Salt Shop Lady

During the Jinghe period, the salt tax increased by 30%. Half a liter of brown rice could be exchanged for two taels of official salt. Many people had been eating lightly for half a year. Lin Sui, an orphan on the way to escape famine, clutched half a piece of crumpled salt bread left by the original owner, with only three copper coins left in her arms. She set up a stall at the foot of the Chenghuang Temple to sell salt biscuits for a penny each. They used repeatedly washed sub-salt mixed with local peppercorns and baked them. The aroma was so good that half of the street could smell it. Within a few days, the shop was crowded with people. In addition to those who bought cakes, there were also people who secretly came over to ask if they had any private salt sellers. She smiled and shook her head every time, then turned around and put out a bowl of lemongrass salt jelly for two cents, which can relieve heat when the weather is hot. Soon everyone called her "the little lady of the salt shop". As the salt shop opened more and more prosperously, troubles also followed: People who bought official salt always complained that the salt was mixed with sand, which made the cooked dishes bitter; the salt drying workers secretly came to her to cry, saying that the output of the salt farm this year was nearly 30% less than last year, and the management would not let them tell anyone about it; some people saw a convoy of people driving salt out of the city in the middle of the night, and the price was twice as high as official salt. Chen Yan, an apprentice from the martial arts school who often came to help her carry salt bags, always stared at her and asked questions. Sometimes he asked how the salt was made, and sometimes he asked her if she had seen any strange people recently. The grandmothers in the shop all joked that this guy was either sent by the Yamen to check for illegal salt, or he had a crush on our little lady. No one thought that this little girl who seemed to only know how to cook salt-flavored food would dare to put her hand into the muddy water in the salt field. On the day when the salt inspector's car came into the city, people on the whole street clutched the free salt packets distributed by the salt shops and crowded towards the yamen entrance. Even the old ladies who usually didn't go out used crutches to get there.