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Songjiang Fubei Street is a very prosperous street, the street is lined with two shops, among which there is a tall shop at the easternmost end of the street, this shop is more special, there is a fence in front of the gate, as if it is deliberately preventing guests from entering, and on the gate of this shop, there is a plaque, with four big characters on it - Dingfeng pawnshop.

Butler Xu, who was wearing a shabby cotton jacket, came out of the pawnshop gate with an angry face, turned around the fence in front of the door and looked back at the pawnshop gate, spat at the gate fiercely, and then turned around, cursed the black-hearted shopkeeper in the pawnshop, and touched the shriveled purse in his arms and slowly left.

As soon as the sky was bright today, Steward Xu went out with a bag of clothes, Zhou's house is located in the south of the city, he also knows more about the pawnshops in the south of the city, and the pawnshops on Zhilu Road are darker than a one, and he is also worried that people will see him go to the pawnshop to lose the face of the Zhou family, so he deliberately ran to the pawnshop in the north of the city, but the crows in the world are as black, and the two bags of clothes he took today were only two dollars of silver, which was not enough for them for the New Year. Thinking of this, Steward Xu couldn't help but turn around again and snort in the direction of the pawnshop.

In fact, you can't blame the pawnshop, people pawn things will be desperate to reduce the price to death, in addition to the clothes are not like jade antiques, new clothes may be more valuable, but as long as the clothes are on the body, then the price will be immediately discounted by half, so no matter what kind of good clothes, as long as they are in the pawnshop, most of them will not be able to pay any price, except for fur fur and the like, of course.

Braving the cold wind in the early morning to return to the south of the city, Steward Xu came to the vegetable market with money, and there was still some rice and grain at home, but he couldn't drink porridge at once, so he should also buy some vegetables and go back.

The vegetable market in Songjiang Province is also located just south of the city, two streets away from Zhoufu. The so-called vegetable market, in fact, is a vacant land, each vegetable seller pushes a cart to come here to set up a stall, and when it is dawn, there will be a special manager of this area to collect taxes, generally each stall is a few pennies, but it is not a lot, but there are still some bold and slamming vegetable stalls when they see the yamen coming to hide, as long as they are not discovered, they can leave a few pennies, but if this behavior is caught, it will be punished by the yamen to death, and it will eat the board if it is not good.

Steward Xu stepped into the vegetable market with one foot, and immediately felt a fiery hustle and bustle, the stalls selling vegetables in the market were divided into five rows, leaving a not wide road between the rows, and the people who came to buy vegetables were crowded on the road, bargaining with the vendors on both sides, all kinds of shouts came and went, and you must shout when you speak here, otherwise the other party can't hear what you are saying at all.

Although it is already winter, the vegetables in the vegetable market are still very rich, among which the most and cheapest are naturally the most common cabbage and radish, these two vegetables have a large output, and can be stored in winter, many farmers have dug cellars, can store a large amount, and then take out and sell to vegetable sellers in winter or transport themselves to the city to sell, which is also an income for them in winter leisure.

In addition to cabbage and radish, there are also spinach, chrysanthemum and other vegetables, although these vegetables do not look very fresh, but they are all transported from the warmer places in the south, and now the temperature in the south is not too low, so these vegetables can still survive, but if it is another month or two, even the south can no longer grow vegetables.

After Steward Xu entered the vegetable market, he walked directly to the stalls selling cabbage or radish, as for the southern vegetables like spinach, because they are all shipped from the south, the prices are very expensive, and most of the buyers are some rich and noble families, and ordinary people can't afford to eat them. With the little money he has now, he can only buy a little of the cheapest cabbage and turnips.

Originally, it was just winter, and it was the time when the price of cabbage and radish was the lowest, according to Steward Xu's estimate, he could buy a bunch of cabbage for a few pennies, but what he didn't expect was that this year's market was obviously different, he turned a few stalls in a row, and the prices of cabbage and radish far exceeded his estimate.

Steward Xu came to an old vegetable vendor, who looked to be fifty or sixty years old, with gray hair and a shiny black torn cotton jacket, and was boredomically rubbing the dirt on his neck. There are not many vegetables in front of him, except for a small pile of cabbage that has not been sold, and there are a few radishes that do not sell well, which are estimated to be picked by others, so the price is cheaper than other stalls.

Steward Xu estimated that he couldn't buy cheap vegetables today, so while selecting cabbage, he casually asked the old cabbage: "Brother, why have the cabbage and radish risen so much this year, in previous years, they were five catties a penny, but this year I have been turning for so long, and you are willing to sell it for three catties for one penny, and the cheapest ones in other places are only willing to give one penny and two and a half catties, what's going on?" ”

Hearing Steward Xu's question, the old vegetable farmer patted his red neck, and replied a little casually: "Brother, you are a bit of a layman who asks this, you see the weather this year, it is already so cold in October, and the vegetables that were planted later in autumn have frozen to death in the ground, plus many places in the south have been unable to grow live vegetables, so the price of vegetables today is more than double that of previous years, I am also because there is only such a little leftover root, so the price has been reduced, otherwise if you come early, I'm also a penny or two pounds. ”

Hearing the words of the old vegetable farmer, Steward Xu couldn't help but sigh in his heart, as the so-called disaster is not a single line, now the family is short of money, but this year even the price of vegetables has risen, you can predict that the life at home will definitely be more bitter in the future, and the burden on his young master will be heavier.

