Chapter 30

After hitching the carriage and putting the receipt into her space, she stroked the horse's head and gave it an apple.

The horse happily tossed its head at her, and Qiao Mai smiled, making a promise to it.

"Don't worry, you'll live a good life following me. I promise not to kill, stew, or eat you. I will treat you kindly for the rest of your life, and when you're old, I won't make you do heavy work; I'll provide for you until the end."

She drove the carriage to a secluded spot, entered the carriage box, and spread out the baskets she had bought one by one.

The baskets weren't large, holding at most two watermelons' worth.

She put two watermelons in one basket and picked and chose from the freezer.

She took ten apples and ten pears; they were all quite large, and the twenty of them together weighed over ten jin.

She also took out a few bunches of grapes and put them in, which also weighed about ten jin.

She also put in ten jin of golden oranges. That made four kinds, which was about enough. Just as she was about to withdraw her consciousness from the space, she saw that the strawberries in the strawberry field had ripened.

She used her consciousness to pick about ten jin of strawberries. It seemed that in the north, these were the only kinds of fruit, right?

There were peaches in the space, but was it too early to take them out?

Seeing the fruit in the baskets, she sighed. She had already taken out so much, a few peaches wouldn't make a difference.

So she took ten jin of peaches, totaling six baskets of fruit. These were much more than yesterday's two boxes of strawberries. If the price wasn't right, she would just leave.

Qiao Mai drove the carriage to the gate of the Wang residence, where Miss Wang and her brother were waiting.

She spotted a woman in the courtyard peeking out—it was that same woman, Xiao, from yesterday.

Withdrawing her gaze, she greeted Miss Wang from the carriage.

"I won't get off the carriage. Why don't you come up and take a look? If it doesn't work, I'll just leave. Taking the goods out would be too eye-catching."

Wang Jiaru had someone bring a stool, stepped onto the carriage, and upon entering, her heart bloomed with joy.

"Are you satisfied?"

"Satisfied, satisfied, very satisfied."

"How much silver?"

"You name a price and I'll listen. Getting these fruits wasn't easy, you know."

"Except for the watermelon, how about fifty taels of silver per basket of fruit?"

Qiao Mai thought for a moment, "That's fine. If you don't want the watermelons, I'll take them back to sell myself."

"I want the watermelons too. Ten taels of silver for the two watermelons, totaling two hundred and sixty taels. Is that okay?"

"Deal!"

Miss Wang immediately took the silver notes from her sleeve, counted them, and handed them to her.

"Each note is ten taels, totaling twenty-six notes. Please count them."

Qiao Mai took them, counted them, and nodded.

"Have your servants unload the carriage. I still need to go out of the city to find melon farmers to buy some watermelons."

"When will you come next time?"

"These will last for a while. July is the rainy season, so I'm afraid I won't be able to come; it will have to be August."

"Can we come find you?"

"What for? I set up a stall in the small town, and I only have watermelons to sell."

"Then come set up in the city. My Wang family will cover you."

"No, I have relatives and friends over there."

Wang Jiaru had people move the fruit from the carriage into the Wang residence with lightning speed. When Wang Zihan saw this, he didn't stay with his sister but followed the baskets into the Wang residence.

With money and goods exchanged, Qiao Mai drove the carriage away.

Miss Wang stood at the gate, looking at her retreating figure, lost in thought.

If the world saw her as just an ordinary woman, they would be gravely mistaken. Being able to get fruit that others couldn't meant this person was definitely hiding her true abilities. This was a friend she, Wang Jiaru, was determined to make.

Qiao Mai drove the carriage back. On the way, she ran into the man who had pulled her carriage when she arrived. He was driving his carriage toward the prefecture city, and they happened to meet.

"Oh, young lady, you bought a carriage?"

"Yes, I found one that was suitable, so I bought it."

"Shall we be colleagues from now on?"

"I don't pull carriages for others; I use this one to haul my own goods."

"Oh, oh. If you ever need more carriages to haul goods, just give me a shout. I often pull carriages on this road. Although my home isn't in Tianshui Town, it's in one of the surrounding villages, and I wait for work in Tianshui Town every morning."

