Eternal Night

Chapter 157

Uncle Zhang immediately removed another five pounds of cartilage from the butcher's rack, without touching any meat, chopped it into small pieces, wrapped it in banana leaves, placed it on the cutting board, and asked with a beaming smile, "What else would you like, Miss?"

Yongye blinked and said, "Uncle Zhang, why don't you say that I'm just making fun of you?"

"Business is slow today, so it's rare to have such a big customer as you, Miss. I'm overjoyed! Hehe, the meat is fifty coins, the knife skills are ten coins, that's sixty coins in total."

If Zhen Guanxi had had such a good attitude back then, even Lu Zhishen wouldn't have been able to get angry. Looking at Zhang the Butcher's attitude, Yongye felt that Zhen Guanxi had a terrible temper and was asking for a beating.

Moonbeam took out her purse, but Eternal Night stopped her. She smiled and said, "I really want to spend money today. Shopping is a very pleasant thing. Don't try to take it from me."

She pulled out a throwing knife and tossed it into the bamboo tube, saying, "This knife cost an extra five cents, and even with mediocre knife work, it's worth about ten coins."

Uncle Zhang smiled and said, "Thank you, Miss. You can get at least seventy coins at the pawnshop. Please come again tomorrow!"

Yongye picked up three bags of meat and put them into Yuepo's basket, smiling sweetly: "The lean meat will be used to make meatball soup, the fatty meat will be used to render oil, and the cartilage is just for teasing Uncle Zhang."

Yuepo laughed and said, "How did you know his surname was Zhang?"

Yongye asked curiously, "Didn't you say there's a butcher named Zhang on your street? If Butcher Zhang's surname isn't Zhang, is it Li?"

Moon Soul's smile froze on her lips, but before she could speak, Eternal Night called out loudly again: "Oh my, isn't that Fatty Shopkeeper? You're still running the general store! Eight years have passed, and you've gotten even fatter! Please don't lean on the counter anymore, I'm afraid it'll collapse!"

The chubby shopkeeper, his eyes darting idly across the street from behind the counter, his face so fleshy it was almost slits, looked Yongye up and down carefully when he heard her call. Suddenly, as if he'd seen his own niece, he grinned and laughed heartily, "It's Xinghun back! I won't fall for your tricks this time. You can't try my shop's goods."

Yongye's face darkened with displeasure. "You won't let me try things on when I buy them? How stingy! But, Fat Shopkeeper, I've come back from a fortune, so I'm definitely going to buy some good stuff to take home today."

As she walked into the shop, she looked around, while the chubby shopkeeper clung to her like a tail, as if afraid she would make a move.

Yongye pointed to a row of small throwing knives and asked, "How many?"

"Fifty taels of silver and twenty knives."

"What if I only buy one?"

"Five taels!"

Yongye nodded, then happily went to look at the jewelry. Among the dazzling array of gold, silver, and jade ornaments, she chose an inconspicuous black jade hairpin and asked, "How much?"

"Put it down, put it down!" The fat shopkeeper jumped over, his whole body trembling, as agile as a monkey. He snatched Yongye's hairpin and breathed a sigh of relief. "Top-grade black jade, two hundred taels. You are only allowed to bargain once."

“Fifty taels. Is that a fair price? It’s certainly worth more than two taels of silver,” Yongye laughed.

The portly shopkeeper thought for a while, then sighed and said, "It's been many years since we last met. I'll give you a discount; I'll sell it for fifty taels."

Yongye took ten throwing knives from her bosom and placed them on the counter. "Five taels each, ten knives for a total of fifty taels." Holding the black jade hairpin, she turned and called to Yuepo, "Come here!"

Yuepo walked over quietly, and Yongye tiptoed to pull off the wooden hairpin from his head and threw it away. She carefully tied his hair up with a black jade hairpin, looked him over from side to side, and exclaimed in admiration, "I knew that black jade suited your temperament best!"

Yuepo seemed not to understand her meaning, and said with a faint smile, "You have always had good taste."

Yongye pointed to the pharmacy and said, "Let's go sell the herbs and get home in time for dinner."

There was only one person in the pharmacy, with gray hair, a thin figure, and an indifferent expression.

"Haha, I was just wondering, could the person running the pharmacy be Master Huihun? Master Huihun, I am Xinghun, I am a woman, can't you recognize me when I'm wearing a skirt? Remember to give Yuepo a good price for the herbs, after all, we are master and disciple."

Huihun remained calm, carefully examined Yuepo's medicinal herbs, put them away, and took out a ten-tael ingot, saying, "Our shop is honest and fair to all, young and old."

Yongye stared at Huihun and said, "Master Huihun, I want to buy an antidote. I wonder if you've managed to develop one all these years? I need the kind of medicine that will prevent you from getting poisoned again!"

"Yes, it works immediately after taking it."

"Really?" Yongye was overjoyed.

Huihun lowered his eyes and said, "The dead can never be poisoned."

"Same old wine in new bottles. No progress!" Yongye laughed, extending his wrist. "I haven't been feeling well lately, and my inner strength is depleted. Master Huihun, could you take a look at me?"

Huihun gently placed his hand on her wrist pulse and replied after a moment, "You've been poisoned by the Beauty's Delight. As the name suggests, this poison makes people weak and powerless, like a beautiful woman. They are only suitable for staying quietly and are not suitable for wielding weapons."

What does that mean?

There is no solution.

Yongye withdrew his hand in disappointment, walked out of the pharmacy dejectedly, and then turned back and said, "Men can't be as delicate as beauties, can they? If a man is as demure and quiet as a woman, he's not a man."

"Men can only be cured by poisoning and then by the charm of a beautiful woman. When a hero meets a beautiful woman, he will naturally become as soft as silk."

Yongye laughed loudly, "What a brilliant solution! Moon Soul, if it were you, what solution would you use?"

“Just like my master.” His words were brief.

Yongye looked up and laughed, "Look how happy I am! Aren't you tired from shopping with me? Men hate shopping with women the most."

"Not tired. It's fine."

"I wonder how many acquaintances I still have in this town. After eight years, I should at least prepare some gifts to visit them. Like Mr. Beauty, Master Qingyi, Rainbow Robe, Eagle Feather... what do you think?"

"good."

Yongye sighed again, "Gifts cost money too. Luckily, I have about ten throwing knives left. They're useless to me since I don't have internal energy, so I might as well pawn them."

She strode into the pawnshop and placed the throwing knife on the counter. She heard the clerk announce, "Thirteen small, broken iron knives, five taels of silver!"

Yongye burst into laughter, laughing so hard he could barely breathe, and banged on the counter, shouting, "Write a pawn ticket, a dead pawn! All crows are black!"

After receiving the pawn ticket for five taels of silver, she sighed again, thought for a moment, pulled out the phoenix hairpin from her hair, and shouted at the pawnbroker, "This is the phoenix hairpin of the Crown Princess of Qi! If you dare to call it scrap metal again, I'll fight you!"

The clerk rolled his eyes and announced loudly, "An outdated, old-fashioned pure gold phoenix hairpin inlaid with red jade and blue sapphire, fifty taels of silver!"