Chapter 52: CH 52

Since the salted duck eggs have been marinated, Mo Yan brought some when she went to the market. Knowing that the younger Shopkeeper Zhou liked them, she gave him ten.

Zhong Cheng had kept his word and always brought the duck eggs early in the morning. Sometimes, the Mo sisters hadn’t even left for the market yet, in which case they’d greet him and didn’t say much aside from that.

This day, he came early. When he entered the door, Mrs. Liang and Mo Ling were making pancakes. He greeted Mrs. Liang, put down the duck eggs, and went out.

Mo Yan had just come back from running, and when she saw the cart at the door, she knew it was Zhong Cheng. This time, there weren’t melons in his cart, but two large bags. Touching the bag, it seemed like there were red beans or mung beans inside.

Seeing Zhong Cheng coming out with a sullen face, it seemed that her sister wasn’t very nice to him today, “Zhong Cheng, you’re here. Have you had breakfast? Why don’t you sit down?”

“No, I’m rushing to the market to exchange food!”

“Exchange food?” Mo Yan didn’t understand what he meant.

Zhong Cheng pointed to the bags on his cart, “These are the mung beans we just harvested. My sister-in-law, my mother, and my sister picked them one by one, and other people won’t have harvested them yet! I want to replace them with wheat, which will be beneficial for us!”

Mung beans are a type of grain, but not everyone grows it, so it’s rare. Most people would be reluctant to buy them outright, but they’d be more willing to do a trade.

Zhong Cheng wasn’t as naive as he looked on the surface.

“Brother Zhong, do you have work animals at home?”

“Yes! We have a cow and a horse.”

“Then do you rent them out?”

Zhong Cheng scratched his head. No one had ever asked this before, so he didn’t respond for some time. Mo Yan went on to say, “We want to reclaim wasteland, and we want to rent work animals to reclaim it when autumn rolls by.”

When he heard that it was to reclaim land, Zhong Cheng said, “There’s no need to rent the animals. They aren’t doing anything in autumn anyways.”

Mo Yan immediately stopped him sternly, “We’re. You must take money from us if we rent from you. Tell the truth when she asks the price, or we’ll find someone else.”

“You don’t need to find anyone else, I can plough three acres of land a day with one cow.”

“There are over ten acres of land, you just need to finish ploughing it before it freezes.”

“Don’t worry, I have experience in reclaiming wasteland.”

“If you want to take this job, come and talk to my mother during the Mid-Autumn Festival.”

Zhong Cheng nodded in agreement and left happily with his cart.

Because of their business document, they didn’t need to worry about arriving too late, so they didn’t have to go too early. Mo Ling and Mo yan ate breakfast and packed up and were about to go out, when several villagers entered their home, one after another.

It seemed a bit like those people who got diarrhoea at the market last time, but they didn’t offend these people!

It was only when these people approached that they could see the one leading them was Ms. Li. They looked at them blankly when she smiled and said, “Are you going to the market?”

Mo Ling nodded, “Yes, I’m going to set up shop.”

“Do you still have salted duck eggs in your house?”

“I’ll have to ask my mother.”

Mrs. Liang also heard the voices outside and came out to see what was going on. Ms. Li smiled brightly and said, “Mrs. Liang, Madam Cao ate your salted duck eggs, and kept complimenting them. Mr. Cao also said that duck eggs were good for the dry autumn weather. Madam Cao has had a dry cough the past few days, so I want to buy some more.”

Mrs. Liang said apologetically, “We don’t have many salted eggs right now, and it’ll take a few days for the next batch to be ready!”

Ms. Li didn’t pressure her further, “Then you’ll have to tell me at once when it’s ready!”

These people all came because they noticed Ms. Li, and some wanted to buy a few to try. Mrs. Liang went back and took out the jar of salted duck eggs. There were thirty-odd left.

After they discussed, Ms. Li asked for ten. There’d be new ones in three to five days anyways. The others divided the rest, a few per person, and they went back home to taste them.

Mrs. Liang really didn’t expect her salted duck eggs to be so popular, and regretted not making more. Zhong Cheng had just come here in the morning, and it’d take five days for him to come again!

In the market, Mo Ling said while she was working, “I didn’t expect the salted duck eggs to be so popular. We should make more and ask Zhong Cheng to send more to us.”

Mo Yan said, “In the morning, he said he’s going here to exchange mung beans for wheat, but I don’t know where he’s exchanging the grains.”

“He must be in the grain market, next to the livestock market.”

“Then I’ll go tell him!”

“Okay, I’ll come over once I’m done here, and we’ll buy some meat when we go back.”

During a lull, Mo Yan ran to the grain market. There are food sellers there, with rows and rows of bags open. She remembered that Zhong Cheng said that he brought mung beans, so he only looked for the bags containing mung beans.

She was searching carefully when she heard Zhong Cheng call her.

Mo Yan turned around and saw that Zhong Cheng was trading with others, so she signalled for Zhong Cheng to exchange his goods first before standing aside and waiting.

The other person’s bags were also opened, and it was filled with wheat. Zhong Cheng said, “One kilogram of mung beans for three kilogram of wheat. These are freshly-harvested mung beans, and the seniors living in the city will definitely like them.”

The man hesitated, “They look good, but that’s a bit expensive!”

Zhong Cheng readied to put away his bag, “If I wasn’t in a hurry to use white flour, I wouldn’t change it! I’ll take it to the city myself, and get a good price.”

Mo Yan said from the side, “Brother Zhong Cheng, my sister asked if you’ve exchanged the wheat yet. She wants you to go to the stall because she has something to tell you.”

Zhong Cheng secretly smiled and spread his hands towards the person opposite him, “Look, there’s people at home who’s urging me to hurry up, it’s making me impatient. If you want this bag of mung beans, I will give you an extra ten percent. What do you think?”

The person opposite made a decision, “Sure, pour a bag of them into this bag.”

Pouring it into another bag would let the buyer see if the goods are of a consistent quality.

After that, they started weighing the bag. Mo Yan said, “Brother Zhong Cheng, I’ll go back first. Come over when you’re done with your work.”

Zhong Cheng agreed, his face full of joy.

After exchanging the wheat, he pushed it to Mo Ling’s stall.

“Mo Ling, were you looking for me?”

“Yes, my family’s salted duck eggs are selling very well. From now on, please send a hundred eggs every two days.” After speaking, Mo Ling corrected herself, “Please send 200 eggs every five days instead, so you won’t have to run all over the place.”

“It’s fine, I’ll give you a hundred eggs in two days.”

Mo Yan asked him, “Brother Zhong, have you exchanged the wheat?”

“I have, why?”

“Where are you going to sell it?”

“Our village is next to the river, and we have a water-powered millstone. I’ll push the wheat back, grind it into white flour, and sell it for a larger profit.”

It’s a lot of trouble to do all of this, so of course it would be profitable. They didn’t have a lot of white flour right now, so she asked, “How much do you sell for a pound of white flour?”

Zhong Cheng looked around and didn’t see anyone before whispering, “If you need flour, thirty dollars a kilogram is enough.”

Post-edit notes: Yes, two chappies on two consecutive days! Don’t get used to this, it won’t happen a lot especially since school starts soon. But it might show up once in a blue moon, you never know.