Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Recognizing Characters and Tea Stall

After selling his goods and making his purchases, Lu Yuan’s errand in the city was just about done.

He glanced at the sky, and saw that the sun was at its highest point, and it was the hottest time of the day.

Traveling at this time would surely make him sweat several pounds.

Carrying a heavy load on his back under the scorching sun and climbing back up the mountain was not a delightful task.

As he had been busy all morning, his stomach was grumbling hungrily as well, so without hesitation, he followed his usual routine and arrived at a modest tea stall in the south of the city.

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The tea stall was called Chen’s Tea Shop, with a white cloth banner bearing its name hung as a sign outside.

Lu Yuan stared at the banner for a while, repeating the words “Chen’s Tea Shop” over and over again in his mind.

After transmigrating to this world, he initially didn’t realize his problem, but after entering the city and seeing various shop signs, he suddenly discovered that he couldn’t recognize the characters of this world.

Although this world seemed to be similar to his previous life’s ancient times, with similar social systems and local customs, the similarities only went so far.

Leaving aside other differences, the writing of this world was very different from that of his previous life.

Although the characters in this world bore some resemblance to the Chinese characters from his previous life, both their radicals and pronunciations were completely different.

Their appearances might be similar, but their meanings were vastly different.

This was not a simple difference between simplified and traditional Chinese characters; it was more like the difference between Chinese and Japanese, but even greater.

Take the words “Chen’s Tea Shop” for example; if Lu Yuan hadn’t asked the shop owner, he would have racked his brains in vain to figure out what they meant.

By extension, this meant that the characters he knew from his previous life had become useless in this one.

He would have to learn to read again from scratch.

“It seems like I’ll need to find a tutor to teach me how to read when I get the chance,” Lu Yuan thought to himself, immediately followed by a headache.

Learning to read was no simple matter.

With fees for the tutor, stationery costs, and the inability to be productive while studying, it certainly added up to a significant expense.

Although he had some savings now, it was questionable whether his eight silver taels would be enough to cover it all.

But if he couldn’t read, he would be unable to delve deeply into this world, which was also absolutely unacceptable.

“There are still three or four months until the New Year, when the heavy snow will block the mountain and hunting will be impossible. I’ll come back to the city then and ask how much it will cost to enroll in a private school to learn to read. I hope my silver will be enough by then,” Lu Yuan calculated in his heart.

After taking another look at the words “Chen’s Tea Shop” and making sure he wouldn’t forget, he finally entered the tea stall.

There was a simple kitchen at the stall, where the shopkeeper prepared some tea and snacks. A large tent was set up outside, under which seven or eight wooden tables were placed. The tables and chairs were old and shabby, with stains and grooves all over, showing their age.

Such roadside stalls had always been popular among the lower class.

Laborers working in the city, farmers and hunters entering the city, all couldn’t afford to go to fancy restaurants or teahouses, so they could only resort to these small roadside shops for their meals and drinks.

Because the stall catered to the lower class, all the food and drink were very cheap.

The shopkeeper’s homemade rice wine, half diluted with water, cost three cents a bowl.

Coarse tea brewed with mixed tea residues cost one cent for three bowls.

Plain yangchun noodles cost three cents a bowl. If you wanted some meat slices, it would be ten cents a bowl. There were also small dishes of beans, peanuts, and melon seeds for one cent a plate.

Moreover, there were other items like pastries, meat pies, and boiled pork, with varying prices.

Lu Yuan always enjoyed having some meat in his meals, and considering the long journey back to the mountain, he needed to be full to have enough energy.

So as soon as he entered the tea stall, he immediately called out, “Old Chen, give me two meat pies, a bowl of yangchun noodles, a plate of braised meat, and a bowl of rice wine.”

Speaking, he took out fifty cents and handed it over.

Meat pies cost seven cents each, a plate of braised meat thirty cents, and including the yangchun noodles and rice wine, the total cost was exactly fifty cents.

With just this meal alone, a regular family’s daily expenses would be gone.

Businessmen had always valued customers, and the original owner of the body had frequented Chen’s Tea Shop every time he entered the city. Although each visit was separated by a month or two, there were still nearly ten visits a year.

Over the years, Old Chen had come to recognize him as a regular customer.

So when he saw Lu Yuan, he immediately smiled and said, “Alright, sir, please have a seat; your meal will be ready shortly.”

The meal was served quickly.

After all, the food was pre-prepared; the meat pies and braised meat just needed to be heated up. The rice wine could be served as is, and the yangchun noodles only needed a quick blanch and a sprinkle of salt and chopped green onions. They were all simple dishes.

Having been busy all day, Lu Yuan was starving, so as soon as the food arrived, he wolfed it down. In no time at all, the food in front of him was completely gone.

With his stomach full, he picked up his wine bowl, took a light sip, and then leisurely pricked up his ears, listening to the idle chatter of the people around him.

Choosing to eat at a tea stall like this wasn’t just about the cheap fare.

All sorts of people mixed together in the tea stall: city laborers, farmers from outside the city, merchants traveling from place to place, and even occasionally down-and-out martial artists clad in sturdy clothing. People from every corner of the world could be found gathered here.

As a result, news from all over circulated here as well.

Any news happening within the city or any major events happening in other places could generally be heard in a tea stall like this.

“I heard that Liu, the rich merchant in the east of the city, has taken in a beautiful young concubine who looks like a Heavenly Immortal,” said a laborer-looking man.

“Old Liu is already over sixty, who knows if he can still handle it, but at his age, having such a lovely young wife really makes people envious.”

“What’s envious about it? That concubine of his was an Eastern City tofu beauty. She’s only fourteen now, but I saw her when she was selling tofu previously, her skin was as soft and tender as tofu, white and delicate, it made people want to touch her just by looking at her,” said a ruffian with a thin, monkey-like face and a lewd expression.

“Heh, look at your character; you think you could touch her? You’d be better off doing more good deeds in this life, and trying for a better next life,” said another man.

As those words were spoken, the stall erupted in laughter.

Everyone looked at the lewd ruffian and jovially teased him, their fatigue from the day seemingly swept away in the laughter.

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but laugh as well.

An old husband and a young wife had always been a hot topic among gossips, something that transcended time and remained ever popular.

The atmosphere within the tea stall gradually became lively.

“Ah——”

Suddenly, a scream rang out from the street, followed by a flurry of chaotic noise, as people scattered, running and barking, smashing and crashing.

This commotion instantly attracted the attention of those in the tea stall.

Lu Yuan also turned his head to look and tensed up.

He saw a man in blue clothes wielding a long sword; with a single leap, he swung his sword and a man in black clothes in front of him spurted blood and fell to the ground.

In broad daylight, someone was actually killing someone else on the street!