"Brother, you've been picking for a long time, do you want to buy it? In addition, I heard that Shandong suffered a disaster, and many refugees ran to our side, maybe the price of food and vegetables on our side will rise in a few days, so I advise my brother to sell more now, otherwise the price will rise in the future, and there will be no more if you want to buy such a cheap dish!" The old vegetable farmer said a little impatiently. He only has such a little food left today, and he can go home early after selling it, but now the person in front of him has been picking, and he has not said whether to buy or not, and other guests are reluctant to come forward to ask the price when they see that there are few dishes in front of him.

"Buy, of course!" Steward Xu also knew that the house in front of him was estimated to be the lowest price in the entire market, and there was indeed a shortage of vegetables at home, so he naturally agreed, but then he glanced at the strange-shaped radishes on the stall out of the corner of his eye, and then said again: "That's it, brother, you don't have much left, I bought all the cabbage, and these radishes can't be bought at any price, so how about you give them to me?" ”

"Okay, a few radishes are not worth anything, I can go home early and drink a few cups to warm up after you buy them!" Although the old vegetable farmer was in a hurry, he was also very refreshing, and he didn't bargain when he heard Steward Xu's words, so he immediately agreed.

Then Steward Xu and the old vegetable farmer weighed the cabbage together, a total of ninety-three catties, just thirty-one catties, and the other party removed one penny, which was equivalent to giving Steward Xu three catties of cabbage for nothing, which made Steward Xu very happy, and said that he would find the other party next time he bought vegetables.

Steward Xu borrowed the other party's wheelbarrow to send the cabbage and radish home with more than 100 catties of vegetables, and then pushed it back to return the cart to the old vegetable farmer, but he did not leave the vegetable market immediately, but went to the west side of the market, where most of the vendors selling fish or meat were concentrated. The family has been cut off for a long time, and yesterday Aunt Luo sent two meat dishes for everyone to satisfy their hunger, but this also reminded him that the young master and the young lady have been pampered since childhood, and they can't even stand themselves with coarse tea and light rice every day, let alone them.

Compared with those stalls that sell vegetables, the stalls selling fish and meat here are obviously much more deserted, Songjiang Mansion has a population of millions, and there are two or three hundred thousand people in the city alone, but there are still a few people who can eat meat among these people, even if it is some people with relatively solid families, they only come to buy meat once or twice a month to go back to satisfy their hunger, for example, most of the people seen by Steward Xu are these people, and there are also some servants who come out to buy from rich families, these servants are well-dressed, and the master's family generally needs a lot of meat. Therefore, it is also the most generous, and it is the most popular among butchers and fishmongers.

The Zhou Mansion used to often send people to buy, but as the chief manager, Steward Zhou naturally would not personally take care of this kind of thing, and there was a special steward in the house who was responsible for purchasing, and he would at most check the accounts. It is precisely because of this that Steward Xu is not very familiar with the vegetable market.

Steward Xu first went to a few stalls selling fish, and found that most of the fish sold were some sea fish, after all, the east and south of Songjiang Mansion are the sea, and there are many people on the seaside who make a living from fishing, so there are a lot of seafood here, and the price is not expensive, a ten-pound big fish is only a few pennies, and there are some small fish, so the price is cheaper.

However, for these sea fish, Steward Xu thought about it and still didn't buy it, because no one in the family likes to eat sea fish at all, and the only lady who likes to eat fish is Bang'er, she only likes to eat river fish, and she dislikes the fishy smell of sea fish. Of course, there are also fishmongers who sell river fish or lake fish, but the price is twice as expensive as sea fish.

There are many stalls selling pork, and Steward Xu walked around a few times to figure out the approximate price, and came to a stall with the best business. The owner of this meat stall is a young man in his twenties, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, a simple face, a burly and strong body, wearing only a single coat in the cold weather, holding a sharp knife in his right hand, as long as there is a buyer to buy meat, the meat cut down with a knife is only a lot more, and even some old customers take it without even weighing it.

"Little brother, how do you sell the meat here?" Steward Xu walked to the stall and asked.

"Twelve pieces of fat meat, ten pieces of lean meat, how much do you always want to buy?" The honest young butcher said with a smile on his face. Although Steward Xu was dressed very shabby, his figure did not look like a poor man at first glance, and the young butcher naturally had this eyesight, thinking that he was a big customer, so he was also very enthusiastic.

"This ......" Steward Xu has checked the accounts of the purchase in the house before, and also knows the price of pork in Ludao, if he remembers correctly, the pork in this autumn is only eleven Wen, it is said that pork is easy to save in winter, and the price should drop a little, but now it is not falling but rising, it seems that the old brother who sold vegetables before did not lie to him, the disaster in the north has indeed affected the price of Songjiang, but now the victims have not entered the city, the price has risen so much, if the victims arrive in the future, I don't know how much Ludao will rise?

Thinking of this, Steward Xu couldn't help sighing, and just wanted to open his mouth to ask the other party to give him a pound of lean meat and fat meat, but at this time, he only heard someone next to him shouting: "Yo, isn't this Steward Xu?" I was looking for you, but I didn't expect to meet you here! ”