Chapter 17

I have to put the radish cake business on hold for now. I still have dozens of pounds of radishes left in the cellar. I can make the filling and sell them for another morning at most.

After two days of resting and tinkering with the intestinal cleansing grass in the backyard, Yu finally found some time to clean the radishes. She couldn't cook, so she just helped out. In the afternoon, after cutting and blanching the radishes, she drained them and set them aside for Ye Jia to prepare the stuffing. With so little left, she could handle it all by herself, no need for two. Seeing the weather was nice, Ye Jia went for a walk around the village.

Wangjia Village was a large village close to town, and one of the least impoverished of the surrounding villages. Every household had enough food to raise livestock and poultry. Ye Jia also raised chickens, which were due to lay eggs in a month. He would eat the eggs from his chickens at home, and sell the eggs he bought.

Seeing someone raising chickens in their yard, Ye Jia went up to ask if they had any extra eggs. If they were fresh, he'd be willing to buy them for a penny each. Honestly, eggs were a valuable commodity in poorer places. Families who couldn't afford meat relied on eggs to nourish the elderly and children. But despite their price, they would still sell them if they could.

After all, no matter how good the eggs are, they won't sell for a penny in town. Ye Jia asked for one penny each, which was a good deal!

No matter whether they are fresh or not, those who have eggs at home will come over with baskets.

Ye Jia picked up a few eggs and looked at them. If someone's eggs were big and good, he would naturally buy them. "Don't worry, I didn't bring any money. If you ladies have time, please wait in my yard. I'll collect them and pay you on the spot."

When these words were spoken, the excited women became excited.

Ye Jia noticed that many families in the village stored eggs, and if her business took off, she'd have more than enough to cover her expenses. Feeling relieved, she turned and asked Guo Xing, the sheep farmer, if he wanted to sell his lamb. The Guo family was a well-known wealthy family in Wangjia Village, raising twenty or thirty sheep, several pigs, and flocks of chickens and ducks. It was said that the butcher shop in town bought its lamb from him.

The Guo family is also easy to recognize. The largest brick house in the village is Guo Xing's.

Although the family lived well, the wife was very frugal. They had so many chickens and ducks laying eggs, but they couldn't bear to eat them, so they sold most of them in town. When she heard someone in the village wanted to buy some, she naturally came out to ask. She squeezed in at the front and was stunned when Ye Jia asked about the lamb.

Many families in the village raise sheep. The land in Libei Town is not fertile, so the land doesn't yield much. However, the vegetation is abundant, and the livestock are well-raised. At the beginning of the year, many people came to her home to adopt lambs. These days, sheep are valuable; a full-grown sheep can fetch two taels of silver in town. Of course, the price of a lamb is different from that of a full-grown sheep.

Guo Xingjia hesitated for a long time and asked for a higher price, saying he wanted eight hundred coins.

Ye Jia actually had no idea about the price of the sheep, but when he saw the faces of the people around him, he knew that this person was asking for a high price.

She paused and said nothing.

Guo Xingjia seemed to realize that she had opened her mouth too wide, and her expression changed. She continued, "But Jianiang, you are from the village. We live close to each other, so naturally we won't argue with outsiders. If you want to take my lamb, I'll give you 750 coins each."

Ye Jia did not agree to her immediately, but just smiled faintly and said that he was just asking and would look into it later when he was free.

Guo Xing's family wasn't in a rush to sell their sheep. The hills behind were covered in grass, and if they let the sheep out to graze for a day and returned, they'd be full grown in a few months. Raising sheep was a skill they could master, and with butchers in town looking for them, they had no problem making money. Since Ye Jia didn't ask, she didn't say anything. She then asked Ye Jia when he wanted the eggs, saying they had several large baskets of them. Not only chicken eggs, but also goose and duck eggs.

Ye Jia was actually interested when she heard about duck eggs. Thanks to her love for food in her previous life, she knew how to pickle duck eggs. She could even make runny eggs.

These days, duck eggs aren't as good as chicken eggs. Mainly because they have a strong fishy smell and aren't as tasty as chicken eggs. Even though they're larger than chicken eggs, they're not widely eaten, and they don't sell well. Ye Jia hesitated for a moment, then tentatively offered two for one penny.

Who knew that after hearing these words, the eyes of the women around him lit up.

Everyone knows duck eggs are hard to sell; usually, anyone with them would fry them. Guo Xingjia had only been asking, but who knew Ye Jia would actually buy them? While the price wasn't high, eating them was enough, but selling them was the real money! Someone else immediately jumped in, saying they had a good stockpile of duck eggs, beating Guo Xingjia to the punch. They asked Ye Jia how much they wanted.

