After thinking for a while, he said to Butler Zhao: "Well, the prince is a good person, but everyone is busy with spring plowing. We should try to do what we can do ourselves, and if it really doesn't work, we can ask them for help."
Butler Zhao pinched his mustache and smiled, "Young Master is right, that's the truth."
After saying that, she started to get busy. Gu Xinran found that she was not needed for the procedures of exchanging or buying cows.
Now that he had an accountant, he simply gave him 1,000 taels of silver on the spot and asked him to take office from that moment on.
Bored Gu Xinran strolled around the livestock market. The smell here was really bad, and only Grandpa Gu, who loved livestock deeply, could endure it for a long time.
After informing everyone, he took Xiaolan away and headed towards the market fifty meters away.
Gu Xinran has been back in Jinzhou Prefecture for almost ten days, and she hasn't had a proper shopping trip, not a single day of leisure. What happened to the promised stalls?
The day after tomorrow is New Year's Eve. The market is bustling with people and it is prosperous. I wish the whole Dalan could be like this.
Unfortunately, countless refugees were displaced and were running hungry on the road to escape famine.
This was a rare opportunity, and Gu Xinran took it very seriously. She bought clothes, hats, shoes, socks, pork, mutton, cakes, candied fruits, toys and dolls... as if they were free. Xiaolan carried the small quantities, and had the large quantities delivered to her door.
Before I knew it, I had almost finished buying all the New Year’s goods.
Shopping brings joy to people, especially when you have plenty of money and can buy things without restraint. As you stroll along, you may come to the place where the villagers set up their stalls.
There are all kinds of vegetables, poultry, game, handmade products...
After another round of sweeps, she bought up many stalls selling poultry and eggs, and carried them to Gu's house in loads.
While strolling, Gu Xinran stopped in front of two children who were wearing thin clothes with their toes exposed.
She slowly squatted down, took out a small ball wrapped in light brown soil from the torn sack on the ground, and observed it carefully.
The two kids had been setting up their stall for a long time but no one was interested, and they were feeling discouraged. Then, when they saw a pretty girl interested in their products, the older boy squatted down and introduced them to her.
"Sister, don't be fooled by the ugly appearance of these potatoes. When cooked, they are pink and tender, and have a fresh fragrance. They are very delicious."
“Oh, did you grow this yourself?”
The five or six-year-old girl said, "No, my brother and I dug it up in the mountains. It's delicious and filling."
Gu Xinran used a torn sack to wipe off the dirt on it, and observed it carefully. The more he looked at it, the more it looked like a potato, except that the head was not big and the color was darker.
If it really is potatoes, that would be terrible.
This thing is delicious, has high yield, is drought-resistant and has few pests, and can also be used as a staple food to satisfy hunger.
"Do you still have these potatoes? How are you going to sell them?"
Seeing that the beautiful sister really wanted to buy it, the little boy smiled and showed his two canine teeth, "This is all I have, five cents a pound."
"There's nothing left on the mountain?"
The little girl looked distressed. “After the snow started, we took the risk and went out again. What little we had left was almost frozen.”
Gu Xinran said regretfully: "What a pity, then give all of these to me."
The two children happily tied the bag and asked the kind grandfather next to them to borrow a scale to weigh it. The total weight was fifteen pounds.
Gu Xinran rummaged through his sleeve pocket for a long time, but only pulled out a handful of silver coins. He felt like crying but had no tears left as all his coins were gone.
Xiaolan hurriedly counted out seventy-five copper coins from her purse and gave them to the two children.
The little boy took it happily and took his sister to the nearby pharmacy.
Gu Xinran was in high spirits after getting the potato seeds. They had almost finished shopping and went to the livestock market to meet up with Butler Zhao and the others.
As soon as I arrived at the market entrance, I saw a group of familiar people.
The villagers of Qingshan led their cattle and horses out to purchase New Year's goods, and also to see if they could exchange the horses for cattle.
Grandpa Gu was greeting them, and Jiu Tou Niu followed behind.
Village chief Li, Uncle Zhang, Master Qiu and others all came, and Gu Xinran called them obediently.
Everyone was envious of the Gu family's exchanged cows. After finding out the details, they made the same decision and without further ado, rushed to exchange the cows.
Village Chief Li called Gu Xinran aside and handed her a slightly wrinkled piece of rice paper. "Xinran, this is the amount of rice and wheat seeds the village needs. How much is one pound? I'll collect them all and give them to you."
Gu Xinran took the paper and opened it. It said 900 kilograms of rice seeds and 200 kilograms of wheat seeds. She didn't expect the village chief to be so cautious. In fact, she could remember it just by hearing it verbally.
She really didn't know what the price of the grain seeds was. Anyway, she didn't want to make money from the villagers, so she just calculated it based on the normal grain price.
Gu Xinran smiled and said, "The person who provided the grain seeds said they would give me a preferential price. Based on the market price of refined rice and flour, wheat seeds are 18 wen and rice seeds are 27 wen. I have some samples here, let me show you first."
After saying that, he pretended to take out two small cloth bags from the bag of potatoes, containing two pounds of rice seeds and wheat seeds each, and handed them to the village chief.
Village chief Li had long wanted to see what the improved varieties looked like and was curious about whether they were good or not. Although he was very confident in Gu Xinran, this was after all related to the livelihood of the entire village, so he had to be cautious.
He carefully opened the bag, and the aroma of grain hit him. The grains he saw were plump and golden in color.
He grabbed a handful of wheat and examined it carefully. The more he looked, the wider his grin grew, his eyes and eyebrows filled with joy. "Good! Good! This is the best seed I've ever seen. Grandpa Li, on behalf of the villagers, thank you in advance."
Gu Xinran smiled and waved her hand. "You're too polite. Next spring, the high-quality seeds from Qingshan Village will be shipped over along with the ones from my farm. You can take these samples back to show the villagers and reassure them."
The village chief nodded with satisfaction.
Gu Xinran now remembered the cart that she had graffitied last night. Seeing that they were all driving donkeys and horses, they probably hadn't had time to equip the cart and carriage yet. If not now, when would she send it?
She told the village chief that she had recently received a batch of second-hand carts at a low price and was willing to transfer them to the villagers at a preferential price of 30 cents per cart, with a limit of one cart per household.
When Village Chief Li heard this, his eyes lit up and everyone was preparing to buy a cart.
I just asked the price. A new car costs two hundred and twenty cents, but Xinran only charges thirty cents. It's a real bargain!
Once again, I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of the villagers.
Gu Xinran left an address to Village Chief Li, which was a three-courtyard house not far from the market. He asked everyone to go there to get the car after changing the cows, and someone would be waiting there.
He also reminded that if it is used as an ox cart, the yoke and reins must be prepared.
After everyone said goodbye, Gu Xinran was in a good mood after getting the potato seeds. With Butler Zhao taking care of it, she didn't have to go to the manor in person.
On the way back, she took them to the three-courtyard house she had bought earlier and asked everyone to wait outside while she went in and put the carriage and cart in the front yard.
Then, she called everyone in to assign a carriage or cart to each cow. Of course, she specifically changed the carriage that she liked the most to the horse she kept for herself.
Everyone had different expressions when they saw the colorful cars. In the end, the cute stick figures of animals made everyone laugh out loud.
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