Chapter 24 024. Husband wants to buy flowers again?
"Reselling."
Zhou Yi sighed a little, it turned out that there is no shortage of smart people in any era.
The middlemen make a profit from the difference.
It sounds like a very modern word, but many merchants in ancient times started out as middlemen. They had many names, such as "yalang", "huolang", "paoshang", and "waidimen".
They act as intermediaries between the production areas and the markets, responsible for the transportation of goods, like the merchants from the north that Niu Dashu mentioned when we were planting rice.
Using their own fleet and information gap, they sell goods from the north here, and at the same time resell things here back to the north.
Reselling daily necessities is a small profit but quick turnover, while reselling rare items brings in higher profits.
"The butcher in the town market is a reseller, so besides pork, he can also sell other things, right?"
"Of course I can."
Lei Li said, "He still collects free-range eggs in the countryside. He can earn a penny or two by selling them in the county town. Ten or a hundred eggs is a lot of money."
"Not everyone can do this job. He can't touch new rice."
"Why?"
Lei Li glanced at him as if he were a fool. "Because this is the business of the rice shop owner in the town. My brother-in-law runs a rice shop in the county town."
"He's just a pork seller, and he doesn't have any way to sell rice. The villagers have been working with the rice shop owner for so many years, so why would they work with him?"
"Besides, there's not that much rice to sell. Besides paying the tax to the government, we also have to keep some for our own consumption. As a family like us, with so little land, it's barely enough for us to eat."
Zhou Yi nodded. "Then I understand. You are able to do the work of slaughtering pigs, not only because of the friendship and connections that Mr. Zhu left you, but also because you are the only one with this skill."
"Actually, there are people in another town who can slaughter and castrate pigs, but the towns are far apart, so they wouldn't travel so far just to make a few cents."
Lei Li said, "Unless it's for the New Year pig slaughter, then you can get money and pig offal, but it's expensive, and pig farmers are reluctant to spend the money."
After all.
Still poor.
Because I was poor, I was frugal and haggled over a few cents, but in the end I found that even if one or two cents were added up, it still cost a lot of money.
If a family could save one or two taels of silver a year, it would be considered good and they could have a good New Year. If they could save three or four taels, they could have meat to eat and new clothes.
But marrying a wife costs a lot of money, not to mention building a house, raising children who change with each passing day, taking care of elderly parents, and preventing sudden natural disasters and serious illnesses.
"When you have no money, even a penny can make a big man suffer."
Zhou Yi felt a little emotional.
But he was just sighing, after all, he didn't have a penny on him.
—
Perhaps in order to show the closeness between officials and the people, the county government office is quite close to the civilian residential area.
But the two stone lions at the gate of the county government office were cold, hard and tall, with eyes as big as copper bells and sharp gazes. They did not hold stone balls in their mouths, and their sharp teeth seemed able to bite someone to death in the next second.
The two soldiers on duty were not behaving properly. They gathered together to crack melon seeds and talk about the little songs they heard in the brothel last night, and then they laughed in an ambiguous way.
They laughed quite loudly.
Zhou Yi and Lei Li heard it before they even reached the county government office.
Zhou Yi frowned, feeling that the state's coercive power here was not that strong. He felt itchy and wanted to teach these two lazy soldiers a lesson.
Seeing them parked at the gate, a soldier spat out some sunflower seed shells and rolled his eyes. "What are you doing? Don't you know that oxcarts are not allowed to park at the gate of the county government office?"
"I'm here to take care of something!"
Lei Li walked forward and quietly gave them five coins each. He smiled and said, "Get a household registration for my husband. He came from the north and lost his household registration on the way..."
The two soldiers' attitudes changed, and they smiled a little. They glanced at Zhou Yi and said, "You're from the north? No wonder you have scars... Go in, the household register is inside."
"Okay, thank you very much."
Lei Li drove the ox cart to the side of the stone lion, took the backpack filled with yam, thought for a while, and only kept a few roots.
I followed Zhou Yi into the county government office through the small side door.
The household registration book is the one that the county government is responsible for.
He was an old man in his sixties, with a white beard. He was too lazy to even blink when he entered the room. He took a sip of tea and then slowly said,
"Registering for household registration? Coming from the north at this time... and with scars on his face... Could he be a deserter?"
This is the knock.
If you pay, you are a good citizen and can get the job done. If you don't pay, you are a deserter or an illegal resident and can't get the job done.
"Of course not. How could he be a deserter? That's a serious crime... My husband lost his household registration because of carelessness. Now that he's married into my family, he wants to do this for me."
Lei Li took out some wild yam from his backpack and said with a smile, "I'm a country bumpkin, so I don't have much good stuff. I just happened to come across some good mountain products yesterday..."
The head of the household, Bo, softened his expression. Seeing Lei Li politely gave him another twenty coins, he smiled and said, "Newlyweds, you need to get your household registration done early. It will make it easier to register your children when you have them... Wait."
The head of the household collected the things, took a sip of tea, slowly took the household registration book handed over by Lei Li, checked the words, and slowly found the main household registration book of Sanlihe Village.
This is the archive kept by the government.
