When Lin Xue and the others arrived, they saw a black buttock sticking out from a bunch of spiky balls, with arrows stuck in it.
"This pig is truly amazing!"
Liu Qing witnessed the whole process and walked up behind the little wild boar with a hint of schadenfreude, kicking the exposed half of its rump with his toe.
"It should be a pig..."
Lin Xue walked over, squatted down, and instead of checking on the little wild boar immediately, she picked up a spiky ball, placed it on the ground, and smashed it open with a stone.
"Young wife, what are you doing with this thing? It's prickly!"
Liu Qing quickly took Lin Xue's hand and carefully blew on it.
Can't you be serious for once?!
Helplessly, Lin Xue pulled her hand back from Liu Qing's large palm, then picked up a few fruits with dark brown skins that were exposed on the ground.
"Huh?"
"There's something inside these spiky balls!"
Liu Qing watched Lin Xue's actions and reached out to pick up a chestnut from the ground.
After observing it carefully, I bit down with my upper teeth and cut the chestnut in half.
"Hey!"
"The fruit here is quite delicious, it has a light, sweet taste!"
This flavor completely won over Liu Qing.
He quickly pushed all the chestnuts aside and picked up the stones next to him to smash them one by one.
Of course, smashing the spiky balls requires a bit of skill, otherwise you might break all the chestnuts inside.
"This is called a chestnut, and it tastes even better when it's cooked!"
"If we could get some clean sand, it would taste even better after frying!"
Lin Xue dusted off her hands and pulled the little wild boar out from under the tree roots.
After a closer look, it was discovered that the little wild boar had died from the violent impact.
"My dear wife, these chestnuts are a real treat."
"I'll talk to my older brother and the others later, and we'll come back another day to pick all these chestnuts!"
"There's a whole patch of these chestnut trees here. If we pick them all, we could probably eat them for several years."
As Liu Qing finished speaking, Lin Xue noticed that there was more than just one chestnut tree that had been hit by a wild boar.
Not far away, there was a large, densely packed area of them.
"We can have the villagers come and pick them together, and then we can start a family business so that the villagers can sell roasted chestnuts when they have no other work in the winter!"
Lin Xue thought about how popular roasted chestnuts would be in later generations and felt that this business was worthwhile.
Moreover, the village will raise a lot of ducks next year, and they can then try to open a roast duck restaurant in town.
Basically, the village provides the ingredients, the villagers provide the labor, and then everyone shares the profits.
The advantage of this type of family business is that a portion of the profits can be used for the education of the next generation.
For example, hiring a schoolteacher to come to the village to give children their first education.
Little Douding is already 6 years old this year, which is the age for early childhood education. If we delay any longer, he will miss the opportunity.
Lin Xue was making plans in her mind, and besides, she had already caught enough prey.
The two large wild boars together weigh at least five or six hundred pounds, and with a few smaller wild boars, this amount of meat is more than enough.
If there are any more, it won't be easy for them to take them back.
Even so, the three brothers first moved the wild boar to the outer perimeter, then had Liu Qing and Lin Xue guard it while they went back to find the flatcar.
It took the group a lot of effort to transport all the prey back home.
That evening, Lin Xue told Old Liu about the chestnuts.
Grandma Sun originally wanted to say that the chestnut business could be kept by her own family and there was no need to get involved with the villagers.
But after Old Liu explained, Old Mrs. Sun finally understood that farmers like them would face enormous obstacles if they wanted to open a shop in town.
If this were a family business, with the support of the entire village, it might actually be able to gain a foothold in the town.
In this day and age, it's not like ordinary people can just start a business whenever they want.
The town's original wealthy merchants have plenty of ways to steal your business.
They might even turn around and frame you, causing your family to be destroyed—that's quite common.
This is quite different from ordinary people selling their prey or the vegetables and eggs they grow themselves.
Once you actually open a shop in town, countless people on the street will investigate your background thoroughly.
Unless you have extremely powerful connections, you simply cannot gain a foothold in the town.
Having figured out the reason, Grandma Sun stopped objecting and told everyone about the chestnuts.
Old Liu went to discuss this matter with the old village chief that very night.
The final decision was to bring the chestnuts back from the mountain first, and then arrange for the villagers to sell them in various towns when the weather got colder.
They weren't in a hurry to buy shops; they started as small vendors to avoid attracting the attention of powerful families.
Once the reputation of chestnuts spreads, people will naturally come to their village seeking cooperation.
The villagers of Qingshan Village are looking to make a quick buck.
Then they would sell the chestnuts to wealthy merchants and earn another round of hard-earned money.
The money was used to buy ducklings, and the village has decided to implement a policy of raising ducks and rice together in the paddy fields next year.
After all, their village's fields are close to the river, so there is plenty of water for irrigation.
Knowing the villagers' plans, Lin Xue decided to collect the village's duck eggs next year, process them into preserved eggs, and make another fortune.
Lin Xue originally wanted to invite a tutor to teach in the village, but in the end the old village chief said that there were several private schools in the town, and the villagers in the vicinity all sent their children to study in the town.
The town is not far from their Qingshan Village, and the village will arrange an oxcart to pick up and drop off these children going to school.
After all, besides Liu Ping's family, there are several other families in the village whose children have reached school age.
Families with the means can pool their money, give each other a small monthly allowance, and arrange for an elderly person to drive the bus and pick them up and drop them off every day. This would put everyone at ease and make things easier for the children.
Since the village chief and the others had already discussed it, Lin Xue did not object anymore.
However, these are all family businesses in the village. As for the Liu family, Lin Xue has already started teaching her sisters-in-law how to make tofu.
They'll open a tofu shop and do wholesale tofu business.
Those in the village who are interested can take the tofu from them and sell it elsewhere.
Anyway, there's not much work to do in winter.
Get a small cart, put a big slab of tofu on it, and you can earn an income by selling it from village to village.
Tofu is a cost-effective and inexpensive food that tastes good, making it a top choice for families who can't afford meat.
This winter, all the villagers in Qingshan Village spent their time busy.
Some people sell chestnuts, and some sell tofu.
The Liu family, on the other hand, ran the tofu shop and made a lot of money.
Time flies by, and before we know it, the Lunar New Year is just around the corner.
The villagers of Qingshan Village received another message: a large number of refugees had arrived in Jizhou City.
I heard that they were chased by barbarians from their hometown and suffered a lot along the way, passing through several cities before finally arriving in Jizhou.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
