Chapter 562 Chapter 563: It's settled

With his old man and mother helping to take care of the family, Zhou Huaian would go up the mountain to look for wild bees and collect herbs when he was not collecting herbs. When he was lucky, he could earn hundreds of yuan a day.

Days passed, and just two days after Xiao Jiuer was freed from her quilt, Xu Erchun's wedding banquet was over.

Zhou Huaian calculated that the day had come for the reply from the provincial capital, and planned to go to Ning'an early the next morning to ask what the reply was.

"Yan'er, if they give you a definite answer, what's your price?"

"That's the price I have in mind!" Yang Chunyan thought for a moment, "50% alcohol will cost at least 2.78 yuan, 60% alcohol will cost at least 3 yuan per pound."

Zhou Huaian looked at her in surprise. "50-proof liquor costs 70 cents per pound, 60-proof liquor costs 8.5 cents per pound, and small truffles for wine soaking cost 10 cents per pound. I didn't spend a penny on the rotten truffles and those with worm holes. Isn't this price a bit high?"

He originally planned to triple the price and sell it at two yuan per pound, which would already be a good profit.

"Although it is made from small truffles and rotten truffles, it is also a medicinal wine. Have you asked Brother Huang how much the medicinal wine in his restaurant costs? Also, medicinal wine is usually drunk by rich people. If it's too cheap, people may not want to buy it!"

"It seems to be fifty cents per ounce?" Zhou Huaian said with a smile, "You are right. Some rich people like to buy expensive things. They think expensive things give them face."

"This is our target price. Go to Ning'an tomorrow to listen to Dr. Wang's opinion."

"Yeah! I want to hear what they say over there!" "You take care of Xiao Jiuer, I'm going to the toilet." Yang Chunyan put Xiao Jiuer on the bed, pulled the quilt to cover him, put on her coat and went out.

Seeing him twisting and turning as if he was sleeping restlessly, Zhou Huaian said, "Little rascal, you'll know after your mother is gone! Come, let me hold you while you sleep!"

He walked forward and picked him up, holding the soft little guy in his arms, and couldn't help but kissing him. He smelled sweet milk. The child's head tilted, and he opened his black eyes and looked at him innocently.

Zhou Huaian happily leaned forward and gave her a kiss, "Little boy, can you see your old man? Look carefully, don't let it grow crooked, or you won't be able to get a wife in the future!"

Yang Chunyan walked into the room and saw that he had picked up the child again. "Why did you wake him up? Once he gets used to sleeping with the child in his arms, he won't be able to put him down."

Zhou Huaian smiled awkwardly and walked around the room with the child in his arms. "I saw him twisting and turning, and I was worried that he would cry, so I picked him up."

"Don't carry him around. Once you get used to it, you'll have to carry him around in circles before you can fall asleep!"

"Little thing, you are so cunning!" Zhou Huaian kissed her and handed the child to her. "Go to sleep. You have to get up early tomorrow."

"Okay!" Yang Chunyan took the child and placed him beside her. She lay down on her side and fed him milk. "Be good, eat your fill and go to sleep!"

In the middle of the night, Yang Chunyan vaguely heard the whistling sound of the wind outside. She turned on the flashlight to look at the child, got out of bed, opened the curtains, and saw a light rain outside.

It's time for two rains. I heard that the water in the river is getting shallower and shallower, and the water in the ravine can't even cover the rocks at the bottom of the ravine. If this continues, the water for irrigating the rice fields can only be pumped up from the river by water trucks.

Not long after she lay back down, heavy rain began to pour down. Thinking that Zhou Huaian had to go to Ning'an to deliver vegetables the next morning, she was worried that the rain would be too heavy and a mountain torrent would destroy the road, making it impossible for the tractor to drive out.

While I was daydreaming, I heard Xiao Jiuer making humming sounds. I turned sideways to feed him and fell asleep listening to the sound of the rain.

At half past five, the alarm clock rang on time. Zhou Huaian turned over and got up, "Yan'er, I dreamed that it rained last night."

"It was raining." Yang Chunyan put on her coat, walked to the window with a flashlight, opened the curtains and saw that the rain had stopped. The sky was still dark, and it looked like the rain had not yet fallen through. "It's cold in the morning, you should put on a coat."

"Okay!" Zhou Huaian put on his clothes, "I'm leaving, you sleep for a while."

Seeing him close the door and leave, Yang Chunyan lay down again.

Zhou Huaian went out, and Zhou's mother came out from the kitchen. "There are still some chicken offal left from last night's stir-fry. I'll cook you a bowl of chicken offal noodles."

"Why don't you sleep a little longer? I can go to Ning'an and buy two buns."

"You get up at five in the morning and go to bed at midnight. It's not easy to earn a dollar. Don't spend it recklessly. Save some money for the family. Save it well so that you can pay the fine for having a second child in the future."

Zhou Huaian took the washcloth, held the porcelain basin, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, I have already saved the money for the second child."

Zhou's mother glared at him in disapproval, "I've saved it up a long time ago. In the future, he won't have to spend money on food, clothing, and education! If you have another son, you'll have to build him a house and buy him a yard in the city so that you can divide it equally in the future and the child won't gossip when he grows up."

"Got it. You go and sleep for a while. I'll leave after I eat." Zhou Huaian hurried to the backyard. When he got there, he saw the old man was already sweeping the yard.

"Youngest, it rained so hard last night that the gutters in the yard and the back eaves are overflowing. You have to be careful on the road to Guanyin Mountain."

