Chapter 114 113: Without Him, There Are Others
The two of them pushed the cart away from Wang Jianjun's stall. Zhou Huaishan said to Li Qiuyue, "Did you hear that? Cai Ermei, that bastard, told Boss Wang that he can supply the goods for a long time!"
"I heard from Boss Wang that he didn't agree to take him in!"
"Mother Ha, Boss Wang isn't the only one selling eels. Second Sister Cai must have made arrangements with the other store."
"Oh no! If that bastard starts collecting eels, we won't be able to collect so many!"
"That's right. Look at Purchasing Manager Huang, he sold 15 catties at 40 cents a catty, making 12 cents a catty. Boss Wang sold 132 catties here, making 10 cents a catty."
Zhou Huaishan calculated the total weight Zhou Huaian told him, "After subtracting two pounds, it's 60 cents, so we still make 14 yuan, and each family can get more than 3 yuan, which is more than 40 yuan in half a month. If that bastard takes away our business, we won't be able to make so much in the future."
Li Qiuyue panicked when she heard this, "Then why are you still waiting? Let's go back and sell the herbs and take them home."
The two of them hurriedly pushed the chicken cart back to the stall. Yang Chunyan had already sold all the corn and went to the backyard to weigh the herbs.
The kudzu roots really only sold for 6 yuan, the mugwort and half-flowered flowers sold for 8 yuan, and the golden vine sold for only 3 yuan. Add the 35 yuan from selling mushrooms, and the income was more than 10 yuan. Add the money from selling eels, it should be more than 20 yuan.
Yang Chunyan packed her things and stood on the street waiting for Zhou Huaishan and his wife. Not long after, she saw them coming.
As soon as Li Qiuyue saw her, she said, "Chunyan, Cai Ermei..., we won't be able to collect so many yellow eels in the future."
Seeing her anxious look, Yang Chunyan smiled and comforted her, "Don't worry, sister-in-law. It's hard to harvest the rich cattle. We can carry buckets to Fangtian and there are other villages to harvest them!"
"Yeah!" Li Qiuyue slapped her head. "I was a little flustered when the third brother said that. I couldn't wrap my mind around it."
"No need to panic now!" Yang Chunyan smiled and put the bamboo basket on the chicken bus, "Let's go, Huai'an is waiting for news at home!"
At Zhou's house, Zhou Huaian sent away the eel seller, picked up the notebook to record the accounts, and calculated that he had collected more than 160 kilograms of eels in just the morning. Even people from the nearby Fangtian Brigade sent eels.
Thinking about the old man who came back and said that he didn't hear anyone outside saying that Cai Ermei was collecting eels, he wondered if he had been too suspicious and wrongly blamed Cai Ermei, as she had never thought of stealing his business.
However, reality was so slapping. Just when he was about to go to Zhou's father and ask them to pick up some stones to build a pond or buy a large tank to raise eels, he saw Zhou Xiaowen and Zhou Xiaoru running in: "Dad, the brigade's agency store is also collecting eels."
Zhou Huaian glared, "Who told you that?"
"We were playing in the sun-drying area of the brigade, and heard that Huang Bin's family had started to collect eels."
"Bah~" Zhou Huaian spat in anger, "Cai Ermei, you son of a bitch, I won't let you go." Then he limped towards the gate.
When Zhou Xiaowen and his companions saw him limping away, they hurried to find the adults.
Zhou Huaian rushed to the sales agency behind the brigade's drying yard and saw the words written on the wooden board at the door: Yellow eel 2.9 cents a pound, buying in bulk.
"Pah~" Zhou Huaian spat, and walked towards Cai Ermei's house. When he reached the door, he shouted, "Cai Ermei, come out here!"
After a while, Cai Ermei came out. Seeing his angry look, she felt a little guilty, "Youngest, what are you doing?"
"I'll hit you." Before Zhou Huaian finished his words, he punched him in the face with a muffled "puff" sound and turned away.
Cai Ermei didn't expect him to attack her right away. She felt stars in her eyes and swayed for a while before she stood firm. When she came to her senses, she saw him limping away, leaning on a wooden stick.
