He also sent Lu Yang to speak well of Lu Laoyezhi and persuade him to carve wooden balls for them to play with. Lu Laoyezhi was reluctant to use the large wooden balls, which were made from scrap materials. Instead, he made small wooden balls for Lu Yang, about the size of a fingernail.
The small ball wasn’t much fun, so Luo Dayong used a slingshot to play with it. Coincidentally, that day Shui Ge bought a jar of wine back, and it was hit by his wooden ball. The wine jar shattered, spilling wine all over the floor, with only a wooden bead remaining among the shards.
From that day on, Lu Yang could no longer call Old Master Lu his godfather.
But whenever Lu Laoyazi went out and saw Luo Dayong, he would call him “little brat.”
Luo Dayong waved his hand dismissively: “He’s an old man, missing his son. If he takes advantage, so be it. I’ve taken advantage of him plenty too. The wooden bowls in my house were all carved by him.”
Once this was settled, they could go home.
Luo Dayong: “…”
His intentions were good, but his words were so soft and gentle that they gave one goosebumps.
Luo Dayong told him, “Your physical strength is too weak. Learning anything else is pointless. Start with the household chores like carrying water and splitting firewood. Once you build up your strength, I’ll teach you whatever you want to learn.”
Men should start by doing chores at home.
If you can’t even handle household chores, what’s the point of training your body?
Lu Yang listened and smiled secretly, not telling him the truth about his family’s situation. On the way home, he smiled whenever he saw Xie Yan.
Xie Yan didn’t understand why, but he laughed along with him.
Hehe.
……………………….
Starting on the sixth day of the first lunar month, Li Feng helped Chen Lao Ye move house, working non-stop for three days.
Li Feng took the opportunity to visit Lu Yang and told him the location of Mr. Chen’s shop.
Chen Lao Ye was a stingy man who cared about his reputation. His workshop had moved several times in the past, and finally settled in the eastern district, the farthest from the village. Poor people couldn’t travel too far, and it was difficult for the poor relatives in the village to find him.
He lost his family business in the eastern district, reopened a shop, and didn’t want to go back and be embarrassed or teased. He still wanted to stay away from his poor relatives, so he moved further south.
The workshop had just reopened, and the family was certainly busy. Lu Yang also had things to do and couldn’t go out to hawk his wares or sell goods sporadically. He nodded in agreement and put the matter aside.
When they met, Lu Yang paid him part of the goods.
Mostly wild game—sheep, mountain chickens, wild rabbits, and bee larvae—had all been sold.
The bee larvae were sold to Mr. Ding, one mountain chicken was stewed at home, and the rest were sold.
The wild rabbits were sold to other familiar bosses. The lamb, except for the whole lamb sold to Mr. Ding, Lu Yang kept one leg and gave another leg as a favor. The rest was sold in small quantities, one or two pounds at a time, and all of it was sold out.
Mushrooms sold slowly, while bamboo shoots sold quickly.
Winter vegetables are generally more expensive, and after the snow, winter bamboo shoots are difficult to dig up and in short supply. Lu Yang didn’t sell them cheaply, pricing them at eight cash per pound.
At this price, those who came to buy were bound to take only small quantities. However, with the large population of the county town and wealthy customers like Mr. Ding, over two hundred pounds were sold in the past two days.
Lu Yang settled the payment in full, and any subsequent bamboo shoot sales would be the store’s profit.
Mountain chickens and wild rabbits are sold by the pound. The price for chickens is generally 12 to 14 coins per pound, and Lu Yang sold them at 13 coins per pound. In terms of difficulty to obtain, mountain chickens are harder to come by than domestic chickens, but domestic chickens are kept for laying eggs, and most families are reluctant to sell them. In this regard, mountain chickens are more common. The prices are not much different.
There were six mountain chickens, weighing a total of 26 pounds and 3 ounces. Lu Yang included the ones he had stewed himself in the calculation. There was a small amount left over, so he rounded it up to one cash. The mountain chickens cost 342 cash.
Wild rabbits are priced one cash higher than mountain chickens, at 14 cash per pound. Li Feng deliberately kept them alive and didn’t shoot many, so he only brought three, weighing fourteen pounds and seven ounces. Lu Yang rounded up the change and calculated it as two hundred and six coins.
