Back to 1984: I built a chicken farm on a barren mountain.

Inside the courtyard of Chenjiazhuang Village Committee.

Surrounded by a group of people, Chen Wenfeng and Zhou Zhiming raised their voices and said:

"Dear uncles, aunties, and grandmas, please don't rush. Let's line up. I just checked, and the eggs are all fine!"

"For the newcomers, let me explain again: today we're not buying eggs by weight, but by the number. We won't accept the very small ones, and if you think the very big ones aren't worth it, you can take them home. We'll buy them by the egg, one cent per egg. You can count them first, and then we'll check them again."

Yesterday, Chen Wenfeng and Shen Xiaoxia agreed on a selling price of 12 cents for the eggs. If he buys them today at 10 cents each, he can make 2 cents per egg.

500 tokens are given away every week, costing 50 yuan each time, and selling for 60 yuan each time. You can earn 10 yuan per giveaway. If you give away tokens once a week, four times a month, you can earn a net profit of 40 yuan per month.

Moreover, he had considered that if things stabilized with Shen Xiaoxia, he could further expand his sales channels.

At that time, not only Zhou Zhiming, but also Niu Da and Niu Er will be of use.

Chen Wenfeng and Zhou Zhiming counted the eggs while Zhou paid the bill, and soon all the eggs in people's hands were sold.

These rough hands, caressing plump eggs, embody this generation's yearning for a better life.

When eggs are exchanged for small bills and coins, smiles appear on those simple, dark-skinned faces.

After selling their eggs and counting their money, the people still didn't leave. They were all asking Chen Wenfeng if he would accept them again next time, and when.

Chen Wenfeng replied loudly that he would collect the goods once a week from now on, at this price.

This price is actually a bit higher than the price at the supply and marketing cooperative, and Chen Wenfeng only asks that the eggs be neat and clean, and even if they are a little small, it is a real benefit for egg sellers.

In the future, people can simply eat the larger eggs themselves and save the smaller ones to sell.

Don't underestimate their thriftiness; in an era of scarcity, it was an essential rule for survival.

Chen Wenfeng tallied up the total number of eggs purchased this time, which was 453 eggs. He then had Zhou Zhiming count them again.

The exact number is 453, which is 47 short of 500.

Normally, collecting 500 eggs from Chenjiazhuang would be an easy task, but because few private individuals came to the village to collect eggs before, each household had not much stock.

People usually save up enough money to sell at the supply and marketing cooperative and exchange it for some cash; this has become a habit.

"Brother Feng, we don't have enough eggs. We need to deliver them tomorrow, and we're short a few dozen."

Chen Wenfeng thought for a moment and said:

"You stay here and watch the stall. If anyone else comes to sell, we'll keep buying. I'll go check out a few nearby villages."

After saying that, he got on his bicycle and headed towards the neighboring village.

But he had only ridden a short distance when he heard someone calling him from the roadside:

"Wen Feng, Zhou Hama is calling you from behind!"

Chen Wenfeng stopped the car and, sure enough, saw Zhou Zhiming chasing after him, panting heavily.

"Brother Feng, wait a minute..."

Chen Wenfeng turned around and rode back, asking:

"Hey bro, what's up? Did you collect them all?"

"I've collected them all, no, you could say I haven't collected them all."

"If it's all collected, it's all collected; if it's not all collected, it's not all collected. You're speaking in riddles. What's going on?"

"Brother Feng, it's your grandma. She brought a basket of eggs. I counted them by size, over fifty, but she insists on not throwing away the small or defective eggs. She's making a scene in the village committee courtyard right now."

Are there many defective products?

"There aren't many, maybe three or five, but we can't sell them if we buy them!"

"So how exactly did she cause trouble?"

"It wasn't really a fuss, just expressing my hardships and grievances..."

He understood. Grandma was still using the same old tricks. Chen Wenfeng had experienced this many times in his previous life. He could recite Grandma's usual rhetoric by heart. It was nothing more than that her children and grandchildren had grown up, become independent, and no longer listened to her or looked down on her.

In short, it's about using a weak stance to morally blackmail someone.

When Chen Wenfeng rode his bicycle back to the village committee courtyard, he saw his grandmother pulling the people around her to reason with her.

"Tell me, have you ever thought it was easy for me to be a grandmother all these years? Now that they've all grown up, they don't care about me anymore."

"Why am I so unlucky?"

"These wolf cubs, you'd think they all grew up on their own. I carried them a lot when they were little!"

"He's nitpicking over something as simple as collecting eggs! That little toad from the Zhou family doesn't take me seriously at all. He just listens to my grandson!"

Seeing his grandmother talking so enthusiastically, Chen Wenfeng just watched from behind the crowd with a smile, without saying a word.

After listening to his grandmother talk until she seemed a little tired, he straightened his clothes, perked up, and immediately put on his acting skills. He ran over and hugged his grandmother tightly.

"Grandma, what brings you here? Zhiming just told me you brought eggs. Oh dear, it's all my fault. I was so inconsiderate. I was planning to collect them at home, but I forgot to tell you beforehand. You still came all this way!"

"Zhiming doesn't understand the situation. Sigh, it's my fault for not explaining clearly. Even if you hadn't brought eggs, shouldn't your grandson have given you some pocket money as a token of respect?"

Grandma Chen Wenfeng's name is Wei Shufen. She was Grandpa Chen Wenfeng's second wife, a typical case of an older man marrying a younger woman.

Ever since she married into Chenjiazhuang, she liked to manipulate her husband in her youth, and when her children grew up, she began to manipulate them in various ways.

Wei Shufen was taken aback by Chen Wenfeng's question. "Aren't these all my lyrics? What's going on?"

She was momentarily speechless, then heard Chen Wenfeng continue:

"Please leave the eggs and the basket with you; a basket gets heavy after carrying it for a while. There are over fifty eggs in this basket, so I'll round it up for you. I'll charge you sixty. But I don't have that much cash on hand today; I just borrowed five ten-yuan bills from Zhiming!"

"After I sell the eggs, I'll send the money to your house. What do you think? Or maybe I shouldn't send it to your house; I can just give it to my third uncle. We see each other often!"

Wei Shufen was so flattered by Chen Wenfeng that she was almost dizzy. People around her who wanted to continue selling eggs to Chen Wenfeng also joined in the flattery.

"Look at that grandson of someone else's, he's good at making money and sensible, you couldn't find one like him even with a lantern!"

"That's all thanks to the grandmother's excellent teaching skills and their great relationship!"

Wei Shufen was also very happy to hear everyone praising her in various ways, and said:

"My eldest grandson is so sensible. He should visit Grandma often. Grandma has saved some delicious food for him!"

"Okay, Grandma, take care, I'll see you off!"

Zhou Zhiming was a little confused. He was quite puzzled. Didn't Brother Feng always have a bad relationship with his grandmother?

He could no longer understand Chen Wenfeng's actions.

As for the eggs that Wei Shufen sent, Chen Wenfeng naturally accepted them with a smile; there was no need to be polite with his own grandmother.

The reason he said he would have his third uncle, Chen Shouxin, come to him to ask for the money was because he had no intention of giving it to him at all.