Chapter 200 199: The Argument
The men worked until the sun set, and after they had harvested four acres of rapeseed, they stopped harvesting.
Zhou Jiaming and two other friends came back and helped pull out the rapeseed stumps, which could make pretty good firewood after being dried.
Zhou Huaishan went back and got a few drying mats, spread them in the rapeseed field, and started harvesting rapeseed.
Zhou's mother helped pull out the rapeseed stalks for a while. After the sun went down, she took the children home to cook.
After Yang Chunyan and a few others spread out the rape stalks, they picked up the flails and started beating them.
The flail jumped in the air, drawing beautiful arcs, and landed on the rapeseed stalks on the drying mat. The drying mat was soon filled with brown rapeseed.
Rapeseed, also known as Brassica juncea, is also a traditional Chinese medicine.
Brassica rapa seeds: sweet, pungent, warm. Has the effects of promoting qi and removing blood stasis, reducing swelling and dispersing nodules. Indications: dysmenorrhea, abdominal pain, lochia retention; external application: mash it and mix it with egg white to treat carbuncle, furuncle, swelling and pain.
Yang Chunyan and Zhao Huifang first scooped the rapeseed with a grass rake, Zhou Huaian took a scoop to pick up the rapeseed and poured it into the sieve, Zhou Huaijun and Zhou Huaishan sieved the vegetable shells, and Yang Chunyan and Zhao Huifang sieved it again with a rice sieve, and the rapeseed was clean.
Zhou Huaian and his two brothers put the rapeseed into baskets and prepared to carry them back.
Zhang Xiuxiang and Li Qiuyue tied up the cleaned rapeseed stalks with straw ropes and took them home to use as firewood.
Yang Chunyan and Zhao Huifang poured the sifted rapeseed husks into the empty fields, and then burned them after the rapeseed was harvested. This not only killed the pests but also fertilized the soil.
Several people were busy, and Aunt Zhou San came over in a hurry, "Chunyan, someone in the village is collecting herbs again, did you know?"
Yang Chunyan was stunned for a moment, "I don't know, which company is collecting it?"
Aunt Zhou San: "At Cai Ermei's house, we were washing herbs by the ditch, and Wang Chunhua came over and said that they were also collecting herbs, at three-tenths of a pound.
I heard that they were collecting the herbs for a drugstore called the Big Pharmacy in Ning'an. All the old ladies who dug herbs with us were sent to his house. How about you guys raise the price a bit too?"
Zhou Huaian's face darkened after hearing this, "Damn it, he is picking a fight with me!"
Zhou Huaijun and Zhou Huaishan were also furious. "He took three points, so we will take three points too."
Zhou Huaian looked at Yang Chunyan, "Yan'er, we'll also collect one pound of meat, we can't let that bastard have it easy!"
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment and said, "No, we'll charge 4 cents per pound and have Jiaming and the others go over there and shout that we're losing money."
Zhou Huaijun frowned and looked at her. "If you charge 4 cents per pound, you will lose 1 cent per pound. The more you charge, the more you lose. Is this necessary?"
Li Qiuyue knew that selling dry goods was profitable, but she still looked at Yang Chunyan with concern, "If that bastard Cai Ermei knew that we were raising prices, he would probably do the same!"
Yang Chunyan said calmly: "We want it to increase, and it's better to increase it as much as possible, so that everyone can benefit, right?"
Zhou Huaian remembered that she had calculated last time that the heaviest plantain could produce one pound of dried goods at most at three and a half pounds. Even if the price was 4 cents per pound, three and a half pounds of wet goods would only cost 15 cents, so there would still be a profit of 10 cents per pound of dried goods.
Thinking of this, he said to Zhou Huaijun: "Second brother, just listen to Chunyan, we will charge 4 cents per pound!"
Aunt Zhou looked at them disapprovingly, "They are all so stupid. What's the point of doing a business that loses money? In my opinion, just let him take care of it!"
Yang Chunyan: "Aunt San, this is not the first time he has taken our business. This time he is taking our business again. He thinks we are afraid of him!"
Zhou Huaijun nodded, "Yes, the dog meat guy really thinks we are afraid of him!"
