On the fourth day, the liangpi stall reappeared at the dock.
This time, it was different. Xie Kun personally came to take a look and reserved the best spot for them. He grinned and approached Fan Zehao, flattering him, "Young brother, just sell your heart out here. I'm the second best here, no one dares to claim first."
He just nodded expressionlessly, looking at Xie Kun's belly, which was bigger than an eight-month pregnant woman's. He kindly reminded him, "You're too fat, you should lose weight. Carrying a pig would be lighter than you."
Xie Kun: "..." Was he inferior to a pig?
No, how could he be compared to a pig? They were not on the same level at all!
Tongue-tied by his words, Xie Kun touched his nose and forced a laugh at Zhao Jiaqi beside him, "Heh... hehe, my brother is really humorous. You guys are busy, I'll go check other places."
If he didn't know this was Xie Kun's usual demeanor, he would have thought Fan Zehao was deliberately mocking him. Feeling like he had just talked to himself, and not wanting to be rebuffed again, Xie Kun turned and left.
Fan Guangping grabbed Fan Zehao, his eyes still occasionally glancing at the departing Xie Kun, and advised him, "Young brother, you shouldn't speak so bluntly, it's easy to offend people."
"Oh, I know."
Fan Zehao nodded, acknowledging him.
He was a quiet person, but he genuinely considered Xie Kun a brother, otherwise, he wouldn't bother speaking a word to him.
The location was good, and the business was booming. They had deliberately prepared two hundred portions today, even using a whole basket of cucumbers, yet it still wasn't enough.
They sold one tael of silver, with a net profit of eight hundred wen. They were very satisfied with this result, but Xie Kun was not. His two-tenths share daily was barely enough to fill his teeth.
When the few of them gathered at the tea stall, Xie Kun, with his broad experience, proposed an idea, "This won't do! Even if I earn one tael a day, I'd only get two hundred wen, which is too little. I have a plan, see if it works for you!"
Zhao Jiaqi's eyes flickered slightly, and she spoke up to test him, wanting to see if his idea matched hers.
She said, "What if we opened a workshop and hired some people to sell it in various places? Wouldn't we earn more this way!"
Xie Kun burst out laughing and clapped his hands. This was exactly what he had in mind. "That's what I was thinking. How about this: I won't ask for a share from you. You just sell the goods to me, and I'll send people out to sell them. How much it sells for in copper coins won't be your concern. How's that?"
Isn't this what's commonly known as wholesale?
Zhao Jiaqi readily agreed and also set her conditions, "No problem. Once we sell it, we absolutely do not accept returns. This liangpi cannot be kept for more than a day, or people will get stomach aches. Tell us in advance how much you want each time, so we can prepare it in the morning."
"Give me five hundred portions daily to start. We'll settle the payment each time. If it sells well, I'll increase the volume, but you'll have to give me a better price!"
Zhao Jiaqi secretly calculated the cost. A portion of liangpi cost only two wen in total. She pondered for a moment and offered a very fair price.
"Three wen per portion for you, but you must leave a stall for me here at the dock to sell. I'll only sell to merchant ships, how about it?"
This put Xie Kun in a difficult position. He sold it in the county town for at least ten wen per portion. If the price was broken, it would be difficult for him to sell in the county town.
"You can sell it, but the price must be unified."
Being in business themselves, Zhao Jiaqi understood his concerns and agreed. However, she would offer a little extra as a gift.
The next day, the liangpi was priced double at ten wen per portion, but it came with a free serving of mint ice water, refreshing and invigorating for the summer. The popularity remained undiminished.
After selling out a hundred portions, all four of them were exhausted.
They started preparing from midnight. By dawn, they had made six hundred portions, their arms aching from the constant work. Fortunately, their efforts were rewarded.
Wang Zhaodi, patting her bulging coin purse, beamed, "I can't even imagine, what we earn in a day is more than what we earned in two months. It's worth the exhaustion."
"That's right. Earning over a tael in a day, and after dividing it between the two families, we can each get over six hundred wen. Then a month would be..." Fan Guangping counted on his fingers but couldn't figure it out.
What was said carelessly was heard by someone not far away.
That evening, visitors arrived at the thatched cottage.
Zhang Cuihua looked up and saw her in-laws had brought their son. This truly surprised her.
"It's my in-laws! Is there something at this late hour? Please, come in and sit down to chat!"
"Can't I come if there's nothing? You're quite the talker, in-law!" Chen Haimei pushed Zhang Cuihua, gave her a glare, and walked directly inside.
As soon as she entered the courtyard, she started yelling at the top of her lungs, "Zhao Jiaqi, your mother and elder brother are here. Why are you still huddled in the room! Come out and make some food, boil some water. We're tired from the journey."
Inside, the person who was enjoying a massage suddenly heard the unfamiliar words and immediately conjured up some unpleasant scenes in her mind.
Zhao Jiaqi sighed softly and got up from the bed. She naturally put on her patched old clothes, but someone pulled her back, "Wife, your mother-in-law is here. Put on new clothes, don't let your mother-in-law laugh at you."
Zhao Jiaqi met his clear eyes and asked, "Do you know why they're here?"
"Of course, they miss you and came to see you!" he replied naturally.
Just like when he went hunting in the mountains, his mother would wait by the door for him to return. Don't mothers dote on their children?
She sneered and pouted, quite unconvinced, "Then why didn't they come during the day? Why did I hear her yelling as soon as she entered the courtyard, asking me to cook and boil water? Is this how she shows she cares about me?"
Fan Zehao's eyes were covered with a confused light. It seemed like what his wife said made sense.
If she cared about her daughter-in-law, she would check if things were going well at home, and wouldn't shout upon arriving. Wasn't she afraid of her in-laws making things difficult for her daughter-in-law?
Could it be like Sister-in-law Wang's mother?
His mind suddenly lit up, and he understood. "I get it, Mother-in-law is not a good person, she's here to bully you!"
Zhao Jiaqi smiled wryly in silence. She was bullying the original owner, not her. But she couldn't say these words, nor could she.
Chen Haimei occupied the only chair in her mother-in-law's room.
Zhao Dagou sat on a low stool, and the two of them drank the water in their bowls. Meanwhile, the oil lamp was lit in the kitchen, indicating that the mother-in-law was cooking.
Looking at Chen Haimei, she found it truly difficult to call her 'mother'. Her face darkened as she said, "Stepmother doesn't visit without a reason, does she? You're here so late, is there something you need?"
"Oh my, you're different now that you're married, you have such confidence. You're even calling me stepmother?" Chen Haimei put down her water bowl and said sarcastically.
Zhao Jiaqi was not afraid of her venomous gaze at all and retorted with a cold laugh, "Otherwise?"
"Sell me for five taels of silver to marry off your second son. A stepmother like that, and you expect me to call you mother? Don't dream. I will never forget how you tormented me!"
Recalling the scenes of the original owner being abused, Zhao Jiaqi gritted her teeth in hatred.
The family had a well but wouldn't let her use it. The firewood she collected couldn't be used to boil water for washing clothes. In the dead of winter, she was forced to wash clothes in the big river. In the biting cold, her fingers cracked, but they pretended not to see.
Her two sons and a young daughter became the darlings of the family. Her eldest daughter-in-law did no work at all and bossed the original owner around like a maid.
Her own father, Zhao Hongchang, was like a blind man, ignoring her completely. It was a mercy that he didn't hit her!
She remembered all of this for the original owner!