Jiang Wan smoothed the hem of her clothes and sat up straight, speaking seriously. "Father, today's trip to Li Family Hollow went even better than expected. I also arranged with them to collect mountain goods on a regular basis from now on."
Zhou Xianggui nodded, a hint of relief crossing his face. "That's good. Slow and steady wins the race—yield a little profit… as long as the goods are genuine and fairly priced, nothing else matters more."
"Yes." Jiang Wan nodded along with his words, subtly steering the conversation deeper. "But Father, autumn harvest has already begun. The villagers have surplus grain in hand—it's exactly the time for them to stock up on household goods. Relying on me alone to run back and forth isn't a long-term solution. We really should get the shop back on its feet."
She looked at Zhou Xianggui with a serious expression and sincere tone.
"Think about it—you ran the business in town for years. You have wide connections and a good reputation. Those old suppliers and the general goods dealers in the county town all have ties with you. Even though your health isn't what it used to be, your standing is still intact. Why not have you reach out and reconnect with them, stabilize the supply chain first?"
Jiang Wan knew exactly what she was doing.
The farming households trusted her because, among the limited options available, Zhou's reputation was the best. And with a husband conscripted into the army, she was a young woman effectively widowed—pitiful to look at.
But the suppliers wouldn't give her special treatment just because she was the new daughter-in-law of Zhou's.
The Zhou family had toiled for years, and though their situation was precarious, as long as the old man was still alive, the old connections remained.
Even someone as stingy as Chen's had shown due respect, dragging out their debts time and again.
Partly because they were ruthless and after bigger gains.
But they wouldn't dare cross certain lines either.
Hearing this, Zhou Xianggui's brow, which had finally relaxed, furrowed once more.
Didn't he want to revive Zhou's?
It was just that with the family's decline over the years, he felt he'd lost face, and worried he no longer had the strength. That was why he'd been drifting through his days in dejection.
He took a deep breath. "Xiao Wan, what you're saying—it's not that I haven't thought about it…"
"Cough, cough, cough…"
Before he could finish, he started coughing again.
Jiang Wan quickly picked up the warm water kept nearby and handed it to him.
Zhou Xianggui took a few sips, steadied his breath, and continued. "It's just… our foundation is thin now. Whether those old partners would still be willing to deal with me… hard to say. Hm… and if the shop reopens, someone would need to be there at all times to mind the front…"
Jiang Wan spoke up at the right moment. "Let Xiao He mind the shop."
She said it without a trace of hesitation.
Zhou Xianggui's hunched body stiffened for a moment, a flicker of doubt passing through his eyes.
"This… would Xiao He be willing? She's still young, and she hasn't been through much…"
Jiang Wan said firmly, "Father, times are different now. This family no longer has the means to keep coddling Xiao He. Trust her—she can do it."
She spoke bluntly, tearing away the last shred of pretense the Zhou family had been clinging to.
Xiao He had been running over cheerfully to call Jiang Wan for the midday meal. She'd just reached the doorway when she heard those words.
Her little face went pale in an instant, and the foot she'd been about to step into the main room hastily retreated.
She shook her head and waved her hands in refusal. "S-Sister-in-law, I can't…"
Her eyes were filled with unease, like a fledgling bird suddenly pushed from the edge of a cliff.
Utterly at a loss, her heart trembling with fear.
Jiang Wan turned around, walked a few steps to the door, and pulled her to her side.
Lowering her tone, Jiang Wan asked softly, "Do you know how to read?"
"A… a little…" Xiao He kept her head down, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
"Do you know how to use an abacus?"
"I do…"
"Then why won't you do it?" Jiang Wan suddenly raised her voice, gripping Xiao He's shoulders with both hands, forcing her to meet her eyes. "You have a kind and simple heart, and you're a daughter of the Zhou family. People won't make things too difficult for you, given your age and the Zhou family's good name."
Xiao He held back her tears, her voice trembling into a thin thread. "Sister-in-law… I'm scared…"
Jiang Wan patted the back of her hand, her tone gentle yet firm. "Besides, you have Father and Mother backing you up. If you come across something you don't understand, just turn around and ask.
