He worked in the city every day and earned just thirty copper coins. Sometimes after work, he would buy a bit of meat to bring home for his wife as a treat, so he naturally knew how much meat cost. Although pig offal wasn't popular, it was still meat.
And just from the smell alone, he could tell that Ran had added a lot of good ingredients. He only gave ten coins, so how could there be so much meat. "Brother Ma, please don't refuse."
Ran stepped in front of him and looked at him seriously. "You've helped me a lot since I came here. This cheap pig offal isn't worth anything. Just take it and enjoy."
"But this is too much." Brother Ma still looked a bit embarrassed. "It's just food, not a big deal."
"You should hurry home. This kind of thing tastes better hot." As she spoke, she gave him a little push to urge him to go back quickly while it was still warm.
Seeing she was firm, Brother Ma didn't insist any further. He thanked her and then walked quickly toward home. Once he was out of sight, Ran returned to the yard.
She was the only one living at the foot of the mountain, and there were no other homes nearby. Although Brother Ma's house was close, it was still more than a hundred meters away. Back in the kitchen, Ran put out the fire in the stove.
After letting it sit for a while, she scooped some out and ate it with a thick bowl of porridge, feeling very satisfied. On the other side, Brother Ma brought the bowl into the house. Seeing his wife Sister Clara sitting in the courtyard sunbathing, he smiled sweetly and walked over quickly.
Carefully placing the bowl in front of her, he said gently, "Wife, come try this and see if you like the taste." "What is this." Sister Clara had already smelled the aroma when Brother Ma entered.
Now, looking at the unfamiliar dish in the bowl and smelling the rich scent in the air, she couldn't help but swallow. She had never smelled something so delicious before. "This is pig offal made by Brother Ran from next door."
Brother Ma said as he glanced nervously at her face. Seeing she didn't look upset, he added, "I smelled it earlier and thought it might taste good, so I bought some for you to try." In this world, women were highly respected.
Even women from farming families wouldn't normally eat pig offal. So even though Sister Clara thought it smelled great and really wanted to try it, her expression still showed a bit of distaste. But the smell was like a hook that wouldn't let her go.
She swallowed again without even realizing it. Seeing a bit of anticipation in her expression, Brother Ma became happy and quickly ran into the kitchen. He brought out a bowl and chopsticks and placed them next to her.
"Wife, try it." Sister Clara couldn't resist the temptation anymore. She picked up the chopsticks right away, took a small piece of pig stomach, hesitated for a moment, then closed her eyes and put it in her mouth.
In the next moment, her eyes flew open, full of surprise. She stared at the bowl of braised meat with excitement. "This is amazing. It's really delicious."
Sister Clara didn't stop eating, her mouth full of flavor, and she felt completely satisfied. As a woman, she had always been pampered and raised gently. She'd always eaten and used the best and had never eaten something like pig offal, which people usually avoided.
She never knew it could taste this good. After eating more than half the meat and drinking a small bowl of porridge, Sister Clara touched her round belly and leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "I didn't expect pig offal to be this good."
"I haven't eaten this well in so long." She glanced at Brother Ma, who was cleaning the bowls beside her, and her gaze softened. She even spoke to him a little more gently and pointed at the half bowl of meat left.
"It's getting late. You should eat now."
"Did you eat all the meat?"
"I'll just have a little. The rest is for you to eat tonight." Brother Ma glanced at the braised meat in the bowl and spoke reluctantly.
This bowl cost ten copper coins. Ran gave them extra because of their good relationship.
"I said eat it." Clara waved impatiently. "I'll give you some silver later, and you can buy more next time."
"Alright." Brother Ma blushed and looked at her with love. "You're so good to me."
Every time he heard about other husbands getting hit by their wives, he felt lucky that his wife had a good temper and never raised a hand against him.
Even if she didn't like him much, she'd only scold him a little.
Seeing how touched he looked, Clara rolled her eyes. She really couldn't stand that expression he always showed.
