Chapter 35: Mutual Probing, Big Shopping Spree

“Young master, you say your master is that Old Doctor Chen?”

The smile on Master Ma’s face was gone, replaced by a somewhat solemn expression.

“It seems the villagers all call him that.”

The nervousness on Lu Qing’s face lessened slightly as he replied.

“Yes, Master Ma, my little brother here goes to Old Doctor Chen’s place to study every day.”

At this moment, Wang Da’an also found an opportunity to chime in.

Master Ma looked at Lu Qing and Wang Da’an scrutinizingly, then suddenly, a smile appeared.

“So you are Old Doctor Chen’s esteemed disciple. I have been disrespectful.”

Master Ma solemnly bowed to Lu Qing, which seemed to startle him, and he took two steps back.

He waved his hands in a fluster, “I can’t be called an esteemed disciple. I’ve only learned a little about medicinal herbs from my master. I don’t even know how to treat illnesses yet.”

Seeing Lu Qing being so honest, Master Ma couldn’t help but smile.

“In any case, I was the one who offended you just now, young master. How about this, I will pay for the meat you are buying at this stall.”

“How can I accept that?” Lu Qing shook his head repeatedly. “I cannot accept a reward without merit. My master taught me that I cannot casually accept things from others.”

“But I did indeed offend you just now, young master. Please consider this meat as my apology to you.”

However, no matter what Master Ma said, Lu Qing just shook his head, resolutely refusing to let Master Ma pay for him.

Wang Da’an, who was watching from the side, had his eyes wide open.

This was the first time he had ever seen Master Ma be so polite to someone.

And this person was his little brother, Lu Qing.

Seeing Lu Qing continuously refuse Master Ma’s offer, Wang Da’an felt a little anxious in his heart.

That was over ten catties of meat! Someone was offering it for free, and he didn’t want it. What was Ah Qing thinking?
However, although he was anxious, Wang Da’an did not speak up to accept on Lu Qing’s behalf.

He knew that Lu Qing was literate and had the old doctor’s guidance, so he definitely knew more than him.

Since he was unwilling to accept, he must have his own reasons.

Seeing that Lu Qing was unwilling to accept his apology no matter what, Master Ma had a flash of inspiration and smiled again.

“Young master is truly benevolent, worthy of being Old Doctor Chen’s esteemed disciple. How about this, I saw that you seemed to be having trouble with this silver just now. How about I help you get change for it?”

When the meat stall owner heard this, he quickly said, “That’s right, young master. Here, the only one who can get change for your silver is probably Master Ma.”

Hearing this, Lu Qing hesitated for a moment before nodding, “Then I’ll have to trouble Master Ma.”

He took out the silver. Master Ma took it and saw that it was high-quality snowflake-patterned silver, which made him believe Lu Qing’s words a little more.

An ordinary country boy couldn’t possibly get such good silver.

After weighing it, he smiled, “This silver is about six qian. Exchanged for copper coins, it’s about six hundred coins.”

Master Ma took a cloth bag from his body, took out two small strings of copper coins from it, and then handed the bag to Lu Qing.

“The copper coins in here should be worth your silver. You can count them.”

Lu Qing took the money bag and, without being polite, began to count it directly.

Wang Da’an wanted to help, but he knew he wasn’t good at counting. If he forced himself to help, he would only cause more trouble, so he could only watch anxiously from the side.

Lu Qing took out the copper coins and quickly counted them.

When Master Ma saw the way Lu Qing counted the money, his eyes narrowed again.

It was rare for country folk to be literate. Being able to count to one hundred was already a great achievement.

Seeing the speed at which Lu Qing counted the money, it was obvious that counting was not difficult for him at all.

He became more and more convinced that Lu Qing was indeed the old doctor’s disciple.

Soon, Lu Qing finished counting the money.

He raised his head, “It seems to be more.”

In the bag, there were a total of six hundred and fifty copper coins. According to the exchange rate of one thousand copper coins for one tael of silver, there were fifty extra coins.

“It’s not too much. The quality of your silver is very good. It’s right to give you fifty more,” Master Ma said with a smile.

Lu Qing thought for a moment and did not refuse again.

He knew that this Master Ma was showing him goodwill.

But he had already refused the other party several times; he couldn’t just give him no face at all.

Besides, for him, this was not necessarily a bad opportunity to understand the outside world.

“The money has been exchanged. Young master can buy things with peace of mind. By the way, I still don’t know your name, young master?” Master Ma took the opportunity to ask.

“My name is Lu Qing,” Lu Qing said, then pointed to Wang Da’an beside him, “This is Big Brother An from the same village as me.”

“Master Ma, my name is Wang Da’an,” Wang Da’an said somewhat fawningly.

“Wang Da’an, not bad.”

Master Ma could of course see that Wang Da’an was just an ordinary country youth.

However, he still nodded to him with great courtesy.

But just this was enough to make Wang Da’an excited, his face flushing red.

“Little Brother Lu Qing, I wish you a happy time here. I still have some things to do, so I’ll take my leave first.”

Master Ma was a person who knew his limits. He did not take the opportunity to stay by Lu Qing’s side, but chose to keep his distance.

Lu Qing was, of course, happy to see this.

Although he also intended to befriend this Master Ma, it was not now.

Because right now, their strengths were still not equal.

He was only being looked upon highly by the other party because of his identity as “Old Doctor Chen’s disciple.”

After Master Ma left, Lu Qing once again came to the front of the meat stall.

“Boss, can I buy meat now?”

“Of course.” The meat stall owner beamed with joy. “Young master, so you are Old Doctor Chen’s apprentice! No wonder you are so well-presented!”

Lu Qing looked at the patched clothes on his body and was a little speechless.

This was also called well-presented?

“What, does the boss also know Old Doctor Chen?” Wang Da’an asked curiously.

“Little brother, what are you saying? In these ten li and eight villages, who doesn’t know Old Doctor Chen? My wife almost died from a cold after giving birth last year, and it was the old doctor who cured her. He is a famous divine doctor in our area!”

“In that case, boss, shouldn’t you give us a little discount on this meat?” Wang Da’an took the opportunity to say.

“A discount, of course, a discount!”

In the end, the meat stall owner rounded off the price of the meat and charged Lu Qing three fewer copper coins.

After buying the meat, Lu Qing and Wang Da’an continued to stroll around the big market.

Before long, they had bought a large pile of things.

Mainly grain and some daily necessities.

Among them, grain was the most purchased.

In addition to these, Lu Qing also bought some vegetable seeds and needles and thread.

He bought vegetable seeds because he wanted to plant more vegetables in the courtyard.

He couldn’t just dig for wild vegetables every time.

As for the needles and thread, it was because the fishhook made from the large iron needle at home was already somewhat overwhelmed.

He needed to make more fishhooks as backups.

Lu Qing also saw fish being sold at the market. He asked about the price and found that it was a bit cheaper than pork.

But that was to be expected. For the common people at the bottom of this world, fat was very important, so even for pork, fat meat was more expensive than lean meat.

Fish had very little oil and was not filling.

Only those rich and noble masters were willing to spend a lot of money to buy fish for a taste of freshness.

For the common people, if they had a choice, they would even rather eat pork than fish.

After buying all these things, Lu Qing had already spent more than half of his six hundred and fifty copper coins.

He bought two large bamboo baskets, and then he and Wang Da’an, carrying and lifting, finally managed to take all the things.

Then the two of them, with somewhat heavy steps, left the big market and walked towards the village.

(End of this chapter)