"Hua, Hua'er, this...this is your sister Siyu..." Su Sanhu glanced at the girl, his dark red face turning even redder, and his usually quick-witted mouth seemed to be tied in knots, unable to utter a complete sentence for a long time.
Su Hua's heart stirred slightly, and a smile appeared on her face. "Hello, Sister Siyu."
It turned out that this young girl was Liang Siyu, Su Sanhu's sweetheart.
The original owner had met him once or twice before, but the impression in the fragmented memories was very faint, so at first glance, he really didn't recognize him.
"Third Brother, it's not busy here right now." Su Hua smiled teasingly at Su Sanhu and quickly pushed him out. "You should spend some time chatting with Sister Siyu. Come back later, there's no rush."
“Hua’er…” Su Sanhu’s face was already flushed red.
"Go quickly, go quickly, I know what to do." Su Hua chuckled.
She's never eaten pork, but she's seen pigs run.
The young boys and girls were in the throes of first love, and she could smell the pungent, sour scent of romance even standing at the town gate.
This young girl looks gentle and kind. If she could be with Su Sanhu, it would be a wonderful thing. People in ancient times got married early. Now, Su Sanhu is already sixteen. If the Su family weren't poor, they would probably have already started discussing marriage.
While smilingly serving snails to the guests, Su Hua secretly ate some melon.
As the setting sun cast its last rays, they shone upon the two of them.
It was hard to tell whether the blush on her face came from the sunset or something else.
"Third Brother, give this bag of flavored snails to Sister Siyu to try."
A short while later, seeing that Liang Siyu was about to leave, Su Hua quickly scooped out two large spoonfuls of snails and wrapped them in taro leaves.
She had clearly seen the little girl swallowing her saliva as she watched the snails.
“Hua’er, this…” Su Sanhu held the snails, looking troubled. He knew his mother’s personality well. This big handful of snails was worth at least ten copper coins. If his mother found out, she would probably beat him with a shoehorn.
"It's alright." Su Hua smiled. "It's just for our future third sister-in-law to eat, so she's not an outsider. I'll talk to Mother about it."
"Hey, thank you, Hua'er!" Su Sanhu chuckled, then eagerly carried the snails towards Liang Siyu.
After much refusing, the little girl finally accepted the snails and left.
Su Sanhu stared at the little girl's retreating figure, almost standing like a statue.
Su Hua shook her head and smiled. She hadn't expected that her third brother would show signs of becoming a henpecked husband.
The brother and sister, one eating melons and the other eating melons, didn't notice that a blue cloth carriage was clattering away at the corner of the town entrance.
The spot where it had just stopped was littered with snail shells.
Business was good today. Before it got dark, the Su siblings' stall was sold out, and even the soup in the bowls was completely gone. When they packed up their stall, Su Dahu and his brother were driving their oxcart out of town. Seeing their expressions, they knew that they were also selling very well at the school.
“Hua’er, you don’t know, this school sells snails in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.” Su Erhu licked his lips. “Before the students finish school, the business is almost non-existent, but as soon as they leave school, the little kids smell the snails and can’t move away.”
Su Dahu drove the oxcart with a big smile on his face. "The students in the school are very generous. They all buy ten or twenty coins at a time. The pot we brought is not enough to sell. The students who came out late didn't even get to taste it. They asked us to bring another pot tomorrow."
"We can increase the amount of snails we bring tomorrow," Su Hua said thoughtfully, "but we can't bring a whole basin of them, that would be too much."
"Why?" Su Dahu asked, somewhat puzzled. "Wouldn't having more make more money?"
Su Sanhu nodded in agreement.
Su Erhu's eyes flickered slightly. "As the saying goes, what you can't have is the best. If you bring too much and everyone eats it all at once and gets full, then fewer people might buy it the next day. It's best to let some people not have any every day, making them anxiously long for it. Is that what Hua'er means?"
"Hahahaha..." Su Hua burst out laughing, "Second brother, you'll definitely be a shrewd businessman in the future!"
If she hadn't read some books about business in modern times, she wouldn't know how to do business at all.
On the contrary, Su Erhu was able to grasp the essence with just a slight touch.
He can be described as a born businessman.
"So what if I'm a shrewd businessman!" Su Erhu wasn't annoyed at being called a shrewd businessman; instead, he grinned. "From now on, Hua'er is the big shrewd businessman, and I'm the little shrewd businessman..."
Su Dahu and Su Sanhu looked at Su Erhu with some envy; Hua'er had never praised them before.
When the four Su siblings returned to Shanghe Village, it was dinnertime. Under the crooked sycamore tree at the village entrance, many people were eating their rice while staring wide-eyed at the road.
As soon as they saw the Su siblings' oxcart heading towards the village entrance, they swarmed around it.
"Big Tiger, Widow Liu said you guys are making money selling those 'snail' things in Cangwu Town, is that right?"
"Aren't river snails something chickens and ducks eat? How can people eat them?"
"And they're so expensive! Five of these tiny snails, no bigger than a fingernail, can be worth a copper coin. Is that really true?"
“We’re all from the same village. You can’t be the only one making money. Teach me how to cook these snails. My family goes hungry and cold every day. You can’t just keep making a fortune and ignore the rest of the village…”
One by one, they blocked the oxcart, almost scaring the old ox so much that it stumbled.
It took the combined efforts of the three Su brothers to calm the old ox down and prevent anyone from getting hurt.
Su Dahu glanced at the crowd gathered around him, cupped his hands and smiled, “As you all know, our Su family has ten members and only seven acres of land. The annual harvest is not enough to feed the family. Every year we have to sell our land and borrow grain. Now we have finally found a business that can earn us a few copper coins, and the whole family depends on this business to make a living.”
Seeing that everyone's emotions had calmed down a bit, he spoke up gently: "How about this, if any family is willing to provide food for my family, we'll consider teaching them the recipe for snails?"
Upon hearing this, the crowd fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
After a while, a man scoffed and shouted, "A recipe for snails is supposed to feed your whole family? Especially since you have a little girl who can eat a lot, she'll eat anyone who goes to your house into poverty. Only a fool would agree to that!"
Everyone nodded in agreement.
That's absolutely right! This so-called "flavored snail" dish seems to be making money now, but who knows what will happen in the future? If you can only make money temporarily, but have to take on the responsibility of supporting the entire Su family in their old age, it's not worth it no matter how you look at it.
Widow Liu coughed lightly and stepped out from behind the villagers who were watching.
"Young Tiger, I'm willing to support your whole family, so please teach me this snail recipe right away!"
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