mijobooks Chapter 46 Selling Things in Wuzhen
Chapter 46 Selling Things in Wuzhen
"You eat first, I'll go check," Wang Guiying said, then took the kerosene lamp and went out to investigate.
A moment later,
Wang Guiying led Liu Jianguo, Li Xiangyang's brother-in-law, into the room.
"Quick, warm yourself by the fire! You silly boy, walking all this way by yourself in this freezing weather, how far has it been!" Wang Guiying said anxiously to Liu Jianguo.
"Jianguo, come quickly, drink this soup." Li Xiangyang, ignoring his surprise, scooped up a large bowl of venison soup and handed it to him to drink.
Looking at Liu Jianguo, who was shivering from the cold, Li Xiangyang felt a pang of heartache and said, "It's so cold. We agreed that you would wait for me at the village entrance to pick you up. Why did you walk all the way here by yourself?"
"No...no, it's nothing." Liu Jianguo said it was nothing, but his tongue was already numb from the cold. He still managed a weak smile and said, "I thought it would be too troublesome for my brother-in-law to go through Liu Family Village before going to Wuzhen, so..."
"Oh, silly child." Wang Guiying came over with a basin of hot water at this moment: "Why are you talking about trouble or not with your own brother-in-law? That's too formal."
The water temperature is just right, come and wash your face quickly.
"Mmm, thank you... thank you, Auntie." Liu Jianguo didn't stand on ceremony and scooped up some warm water to wash his face.
The warm water instantly dispelled the numbness on his face, making him feel comfortable all over. Only then did Liu Jianguo realize that his face was his own.
"Here, Jianguo, have another bowl of porridge my mom made." Li Xiangdong ladled out a bowl of rice porridge and handed it to Liu Jianguo.
Liu Jianguo often brought rice and noodles to Liu Xiulan, and he indirectly ate quite a bit of it himself. So Li Xiangdong didn't treat him like an outsider.
"No, no need, Brother Xiangdong, I already had some porridge before I came here." Liu Jianguo waved his hand, somewhat embarrassed.
"Since you're already calling me brother, don't be so polite. Drink this so you can go out with Xiangyang to sell things later."
Li Xiangdong wasn't good with sweet talk; he simply shoved the bowl into Liu Jianguo's hands.
"Thank you... thank you, thank you." Liu Jianguo couldn't refuse, so he thanked him repeatedly.
But when he took the bowl, he was stunned. The Li family was actually drinking rice porridge...? And it was even sprinkled with pork cracklings...?
Looking at the soup I just swallowed whole, it turned out to be meat broth...?
That's a bit extravagant, isn't it?
Li Xiangyang brought a lot of meat to their house the day before yesterday, but apart from the meal they ate when they entertained Li Xiangyang that day, Zhou Chunxia froze the rest, saying that she would save it for the New Year.
Saves me the expense of buying it again.
When he came over in the morning, he only drank a very thin bowl of coarse grain porridge with pickled dried vegetables.
Just seven or eight days ago, he was worried that his older sister Liu Xiulan wasn't eating enough, so he brought a bag of flour to the Li family...
"Jianguo, have you eaten?" Li Xiangyang had finished eating and stood up to straighten his clothes and hat. "I'm done eating, so I'll go and get the carriage ready first."
With that, he pushed open the door and went out.
"Mmm, I'm full." Liu Jianguo quickly slurped up the rest of the rice porridge in his bowl, wiped his mouth, and followed them out.
After helping Li Xiangyang load the fish, along with the rabbit and red fox that had been prepared the day before, onto the carriage, Li Xiangdong pulled the sled and went out alone.
Last night, Li Xiangyang told him the location of the wire snare and asked him to go and check this morning to see if he had caught any prey.
Because his marksmanship was so terrible, he didn't bring a gun, but instead brought an axe.
Li Xiangyang then drove the horse-drawn carriage to Wuzhen, telling Liu Jianguo along the way about their upcoming trip to Liujia Village to purchase straw.
"By the way, Jianguo, do you have enough food and timber? I met a friend who said the weather this year is a bit abnormal, and there might be a snow disaster."
