“The Marquis’ young lady really is generous when she spends.” Yu Zhuo bit down on the silver, and once he’d confirmed it was real, tucked it into his clothes. “For the sake of this silver, say whatever you want to say, spit it out.”
Yu Fuling didn’t take offense at her second brother’s words, only patted the spot beside her, her tone calm. “Sit down and talk, I get a sore neck looking up at you.”
“Tch, so much trouble.”
Yu Zhuo rolled his eyes, but obediently sat down anyway, though not right next to Yu Fuling.
“First tell me, how do you plan to get this pickled vegetable business started?”
“In summer there’s mostly melons, fruits, and vegetables, all raw materials for pickles. Marinate them in various seasonings for a few days and you can sell them at the market.” Yu Zhuo answered honestly.
Yu Fuling had already guessed what conclusions her second brother would have come to after these past few days of scouting around, but hearing him say it out loud still made her heart sink a little. “Then who’s going to do the pickling? Where are the pickle jars coming from?”
“There are plenty of pickle jars at the market, even cheaper if you buy several at once. As for pickling the vegetables, Mother knows how.” To Yu Zhuo, the biggest problem in selling pickled vegetables wasn’t how to sell them, but the preparation work beforehand, especially the pickling step. He was afraid to bring it up with their mother for fear she’d refuse, so he’d been putting off saying so.
“For a small operation, you naturally have to plan carefully.” If she wanted her second brother to actually listen to what she had to say, she first had to affirm him, to let him realize his effort hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“But…”
Yu Fuling paused for a moment, and seeing her second brother’s expression stay normal, continued. “Eldest Sister-in-law just gave birth yesterday, Mother will surely be focused on the two of them first. I’m afraid she won’t have much energy left to teach you how to make pickles.”
“How hard can pickling vegetables really be? Mother just needs to teach me the method, that’s all, I’m not like Big Brother, who has no consideration for how hard Mother works.”
Hearing her second brother say this, Yu Fuling knew at once that he hadn’t understood what she meant. She thought it over and continued. “Don’t we have radishes and cucumbers at home? Why not pickle just a small jar with those two first, and give it out to villagers to try for free? If the villagers all think it tastes good, then you could make three or five catties and try selling it at the market. That way, even if you can’t sell it all in one day, our family can still eat it ourselves, and nothing goes to waste.”
“If all the villagers think it tastes good, how could three or five catties not sell out? You’re underestimating me?!” Yu Zhuo disagreed with Yu Fuling’s suggestion, even feeling she was trying, in a roundabout way, to talk him out of selling pickled vegetables altogether.
“We’re all from the same village, our tastes are pretty similar, but the people at the market are different, you don’t know which village they’re from, whether their household eats things bland or salty at home. What if, I’m just saying what if, you make too much pickled vegetables and can’t sell it, and the family can’t finish it either, wouldn’t that all go to waste?”
“What business ever succeeds on the very first try?” Yu Zhuo wasn’t stupid either, hearing this much, he’d already realized Yu Fuling wasn’t here to find fault, but was genuinely discussing things seriously with him, giving him advice. His tone softened. “I’ll have to be prepared to lose money on it, of course.”
“Then Second Brother could use the silver I gave you to run a test first. If it succeeds, you can go tell Father and Mother afterward, wouldn’t that give you more confidence?”
“Eh?”
Only now did Yu Zhuo suddenly realize, Yu Fuling giving him silver wasn’t at all about coming to learn from him, it was a roundabout way of letting him accept it without feeling bad about it.
In an instant, his heart was a tangle of mixed feelings.
He’d never imagined that the resentment he’d carried, unnoticed, since childhood, would be seen by the younger sister who had only just come home, and even caught and held, at that.
“Second Brother, are there fish in this pond?” Seeing her second brother looking uneasy, Yu Fuling looked toward the pond, her intention was to help her second brother, not to pressure him.
“This pond’s a dead pond. Ever since it dried up once a while back, I’ve never seen a fish in it again.”
“Is that so?”
Yu Fuling stood up, walked to the water’s edge, stared at the surface of the water for a moment, then turned and smiled at her second brother. “Second Brother, let’s make a bet, if I can catch a fish from this pond today, you’ll do things my way. What do you say?”
“There’s no fish in this pond.”
Yu Zhuo walked quickly to Yu Fuling’s side. “Even if there were fish, the villagers would have caught them all long ago, how could there…”
Splash!
Before he could finish speaking, a carp suddenly leapt cleanly out of the water, and then, as Yu Zhuo stared in stunned silence, dove back into the pond and vanished without a trace.
“No way.”
Yu Zhuo rubbed his eyes hard, staring at Yu Fuling in shock. “You—you saw that just now, that huge carp?”
“So I told you there are fish in this pond. Second Brother, hurry and get a fishing rod and bait, if we can catch a few big carp, our family will have fish to eat, and we can even make fish soup for Eldest Sister-in-law to drink.” Yu Fuling never doubted her own luck, it was just that good luck only appeared at certain times.
“Wait for me a moment.”
Fishing was something Yu Zhuo was best at. In no time he’d brought back a fishing rod, cast the line out, but after waiting a long while, still no fish took the bait. “This… I clearly saw a fish, why won’t it bite?”
“Why don’t I try instead?” Yu Fuling suggested.
“Go ahead.”
Yu Zhuo handed the fishing rod to Yu Fuling.
Yu Fuling took it calmly, and within five seconds, the line on the rod moved.
“It’s moving, it’s moving.” Yu Zhuo reached out to help Yu Fuling pull up the rod together, it wasn’t the carp they’d seen before, but a grass carp about half a meter long. “This… there’s more than one kind of fish in this pond?”
“Second Brother, put more bait on, I have a feeling we’re going to have a big haul today!”
“You sit for a bit, I’ll go dig up some earthworms!”
There were quite a few ponds in and around the village, and Yu Zhuo had often gone fishing and catching crabs with the other village kids as a child, so he knew where to find plenty of earthworms.
In just a few minutes, Yu Zhuo came trotting back, cupping a handful of earthworms in some leaves, and crouched down to prepare the bait.
“Second Brother, you’re really skilled with your hands. I have a feeling that if you learned how to pickle vegetables, you’d do it even better than Mother.” Yu Fuling crouched on the ground, using a twig to keep the earthworms from escaping.
“Yu Fuling, don’t think that just because you gave me silver, I have to listen to whatever you say.”
“If Second Brother feels awkward about taking my silver, you can pay me back once you’ve earned some.” Yu Fuling saw her second brother look up at her in stunned surprise, and gave him a big smile in return. “Don’t worry, I won’t charge Second Brother any interest.”
“Yu Fuling, you’ve got money on the brain, haven’t you?” Yu Zhuo snorted, but his tone had lost the coldness from when he’d first met Yu Fuling. He stood up and cast the fishing rod out with force. “Guess what kind of fish this one will be?”
“Hmm…”
Yu Fuling tilted her head, thinking it over. “If I guess right, do I get something good out of it?”
“What more good stuff do you want?” Yu Zhuo found there was an odd sense of ease in being around Yu Fuling, he didn’t even notice his own brow had relaxed. “A Marquis’ young lady like you, haven’t you seen everything already?”
“If I guess right what kind of fish this one is, I want Second Brother to agree to one condition.”