"Well!" Zhou Huaian washed up in a few seconds, "Grandpa, you have taken all the pills that Doctor Wang prescribed for you, why don't you come with me to Ning'an to have your eyes checked?"

"No!" The old man put down the big broom made of spotted bamboo, "My eyes are clear. Since I started taking medicine, I can see more clearly than in previous years."

"You and the old man don't have much tobacco left. I'll buy you two bundles."

"You don't have to buy the best ones. The ordinary ones are just a little more troublesome to wrap, but they all taste the same when you smoke them!"

"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian knew that it was useless to say more, so he just agreed. He bought it for five yuan and said it was three yuan. Then they would be relieved.

When he returned to the kitchen, the hot chicken noodles were already on the table with an egg on top.

After eating, he burped, and together with the old man, he carried the vegetables into the tractor bed, started the tractor and drove out of the yard.

The tractor wobbled past the grove and onto the main road. When it reached the bridge, it saw that the river had already submerged the rocky beach where it had used to fish.

The road here is easy to walk on, but the downhill road at Guanyin Mountain is almost sliding all the way to the bottom. Fortunately, the experienced driver has good skills, otherwise he would have gone into the rapeseed field.

It was already half past seven when he arrived in Ning'an. The sky was still gray and it looked like it would rain again. He did not dare to delay and delivered the dishes and went to Deshengtang.

Artemisia is out of season, so today we delivered plantain, dandelion, and some Croton tiglium.

Wang Zhen heard the sound of the tractor and came out of the clinic to help carry the herbs into the yard. "They've replied."

Zhou Huaian smiled and said, "I felt that it was time to reply, so I came here!"

"They think that 50-proof liquor has a better effect than 60-proof liquor, and suggest that you drink less strong liquor and more 50-proof or 45-proof liquor."

Zhou Huaian was dumbfounded after hearing this. "We still have several hundred kilograms of 60-proof liquor at home. I ordered 500 kilograms of 60-proof sorghum liquor a few days ago. I have to go to Hengshan as soon as I get back and ask Brother Weidong to change it to 45-proof liquor. Otherwise, I can only dig a wine cellar to hide it and let my son drink it when he gets married."

Wang Zhen smiled and said, "Unless you have ten sons! Take it back and hide it for ten years or so. It will become an aged cellar and you may even be able to sell it for a good price."

"I don't expect that." Zhou Huaian looked at him with a smile, "Did they say how much they would pay per pound?"

"From their tone, three to three and a half yuan per pound should be fine, but they said that the 60-degree ones need to be loaded for the time being."

"It's okay. If it doesn't work, I'll sell it at Brother Huang's restaurant." Zhou Huaian continued, "This price is a bit higher than Chunyan's psychological price. How about we set it at three yuan per pound?"

"Okay! After I weigh it for you, I'll call them and see when they'll send a truck to pick it up!" Wang Zhen said, "They said you stuffed the cartons with so much bran that there was no damage at all. They asked you to put some in there next time you pack it to prevent it from getting damaged by the bumps on the road."

Zhou Huaian thought that the price of rice bran was several cents per pound, "It's not worth it to load rice bran. I'd better pull a few tractors to the fields to collect a few hundred pounds of rice bran and load it in."

Wang Zhen thought he was going to raise the price, but he couldn't help but laugh. "Straw husks are fine, as long as they can fill the gaps in the carton and the wine bottles won't sway in the box."

"Okay!" Zhou Huaian and he lifted the bamboo basket onto the scale and started weighing it.

Wang Zhen took the abacus and started to fiddle with it. "62 catties of plantain, 0.3 cents a catty, 75 catties of dandelions, 0.3 cents a catty, 132 catties of cloverleaf vine, 0.4 cents a catty, a total of 93.5 yuan."

Zhou Huaian nodded. "It's so dark now, and it looks like it's going to rain. I'll help you move it to the warehouse and put it away. You go make the phone call."

"Okay!" Wang Zhen took two steps and turned back to say, "Xiaomei went to buy soy milk and fried dough sticks. Would you like to have some as well?"

Zhou Huaian waved his hand quickly, "No. When I came here, my mother cooked a bowl of chicken noodles and put an egg in it. After eating it, my throat was full."

Wang Zhen said enviously: "Auntie is so nice to you!"

Zhou Huaian looked at him with a smile, "Our mother-in-law has a better temper than my mother. She can never finish the poached eggs she cooks for us."

Wang Zhen nodded repeatedly, "My mother-in-law is really nice."

"That's why they say the more a mother-in-law looks at her son-in-law, the more satisfied she is!"

"That makes sense!" Wang Zhen smiled and went into the house to make a phone call.

Yang Dongmei entered the yard carrying soy milk and fried dough sticks. Seeing Zhou Huaian carrying a bamboo basket and walking towards the storeroom, she hurriedly called out, "Brother-in-law, I bought an extra portion because you were coming."

Zhou Huaian turned around and said, "Why didn't you expect that I would eat before coming here today?"

"Forget it!" Yang Dongmei went to the kitchen carrying soy milk and fried dough sticks.

When Wang Zhen came out after the call, Zhou Huaian had already moved all the herbs into the warehouse. "Brother Zhou, it's already been agreed. When they come over to talk, they can bring the wine jars and the agreement. I will take them to your place to get the wine."

Zhou Huaian asked happily: "Are you going to fill the wine yourself?"

Wang Zhen smiled and nodded, "They are going to bring a truckload of wine cans here, and I will take them to deliver the wine cans."

Zhou Huaian excitedly piled up the bamboo baskets together, "Then I have to go back and beat out the straw chaff quickly, then fill it up and take it away!"

(End of this chapter)