Chapter 14

The old lady widened her eyes at Ning Shu’s words. She was thrifty, even to herself, which also meant she was meticulous with her finances.

If Ning Shu bought them for 60 cents per jin, she could buy them for 45 or 50 cents, even if she sold them for 50 cents, she would earn 10 cents per jin. Wouldn’t she make about a yuan with these ten jin? She was a bit tempted. “How much do you need? If it’s too much, it might be noticeable.”

Ning Shu calculated, “Can you provide 60 jin per month?” It could be divided into 20 portions, 3 jin each.

Farm eggs were 8 yuan per jin in the market. If she bought them for 6 yuan per jin, she could make a stable income every month. After a pause, Ning Shu added, “If you don’t want money, we can also exchange goods, like meat…” Ning Shu paused.

Exchanging eggs for meat didn’t seem cost-effective. The prices on the APP were based on the future. For example, a jin of pork belly would cost 25 yuan. She would need to sell 4 jin of farm eggs to match that. But in this era, who would exchange 4 jin of eggs for 1 jin of pork belly? After all, 2 jin of eggs were roughly equivalent to 1 jin of pork.

Therefore, her plan to make money by buying agricultural products and selling them on the APP wouldn’t work.

The cost was low in this era. Selling items bought on the APP here wouldn’t make a profit because it would turn into high cost and low income.

There were only two ways to make money. First, the things she received in this world had no cost, such as digging up wild vegetables and bamboo shoots on the mountain.

Selling these things on the APP, exchanging the money for things to eat, or selling them here after buying them on the APP would make her money.

Second, buying things that weren’t valuable here, such as vegetables, which were only three or five cents per jin here, but could be sold for four or five yuan on the APP, then buying apples, pears, rice, and other low-priced but scarce items on the APP.

Apples, pears, and rice were three yuan per jin on the APP. They could be sold for 20 cents per jin on the black market. In simple terms, the cheap cabbage here could be exchanged for 2 jin of apples (pears, rice) on the APP.

In other words, cabbage that cost five cents per jin could be exchanged for 3 jin of rice on the APP, which was 60 cents.

Ning Shu understood. The main purpose of the APP was not to make money but to ensure a good diet and to encourage diligence.

Thinking of this, Ning Shu hurriedly said, “Auntie, let’s forget about it. I made a mistake just now. I won’t take the eggs. It’s too risky. If anyone finds out, it could be bad and could affect my family.”

The old lady, who had been excited, was also calmed down by Ning Shu’s words. “You’re right,” she said. “It’s not worth the risk. It’s better not to do it. I was mistaken earlier.” This was indeed speculation and profiteering. If she accepted the eggs, it would definitely spread, which was not a good idea. “Then I’ll exchange my eggs with you.”

Ning Shu followed her inside. The old lady had a total of 22 eggs. Eggs were small in this era, with about 10 eggs per jin. 22 eggs were about 2 jin and 1 liang.

Ning Shu paid 99 cents, according to the price the original owner had paid, and gave her a yuan.

“Auntie, I won’t take the eggs, but I’d like to buy some shepherd’s purse and bamboo shoots from you. I can exchange them with sweet potatoes. How about that?” Ning Shu asked again.

The old lady was delighted. Although there weren’t many other things on the mountain, the bamboo shoots were starting to grow more. As for the shepherd’s purse, although people dug it up every day, it wasn’t like the situation in the 1960s where people couldn’t eat their fill.

The shepherd’s purse was still available. She didn’t know what Ning Shu wanted the shepherd’s purse and bamboo shoots for, and she hadn’t thought about selling them.

Who would buy them? But as long as she could exchange them for something, she didn’t care what Ning Shu did with them.

“That’s feasible. I’ll have the young ones in my family dig up the shepherd’s purse tomorrow, and the adults can dig up the bamboo shoots when they’re resting.”

“Alright, but let’s do it one thing at a time. It’s best to exchange the same thing on the same day. How about this: one jin of sweet potatoes for two jin of shepherd’s purse or two jin of bamboo shoots? Does that sound good to you?” Ning Shu knew that according to modern prices, she was getting a great deal, but in the 1970s, she was exchanging according to the prices of that time, so she didn’t feel embarrassed.

“Sure, that’s fine.” The old lady was delighted. Shepherd’s purse wasn’t tasty, and the bamboo shoots were a bit bitter. Sweet potatoes were much more filling.

“I’ll leave now, Auntie. Just send them directly to my house later.” Ning Shu didn’t linger and was ready to go back to cook.

“I’ll walk you.”

“No need, Auntie.”

As Ning Shu left the old lady’s house, she thought about how bamboo shoots could be stored for a long time, but shepherd’s purse couldn’t.

Just relying on this one family to dig up shepherd’s purse in their spare time might not yield much.

If she wanted to sell shepherd’s purse on the APP, she would probably need a lot more. Besides this family, who else could she ask? She could start by asking the people at the old house.

After all, in their eyes, exchanging two jin of shepherd’s purse or bamboo shoots for one jin of sweet potatoes meant they were getting a good deal. So, she decided to inform Lin Mu about this good opportunity.

When she got home, it was already 4:30 p.m. Ning Shu checked the ingredients she had and decided against cooking a meal. The three children were still young and couldn’t eat rice yet. If she cooked rice, she would have to make porridge for them, so she decided to make sweet potato rice porridge that they could all eat.

Thinking about porridge for young children reminded Ning Shu of the bamboo tube meat porridge her grandmother used to make.

Her hometown’s custom was for the parents to be with the youngest son, so she said she was raised at her grandmother’s house, but it was also her youngest uncle and youngest aunt’s house. However, her youngest uncle didn’t take care of things, and her youngest aunt was a generous person.

