Chapter 48 Wanwan’s Money-Making Plan
Hekou Town is half an hour away from Ping'an Town.
Ping'an Town is more than an hour away from Dahe Village.
The mother and her two children missed the oxcart and walked for almost two hours before finally seeing the familiar mountains.
At this time, the sun had already set, and twilight enveloped Dahe Village. The orange sunset was reflected in the rice fields, creating a serene and beautiful scene.
"Grandma, why are you so late coming back?"
"Sister-in-law Zhao, I heard you went to town to sell food today. How was business?"
The women chatting under the big locust tree saw the mother and her two children approaching and asked them all sorts of questions.
Cheng Wanwan gestured for her two sons to carry the things back first. She smiled and said, "I made some food. Luckily, I managed to sell it all and earned a few copper coins. I bought the children a little meat, about half a pound, to have some meat to taste."
"After the price of grain in town went up, the price of meat also skyrocketed. When I went to ask last time, it was 25 copper coins a pound, which is ridiculously expensive."
"Mom can afford meat that costs 25 coins a pound, so it seems she really makes a lot of money."
"Tell us, how much money did you make?"
Women are naturally gossipy, and they all stared wide-eyed, seeking answers.
"The price of meat is thirty-five today," Cheng Wanwan sighed. "I spent thirty coins to get just this little bit. There are six people in my family, so each of us can just have a bite to taste. We'll use the rest of the coins to buy ducks. We have water, so we can raise some ducks and sell the eggs. That's much better than working so hard to make food."
A woman who knew how to do the math did some mental calculations: pork cost thirty coins, and twenty ducks would cost at least one hundred coins. In other words, Da Shan's mother had earned more than one hundred coins after a busy day!
Countless women looked on with envy: "Grandma Mountain, what kind of food are you making?"
Cheng Wanwan continued to sigh: "Just a few days ago, I asked the kids to help me pick some lantern grass. It seemed like it didn't cost much, but once you start making it, you realize how troublesome it is. The main problem is that you have to add sugar. Everyone knows how expensive sugar is, right? Forty or fifty coins a pound. Every day, I have to buy a big bag of sugar, boil it into water, and add it. I also have to add peanuts to make it crispy..."
The woman present had a complicated expression. A bowl of water that had no flavor could make one's mouth water just by adding brown sugar.
Any food will taste pretty good if you add brown sugar.
But brown sugar is too expensive. They really dare not gamble on making pastries with brown sugar and taking them to town to sell. What if they can't sell them?
"I bought half a pound of brown sugar on credit from the general store today, and I need to continue selling food tomorrow to settle the debt," Cheng Wanwan said. "I'll continue buying lanterns from the lantern grass on the mountain, two coins a pound. I'd appreciate it if you ladies could help me out."
Aunt Wang slapped her thigh and said, "That's great! Before it gets completely dark, I'll take the barley up the mountain and get some more."
Another woman said, "I'll have my son go pick some too. If it's seven or eight pounds, will Aunt Dashan just throw it away?"
Cheng Wanwan smiled and said, "Of course we need it. This stuff is consumed quickly, so we'll take as much as we can get."
The women who had been chatting suddenly dispersed, afraid that if they were late going up the mountain, others would pick all the lantern grass.
Cheng Wanwan walked home slowly.
While earning her own money, she also gives the gossipy women in the village something to do, so they won't be envious of her.
She walked into the courtyard, where Wu Huiniang was processing pork, preparing to make braised pork using the same method as before. She worked quickly and soon had the pork stewing on the stove.
Zhao Dashan was busy washing the agate seeds, and Cheng Wanwan told him to go to the main room to work. No matter what era it was, the core technology could not be revealed. From now on, all the operation steps related to ice jelly should be done in the inner room.
Zhao Ergou was tending to his family's vegetable garden. He had been busy all day, and the land in front of and behind the house was almost finished. He divided the land into small plots, planted different vegetables in each plot, and then watered and fertilized the garden.
Zhao Sanniu chopped firewood in the open space of the yard, something he had to do every day.
Zhao Sidan was teasing the newly arrived ducklings and feeding them wild vegetable roots.
