Chapter 151

Liu Tong asked Xu Ran worriedly, “Ran, do we need to think twice about buying the mountain? Apart from the fact that we don’t have much money, even if we have the money, it’s not good to buy the mountain. There has never been anyone in the village who bought mountains.”

Seeing Liu Tong’s worried expression which was very cute, Xu Ran couldn’t help pinching the tip of his nose and said, “Tongtong, this is not about whether anyone has done it before. It’s about whether this can be done or not. If it is doable, I will definitely buy it. If we can’t, then we’ll have to think of something else.”

In fact, Liu Tong didn’t understand why Xu Ran insisted on growing fruits. He felt that farming was good too!

Liu Tong asked after thinking about this.

Xu Ran said with a smile, “Tongtong, we won’t be able to earn much money by farming, and you’ll be tired from digging the food in the soil. Apart from ourselves, we still have children to raise. If we want to give them better lives, we have to make more money, right? Look how much Tangtang loves to study, he might get into the imperial court in the future. Studying is also very expensive. We can’t let Tangtang quit studying because we don’t have money, right?”

“And Guoguo likes to practice martial arts. I don’t know how Gao Quan’s kung fu is. If he is not good enough, I’ll have to ask someone else to teach Guoguo. This also requires money, right?”

“And our little Baozi is a Ge’er. He should live in comfort since childhood, just like Qin Shuwen. We have to save him a lot of dowries. Not only that, we also have to take care of Mr. Hu when he gets old…”

Xu Ran said a lot of reasons that they needed money for; Liu Tong thought about it and felt that they indeed needed a lot of money…

He looked at Xu Ran bitterly, “Ran, how long is it going to take to earn so much money?”

Xu Ran spread his hands, “I don’t know either, that’s why I want to buy mountains and grow fruits!”

“But Ran, why does it have to be fruits?” Liu Tong asked in confusion.

Xu Ran rubbed his own nose and said embarrassedly, “To make money fast, either you have to be a greedy government official or you need to do business. But I can’t be a government official and I know nothing about business, either. I can only think of other ways. Think about our strawberries last year. Wasn’t it sold very well? If we grow some other fruits, we would only have to be busy for short time in a year and then we could sell them for money.”

“But we still need so many farmlands and fields. What should we do?” Liu Tong hesitated.

Xu Ran said, “We are still going to grow strawberries in the farmlands. As for the fields, aside from planting some vegetables, all the rest is going to be used to plant corns and potatoes. We don’t have to plant anything else from next year. If we plant too many vegetables, we won’t be able to take care of them all.”

Xu Ran had already roughly planned it out. He just wanted to grow some fruits, and plant some potatoes and corns. The rest of the mountain products were just for some extra money. If they were too busy, then they could just leave it.

As for the wheelbarrow that would be sold next year, he could contact a caravan and let the caravan help to sell it. He could just wait to collect the money.

And he could sell the chess sets the same way.

Xu Ran thought about it and told Liu Tong about his plan to start a deli with Qin Shuwu next year.

Liu Tong asked him, “Ran, what kind of  ready-to-eat food products are you planning to sell?”

Xu Ran counted with his fingers. There were braised pig’s feet, stewed chicken feet, braised duck necks, and all kinds of vegetables. Eventually, Xu Ran concluded, “It’s the same as those in He Shui Town.”

Liu Tong pouted, “But I don’t even know what the stores are like in He Shui Town.”

Xu Ran felt sad after hearing this.

He quickly added, “I’ll take you to He Shui Town when we have the chance. It’s pretty good. Just the two of us. Just take it as a honeymoon.”

“What is honeymoon?” Liu Tong asked.

So Xu Ran explained again, and the two of them chatted more and more. At the end, they were still talking with their eyes closed.

The two of them didn’t even know how they fell asleep. Then they slept until dawn.

They were actually awakened by Baozi. Baozi would cry at a certain time every day, and it’s either because of hungry or piss. He got a reasonable cause anyway.

After hearing Baozi crying, Liu Tong immediately got up and went to take care of Baozi, while Xu Ran slept for a bit longer.

When he got up, everyone else had finished their breakfast. Zhuo Yun gave Xu Ran a meaningful look, and Xu Ran surprisingly understood.

Then he glared at Zhuo Yun. He was not that desperate. Tongtong had just finished the confinement for a while now, so he still had to wait for some time.

Fortunately, the weather wasn’t hot, and he didn’t feel that eager.

Xu Ran, who was not accompanied by anyone, ate breakfast silently. Tangtang, Guoguo and Gao Quan had long gone somewhere.

Xu Ran asked Shao Yu, and Shao Yu said they went up the mountain. They would go for the last time today, and then they would have to wait until the next year.

Xu Ran thought that he should check on the homework of Tangtang and Guoguo, which was how well they remembered Pinyin.

After breakfast, he asked Zhuo Yun, “Do you want to go to the mountain to take a look? I will take you to see what the mountain that I would like to buy look like.”

Zhuo Yun agreed and he could go immediately.

Qin Shuwen, who was curious about everything, said that he wanted to go with them, too. Xu Ran looked at Liu Tong and then Liu Tong smiled, “Shuwen, stay with me. I will take you to the village and meet Wu Mei and the others. You are going to stay here for a while, so you gotta get to know the people here.”

Although Qin Shuwen was more interested in the mountain, he knew that Liu Tong’s words made more sense, so after weighing it up, he agreed to hang around the village with Liu Tong.

