They've all separated, so what does it matter to me if they get poorer and poorer?

Chapter 25 Sharing the Burden
Xu Zhichun whispered the reason, and Zeng Xiaoyan and the others smiled and said, "Congratulations!"

Xu Zhichun said, "So this lunch is on me, don't be shy."

Seeing this, the three of them stopped being polite.

"Thanks to Sister-in-law Zhichun, we'll be able to have noodles with meat sauce more often from now on."

"Yes, this is a blessing for you. We are all happy for you and also want to share in your good fortune."

"Ok!"

A spoonful of meat sauce costs three coins, and two spoonfuls per person cost six coins. A serving of meat soup noodles costs five coins, so a lunch for one person costs eleven coins.

Apart from Zeng Xiaoyan, they had never eaten such luxurious noodles before, and they ate them all with mixed feelings of joy and heartache.

The noodles definitely tasted better with two spoonfuls of meat sauce!

Liang Mingliang wiped his mouth. He and his wife now had quite a bit of savings. They planned to take some time in a few days to go shopping together and buy whatever they wanted to eat.

When we got home and divided the money, we had earned even more today, a full three thousand five hundred and sixty coins.

The three women were still happy, but also somewhat numb. However, their hands still trembled slightly when they received the seven hundred coins.

That's a lot of money.
"Let's go, let's go quickly to dig up konjac and pick lantern fruits."

"Ok!"

Xu Zhichun laughed and said, "Don't rush, let's discuss the plan first. Konjac tofu is easy to handle; there are plenty of wild ones on the mountain. They grow all year round and can be dug up, so we won't have to worry about running out. But the lantern fruit—the seeds that ripened last year are almost all gone by now. I reckon if there's another storm or two, there might be none left. New lantern fruit won't be available until the end of May. If we don't have lantern fruit, we won't be able to make ice jelly."

"The Lotus Restaurant needs thirty catties a day. If we don't make that money, wouldn't that be a pity?"

Xu Zhichun has been quietly taking a lot of raw materials out of the harbor warehouse. Every day, at least one-third of the raw materials used to make ice jelly and konjac powder are taken from the harbor space and mixed in. Ice jelly will have even more raw materials mixed in.

However, if they want to continuously supply ice jelly to the Lotus Restaurant, the quantity of agar seeds is clearly insufficient to sustain the supply. If the quantity is too small, they won't be able to mix it in even if they want to.

This can be seen as another example of a skilled cook being unable to cook without rice.

Zeng Xiaoyan and Aunt Zhu'er looked at each other, realizing this was a big problem. The Lotus Restaurant's ice jelly alone brought in 1,500 coins a day.

We absolutely have to earn this money.

"Sister-in-law Zhichun, tell us your good ideas quickly, we'll listen to you."

"Yeah yeah."

Xu Zhichun then smiled and said, "How about this, let's tell everyone in the village that we want to buy these lantern fruits. We'll buy them for four coins a pound, but the outer shell has to be removed. We only want the seeds inside, and they have to be clean, without any grass clippings or mud mixed in. What do you think?"

“I think this will work. The villagers will definitely be happy, and we can harvest more as soon as possible.”

"Yes, yes, otherwise we definitely wouldn't be able to keep up. Just like Zhichun said, it would be such a waste if two storms knocked all the fruit down." Four coins a pound seems like a lot, but the seeds are so tiny, just a small handful per fruit, so collecting enough for a pound isn't easy. Frankly, it's a trivial matter, but at this time of year, the rice seedlings have already been planted, and the peanuts and beans have mostly been planted. There's nothing else to do, so why not earn what we can?

Besides, there are children too.

Kids love going up the mountain to play, and now they can also make some money on the side – isn't that a win-win situation?
Xu Zhichun smiled and said, "Then it's settled. We'll have to ask the village head to put in a good word about this."

Zeng Xiaoyan nodded and smiled: "Don't worry, Sister-in-law Zhichun, my father will definitely be happy."

Xu Zhichun laughed: "This way we can relax a bit, take a break, or do some chores around the house."

Zeng Xiaoyan didn't feel anything about it, after all, she didn't have to do any housework at home. Aunt Zhu'er, however, felt the same way and quickly smiled and said, "That's true."

Xu Zhichun continued, “I made fifty taels from selling the house today. I want to buy a piece of land on the mountain behind the courtyard, and also the land where we’ve been digging konjac these past few days. I think we can still grow konjac on the land where we dug it, so it will be convenient for us to dig it in the future. I want to cultivate the land behind the courtyard and grow something else.”

Zeng Xiaoyan didn't quite understand these things, but she thought that everything Sister Zhichun did made sense, so she smiled and said, "Sister Zhichun is thinking far ahead; she's planning for the future."

Xu Zhichun smiled and said, "Of course, we'll definitely plant konjac. As for the hillside behind the yard, we'll soon be planting potatoes and sweet potatoes there."

Aunt Zhu hesitated for a moment, then couldn't help but advise, "Zhichun, although wasteland isn't worth much, if it's cultivated, taxes will be paid starting next year. Is it worth it?"

"It's alright. The tax on dry land isn't much. I figure if we can fatten up the land, we can make a living. If you're interested, you can buy some."

Zeng Xiaoyan: "I don't care about these things in my family. I'll go back and talk to my parents."

Aunt Zhu'er smiled and said, "My family has saved up some money now, and we're thinking of buying a few more acres in case someone sells their land someday. We don't want dry land yet. But if we were to grow konjac—"

Xu Zhichun quickly smiled and said, "I'll take the lion's share of the profits in this business, so you don't need to worry about that. I'll handle the land purchase."

Aunt Zhu'er's family only had a little over an acre of paddy field, which wasn't enough to feed them. They relied entirely on Qi Tian's excellent furniture-making skills to save up a considerable amount of money over the years, and they lived a comfortable life. But for rural families, owning fertile land was an ingrained obsession; who wouldn't want to buy a few more acres if they had some spare cash?

However, each village has a limited number of paddy fields. Basically, all the land that can be reclaimed for paddy fields has already been reclaimed. Paddy fields are the foundation of each family. Unless they are hopeless spendthrifts or have no other choice but to sell, no family will easily sell their paddy fields.

Therefore, buying paddy fields is different from buying wasteland to reclaim. Having money alone is not enough; you also have to wait until someone is selling.

It's even harder to buy paddy fields from neighboring villages; only if no one in the village wants to buy them can an outsider have a chance.

Xu Zhichun didn't say anything; he figured they'd wait until the potatoes and sweet potatoes were available before making a decision.

After the three of them discussed it, Xu Zhichun went to Liang's house with Zeng Xiaoyan and Liang Mingliang. Aunt Zhu'er went home to rest for a while, and they would go dig konjac and pick lantern fruit together later.

There are still enough lantern fruits for tomorrow, and there's also a large basket of cleaned konjac under the eaves of Xu Zhichun's house, so there's no fear of running out of time.

It was shortly after lunch, and Liang, the village head, was also at home.

When Xu Zhichun and the others told Liang Lizheng about picking lantern fruit, he became happy and nodded repeatedly: "Good thing, good thing! There are lantern fruits all over the mountain. I never thought that one day we could make money from them. Four coins a pound is not bad. Are you sure you want them? Then I will go and tell the villagers so that everyone can make some money to spend."

(End of this chapter)