Chapter 14: Trading
All I saw was a scorpion rustling in the dirty plastic bottle!
I don’t know how this kid caught it, but he actually grabbed a whole bottle.
Jian Li's scalp tingled, and she collapsed, "Hold it steady!"
The toothless child tilted his head, looking timid and puzzled: "What, what happened?"
Are you not going to accept it?
The child was a little frustrated. His scorpions were harder to find than cicada shells. There were more children in the village looking for cicada shells than for scorpions. It took him several days to fill the bottle.
Jian Li's face turned pale: "It's not that I don't want to accept it... where did you get such an old one?"
This is a scorpion!
Jian Li has a trauma about this thing. When she was a child, she was sleeping soundly and was bitten by a scorpion. The pain made her cry loudly in the middle of the night. Her father was quick to kill the scorpion, and the needle was stuck in the flesh. Her mother took a needle and picked out the scorpion for a long time. Now Jian Li feels a dull pain in her hand when she thinks about it.
The child answered honestly: "I just used a flashlight to find the mud wall at night."
Scorpions love to hide in the cracks of old houses. If you use a flashlight at night and are careful, you can catch a lot of them.
Adults in the village would occasionally catch a few and throw them into the liquor they bought, which was effective for curing rheumatism and leg pain.
Jian Li asked a few questions and finally reluctantly let him put down the plastic bottle full of scorpions.
"Please leave it there for now."
After hearing what she said, the child put the scorpion down in a daze and ran out.
Jian Li took a look at the bottle of scorpions and still felt a little disgusted.
"Sister! I'm going to the city, do you want to come with me?"
Wang Yunyun has been going crazy reading books lately. She has even stopped watching TV at home. Apart from helping Jian Li, she spends the rest of her time reading books.
Wang Shuai whispered to Jian Li, "Is my sister crazy? I saw her crying while reading a book last night."
Jian Li gave him a slap on the back of his head and warned him not to disturb her.
Wang Shuai touched his head angrily. If it were in the past, he would definitely not listen to Jian Li. It's not that he wanted to disturb anyone, but he just liked to go against people.
When Jian Li was not back, he would go and disturb his sister. When Jian Li came back, he would unconsciously do something naughty on purpose.
It seemed like my skin would itch if I didn't get beaten during those three days.
But this year is different.
Jian Li has changed. Although she doesn't argue with him as often as before, she is more intimidating.
The most important thing is that Jian Li gave him money!
When Marshal Wang thought about the money, he felt even lighter.
As soon as Jian Li mentioned going into the city, he rushed to agree: "I'll go too!"
Wang Yunyun came out from the inner room and said, "I'm going to the city to return the book."
Jian Li looked at her dark circles and kindly reminded her, "Sister, you should take it easy too. You can't finish the book."
It’s only been a short time since Wang Yunyun got the library card, and she has already read almost ten books.
I can finish a book in a day and a half, and I am even a little absent-minded when eating.
Wang Yunyun smiled sheepishly: "I want to read more books during the summer vacation."
It is not so convenient after school starts.
Wang Yunyun looked at Jian Li with some envy. She was now in the second grade of junior high school in the town, the same grade as Jian Li. However, these books were not sold in the town. There was only a small shop at the entrance of the school where teachers often printed some pages that they got from unknown sources.
If it weren't for Jian Li, she wouldn't have known there was a library in the city.
Wang Yunyun began to have wild thoughts as usual. The gap between herself and Jian Li turned out to be so huge...
Stop!
Wang Yunyun suddenly seemed to have diverted some of her attention and looked at herself in mid-air, while at the same time pulling her thoughts back from the comparison with Jian Li.
Being born in different families was not something they could choose. There was no need for her to compare herself with Jian Li. She even wanted to thank Jian Li for opening a window to her world...
Wang Yunyun's expression changed several times, and finally became calm and peaceful.
"There are a few books that I think are well-written. I'll write down the titles for you. You'd better take a look at them when you get home."
Jian Li uttered an "oh", and the three of them only realized it belatedly when they were riding their bicycles into the city.
There seemed to be something different about Wang Yunyun.
*****
There are not many Chinese medicine shops in the city, and Jian Li finally found two.
One company has its own supply partner and said it would not accept the goods.