After lunch, Ran looked up, trying to check the time. But after staring for a while, her neck started to ache, and she still couldn't tell what time it was.
"Ugh, forget it!" She rubbed her slightly prickly hair in frustration. She had studied for a month and still couldn't read the time.
"Without electronics, I'm completely useless!" Ran collapsed onto the bed, missing her phone and computer so much.
Even during the apocalypse, after the first period of chaos, power and internet were quickly restored. Though the internet was unstable, she could still listen to news and relax a bit.
But here, forget the news, she didn't even have a working light.
Rolling on the bed twice, Ran suddenly sat up. She took out paper and a pen from her space and placed them on the table. Then she wrote three words: Journey to the West.
That's right. Since she had nothing else to do, she might as well write Journey to the West. Later, she could bring it to a bookstore. If they liked it, she could use the book to improve her life.
Why Journey to the West? Because it was part of her childhood. Even when she grew up, every summer when it aired again, she'd still happily watch it.
Not just the show. After growing up, she even bought the book and would read it whenever she had time.
Thinking of books, Ran dove into her space and searched around. Finally, she found a pile of storybooks in one corner.
There were not only Chinese literary works, but also foreign literature and some popular web novels from before the apocalypse.
She took out Journey to the West and placed it on the table. Ran then sat down seriously and started copying it onto paper.
As for why she copied it, she admitted she didn't have any golden finger or super memory like other protagonists. Even though she knew the story well, writing it from memory was just impossible for her.
Ran just copied one line of the ancient characters and then stopped writing. Her big eyes blinked as she looked at the neat handwriting on the paper and sighed helplessly. How could she forget that she did not know these ancient characters?
She never thought that one day, someone who had studied for more than ten years would become a half-illiterate person. She had once seen this ancient script in a bookstore. The characters were similar to the old clerical script from Huaguo but also a bit different.
As someone who grew up in New Huaxia and was not a professional in Chinese language and literature, she had never touched ancient scripts before. Now, she only felt confused and overwhelmed. Because of this, the idea of copying books to earn money could not be realized anytime soon.
She put away the papers and pens on the table back into her space. Ran decided to start learning to read first. The first thing now was to buy books and find someone who could read to teach her.
In the whole Shanghe Village, very few people could read. Many people could not even recognize their own names. The only person who could teach was the village chief's youngest son, Simeon, who passed the county exam at only ten years old.
But Simeon was studying at Bailu Academy in Suzhou City and rarely came home. He only had two days off at the end of each month. If it were someone else, it would be impossible to learn.
But Ran was not a person without a foundation in reading. She had studied for more than ten years in university. As long as she learned by comparison, it would not be difficult for her.
Thinking of this, Ran could not sit still. She took a bag of white flour from her space and put two bowls in a cloth bag. She also took two bowls of cornmeal, seventy eggs, and one hundred wen.
She put everything into a basket and headed straight to the village chief's house. "Uncle Wang, is the village chief home?" Although the big door was open, Ran still knocked and loudly asked.
"Who's there?" A middle-aged man wearing rough cloth came out. When he saw it was Ran, he showed surprise, not understanding why this usually solitary person came to his house.
But he still smiled and invited her inside, "It's Ran! The village chief is not home. What do you want to see him about?" When Uncle Wang saw the basket in her hand, his smile grew more sincere.
"Uncle Wang is home!" Ran followed him inside and put the basket on the table. She felt a little embarrassed and said, "Uncle Wang, I have something to ask you, but..."
Ran did not finish her sentence. Her hesitant expression made Uncle Wang worried she might ask for too much. Since she came with gifts, he could not refuse before hearing her request.
So he patiently asked, "Just say what you want. We are from the same village. If it's something we can help with, we won't refuse!" His meaning was clear: if it was too much, his family would definitely refuse.
"It's not a heavy request!" Ran understood and quickly said, "I want to learn to read! There are very few people in our village who can read. The only one who can teach is the young scholar Simeon at your house! So I want to ask him to teach me."