The System Wanted Me to Be a Landlady (GL) - Chapter 5: Borrowing Salt

Chapter 5: Borrowing Salt

Song Yuyan quietly looked at Tang Zhi. Although she appeared calm on the surface, her red earlobes betrayed her true feelings.

She had just told herself to……

System: solve her own problems and not trouble the kind-hearted Tang family. But in the blink of an eye, she contradicted herself.

However, Song Yuyan truly had no choice. After discovering there was no salt at home, she searched the original owner’s memories. She learned that although this place was near the sea and had a salt field in the county, it wasn’t as simple as living close to get salt easily.

In this era, things like wine, tea, salt, incense, and alum were monopolized. All the salt produced had to be sold to the government, which then sold it to salt merchants, who sold it to the people.

The sea salt from this salt field was sold to Liangzhe Circuit and Huizhou, but it was mostly sold locally.

However, the government bought salt at two or three wen per jin, but sold it for twenty-five wen per jin. Song Yuyan couldn’t compare it to modern prices, but she knew that modern salt, costing two yuan per pack, wouldn’t even buy salt crumbs here.

So, living in a place that produced salt didn’t mean every household had salt to eat, just like living where gold was mined didn’t mean everyone was rich.

Combined with the original owner’s memories of only getting salt every few days after becoming an orphan, she understood why this house had no salt.

After thinking it over, she decided to swallow her pride and ask Tang Zhi to borrow some salt.

____

The Tang family had salt and wasn’t short of it because Tang Haogen worked at the yamen. He had connections with the salt field’s overseer, so he could often buy one or two jin of salt at the government’s purchase price.

Thinking of this, Song Yuyan recalled some interesting things from the original owner’s memories:

The neighbors knew Tang Haogen had connections with the salt field overseer and wanted to buy salt from him at the purchase price. After all, without middlemen, they could save a lot of money!

At first, Tang Haogen was willing to sell some salt to be kind, but some people came to buy every day, acting like it was his duty to sell at that price.

As more people found out, more came to buy salt, so within two days, his family’s salt was gone. If he went to the salt field too often, the overseer would get annoyed, not to mention it could make him look bad or even get him accused of being a private salt dealer, which gave him a headache.

When the original owner learned about this, every time someone came to the Tang family to buy salt, she shouted at the door about private salt dealers, scaring the Tang family into stopping sales and making the buyers run away.

Later, fewer people came to buy salt from the Tang family. Even those who wanted to buy didn’t dare go to their door, fearing Song Yuyan might be hiding by the wall, waiting to catch them.

Song Yuyan thought the original owner might have wanted to solve this problem for the Tang family, but her method was crude, making her the villain. She probably didn’t consider how it could harm the Tang family if the government heard about it.

The neighbors, who once pitied her, now deeply despised her!

Song Yuyan didn’t think the original owner was entirely bad. This showed that even if she was a mess, she had some redeeming qualities. But her wrong approach pushed her closer to ruin.

Song Yuyan didn’t want to judge the original owner, as she hadn’t suffered the same hardships. But since her own life was turned upside down by the original owner and the system, she didn’t hold back in cursing them both.

The system probably sensed her anger and stayed hidden. As for the original owner, she vanished after sharing her wishes.

Song Yuyan was indeed angry, but she never took it out on others. So when facing Tang Zhi, her mood wasn’t as calm as she appeared but was full of embarrassment and restraint.

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Tang Zhi warily watched Song Yuyan, wondering what trick she was up to.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

Song Yuyan thought this girl’s loud voice sounded energetic and lively, like she could be a megaphone at a construction site…

She quickly snapped out of it. What was she thinking? They were in completely different times, with no chance of meeting, and this girl was only fourteen, still a child laborer!

Regaining her focus, Song Yuyan said seriously, “I came today to apologize for my past actions!”

Tang Zhi got goosebumps. Something was wrong, very wrong! If Song Yuyan was apologizing, she must want something!

She quietly stepped back to the door and grabbed a pole leaning against the wall.

“…” Song Yuyan noticed her small movements, confirming that the original owner’s credibility was completely gone. Even her sincere apology wasn’t believed.

Gaining trust again wouldn’t happen overnight, so she planned to take it step by step.

“What’s your goal?” Tang Zhi shouted.

“I-I want to borrow some salt, just—” Song Yuyan said, knowing she was trustworthy and would return it, but she still felt nervous.

Even though she meant it sincerely, Tang Zhi didn’t believe her!

Grabbing the pole, Tang Zhi poked it at Song Yuyan’s stomach, hurriedly pushing her out. “Pah, you call that borrowing? You’re just greedy! You never return what you borrow! How can you be so shameless!”

Though the pole didn’t hurt, Song Yuyan instinctively stepped back. With that, the Tang family’s wooden door slammed shut with a bang.

Song Yuyan gained nothing from this visit and was kicked out, as pathetic as could be.

The original owner’s mess left her to bear the consequences, and she felt bitter!

“Forget it. Without salt, the food will taste bad, but if I don’t eat or drink, I’ll starve. I’ll just endure it!” Song Yuyan tried to stay positive.

As she turned to leave, the wooden door opened again. A girl even younger than Tang Zhi, looking conflicted, handed her a package wrapped in oil paper.

“For me?” Song Yuyan was surprised. Tang Ye, Tang Zhi’s younger sister, was shy and always avoided the original owner, never showing her kindness. What was going on?

Tang Ye nodded and said softly, “My sister told me to give this to you and said to trust you this once…”

Her voice grew quieter, and she quickly closed the door again.

Song Yuyan opened the oil paper. Inside was the coarse salt everyone used in this era, like modern industrial salt, but it was the most common kind here.

Her heart warmed. She knew Tang Zhi was still kind-hearted and suddenly understood why the original owner always lingered in the Tang family’s garden before stealing vegetables.

“Thank you, I’ll return it!” she shouted, though the door was closed.