Reborn in the 1980s, starting with fishing and hunting to build a fortune

Chapter 106 Sold Too Cheap

Zhao Jinzhu would definitely not agree to sell a pound of mutton to Li Xiangyang for one yuan. He could earn at least four or five yuan more by taking it to the county town to sell himself.

That's equivalent to ten days' wages for an average migrant worker.

But if he could exchange that money for an equivalent amount of straw from Li Xiangyang at 3 cents, he would definitely be more than willing.

After all, no one knows how long this snow disaster will last.

His ranch doesn't have enough hay to feed the remaining sheep.

The reason for deliberately freezing the ewe to death was to save some hay for the breeding ram and several pregnant ewes.

Even so, the hay his family had stored was still not enough to eat.

If the snow disaster continues for another two or three months, three or four more sheep on his ranch will probably starve to death.

If that happens, his family will suffer huge losses.

Finally, the 55-pound ewe that froze to death yesterday at Zhao Jinzhu's house yielded 22 pounds of meat, 6 pounds of bones, and 7 pounds of offal after slaughtering it.

"Uncle Jinzhu, I'll take the mutton from you at one yuan per pound, the mutton bones at two mao per pound, and the offal at five mao per pound, for a total of twenty-six yuan and seven mao."

"Will you give me some money or exchange all your straw for mine?"

"Change it, change it all to straw. What good is it for me to take an extra ten or twenty yuan from you now?"

Zhao Jinzhu chuckled and said eagerly, "Quickly calculate how many kilograms of straw we can exchange for, and make sure it's three cents per kilogram."

"Alright, alright, I'll calculate it for you right now." Li Xiangyang leisurely broke off a branch from the side, found a clean and flat patch of snow in the yard, and began to calculate.

I exchanged 26.7 yuan for 890 jin of straw from his family at 3 cents per jin.

"There are a total of 890 jin of straw. Here, I'll give you 900 jin of straw directly."

That should be enough for your remaining nine sheep to eat for another twenty days or so.

"Thank you so much, Xiangyang. You really helped me solve a huge problem this time."

As Zhao Jinzhu spoke, his face suddenly turned red, and he said with shame, "I just thought you were just here to make money off me, and I even gave you a hard time—I was really—foolish."

In the short time it took Li Xiangyang and Zhao Jinzhu to chat, a thin layer of frost had already formed on the surface of the mutton, bones, and offal.

Li Xiangyang packed the items into sacks and headed to the next house.

At 3:30 p.m., the sky was almost dark, and a cold northwest wind, carrying snowflakes, howled through the front and back of the house.

At this time, every household also lit their kerosene lamps.

Li Xiangyang finally made it home before the last glimmer of light disappeared on the horizon.

On this snowy day, the roads were difficult to travel, and the houses were quite far apart. He hurried along as fast as he could, and in one afternoon he only managed to visit two houses and bring back two sheep.

But this is already quite good.

He had previously bought straw for 1.5 cents, but in the afternoon he sold 1,800 jin of straw for 3 cents, making a profit of 27 yuan.

Adding in the price difference from reselling the two sheep, I estimate I'll earn at least seventy yuan this afternoon.

Just as they reached the courtyard gate, they heard the faint sounds of their father, Li Zhenshan, arguing with Wang Guiying coming from inside the main room.

"Li Zhenshan, Xiangyang is all grown up now and he's the one in charge of the household. Don't keep hitting him with your old pipe all the time. What kind of behavior is that?"

"I'm just worried about him, afraid that if he feels no one is watching him, he'll start acting recklessly."

"What nonsense is he talking about? If he wanted to mess things up, he would have done it already. Lately, he's handled every single issue at home perfectly, hasn't he?"

"You—. Sigh—"

"6

Li Zhenshan sighed and fell silent. He pulled out a copper pipe from his waist and began to puff away.

He couldn't help but wonder if he had been too strict with Li Xiangyang. Should he let Li Xiangyang make his own decisions?

Should we just let him truly become the head of the Li family?

Whenever Li Zhenshan and Wang Guiying argued, Li Xiangdong, Zhao Lijuan, and Liu Xiulan would all lower their heads and remain silent.

The atmosphere was extremely awkward.

Just then, Li Xiangyang put the two sheep he had brought back into the storeroom and then pushed open the door and came in.

Wang Guiying, Li Xiangdong, Zhao Lijuan, and Liu Xiulan all looked at him.

Everyone was curious whether he had gained anything after being away for an afternoon, but they were disappointed to see Li Xiangyang with empty hands.

When Li Doudou saw Li Xiangyang return, she cried out "Dad! Dad!"

Zhao Lijuan, being straightforward, spoke first, asking, "Xiangyang—didn't you receive the sheep this afternoon?"

Li Zhenshan turned his head away without speaking, but stopped what he was doing.

He didn't say it, but he still cared a lot about Li Xiangyang.

"Sigh, it doesn't matter whether we can get any sheep or not."

Wang Guiying didn't care about that; she only cared about whether her precious son was cold or hungry. She immediately nudged Liu Xiulan, who was standing to the side in a daze, and said, "Xiulan, let me hold Dou Dou. Quickly bring over the fish soup and steamed buns that are still warming up on the stove. Xiangyang has been running around all afternoon; he must be starving."

"Okay, I'll go right away." Liu Xiulan realized what was happening and got off the kang (a heated brick bed) to get food for Li Xiangyang.

Seeing his family gathered together in a lively atmosphere, Li Xiangyang suddenly felt very happy.

After taking off his cashmere coat, which was covered in frost, and hanging it on the rack next to the door, he got onto the kang (a heated brick bed).

While teasing Li Doudou, he slowly said, "I went to Zhao Jinzhu's house and Wang Tiejun's house this afternoon and brought back two sheep. The meat is in the storeroom by the door."

"Two sheep? You actually took in two sheep!"

Zhao Lijuan raised an eyebrow, quite surprised.

"Hehe, I knew it. What my brother wants to do, he can definitely do."

Li Xiangdong also laughed.

"How much did you pay per pound for the mutton?" Li Zhenshan frowned, finally unable to resist asking, "If you pay too much, you won't make any money."

"Dad, I bought it from them at one dollar a pound for mutton, two mao a pound for mutton bones, and five mao a pound for offal."

"So cheap—?"

Li Zhenshan was a little surprised. The price Li Xiangyang offered them was much higher than usual, but it was still far from the price they should have received during the severe snow disaster.

"Xiangyang, what kind of magic potion did you use to convince them to sell to you at such a low price?"

Zhao Lijuan asked curiously as well.

"Yes, little brother, what did you tell them? They were willing to sell at this price?"

"It's nothing. I just told them that the money they gave me for selling the sheep could be exchanged for three cents a pound of straw. They would each give me one sheep in exchange for nine hundred pounds of straw. They'll come to the ranch tomorrow."

7

"My God, you're only selling them a pound of straw for three cents? We're losing a lot of money!"

""

Upon hearing this, Zhao Lijuan immediately slapped her thigh and stood up, saying...

She had heard that straw was now being sold for eight cents or ten cents a pound!

At this moment, steaming hot crucian carp soup and fragrant cornbread were served.