All you need to do is keep an eye on the shop and collect the money, just like in previous years."
At that, she paused to catch her breath, let out a long sigh, and forced her eyes to redden. "Your brother is gone. The family can't rely solely on me, a newly married daughter-in-law. Until Father and Mother are in good health, the household can only depend on the two of us—sisters-in-law. If it weren't so, I'd want you to live happily, free from worries about food and clothing, but…
Alas…"
With that said, Jiang Wan released Xiao He's hands, her tone turning exceptionally heavy. "This shop is our family's last lifeline. If we don't give it our all, are we really going to wait until Chen's comes knocking in half a month? If that day truly comes, I'll have no choice but to follow your brother."
Her tone was resolute, carrying the courage of one who stakes everything on a single throw.
Each word struck like a heavy hammer, pounding hard against Xiao He's heart.
She suddenly lifted her head, her face filled with shock. Instinctively, she gripped Jiang Wan's hands, tears streaming down her face. "Sister-in-law, don't go… Don't leave us…"
Zhou Xianggui, standing nearby, also hung his head in helplessness. "Sigh… It's because I'm useless…"
Everything that needed to be said had been said, and the atmosphere had been set just right.
Jiang Wan kept her head down, quietly waiting for the moment to take effect.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Xiao He, trembling, took a deep breath and nodded firmly.
"Sister-in-law, Father, I'm willing…"
Her voice still quivered slightly, but her eyes had grown much more determined.
Jiang Wan raised her hand and gently rested it on Xiao He's trembling shoulder.
"Xiao He, I know you're afraid. But everything has a first time—isn't today my first time going out too? Father and Mother will have their first day of growing old, and Xiao He can't stay in the back courtyard forever, right?"
Xiao He looked up, her timid eyes meeting Jiang Wan's encouraging gaze.
The unease in her heart instantly melted away by more than half.
She pressed her lips together, hesitating before speaking. "Sister-in-law, what if I…"
A faint smile curled at the corner of Jiang Wan's mouth as she reassured her, "Go ahead and do it with peace of mind. Leave what's behind you to Father, Mother, and me."
Xiao He gave a heavy "Mm," sniffled, and lifted her face into a smile again. "Then if I do something wrong, Father, Sister-in-law, you must tell me."
Seeing this, Zhou Xianggui felt a swirl of emotions, and even his back straightened a bit.
"Good, good, good. The children of the Zhou family—all good, all good…"
Xiao He blushed, tugging at Jiang Wan's sleeve. "Sister-in-law, Mother called you over to eat."
Jiang Wan glanced at Zhou Xianggui, whose spirits had lifted considerably, and decided to strike while the iron was hot.
"Xiao He, you go eat with Mother first. Father and I still have something to discuss…"
After sending Xiao He off, Jiang Wan sat back down on the stool.
The room fell silent once more.
Zhou Xianggui was well aware that the reopening of Zhou's Grocery was a done deal.
So next, they should discuss the specifics of how to reopen it.
He cleared his throat, his expression turning serious. "Father knows what you want to ask. You need to think more carefully—business is business, and personal feelings are personal feelings.
With the debts of Zhou's and Chen's still outstanding, those suppliers won't agree to settle on a quarterly basis. It'll have to be cash on delivery."
He looked at Jiang Wan with a grave expression, his gaze sharpening slightly. "With insufficient capital, the shop can only stock the goods you brought back for now. Can you tell me now—how much money do you have left after your trip?"
Hearing this, Jiang Wan couldn't stay calm anymore.
She swallowed hard.
She couldn't exactly say she hadn't spent a single coin and had relied entirely on bartering through the Mall, could she?
That would be practically asking for death.
So she simply closed her eyes, steeled her nerves, and reported a false account.
"Just over four taels left."
"Spent two strings?" Zhou Xianggui gasped in shock, his voice changing pitch.
The things Jiang Wan had brought back—he'd caught a rough glimpse of them through the window.
With his years of experience as a traveling merchant, a shopkeeper, and a trader, one glance was enough to tell him those items weren't worth two strings of copper coins.
