There is a chili field in the vegetable field. Du Heng saw that it grew very lushly, but now the corners of the leaves have turned yellow in winter, and there are still a lot of chili peppers on the branches, but there is not enough sunlight, and the chili pepper trees will not grow anymore. Even if it gets colder, the tree will freeze to death.
It would be a pity not to pick the remaining peppers.
Du Heng went back to get a Shau Kei, and collected all the peppers, large and small, next to each other.
The latest batch of peppers is tender, not as good-looking as the first crop, and the taste is not spicy, so they are usually just taken back and piled up to eat, not used for kimchi.
Du Heng collected more than half of the peppers on the pepper tree, and there was more than half a barrel, which was estimated to be five or six catties. He thought that if he picked some decent ones, he might be able to sell them in the county town for a few copper coins.
But it took several hours to get from the village to the county seat, and it took at least twice as long to go there with my things lame.
In fact, selling vegetables is second to none, the main thing is that he wants to go to the county town, so that he can learn more about the place and environment of life, and when he was thinking about how to sell vegetables, he heard someone call him.
"Du Heng, pick vegetables!"
Du Heng raised his head when he heard the sound, and saw people on the main road in the distance. There were only two people in the village who could call him by his name, and it was indeed Qin Xiong.
"Second uncle."
Qin Xiong was driving the bullock cart, as if he came from home, Du Heng called out.
"Is Second Uncle going out?"
"Go to the city to open a stall."
Du Heng's brows twitched when he heard this, and he hurriedly said: "Maybe Second Uncle will take me to the city?"
Qin Xiong lifted his feet and jumped off the cart, walked towards the field, raising his eyebrows: "What are you going to do in the city?"
"The peppers will freeze if left on the tree. I picked half of them, and some want to sell them in the city." Du Heng said, "For some salt money."
Qin Xiong glanced at the dustpan that Du Heng was carrying: "There are quite a few, but these crooked melons and jujube-stubble peppers are not worth much, and there are many people who sell them."
"If you can sell a little, it's a little bit, otherwise you can eat it by yourself, and the two of you won't be able to finish it if you eat it. It's a waste."
Qin Xiong was a little worried that Qin Xiaoman would not be taking Du Heng to the county seat, and he was afraid that someone would lose Qin Xiaoman and make trouble with him, but seeing what he said was very much about the Gu family, then he thought that a cripple would not be able to go anywhere, if he wanted to leave voluntarily, he would stay It's not interesting.
Furthermore, even the son-in-law who visits the door is still a man, so he should not always be confined in the house. He will still be the pillar of the family in the future. Since people don’t think that selling vegetables is something only girls do, it’s a good thing if they are willing to work hard for the sake of the family:
"Okay, then you will sell it next to my butcher's stall, and come back later in the afternoon."
"good!"
Du Heng was overjoyed. Seeing that there were few chili peppers sold alone, he pulled a few more radishes from the field, pulled green onions, shallots, and garlic sprouts, and hurriedly followed Qin Xiong into the bullock cart.
The two left the village together. Du Heng turned his head and saw the processed pork on the cart, and chatted with Qin Xiong, "Is this slaughtered in the village?"
"No, it's from the next door village. I came to make an appointment yesterday. If my village can send some pig blood, but the next village is far away."
"And the market is going to be okay?"
Qin Xiong felt that this kid was quite talkative, unlike the young people of the same age in the village who loved him, and driving a car alone was boring, so he was willing to chat with him a few more words:
"It's winter, and the Chinese New Year will be next month. Some people in the county have started to buy new year's goods, and the business is pretty good. When the twelfth lunar month comes, the price of meat should rise."
Du Heng nodded, and said again: "It's easier to do business in winter. The meat is not easy to spoil when the weather is cool. It's not so easy to handle when the weather is strong."
"Exactly, during the summer time, there are times when money is used to go in. If it is not sold out in two days, it can only be sold at a low price. Sometimes it is not lucky to sell it at a low price."
Du Heng said: "If you can't sell it cheaply, you can take it home and smoke it into bacon or make sausages. Although it takes a lot of work, the smoked meat can also be sold at the stalls. It is covered with ash and is not perishable. Bad, don’t worry if it won’t be sold for a while.”
"Heh!" Qin Xiong laughed and said, "You have something, kid. I'll try to do it next year!"
"It's best to use pine and cypress branches when smoking bacon. If there are peels, throw some peels in. The smoked bacon will be more fragrant."
"Okay, go back and tell your aunt." Qin Xiong happily took out a handful of food from his body and gave it to Du Heng: "The ones from the house are very glutinous."
Du Heng took it, and saw that it was a handful of chestnuts, which happened to be given to Qin Xiaoman this morning.
According to what Qin Xiong said, Li Wanju never told anyone that they gave it to him.
Du Heng's brows moved slightly, he peeled the shells and said, "Xiaoman pricked his hands in picking these chestnuts on Gongshan yesterday, saying that the second uncle likes to drink."
Qin Xiong let out a cry, then remembered something and cursed: "This woman!"
"Come on, Second Uncle."
Qin Xiong watched as Du Heng peeled the chestnuts and handed them over without eating them. He saw that the slender and well-proportioned hand was very gentle and elegant. I was embarrassed: "You just eat it."
"I've eaten a lot at home, and this is specially given to my second uncle by Xiaoman."
Embarrassed, Qin Xiongguai grabbed it and threw it into his mouth: "These chestnuts are fried well, even better than those sold in the city."
The two of them chatted and arrived at the county seat not long after.
It's not too early at this moment, when the city is the busiest, the streets and alleys are full of people yelling and buying and selling.
Cars and horses were mixed, and carts entered the city much slower than outside, and it took a quarter of an hour to arrive at the meat market.