Zhuo Yun and Xu Ran went up the mountain together. Xu Ran told Zhuo Yun how the mountain he wanted to buy was like while walking, which tantalized Zhuo Yun.

As they walked inside, Xu Ran heard the voices of the two children. Tangtang and Guoguo were reciting Pinyin. Zhuo Yun also heard the sound. He poked Xu Ran’s back and asked him, “What are your sons saying? I don’t understand a single word of that.”

Xu Ran smiled smugly. “Think about it yourself. I won’t tell you.” And then he strode off while laughing out loud.

Zhuo Yun really thought by himself for a while, and then he didn’t think of anything. But Xu Ran had already walked far away.

Zhuo Yun shouted from behind, “Xu Ran, wait for me! Don’t walk so fast.”

As soon as Zhuo Yun finished shouting, the dogs on the other side started to bark again. Tangtang and Guoguo started to call Dad. It was quite lively on the mountain at the moment.

Xu Ran found Tangtang and Guoguo and waited for Zhuo Yun to catch up.

Zhuo Yun looked at the things in Gao Quan’s packbasket and asked, “Are you looking for herbs?”

Gao Quan nodded. “Mm.” His tone was extremely emotionless.

However, Zhuo Yun also knew Gao Quan’s personality, so he wasn’t concerned about this.

Zhuo Yun was not interested in herbs, so he said to Xu Ran, “Let’s go somewhere else to take a look! Didn’t you say this mountain is fun?”

Actually, there was nothing to play with on the mountain because it’s winter now. If it was spring, they could pick some wild fruits or something else.

Xu Ran said, “Alright, I’ll take you to see the mountain I’m planning to buy. There’s nothing to play with on this mountain in winter. It’ll only look better when there’s snow.”

The moment Xu Ran finished speaking, he felt something fly to the tip of his nose, which was wet and soon disappeared.

Xu Ran looked up and found that there was snow in the sky.

Xu Ran smiled. That snow was really timely.

Zhuo Yun also saw it. He asked Xu Ran, “Ran, do you think the snow will get heavier? Can we come to the mountain to see the snow tomorrow?”

Xu Ran shook his head. “You’ll have to ask Heaven about this. It’s useless to ask me. But it hasn’t been raining or snowing lately. I guess this snow would get bigger. Let’s go and take a look.”

Xu Ran walked forward and Zhuo Yun followed behind him.

The mountain Xu Ran mentioned was a slope that wasn’t too steep. It was just right to grow fruits.

There weren’t many trees, but covered with weeds.

Zhuo Yun pointed to the slope and said, “Ran, are you sure the fruit trees can be planted here? Also, there are not many trees here. It doesn’t look very fertile. Can the fruit trees survive here?”

Xu Ran said, “There used to be a lot of trees here, but Gao Quan and I cut them down and took them back to use as firewood. I’ve been paying attention to this mountain for a long time. We won’t have to spend time logging the trees later!”

“But you cut all the trees. Aren’t you afraid of the heavy rain which might trigger landslides in the summer?” Zhuo Yun asked.

Xu Ran pointed behind him. “Look, there are so many big trees here. Even if it was a landslide, it wouldn’t be able to slip down from here. I will plant all the fruit trees in this mountain before summer arrives. So I still have to rely on your help to find me some fruit trees.”

Zhuo Yun pointed behind Xu Ran, “Is there no fruit tree on this mountain? Why do we need to look elsewhere?”

Xu Ran said, “The big trees on the mountain are definitely not good. The small trees can be dug out and plant here. The artificial raised ones grow faster than the wild ones. Cherry and loquat trees can bear fruits when they are still small. The other fruit trees are slower.”

Zhuo Yun nodded. He knew this too, so he said, “How about this. I’ll pay attention on the way to do business. If I see any fruit trees, I’ll send you a letter. You can go and see it yourself?”

“Sounds good. I’ll go look around myself. I can’t ask Brother Qin for help anymore. I’ve always troubled him,” Xu Ran said.

Zhuo Yun patted him on the shoulder and said. “If you think like this, then you aren’t treating him as family. I know what kind of person he is. If you don’t ask him for help, he will feel bad. If you really can’t take this for granted, then you could just count him in this business. He knows a lot more than us and knows more people. He must be more reliable than us.”

Xu Ran thought it made sense. Qin Shuwu knew more than them indeed and was definitely more experienced than them.

Xu Ran said, “Then I’ll ask Brother Qin if he would like to do this. But the problem is that it takes a few years to harvest some of these fruits. That’s a long time to wait on. You might as well get another shop. You still need to feed your own family, let alone make money.”

Zhuo Yun waved his hand. “I’ve thought about this, but there’s no need for it. Shuwen rented the shop in his hand, so it’ll be fine if we just take the rent. My own seed shop is still open. There are fewer people at home, so the expenses are well covered.”

“Alright, as long as you got no problem. I still have potatoes and corns here. So in the worst case scenario, we would have a tight budget next year. There won’t be any problems.”

As the two of them spoke, the snow grew increasingly heavy. Not long after, their shoulders were covered with snow.

Xu Ran patted the snow on his shoulder. “Let’s go back. Gao Quan and the rest have probably gone back already. It seems that the snow is really getting heavier. It must be cold at night. I’ll make you some delicious food today.”

“What delicious food?” Zhuo Yun followed closely.

Xu Ran shook his head. “It won’t be a surprise if I tell you now. I’ll let you know later at night.”

Zhuo Yun pouted to express his displeasure.