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By the time they got home, it was pitch dark.

The three brothers had icicles on their clothes, shivering from the cold.

Elder Brother Jiang couldn’t stop sneezing and rubbing his nose.

Upon seeing this, Mrs. Zhou hurriedly pulled her husband to the back of the stove to undress and warm up.

Old Man Jiang and his wife were scrambling about. They first had their grandson fetch clothes, then instructed their granddaughter to heat up water to wash the faces and hands of the eldest, second, and third sons, and change their clothes.

“Aiya, how did you all get so wet? Ah, your hair is filled with ice.”

The old lady Jiang was frantic; she quickly searched for dried evodia fruit to brew hot water for the children to dispel their coldness.

After warming himself by the fire, Third Brother Jiang recovered quickly. With his thirteen-year-old nephew, they temporarily stored the fish in the large vat at home and ate two bowls of steaming dough knots before he went home.

At this moment, Chun Niang was lying on the kang bed with the children, dozing off. Seeing her husband enter, she quickly got up.

“Why are you so late? Have you eaten? Let me warm up some food for you,” Chun Niang quietly got off the bed and prepared to cater to her husband.

“No need, I’ve already eaten at my eldest brother’s home.”

While sitting on the kang bed removing his shoes, Jiang Sanlang got into the warm quilt and sighed, “It’s so warm.”

Returning to the kang bed with a towel, Chun Niang began to dry her husband’s hair while whispering, “Why is your hair wet? Did you fall into the river?”

“Not at all,” Jiang Sanlang chuckled softly, “We had a great catch today, caught several big fish, each of them four feet long.”

Chun Niang was surprised. “Four feet? How heavy is that? Usually, the largest fish we see by the river are three to four jin, not more than two to three feet.

Why do we keep encountering big fish this year?”

Jiang Sanlang rested his hands behind his head and casually said, “Our stretch of the Chuanhe River is deep and there aren’t many proper fishermen. We don’t usually get the chance to see such fish.”

Turning to his wife, he continued, “Tomorrow morning, I will go to the market. Let me know if we need anything at home and I will bring it back. New Year’s Day is coming soon, we need to get the new year’s provisions. Yingbao is growing up too, we need to get her some new clothes.”

“Alright, I’ll think about what we need to buy…”

The next day, before the crack of dawn, Jiang Sanlang got up, fetched a pole, and went to fetch water.

After filling the vat with water, he hastily left the house and went to his elder brother’s house.

Seeing Uncle Sanlang coming, Mrs. Zhou hurriedly invited him to have breakfast, saying, “Your elder brother seems to be sick today, he may not be able to make it to the market.”

“Sick?” Jiang Sanlang was surprised, he asked, “Should we call a doctor?”

“We’ll have Dacheng fetch one later”, Mrs. Zhou wore a worried expression, “your elder brother had a fever last night, I’m a little concerned…”

Jiang Sanlang: “How about I fetch the doctor from town? The village one isn’t that good.”

There was a man in their village who had some rudimentary medical skills, but he was only capable of dealing with minor ailments. Anything more serious was beyond his abilities. This wasn’t only an issue of his medical skills, but also because he lacked high-quality medicinal herbs.

“Then I will trouble you, Sanlang,” said Mrs. Zhou with slight relief.

After the breakfast, when his second brother was still not around, Jiang Sanlang sent his nephew, Jiang Quan, to his house to check on him.

It turned out that his second brother was also sick with a fever.

Jiang Sanlang had no choice but to borrow a donkey cart from Chen Cunzheng. Accompanied by his younger nephew, Quan, he went to the market to sell fish and to fetch a doctor.

The town was particularly crowded today, as it was the end of the year and every household was out purchasing New Year goods.

Jiang Sanlang had Dre-weighed one of the large fish—it was around seventv catties.

If sold by the catty, at ten coins each, the whole fish could be sold for over seven hundred coins.

However…

Jiang Sanlang told his nephew that live fish would be sold by the unit, nine hundred coins each; dead fish would be sold by the catty, ten coins per catty.

