CH 1.2

Chapter 1- Down and Out

The people of Da’an Dynasty preferred to eat fresh food from the rivers, lakes and seas, so the business of fishing and selling fish was very prosperous, but they mainly focused on fish, shrimps and crabs.

Few people would eat squid, because it doesn’t taste good no matter what they do, so the fishermen usually throw them away or sell them cheaply to feed livestock.

Hearing this, Su Yu just smiled kindly and didn’t say much.

The capital was divided into east and west, the eastern city was the residence of the rich and nobles, and the western city was populated by the commoners.

This Xiping Street was a small road in the West City, since the road was narrow and carriages don’t often use the road, stalls can be found everywhere.

The women from poorer families are not as particular as the noble ladies of rich houses, they go out to buy vegetables with a basket on their own.

Because of Su Yu’s fair looks and gentle speech, those grandmothers and aunts liked to chat with him a few times, coupled with that beautiful fish-killing knife methods, business was naturally better than other stalls, just after noon he sold out the last fish.

“Che, if you want to sell smiles you should go to the Chuyi Building, how much is it worth on this Xiping Street…”

Not far away, a burly fishmonger said in a cold voice.

Although he didn’t raise his voice, everyone around him could hear him clearly. Chunyi Building was a well-known brothel in the capital.

After hearing this, Sanchuan was going to argue with the man, but Su Yu pulled him back.

He wasn't someone who lived near Xiping Street, for the local gangsters here you couldn’t fight them with force, so he could only pretend he didn’t hear anything and smiled at the last guest.

Su Yu was born with a warm and gentle face, and that man didn’t seem like a good person, so with this bitter smile the auntie looked very distressed.

“Yu Laosi, who are you scolding?”

After taking the fish that Su Yu tied with straw, Aunt Zhang, who was nearly forty years old, immediately turned around and glared at the fishmonger.

This auntie was famous for her fiery temperament, and no one dared to provoke her in the whole street.

When Yu Laosi heard her words, he couldn’t help shrinking his head, he then felt that it was shameful to be so cowardly afraid of a woman, so he stuck out his neck and said:

”Whoever takes it is who I’m cursing!”

As soon as he said this, he immediately regretted it so much that he wanted to bite his tongue off.

“Wow, you dare to scold me, Zhang Cuihua, you don’t even know what I did when I was young!”

Aunt Zhang suddenly became excited, it had been a long time since anyone dared to quarrel with her. This time, she must definitely have a good time.

Soon many people gathered around to watch the fun on the street, and Yu Laosi was scolded so badly that he couldn’t speak, and he was so angry that he was about to pass out.

Su Yu silently cleaned up his stall without changing his face, and drove the donkey cart away quietly.

Turning around the corner, there was a shop that collected old wood, Su Yu unloaded there the large wooden basin and two large wooden barrels on the trolley leaving only the half-sized wooden barrel that contained the squid.

The old carpenter with a white beard looked at it for a while:

“Ten wen each.”

“For the wooden barrels it's fine, but this wooden basin was made of a whole piece of wood, at least eighty wen.” Su Yu frowned.

“You’ve got two pieces put together, thirty wen at most.” The old carpenter furrowed his brows.

“Then it’s not for sale.”

Su Yu bent over and tried to take away the wooden basin, this basin was indeed made of good materials, if it wasn’t for the lack of money, he wouldn’t be willing to sell it.

Seeing this, the old carpenter couldn’t bear to part with that piece of old material, so he had to loosen his mouth.

After some haggling, the basin was sold for fifty-five wen.

Su Yu counted the newly obtained seventy-five wen, in addition to the two hundred and thirteen copper coins from today’s fish sales, those were all his belongings.

After collecting the two and a half dangling coins, Su Yu led the donkey back to a house on the corner of East City.

That was a three-entry house with blue bricks and gray tiles that were quite old.

Only the two stone lions in front of the main entrance still retained some of the scenery of the past.

“Yo, our second young master is back, where’s today’s share?"

Entering through the side door, he saw a woman with a large waist leaning on the porch pillar, she reached out and asked him for the money.

“Mother said yesterday that the medicine is no longer necessary.”

Su Yu’s face was cold and indifferent, he didn’t bother to look at the woman, and went straight to tie the donkey.

This body of his is the concubine son of the old lord, but the first wife had no heir so she raised him as her first son.

His father died three months ago, and his first mother was so angry with his eldest uncle’s family that she fell ill.

In order to supply the medicine of the first wife, Su Yu handed over two sea fish to his aunt every day to get money for the decoction.

When his aunt heard this, her thin eyebrows stood up and she sneered:

“Since your mother doesn’t need the medicine, I’ll sell the donkey tomorrow, so that you won’t have to go out and make a fool of yourself.”