The bee larvae sold for two coins.
The lamb meat was sold at eighteen coins per pound. The lambs they hunted, after being skinned, usually weighed between forty and sixty pounds.
The sheep heads could be used for sacrifices, and there were regular buyers for them. Besides the whole sheep bought by Mr. Ding, the other two sheep heads were sold by Li Feng himself, and Lu Yang didn’t have to settle the account for them.
Livestock had a meat yield rate, and the internal organs were weighed separately. The internal organs weren’t priced the same as the lamb meat; they were sold at eight coins per pound.
The accounts here are complicated, so Lu Yang settles them separately with him. Ding Boss’s whole sheep is worth 750 coins. The other two sheep, after deducting the meat kept for personal use, do not include the internal organs or the head, leaving 52 pounds of meat, which is worth 936 coins. The internal organs weigh 23 pounds, totaling 184 coins.
Together, these amounted to a little over five taels. For game, Lu Yang didn’t buy by the pound but calculated a commission with them, which wasn’t much, just half a percent.
The remaining amount was included in the calculation, totaling 263 coins. Li Feng received 4,995 coins. It was just a little short of five taels of silver.
Lu Yang said, ” You guys are still making a decent profit.”
Li Feng didn’t hesitate: “Going up the mountain daily, we can always catch a few wild chickens and rabbits, earning over a hundred coins a day.”
At the very least, we can catch a few snakes or dig up some mountain produce. We never come back empty-handed. Calculating by the day isn’t practical, but by the month, we can make over three taels.
Lu Yang discussed another business opportunity with him: “I also need firewood year-round. Occasionally deliver a cart or two to me, and I’ll pay the full price.”
The firewood delivered here must be split.
Since Li Feng put in the effort, he wouldn’t haggle over the price.
This was easily arranged, and Lu Yang traded him for a flatbed cart.
The cart attached to the horse-drawn carriage was too large. They were spending a lot of money now, so they went to a carpenter to buy a smaller cart, but he was reluctant to spend the money. Li Feng usually took the main road or the official road into the county, and it didn’t take long to get to his shop, so he could use the large cart.
Exchanging one for the other would save some money.
Once the money was settled, he had Xie Yan talk to him about the cart exchange.
The backyard was small, with a stable next to the house where people lived, and the horses were well taken care of.
The cart was outside the stable, covered with straw mats to protect it from rain and snow.
Li Feng was still obsessed with horses. He came over without looking at the cart, only looking at the horses.
He asked Xie Yan, “Do you have any connections to buy horses?”
Xie Yan had no connections.
He learned to ride horses because the county school had horses, and scholars were required to learn. At that time, everyone had to line up to learn, and by the time class ended, there were still many who hadn’t even touched a horse.
He wrote well, and the teachers at the county school liked him, often letting him ride first. At that time, how could he have asked how to buy a horse?
He said he didn’t: “This is a horse my friend lent me to use.”
Li Feng was very disappointed in him: “You’re a scholar, yet you don’t even have this kind of connection.”
Xie Yan: “…”
He rubbed salt into Li Feng’s wound: “Unlike you, who doesn’t even have a horse.”
Li Feng patted the horse’s neck, growing fonder of it with each stroke, and said, “Yours is borrowed, so technically you don’t have a horse either. We’re two of a kind, the same as each other.”
Li Feng remembered the matter of earning money and compared himself to him again: “I earned five taels of silver today. What about you?”
Xie Yan: “…”
He had just had his husband spend five taels of silver to place an order for printing.
He was good at accounting and told Li Feng, “You still have to share this with others; it’s not all yours.”
Li Feng: “…”
That’s right, silver is afraid of being shared. Once it’s shared, it’s gone. Alas.
He switched to a cart, and Lu Yang gave him a small jar of mountain mushroom and pork mince sauce, explaining how to make it, so he could tell Lu Liu when he got home.
Lu Yang couldn’t make much money by making the sauce alone. His younger brother was handy in the mountains, and his mother-in-law helped out. They teamed up in the mountain village and managed to get the business off the ground.
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