Lian Manman and Xiao Qi finished buying their items, and left Qingyang Town. They followed the imperial road back to Thirty Mile Camp. The official road from Qingyang Town passed through Thirty Mile Camp and then continued south for about half a mile to the foot of Nanshan Mountain, creating a T-junction with another east-west thoroughfare.

The segment of the official road that entered Thirty Mile Camp was quite spacious and a popular gathering spot for many villagers. On the east side of the road, there stood an Earth God Temple, which the villagers had pooled funds to build. The temple was neither particularly large nor small. Beside the temple gate was an open hall, and on the other side were three front rooms. Inside the temple gate, the first hall that one encountered was the main hall, with side rooms housing Buddha statues. Further inside was the second hall, which served as the monks’ meditation room, and behind it, a vegetable garden.

Diagonally across from the Earth God Temple, on the west side of the official road, there was a grocery store—the only grocery store in Thirty Mile Camp. Although the store was small, it was well stocked with essentials such as oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, needles, thread, and other daily necessities.

Remembering to buy soy sauce for Lady Zhou, Lian Manman headed to the grocery store first upon entering the village.

Outside the store, a tall horse was tied up. Lian Manman gave it an extra glance out of curiosity. Such horses were rare in their area; it was said that horses were regulated commodities, and only those of power and privilege owned them. Locally, when people talked about horse-drawn carriages, they were usually referring to carts pulled by mules.

Pushing open the door of the grocery store, Lian Manman faced a tall counter. Behind the counter were neatly arranged shelves filled with various goods. In the open space in front of the counter sat two or three long benches, where three or five idle people would sit from winter to summer, chatting and gossiping.

Today was no different, except that the usual crowd was gazing at a man standing in front of the counter.

The man’s attire indicated that he was not a local. He bought a large jar of wine, an assortment of spiced peanuts and snacks, and finally used a piece of silver to settle the bill.

Lian Manman heard the gasp of the people inside the store.

The shopkeeper, Jiang San, trembled slightly as he accepted the silver and bit it to test its authenticity.

"What’s the matter, afraid that the master’s given you fake silver?" the man raised his voice as he spoke.

Jiang San quickly bowed and laughed apologetically, calling his wife to weigh the silver and then giving the man a few copper coins as change. The man took the copper coins and walked out, with Lian Manman hurrying to pull Xiao Qi aside to make way.

The man strode out the door, placed his purchases on the horse’s back, swung his leg over the saddle, and with a shout, spurred the horse and rode away.

Only then did the people inside the grocery store slowly withdraw their gaze.

"That’s surely someone with money to spare," one person smacked his lips and said.

In the village, when people came to buy liquor from the grocery store, they would typically get just a couple of ounces, rarely more than a pound or two. The same went for other goods, so the store’s daily business usually involved transactions of a few wen money, and it was rare for someone to pay with silver.

"He’s from a big place, heading for Daqian Mountain," another person said, implying that this wasn’t the first customer of such type.

"Two ounces of soy sauce," Lian Manman walked up to the counter and said, looking up. The counter was quite high, so she had to stand on tiptoes to place the copper coins and the soy sauce jar on it.

"Isn’t this the Lian Family’s Manman and Qilang?" Jiang San’s wife greeted them with a smile, as she took the copper coins and opened a wooden plank on the counter to come out.

The soy sauce vat was too large to be placed inside the counter, so it was set against the corner wall outside.

Jiang San’s wife took the soy sauce jar from the counter, moved to the side of the soy sauce vat, lifted off the wooden lid, took a funnel from a shelf beside it, inserted it into the mouth of the jar, and grabbed a wooden ladle.

This ladle had a small barrel-like scoop on one end, with a handle about half an arm in length—one scoop was equal to one ounce. There was also a larger wooden ladle beside it, which measured half a pound with each scoop.

"You’ve finished your soy sauce so quickly? Wasn’t it Qilang who came a few days ago, and he got half a pound then," Jiang San’s wife chatted as she ladled soy sauce into the jar through the funnel.

"This is for my grandpa and grandma," Lian Manman explained.

"All of Lian Laosi’s kids can help out at home, and they’re all so dutiful," someone commented.

"Your Pickled Vegetable Workshop must make a decent amount of money every day, right?" an inquisitive voice raised the question.