A hundred or so kilograms can sell for a dollar, which is much better than working or farming. Besides, it doesn't take much effort, and earning an extra dollar is better than lying at home sleeping.
After drying overnight, and then letting it bask in the morning sun for a while, around nine o'clock, before the sun was even directly overhead, people came dragging sacks to sell the luminous sand.
Shu Aiguo specially borrowed the weighing scale used when delivering grain from the brigade. Before weighing it, he did the same as the people at the Chinese medicine station: he touched it to check its dryness and squeezed it. Only when his hands were clean when the sand was spread out did he consider that the dryness of the night-shining sand was up to standard.
Chu Xiang sat to the side with a notebook to record the weights. After writing them down, she would ask people to sign and check them. For elderly people who couldn't read, someone else would write their names and put their fingerprints on them as proof.
This was also Chu Yu's intention: the business, though small, had to be conducted properly. Even a transaction that might seem like it only costs a dollar or two could easily cause a rift in the village. The older folks are often confused, and there are those who drank half a jin of liquor early in the morning; they might claim to have delivered 300 jin when they actually delivered 200 jin, without signing or fingerprinting, and without having other villagers witness it. When it comes time to divide the money, Chu Yu won't be able to explain himself.
With many hands making light work, the entire village mobilized, and as a result, in just one night, the villagers of Shanguan Village almost destroyed the bats' nest!
They dug up a full 9,080 jin of luminous sand!
Fortunately, the mountain range in Shanguan Village is continuous and has never been developed. There are many wild bats and no one has been able to go in for many years, which has accumulated a lot of luminous sand.
Even if we look for it again next year, we probably won't be able to find it anymore!
However, bats are small, so their droppings are naturally small as well. Nine thousand kilograms is already a considerable amount. If bats were the same size as pigs, and the droppings were more numerous, Chu Yu would have every reason to believe that the villagers of Shanguan Village could shovel the bats so much that they wouldn't dare to poop!
Aunt Tong dug up over 200 jin (approximately 100 kg) of bats and felt saddened, realizing she had overlooked the potential of bats and missed a chance to make money. She said:
"If I could dig up a thousand or two kilograms of it in one night, I could do it!"
"Auntie, two hundred catties is not bad, at least you can earn two yuan," Chu Yu comforted her.
Aunt Tong thought to herself that it made sense. After the busy farming season, there wasn't much work to do in the fields, and the whole family was stuck at home with nothing to do. Two yuan could buy a lot of rice and flour, and it would be better to have something than nothing.
Aunt Tong was ambitious and still wouldn't give up. There were plenty of remote mountain caves in Shanguan Village, where thousands of bats gathered. She could have as much night-shining sand as she wanted.
"There are a few caves in the back mountain that not many people know about. I'll go see if I can dig some more later. If not, I'll go check the mountain in the next village!"
Aunt Tong has the ambition to flatten all the bat caves in Rongtai County!
Chu Yu reminded her, "Aunt Tong, be careful when you're looking for Night-Shining Sand. Don't risk your life for such a small amount of money. It wouldn't be worth it if you got hurt."
Those words made me feel good!
Aunt Tong thought to herself that Shu Aiguo's niece was not only beautiful but also thoughtful, so she smiled and said:
"Of course. Don't let her age fool you, she grew up in Shanguan Village and has climbed up and down countless times. Her legs are still in good shape, and she knows her limits."
The house was crowded with villagers delivering luminous sand.
Shu Aiguo was afraid that things might get complicated if the city's traditional Chinese medicine purchasing station refused to buy the stuff, leaving him with nothing but a pile of unsold goods. If he couldn't sell them, he would have to pay the villagers back their initial investment, which would be a huge loss.
He carried two jin of rice to the brigade leader's house and borrowed the oxcart from yesterday for another day.
Shu Aiguo is a capable person. Whenever the brigade leader has chores to do, he will volunteer to do them.
Every time he borrowed the oxcart, he would feed the oxen well and clean it thoroughly inside and out when returning it, even more meticulously than the brigade leader's own cart. He also brought two kilograms of rice. Since the brigade leader's family wasn't in a hurry to use the cart, lending it to him would give him an extra two kilograms of rice, so naturally he was willing.
The oxcart carried two or three thousand catties. When the oxen could not walk uphill, Shu Aiguo would get off and push them.
Chu Yu also rode her bicycle and dragged 300 pounds.
The Deyang City purchasing station still has the same few people. In previous years, it was very difficult to collect nephrite. This year, because Chuyu sold nephrite, the purchase volume exceeded the limit. Xiao Wang even asked his superiors yesterday whether to stop purchasing it because there was too much nephrite.
The leader's point was that the purchasing station in Deyang City was just a transit point, and the Chinese medicines were all going to be collected and sent to the higher-level Chinese medicine stations. Deyang was indeed not short of night-shining sand, but the province and cities still needed it, so the purchase of night-shining sand was not stopped.
When Chu Yu arrived with a cartload of Night-Shining Sand, Xiao Wang was doing accounts. Upon seeing her, his expression became somewhat subtle.
He couldn't quite describe his feelings. He liked Chu Yu, but he was too ashamed to admit it to his colleagues. He looked down on Chu Yu's rural background, but when he saw Chu Yu marrying someone more outstanding than himself, he felt a pang of jealousy. Only by labeling her as "vain," "competitive," and "scheming" could he feel a little better.
A colleague tugged at Xiao Wang, who deliberately put on a stern face, as if she wanted to distance herself from a vain woman like Chu Yu.
"Two thousand five hundred catties!"
Chu Yu frowned slightly, but didn't bother arguing with him.
It's easier to see the King of Hell than to deal with his underlings.
It's better to avoid trouble. She still needs to do business in Deyang, and offending him wouldn't be worth it.
Shu Aiguo also noticed the staff member's drastic change in mood, and even after walking a long way, he was still muttering to Chu Yu:
"They were so welcoming last time, calling me 'Uncle' all the time. They were so hospitable. But it's only been a few days, and they're already wearing a long face! It's so hard to guess what these people who live off government subsidies are thinking!"
Shu Aiguo was unaware that Xiao Wang had a crush on Chu Yu, and that calling him "uncle" was just a way of currying favor. He was also unaware of the previous confrontation between Xiao Wang and Dai Donglin.
Chu Yu didn't tell him either.
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