The only downside was that after the big feast, his family had two large boxes of broken noodles left over—which couldn't be given away, so the father and son had to eat them all.
The cooked noodles were difficult to scoop up with chopsticks, so Jiang Xiaoman simply added yesterday's leftover rice and chopped some vegetable leaves to make a pot of vegetable noodle porridge.
It looks messy, but it actually tastes pretty good, especially on a rainy day like this. Eating two hot bowls of it will warm you up from head to toe.
After breakfast, Jiang Youliang carried a basket filled with tofu and konjac tofu, while Jiang Xiaoman also carried a large basket filled with leftover peanuts, melon seeds, candies, and snacks from her family's banquet, intending to bring them to the school teachers and children.
When she arrived at school, it was just the end of get out of class. As soon as a group of kids saw Jiang Xiaoman, they surrounded her. Jiang Xiaoman quickly put down her basket and smiled as she grabbed some candy and snacks from it to give to them.
Jiang Baichuan didn't stop them. Instead, he stood under the eaves with a large tea mug and egged them on: "Don't be polite with your little Man! I see he has a lot of good food in his basket. Hurry up and grab it all. The principal will save it for you to eat slowly!"
As soon as Jiang Baichuan shouted, the older children who were already on good terms with Jiang Xiaoman immediately swarmed over and snatched all the candies and melon seeds from his basket!
Jiang Youliang also stood by with his arms crossed, watching the commotion.
It's not that the students are lacking in manners; it's a custom in Langshan that when someone is celebrating a happy occasion, they always carry extra treats with them when they go out. If they encounter children, elderly people living alone or disabled people on the road, they will give them some candy or snacks, just to make it lively.
After the snacks were all distributed, Jiang Xiaoman quickly asked her father to put the tofu and konjac tofu he had brought into the kitchen and keep them in clean water. She also reminded Jiang Baichuan that they must finish them today, since it was summer and the school didn't have a refrigerator, and they would turn sour if left overnight.
"Don't worry, if I can't finish it, I can't share it with the students to take home." Jiang Baichuan waved his hand at him. "I saw your dad went down the mountain too, he must have something to do. Hurry up and do your thing. If you don't have time for lunch, just have a meal at the school. I'll save some food for you."
"No, my dad and I are just going to buy some eggs. When we get back, we need to find a carpenter to come up the mountain to look at the wood. We want to build more beehives this year and raise more bees."
Jiang Xiaoman briefly explained her plans to Jiang Baichuan, who was quite supportive of her beekeeping.
"Our Langshan honey is really good! I've never tasted such delicious honey anywhere else. Before, we had no choice but to raise more fish because we couldn't find a market. It was a problem if we couldn't sell them all. But now it's different. You can open a shop online, and the postal service can drive right to the village. Raise more fish, and you and your dad will have enough to eat and drink for a year."
"Hehe! That's what I think too. I don't have that much ability, so I'll just focus on doing my own things well first. When I make money from beekeeping, those who want to do it will definitely come to me. Those who don't want to work hard, like a few years ago when the village encouraged everyone to plant honeysuckle, even though the seedlings were given away for free and fertilizer was subsidized, they still couldn't make it work in the end, right?" Jiang Xiaoman said with a pout.
He is neither a saint nor a superman; he cannot simply raise his arms and lead the entire village to start a business and become wealthy.
The environment in Langshan is different from that in Banligou. Everyone lives in one village, and as long as you have a responsible leader, you can lead the whole village to work together to accomplish great things.
There are very few large, concentrated villages in the Langshan area, which is certainly due to the actual environment.
The villages at the foot of the mountain have little land, and the people rely on farming for their livelihood. If they want to own more land, they have to go to places with more land and fewer people.
For example, his family, I heard that when the reservoir was built and the whole area was relocated, they could choose to go to a new town or a more remote mountain area. His father chose the place where his family lives now.
At that time, the mountain was divided equally among several households. Even so, the area of mountain land that each household could use was several times that at the foot of the mountain.
As we all know, life on the mountain was too hard. Anyone with a bit of skill would go down the mountain or to the town to build houses. It was more convenient for them, their children could go to school, and they could earn much more working outside than they could farming in the mountains.
So why is it that despite the country's enormous efforts and national resources in poverty alleviation, there are still impoverished mountainous areas like Langshan that cannot be lifted out of poverty?
It's not the country's fault, nor is it the policy's fault; it's just that there are too many historical problems!
