like most people, Manbao prefers mutton, which is more expensive than pork.
So Manbao subconsciously went to look at the mutton first. After asking the price, he stood aside and counted the cost on his fingers. It seemed a bit high.
Koko reminded: "Host, bones can also be used to make soup."
Manbao said, "Bones are expensive too."
"I'm not talking about bones with meat on them. I'm talking about bones and meat without meat on them." Keke directed Manbao to look at the cleanly peeled bones on the pork stall next to them.
Manbao came closer to take a look, and the stall owner asked the three people with a smile, "Buy meat?"
Manbao asked, "How much is pork?"
The stall owner divided the meat into sections and pointed, saying, "This pile is ten cents a pound, this pile is nine cents, and this pile is eight cents."
It is divided according to fatness, the fatter the more expensive it is.
Manbao rarely eats pork, so he didn’t miss it very much. He pointed at the bone and asked, “What about this?”
"Six coins."
There is a lot of meat on the bones , but it is undeniable that the bones are also heavy. One bone weighs more than one pound, but there is not much meat to eat, so he prices it relatively cheaply.
The mutton next to it is much more expensive than pork.
Manbao turned his finger half a circle and asked the bone he had piled aside, "What about this one?"
Those were bones that had been cleaned of meat by the stall owner. The stall owner was stunned for a moment and said, "Young lady, do you want to make bone soup?"