As soon as the youngest Xiong got home, Zhou Sufang came over and looked at him with joy, "Youngest, Lian Fang said that you guys have started to harvest red mushrooms, is that true?"
"Yeah!" The youngest bear said with a big smile on his face, "You still have some dried in the sun, go get them and let me sell them for you."
"Okay!" Zhou Sufang turned around happily and looked back, "I also picked up some today. I'll bring you the dried ones after I sort them out and dry them."
The youngest Xiong suddenly remembered that there were only two people in his family. If too many people came to deliver the red mushrooms, they would be too late. He hurriedly called her and said, "Mom, send the old man to my place this afternoon, and you can help us pick the red mushrooms, okay?"
"Okay!" Zhou Sufang nodded happily, "I'll go back and clean up your old man, and you can come back and bring him over."
"Oh!" The youngest bear nodded gratefully. "I'll go cut some bamboo first, and then build a rack to hold the dustpans and other things."
"Go! Come to my place for dinner later." Zhou Sufang returned home briskly and saw Big Brother Xiong mending the basket in the yard. "Big Brother, the youngest one's family has started to harvest red mushrooms. You go..."
"What?" Boss Bear stopped what he was doing and looked at her in disbelief. "You just said that the youngest one has started to collect red mushrooms?"
"What's wrong? Are you unhappy that your brother is harvesting red mushrooms?" Zhou Sufang glared at him in reproach. "Go to the youngest brother's house and help him cut some bamboo and build some racks to dry the red mushrooms."
"Oh!" Boss Bear thought of how the youngest Zhou and his brothers were making a lot of money collecting truffles and mushrooms, and his heart suddenly warmed up. "Mom, did the youngest brother say that he wanted to take us with him?"
"This..." Zhou Sufang thought of what the youngest Xiong said a few days ago, that it was impossible for him to work with them. "The youngest said that he was collecting the money for Doctor Fang in the county town, and he was just making some money."
Boss Xiong saw her hesitating and understood immediately, "He gets paid for his work. How much does he pay me per day?"
Zhou Sufang also felt guilty and said weakly, "You are my brother, so what if you go to help him? Besides, you can go pick mushrooms and sell them for money tomorrow."
"Okay! I haven't finished the work at hand yet. I'll go when I'm free." Thinking that he could pick red mushrooms and sell them tomorrow, Boss Xiong didn't say much.
Zhou Sufang felt a little sad when she thought of the Zhou brothers discussing something. She couldn't understand how Chen Guilan, the shrew, taught those brothers. Why were the brothers in her family so united?
…
It didn't take long before the news that Xiong Laoya was offering 5.2 cents per pound of first-class red mushrooms reached Yang Chunyan's home.
Zhou's mother thought about the time when they were collecting eels at home and Cai Ermei used a trick to kill them just when they were busy collecting eels. Then she used herbs again. Fortunately, they didn't know what they were and failed to cause trouble.
Could it be that this time the red mushroom business would be ruined by that bastard Xiong Laoya? The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She cursed at the direction of the Xiong family at the foot of the mountain, "...Bastard, he does whatever others do. If you have the ability, just find a way yourself!"
"Mom, don't be angry." Yang Chunyan walked forward and pulled her back. "You forgot, we don't just have the area around us to collect. Uncle Datian and Uncle Xu are out collecting too!"
Zhou's mother was still worried, "Give that bastard an extra two cents per pound, and I'm sure those people will go to his place this afternoon!"
Yang Chunyan smiled and said, "If he accepted both first-class and second-class goods, we would really be worried, but he only accepted first-class goods and not second-class goods. Those people would not send first-class goods to him and second-class goods to us just to earn two cents more."
Seeing that she was not worried at all, Zhou's mother felt relieved. After thinking for a while, she said, "How could I know? Those who are greedy for money would look down on even one cent, let alone two cents per pound."
Zhou Huaian came over carrying a basket and said, "If that's the case, we won't accept the second-rate ones!"
After hearing this, Zhou's mother nodded and said, "Yes, those who sold the first-class ones to Xiong's family won't accept even a pound of the second-class ones!"
"Okay, go in quickly and stack up the bamboo strips. The boss and the others should be back soon." After saying this, Zhou's father and Zhou Huaian carried the red mushrooms and walked towards Zhou Huaishan's house.
Mother Zhou checked the time and then looked towards the bridge. She saw a tractor wobbling up to the bridge from a distance. "Chunyan, I'll go call Jiaming and the others over. Your sister-in-law and the others are back."
"Oh!" Yang Chunyan pushed the cradle towards the backyard. Xiao Jiuer pulled her little feet hard, shaking them left and right and stuffing them into her mouth.
She smiled and released his little feet from her hands, "Little boy, you can still have time to chew them later!"
"Oh! Oh!" The little guy thought she was teasing him, and started talking to her while sucking his lips.
"Your mother doesn't understand!" Yang Chunyan smiled and kissed him, then put the pepper stick tied to his wrist into his hand, "Be good and play in the cradle. Mom will feed you after she cleans up the backyard!"
Xiao Jiuer looked at her and babbled something, but no one knew what she was saying!
Before Yang Chunyan had finished stacking the bamboo flats, Zhou's mother came back. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law cleared the backyard to make it easier for the tractor to come in and unload the goods.
After this batch of goods was washed, the moisture in the red mushrooms in the drying room in the alley dried up. After being dried in the sun for a day, the dried red mushrooms all exuded the smell of sunshine.
When the mushrooms come out, you have to pay attention to the sun and rain when drying the red mushrooms. It’s okay if you dry them upstairs, you don’t have to worry about rain, but you have to be careful when drying them in the yard.