They were also always working outside, only coming back for the New Year once a year. But even though they only came back for a few days during the New Year, in the past ten-plus years, her youngest aunt had never been cold to her.

Later, when her youngest aunt had a child, her youngest cousin was also raised by her grandmother. When her youngest cousin was about the same age as San Bao, her grandmother made a bamboo tube meat porridge for him, which was really fragrant. At that time, she was also envious.

In fact, the method of making bamboo tube meat porridge is very simple. First, take a bamboo tube and then put rice and water in it according to the ratio of porridge.

The difference is that when her grandmother used to make bamboo tube meat porridge, she would put a piece of fat meat in it. Then bury the bamboo tube under the stove, cover it with a thin layer of ash, so that after the firewood burns, the charcoal with the fire will fall on the ash, and then use the temperature transmitted by the ash to heat the porridge in the bamboo tube, while the bamboo tube will not burn.

Ning Shu now recalls, and can’t help but lick her lips. She can’t remember the taste of that bamboo tube meat porridge anymore, but she does have a deep impression of that fragrant and enticing feeling.

Unfortunately, there are no bamboo tubes now, and there is no way to make bamboo tube meat porridge for San Bao.

She can only ask someone to make a few bamboo tubes after dinner. Making bamboo tubes is very convenient.

They can be made today and used tomorrow. Right, she can ask Lin Fu to make them, and then take the opportunity to send some farmhouse cured meat over.

When the time comes to make bamboo tube meat porridge for San Bao, it will also make things a lot easier.

She had figured it out.

After that, Ning Shu started preparing dinner for the day. She first cooked sweet potato rice porridge, then steamed an egg custard for San Bao, and also made scrambled eggs with green onions and stir-fried baby bok choy with cured meat. Fortunately, because the original owner didn’t know how to cook, there were still plenty of oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar at home.

After preparing dinner, Ning Shu began boiling water while waiting for San Bao to return.

She didn’t wait long before she heard San Bao’s voice outside.

“San Bao, don’t move. Wait until we get home before coming out,” Er Bao said to San Bao, who was struggling to get out of the basket.

Seeing that home was just ahead, San Bao, who had been in the basket all afternoon, couldn’t sit still.

He grabbed the edge of the basket with his small hands and kept leaning outward in the basket, wanting to get out. “Go out, pot, go out, pot, go out…” San Bao chanted.

Lin Yibao and Lin Erbao had been picking firewood for half the day and were already tired.

They were having a hard time carrying their younger brother back, and with San Bao causing a ruckus, they almost couldn’t hold him.

At this moment, Ning Shu, who had heard the commotion inside, came out. Then… Ning Shu’s eyes almost popped out because Yi Bao and Er Bao were both shirtless.

“What’s going on with you two? Where are your clothes?” Looking at the two boys who were only wearing shorts, Ning Shu couldn’t help but imagine that they had gotten into a fight and torn their clothes.

“The clothes are in the basket,” Yi Bao said. “Today, when Er Bao went to pick firewood, he saw chestnuts. He used the clothes to wrap the chestnuts, and I was worried that the chestnut shells would prick San Bao, so I wrapped my clothes around them too.” As he spoke, Yi Bao asked Er Bao to put down the basket, and then the two of them supported the basket and tipped it over, letting San Bao crawl out from inside.

The two clothes-wrapped chestnuts were under San Bao’s buttocks.

Although the thorns on the chestnut shells were soft and wouldn’t hurt anyone, Lin Yibao’s thoughtfulness surprised Ning Shu and also made her feel a bit melancholic.

A child who was only five years old, if it weren’t for the original owner’s negligence, he would clearly still be at an innocent age.

“Mom… Mom…” San Bao crawled out of the basket and towards Ning Shu.

Ning Shu snapped out of her thoughts at San Bao’s call. She took a few steps forward to help San Bao up, while Yi Bao had already opened his clothes to show Ning Shu the wrapped chestnuts inside. Just moments ago, Ning Shu was feeling sad for Yi Bao, but now her mind was full of thoughts about making money.

The market price for chestnuts was 8 yuan per kilogram. These were common chestnuts, regardless of size. If she organized a group purchase on an app, she could sell them for 6 yuan per kilogram.

With this in mind, Ning Shu hurriedly asked, “Yi Bao, are these chestnut trees planted by someone else? Or are they wild on the mountain?”

“They’re not planted by anyone,” First Bao said. “When Er Bao was picking firewood, he and our friend saw them together. But Er Bao can’t climb trees, so he can only pick them from the ground. While our friend is great at climbing trees and picked more from the trees than Er Bao did.”

In fact, there were people who went to pick these wild chestnuts every year, but this year, before anyone else could start, these few children who were picking firewood picked some first.

Moreover, it wasn’t a famine era, so adults wouldn’t deliberately go pick them. Adults preferred to eat sweet potatoes, which were easier to eat than chestnuts.

For children, however, they could be a snack. But chestnuts could make you thirsty after eating them, and in this era, people didn’t cook chestnuts with sugar to increase their sweetness, so chestnuts weren’t as tasty to everyone.

Hearing Yi Bao say that these chestnut trees were not planted by anyone, Ning Shu thought about picking them herself. However, after some contemplation, she dismissed the idea.

Although these chestnut trees were wild, they belonged to the community and were also one of the foods for the children.

If she went to pick all the chestnuts at night, it would be like taking away the children’s things.

However, although she wouldn’t pick them herself, she could collect the chestnuts picked or found by the children.

So Ning Shu said to Yi Bao, “Yi Bao, go ask your friend if he wants to trade the chestnuts he picked for something from me!”