Chapter 37 Wang Luosheng’s Sorrow
Su Wan looked around and saw that there was no stall selling the popular spicy hot pot, milk tea, or fried skewers on this snack street, but she could see a lot of business opportunities.
(popular spicy hot pot)
( milk tea)
( fried skewers)
However, Su Wan thought that selling milk tea was actually the simplest. However, Su Wan felt that milk tea had great uses in the future and did not need to be revealed now. As for the rest of the spicy hot pot and fried skewers, if they were to be made, the business would most likely be good. However, if spicy hot pot and fried skewers were to be sold, then pots, pans, tables, chairs and benches would be needed as well. Moreover, ordinary things would not be enough and they had to be specially made in carpenter and blacksmith shops, which would cost a lot of money.
In addition, if you want to sell these, you must have a stall yourself, and you have to pay protection fees to those ruffians. Even though it is a small business, the cost is not small.
Su Wan wanted to sell the one with low cost first, and earn the money to buy these utensils first. Although the original owner also helped Wang’s mill business, the mill business and the food business were still different after all. Su Wan also thought it would be better to practice first, and then learn more about this snack street, and it would not be too late to start business later.
Looking around, she found that in addition to those selling snacks with baskets, everyone else also had to have a stall and prepare pots, pans, and utensils.
Su Wan’s snacks are delicious, but the ingredients used to make the snacks are all real and of high quality, and the profit margin is slim. If they are sold at a high price, people in Qingyun County will not be able to afford them.
Su Wan was thinking about it when she suddenly found that Shen Yaya looked back. Su Wan followed Shen Yaya’s gaze and saw that it was a man selling candied haws. The red candied haws were covered with a layer of shiny transparent syrup, which would make any child drool.
Each candied haws costs three cents, which is not expensive, but for most people, they only buy one for their children occasionally to satisfy their cravings.
Su Wan suddenly had an idea in her mind.
There are many wild fruit trees on the hill behind the village. The wild fruits grown on those trees are sour and astringent. The children in the village will not eat them even if they don’t have snacks.
The original owner had tried various methods and found a way to remove the astringency of wild fruits. She then made the wild fruits without the astringency into candied haws. Although the taste is slightly inferior to that of candied haws, it is also quite delicious.
The original owner gave the Wang family candied haws made from wild fruits. The Wang family was used to a good life and said with disdain that these were not as good as the real candied haws. So the original owner put the candied haws made from wild fruits behind her mind.
Wild fruits are free, and the taste of candied haws made from wild fruits is only slightly worse than that made from hawthorn, but the cost is 70% to 80% cheaper than that made from hawthorn, so the selling price can also be lowered, and adults will be willing to buy one for their children. In this way, small profits but quick turnover can be achieved.
On ordinary days, no one would take the initiative to pick wild fruits, as there were plenty of them in the village.
For the authentic candied haws, the raw materials used include hawthorn fruit, which is more expensive than sugar. Since wild hawthorn fruit is free of charge, a large amount of cost is saved.
Su Wan turned around and bought two candied haws for Shen Yaya. Just as she was about to pay, Shen Yaya took out six cents.
These six cents were from the ten cents that Su Wan had given to Shen Yaya before.
A candied haws costs three cents.
Shen Yaya said to Su Wan: “Sister Su Wan, buy one for me and I will buy one for you.”
Shen Lin also took time out of his busy schedule to teach Shen Yaya arithmetic, so Shen Yaya was able to calculate that two candied haws were six cents.
Su Wan pinched Shen Yaya’s nose and said, “Okay then, I’ll buy one for you and you buy one for me.”
Su Wan and Shen Yaya ate candied haws and walked around the snack street, but they didn’t buy anything else. Shen Yaya ate one candied haws and was very satisfied. She was not like other ignorant children who would want everything they saw.
While walking on the street, Su Wan said to Shen Yaya: “I want to hire you to do a job tomorrow.”
Shen Yaya frowned and said, “Sister Su Wan, I will do whatever you ask me to do. Why do you need to hire me?”
