Living on a Mountain with my Husband

Chapter 32: LET'S GO SHOPPING (again)

Old man Li originally planned to follow along, but decided the two of them needed some time alone, so they decided to split up and meet at the cart later.

"Baby, do you want to go to grain store or general store first?" LongWei asked.

"Which place has the largest variety of food items?"

The grocery store has a mix of both foods and household items, the general store focus on a larger variety of items composers to the grocery store, and the grain store has plants and dried foods. They don't deal in anything fresh.

"Then let's start with the general store. If I can't find anything, we can check out the more specialized general and grain store." Zimo decided. He was curious to see what was available and what people might need. For example the iron tools for farming, or a noodle maker.

He didn't want to make anything that already existed, but he also couldn't bring in anything to innovative it wouldn't sell or cause to big of a shock. After all, he wasn't planning on aiming to be a rich or powerful man in his rebirth/ transmigration like other stories.

At the general store they found some more pots. Zimo had already planned to use the pots they bought last time for kimchi, but he needed a few more smaller ones to store the Sichuan pepper they had grounded up. He also wanted to buy sugar. He could use it to make some jam from the fruits.

"Dear, how much money did you make today?" Zimo asked. Sugar was expensive. He didn't want to blow their budget on it.

"Hm. The rabbits were a little small because of the season, so I only managed four silver per rabbit on average. There were eighteen, but I left two at Li's for dinner tonight and to thank them." LongWei said.

"That means we made roughly made about sixty-four silver. What about the fruit? Did anyone buy it?" Zimo asked. If it didn't sell he wouldn't sell it anymore and simply keep it for themselves. It was important to have access to fruit in winter.

"We did, it was popular with women and children." LongWei said.

"Is there a lot left?" Zimo asked feeling happy it sold.

"There was a little but old man Li asked if he could buy it for him and Mrs Li." LongWei said.

"Buy it? Just give it to them. And don't forget to tell them they can ask for more anytime, free of charge." Zimo happily said. His mood had greatly improved from earlier.

"I did, and I will. Don't worry." LongWei said with a smile threatening to come out.

Zimo bought his sugar, not much, but enough for two or three jars of jam. He bought a lot more salt and vinegar. He also bought many more jars. Three of them were bigger than they currently had, ten medium sized similar to what they have now, and 4 small ones to store the spices in. It was expensive added all together, but the had made a descent amount of money in the morning and LongWei wanted to cheer Zimo up.

Next was the general store. zimo looked around at the tools in the shop. He saw a few that were used for cooking. A rolling pin and cutting boards but not a noodle maker.

"Dear, are noodles popular to eat here?" Zimo asked.

"Noodle soup is popular at food stalls and some restaurants. Why do you want to eat some?" LongWei asked, thinking about where they could go to eat.

"No, I'm not hungry, there just a tool I want to make. If it's done well you can shape hundreds even thousands of noodles in a day without much effort. However, if noodles aren't ocular it would be useless." Zimo explained.

Hearing this LongWei looked at Zimo, surprised again.

"If you want to make it and sell it, I'm sure many shops would pay a good price for it. Do you want to try?" LongWei asked.

"Hm... but it's made of wood. I've never carved wood before and I don't have the tools. It might take a lot of trial and error before I succeed in making them." Zimo said, still unsure.

"Let's by some woodworking tools. You can try to make it, and practice, if it's to difficult we can also approach a carpentier to help." LongWei said.

"Okay. Listen to you." Zimo replied with a smile and two small dimples.

After the general store they went to the grain store. They didn't have any seedlings, but the did have many different types of seed and grain. Zimo and LongWei talked for awhile before being the seeds for soybeans, eggplant, garlic, leeks, cucumber, cabbage, and broad beans. Zimo was most excited about the cabbage and cucumber because they tasted great pickled.

They had bought a lot so they gave the shop a tip to deliver everything they bought to the cart. As they walked through the crowded streets Zimo fell into a daze. He thought about what happened today. When LongWei ran into the doctor's in a panic.

"Dear." Zimo quietly said whispering in LongWei's ear.
"I'm sorry about today. I... didn't take my health into consideration and caused a lot of trouble for you and Mrs Li. I'm really sorry. I'll be more careful from now on. I promise."

LongWei kept looking forward, jaw clenched tightly as he tried to think about how to answer Zimo.

"Baby, it's not all on you. I should have woken you up before leaving in the morning. Asking Mrs Li to come to town just the two of you, was also poor judgement on my part. Baby, I'm not used to caring for others. You've met my family, rather then taking care of them I've always had to clean up the mess. I will make mistakes, but I plan to do better in the future."

"No, I also need to do better. Because of my nightmare this morning I wasn't thinking clearly and acted irresponsibly. I'm definitely the one to blame for what happened." Zimo felt distressed, it was clearly his decisions that led to him getting sick again.

"Baby, this won't happen again." LongWei said with the determination to provide Zimo with everything he needs.

"Okay, dear."

....