These prices were pretty steep, but Jiang Sanlang was confident that he would be able to sell his fish.

As expected, many people gathered around to watch. There were many inquirers, but few buyers, as everyone thought the prices were too high.

Thereafter came a wealthy man who bought two large live fish at once. The other customers hurriedly followed suit.

Originally, there were only eight big fish, five of which were still alive, but two were quickly sold, leaving only three.

Jiang Quan, Yingbao’s nephew, was smiling brightly, weighing fish for the customers while saying to his uncle Yingbao, “Uncle, our fish sell really well.” Yingbao laughed and turned his gaze towards the crowd.

He spotted Xiang Zhi again, the local official, and another man who seemed to be another tax collector.

With a sigh in his heart, Yingbao quickly picked up two medium-sized live fishes and put them in the donkey cart.

The Imperial Court imposed many types of taxes, like land tax, household tax, grain tax, market tax, fishing tax, and vehicle tax, amongst others. Presently, Yingbao had to deal with three of these.

He had to pay the market tax, but whether he had to pay the fishing and vehicle taxes was debatable.

The cart wasn’t his; perhaps Chen Cunzheng had already paid the tax for it. However, these tax collectors might insist that since he used it, he would have to pay again and won’t accept any argument.

As for the fishing tax, though he brought fish to sell at the market, if matters got strict, he’d have to pay.

“So, Chen Village is selling fish again?

The middle-aged Xiang Zhi came over expressionlessly, pointed at the remaining fish on the ground and said, “Since you’re in business now, you need to pay the tax.”

Yingbao, with a hurried smile, handed over ten coins to Xiang Zhi and handed out one of the fish he had stashed in the cart, “The festival is coming up, and we don’t have much to offer in our house. I’ve saved this especially for you to taste. ”

Xiang Zhi took it without hesitation and nodded towards the side, “This is my colleague responsible for the fishing tax.”

Quick on the uptake, Yingbao immediately took out another fish and handed it to the man, “Just a token of respect. We, the humble people, also make a meager living by selling some fish at the end of the year.”

The fishing tax man, grinning from ear to ear, accepted it, “Um, I understand.

But it won’t be a precedent.”

Having successfully sent the two officials on their way, Yingbao finally exhaled in relief.

At this moment, there were still two big live fish left for sale, while most of the dead fish were sold.

Leaving his nephew to mind the stall, he went to the town to call for a doctor from the only medical shop present.

Upon reaching the shop, he found it full of people waiting to see the doctor.

The only doctor in the place was rushed off his feet and downright refused to make a house call.

Though Yingbao pleaded for quite some time, the old man still flatly refused, asking the attendant to escort him out.

With no other choice, Yingbao asked for two prescriptions for cold and fever, picked them up and headed back.

Upon returning to his cart, he saw the man in the fox fur hat haggling with Jiang Quan.

“I’m an old customer of your family. How can you refuse to give me a hundred coins off the price for these two fish?”

Jiang Quan pleaded with a sense of wrong, “No one haggles like you do. You want to reduce the price by a hundred coins at once. I, I just can’t sell it to you like that.”

The man in the fox fur hat raised an eyebrow and, noticing Yingbao, pointed at him to ask his opinion.

Yingbao laughed, “A hundred coins off is too much. The fish aren’t just mine, you saw last time that we are three partners in this.”

Seeing the man in the fox fur hat frown, Yingbao quickly added, “How about this, I have one more fish here, it’s fresh and weighs about four pounds. I’ll give it to you, how does that sound?”

The man in the fox fur hat became somewhat cheerful and reluctantly nodded, “Alright.”

After paying, the man signaled a porter to come over and carry the fish.

Holding up the four-pound fish, he said to Yingbao, “I specifically came from the county. I wanted to see if there were any white sturgeon like last time. My master likes fresh fish sashimi. If you catch any again, send them to the county. I will cover the transportation costs.”

Yingbao bowed and laughed,”That would be great. In the future, any that are caught will definitely be sent to the county. May I ask where your residence

is…”

The man in the fox fur hat gave an address and left with the porter..