The buying of the mountain was thus delayed.
Days passed by one by one, and the ti for Yang Ming and Wang Kui’s agreed departure was approaching.
Yang Ming and Xiaoxiao discussed taking the children to visit her family, as it had been a while and they missed them dearly.
Once they decided, they hurriedly took the carriage to town first to buy so gifts before heading back.
They bought plenty of food and essentials, especially fabrics, as Xiaoxiao thought her aunts and sisters-in-law would surely like them.
The carriage passed by a blacksmith’s shop, and Xiaoxiao suddenly rembered sothing, "Husband, stop quickly."
"What’s wrong?" Yang Ming said as he pulled the reins and stopped the carriage at the door of the blacksmith’s shop.
"Husband, I want to have so locks made at the blacksmith. We have so many things at ho now, we can’t always ask soone to watch the house. Locking up would be more secure," Xiaoxiao said, getting off the carriage with the child. The family of three then entered the blacksmith’s shop.
As soon as they entered, a wave of heat hit them. It was really hot inside the blacksmith’s shop. Xiaoxiao thought they should hurry; otherwise, the child wouldn’t be able to stand such an environnt.
Old Wang, the blacksmith, saw custors coming in and quickly asked, "What do you need to have made?"
"Uncle, I want to have locks made, the kind that..." Xiaoxiao explained the appearance of the locks to Old Wang, fearing he might not understand.
After listening, Old Wang led Xiaoxiao and Yang Ming to a small table and said, "We have them here. Take a look, do you want big ones or small ones?"
Hearing this, Xiaoxiao was stunned. Wasn’t this place supposed to have no locks? She always thought there weren’t any locks around here.
But seeing the locks Old Wang pointed at, she had to believe that there were locks in this place.
These locks just looked very simple and bulky, lacking the ornate designs of modern ones.
Xiaoxiao thought about the situation at ho; every room needed locks, the workshop needed locks, even her cabinets and chests needed locks. So she pointed at the locks and said, "Uncle, give twenty of these big locks and five of the small ones for now."
Old Wang, hearing this was a big order, quickly agreed and calculated the price. After a mont, he said, "Alright, these big locks are two taels of silver each, the small ones are one tael each, for a total of forty-five taels. Pay a deposit of twenty taels now, and pick them up in ten days."
Hearing this, Xiaoxiao almost spat out her drink in surprise, exclaiming, "So expensive?"
She hadn’t expected the locks to be so expensive. These locks added up to forty-five taels of silver, ridiculously expensive, enough to buy a horse.
What on earth was going on with the prices? She looked over at Yang Ming, who seed quite calm, as if he already knew the price of these locks. This made Xiaoxiao feel out of sorts. Trying to stay calm, she said, "Uncle, since I’m buying so many locks, give a discount."
"Dear lady, I’m not lying. The locks are indeed priced this way. Hardly anyone buys locks, I wouldn’t dare to lie," the old man replied.
"Uncle, as you said, not many people buy them. This is a big order, and I’ll be buying many more in the future. Give a discount," Xiaoxiao insisted, feeling the locks were too expensive. Buying so many should warrant a discount anyhow.
"Well, there’s really no way to cut the price, dear lady. These locks are all finely made, and each one requires a different key, which is troubleso to make. At most, I can make just two a day, even working nights to complete them in ten days and just earn a craft’s wage," the old man said.
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