Chapter 212: Chapter 208: Rich or Poor, Get a Wife for a Good New Year

“I’ll go take a look.” Li Xiangyang pushed his cart to the backyard and saw Brother Yong sorting through the stall fees collected today. “I stopped by your place. It’s looking pretty good!”

Brother Yong looked up and smiled. “What did you think of the furniture?”

“It’s nice. It’ll look even better once it’s painted,” Li Xiangyang said with a smile.

Brother Yong took a letter from a drawer and handed it to Li Xiangyang. “Brother Shuiqing came by this morning. He said to let you know that this market has to close by the end of January. He also said they’ll reserve a meat stall for you in each of the four new markets—five stalls in all. You’ll only have to pay the sanitation fee, and the stall fees will be waived for three years.”

Li Xiangyang took the letter, tucked it into his pocket, and looked at Brother Yong. “Tell Brother Shuiqing that getting a few free stalls is already great. I’m satisfied.”

“Okay. I heard from Zhilin that Uncle Lin is here. I was thinking of going to Lin Lan’s place this afternoon to meet him.”

“You should go see him.” Li Xiangyang looked at him and smiled. “I’m planning to go to Shilian with Little Lan when Uncle Lin heads back. We’re getting engaged this twelfth lunar month.”

Brother Yong beamed at him. “Great! Grandma Yang picked the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month for me. Should we get engaged on the same day?”

As the old saying goes, “Once the Laba festival passes, the New Year is here.” And whether rich or poor, marrying a wife makes for a good New Year! He had originally thought he would live out his days alone, never expecting that at his age—he’d be forty after the New Year—he could still find a wife and have a family of his own.

Li Xiangyang smiled and shook his head. “We haven’t set a date yet. My old man told me to go to Little Lan’s place today to get her Eight Characters so he can find a fortune teller to pick an auspicious day.”

Brother Yong opened the drawer, took out some money, and said, “I’m pretty much done here. I’ll go buy a few things, and we can go together.”

Li Xiangyang nodded. “Alright! We can stop by Ironsmith Hou’s on the way to pick up the tables I ordered.”

“Are the barbecue and hot pot tables Lin Lan had you order ready?”

“Yep! I also ordered a few ’yuan-yang’ style copper hot pots. Once they’re ready, each of your families can have one.”

“Copper hot pots are great these days! I haven’t had it since I was in the army—thinly sliced mutton, pork belly, meatballs… I nearly burst.”

“In that case, let’s go back and get some pork bones. We’ll have hot pot at Little Lan’s place tonight.”

The two went out together. Li Xiangyang grabbed some large bones and pig’s feet, while Brother Yong bought a cut of pork and two bottles of liquor. Then, they rode their bikes toward Lin Lan’s house.

****

Lin Changyou stayed at Lin Lan’s house for two days. He saw that she was busy until after ten o’clock every night and was up again just after five in the morning. Only then did he understand why Wu Shufen wanted to find some help for her.

Seeing the old squash, large white beans, peas, and adzuki beans she used every day, he suddenly thought of his sister-in-law, Wu Hufen. She had plenty of those things where she lived, but unfortunately, there was no way to sell them for money.

“Little Lan, your aunt doesn’t plant much grain, but she has plenty of the old squash and large white beans you use. I’m thinking of asking your aunt to plant more next spring. What do you think?”

“That would be great! Next year, I’m planning to open a pastry shop in the southern district and another on Limin Road. I’ll need even more squash and beans then. I was already worried that with more people selling food next year, I wouldn’t be able to buy enough ingredients!”

Lin Lan paused for a moment before continuing, “And soybeans, too. Sister Liying and the others need them as well. Plus, for your shop in the eastern district, you should start preparing dried goods and specialty products.”

’Lin Lan remembered reading an article once that said in the early days of the economic reforms, every industry was like a bone-dry sponge. The moment there was a little water, it would soak it all up, leaving nothing behind.’