I left several children at home these days and asked them to stay at their respective homes. Once they spotted dark clouds coming from the sky, they would immediately roll up the drying mats to prevent the red mushrooms from getting wet by rain.
There was a fire burning in the backyard, and it was much hotter than the old house. Mother Zhou pulled down a handkerchief and wiped her sweat, "Chunyan, I'll go blanch the leeks and make a cold dish, you go feed Xiao Jiuer."
"Okay!" Yang Chunyan drew some hot water and went to the bathroom to wash herself, then she carried her son to the main room in the front yard.
Zhou Huaian came out with a basket after drying the mushrooms. Zhou Huairong and the others had also arrived at the grove. Seeing the bamboo baskets stacked high, he estimated that there were more goods today than yesterday.
Zhou Huaishan and Zhou Huaijun jumped off the tractor and ran towards him. "Laoyao, when we passed by the drying dam, someone said that the bastard Xiong Laoyao had started to harvest mushrooms, and they were two cents more expensive than us. Do you want to raise the price?"
"What a bullshit!" Zhou Huaian got angry after hearing this, "If you want to sell it for 52 cents, go ahead. I'm too lazy to serve you."
Let that bastard Xiong Laoya start collecting the red mushrooms first. I can give you a few cents per pound at most. I gave you half of it right at the beginning. If you are still not satisfied, then go find Xiong Laoya to sell it to!
Zhou Huaijun nodded, "That's right. Several nearby villages only received more in the first half of the month. Now, including the second-class goods, we can only receive more than a thousand kilograms a day. I don't believe that all of them will be sent to that bastard!"
Father Zhou came out and glanced at the three brothers. "Why are you still standing there? Go back and unload the goods. Put the extra ones in the wine cellar to prevent them from getting spoiled."
"Oh!" The three of them hurriedly followed the tractor into the yard. When they arrived, they began to untie the ropes, unload the carriage boards, and move baskets of red mushrooms into the wine cellar.
Zhou Jiaming, Zhou Jialiang and others also carried a basket and walked towards the alley. They all felt that the wine cellar was cool and comfortable.
After unloading the goods and having dinner, Jiang Yu and others also came. They started to cut the mushroom stems, clean the red mushrooms and send them to the baking room without stopping.
After being busy for several hours and sending the red mushrooms in, they took a short break and then the mushroom pickers came down the mountain one after another.
The Funiu Brigade went down the mountain and headed towards Yang Chunyan's home. Guanyin and Fangtian came towards this side in groups, carrying baskets on their backs.
Fang Zhiqiang was driving an ox cart with several layers of bamboo baskets stacked on top. They were all filled with red mushrooms harvested today. As soon as they crossed the stone bridge and climbed up the slope, they were stopped by Xiong Laoya before they reached the drying dam.
"Fellow villagers, my family also collects red mushrooms. The first-class ones are 5.2 cents per pound. If you want to sell them, follow me."
Fang Zhiqiang glanced at him, drove the ox cart away, and some villagers followed him forward.
Someone also stopped to ask, "First class is 52 cents, what about second class?"
Asked about the second-class ones again! The youngest bear's heart sank, "We only accept the first-class ones, not the second-class ones!"
"We don't accept second-class products, so we'll just sell it to Zhou Laoyao's family." The person asking the question shook his head and walked away.
The youngest bear watched those people carrying their baskets and followed them, and shouted anxiously, "Buy red mushrooms! Buy red mushrooms at a high price, 5.3 cents a pound."
But when they heard that they would not accept second-class goods, they shook their heads and left.
Seeing that fewer and fewer people were coming, he made up his mind and quoted the highest price, "5.5 cents a pound, if you miss it, it will be gone..."
After hearing this, a few people thought that they had picked up more first-class goods than second-class goods today, and that if they sold one pound more at 5 cents, twenty pounds would be one dollar, so they thought of selling the first-class goods to the Xiong family and then selling the second-class goods to the Zhou family.
"Boss, is it really 5.5 cents a pound?"
"Really, go to the scale and pay immediately."
"Okay, we'll sell it to you!"
"Okay! Come with me to get weighed!"
The scales were finally weighed, and the youngest Xiong happily took those people home. When Zhou Sufang, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, saw him coming with his people, they also happily went to greet them.
After sending the people there, Xiong Laoyao gave them a few words of advice, then hurried back to stop people from buying goods.
…
Over there, Fang Zhiqiang drove the ox cart into the backyard and said to Zhou Huairong, "Brother, come and help lift it."
"Okay!" Zhou Huairong and Zhou Huaijun stepped forward to help untie the rope and lift the bamboo basket.
“Brother, when we came here…” Fang Zhiqiang told the two about the youngest Xiong who stopped them from collecting the goods. “You have to think of a way. You can’t let others steal your business like this!”
"Thanks!" Zhou Huairong said with a smile, "The youngest brother said that from today on, as long as we sell first-class goods, we will not accept second-class goods."
Fang Zhiqiang nodded and said, "That's a good idea. I saw many people came with me after hearing that we don't accept second-class goods."
Zhou Huairong patted him on the shoulder and said, "Our main source of goods is from you! How many kilograms did you receive today?"
Fang Zhiqiang took out the account book from his pocket and said, "We collected more than 500 kilograms. There are more than 240 first-grade red mushrooms and about 300 kilograms of second-grade mushrooms."
Zhou Huairong smiled and said, "It's a good day today! You can first take the cows to the bamboo forest beside the vegetable field and tie them up. We will sort them and then weigh them."
"Okay!" Fang Zhiqiang happily led the cow out. (End of this chapter)
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