Theoretically, every village and town, and every person's birth and death, increase or decrease in numbers should be recorded, but the record is not strict now, and it is easy for someone to evade taxes by not reporting.
"Which city and which province?"
"Thoughtful Zhou, perseverant Yi."
"oh……"
The head of the household slowly wrote down his name and asked for his date of birth.
“19…”
Zhou Yi almost wanted to say 1996, but paused, realizing that this wasn't modern times. He didn't know the dynasty or year here, so 28 backwards would be...
Lei Li reacted instantly and continued, "Seventy-two years of Dayou... now twenty-eight years old..."
"Twenty-eight..."
He slowly wrote the household register, checked it to see if there were any problems, and then took out the red official seal and stamped it on the Lei Li family's household register, saying, "Done."
Took the book.
Zhou Yi was a little dazed.
Is it that simple?
He originally thought that it would be difficult to resolve his illegal household status, but after thinking about it, he realized that this is not the modern world, where money can make the devil work, let alone people.
—
There are only a few yam leaves left.
In addition to the county government office, Lei Li took Zhou Yi to find a good place and set up a stall there.
A pound of wild yam costs 25 cents. Although it took an afternoon to dig it, it seems quite cost-effective compared to the local eggs that cost two cents and the vegetables that cost one cent.
The only problem is that wild yam is rare, grows slowly, and is easily taken by others. Otherwise, this would also be a stable way to make money.
Lei Li shouted and finally sold it cheaply to a maid of a landlord for 23 wen per catty, which was 160 wen rounded off for seven catties.
"The two missing coins will definitely go into her pocket. She might go back and say she bought it for 30 coins. Anyway, the landlord won't make a fuss about such things."
As Lei Li packed his things, he said, "If I save a little here and there, I can save a lot of money every month... That's great."
"Isn't this considered lining one's own pockets?"
"What naan?"
Lei Li understood what was going on and rolled his eyes at him. "You saved it based on your ability, and you know with your conscience that's what you deserve."
"……you're right."
Seeing that he had no intention of returning directly, but instead walked deeper into the street, Zhou Yi asked again, "Where are we going now? Do you have any other friends you want to see?"
"Buy two pieces of cloth. The cloth in town is brought from the county, so why not buy it here?"
Lei Li glanced at his clothes and said, "You can't always wear mine. We only have four sets of clothes. When the rainy season comes, what are we going to wear?"
"But don't get too excited. Even though they're new clothes, we don't have the money to buy good fabric..."
"Like the suit you wore that day when you were dying on the mountain, the material is good, but it's too worn. Otherwise, I'd ask my mother to fix it up and it would last you a few more years."
Lei Li was talking about the camouflage uniform Zhou Yi was wearing when he had the car accident. For some reason, it was tattered, and Lei Li could pull down his pants without unbuckled his belt.
"I'm not picky."
Zhou Yi shook his head. His attention was more on the streets, with all kinds of shops and small street stalls, which were much richer and more lively than the town market.
Because the streets are wide, shops are next to each other, and street stalls are next to each other, making the streets look well-organized and clean.
The people here dress in a rich style.
Dark black and white linen.
Beautiful and luxurious silk.
This dynasty did not seem to restrict merchants very much. Zhou Yi saw some ladies dressed in luxurious clothes, wearing gold and silver, being surrounded by people and entering a jewelry store.
In another more upscale fabric shop, there were men taking body measurements, pretty young women choosing fabric patterns, and beautiful headscarves and headbands.
There is also a flower shop.
It is similar to the kind sold at the town market, but the flowers are larger and brighter, with more colors, and the branches and leaves are neatly trimmed, giving a feeling of thriving life.
suddenly.
Zhou Yi's eyes lit up, and he stared at a pot of green plants and asked the young man selling flowers, "How much does this pot... cost?"
"Two hundred wen."
Young husband Lang Wen said with a smile.
Lei Li almost let out a sharp cry when he heard this, and looked at Zhou Yi with a gloomy look in his eyes, "Husband, do you want to buy flowers again?"
"……No."
Zhou Yi shook his head, but his eyes showed reluctance.
The stem is much branched, and the simple leaves are alternate, ovate-lanceolate to oblong, and have entire margins.
Although April is not the flowering and fruiting season, you can still see its small white flowers, growing singly in the leaf axils or in clusters at the top of the branches. You can also see its spherical to conical berries, with flat, round and shiny tops.
Most importantly, its fruits are colorful, with fruits of multiple colors growing on the same plant.
Five-color peppers.
It is a great dish to go with wine, cooking or drinking porridge.
More importantly, since there are five-color peppers here, there may be chili peppers, millet peppers, and Erjingtiao peppers, so more dishes can be made.
Zhou Yi really wants to eat snail and duck feet stew, chopped pepper fish head, spicy tofu, boiled pork slices, and he also really wants to eat spicy pickles and sour food!
The flower buyer chuckled softly, "This pot of multicolored flowers came from the north and is rare in the county. Two hundred coins isn't too expensive... If you really want it, how about one hundred and ninety coins?"
One hundred and ninety coins.
Lei Li just made 160 coins from selling yams.
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