"Mmm." Li Bingchen nodded vigorously, his eyes sparkling with a thirst for knowledge as he looked at the clouds.
Yun Duo withdrew her restless fingers from her palm, smiled at Li Bingchen, and said, "Some people are already doing these side jobs, like raising chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, or even pigs and sheep. Not only can they feed themselves, but more importantly, they can sell them for money. It's just a pity that grain production is too low these days, and even people have trouble eating. There's simply no grain to feed livestock; they can only feed them grass or sweet potato vines. It's hard to scale up. It can only be done on a small scale, but it can still improve their lives to some extent. I see that most families in the village raise these things, and I imagine it's similar in other places."
"The other is beekeeping."
“Not only honey can be sold for money, but also beeswax, pollen, and royal jelly. If you make a large-scale operation, you can also make money from these, and you can even export them. However, if you don’t make a large-scale operation, it’s not easy to obtain them. If you only have a small amount, you can’t sell them at all.”
"Moreover, with bees pollinating, crops can grow better."
"But to be honest, there are very few beekeepers nowadays, and it's very difficult to make it on a large scale. Moreover, most people don't even know where to find bees to keep bees. Like my family, we were just lucky to get two colonies of wild bees to keep and harvest some honey to sell. But we can't harvest too much honey, otherwise, they might fly away at any time."
"actually……"
At this point, Yun Duo hesitated for a moment.
"Actually what?" Li Bingchen almost leaned his body against the clouds, his face showing an impatient expression.
Yun Duo thought for a moment, organized her thoughts, and then continued, "I heard Grandpa say that Grandma's family used to sell silk fabrics. Later, the factories used very advanced machines to weave cotton and linen fabrics, and selling silk fabrics wasn't as profitable as selling cotton and linen fabrics, so they switched to selling cotton and linen fabrics. He also said that silk fabrics weren't selling well because of the war; all the wealthy people left, and ordinary people couldn't afford silk fabrics."
"You just said that we owe money to foreigners, does that mean that foreigners are richer than us?"
“Not entirely,” Li Bingchen frowned and thought for a moment before saying, “Some countries are richer than us, but there are also some countries that are about the same as us or even poorer than us. It’s not necessarily true.”
“Then we can sell the silk to countries that are richer than us,” Yun Duo said to Li Bingchen.
“We’ve been selling it, but we just don’t have that much silk to sell,” Li Bingchen said.
"Then weave more silk cloth," Yun Duo said to Li Bingchen.
Li Bingchen smiled at Yun Duo and said, "It's not that easy. The annual output of silkworms is limited, and the amount of silk fabric woven in the factories is also limited. Those foreigners are very cunning. They only want the superior quality products, so there is even less left to sell."
"Then why don't we let everyone raise more silkworms?" Yun Duo deliberately tilted her head and looked at Li Bingchen.
“Because…” Li Bingchen frowned again, and then said, “Because everyone’s energy is limited, they can only raise so many silkworms, so there are only so many.”
“No, you’re wrong.” Yun Duo shook her head and looked at Li Bingchen without any politeness.
"Why is it wrong?" Li Bingchen didn't think there was anything wrong with Yun Duo saying he was wrong; on the contrary, he really hoped that Yun Duo could explain it to him.
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