She did not know where she was, nor had she any idea where Yan Qing had ntioned "Yan Country" was, so she could only listen and only observe.
Here, everything was written in traditional characters, but luckily, she had co prepared, having spent much ti practicing calligraphy with writing models on Naless Island over the years.
Although the characters she now wrote could not compare with Yan Qing’s legitimate seal script, they were presentable and comprehensible to others, weren’t they?
The town had a gateway, and when she approached it, she noticed that both the commoners entering and leaving had a pass.
So she asked the old man selling wontons by the gate, "If I want to leave the City, how can I go out?"
"Do you have a Fish Token?" Xiao Yu was baffled, "What’s a Fish Token?"
The grandfather sized her up and chuckled as he shook his head.
"I’m also confused; if you had a Fish Token, why would you ask how to leave the City? I assu you do not have one. Little girl, those Fish Tokens, we common folks seldom have. The reason I asked is out of habit. Usually, only officials carry such an item. With the Fish Token, one can freely enter and exit all city gates. As for us, the commoners, see that shack under the city wall? That’s where you have to pay to get a travel pass."
A travel pass? So, common people have to pay for a travel pass to enter and leave the City?
Oh, that’s good, she wasn’t afraid of spending money; what she feared was being asked for sothing like a ’household registration’ or an ’ID Card’—she did not have those things.
"Then, how much does it cost?"
"Two copper coins for a round trip. If you go in and out every day, you can get a monthly pass for 50 coins, which is slightly cheaper than paying for each trip."
Isn’t that just a savings of ten cents? Indeed, a small saving.
Speaking of the travel pass, it essentially acted as a toll fee.
She had no money, so her first task was to earn so. Lacking any information about this place, she needed to understand the area better before further planning.
The port she chose was bustling and appeared to be a very large town, but it didn’t reach the size of a county; how to make money was the primary concern.
Looking at the signs around her—dicine wine shops, pawn shops, goldsmiths, mat shops, liquor distilleries, plasters, Jewelry Buildings, bookstores, saddle shops (one for riding, one for harnessing to carriages), and so on—the town seed fairly comprehensive because it was involved in wholesale.
Being a girl, running a business might be inconvenient, especially since she had no current identity. It seed urgent to establish one.
Big as the town was, there had to be a hierarchy. She had seen many farrs entering the town to sell vegetables and firewood, leading her to deduce that there must be nurous fishing villages around the town, just like their previous ho. There, n fished, the elderly tended the nets, won cared for children and tended the fields; every household lived this way.
After wandering the streets twice, her legs were weary, and she had not found any suitable opportunities. Instead, hunger gnawed at her due to the excessive physical exertion from walking.
Just as she sat on a stone bench by the street, sighing, the waiter from the nearby pharmacy suddenly erged, covering his nose and mouth, and pushed a girl out.
"Off you go, our doctor has already said your Grandma needs good dicine for her condition, and without money, we can’t just cover it for you. You haven’t paid for the previous treatnt, and this ti, it will cost at least four or five silver taels; who can afford that?"
The girl in tattered clothes cried bitterly, bowing ceaselessly to the waiter.
"Please, I beg you, save my Grandma. She’s all I have. If I lose her, how can I go on living?"
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