Su Wan joked, “If I hadn’t hired you, I would have been worried that you would get tired if I asked you to help me. If I had paid you, I could have used you as much as I could.”
Shen Yaya also said generously: “Well, Sister Su Wan, what do you want me to do?”
Su Wan said, “Tomorrow, the two of us will go pick all the wild fruits in the village and the back mountain and bring them home. If you help me with the work for a day, I will give you thirty cents.”
Shen Yaya said: “You gave me ten cents, which is already a lot. Besides, the wild fruits are sour and astringent, and they don’t have much moisture. What’s the point of picking wild fruits?”
Su Wan did not fool Shen Yaya just because she was a child. She explained to Shen Yaya clearly the idea of using wild fruits to make candied haws, and told Shen Yaya that she could remove the astringency of the wild fruits.
Shen Yaya said: “Sister Su Wan, I won’t tell anyone else about your method. If others knew about it, they would snatch the wild fruits from us.”
Su Wan winked at Shen Yaya: “Smart.”
Su Wan and Shen Yaya had enough shopping, and waited for Shen Lin for a while at the place where they had agreed to meet, and then they saw Shen Lin coming over.
Before Su Wan asked, Shen Lin spoke first: “I didn’t think about earning money before, so I didn’t ask or inquire about it. Now that I’ve asked carefully, I found that there are many places to earn money.”
Su Wan asked Shen Lin in detail and found out that Shen Lin had asked several shops on East Street, and they were all recruiting people, some to be work assistants, some to be accountants, and some to go sailing with the boss. And sailing at sea was not hard labor, but helping the boss to order goods and give advice, which was the most profitable. A trip at sea took more than a month, and if everything went well, one could earn more than thirty taels of silver.
Only then did Shen Lin realize how ignorant he was before. Before, there were only two things in his mind: farming and studying. He thought it would be best to enter a career in politics through studying, to stand out and bring honor to the family. Later, when his father passed away, he thought about coming back to farming. After all, farming was the safest way to go, and he had never thought about anything else.
But you won’t know unless you ask. Only after asking will you realize that as long as you have the ability, there are still many ways to make money.
The villagers of Qingshi Village all looked down on those who worked and did business, but what Shen Lin feared least now was being looked down upon, and what he feared most was money.
Shen Lin told Su Wan that after all the corn was harvested, he would come to Qingyun County more often and find a job to earn more money since there was no farm work in the winter.
In the past winters, in addition to taking care of his mother and sister at home, Shen Lin also had to help his grandparents and his uncle’s family with many things. He also had to go up the mountain to chop firewood for his grandparents and his own family for a year. Shen Lin was not idle throughout the winter.
Su Wan agreed with Shen Lindong’s idea of making money in the county town. Su Wan said, “Indeed, face and filial piety to grandparents are not the most important things now. The most important thing is to earn more money and go to Qingzhou Prefecture to find a good doctor for Aunt Shen to cure her leg.”
Su Wan added: “By the way, you don’t have to worry too much about what your grandparents think. No matter what you do, your grandparents will not be satisfied. You are an unfilial grandson to them.”
If it were someone else, Su Wan would definitely not say so much, after all, saying so would be seen as provoking. However, Su Wan still saw it today and yesterday, Shen Lin seemed to understand, so Su Wan simply struck while the iron was hot.
Shen Lin said calmly: “I plan to show filial piety in the same way as my uncle’s family in the future. If I do the same as my uncle’s family and still can’t make them feel that I am filial, then it is really not my problem.”
Su Wan smiled. It seemed that Shen Lin was not going to be filial this time. Eldest Shen’s family only knew how to take and use Old Man Shen’s things. They had done very little for Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen. When Shen Lin said that he wanted to do the same as Eldest Shen’s family, it meant that he was not going to do it anymore.
Su Wan really wanted to applaud Shen Lin.
In the past, after the autumn harvest, Shen Lin would prepare firewood for Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen for use in the winter, but Eldest Shen’s family did not prepare anything for Old Man Shen’s family. Not only that, Eldest Shen’s family also used the firewood that Shen Lin chopped for Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen.