’Actually, the fastest money was still in clothing, general merchandise, small appliances, watches, sewing machines, tape recorders…’

’Maybe I should go to Yangcheng City with Xiangyang and get some electronic watches, tape recorders, and radios to sell?’

Hearing this, Lin Changyou frowned. “You mentioned selling local specialty products last time, like our homemade cured ribs, cured pork, cured chicken, pressed duck, cured goose, mushrooms, Sichuan peppercorns, and green Sichuan peppercorns. But what kinds of dried goods and local products were you thinking of?”

Lin Lan smiled. “Dried goods and local products include things like star anise, black cardamom, fennel, cumin… large white beans, other beans, peanuts… bamboo shoots, all of those!”

’She remembered that the biggest producer of star anise used to be Yulin in Guangxi Province. The provincial capital also had a wholesale market for dried goods, but she had no idea where it was now.’

Lin Changyou thought for a moment. He figured some of these things could be found in the mountains, but others probably couldn’t. He’d have to ask around to know for sure. “Even if we can find these things in the mountains, it’ll probably take a while to gather them all. How about we rent the shop out to someone else first and open for business once we’ve collected everything?”

Lin Lan said, “You should go back and discuss it with Big Brother and the others. Things are just starting to open up here. How to open a shop, what kind of permits are needed… I’ll have Xiangyang ask around.”

’Lin Lan remembered that the first-ever business license was issued by the Wenzhou Bureau for Industry and Commerce. She didn’t know if you could get one here yet. You had to get a business license before opening a shop; it would be a huge hassle to get caught operating without one.’

Lin Changyou nodded. “Okay. As for the squash and beans, I’ll take a message to your aunt when I go back. I’ll have her talk to the people in her production team about planting more next year, and we’ll go in to buy them.”

’Lin Lan considered that in those days, many places in the mountains didn’t even have proper roads. All transportation relied on manual labor, mules, and horses. People would have to set out before dawn and wouldn’t reach the city until after dark.’

’If there was a road to her aunt’s place, they could buy a tractor specifically to go in, collect the mountain goods, and bring them out to sell.’

“Dad, can a tractor even get to my aunt’s place?”

Lin Changyou shook his head repeatedly. “No way a tractor could get in. Most of the paths into the mountains aren’t even as wide as the ridges between your fields here.”

Lin Lan sighed as well. “I guess we can only use mules and horses to carry things out. Have them make more sweet potato starch and potato starch, too. The dried goods shop will need it.” ’If you want to get rich, you have to build roads first,’ she thought. ’Otherwise, you can’t get all the good things out of the mountains to sell for money.’

Lin Changyou nodded. “Hauling it out with mules and horses is fine. Their only fear is that after all the effort of bringing the goods out, no one will want to buy them, and they won’t make any money! I wouldn’t dare make guarantees for other people, but they trust family.”

Lin Lan finished washing the clothes and put the adzuki beans and large white beans on to cook. When she came out of the kitchen, she saw Lin Changyou had returned with some bamboo he’d cut and was in the courtyard making brushes, while Lin Yuezhen was picking ramie leaves.

She remembered the sweet-skin duck she had eaten at Yang Liqun’s house the other day. Both Douzi and Lin Changyou had said it was delicious. After saying a quick hello to them, she got on her bike and rode to the Zhao family’s home in the second production team, planning to buy some sweet-skin duck for lunch.

The Zhao family lived in the bamboo forest behind Yang Liqun’s house. Before she even got there, the fragrant aroma of braised meat wafted toward her.

Lin Lan stood at the gate of the Zhao family’s courtyard and saw someone slaughtering ducks inside. “Hello! I’d like to buy some sweet-skin duck.”

A small, thin, elderly woman with a face full of smiling wrinkles came out to greet her. “Oh, my! I’m so sorry, we’ve already taken the morning batch out to sell. We won’t have more until three this afternoon. Where do you live? If it’s nearby, I can save some for you.”

“I’m from the first production team, living right by the tractor path. Please save two for me. I’ll come pick them up at six this evening!” As Lin Lan spoke, she took out two yuan and handed it to the woman. “This is a deposit.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep