The village became lively again, but this time it was different from any other kind of "lively". It wasn't a happy occasion in the village, nor was it the busy season of spring planting and autumn harvest. Instead, it was a lively scene where the whole village was mobilized, and everyone was busy with their own shops.
Every household has roasted sweet potatoes, but after the autumn harvest, the people of Linjiagou Village followed Yue Jiuyue's lead and didn't join in the fun. Only now have they started renting Yue Jiuyue's shop at the cheapest price to open their own businesses.
Some people thought this business could last, so they borrowed money to have a blacksmith build an oven. Others just wanted to try it out. Those who didn't have the money to build an oven at home sold boiled sweet potatoes and sweet potato porridge. They also put some small items they made at home in the shop, or brought their surplus grains and vegetables that they couldn't bear to eat to sell.
Meanwhile, Yue Jiuyue's family was also selling roasted sweet potatoes and pancakes. They didn't sell grains or cabbages, but instead sold various small items that each family member made privately, so that each of them could save some money.
The news that Yue Jiuyue's family was selling pancakes quickly spread throughout the village. After all, making pancakes wasn't a skill-intensive job, and the villagers had already seen it before, with some even learning how to do it. This gave the villagers another way to earn money. Although they hadn't earned many coins yet, every villager's face was filled with a happy smile.
With more and more hope for the future, who wouldn't be happy?
The villagers are all very shrewd. They didn't teach their wives' family or other relatives how to make pancakes. Even though the method is very simple, if you haven't seen it with your own eyes or heard it with your own ears, you can't possibly succeed by just figuring it out on your own.
It won't work in the short term, at least, because no one in the village is willing to waste food and keep trying.
“Mom, the roasted sweet potatoes are not selling well this year. How about I go to the city to sell them? I heard there aren’t many sweet potato growers near the city. My older brother is there too, so we can help each other out.”
After dinner that day, Lin Chaobei shared his thoughts with Yue Jiuyue.
During this period, Lin Chaonan took Erhu to sell roasted sweet potatoes at the shop in town, while he took Da Niu to the county town to sell roasted sweet potatoes from a cart. However, there were too many people selling cooked sweet potatoes in both the county town and the town. Sometimes they could not even sell ten sweet potatoes a day. They really could not make any money. It was not even enough for a meal.
Now that his family's financial situation has improved, Lin Chaobei has gotten used to going out and spending money on lunch. He is no longer the Lin Chaobei who would rather go hungry and eat hard, dry bread than spend half a copper coin on a hot meal or a sip of hot water.
“The capital city? There aren’t many sweet potato growers there, and roasted sweet potatoes would definitely sell well. But how are you going to transport the raw sweet potatoes there? There will be a lot of snowy days in the future, and the roads will be either covered in melted snow or frozen ice. How do you plan to solve this problem?”
Yue Jiuyue had no objection to Lin Chaobei's idea of selling roasted sweet potatoes in the state capital, but she did not intend to ask Zhou Da and Zhou Er to deliver the goods for her. Not to mention whether there were bandits on the road, the road conditions in winter were difficult to travel, so Yue Jiuyue could not ask anyone to take the risk. The family did not rely on the little money Lin Chaobei earned to support them.
However, the fact that Lin Chaobei thought of selling roasted sweet potatoes in the state capital shows that he has learned to think, which means he is growing and may be able to stand on his own two feet someday.
However, Yue Jiuyue was unsure what path her family should take in the future. After all, the social classes here were too distinct: scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants. Even though merchants earned much less, they could not escape their low status. Not only were they easily looked down upon, but they would also jeopardize the future of their descendants!
Take Lin Chaodong and Liu Shi for example. The two of them are hoping that Dazhuang will take the imperial examination in the future, and Liu Shi is hoping that Dazhuang will get her an official title!
"Oh... what should we do then?"
Lin Chaobei was dumbfounded.
He only thought that since there were no roasted sweet potatoes in the capital, they would sell very well there. He didn't consider how to transport the raw sweet potatoes, nor did he consider how difficult the roads would be in winter. Not to mention the bandits, what if the horses and carts slipped and accidentally went into a ditch? What if the snowstorm was too heavy and the horses and people froze or got sick?
Moreover, sweet potatoes are susceptible to freezing. Although frozen sweet potatoes can still be eaten, their taste is much worse. Who would want to spend money to buy a bad roasted sweet potato?
"Let's forget about it then. I'll think of a solution later."
Lin Chaobei did not completely give up the idea, but he couldn't think of a good way to solve the problem at the moment, so he could only postpone it.
"Alright, then take your time thinking about it."
Yue Jiuyue waved and left.
She didn't really have any other choice, otherwise she would have given Lin Chaobei a few pointers, since she got a share of the money Lin Chaobei earned.
But her brain is only so big, she doesn't have much wisdom, and she can't use any cheat codes, so Lin Chaobei can only rely on his own brain to come up with a solution.
Consider it his training before he becomes Manager Lin.
Yue Jiuyue looked at the dark sky. It looked like it was going to snow again in the next few days.
Unfortunately, she forgot to plant a patch of wintersweet trees on her mountain; otherwise, appreciating the plum blossoms in winter would have been a pleasant pastime.
Alas! It's her small-farmer mentality at play; she only cares about fruit trees that can flower and bear fruit, and never thought about planting some purely ornamental flowers.
Except for roses and Chinese roses, which are thorny flowers used to prevent people from climbing walls. Besides, flowers have many uses and won't go to waste.
However, while the flowers of the wintersweet have their uses, the fruit of the wintersweet is poisonous. Yue Jiuyue did not want any more poisonous things in the house for the time being. After all, this was the countryside, and children were running around everywhere. Who knew which child would suddenly pick the fruit and eat it, and it would be bad if they got poisoned.
Therefore, even if one suddenly remembers that winter is a time to appreciate plum blossoms and snow, it is not possible to do so for the time being; we can only wait until later.
The fruit trees planted on the mountain now are common ones, such as apples, peaches, plums, and pomegranates. Because there are not enough saplings, we have been using cuttings to plant them in the fall. Although many of them did not survive, there are still quite a few fruit tree branches that have survived. We will eventually be able to plant them all over the mountain.
The fruit trees are spaced three to five meters apart, and these gaps can be used to plant grains and vegetables. This does not waste land; on the contrary, it makes rational use of the land and makes the land more productive than before.
There's also the lotus pond. I don't know why all the small fish fry I threw in this year have disappeared. I must raise more fish next year, or if that doesn't work, I'll raise crayfish.
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