The other store wanted it, but the price was lower. Cicada shells were 40 cents per pound, and a bottle of scorpions was only five dollars.
Before Jian Li could say anything, Wang Yunyun spoke first.
"In the countryside, some people charge 1.2 cents for cicada shells, and scorpions generally pay more. Five yuan is too little."
Jian Li: "I also think it's too little... Let's go to the Chinese medicine hospital to ask."
The three of them ran to the Chinese medicine hospital again and leaned on the small window of the pharmacy to ask if they wanted any medicinal materials.
The nurse on duty saw that there were a few children, so she pointed them to an office.
"Go ask there."
In recent years, the cultivation of medicinal materials has gradually become popular. In theory, Chinese medicine hospitals do not accept medicines from outside. However, some things are not grown in the fields, such as snake gallbladders, centipedes, scorpions, hedgehog skins... The supply of these things is not so stable, so the hospital occasionally accepts some.
Sure enough, the doctor on duty said yes as soon as he heard it was a scorpion.
"Bring it here so I can see what it looks like."
Wang Shuai took out the bottle of scorpions from his bag: "Here."
The doctor on duty found a large basin and poured out all the scorpions from the bottle.
The kid who caught scorpions didn't distinguish between big and small scorpions, and the ones he caught were of different sizes.
The doctor picked for a while, put aside the unqualified ones, and finally kept half of the scorpions.
"Live scorpions are 15 yuan per pound, and dead ones are 8 yuan. The total is less than one pound... which is 11 yuan."
"A pound of cicadas costs 60 cents, so this is 1.9 yuan in total."
"I'll round it up to thirteen dollars."
When Jane Li got the thirteen yuan in her hand, she was a little surprised.
She didn't expect to make so much money selling bugs.
When she returned, she deducted the hard work fee for the three of them and gave the remaining money to the two little black kids. When Jian Li got up in the morning, she saw several children squatting at the door.
They all looked eagerly, holding something unknown in their hands.
Wang Yuedong, who was about to leave, said with a smile: "Our Xiaoli is going to be the boss."
Grandma Jian Li snorted.
What a small boss! He is simply a sly guy.
She asked Jian Li indirectly how much her mother could earn in a month, but the girl kept her mouth shut and said nothing. She also kept asking her how much she had saved as filial piety money in the past few years. She was so angry that she didn't want to talk.
Grandma Jian Li glared at her disobedient granddaughter, then left after Wang Yuedong and his wife left.
It would be better to go and help my younger son and his wife than to stay at home. After all, there is an obedient and sensible grandson there.
Jian Li washed her face and asked Wang Shuai to find a high chair. She sat on a small stool. The high chair separated them from each other. Jian Li was like a real shopkeeper, sitting at the back and calling people one by one.
I have to say that children in the countryside are extremely energetic.
The things brought were all kinds of strange and varied.
Live rabbits, field mice, small river shrimps, centipedes...
There was also a little kid who got a freshly dead snake from somewhere, and Jian Li was so scared that her face turned pale.
Jian Li didn't dare touch many of these things and could only ask Wang Shuai to keep them.
So the task of weighing the items was handed over to General Wang.
Then, as expected, Marshal Wang was wrong.
"Five and seventeen... twenty-three centipedes."
"Two catties and five ounces, one catty is three yuan... six yuan and a half."
"One rabbit is 15 pounds and 2 ounces. Two rabbits are... 15 pounds and 6 ounces."
Jian Li: ...
This kid must have learned math from his physical education teacher!
You're almost entering the first grade of the new year, and you can't even make mistakes with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division?
Jian Li complained without hesitation, and then that night Wang Shuai was chased around the yard by his father.
Jian Li spat out the watermelon seeds.
Damn!
Who asked her to let this boy learn math? He said nonchalantly that he didn't need it.
Did you get beaten?
After being beaten, Wang Shuai became completely obedient.
Jian Li gave him a piece of paper and told him to write down the equation if he couldn't figure it out mentally. If he got it wrong again, she would deduct his money.
When the news of deducting money came up, Wang Shuai, who had not cried just now after being beaten, burst into tears.
"Isn't it okay for me to learn?"
So, Jian Li became a supervisor completely.
