“Alright then, a few carrots aren’t worth much. Once you’re done buying, I can head home early and have a few drinks to warm myself up!” Although the old vegetable farmer was a bit hot-tempered, he was also very straightforward. Hearing Steward Evans’s words, he didn’t haggle at all and immediately agreed.

Then Steward Evans and the old vegetable farmer weighed the cabbage together. It totaled ninety-three jin, which came to exactly thirty-one wen. The farmer even knocked off one wen, which was equivalent to giving Steward Evans three jin of cabbage for free. This made Steward Evans very happy, and he repeatedly said he would come to him again next time he needed vegetables.

Steward Evans borrowed the man’s wheelbarrow to deliver the just-over-one-hundred jin of cabbage and carrots home, then pushed the cart back to return it to the old vegetable farmer. However, he didn’t leave the market right away, but instead went to the west side of the market, where most of the fish and meat vendors were concentrated. There hadn’t been any meat at home for quite a while; just yesterday, Mrs. Reed had brought over two meat dishes to satisfy everyone’s cravings a bit. But this also reminded him that the young master and young lady had been pampered since childhood—if even he couldn’t stand eating plain food every day, how could they?

Compared to the vegetable stalls, the fish and meat stalls here were noticeably less crowded. Songjiang Prefecture had a population of several million, with two to three hundred thousand people in the city alone, but among them, only a few could afford to eat meat. Even families that were relatively well-off would only buy meat once or twice a month to satisfy a craving. Most of the people Steward Evans saw were these types, along with some servants from wealthy households. These servants were well-dressed, and their masters usually needed large amounts of meat, so they were the most generous buyers and the favorites of the meat and fish vendors.

The Bennett Estate used to send servants to buy things here as well, but as the chief steward, Steward Bennett naturally wouldn’t handle such matters personally. The household had a dedicated manager for purchasing; at most, he would just check the accounts. Because of this, Steward Evans wasn’t very familiar with the market.

Steward Evans first visited a few fish stalls, only to find that most of what was sold were sea fish. After all, the east and south sides of Songjiang Prefecture bordered the sea, and many people along the coast made a living by fishing, so there was plenty of seafood here and the prices weren’t high. A ten-jin big fish cost only a few wen, and the smaller fish were even cheaper.

However, after thinking it over, Steward Evans decided not to buy any sea fish, since no one at home liked them. The only one who liked fish, the eldest young lady Grace, only liked river fish and disliked the strong smell of sea fish. Of course, some vendors did sell river or lake fish, but those were twice as expensive as sea fish. Steward Evans felt the thin purse in his pocket and, in the end, couldn’t bring himself to buy any.

There were many pork stalls. Steward Evans strolled around a few times to get a sense of the prices, and finally came to the busiest stall. The butcher was a young man in his twenties, with thick eyebrows, big eyes, and an honest face. He was tall and powerfully built, wearing only a single layer of clothing in the cold weather, and held a sharp knife in his right hand. Whenever a customer came to buy meat, he would cut off a generous portion with a single stroke—sometimes regular customers wouldn’t even bother weighing it and would just take it away.

“Young man, how much is your meat?” Steward Evans asked as he approached the stall.

“Twelve wen for fatty meat, ten wen for lean. How much would you like, sir?” The honest young butcher replied with a big smile. Although Steward Evans was dressed in shabby clothes, his build didn’t look like that of a poor man. The young butcher could tell he was a big customer, so he was especially enthusiastic.

“Well…” Steward Evans had checked the household’s purchasing accounts before and knew the price of pork. If he remembered correctly, pork was only eleven wen this autumn. Normally, pork was easier to preserve in winter, so the price should have dropped a bit, but instead it had gone up. It seemed that the old vegetable seller hadn’t lied—disasters in the north really were affecting prices in Songjiang. And the refugees hadn’t even arrived yet, but prices had already risen this much. Who knew how much higher they’d go once the refugees came?

Thinking of this, Steward Evans couldn’t help but sigh. He was just about to ask for a jin each of lean and fatty meat when someone nearby suddenly called out loudly, “Hey, isn’t that Steward Evans? I was just saying I needed to find you, and here you are!”

Chapter 9: The First Tenant

Steward Evans turned around and saw that the speaker was a middle-aged man as skinny as a stick. The man’s body was extremely thin, his long face sunken at the cheeks, and his small, bean-like eyes blinked rapidly, making him look just like a rat. His eyebrows were sparse, and the few hairs on his head were tied up carelessly with a noodle into a topknot, giving him a rather shifty appearance.

“So it’s you, Fifth. I really have to trouble you with that matter I asked you about before!” When Steward Evans saw this skinny middle-aged man, he broke into a bright smile.

This shifty-looking man’s surname was Li, and since he was the fifth son in his family, everyone called him Fifth. Fifth didn’t have any proper occupation; he spent his days hanging around the marketplace, knew a lot of people in Songjiang Prefecture, and often helped others find servants or arrange house rentals, taking a cut for himself. Today, Steward Evans had spread the word about renting out a house through him.