The Lucky Farmgirl

Zhou Erlang’s eyeballs were popping out, Manbao let out a gasp, and finally unable to feign honesty, poked her head out from behind Second Brother and asked, "Did the price of beans go up?"

"Beans? They did, but not outrageously so; it’s about twelve wen per dou," the stall owner glanced at the crowd pouring in to make purchases and lowered his voice, "But I reckon they’ll rise even further, so if your family has grain, don’t sell it to the grain merchants too soon. Hold on a bit longer, and you might get a much higher price."

Joy lit up Zhou Erlang’s eyes, but he also felt heartache. After last fall’s harvest, their family had sold some grain. If they had kept it, by now they could have made more than double the money...

Joy also lit up Manbao’s eyes. Glancing at their tofu, she tugged on Second Brother’s shoulder and whispered into his ear, "Second Brother, we need to raise the price of our tofu."

Zhou Erlang quickly regained his senses, glanced at their tofu, then took in the increasingly busy street.

He carefully observed the faces, dress, and expressions of the people around, and quickly noticed many unfamiliar ones.

For the same reason, Luojiang County was only so big, and there were only so many nearby villages; Zhou Erlang was familiar with most who visited this street.

He had a knack for remembering people, not as impeccable as Manbao’s photographic memory, but after seeing them a few times, he could remember or at least find them familiar.

Yet now, he did not recognize a significant portion of the customers sifting through goods on the street.

He coughed lightly, pulled Manbao behind the stand to stand properly, and whispered, "Don’t move, Sixth, you watch over the stand with them; I’m going to have a look around."

Raising prices couldn’t be done on a whim; it was essential to check others’ prices first.