She only had to sit in the back and watch Wang Shuai pick up the goods one by one, then weigh them and calculate the money...
Within a few days, Wang Shuai had memorized the multiplication table, which he had not memorized for many years.
Wang Yunyun officially stated that she would no longer participate in the new round of business.
"I didn't do anything, you don't have to charge me."
That being said, Wang Yunyun would still follow them to the county every time. And when Jian Li and Wang Shuai were selling herbs, she would spend half a day in the library.
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it is already the second half of August.
Jian Li worked hard for more than a month and successfully tanned herself. The good news is that she lost some weight. When Jian Li went to the city, she stood on the scale in the hospital to weigh herself.
One hundred and fifty-eight kilograms.
She has lost 22 pounds since she was reborn.
Come to think of it, running around under the scorching sun every day, it would be strange if you don’t lose weight with this amount of exercise.
Jian Li was in a good mood when she calculated that her income from various sources this summer vacation totaled a total of three hundred and fifty yuan!
This amount of money is neither a big nor a small amount, but for Jian Li, it is already a good start.
According to past practice, her mother would come to pick her up around August 20th.
So Jian Li started to spread the word that she would no longer accept the goods.
This year, thanks to Jian Li, the children in Wangjiazhuang have become much wealthier.
The more wealthy children can get 20 or 30 yuan a month, and the younger ones can also get quite a few yuan.
What can children do with the money they earn? Either they eat it or they spend it.
During this period, one or two unhappy things happened.
The families of some of the children came to complain to their uncle Wang Yuedong, saying that Jian Li should not have given money to the children.
"There are so many dollars, why give them to him? He will spend them all on food and waste the money."
The father of one of the girls said the most vicious thing.
The skinny little girl came most often, groundworms, beehives, centipedes...
Naturally, she earned a lot. Jian Li gave her more than twenty yuan in total.
The girl's parents were very upset: "I was wondering why she didn't do any housework this summer and was always running outside. It turns out she was doing these things. She did it, but she didn't tell her family about the money she made. I dug it out from under her quilt. Ah Yuedong, you shouldn't ask your niece to give all the money to the kids. They only know how to feed their mouths and don't know how hard it is to make money."
Wang Yuedong frowned. He had never asked Jian Li how she did business.
After all, in his opinion, this is just a little fight between children.
Just like when they were kids, they would always go out hunting for food, and when they got something they would ask passers-by on the roadside if they wanted it.
Jian Li took Wang Shuai and Yunyun to do this and that. He was worried at first, but later he supported them.
At least this year Wang Shuai didn’t go out and do anything crazy, and Yunyun didn’t stay at home watching TV all the time.
He never thought of collecting the money the children earned.
That was all earned by Xiaoli and his two children. Because of this, his chubby niece was tanned black, got stung by a wasp, and had many bloody spots on her legs from mosquito bites.
It was even darker than before for Wang Shuai. He was so tired that he didn't make any noise at night and just lay down and fell asleep.
Even Yunyun, who is very quiet, felt so tired that her legs ached when she first started selling crabs.
The children work hard to earn some money, so how can parents feel comfortable spending it?
The parent opposite is still chattering.
Wang Yuedong could only gloss over the matter, and in his heart he strongly disapproved of the practice of taking money from children.
Jian Li had been busy all day and was speechless when she heard her uncle say this in the evening.
To be fair, the children didn't get much money, and even if you add up all the things she sold, she wouldn't be considered a big customer of the Chinese medicine hospital.
With such a small amount of money, the parents want to leave.
Jian Li felt depressed just thinking about it.
But there was nothing she could do even though she was angry. Jian Li could only make false accounts for the children of those "troublesome parents" in private.
She only gave fifty cents for a gift that should have been two yuan, and used the remaining one and a half yuan to ask the other person for whatever he wanted. She would bring him toys, snacks, or books from the city.
Anyway, it's better to spend it than to hide it at home and be discovered by others.
Jian Li continued to do business like this until August 23rd. Instead of her mother coming back, her aunt did.
My aunt was carrying the high-end "Sanzhu Oral Liquid" and a large bag of chrysanthemum crystal.
As soon as I entered the door, I dropped an explosive news.
Her aunt's daughter, Qian Ping, is going abroad soon.
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