Chapter 64: Silent Little Fox
Old Zhang sipped his water pipe and said, "I'm old and useless. I can even fall down when walking on flat ground and break my hand."
Shen Sisi looked at his hand with concern: “It takes a hundred days to heal a broken bone, let alone at your age.”
"Isn't it? The doctor said that my hands can no longer lift heavy objects. This oil mill...is basically closed down."
Old Zhang was filled with emotion as he looked at the empire he had built.
He was already so badly injured, Shen Sisi felt embarrassed to make things difficult for him.
"Little girl, if you want to buy some oil, there's a Wang's oil shop on the next street. Go there!"
Shen Sisi shook her head: "Grandpa, I just went to that store. The oil is good, but the price is too expensive, much more expensive than the supply and marketing cooperative."
Old Zhang got angry when he heard this: "That Wang family must have seen that my family was selling oil. Since they were the only ones around here selling oil, they deliberately offered a high price!"
Shen Sisi also felt it was very likely, but there was no evidence.
"He will just cut the leeks for a while, and when your oil mill is transferred to someone else, he will lower the price." Shen Sisi said.
These words were like a key that opened Old Zhang's chatterbox.
"You don't know, none of the people who came to buy my oil mill are good, just like my two children. I wanted to pass on my skills to them, but they didn't want to learn and said they could just hire someone else..."
Those who come to take over are all for the purpose of making money. How many of them are willing to actually spend money to learn the craft?
"This is an ancient method of oil extraction, passed down from our ancestors. I can't let it be lost..."
Old Zhang felt very upset when talking about this matter, and said that if anyone was willing to learn his craft, he would sell the oil mill for 200 yuan less.
Shen Sisi looked at the oil mill, which was quite large, and asked him if he felt it was a pity to sell it.
Old Zhang said with tears in his eyes, "What a shame, but there's nothing we can do. Our two children are so filial that they insisted on taking us to live with them. This oil mill will just sit there anyway, and we won't be returning to Jiangcheng anymore. If we don't sell it, it'll just breed worms."
Chen Sisi finally understood. It turned out that Old Zhang and his wife were going to move to another place, but they were reluctant to let the oil mill and their old craft go to waste, so they stayed here.
"So how much do you plan to sell this oil mill for?" Shen Sisi asked casually.
Old Zhang raised his index finger: "One thousand yuan!"
"One thousand yuan!!!" Shen Sisi's heart exploded. Is it so expensive?
In Jiangcheng, buying a shop along the street only costs about 1,000 yuan, let alone this remote Cotton Lane, which is almost out of the city.
"My territory is large, and the tools for oil extraction are all ready. I have a group of familiar old friends under me, and the suppliers are also ready." said Old Zhang.
After Shen Sisi's calculation, plus these hidden clauses, this oil mill didn't seem too expensive.
"In that case, it doesn't seem to matter whether the person who takes over learns the craft or not."
"Not really, not really..." Old Zhang spoke in a refined manner, "How to select the materials and what the oil pressing process is still something that needs to be discerned by someone. Most importantly, I have to see if this person has a conscience. My oil mill cannot produce low-quality oil that harms people!"
Hearing this, Shen Sisi began to admire this old man Zhang.
I didn't expect that he was thinking about others.
"If I meet a kind-hearted businessman who is willing to learn the craft, I wouldn't mind selling the oil mill for two or three hundred yuan less."
Shen Sisi slammed the table: "You said it! Don't regret it~"
Old Zhang raised his cloudy eyes and finally looked her in the eye: "You...you're not here to buy oil? Are you here to see the oil mill?"
Shen Sisi smiled like a cunning little fox, her eyes curved. “I was only planning to buy oil, but now I’ve changed my mind.”
Instead of begging for oil from everyone, having to pay a higher price and not being able to guarantee the quality, it is better to buy this oil mill. Even if the medicinal oil business is not good, you can still do other businesses that are sure to make a profit.
