Chapter 26

Shuiqing voiced the idea of buying Gorgon fruit.

Fan Jin stood there, dumbfounded, for quite a while before he regained his senses.

Their Shanshui Village had many hills, many water bodies, and so many aquatic plants that they needed to be harvested and removed every year. Among them, the most common was the Gorgon fruit.

Although it could be used to fill the stomach, it was too difficult to peel, so the villagers would only bother with it during their free time after the autumn harvest.

Unexpectedly, “Shuiqing, you really weigh 121 jin? So that means a jin of fresh Gorgon fruit can buy five to six jin of rice, right?”

Bamboo and pine mushrooms are expensive, Shuiqing said they have high nutritional value. Whether they are nutritious or not, he didn’t know, but he did know that these mushrooms were indeed delicious.

But Gorgon fruit was different.

It had no taste, not even a hint. When fresh, it had a slight aquatic plant fragrance, but once dried, it became just hard.

“Absolutely certain! Actually, hand-peeled Gorgon fruit fetches an even higher price, but that’s for the Su Qian in Jiangnan area; our Shanshui Village has the Guang Qian, which is further south and cheaper by dozens of yuan per jin,” Shuiqing casually explained.

Fresh Gorgon fruit was sweet and crisp, boiling it for a minute and quickly fishing it out would make it tender and chewy. Stirring in a spoonful of homemade osmanthus honey would leave a lingering fragrance, making one crave more!

Harvesting Gorgon fruit required going into the water, and peeling the small, hard-shelled fruits one by one was no easy task. The labor cost alone was the biggest expense.

Delicious, scarce, unpolluted, wild, and handcrafted—was it expensive?

For those who loved it, not at all!

Nothing could replace a favorite delicacy, and above all, Chinese people were always willing to spend on food!

For those who didn’t like it, it didn’t matter; the quantity was already limited, and supply couldn’t meet demand.

Fan Jin was extremely satisfied with the current price, smiling contentedly: “Maybe other places take meticulous care, so the quality is better, and the higher price is justified.”

He was content. Shuiqing mentioned that the market also had delicious rice, but it cost five to six yuan per jin.

When they earned enough money, he would buy the tasty rice for Shuiqing.

He thought the rice Shuiqing bought yesterday for less than two yuan per jin was already among the best he had ever had.

Remembering something, Fan Jin asked worriedly: “Shuiqing, you said a jin of Gorgon fruit can be exchanged for dozens of jin of rice, isn’t that a big loss? Could it lead to bankruptcy?”

Shuiqing, hearing Fan Jin’s question, thought it was truly a scholar’s perspective.

With a businessperson’s demeanor, she said, “Worried it will lose money? What are you thinking? This is a truly savvy market!

They collect labor-intensive, all-natural food while also selling high-yield items, all within their store. They make money both ways.”

The market was equivalent to a certain shopping platform she knew, where one could sell as a merchant and also buy as a consumer.

The advantage was that they didn’t need to handle operations themselves, just agreeing to sell was more convenient.

Hearing that they wouldn’t lose money but could even make a profit, Fan Jin relaxed.

He smiled warmly, “As long as it makes money, let’s collect more Gorgon fruit and buy more items, helping them earn more.”

He hoped the market would earn a lot of money because of how good it was.

Shuiqing’s view coincided perfectly with Fan Jin’s on this!

After all, if the market made money, so did she.

In this backward, impoverished ancient era, the market was her lifeline!

It was the foundation of her livelihood.

Thinking of this, she said to Fan Jin, “Before you came back, I roughly thought it over. Bartering is the most cost-effective way for us.”

In her memories, only in the provincial city did they need to buy things with silver. In the village and at the Niu Tou Town market held every five days, they could exchange goods for what they needed.

Eggs, rice, and white flour were hard currency, equivalent to silver.

As for silver, they didn’t have much, and they needed to buy goods from the market to resell and convert to cash.

Direct bartering saved them the step of cashing out.

Fan Jin also realized this and nodded in agreement, “That’s right. If it’s silver, we don’t have much, and we’d need to go to the provincial city to sell goods for silver to pay them.”

“Shuiqing, I have an idea. See if it works?”

“Go ahead.”

Fan Jin organized his thoughts and explained as concisely as possible, “We exchange with grain. Buy the grain directly from the market, and a jin of Gorgon fruit can be exchanged for several jin of grain;

Grain is easy to store, can be sold for silver, and can be exchanged for needed goods at the market. It’s practical and useful for the villagers;

We’ll say I have a wealthy classmate whose family runs a restaurant that needs a large amount of Gorgon fruit for sweet soups and pastries. Their fields yield a good grain harvest, so they prefer to trade grain. If they agree, we exchange.

Tomorrow, I’ll rent an ox cart, we’ll buy the grain and bring it to the village. What do you think? Is it feasible?”

At the end, Fan Jin was unsure and asked cautiously.

Shuiqing wanted to use Fan Jin’s name!

No matter what, Fan Jin was a scholar. Though he hadn’t even passed the imperial examination’s county level, he interacted with a different class of people.

They didn’t need to ingratiate themselves with others, just use the “classmate” name!

“That sounds good. Let’s use rice to trade!”

Fan Jin asked blankly, “Not millet or corn? The villagers can’t bear to eat rice. Using millet can get more.”

Shuiqing retorted, “Do you know how much millet costs per jin?”

Fan Jin shook his head.

He thought the rice, costing less than two yuan per jin, was already very good. Millet should be even cheaper, right?

Shuiqing explained with amusement, “Ordinary millet is four to five yuan per jin, one jin of millet can buy two jin of rice;

Organic millet is seventeen or eighteen yuan per jin, which can buy ** jin of rice. So, should we use rice or millet?”

Coarse grains were cheap in ancient times, but Chinese people valued health, so coarse grains were more expensive than rice and flour in the market.

Fan Jin opened his mouth in surprise.

Millet was so much more expensive than rice!

He puzzledly asked, “What does ‘organic’ mean?”

Why was the price difference so big after being organic? Was it very good?

Then, maybe he could buy some for Shuiqing to eat…

Shuiqing explained simply, “It’s like the ones grown here.”

No chemical fertilizers, only farmyard manure, no pesticides, and the soil was unpolluted.

Wasn’t that just like the millet grown in Shanshui Village?

Fan Jin was silent.

After a while, he resolutely said, “Let’s use rice! Just say my classmate’s family grows a lot of rice.” If villagers couldn’t bear to eat rice, they could exchange it at the market.

They also agreed on the amount of rice to exchange.

Two and a half jin of rice for one jin of fresh Gorgon fruit.

This amount was decided after careful consideration.

Rice was nine wen per jin, and fresh Gorgon fruit was at most twelve or thirteen wen per jin in the provincial city. Giving too much wouldn’t be reasonable and might cause unnecessary trouble later;

They aimed to earn well but didn’t want to squeeze too hard. They could be merchants but not profiteers.