"Very well, I'll definitely look for you if I need to."

They say colleagues are rivals, but that carriage driver seemed very good at talking. People like him would never starve as long as they were diligent.

When she was almost home, she put the watermelons and ice from her space into the carriage and stopped in front of the embroidery workshop.

When Shopkeeper Lu saw her, she finally set her anxious heart at ease.

"Sister, why did you buy a carriage after just one trip out?"

She didn't get off the carriage, "I go to the prefecture city often and need to haul goods, and it's not convenient to use other people's carriages. I saw a good one, so I bought it."

"That's wonderful. It will be much more convenient for me to use the carriage in the future."

"Sister, I'll take the melons and ice home first, and we'll chat tomorrow."

"Go on, I'll follow you over and help move them."

"No need, I can move one melon by myself."

Lu Sanniang wouldn't hear of it; she let the two maids watch the shop and followed the carriage with her two daughters to help.

The four of them put the cartload of watermelons and ice in the side chamber. Shopkeeper Lu asked with some concern.

"Won't this ice melt?"

"It won't. I wrapped the wooden box in a thick quilt; it can stay for several days."

"You're really generous, using a newly bought cotton quilt to wrap it?"

"It's all for the sake of making money. If I don't use it, the ice will melt, and the quilt won't be ruined. I can just dry it out when the weather is nice."

Qiao Mai carried a watermelon and locked the room door, then went to the kitchen to cut it.

Ruxin and Ruyi hurriedly set the low table in the courtyard. Qiao Mai cut the watermelon and brought it to the table, and the four of them sat around it eating.

"How much did you pay for these watermelons?"

"Five hundred wen each."

"If that's the price, selling them at that price is quite reasonable. You can make two or three hundred wen per melon. You can make thirty taels of silver a month from the ice and melons, right?"

"Thanks to you, sister, I don't have to pay taxes, and no one comes to cause trouble, so it's a bit more than that."

"Exposed to the wind and sun, you had finally gotten a bit fairer and plumper, but you look thin again?"

"Not at all. One shouldn't just sit around, or their health will suffer. Moving around appropriately is good for the body."

Lu Sanniang took a big bite of watermelon, "A maid's body, a maid's life—can't you cherish yourself a little?"

"How is this watermelon?"

Changing the subject, Qiao Mai asked.

"Delicious, better than what was sold before."

"This time I went directly to the melon field to buy them, so they are especially fresh. From now on, I can sell whole melons and won't have to look for wholesalers; I'll buy them directly from the melon farmers."

"That's great."

The four of them finished the whole watermelon, each rubbing their stomachs and complaining of being stuffed.

Qiao Mai rested for a while, went back to her room, took two palace fans out of her space, replaced them with the wooden frames here, put them in boxes, and brought them out to hand to Shopkeeper Lu.

"These are what I embroidered recently."

"Oh my, you work really fast. Doesn't selling melons delay you?"

"It's all because of what you said."

"You must have been embroidering at home at night, right? It's so bad for your eyes. There's no rush here."

"I can't fall asleep that early anyway."

"It's mainly because you're alone. If there were someone else around, you'd fall asleep. You're missing a man."

"Go on, go on, don't make jokes like that."

Shopkeeper Lu opened the box and admired them with her two daughters, "Tsk tsk, your craftsmanship is still the best. Look at this painting; it's embroidered as if it were real."

"I'm glad you're satisfied."

"Done. I'll put them in the shop later; they'll definitely be happy when they see them."

Qiao Mai yawned, and the mother and daughters sensibly stood up.

"You get some good rest. We'll head back first. Shall I have the maid set up your stall tomorrow?"

"That would be fine!"

The three of them left. Qiao Mai didn't feel tired; she entered her space and began to get busy.

She found a notebook and recorded the items she had brought from her past life one by one.

She put away all the guns hanging on the wall, leaving only one silent pistol and a box of bullets.

She used wood to seal the Ferrari, turning it into a table, and placed many infrequently used items on top of it.

She also utilized the roof. The house in the space had a flat roof, so she could put several shelves on it. She put the light items on the roof, and after all this shuffling, she saved another four fen of land.

(End of chapter)