Ye Jia was just making salted duck eggs for her own consumption, so of course she didn't want many. "About a hundred, maybe."

After hearing what she said, didn’t everyone start fighting over it?

These country women didn't care about the embarrassment of fighting over the eggs. Families with many children had seven or eight mouths to feed. The money they stole was their lives, so who cared about a little shame? Everyone immediately pulled Ye Jia to their side, saying that their entire family could buy all the hundred duck eggs. Ye Jia's head ached from the noise, and she told anyone with eggs to take them to the Zhou family's yard. They wanted about a hundred chicken eggs, and the same for duck eggs.

After saying that, he turned around and left, regardless of whether they said whose eggs were good or bad.

After she left, the women dispersed and went home to gather their eggs. Ye Jia strolled around the village and then wandered to the back mountain.

By April, the back hills were already green. Leaves were sprouting, and the grass was growing wildly. Many village children were herding cattle and sheep to graze halfway up the hillside. Ye Jia walked a little further up the hill and discovered a number of holes fenced off with grass and trees. The holes were spotless, and upon closer inspection, there were signs of human activity. Just as she was wondering, she turned and saw a number of wild vegetables sprouting from the grass. There were also large bunches of wild onions.

Wild onions, they tasted delicious. Ye Jia picked a lot along the way and brought them home in small bunches.

When they returned to the Zhou residence, several women were already waiting in the courtyard, their chatter surrounding Yu. Yu, having heard the general idea of ​​what Ye Jia was talking about, realized the chive and egg pancake business, so she whispered something to quiet them down.

Although she has a weak personality, she is quite good at dealing with these things.

Ye Jia carried the large bundle of wild onions into the kitchen, and after thinking about it, she grabbed a small bundle to grow.

In the future, we won't have to buy onions for cooking at home. We can plant them in the patch of land in the backyard, and whenever we want to eat, we can just harvest a handful. Rui Jie'er was playing with the chickens in the yard. I wonder who she learned this from. Every day, she uses a small shovel to dig in the ground, digging up a lot of earthworms to feed the chickens. These chicks grow faster on worms than on corn, and they've all become plump thanks to the little one.

"Auntie, it's delicious!" The little girl was now fair and tender, and incredibly beautiful. Even with mud on her face, she was still lovely. She stood by the door, blinking her big eyes, holding a small thing and running over to show Ye Jia: "Look! It's what Ah Hua made!"

Ah Hua is the most colorful of the four chicks. She is very aggressive and will peck anyone who gets close to her.

Ye Jia looked up and saw a plump egg in the child's hands. She carefully held it over to him, and Ye Jia felt it was still warm. It must have been laid not long ago. Oh my! Have the chickens started laying? Ye Jia ran out and squatted beside the chicken coop to look inside. A large pheasant came up to her and pecked her head fiercely.

Zhou Jingchen stood by the window, watching the fight between the man and the chicken next to the chicken coop with a smile on his face. It wasn't until Ye Jia was pecked by the chicken and ran away in shame that he finally broke into a grin. Ye Jia turned around and saw him laughing, and immediately became furious: "What are you laughing at?"

"If you don't feed them regularly, they naturally won't recognize you." Zhou Jingchen suppressed the smile on his face.

Of course Ye Jia knew. Poultry and livestock have small brains, so they naturally don't recognize people they don't normally feed. Ye Jia hadn't thought of it until Rui Jie'er suddenly brought her an egg, which surprised her. After all, she had bought the four hens a long time ago, and she figured that once one laid an egg, the others would too. Who knew hens could be so aggressive!

"You haven't clipped your wings," Zhou Jingchen touched his nose after being glared at by Ye Jia, and said with a smile, "Who knows, one day it might fly up and peck you."

Ye Jia: “…”

Can chickens fly? Ye Jia didn't know. But she had to admit that Zhou Jingchen's gloating look was truly gloating.

On second thought, chickens and other poultry also have wings. With wings, they can fly. In her previous life, the chickens in the mountain chicken farms were all flying around. She had never raised chickens before, so she didn't understand. Now that she'd been enlightened, she immediately learned her lesson.

After brushing off the chicken feathers on her head, she turned around and went into the house to find a pair of scissors.

After dealing with the group, Yu turned and saw her son standing by the window, staring at something. Something stirred in her heart. Ever since her son woke up, he'd rarely looked this relaxed, usually filled with bitterness and resentment. She wondered what was going on here, but secretly, she considered her marriage a good one. With a new head of household, life would naturally bring joy.