Wang Chunhua came out of the house and screamed, "Second sister, why is your nose bleeding? Did Zhou Laoyao hit you?"
"Go back!" Cai Ermei covered her nose and walked into the house.
Zhou Huaian walked halfway and met Zhou Xiaowen and his mother, who was running out of breath. "Mom, why are you here?"
Mother Zhou took a breath and said, "I have long told you not to hang out with those bad friends of yours, but you didn't listen. Look, you just started and they come to pull the ladder out!"
"He collects his, and we collect ours. It's not like the Funiu Brigade is the only one that has yellow eels. At worst, we can go farther to collect them. I don't believe he has collected all the yellow eels in Ning'an."
Seeing that his face had changed due to anger, Zhou's mother felt distressed and softened her tone unconsciously, "It's money that everyone in the world earns. If someone wants to take it, you can't stop them. You ran out with a limp. What if the wound opens?"
"Go back! I know what I'm doing!" Zhou Huaian said and walked away.
When three generations returned home, Zhou Huaian sat down on a bamboo chair in the yard, with his head down, not saying a word.
Seeing him looking dejected, Zhou's mother glared at him and said, "What are you angry about? We used to confiscate the eels and sell them, but we still lived the same life. You are already in your twenties, so you should be more careful in the future and stop associating with people like Cai Ermei."
"I'm not angry, just go and do your thing."
"One by one, you are so tall and strong, but you still need me to worry about you!" Zhou's mother angrily hugged Zhou Xiaolin and left.
Zhou Xiaowen walked up to Zhou Huaian and pulled him, "Dad, don't be angry. I don't want Tangtang anymore."
Zhou Xiaoru, "Dad, I don't want it either."
Zhou Huaian raised his head with a heartwarming look, and pulled the two people's little ones together, "Be good! Go see if Aunt Yao is back?"
"Yeah!" The two turned around and ran out of the courtyard. Zhou Xiaowen turned around and shouted, "Dad, your friends are here!"
"..." After hearing this, Xu Erchun and He Dakuan stood there, not knowing whether to go in or look back.
"Little thing, you're a quick learner!" Zhou Huaian walked to the door with a wooden stick and looked at the two people, "Why are you here?"
Xu Erchun stepped forward and said, "Youngest, Dakuan and I went down the mountain to pick mushrooms, and I heard Xu Gang say that Widow Ye's agency store had started to collect eels. Xu Gang also said that Cai Ermei went to his house early this morning to borrow a bicycle, saying that she wanted to go to the city to do something.
At noon, Widow Ye started to collect eels. We just went to take a look, they are charging 29 cents per pound!" He looked at Zhou Huaian with some guilt, "Youngest, this is all my fault..."
"I've been there. If you still consider me a brother, don't say these things." Zhou Huaian said this, remembering what Yang Chunyan said last night, "My wife said that the profit in business is the price difference. Anyone with a little bit of brains will understand it. Even if Cai Ermei doesn't accept it today, there will still be Zhang Ermei and Li Ermei in the future."
He said this, but in his heart he felt that if it was someone else today, he would not be so angry.
But he and Cai Ermei were good friends since childhood. His business had just started, and Cai Ermei was trying to steal his girl. He felt really uncomfortable.
He Dakuan said angrily, "Youngest brother, Cai Ermei is wrong in this matter. He clearly knew that your family charges 28 cents per pound, but he raised the price by one cent, just to deliberately steal your business."
Zhou Huaian clasped his fists in gratitude, "Brother, I am satisfied with what you said. I also beat him, and from now on he and I will go our separate ways."
Xu Erchun patted him on the shoulder and said, "You are right in this matter. We stand on your side!"
"Good brother!" Zhou Huaian looked at the two of them, "Come in and sit for a while?"
"No, we still have to go up the mountain to look for wild bees to get honey."
"When the time comes, I'll need my sister-in-law to help Ning An sell it."
"If you want it, just send it to me."
(End of this chapter)
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