Qin Xiong has a stall in the meat market, so he came late today, the meat market was already full of people, there were so many women and husbands bargaining with baskets on their arms, Qin Xiong was busy with the cloth stall to greet regular customers, so he said Du Heng pointed to the gate of the meat market: "Just sell there, and I will tell the person in charge of the market that no one will kick you out."
Du Heng nodded, and moved the vegetables to the gate of the meat market Qin Xiong mentioned.
In fact, it can be placed next to Qin Xiong in the meat market, but the meat market has a strong smell of meat, and few people are willing to buy vegetables in it. It is just right at the door, and the flow of people is large and clean.
After putting the things at the door, Du Heng walked around the vegetable market not far away before returning to set up a stall.
There are not many dishes, and people who go in and out of the meat market can see it without yelling. Today, the sun is not so cold. Du Heng stood in front of the stall with his hands in his hands. When he saw someone looking this way, he greeted: "Sister , do you want to buy some peppers, they were freshly picked this morning, very fresh."
"Fu Lang bought the meat and just bought two garlic sprouts to go back and fry the meat."
Du Heng shouted that the sellers were all over the place, but someone really came over and said, "Your chili peppers are not as good as those in the vegetable market."
"This is grown in our village. The peppers are leftover, and the non-spicy fried pork is just right."
"How did you sell it?"
"You take three pennies per catty."
The woman felt that there was really no asking price. Although the end-stubble peppers are not good in appearance, they are not for banquets. The food they eat at home is affordable, and the peppers are full and fresh, which is cheaper than those sold in the vegetable market. Also straightforward: "Bring me a catty."
Qin Xiong craned his neck in the meat market to take a look, and saw that Du Heng was quite good at greeting, but he didn't look like a young master at all. He thought that he should have helped the family greet business when the family was good, which made him even more satisfied. stand up.
"Second Uncle, borrow the scale."
"Come and get it, I have two here."
Du Heng hurriedly borrowed Qin Xiong's scale and weighed it to the woman.
It was sold at noon, and there were fewer people. Du Heng left some peppers and two radishes. Seeing that there were no more people, he was ready to collect work.
Counting the money sold today, there were eighteen copper coins, and he actually made twenty cash. He spent two cash on a bag of radish seeds.
"Sell groceries and sell groceries."
Hearing the yelling, he put away the money and looked up. The peddler who was selling groceries with a load saw him, and came over with a load and asked, "Do you want to buy groceries, sir?"
Before he could open his mouth, the peddler said: "I have everything, brushing teeth, loofah net, salted fish, bean curd."
As he spoke, the peddler lifted the lid on the burden by himself.
Du Heng didn't intend to buy anything, and it took him a long time to earn such a little, who would be willing to spend it, but he still took a look out of politeness.
He twitched his eyebrows: "There are shrimp skins?"
"Yes!" The peddler hurriedly took out a whole box of the things Du Heng saw: "The dried shrimp skins salvaged from the Qutang River are very fragrant, smell it."
Du Heng leaned over and smelled it. The dried shrimps did have the fresh scent of shrimps.
"How did you sell it?"
"Not much more, how about this box of ten coins?"
Du Heng thought to himself that he only earned 18 coins a day, and your box of shrimp skins weighs only five taels, which would cost more than half of his money. He shook his head directly: "I have no money."
The peddler hurriedly said: "Then Bawen, it is really indispensable."
Du Heng was a little tempted, but he was also dependent on others, so he couldn't use the money casually, so he said, "I still have radishes, a handful of shallots and two catties of peppers left over from the sale, if you value them, how about taking some to us for replacement?"
The peddler also glanced at it and hesitated for a while: "OK, OK, give me those two radishes, give me a catty of chili peppers, and if you don't have two shallots, I'll give it to you. Here's a box of shrimp skins for you."
Du Heng also agreed, and the two made an exchange.
"If I didn't live in the city and need to buy my own food, I wouldn't take such an order."
Du Heng looked at Xiaopi and said, "You have to buy vegetables in the city. If you have land to grow some yourself, that would be fine."
The peddler waved his hands with Du Heng: "Let's go, and I will go home after walking around again."
"okay."
"How, how much did you sell for?"
When Du Heng packed up his things and went to the vegetable market, Qin Xiong's meat was mostly sold, and he was wiping his hands.
"Ten texts."
The profit is really small, this amount of money is only enough to buy a catty of inferior meat, and he is more aware that money is not easy to earn nowadays.
"Not bad." Qin Xiong said: "I'll call it a day as well."
Du Heng looked at how many pieces of meat were left, and said, "Aren't these sold out?"
"There's no business in the afternoon, come early tomorrow, and I have to go to other villages to slaughter pigs in the afternoon. Recently, there are too many people slaughtering pigs, and there is not enough pig grass to feed them, so I simply slaughtered half of them and sold the other half. There is meat to eat."
Du Heng nodded: "Then I'll walk around the city."
"Okay, come back early."
Luoxia County is also a big county with a large population, and the folk alleys are very lively.
Now at noon, every household started cooking, and the restaurants and restaurants in the market had the best business.
Du Heng walked around for more than half an hour before returning.
After noon, the two returned to the village. Qin Xiong asked Du Heng to eat at home, but Du Heng refused, saying that the food was warmed at home.
After returning home, I ate a little, went to the field to collect all the remaining peppers, and then casually scattered the radish seeds that I bought in the city for two yuan today in the field.
He went to the county today and found that people in the city like to buy fresh and tender vegetables. They wait for the radish seeds to grow into two-inch-long vegetable seedlings, and then watch him tear them up and sell them in the city, without waiting for them to grow into radishes.
In addition, he is also planning to make hot sauce from the newly picked peppers for sale.
After returning from work in the field, Qin Xiaoman also came down the mountain carrying two large bundles of firewood.