The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

Yingbao and her second cousin arrived at the Mule Horse Market, stumbling on the place filled with horse dung and urine everywhere.

The siblings inspected several horses but none were to their liking.

Either the horses were too old or they were sick or impaired, and the few that were somewhat satisfactory had exorbitant prices, about thirty percent higher than usual.

Jiang Quan, unhappy with how these horse dealers were behaving, asked his younger cousin, “Should we come again next time?” He felt they were exploiting their young ages by inflating the prices.

Yingbao’s eyes fixed on two skinny horses, one big and one small, and she said, “Let’s see how much those two horses cost.”

If the skinny horses weren’t too old and the prices weren’t high, she wanted to buy both.

Following the direction of his cousin’s gaze, Jiang Quan frowned, “Those two don’t seem very good. The larger horse has lost much of its fur, and the little one seems sick. I doubt they’d survive.”

“Let’s go check. If they’re no good, we won’t buy them.” Yingbao avoided the dung and urine on the ground and ran over to ask the horse owner, “How old are these two horses?”

Upon hearing someone inquire about the horses, the owner quickly looked up, only to find a tiny girl. His face fell as he reluctantly responded, “The larger one is eighteen years old, and the smaller one is three.”

He found it beneath him to even lie in front of such a young girl.

“So how much for these two horses?” Asked Yingbao.

The horse owner replied, “Thirty taels for the big one and twenty taels for the small one.”

Jiang Quan, who had followed Yingbao over, felt discontent with the owner’s pricing, “You’re asking for thirty taels for this emaciated horse?” Wouldn’t that make it close to fifty taels, including the pawn tax?

The horse owner glared at Jiang Quan, “Even if I asked for twenty taels, you couldn’t afford it.”

Normally, those who came to buy horses were wealthy adults. These two children, the eldest being no older than fifteen or sixteen, were not their usual customers. They were merely asking out of curiosity.

However, Yingbao retorted, “So, you’re really asking twenty taels for this horse? Remember, you can’t take back your words.”

The average price for a healthy, adult horse usually ranged from forty to fifty taels. Including the tax for horse transactions, it would reach around sixty taels. Also, attaching a carriage to it would cost at least a hundred taels. If she could buy a horse for half of that, it would be quite a deal.

The horse owner irritably said, “Give me the silver now, and I’ll sell it to you! Whoever goes back on their word is a beast.”

Earlier, he had refused an offer of twenty taels, but now with the market closing and no customer in sight, he was desperate.

If this child really paid twenty taels for the horse, he could save the trouble of taking it to the vet.

After all, treating this horse would cost a lot of money, which he was unwilling to invest in an old and useless horse; each day he kept it, it was a loss.

“What about this small horse?” Yingbao asked, patting the foal’s head.

The horse owner glanced at the young horse, sighed, and said, “At least eighteen taels for this one. I can’t sell it for any less.”

The foal had been suffering from diarrhea for a while now. Even after treating it with traditional cures, there was no improvement. So, he decided to sell it to avoid it dying at his home and losing even the potential of getting eighteen taels.

Yingbao seemed satisfied. She waved her hand, “We’ll take these two horses. You can call over the salesman.”

Hearing this, Jiang Quan panicked and pulled his cousin aside, whispering a complaint, “These horses aren’t looking great, spending dozens of taels and what if they die? Wouldn’t that be a huge loss?”

Seeing Jiang Quan’s displeasure, the horse owner hurriedly ran to the horse market’s housing department and dragged a salesman over.

Of course, the salesman could tell something was off with these horses, but he didn’t reveal anything. He made a show of patting the horses, smiling and inviting Jiang Quan and Yingbao to the Teeth Row to make the payment.

Once the payment was done and the contract signed, the transaction was cleared. Even if both horses died the next day, it had nothing to do with them.

Only after checking the contract and confirming there were no discrepancies, did Yingbao pull out silver ingots from her bag.

The two horses, along with the contract tax, totalled fifty-nine taels. She pulled out six ten-tael silver ingots, shocking the salesmen and the horse owner.

They all curiously stared at the girl’s bag, unable to understand why it hadn’t seemed to have this much silver in it before.

Jiang Quan was already used to his cousin’s ability to fit things into her bag, and impatiently urged, “Hurry up with the change.”

His cousin had bought two sick horses and he was horribly conflicted, causing his temper to flare.

The salesmen didn’t mind and quickly gave Yingbao a coin.

Then! They watched as the girl put all the coins into her bag, along with the horse purchase contract.

One of the salesmen teased, “Miss, do you want to buy a carriage? I’ll give you the cheapest price!”

He wanted to see if the young miss would pull out more silver ingots from her bag.

Another salesman gave him a cold look and subtly kicked him under the table.

The miss and her brother had spent dozens of taels on two worthless horses. Who knows if they might be beaten by the adults in their family? This guy was still trying to coax her into buying a carriage.

If the carriage hasn’t been used and the horses have already died, wouldn’t that be cheating people out of their money?

Yingbao looked up with a grin and asked, “Really the cheapest? If you cheat me, you will turn into a dog.”

The salesman’s smile briefly froze, but he quickly said, “Absolutely no cheating, come! Follow me to take a look. If you don’t buy, you’ll be the dog.”

Jiang Quan was nearly driven mad by his cousin, but knowing his words bore no weight, he reluctantly followed his cousin to look at the carriage.

Yingbao chose a brand-new carriage with a canopy, equipped with steel axles. The carriage dealer quoted the price at twenty-five taels.

Yingbao turned to the salesman, “You promised to give me the cheapest price.” Anything sold in the Mule Horse Market, the salesmen have the right to value, indicating there is room for negotiation in the quoted price of twenty-five taels.

The salesman’s face twitched, he nudged the carriage dealer and said, “Give her the cheapest price, without any overhead.”

He was telling the carriage dealer not to add profit for himself and to give her the base price.

“Alright, twenty taels.” The carriage dealer said helplessly, “I’m not making any profit. The carriage axles are made of steel, just the two bearings alone cost quite a bit.”

The salesman asked the young girl, “How about it? I did keep my word, didn’t I?”

Yingbao nodded her head, ordered the bigger horse to pull the carriage.

Everyone was eyeing the old horse, scared it might collapse before it left the market.

Jiang Quan was also worried – not that the horse would collapse in the market, but that it would collapse as soon as it left.

Ignoring their reactions, Yingbao scurried off excitedly to pay, handling the contract taxes.

Even the carriage needed to be taxed, she ponied up two taels of silver as the vehicle tax.

Then, everyone in Teeth Row watched her take out more silver ingots from her bag to pay.

This time, she pulled out two ten-tael silver ingots and a bunch of copper coins.

A salesman, unable to resist his curiosity, leaned over and asked, “Young miss, do you still have money in this bag?”

Yingbao looked up at him, smiled and asked, “Uncle, do you really want to know? Then give me two hundred coins.”

Salesman:

He would only waste two hundred coins to ask about someone else’s bag if he was extremely bored.

Another salesman pulled out two hundred coins from his money pouch, slapped them on the table, and said, “There’s your two hundred coins! I want to see how much stuff your bag can hold!”

If he didn’t find out, he wouldn’t be able to eat well today.