Su Wan still wanted to confirm, so she asked, “Can you be so cruel?”
Shen Lin replied: “I was too stupid before.”
Su Wan was very relieved. It was a good thing that he realized that he was too stupid.
Su Wan, Shen Lin and Shen Yaya returned to the grain field of Qingshi Village. Yang Wu was walking over with a cart of corn. The other brothers of the Yang family were rubbing the corn on the grain field. When Yang Wu saw Shen Lin and Su Wan coming over, he hurriedly said, “Su Wan, your ox cart is a great help. We have brought back half of the corn. This will help us finish the work a few days earlier.”
Yang Da, who was rubbing corn in the threshing field, also called out to Shen Lin, “Shen Lin, when we have finished rubbing the corn at home, we will rub it for you. We brothers can rub the little corn for you in a day.”
Shen Lin did not feel embarrassed this time. He just bowed to the brothers of the Yang family and said, “Then Shen Lin would like to thank you brothers first.”
Sometimes, it is rude to refuse other people’s help and kindness.
Instead of just saying thank you over and over again, it is better to keep it in your heart and repay it with other things in the future.
Shen Lin came back to the grain field to take the cow and the cart with Su Wan to return it to the next village. Seeing that it was getting late, Yang Wu said that he would feed the cow with water and grass and then give them the two of them.
Shen Lin said no, he came with Su Wan just to do these things. Shen Lin took the reins of the cow from Yang Wu and was about to lead the cow to the river with Su Wan when he heard the old man Shen’s voice like the King of Hell: “Shen Lin, come over here and pull corn for your uncle’s house.”
After Shen Lin pulled the corn with the ox cart in the morning, he handed the cart over to Yang Wu. Although the villagers said that it was a sin for Su Wan to hire an ox cart to pull the corn, they also envied the Shen and Yang families for being able to move the corn from the fields to the threshing ground so easily.
Old Man Shen was even more furious when he saw Shen Lin gave the ox cart to Yang Wu. He was about to find trouble with Shen Lin, but Shen Lin had already left the grain field. Old Man Shen argued with Yang Wu for a while, but was naturally defeated. Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen went to Shen Lin’s house again, but the door of Shen Lin’s house was locked. No one came in when they called, and Mrs. Shen didn’t make a sound either.
It was not Mrs Shen’s fault that Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen were bothered. Mrs Shen was in such a bad condition that she could not get out of bed to open the door. Besides, she was too weak to respond. Even if she wanted to respond to Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen, her voice could not be heard from inside the house to outside the door.
Old man Shen wanted to rush in and cause trouble, but on the one hand, he was too old to survive, and on the other hand, the dogs in Shen Lin’s yard were barking ferociously. If Old man Shen really rushed in, he would be torn to pieces by the dogs.
Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen were almost mad with anger. They wanted Eldest Shen to step forward, but it was no use. eldest Shen was so busy that he couldn’t leave.
Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen returned to the threshing ground and watched Yang Wu easily pulling cartloads of corn on the ox cart that Shen Lin had used. They then watched Eldest Shen grunting as he carried baskets of corn on his back. They became even more annoyed with Shen Lin. Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen gave Eldest Shen a hand, while looking at Yang Wu going back and forth with resentment.
When the sun was about to set, the two men stopped rubbing corn and drank some water. Shen Lin and Su Wan took the ox cart from Yang Wu again.
Old Man Shen had captured Shen Lin , and he hurriedly walked forward while shouting, asking Shen Lin to use the ox cart to pull corn for Eldest Shen.
Shen Lin waited for Old Man Shen to approach and said, “Grandfather, this ox cart was rented by Su Wan. Besides, it’s time to return the ox and the ox cart.”
Old man Shen said sternly, “What if Su Wan rented it? What if the time is up? The ox cart is in your hands, so you have to pull corn for your uncle’s family. Filial piety is more important than anything else, you must listen to me.”
“Also, you are such a heartless person. You have a bullock cart, but you would rather give it to an outsider than to your own uncle. You are such a traitor.”
