Chapter 52 Business is booming
"A bowl of ice jelly can relieve the summer heat, and two spoonfuls of brown sugar can make you forget your worries."
This humorous poem spread widely in Nanfu Academy, and within just one day and one night, ice jelly became a well-known food among the students.
As soon as Cheng Wanwan opened her stall, students came in groups of three or five one after another.
There were twenty sets of tableware in total. Five people worked together, and in less than fifteen minutes, a bucket of ice jelly was sold out.
An empty bucket contained all the copper coins they had earned that day. The four Zhao boys had never seen so many copper coins before, and their eyes widened in disbelief.
Cheng Wanwan coughed and said, "Let's pack our things first, then find a secluded place and count how much money we've made."
The four boys nodded vigorously, quickly washed the dishes, put them in a bucket, tidied up the wooden planks, placed them by the roadside, and the group of five hurried towards the nearest alley.
Zhao Sidan had just turned around when he stopped in his tracks. He looked back and saw that the person who had just come out of the Nanfu Academy looked like his cousin.
In the past, when my mother scolded them, she often said that they were not as good as my cousin Cheng Zhao. Whenever there was something good to eat at home, my mother would send it to the Cheng family, which was actually for my cousin Cheng Zhao.
Cousin Cheng Zhao's education was expensive, and the compensation money his father received for dying in battle was all sent to the Cheng family by his mother.
If Mother sees Cousin Cheng Zhao today, she will definitely stuff all the copper coins into Cousin Cheng Zhao's arms immediately after he has earned so many copper coins.
This is money they worked hard to earn, and they won't let Cheng Zhao have it for free!
Zhao Sidan glanced at Cheng Wanwan, and seeing that his mother hadn't seen his cousin, he quickly left the academy gate.
Cheng Zhao, who had just come out of the academy, frowned as he looked at the five people walking further and further away in the distance. Why did they look like his second aunt and four cousins?
What are my second aunt and her cousins doing in Hekou Town?
As Cheng Zhao pondered, several classmates approached him with sneers on their faces: "Brother Cheng, what are you doing?"
Cheng Zhao held several copied books in his hand and asked in a humble manner, "Would you like to come along with me to Dehe Hall?"
"We have no interest in copying books at Dehe Hall," a student clicked his tongue twice. "I heard it only costs one hundred coins to copy a book. How long will it take you to copy one?"
Cheng Zhao said calmly, "If you are busy with your studies, it will take half a month to copy one book."
"Haha, that means it takes half a month to earn 100 coins."
"One hundred coins can't even buy an inkstone, only the worst writing brush."
"Brother Cheng, your family is so poor, you might as well go back to farming..."
These people openly sneered, but Cheng Zhao's expression remained unchanged. He turned and left the academy gate, taking three copies of books with him to Dehe Hall.
Cheng Wanwan and her four sons sat on the ground in an empty alley.
The four boys had never learned arithmetic, and they would get stuck when they counted to ten, scratching their ears and cheeks incessantly.
Cheng Wanwan had to count them herself, and in the end, there were a total of 723 copper coins.
"The three buckets of ice jelly used nearly three catties of ice jelly seeds and about twelve catties of lanterns. The wages paid were twenty-four coins, and the brown sugar and peanuts cost a total of eighty coins. After deducting these, how much did we earn today?"
She looked at the four boys in front of her with a smile and offered them tempting terms.
"Whoever is the first to give the correct answer will receive a meat bun as a reward at noon today."
A long few minutes passed...
Finally, someone raised their hand, and Zhao Sidan excitedly said, "Mom, I know, it's six hundred and twenty-nine!"
Cheng Wanwan shook her head: "It's still a little short, calculate it again carefully."
Zhao Sidan racked his brains, counting on his fingers.
Zhao Ergou's eyes lit up: "I've figured it out, it's six hundred and nineteen!"
"Er Gou did a good job. He'll get a big meat bun as a reward at noon today." Cheng Wanwan said with a smile, "None of you four are good at arithmetic. Starting tonight, spend the time it takes for an incense stick to burn each day to learn how to do arithmetic properly."
Zhao Ergou and Zhao Sidan were slightly excited.
Zhao Dashan and Zhao Sanniu both had miserable faces.
This seemingly small incident perfectly revealed the personalities of the four boys.
Cheng Wanwan put all the copper coins into her waist pouch, stood up and said, "Come on, Mother will take you to get something to eat."
The mother and her five children sat down in a wonton shop. The proprietress brought over five bowls of wontons and said with a smile, "Sister-in-law, you bought five bowls at once. You're one of our biggest customers. We've included some pickled vegetables for you to try."
There was some pickled vegetables in a small dish, and it tasted pretty good.
Cheng Wanwan seized the opportunity to lecture, "This proprietress is a savvy businesswoman. She gave us some pickled vegetables this time, so we'll definitely come back to her shop next time we want wontons. Similarly, when we sell ice jelly, we need to make our customers feel like they're getting a good deal. Like today, Er Gou shortchanged us by a few coins. It's not a big deal. If you insist on making the customer pay the difference, they'll feel like they've been cheated. To do business long-term, you can't be concerned about a few coins. There are gains and losses; that's the way to do business in the long run..."
Zhao Ergou nodded thoughtfully.
After finishing the wontons, the four boys were only half full, so Cheng Wanwan went to buy a few meat buns, one for each of them, and one extra for Zhao Ergou.
Besides staple food, there were no other vegetables at home. There was no shortage of wild vegetables and mushrooms on the mountain, but what was most lacking was meat.
Cheng Wanwan led a group of boys straight to the butcher shop. It was afternoon, and there wasn't much fresh meat left. There was a piece of pork belly, some pig offal, pig bones, and pig blood left.
Cheng Wanwan bought all of these things. The pork was two catties for sixty coins, the pork bones were relatively cheap at ten coins per catty, and the pig blood was given away for free by the butcher.
While Cheng Wanwan was shopping, Zhao Ergou silently did the math beside her: "The wontons cost sixty coins, the meat buns thirty-five coins, and the pork sixty coins..."
He muttered to himself as he slowly added up the money, and was immediately shocked.
It looks like I've earned a lot of coins, but I've already spent almost half of them just by buying such a small amount of things.
How much did Mom earn yesterday? How come she was able to buy dozens of kilograms of rice and flour, so many bolts of cloth, twenty ducks, and five packs of pastries...?
As soon as Cheng Wanwan turned her head, she heard Zhao Ergou calculating money, and her heart skipped a beat.
Of the four boys, the second one is the most shrewd. If the second one can settle the accounts clearly, she won't be able to take advantage of the situation in the future.
She said, "Everything in town has gone up in price. No matter how much money we make, it's not enough to live on. We still have rice and millet at home, so we won't buy any more for now. Dashan, here's twenty coins. Go and buy some food for Huiniang so she can try something new."
Zhao Dashan immediately went to do it; the money was just enough to buy a bowl of wontons and a steamed bun.
Since there was still brown sugar and peanuts at home, Cheng Wanwan didn't go shopping anymore and took her four sons back home.
The journey from Hekou Town back to Dahe Village was a bumpy oxcart ride. We finally arrived at the village entrance just as the sun was beginning to set.
At this hour, everyone in the village was busy in the fields. The mother and her five children were not surrounded by onlookers and went straight home. The yard was clean and tidy, and twenty ducklings were quacking happily.
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