This deal was a huge loss…
But considering this was Jiang Wan's first time trading on the road and she lacked experience, mistakes were inevitable.
Suppressing the urge to speak his mind, Zhou Xianggui advised her kindly, "Xiao Wan, in our line of work, we rely on a good reputation passed by word of mouth, not…
Sigh… haste makes waste. Throwing money around like that isn't a good thing."
Jiang Wan nodded, indicating she'd taken the lesson to heart.
Zhou Xianggui once again silently cursed his injured leg—if it were the old days, he'd have gone to check the accounts himself.
After gulping down several bowls of water, he poured out all the experience he'd accumulated over his lifetime for Jiang Wan to hear.
"As a peddler, the most important things are having a complete stock and unique goods. Your carrying pole should have pots, pans, bowls, rice, flour, oil, needles, and thread.
Father is useless now and can't help you, but don't try to take too big a step. We're not strong, so just pick things worth trading and trade for those."
He paused, a glint of a merchant's shrewdness flashing in his eyes. "As you said, it's the busy autumn harvest season. When your stomach lacks oil, you don't have the strength to work.
Here's what you do—go find Butcher Zhu this afternoon and reserve all of this morning's pork leaf fat…"
The sun was scorching these days, and fresh pork would go bad within half a day.
The villagers had been scraping by at the bottom of society for years—were any of them foolish?
Rather than buying perishable fresh meat, most would choose to buy leaf fat and render it themselves to improve their meals.
Zhou Xianggui patted his chest, looking confident. "Just think about it—there are only three butchers in our Yongxing Town, and the number of livestock slaughtered each day is fixed. Without Butcher Zhu's share, there's bound to be a shortage."
Jiang Wan nodded thoughtfully, following his line of reasoning. "And tomorrow is the big market day. People from all the nearby villages will come. Those from farther villages rarely get the chance to come on ordinary days.
So they'd arrive full of excitement, only to find they can't buy what they want. They'd feel anxious but helpless. So they'd have no choice but to settle for the next best thing and buy the lard directly."
"Exactly right!" Zhou Xianggui looked at Jiang Wan with admiration. "Once we render the suet we've collected into lard, not only can we add lard and cracklings—two hot commodities—to our shop's offerings, but in the following days we can also set out with the rendered lard in hand, solving the urgent needs of the remote villages."
Zhou Xianggui spoke with great authority, and Jiang Wan listened with keen interest. With just a hint from Zhou Xianggui, Jiang Wan knew exactly which path to take next. The trick behind it wasn't actually complicated—it was simply a matter of artificially creating a shortage of goods to facilitate sales. When suet is rendered into lard, the price is completely transparent. The profit is just the hard-earned pittance, and no one would complain about that. But if one arrives too late, or finds the journey too far, the common folk would grit their teeth and simply buy ready-made lard instead, even if it costs a few extra coppers. After all, no one wants to trek dozens of extra li just to save a few coppers.
"And…" Jiang Wan's lips curled into a meaningful smile. "There are only two general stores in town. Chen's is now the sole dominant force, and given how profit-driven Manager Chen is, he's bound to gouge people hard at a time like this, jacking prices up to the heavens."
She looked at Zhou Xianggui, a glint of cunning shining in her eyes. "When that happens, if our Zhou's takes the opportunity to spread the news of our reopening—even selling at fair prices—we'll instantly win over a huge crowd of customers. From then on, we won't lack for patrons coming and going."
This was a move of "cutting off the firewood from under the cauldron"—using Chen's greed to highlight Zhou's integrity.
The room fell into a brief silence, broken only by the cicadas outside the window crying out at the top of their lungs. The sharp gleam in Zhou Xianggui's eyes gradually faded, replaced by a deep worry.
"But…" He paused, his tone turning profoundly grave. "Xiaowan, you need to understand—if Zhou's does this, it's bound to provoke Chen's."
He looked up, his gaze complex as he regarded Jiang Wan. "Chen's is no pushover. When the time comes, they'll likely strike hard—whether by undercutting prices to squeeze us out, or pulling strings to cut off our supply—they'll drive us completely into a corner. This move… it's a risky gamble…"