"Mom, I love ducklings so much!" His eyes lit up. "Ducklings love water, let's dig a pond for them."
Cheng Wanwan marked out a piece of land in the yard: "The ducks are still small, so they'll have to make do here for now. We'll build a big pond later."
She wanted to buy that piece of land at the foot of the mountain to dig a pond. Raising ducks was secondary; she planned to cultivate lotus roots, which were essentially jade shoots of this era.
Jade bamboo shoots are a southern variety, and those grown in Dahe Village are not as crisp and delicious, and their color is also pale yellow. However, there are improved varieties available in the mall, so the lotus roots and lotus seeds grown there are of good quality, but they cannot be too outstanding, otherwise it would be a huge loss if they were selected as tribute.
This item has always been a tribute item. Locals in the south can easily get their hands on it, but in other regions, only those in high positions within the palace and some members of the imperial family are qualified to have a taste.
If she were to cultivate them and sell them exclusively to the powerful and influential figures of the time, it would be a very lucrative business.
In her past life, she had visited West Lake, a place where ornamental lotus flowers grow. The lotus ponds there were vast, probably covering 60,000 to 70,000 acres. The scenery was incredibly beautiful when the lotus flowers were in full bloom.
If she had her own lotus pond, she could live in the village for the rest of her life, enjoying the flowers, drinking tea, and listening to the rain – a great pleasure in life.
But now, she can't even afford thirty acres of land.
The task is arduous and the road ahead is long; indeed, the task is arduous and the road ahead is long!
Before the last rays of sunlight had faded, the braised pork was finally ready. Less than a pound of meat filled more than half a bowl. It smelled sweet and delicious, and you wanted to swallow your tongue as you ate it.
The braised pork was eaten up in an instant. Each person was given a spoonful of the soup and mixed with white rice. It was simply the most delicious thing in the world.
After eating and drinking her fill, Cheng Wanwan took out a bag of snacks from her basket: "Sidan, this is for you, take it and eat it."
Zhao Sidan was overjoyed: "Mom, you're so good to me! Mom is my favorite person!"
He carefully peeled off the wrapper, and the aroma of the pastry filled the air. Before he could even take a bite, he heard the sound of people swallowing their saliva next to him.
Fearing that his three older brothers would prey on him like hungry wolves, he quickly hid the snacks in his sleeves.
Cheng Wanwan chuckled and continued rummaging through the basket: "Everyone has a bag, including Hui Niang. Eat your own, and don't take other people's."
Zhao Dashan scratched the back of his head: "Mom, I'm already this old, I don't need snacks."
Cheng Wanwan took the pastries from his hand and stuffed them into Wu Huiniang's hand: "If your man doesn't eat them, you can have them all. Don't leave any."
Wu Huiniang had never eaten such pastries bought from town before. Her hands trembled slightly as she took the pastries, and she said solemnly, her voice choked with emotion, "Thank you, Mother..."
She must be filial to her mother-in-law and take good care of her until her death.
Cheng Wanwan continued to rummage through her basket. None of the family members had ever handled copper coins before and had no concept of their purchasing power, so she had no trouble taking advantage of the situation. It seemed like she could never finish emptying the basket.
"Take all this grain inside and lock it up so no one can see it. Also, take this cloth; it can make one new set of clothes for each person. Use the leftover scraps to make some undergarments."
Don't think she didn't know that, apart from her eldest daughter-in-law, the other four boys in the family didn't wear undershirts, just a pair of trousers. If the trousers were torn, their buttocks would be exposed, which was simply unbearable to look at.
"You four boys can choose your own colors." Cheng Wanwan picked up pink and khaki fabrics. She preferred pink, but being her age, she was too embarrassed to pretend to be young. "I want khaki. Hui Niang, you make yourself a pink outfit; it'll make you look so youthful..."
Wu Huiniang's eyes suddenly widened.
The pink clothes were for a five or six-year-old girl; what kind of way was this for a woman to dress? But she dared not contradict her mother-in-law…
As the family was dividing the fabric, a voice came from the courtyard gate.
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