Li Xiangyang felt it was necessary to discuss this matter with the Liu family, even though the Liu family were farmers and didn't have much to do in the winter.
"No need. Although we have stockpiled coarse grains at home, it's enough for us. We contracted four acres of land at the beginning of this year, and the harvest was pretty good."
Liu Jianguo responded.
"Okay, that's good. If there's anything you need at home, you can take some money from me to buy it." Li Xiangyang said, reaching into the inner pocket of his cashmere coat and feeling around.
He felt relieved to know that the 150 yuan Wang Guiying had given him before leaving home was still there.
The carriage wasn't carrying much today, and the horses ran very fast, arriving at the backyard of the state-run restaurant in less than an hour.
"Xiangyang, why are you here so early today?" Tu Weimin handed Li Xiangyang a Daqianmen cigarette and said, "They've been cracking down hard on the black market lately, and you still dare to go...?"
He guessed that Li Xiangyang must have come so early to try his luck at the black market, but as a friend, he felt obligated to remind him.
"I'm not going to the black market. I caught a few rabbits and a red fox yesterday, and I plan to take them to the purchasing station to sell later."
Li Xiangyang took the cigarette and started smoking.
The fish can be weighed and the price calculated by Liu Jianguo and the restaurant's kitchen staff; he doesn't need to worry about it.
"You even managed to kill a Red Fox...? Where is it? Let me see." Tu Weimin became interested.
Rabbits are quite common, but red foxes are rare, and their meat has a fishy smell. However, he knew that some customers liked to order this kind of flavorful wild game.
Li Xiangyang, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, walked out the door and brought in the sack containing the red fox carcass from the carriage, placing it in front of Tu Weimin: "Here it is, see if you want to take it or not."
"It really is a red fox." Tu Weimin opened the sack and recognized it at a glance.
"Of course it's true," Li Xiangyang said with a smile. "The pelts we plucked are still on the carriage. You can have them all if you want."
"You," Tu Weimin pointed at Li Xiangyang, "You're just joking. What would I do with that stuff? We do have customers ordering red fox meat, though. How do you plan to sell it?"
"Either way, whole or in half. Whatever price you pay the supply and marketing cooperative, I'll give you a discount of one cent. How many do you want to buy?"
"Give me half. The supply and marketing cooperative used to sell it for 1.1 yuan per jin."
At last,
Tu Weimin bought 7 jin of red fox meat, 2 rabbits, and 40 jin of fish from Li Xiangyang, and paid Li Xiangyang 21 yuan and 5 mao.
After leaving the state-run restaurant, we arrived at the supply and marketing cooperative. The carriage was still parked in the same alley as before.
Li Xiangyang packed the remaining 20 jin of fish into a sack and had Liu Jianguo follow his example, asking each person who came out of the supply and marketing cooperative.
"Auntie...madam, are you buying fish?"
"Need not."
"Uncle... there's fish, want to see?"
"No, no need."
"Hello, comrade, you want fish..."
"No need, go away!"
Liu Jianguo asked several people in succession, but was rejected by all of them. He didn't sell a single pound of fish.
He had some doubts: would people who bought things from the supply and marketing cooperative still sell him fish?
I'm a bit discouraged; I feel like the chances of selling these fish are slim.
at this time,
A middle-aged woman wearing a floral cotton-padded jacket saw him loitering around the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative carrying a burlap sack, so she came over and asked:
"Young man, are you selling fish?"
"Yes, selling fish. Look, ma'am, they're so fresh."
Seeing that business had come in, Liu Jianguo immediately perked up.
"Okay, let me see. A few days ago, a young man was selling fish here too. After he took it home and thawed it, I found it was indeed quite fresh. You guys aren't in cahoots, are you?"
The middle-aged woman asked casually as she poked at the fish.
"Yes, we're together! He's over there." Liu Jianguo pointed to Li Xiangyang, who was resting in the carriage, without hesitation.
"Okay, give me this carp. I'll save it for the New Year."
The middle-aged woman picked up a large carp with a red head and a red tail and smiled with satisfaction.