Chapter 13

He should not have said that, but as soon as he did, Jian Li became even more worried that the boy might have picked up some bad habits on his own.

What was he planning to do with this money if not spend it?

Jian Li remembered what Wang Shuai had done in his past life.

This boy had been rebellious from a young age. In middle school, he got involved with the wrong crowd and even felt at home in the police station. Later on, he got involved in pyramid schemes and fraud.

Before she passed away in her last life, he had just finished serving his second three-year prison sentence and called her to tell her he had found a “good project” that was a guaranteed money-maker.

Jian Li thought of her uncle and aunt, who were barely in their sixties but had already gone gray. She scolded him harshly on the phone.

The call ended with him yelling: “Why do you guys never believe in me! My dad has hated me since I was a kid, always denying whatever I did. Do you think I want to keep taking risks? It’s because he thinks I’m a disgrace. I just want to show him I can amount to something!”

Thinking of this, Jian Li couldn’t bring herself to question him about what he planned to do with the money.

“…You decide for yourself,” she said.

A single yuan.

Wang Shuai wasn’t the person who had strayed so far down the wrong path yet. It was just one yuan, and she should give him some trust.

The three of them wandered around the city for a while, and Jian Li kept an eye on where Wang Shuai was planning to spend the money.

But despite watching the whole time, he didn’t spend a single cent.

Several times, Jian Li noticed his eyes lingering on certain things, but he still didn’t spend any money.

Not only did he not spend, but Wang Shuai even hinted at wanting the one yuan from today.

Jian Li: …

Fine then. The three of them found a quiet spot to divide the money.

Jian Li calculated the day’s expenses with ease and even had a ledger to write down the daily financial transactions.

“Altogether, we have sixty yuan. We need to subtract ten yuan for raw material costs. From the remaining fifty yuan, the stir-fried cold noodles we had for lunch cost three yuan, and the ice cream was four and a half cents…”

Wang Shuai was getting anxious: “I only spent five cents on my ice cream! You two had twenty-cent puddings!”

How could that be counted as a joint expense?

Wang Yunyun: “I gave you the option, you chose the cheaper one.”

Wang Shuai: “I don’t care, we should pay separately. This can’t be included.”

Jian Li: “…Fine, it’s just a little over one dime. You’re so stingy.”

Wang Shuai stared at Jian Li as she crossed out this expense from the ledger before finally feeling at ease.

Jian Li teased him: “Alright, since you have money now, from now on we’ll all pay for ice cream separately.”

Wang Yunyun: “What does ‘separately’ mean?”

Jian Li: “It means you pay for your own.”

With the weather hot, eating ice cream was no longer a mere craving, but a necessity.

Wang Yunyun was focused on her studies, and since she’d already prepaid for ten days’ worth of expenses, she didn’t have much else she wanted. A daily ice cream was manageable, so she nodded in agreement.

Wang Shuai was reluctant but had no choice but to agree.

“Fine…”

The three of them rode their bikes back to Wangjia Village, planning to rest the next day and head back to the city the day after.

Wang Shuai: “Rest? I don’t need rest!”

Jian Li ignored him: “You don’t need it, but I do.”

She hadn’t rested since returning, and she still had to grow.

Jian Li took a nice shower by the water well and then slept until 10 a.m. the next day.

After getting up, she ate something and started working on her summer homework.

She had to admit, being reborn made doing homework much easier.

Apart from forgetting some things from the humanities that she had to relearn, math was like child’s play.

Jian Li finished half her homework in one afternoon.

She originally planned to wait until Wang Shuai had finished his craziness outside, and then the three of them would go catch crabs.

But to her surprise, before the sun had even set, Wang Shuai came back covered in dirt, sneaking up to Jian Li.

He lowered his voice: “Sis, I found some helpers for us.”

He poked his head through the door, and behind him were five dirty faces, all with bright eyes staring but too afraid to come in.

Jian Li: …

Wang Shuai grinned at her, “I told them that if they help us catch a bucket of crabs, I’ll give them… two yuan.”

Jian Li felt like she was meeting this annoying little brother for the first time.

Wang Yunyun put down her book, frowning: “Who did you find? Don’t tell me it’s Xiao Douzi and his gang? Didn’t we say you shouldn’t hang out with them?”

Wang Shuai shrank back but still argued: “I’m not messing around. We only caught a little tonight. If there are more people, we can catch more…”

Jian Li rubbed her face: “You’re right.”

She turned to Wang Yunyun: “I forgot about that. With just the three of us, the efficiency is a bit low.”

A bucket for two yuan. Compared to the miserable, dark fishing process, this money feels totally worth it.

Wang Shuai, with his sunburned, dark face, flashed a wide smile showing his white teeth. “Then I’ll go tell them!”

Jian Li felt quite relieved that her mischievous little brother was actually thinking, so she generously let him go.

“Go ahead, but make sure to mention our standards—no small crabs, and there can’t be any dead ones. We’ll take five buckets at most today.”

Any more would be too much to handle tomorrow.

Wang Shuai didn’t even turn back, replying loudly, “Okay!”

The five little black eggs at the door followed Wang Shuai, and from a distance, Jian Li could still hear their loud discussion.

“I know where there are crabs! Right by where we soaked the water, there’s a big patch of water plants, and the crabs are everywhere!”

“We’ll go lift the plants; we can catch enough right away!”

“Don’t tell Shi Tou and the others; if we do, they’ll surely try to steal them.”

