“What is it?” Yuan Ni’s Mother’s tone was quite harsh because of Second Aunt’s strange remarks the day before.
“Guiying, today it’s your turn to cook. I’m just reminding you—the grain is with Mother. Whatever you want to make, go ask her for it.” Second Aunt smiled lightly, as if this were just a routine handover.
Yuan Ni’s Mother’s face darkened. How could she have forgotten about that?
She had been just about to make a big push, and now her momentum was interrupted. It felt utterly stifling.
“I’ll cook in my mother’s place. Second Aunt, don’t worry—go on to work.” Just then, Zhaodie stepped forward. As she spoke, she rolled up her sleeves, already ready to get to work.
“You? Can you even cook? Are you going to burn down the kitchen?” Second Aunt looked skeptical.
“If Zhaodie can’t manage, there’s still me,” Grandmother said as she walked out of the courtyard with a grim face. “I’ll help my daughter cook for a day. Will that shut your mouth?”
Second Aunt quickly forced a smile. “How could I dare?” She wouldn’t dare provoke her mother-in-law, so she hurried off to work.
Today’s route was to go to Balicun Brigade first, collect the eggs, and then head straight to the Gongxiaoshe to turn them in.
Perhaps spurred on by the earlier provocation, Yuan Ni’s Mother was far more proactive than yesterday. She began haltingly bargaining and joking with people.
So it was true—no one was born knowing how to do business. Everyone learned because life forced them to.
Because Yuan Ni’s method was novel and provided great convenience to the villagers, many people came to exchange eggs.
By noon, they had filled all the remaining baskets.
The needles, thread, and other small goods they had bought earlier were already completely traded away.
Even so, some villagers who hadn’t gotten anything to exchange for refused to leave, repeatedly asking Yuan Ni when she would come again.
“I’ll come as soon as I can—within a day or two.”
As she spoke, Yuan Ni quickly jotted down a few more notes in her little notebook.
Besides salt, white sugar, and shoelaces, lamp oil and wicks were also added to the purchasing list.
Not many brigades had electricity. Even in those that did have lines strung up, people were reluctant to use it because the electricity bills were too expensive.
So quite a few people still used oil lamps at night.
Afraid that they’d arrive too late and the Gongxiaoshe staff, worried about being delayed past quitting time, would refuse to take the eggs, the mother and daughter didn’t even stop to eat their dry rations. They pushed the cart and left right away.
By the time the two of them arrived at the Gongxiaoshe, the shop assistant was already dozing off, slumped over the counter.
They were told that Chen Wenqi had gone home for lunch and wouldn’t be back until 2:30 in the afternoon.
“You two can wait by the door for a while. Even if Director Chen came right now, it wouldn’t do any good. Turning in eggs requires both the accountant and the cashier to count them together—it’s slow work.” The shop assistant reminded them, yawned, and went back to sleep on the counter.
Yuan Ni tugged at her mother’s sleeve. “No point rushing—let’s eat first.”
She took out her enamel mug and ran to the state-run restaurant to buy a bowl of noodles. The hot noodle soup paired with cornmeal buns was actually quite tasty.
After they finished eating, Chen Wenqi finally arrived. She took one look at the cart piled high with egg baskets. “Yuan Ni, you’re something else! In just two days, you’ve collected this many eggs?”
“Yes, all five big baskets are full. Can we turn them in today?”
“Of course. Come with me.”
With Director Chen’s word, the accountant and cashier both came out to count.
Yuan Ni and her mother stood nearby, watching and silently counting along.
“Five baskets, not a single one broken. That’s one thousand one hundred and twenty-eight eggs in total.”
“Alright, Accountant Wang, settle the payment for the eggs right now.”
The Gongxiaoshe purchased eggs at eight cents apiece, regardless of size.
Yuan Ni handed over over a thousand eggs and received a total of ninety yuan and twenty-four cents in return.
Seeing the money in Yuan Ni’s hand, Yuan Ni’s Mother could hardly believe her eyes. If she remembered correctly, Yuan Ni had only spent a little over five yuan on odds and ends, hadn’t she?
Could trading eggs really be this profitable?
While Yuan Ni’s Mother was lost in thought, Yuan Ni had already started discussing restocking with Chen Wenqi.
“There won’t be as many defective items this time. You’ll have to buy at wholesale prices.”
“No problem, I’ll buy at wholesale prices.”
The reason the first egg trade had been so profitable was that Chen Wenqi had provided a large quantity of defective eggs. Now that they were stocking up, the cost was much higher than last time. The ninety yuan they had just received was suddenly reduced by more than twenty.
However, the variety of goods they stocked also increased.
Before Yuan Ni’s Mother could even tally up the accounts, she heard Chen Wenqi say, “This batch of over a thousand eggs should be enough for us to sell for a while. Come back in a week with more eggs. Let’s set the number at fifteen hundred. How does that sound?”
Yuan Ni nodded. “No problem.”
With money in hand, Yuan Ni bought a package of peach pastries for Grandmother and a large piece of pork liver as a treat for Maternal Grandfather.
On the way back, Yuan Ni’s Mother kept counting on her fingers.
“Mother, what are you doing?”
“We only deliver eggs once a week. How much money are we losing out on?”
Yuan Ni couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t worry, we won’t lose any money. We’ll keep collecting eggs as usual these next few days.”
“Still collecting? Once you’ve collected them all, who are you going to sell them to? Eggs go bad, you know.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
That evening, the Chen family was in an uproar.
Several of the uncles came to inspect Yuan Ni’s stock, and everyone wore a look of shock. “In just two days, you’ve traded for all this?”
Second Aunt stared at the bundles of lamp wicks and the large bags of sugar… her eyes nearly turned red with envy. If only these things were hers, how wonderful would that be?
Fortunately, Maternal Grandfather coughed and said, “Don’t any of you get any ideas. Guiying has it hard. She’s still in a cast, yet she’s out there earning money just to build a house. If you have any conscience, you should act like proper elders and lend a hand.”
Eldest Uncle immediately agreed. “No problem.”
The other uncles and aunts also mumbled their assent.
That night, Yuan Ni took out eighty yuan and quietly went to Maternal Grandfather, asking him to buy bricks and tiles.
Yuan Ni’s reasoning was that the egg-trading business couldn’t stop, so the house-building work would have to be entrusted to Maternal Grandfather. That way, earning money and building the house could proceed simultaneously without either being delayed.
Maternal Grandfather agreed at once. “You’re thinking correctly. The egg trade is too profitable, and someone is bound to get jealous. As soon as a second egg buyer appears, your mother-daughter business won’t be as lucrative.”
Hearing Maternal Grandfather’s words, Yuan Ni’s Mother suddenly felt a sense of urgency. No wonder Yuan Ni said they couldn’t stop collecting eggs—so this business was something others would fight to get into?
The next day, mother and daughter got up early as usual. Today they planned to go to Xi Wang Production Brigade to collect eggs. The brigade was farther away, and it took them a full half day to get there.
Yuan Ni’s Mother wiped the sweat from her brow and was about to call out when she saw a crowd gathered up ahead. “What’s going on over there?”
The mother-daughter pair pushed the cart over, and the moment they saw what the person was doing, they nearly went up in smoke from anger…