Old Zhang was dumbfounded. He never expected that such a young girl would want to buy his oil mill.
"How can a little girl like you endure this hardship? Do you know how hard it is to press oil?"
"One of our battering rams weighs over 200 pounds. Can a little girl like you lift it?"
Two hundred pounds... this is indeed a bit difficult, but if you don’t have enough strength, you can make up for it with your IQ!
Her eyes rolled. "If I can lift the battering ram, will you sell me the oil mill at a lower price?"
"You can't let anyone help you..."
"no problem!"
Old Zhang glanced at her with contempt. The weak little girl spoke so arrogantly without even worrying about her tongue.
"This is just one step. There's also material selection, frying, oil production, and finally, pressing. There's a lot to learn..."
Shen Sisi knew that Old Zhang did it on purpose. Perhaps he didn't care whether the buyers could press oil using the traditional method or not. He just wanted to find a job for his workers to make a living.
Once the oil mill is converted to mechanical oil pressing, all his old friends will be left with nothing!
"Apart from this, how do you prove your conscience?" Old Zhang's eyes suddenly became shrewd and pierced into people's hearts.
Shen Sisi smiled and took out a sample of the medicinal oil she made from her bag and placed it in front of Old Zhang: "Old man, this is the medicinal oil I made myself. Apply it on your arm. When you wake up the next day, you will know my conscience."
Old Zhang thought it was very interesting. Using a bottle of medicinal oil to prove one's conscience was the first time he had seen it. Could this girl be playing tricks on him?
"So mysterious, I don't know what's going on..."
"Grandpa, just give it a try..."
After much persuasion, Shen Sisi finally persuaded Old Zhang to accept the medicinal oil. Then, seeing that he still had two barrels of unsold soybean oil at home, she bought them all in one go.
The matter of buying the oil mill can be considered in the long term, but the more than one hundred bottles of medicinal oil are urgent.
She went out and called a cart driver to help him move the medicinal oil onto the wooden cart. Then she sat on the cart, went to the black market, bought other medicinal herbs, and drove them directly back to the military compound.
Along the way, she attracted a lot of people's attention. Everyone was very curious. Why did Shen Sisi buy two barrels of oil? Was she going to eat the oil?
Shen Sisi turned a blind eye and walked around the city with a clear conscience.
After finally arriving home, Xu Hongying was picking eggs in the yard when she saw Shen Sisi asking someone to bring two barrels of oil into the kitchen.
"Sisi, what are you doing?" Xu Hongying was scared. That much oil was enough for her to eat for several years. It would go bad if left at home!
Shen Sisi paid for the cart and turned to Xu Hongying and said, "Mom, I want to make medicated oil. Niuniu is at Sister Wenhui's house. Can you please go pick her up for me?"
Xu Hongying wanted to ask more, but was suddenly assigned a task by her. She could only walk out full of doubts, thinking of coming back to ask her again.
When she picked up Niu Niu and returned home, Shen Sisi had already steamed the medicine, and the whole yard was filled with the bitter smell of Chinese medicine.
"Mom..." Niu Niu touched her round belly and burped loudly.
Shen Sisi smiled and narrowed her eyes: "How much did you eat..."
Niu Niu stretched out a few fingers, fiddled with them repeatedly, made sure it was correct, and then showed them to her mother.
“I ate eight…”
Shen Sisi pressed her ring finger down, feeling both amused and helpless: "This is only eight, my little ancestor, why do you eat so much..."
"The meat dumplings cooked by my aunt are delicious!" Niu Niu said, smacking her little lips, which were shiny with oil.
"Even if it's delicious, you have to eat in moderation..." Shen Sisi told her that she must rest for a while before going to bed, otherwise she would not be able to digest it.
"Let's go play paper cutting."
Then she turned her head and saw Xu Hongying stretching her neck and looking into the kitchen.
"Mom, just ask whatever you want!"
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