“I don’t have an empty bucket at home. Wait for me a bit, I’ll go borrow one from my second uncle.”

—-

Wang Yunyun asked, “Are we going today?”

Jian Li replied, “No, we’re not.”

Wang Yunyun picked up a book and again immersed herself in the joy of reading.

Jian Li didn’t know how the kids managed to catch the crabs, but just over an hour later, the five black eggs appeared, barefoot, nervously standing in front of Jian Li, delivering their catch.

Jian Li checked and saw no problems, so she happily paid them.

She handed 10 yuan to Wang Shuai, who then took the little black eggs outside to share the money.

—-

The next day, Jian Li started processing the crabs early in the morning and didn’t finish until noon, having dealt with five buckets of crabs. The three of them went to the city again.

This time, Wang Shuai didn’t complain about ice cream.

Because this time, he had brought water himself!

Jian Li: … Why hadn’t I noticed that this little guy was so stingy before?

The third time, the crabs sold for 80 yuan. Jian Li watched the stall owner take all of it without changing her expression. She guessed that the woman was probably buying them in bulk.

Otherwise, with her small stall that could barely serve twenty customers a night, where would she find the market for so many crabs?

Jian Li didn’t expose it. If the woman could sell them, it was her business. Jian Li wasn’t familiar with the area, and this wasn’t a long-term business, so running from stall to stall seemed counterproductive.

Holding nearly 200 yuan in her hand, with almost 100 yuan being her profit, Jian Li felt in a good mood. She bought two marinated pig’s feet and a serving of marinated pig’s face from a small stall by the road.

She intended to bring the pig’s feet back home and had the vendor slice three sesame flatbreads in half, stuffing them with sliced, warm pig face meat.

Crispy, fragrant sesame flatbreads combined with tender, flavorful pig face meat was irresistible.

The three of them devoured the flatbreads and returned home with the pig’s feet.

Dinner was cooling green bean porridge paired with freshly baked scallion pancakes.

The marinated pig’s feet weren’t soft enough and had a chewy texture, but the seasoning was good, and the thick, savory marinade made the meat flavorful. Jian Li especially loved the tendons in the feet, which were chewy and flexible.

With five “little helpers,” Jian Li smoothly sold crabs three or four more times, each time selling fifty to sixty pounds.

After about ten days of this, Wang Shuai brought bad news.

The nearby crabs were almost all caught.

Wang Shuai, looking as droopy as a withered eggplant, said, “We’ve been going to Zhao Jia Zhuang to catch them lately, but there aren’t many left.”

From easily catching five buckets of crabs in the beginning, it became a struggle to get even five buckets, and now it was impossible to catch even five.

Jian Li comforted him, “It’s fine, if the crabs are gone, we’ll catch crayfish.”

So, they returned to catching crawfish.

But this time, it was much more troublesome.

Crayfish were not only difficult to catch, but also hard to process.

More importantly, they didn’t sell well!

Jian Li sat with half a watermelon, blowing on a fan, feeling very frustrated.

Yesterday, she spent ten yuan to buy crayfish, spent even more time processing them, added more seasoning, and brought them to the city, but she could only sell them for four cents per pound.

The female vendor expressed helplessness.

“Crayfish is more work to prepare, and it’s all wet. Even though it tastes good, it’s hard to eat much of it. Who would want to spend money on this?”

She admitted that it tasted good, but so what?

It couldn’t sell!

Jian Li had to cross crawfish off her list.

Just as she was worrying about finding another business opportunity, one appeared right at her door.

For the past few days, the five little black eggs had still been struggling. Wang Shuai went out early every day with them to catch crabs, and Jian Li was worried that the kids might wander off and be kidnapped, so she announced that they wouldn’t be catching crabs anymore.

The little black eggs, who had just tasted the sweetness of earning money, were stunned.

The group of kids secretly debated for who knows how long before finally coming to find Jian Li.

Wang Shuai appeared with a chubby little boy, his face dark and red, carrying a urea bag that was half full of cicada shells.

Wang Shuai said, “Sister, he wants to know if we want to buy these.”

Cicada shells were something children liked to collect, and some traditional Chinese medicine practitioners would buy them. But the price was low, only a few cents per pound. Still, the country kids kept picking them.

Wang Shuai wasn’t sure about his decision, scratching his head, “Sis, do you think we could sell these in the city?”

After selling the crabs, Wang Shuai had an idea in his mind.

It seemed that things from the countryside were actually quite expensive in the city.

Take crabs, for example. They were everywhere in the river ditches, and they didn’t like to catch them before because they didn’t taste good and had little meat.

But city people were willing to spend a few yuan just for these worthless crabs?

Wang Shuai thought, if crabs can be sold, why not cicadas?

He had just learned a passage: “Are the noble and the royal different by bloodline?”

Cicadas or crabs… aren’t they all meat!

Jian Li thought for a moment and realized this could be a good idea.

Perhaps the traditional Chinese medicine shops in the city would want them?

“Let’s put them down for now, and I’ll take them to the Chinese medicine hospital tomorrow to see if they want them.”

Jian Li told Wang Shuai to find a weighing scale and check the weight.

If they could sell, the price still needed to be discussed.

The chubby boy left, and it wasn’t clear what he had said, but soon another unfamiliar bald-headed boy entered.

The bald boy took out a plastic bottle, speaking with a slightly winded voice due to missing teeth.

“Sis, do you want this?”

When Jian Li saw what was inside, she was so shocked that her soul nearly left her body.

“Get that away! Ahhh!”