Song Yan left a large amount of wood ear mushrooms, as well as flour, cornmeal, sorghum, millet, and sweet potatoes in their warehouse last time.

Xiao Hu brought all these things back little by little.

Song Yan told her mother-in-law that the house Wei Aiguo rented was Xiao Hu's warehouse. Now there's always an extra grain there. Could it be that Huang Daxian (a local deity) put the grain there?

Aunt Wei thought about it and realized that must be the case; the family's food supplies had been running low for many days.

Aunt Wei: Oh my! Master Huang is so thoughtful.

Here, food rations are not like those in the production brigade, where a year's worth of food is distributed at once.

If you can never finish all the food at home, wouldn't people be suspicious?

One day, Aunt Wei got up very early and secretly offered her prayers, expressing her gratitude to Huang Daxian.

…

If Xiao Hu wants to rent a house he likes, he has to go to Aunt Ji's place.

Xiao Hu took these things to Aunt Ji's house.

Song Yan felt that what Aunt Ji was doing was practically what a real estate agent was doing.

Xiao Hu had already become familiar with Aunt Ji, and he went directly to Aunt Ji's house with the things his second sister-in-law had asked him to bring.

The items were all the same quantity, and each person received a large bag as a gift for helping collect the rent.

Aunt Ji was definitely going to refuse, but Xiao Hu tried to persuade her with reason and emotion.

His second sister-in-law is the most considerate person, but she's heavily pregnant and can't come. It's already a pity she can't thank him in person, and if this gift isn't delivered, she won't be able to eat or sleep well.

In the end, it seemed that if Aunt Ji didn't accept it, she would be letting Song Yan down.

After Chang Xiaohu left, Aunt Ji realized that it was actually because he remembered her kindness.

This matter wasn't difficult for Aunt Ji, but it wouldn't be easy for others. However, no matter what, Aunt Ji felt she had to repay the favor. She couldn't let Aunt Ji have to repay it. Although Aunt Ji didn't care, Song Yan couldn't do that.

Aunt Ji: They are all kind-hearted people.

She became even more concerned about Chang Xiaohu's affairs.

There is an abandoned light bulb factory in the suburbs.

The key issue is that this abandoned factory is on the edge of the suburbs. It's right next to farmland and has water nearby. The older woman thought Xiaohu could do some work there because there are few people around.

Xiao Hu went to check out that place, and it's really nice. Then we should hurry and find someone to clean it up.

By the time Song Yan found out, Xiao Hu had already cleaned up the abandoned factory and even had Master Ji and his team set up the ovens.

Xiao Hu had already found two more people to help him sell the goods. One of them happened to be from a nearby village. Xiao Hu thought he was quite honest and reliable, so he asked him to find a few women in the village to help with the work.

Xiao Hu also found two men to work as night watchmen.

There are many people during the day, so a woman is assigned to be in charge, and there is no worry about anything getting lost. There are night watchmen at night.

Xiao Hu wanted to take Hei Zai over with him.

The land where the abandoned factory was located belonged to the village. I gave the village chief a few packs of cigarettes and got some women from the village to do the work. Things were pretty easy to get done.

The main cost was spent on building the oven and buying utensils such as large basins.

But Xiaohu is confident he can earn it back.

Just as Xiaohu had everything ready, Wei Aiguo came home for vacation. He heard Xiaohu tell him all about it!

The supply of ducks and marinade is not a problem, but what about the honey used to brush the roast duck?

"Huh?" Xiao Hu was a little dumbfounded; he really hadn't expected this.

You can get one or two pounds of honey by scouting, but you really can't get more than that.

"What should we do?" Xiaohu was so anxious he was about to cry. He had already spent more than 400 yuan.

Wei Aiguo said he would think of a way to help him.

What did Wei Aiguo think of? He went to his wife and asked her if he could keep bees in his spatial dimension.

This should work!

But there has to be a type of bee, I think it's called a queen bee!

Fortunately, beekeepers are not hard to find.

Wei Aiguo spent fifty yuan to buy all 14 boxes of bees from that person.

This includes all their utensils, as well as containers for holding honey.

When Wei Aiguo left, Xiao Hu's warehouse was already filled with many jars of honey.

Song Yan discovered that selling honey could be quite profitable.

Because she waters the flower field with spring water, the flowers will bloom continuously, and the honey can be harvested.

Xiao Hu was tasked with finding the glass jars to store the honey.

Kill a duck. Clean it thoroughly; the labor cost is two cents. Song Yan requires that the down and feathers be separated.

A woman with quick hands and feet can probably handle ten ducks a day!

The women worked incredibly hard, earning two yuan a day! That's more than the workers in the city.

The cost of the seasoning is about three cents per duck.

The person who roasts ducks charges one cent per duck. It's no problem for one person to roast forty ducks a day.

They also hired two general laborers. For example, to kill ducks, boil water, and clean. They paid two yuan a day.

The total cost of a duck is less than five yuan.

The selling price is set at ten yuan, and the wholesale price is nine yuan and fifty cents.

Wholesale was Song Yan's suggestion. She didn't recommend that Xiao Hu sell them one by one.

On the first day, we cooked ten ducks; on the second day, thirty; and on the fourth day, one hundred. After that, we cooked one hundred ducks every day.

Song Yan had Xiao Hu deliver the duck intestines, duck liver, and duck heart to the village chief. This was as a token of gratitude for using the factory and the land.

They said it would be delivered by the end of this year.

Xiao Hu didn't know why it was the end of the year; he just listened to his second sister-in-law.

Furthermore, Song Yan had Xiao Hu convert the factory's warehouse into a duck shed. The warehouse was very old and very large. It could easily house three thousand ducks.

Selling the ducks would definitely bring in money. Since only a few women who did the work earned money, the other villagers were inevitably envious.

What if every family could benefit? Then things would definitely be different.

These days, anything related to meat is considered good.

With 100 ducks every day, there's a considerable amount of offal. The villagers get their share of duck offal every few days.

The village chief will definitely get a cut. Even without Xiaohu saying anything, he warned the villagers to keep their mouths shut. If word gets out, nobody will benefit.

The village chief dared to do this because Wei Aiguo approached Aunt Ji and asked her to act as a go-between, registering the roast duck workshop under the name of a food factory.

The condition is that during holidays like Chinese New Year, they will be given priority access to low-priced roast duck.

Seven yuan each. Their factory only has about 200 people. That's no problem at all.