Today Shen Lin sold a total of 450 cents, with a production cost of 150 cents and a profit of 300 cents. Shen Lin bought new sticks and candies, and then gave the rest, including the cost and profit, to Su Wan.
Su Wan knew that Shen Lin didn’t want to earn her money and was planning to help her for free. Su Wan didn’t say anything for the time being. It would be better to wait until everything was sold out and then give it to Shen Lin.
Shen Lin sold for another few days, and every day he sold out in the morning, but there was still half of the wild fruit left in the warehouse.
The curious villagers started out laughing, then became confused, and then they suddenly realized that Shen Lin was selling candied haws every day to earn money.
Everyone was eager to try the job of selling candied haws, which they had looked down upon. Zhang Ergou even went directly to a candied haws workshop in Qingyun County and bought more than a hundred candied haws. The workshop was very excited to see someone coming to buy goods, and even gave Zhang Ergou a cent discount for each candied haws.
Zhang Ergou thought that if he sold candied haws, he would definitely be better than that idiot Shen Lin. However, no one bought his candied haws for three cents each. When he asked around, he found out that Shen Lin sold two for three cents each. If he also sold two for three cents each, he would not only lose money but also make no money.
But the candied haws could not be sold the next day. Zhang Ergou had no choice but to endure the severe pain and sell them for three cents per 2 sticks. Who knew that after selling for a while, someone came back and said that the ones Zhang Ergou sold were not as delicious as the one sold by the person who always sold them two for three cents . Undoubtedly, that person was Shen Lin.
Because of this man’s noise and the shouting of people around him, Zhang Ergou’s candied haws were smashed in his hands, and Zhang Ergou lost dozens of coins.
There were also a few other kind-hearted villagers who had the same experience as Zhang Ergou.
After this setback, everyone realized that Shen Lin’s candied haws were made from wild fruits, no wonder he could sell them so cheaply.
Zhang Ergou once went to the street market to expose Shen Lin, but the people who bought the candied haws didn’t care at all. As long as the food tasted good, no matter what it was made of. Zhang Ergou was laughed at like a clown by the people in the street market.
At the same time, many people in the village were scrambling to pick wild fruits. There were the most wild fruits in the back mountain, but they had all been picked by Su Wan. Su Wan hired people to pick them at that time, and they were all picked within a day.
Those villagers who were jealous of the money Shen Lin made from selling candied haws started picking fruits from their own village and other villages. People from other villages did not let them pick them at all. A few who insisted on picking them were even beaten. As for the fruits picked in the village, everyone was fighting over them. Those who had once worked together to laugh at Shen Lin selling candied haws and Su Wan living on wild fruits now fought each other to the point of bleeding over the wild fruits to make candied haws. The tacit understanding they had in the past when they gossiped about other people’s business together was completely gone.
There was the Chen family, who had always mocked Shen Lin the most, had snatched the most wild fruits. They were very excited about making candied haws from the wild fruits, but they tasted terrible and a lot of syrup wasted. They did not make any money and instead suffered a huge loss.
Su Wan has been living a relaxing and happy life these days. All the work in the grain field has been done. Shen Lin has stored the corn in the warehouse, waiting to sell the corn after selling the candied haws.
Shen Lin was also the one who did the job of selling candied haws. He went out to sell candied haws every morning. After selling them, he bought sugar and bamboo sticks for the next day from the county town, and then returned home to continue making candied haws.
All the steps of making candied haws, including removing the core of the wild fruits, washing them, fetching water before washing, steaming, boiling, cooling, boiling syrup, and coating with syrup, were all done by Shen Lin alone. Su Wan didn’t have to worry about anything, as Shen Lin did everything for her.
Shen Lin in the book has such a personality. He takes on everything and only lets those close to him live an easy and happy life.
Making candied haws is a big job, and it is not an easy job, but Shen Lin always told Su Wan that it was just a small job, and he could do it alone. Except the money required for buying candies and bamboo sticks, Shen Lin gave all the money from the sales to Su Wan. Su Wan wanted to give him some, but Shen Lin refused to take it, so Su Wan kept it for herself and planned to give it to him at the end.
Su Wan was happy to have a leisurely time every day. She didn’t interfere with the affairs of the candied haws and just collected the money.
Su Wan’s daily job is to cook meals for Shen Lin’s family. After making money from selling candied haws, Su Wan is not stingy with food and drink, and always buys some good vegetables and meat to cook for the Shen family.
This time, Shen Lin felt much more comfortable eating the meat and vegetables bought by Su Wan. After all, Shen Lin also helped Su Wan with the candied haws.
Seeing that Shen Lin’s family was eating good food, Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen naturally came to visit again. However, Su Wan would always say that she bought the ingredients and cooked the meals herself, not Shen Lin’s, and Shen Lin had no say in the matter. Naturally, Old Woman Shen and Old Man Shen had no reason to eat and drink Su Wan’s food for free. They could only envy her but could not eat her food.
Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen asked Shen Lin to give them the money he earned from selling the candied haws. Shen Lin said that these candied haws also belonged to Su Wan and he was just helping Su Wan sell them. Naturally, Shen Lin had no say in how to spend the money.
Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen told Shen Lin not to help Su Wan sell candied haws. Shen Lin said that Su Wan had helped his family so much, providing them with good food and daily necessities, and he couldn’t afford to give her money, so he could only repay her by helping her sell candied haws. If his grandparents didn’t let him help Su Wan sell candied haws, they would be forcing him to become an ungrateful person.
Old Man and Old Woman Shen’s wish was dashed again. They could only wait for Shen Lin to sell the corn before asking him for money. In the past, Shen Lin sold the corn as soon as he harvested it, but this year, Shen Lin had not sold the corn for a long time after harvesting it. Old Man and Mrs. Shen had to patrol Shen Lin’s house every day to find a good opportunity to sell the corn, so that Shen Lin would not sell it secretly without their knowledge.
In addition, there was another person who often hung around the gate of Shen Lin’s house. This person was Wang Luosheng. He came to find Su Wan that day, but with Shen Lin present, he couldn’t say that he came to ask Su Wan for money. He had been looking for an opportunity to be alone with Su Wan.
It happened that he had to go to school during the day, and after school he went to hang around Shen Lin’s house, but he could not wait for Su Wan to come out.
So he knocked on Shen Lin’s door, but the person inside refused to open it. There was a big dog at the door. As soon as it smelled a stranger or heard the voice of a person, it would bark as if it was going to rush out and tear the person to pieces in the next second.
Wang Luosheng couldn’t carry it on his shoulders or lift it with his hands, so he was naturally afraid of the big dog and didn’t dare to go forward and knock on the door.
Not only Wang Luosheng couldn’t see Su Wan, but even when Mrs Wang and Wang Luoxue went to look for Su Wan, the big dog at the door was very powerful. Mrs Wang and Wang Luoxue wanted to wait in the backyard for Su Wan to appear in the Shen’s backyard, but Su Wan didn’t go to the backyard at all. The Shen’s backyard was also a vegetable garden, and it was Shen Yaya who came to the backyard to pick vegetables every day.
Mrs Wang and Wang Luoxue asked Shen Yaya to tell Su Wan to come out and see them, but Shen Yaya said that Sister Su Wan was weak and couldn’t come out.
Therefore, although the Wang family and the Shen family were separated by only a wall, the Wang family could never see Su Wan.
Su Wan has been deliberately not showing up these days. Old Man Shen’s family and Wang Luosheng’s family all have ulterior motives towards her. Seeing that her candied haws are selling so well, they must want to extort some from her. She finds these people annoying and troublesome, so she just stays away from home in the house. There is not much work to do in the Shen family, just cooking and washing dishes. Everyone in the Shen family can clean up the house, so Su Wan doesn’t need to clean it up specially. In addition to cooking, Su Wan reads some books, or gives speech books to Shen Yaya and Shen’s family, or teaches Shen Yaya to read.
The Wang family and Old Man Shen couldn’t see Su Wan, and hence they were so anxious that they just stared at her with their eyes wide open. They would walk around the Shen family’s house for a few laps every day.
The Wang family was in an even more embarrassing situation. They had been hiring a maid these days. At the end of this month, they would have to pay the maid. Moreover, they could not afford to hire the maid anymore. After all, they still owed money to the clothing shop and the jewelry shop. At present, the clothing shop and the jewelry shop did not come to ask for money, but they had to pay the money back before the end of the year. The Wang family had only a few taels of assets. If they did not get Su Wan’s money, they could not hire a maid anymore. Therefore, the Wang family wanted to see Su Wan more and more urgently, but something strange happened. The Shen family was like an impregnable castle, preventing the Wang family from even going to Su Wan.
Although it was still autumn, the weather was already a little cold. Su Wan asked Shen Lin to buy some charcoal when he came back from selling candied haws. Su Wan lit a charcoal fire in Shen’s house. When she felt cold, she went to Mrs Shen’s room with Shen Yaya to roast sweet potatoes.
Shen Lin was out making money, while Su Wan, Mrs Shen, and Shen Yaya stayed comfortably at home, and their lives were peaceful.
One day, Zhang Ergou and Shen San, who had lost money, stopped Shen Lin on the way he was selling candied haws. They wanted to ask Shen Lin how to make the wild fruit candied haws. Both of them had a stick in their hands, and they knew at a glance that if Shen Lin didn’t agree, they would use force.
Shen Lin saw the two men from a distance. If a fight broke out, these two men would not be Shen Lin’s match. However, Shen Lin was only thinking about making money now. Although he could win a fight with them, it would inevitably waste some time. Besides, these two scoundrels were like bastards and would continue to pester him. So, as soon as Shen Lin saw the two men, he immediately turned around and took another route. By the time Shen San and Zhang Ergou reacted, they could no longer catch up with Shen Lin.
After Shen Lin returned to the village, the two of them could no longer carry sticks and cause trouble. With so many eyes staring at them, it was not honorable to force others to ask for the recipe of candied haws. If Shen San and Zhang Ergou did such a thing, they would be scolded.
Shen San and Zhang Ergou wanted to climb up the roof of Shen Lin’s house to see how Shen Lin made the bitter and astringent wild fruit into candied haws that were similar to hawthorns. However, they soon realized that this method would never work. Shen Lin’s house had high walls. Firstly, they could not climb up. Secondly, Shen Lin’s dog was too fierce. Thirdly, even if they climbed up, the dog would not notice, But Shen Lin was making candied haws in the kitchen, not in the yard. So they still could not find the method.