After thinking about it, she couldn't help but walk over and mentioned asking Zhou Jingchen to move to the west room.

It was a rare occasion that Zhou Jingchen didn't object immediately. He just lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment before saying calmly, "It's not time yet."

Yu didn't understand what it meant that it was not the right time yet.

Frowning, she pondered for a moment, then sighed again. Three years of exile, most of the family had died along the way. It hadn't even been three years since King Jing hanged himself on the road. Her heart, which had just lightened, sank again at this thought. But the dead can't be brought back to life, and life must go on. So she carried two large baskets of chicken and duck eggs to the kitchen.

Ye Jia found a pair of scissors and went to the east room to pull Zhou Jingchen out.

The two stood in front of the chicken coop, and Ye Jia stuffed the scissors into his hands: "You cut it!"

Zhou Jingchen couldn't help but glance at her while holding the scissors.

Ye Jia frowned and said to him confidently: "What are you doing? You're a grown man and you don't even dare to cut a chicken wing!"

A smile slowly filled Zhou Jingchen's eyes. He thought about it for a moment, looking embarrassed. Then he nodded.

Ye Jia's face immediately fell. She glanced at Zhou Jingchen's tall figure, rolled her eyes at him, and took the scissors from his hand. There was still a bruise on her forehead from being pecked by a chicken. She said desperately, "Give it to me. Go and catch me to cut it. You've eaten for nothing."

Zhou Jingchen: “…”

"Why are you looking at me?" Ye Jia squinted at him. "You're so big, but you still can't catch a chicken?"

“…You’re right.”

Zhou Jingchen held his lips with one hand to hide his smile, and was about to say something when a short, stocky little girl ran over. Rui Jie'er, wearing a ragged floral jacket, rushed over, squatted beside the chicken coop, and grabbed a large hen. She was no taller than Zhou Jingchen's thigh. With one hand, she pinched the chicken's neck, and with the other, she grabbed the hem of Ye Jia's clothes and tugged, "Auntie, cut it!"

Ye Jia immediately leaned over, grabbed a flapping chicken wing and cut it off. With two clicks, the chicken was completely shaved.

I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but Ye Jia feels that the chicken has become much more obedient after the haircut.

Ye Jia patted the child's head: "Sister Rui, you are still useful."

The little one blinked her big eyes and puffed out her chest with joy. Ye Jia took the scissors back before being caught by Yu at the door. There were two hundred eggs. Chicken eggs were for business, but Yu didn't know what to do with the duck eggs.

"Pickle them." The salted duck eggs are pickled well and they are delicious for breakfast. "I'll bring back some salt and a jar when I get off the stall tomorrow."

Since there weren't many radishes left, only 120 pancakes were made. Speaking of which, the townspeople still prefer Ye Jia's pancakes. They tried the fresh ones yesterday and experienced their flavor. By comparison, everyone agrees that Xishi's stall still has the better stuff. Some of the lost customers have returned. The Zhang family's stall started to show up early this morning, but it's a much bleaker business than yesterday. However, the old man selling fried radish boxes with his grandson is doing quite well.

Perhaps because of yesterday's good sales, he made more today. A crowd had already gathered at his stall before Luzhai opened this morning. Some curious people asked Ye Jia if he could tolerate having his business taken away like this. They urged Ye Jia to ask for an explanation, but Ye Jia just laughed.

When the person who instigated her saw that she didn't respond, he left in boredom.

One hundred and twenty cakes were sold in a short time before the stall was closed. Ye Jia dragged Zhou Jingchen to the grain store and asked for another large bag of flour. If he wanted to change business, he would naturally have to buy seasonings. Ye Jia was squatting in the grain store and happened to see rice for sale, which made him happy. In those days, transportation was not well developed, and rice was very expensive in the north. Ye Jia asked and found out that rice was several cents more expensive than flour.

She is from the south and she loves rice. After thinking about it, she gritted her teeth and bought 20 kilograms.

Zhou Jingchen didn't say anything, but just carried the things and put them on the car. After filling up a lot of food, they were stopped by someone just after leaving the town.

He was a thin, somewhat tall young man. His face was sallow, but he was quite handsome. Perhaps his family was in trouble, so his clothes were poor, but they were still clean. When he saw Ye Jia and Zhou Jingchen coming out, he hesitated for a moment and stopped the ox cart. Ye Jia didn't recognize him at first, staring at him for a long time, and then called out out of guesswork, "Second brother?"

The man nodded, with a strange look on his face. He hesitated for a long time before speaking: "Third sister, mother is sick. You and your brother-in-law should go to her house when you have time."