The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 82 - 71: The Little Price War

Chapter 82: Chapter 71: The Little Price War

All the adults in the village were teaching their children not to talk nonsense outside, reminding them that Manbao was indeed a child of the Zhou Family. As for the reason such rumors surfaced, it was of course because Dawei’s grandmother didn’t get along with Manbao’s mother, so she concocted lies to deceive Dawei.

The children believed it because the adults often talked about things without evidence, like when the woman from the Dong family had her vegetables pulled up. She didn’t see it happen, but she would curse at the Xi Family, convinced they were the thieves.

The atmosphere at Zhou Dayuan’s house was particularly oppressive. The family ate their dinner in silence, and after they had finished, Ms. Zhang shook herheads and said to her grandson with frustration, "Don’t you ever repeat what’s said at home, do you understand?"

Zhou Dayuan put down his chopsticks with a smack and exclaimed, "What are you shouting at the child for? If you hadn’t been blabbering at home, would the child have blabbered outside?"

"But what I said was true," Ms. Zhang opened her mouth to retort, but Zhou Dayuan glared at her with widened eyes and angrily whispered, "If you want to die, don’t drag the whole village down with you."

Ms. Zhang couldn’t help but mumble, "The government doesn’t exercise collective punishment..."

Zhou Dayuan slapped her with a smack, and Dalv stood up, startled, and couldn’t help but cry out,

"Dad!"

Zhou Dayuan turned and glared at him, saying, "Don’t forget who gave us the food that allowed our family to survive back then. The elders have said that a person must not forget kindness received!"

Dalv lowered his head.

Ms. Zhang, covering her face, felt both ashamed and angry, and pushed the table away before storming back to her room.

Zhou Dayuan also took out his tobacco pipe to smoke, feeling equally irritable.

The Zhou family was also restless, especially quiet this evening, except for Manbao who knew nothing of the day’s events. As usual, she settled the day’s accounts, handing over what needed to be contributed and keeping what she had to.

Zhou Wulang sat cross-legged on the bed, deep in thought.

After watching him for a while, Manbao turned her head and asked Liulang in a low voice, "What’s wrong with Fifth Brother?"

Zhou Liulang also sighed and replied softly, "Today when we went to the county town, there were many people selling flower baskets. The more expensive ones were three coins each, the cheaper ones two coins each. In the end, we had to lower our price to three coins to sell ours."

Zhou Liulang continued, "Fifth Brother said that we won’t sell flower baskets tomorrow, just candy. Daya doesn’t need to come with us either."

Manbao thought back on the chicken she had eaten tonight and swallowed, saying, "No, we need to find a business that others can’t easily replace, or one that’s not easy for others to take over."

Zhou Wulang said, "Sell candy!"

Manbao replied, "Our candy is unique on the market, so Manbao, let’s sell more of it."

Manbao disagreed, "But we buy that candy from someone else."

Zhou Wulang thought about it and realized that if their business did well in the future and the candy suppliers decided not to sell to them, taking over the market, what would they do?

It might be better to sell just a hundred pieces a day. Although it was a small business, it was unique and could bring steady income.

Zhou Wulang sighed and asked, "Then what business do you think would be good?"

Manbao honestly said, "I don’t know."

She was quite open-minded, "Anyway, we can earn at least a hundred coins a day, which is enough to buy two smaller chickens."

This meant that not only could they eat a chicken every day, but they could also afford to give one away.

Thinking of this, Manbao cheered up and said, "Fifth Brother, since we can’t sell flower baskets anymore, let’s go pick Indian pennywort. We’ll save up two days’ worth of candy and then make another trip to the county town. You guys also need to work hard at learning to read. Right now, you know even fewer characters than Datou."

Zhou Wulang felt that learning to read was really too difficult. He would rather go with Silang to clear land than study.

He was not willing to give up so easily, so he didn’t listen to Manbao. The next day he still took flower baskets to the county town, but this time he truly couldn’t sell them. Except for two kids who bought some because they liked the candy in the baskets, he couldn’t sell the more than twenty others no matter what he tried.

Seeing that it was getting late and not wanting to walk back in the dark, Zhou Wulang simply stopped pairing the baskets with candy for sale and started giving them away for one coin each.

Zhou Wulang thought that since bamboo strips didn’t cost money, if you compete with me, I’ll compete with you.

He pushed the price down to one coin, and the other vendors’ flower baskets suddenly became unsellable.

After selling his items, Zhou Wulang dusted off his hands and left. When he got home, he boasted about it to Manbao and the others.

Manbao shook her head and said, "Fifth Brother, that kind of behavior is harmful to others and doesn’t benefit yourself."

Zhou Silang added, "If you make enemies like that, the next time you go to the county town to do business, you might be targeted."

Zhou Wulang responded, "I’m not afraid! They targeted me first. Humph, they learned to sell flower baskets from us. It would be okay if their prices were the same as mine or even one coin less—I could accept that. But selling them for three or two coins, what’s that about?"

Zhou Liulang voiced his support for his brother, "Those people are really annoying. They know we have an established business and many kids know our brand, so they specially walk around us yelling out their offers, following us wherever we go."

Manbao joined in, "That’s really bad!"

Zhou Silang stopped talking then; they weren’t made of mud and wouldn’t let others bully them after being pushed so far.

However, everyone knew that selling flower baskets was no longer an option, at least not for a while. Otherwise, if Wulang and the others went to the county town, they would probably get beaten up.

But Zhou Silang and Manbao were rather happy. One said, "Then just stay at home with me to clear the land."

The other said, "It’s a good time to pick Indian pennywort."

Zhou Wulang and Liulang sighed for a while, then agreed to it.

With Wulang and Liulang contributing, not only did Silang clear the land much faster, but the amount of Indian pennywort at home also increased significantly.

Dried Indian pennywort was bundled and put into hemp bags. Zhou Silang lifted one and said, "There isn’t much weight to this, can we get a good price for it?"

Manbao was eating candy and doing her homework when she heard this, looked up and asked, "Huh, didn’t Fifth Brother ask the prices at the apothecary?"

They all looked at each other, "What if the apothecary doesn’t take them?"

They all started to worry—had all their efforts been in vain?

Manbao confidently said, "It won’t happen. The teacher said that apothecaries do buy it and even boil it into a concoction for travelers to drink in the summer."

"But it’s almost winter now, will the apothecaries still want it?"

Zhou Dalang, who happened to pass by, heard them and said, "I’ll take a bag into the county town tomorrow and check things out. Don’t worry."

Zhou Wulang’s spirits lifted immediately, "Big Brother, are you going to the county town?"

Zhou Dalang smiled, "Yes, all the privet fruits at home are dried, and Mom wants me to take them tomorrow to the apothecary to see if they’re interested. If the apothecary likes them, we’ll pick more from the woods and dry them too."

Zhou Wulang quickly said, "We’ll go too!"

They hadn’t been to the county town for several days and were just looking for an excuse to go and sell the candy. Manbao had been craving meat these past few days.

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