“……” Aunt Zhou shook her head and walked away with her basket on her back.
Zhou Huaian looked at Zhou Jiaming and the others, "Did you hear what Daddy said just now?"
Zhou Jiaming nodded heavily, "I heard you. Let's go to Cai Ermei's place to buy herbs. We'll buy herbs at 4 cents per pound, even at a loss!"
"Remember, shout a few times and then run!" Zhou Huaian rubbed him, "Use all your strength to shout. If you do it well, Daddy will buy you some ice cream."
"Yeah!" Zhou Jiaming happily ran away with Zhou Jialiang and Zhou Xiaoqian.
Yang Chunyan, Zhou Huaian and three others left, carrying rapeseeds and going home to collect herbs.
Zhou Jiaming and his companions immediately ran to Cai Ermei's house and saw Aunt Chen and others standing at the door and several people weighing things in the yard.
Zhou Xiaoqian stepped forward, "Grandma Chen, my family is losing money buying herbs, four cents a pound!"
Zhou Jialiang shouted at the top of his voice in the yard, "Come on! Herbs are 4 cents a pound! The Zhou family is buying herbs at 4 cents a pound..."
Aunt Chen and the others were overjoyed, "Jia Ming, are you really charging 4 cents per pound?"
Zhou Jiaming nodded, "Really? Cai Ermei is too bullying. When we were buying eels at 28 cents a pound, he asked Huang Bin's mother to buy them at 29 cents a pound. He did the same thing when we were buying herbs. My father said he would buy them at 4 cents a pound, but he would do it even if it meant losing money!"
Zhou Jiakang and Zhou Xiaoqian: "My old man also said that we will fight him to the end!"
"The Zhou family is buying it at 4 cents a pound. Let's go to them quickly!" Aunt Chen and a few others picked up their baskets and turned to leave.
In the yard, Wang Chunhua frowned as she thought about Zhou Jialiang's words, thinking: What does that mean? Did Ye Xiaoshuang collect the eels because her second sister asked her to?
Cai Ermei was so angry that her mouth twisted. She glared at Wang Chunhua and said, "Why don't you chase him away!"
"Oh." Wang Chunhua was stunned for a moment, then came to his senses, dropped the herbs and ran out, "Get out, you short-lived kid, get out now!!!"
"Lululu~" Zhou Jialiang made a face at her, "We're going to shout, herbs are 4 cents a pound!"
Zhou Xiaoqian also followed suit, "Lululu, you insist on shouting! Come on! 4 points for herbs..."
"We have enough scales at home, I guarantee you won't suffer any loss if you go there!" Zhou Jiaming jumped up and shouted towards the yard.
Wang Chunhua was so angry that she picked up a piece of mud and threw it at him, "Get lost! I'll beat you to death!"
Zhou Jiaming and others ran to the side, turned around and patted their buttocks, "Hehe! I can't hit you, I can't hit you!" After saying that, they ran away.
"Cai Ermei, did you hear that? The Zhou family is charging 4 cents per pound. We don't want to sell it anymore. Give me back the herbs."
The people who were weighing the herbs in the yard stopped working and picked up the herbs that had fallen on the ground and put them into their baskets.
"4 points, if you give us 4 points too we will sell it to you!"
"The weight on his scale is not enough. The Zhou family is honest, so it's better to sell it to the Zhou family!" After they passed the scale, the two men picked up their baskets and left.
"My scales are definitely sufficient. If you're short of one ounce, I'll compensate you with one pound!" Cai Ermei said to the people who were picking up herbs with a smile, "Aunt Xu, let me tell you, the pharmacy only charges 3 cents a pound, but he can definitely charge 4 cents. Who wants to do business at a loss?"
Last time they raised the price of eels, they didn't say a word. But this time, something that only cost a few cents per pound, they raised the price by a penny?
At 4 cents per pound, only Tianjihuang and a few valuable herbs can make money, but these old women didn't deliver any of them. They only sent some plantain, dandelion... cheap herbs. Wouldn't it be a big loss to buy them back?
"That's hard to say. We would rather sell it to the Zhou family at 4 cents a pound!" Aunt Xu glanced at Wang Chunhua, picked up her basket and left.
(End of this chapter)
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