Chapter 140 Mom, I want to try
She didn't want to eat.
Li Banxia took a step back, frowning as she looked at him.
"Mom, I did something important today. I didn't slack off at home, really."
Su Laosan didn't like his mother's gaze; it was cold and indifferent, as if she were looking at a passerby, which made him feel quite uncomfortable.
Seeing that Li Banxia remained silent, Su Laosan moved the plate back and whispered, "Mom, I... I don't want to go to work. I can't stand sitting in an office all day, nor can I stand walking tens of thousands of steps a day in a factory. Just thinking about that kind of life makes me tired. I don't like these restrictive work rules. I want to..."
Li Banxia frowned even more deeply.
What do you want to do?
Su Laosan, clutching the plate, suddenly looked up at Li Banxia and said, "I can't work a 9-to-5 job, but I can run errands for people."
"What?" Li Banxia didn't understand for a moment. "What do you mean?"
"Well, well...Grandma Liu's youngest daughter is over forty, right? She had a baby girl but didn't have enough breast milk. She wanted to buy pig's trotters and an old hen to make soup to help with lactation, but she went to several places and couldn't find any. She's too old to go to the countryside, so she asked me to go for her and give her a running fee." Old Su rambled on and on, explaining everything beforehand.
Li Banxia's eyes flickered slightly, gesturing to him, "And then?"
“I figured I don’t like going to work, but I can do this. I can help people buy things. Like Grandma Liu, who wanted to buy a hen from the countryside, but didn’t have any relatives or friends there and couldn’t buy it easily. But we have connections in the countryside, my great-uncle lives there. I went and bought it for her, earning a small fee for my trouble. That’s how much I earned from Grandma Liu…”
Su Laosan excitedly held up four fingers and waved them twice in front of Li Banxia's eyes. "Grandma Liu also said that if I could get her another prescription to replenish her vital energy, she would give me extra money for the prescription and the herbs. Mom, you learned pharmacology from Grandpa and you know about herbs. Second Uncle and Third Uncle grow herbs. If our family could take over this business, what's that called..."
Su Laosan pondered for a moment but couldn't remember. His brows furrowed so tightly they almost twisted into a knot. He muttered, "I should have finished junior high school. What the hell is this damn term again?"
"monopoly."
Su Laosan glanced at Li Banxia, then slapped his thigh, "That's it! This is it, a monopoly! Grandma Liu said she trusts me, hehe..."
As she spoke, her eyes sparkled as she stared at Li Banxia, waiting for her reaction.
Li Banxia stared back at Su Laosan, her brows furrowing several times.
Su Laosan was a little anxious, and after thinking for a moment, he added, "Mom, this business can definitely be done. There's no place to raise chickens in the city. City people dislike the smell of chicken manure, so nobody raises them. Only in the countryside can you have a year or two of these years."
"You even went to investigate?" Li Banxia asked in surprise.
Su Laosan nodded, "Yes, I went to the market to inquire. These old hens that are two years old can sell for eight yuan each. Some are sold by weight, and one can sell for ten yuan. They are not available every day. You have to wait and grab them. If you want to pre-order, you have to pay some money to the other party first, otherwise they will not help you bring them."
At this point, Su Laosan coughed lightly and rolled his eyes.
“I bought it for four yuan, and after adding the transportation fee and a labor fee, and delivering it to my doorstep, it's not unreasonable to sell it for seven or eight yuan, right? I also guarantee that it will be the exact year it is. Besides, those pig trotters are not popular in the countryside, so I didn't take them for free. I paid my great-uncle to distribute them to them.”
Li Banxia, "...You went to your great-uncle to buy it?"
"Yes, my great-uncle's village has a lot of old hens. Some of them have stopped laying eggs and are kept to roam the village for food on their own. I offered to buy them for a few yuan each, and everyone wanted to sell them."
At this point, a glint flashed in Su Laosan's eyes.
Li Banxia was unaware of his circumstances, but she could tell that he liked it very much.
"Mom, I did the math. One chicken and four pig trotters, I can earn four or five yuan this time. If I make ten chickens a day, and I charge four or five yuan from each family, that's forty or fifty yuan. In a month of thirty days, that's one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty yuan, which is more than your monthly salary. Mom, this business doesn't require any capital, it's all profit. I want to give it a try."
Li Banxia's lips twitched, "..."
"How much is forty times thirty? Calculate it for me again."
"One hundred and twenty."
Su Laosan answered crisply, "Three times four is twelve, three times five is fifteen. I haven't forgotten the multiplication tables, Mom, have you forgotten?"
Li Banxia, "..."
She didn't want to argue with a fool.
Li Banxia frowned in disdain, gave Su Laosan a deep look, and asked him, "Who taught you this line of talk?"
"ah?"
Su Laosan blinked and shook his head, saying, "Nobody taught me. I just suddenly thought of it when Grandma Liu said she'd give me a running fee. Mom, is this route not working?"
Li Banxia shook her head.
Su Laosan's eyes widened instantly in alarm. "No way?!"
"OK."
Li Banxia glanced at him, "But running back and forth will be more tiring than going to work, and the money you earn is not stable. If you encounter unreasonable buyers, it will be a real headache, and it won't be easy to deal with them. Do you still want to do it?"
"...I'm quite averse to trouble."
Su Laosan frowned, saying, "But I'm not good at anything. Going to work for a fixed salary is like being in prison, and this way I can work half a day and rest half a day. I don't have to be confined to one place. Compared to that, I prefer this way of making money, Mom..."
Li Banxia hummed in agreement.
"...I want to give it a try." Old Su said hopefully.
Li Banxia looked at him for a while, then nodded. "If you want to try, then go ahead and try. In business, the key is 'honesty.' Only by being honest can a business last."
"Uh-huh."
When Su Laosan heard that Li Banxia wanted him to do it, his mouth stretched from ear to ear with joy. "Thank you, Mom, for the recipe..."
"I need to examine her physical condition before I can prescribe a formula to replenish her qi and blood. She's in postpartum confinement and can't just eat anything. I've told you so many times, you have to prescribe according to each person's constitution..."
He suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence.
Su Laosan said "Oh," frowned in surprise, and asked Li Banxia, "Mom, when did you tell us this?"
Li Banxia glanced at him, her eyes filled with complex emotions, and sighed.
He shook his head and said, "I remembered it wrong."
Although Su Laosan was puzzled, he didn't press the matter further. He simply sighed and happily handed the cucumber and scrambled eggs back to Li Banxia.
She said, "Mom, try it. I've seen my older brother and sister-in-law cook it like this all the time, but the color and taste of mine seem a bit strange."
"I won't try it, you eat it yourself."
Before Li Banxia could even feel sentimental, she was so startled by Su Laosan's plate of cucumber and egg stir-fry that she leaned back and dodged it. She immediately rolled up her sleeves and went to wash the cucumbers, peel the garlic, and make garlic paste to smash the cucumbers.
I also stir-fried some green peppers and eggs. There's a pregnant woman in the family who needs extra nutrition, so we can't go without meat.
Li Banxia gave Su Laosan eight yuan and told him to find an old hen the next day to make soup for his eldest son's wife.
When Su Laosan received the money, his hands were trembling with joy.
He chuckled, "We're all family, Mom's too kind. She even gave me a delivery fee. I'd still go even if she didn't give me one, hehe. Thanks Mom for supporting my business, hehehe..."
Li Banxia nodded, "I'll use the rest of the money to buy some free-range eggs."
Su Laosan, "..."
You're celebrating too soon.
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