Putting aside other factors, the small population base of this village alone has driven out some industries that require a large concentration of labor.
Of course, the fact that the people here are not ambitious is another reason.
Jiang Xiaoman heard that there was a student's parent at Jiang Baichuan's school who, along with his wife, didn't want to go to the city to work and suffer, so they actually refused to farm the land.
When asked why they don't farm or raise pigs,
People say that if you have grain at home, you can't qualify for the minimum living allowance. Not only can you not receive the minimum living allowance every month, but you also won't get any of the village's holiday greetings. It's as if you're suffering a huge loss!
For someone who wants to live off welfare for the rest of their life, even if you pile mountains of gold and silver in front of them, they'll still complain that you haven't dug them out for them. How can you help them get ahead?
With people not united and many lazy people, Jiang Xiaoman's path to starting a business in her hometown was destined to be anything but smooth.
Fortunately, Jiang maintained a positive attitude.
He didn't return to his hometown to start a business to make a fortune; he did it to support his father in his old age.
During this time, he has been thinking about his future path and now has a general direction in mind. However, he still wants to consult Tang Xinlan to see if this path will work.
With things on their minds, walking wasn't so tiring. The father and son carried baskets to the chicken farm, where they saw the owner's wife looking distressed as she dumped a basket of rotten eggs into a pit by the wall.
Her husband, an honest and unassuming man, silently helped fill the soil beside her.
"Sister Chunhua, why are these eggs all rotten?" Jiang Xiaoman's heart skipped a beat when she smelled the rotten eggs from afar.
A few days ago, he stumbled upon a local media report that said that due to the sharp drop in egg prices, many local chicken farmers stopped feeding their chickens and sold off some of their laying hens at bargain prices in order to reduce losses.
Unfortunately, these hens have tough meat and don't fetch a good price, causing significant losses for chicken farmers.
Jiang Xiaoman then thought of the chicken farm where he had bought eggs before. He needed to buy more eggs to pickle, so he thought he would come over and support the owner's business. He never expected that the situation had become so serious.
"Sigh! I don't know what's wrong with eggs lately, the price has plummeted! The retail price is only 3.5 yuan per jin, and even when I lowered the wholesale price to 1.8 yuan, nobody came to buy them. People said that the money they made from one trip wasn't even enough to cover the gas money for renting a truck. Your brother and I sold some at the market, but most of the rest went bad. Xiaoman, do you want some? I can give you two boxes?"
Shan Chunhua now understands why the foreigner would rather pour out the milk than give it away to the poor for free.
These past few days, she and her husband hadn't been able to sell their eggs, so out of kindness, they gave some eggs to elderly people living alone in the neighborhood.
Unexpectedly, some unscrupulous person spread rumors that they couldn't sell their eggs and were going to give them away to the villagers for free.
Now, a lot of greedy villagers have been coming to her asking for eggs, acting as if it's their right to ask for free eggs and doing her a huge favor by taking them from her chicken farm.
Some of the older women even put on airs and lectured her, saying things like, "You didn't even bother to give them some of your unsold eggs that went bad." Bah!
She'd rather throw everything away than give it to those heartless bastards!
However, Jiang Xiaoman was different. Shan Chunhua knew that this child was kind and honest. She never took advantage of her when she came to buy eggs. Anyway, the eggs at home would just go bad if they were left there. It was better to give more to regular customers like Jiang Xiaoman. That way, she would definitely think of her first when she bought eggs in the future.
"Why would I give you anything? Raising chickens isn't easy for you, sister-in-law. Chicken feed and electricity cost money, don't they? I can't take advantage of you like that." After thinking for a moment, Jiang Xiaoman suddenly looked up and asked Shan Chunhua, "Sister-in-law, how many eggs do you have left?"
"What? You're going to help your sister-in-law sell eggs online? Please don't! Your sister-in-law is grateful for your favor, but these eggs can't be sold right now! The money from selling these eggs probably won't even cover your shipping costs." Shan Chunhua thought he wanted to help her sell eggs, so she quickly refused.
She wasn't the kind of person who didn't know what was good for her. How could she cheat someone she knew in such a obviously unprofitable deal? Besides, Jiang Xiaoman was still a child in her eyes.
"No, sister-in-law, I know how to make salted eggs. I was thinking that eggs are cheap now, so I'll buy some and pickle them. When the price of eggs goes up, I'll sell them. Pickled eggs don't spoil easily and are easy to transport. I can sell my skills and earn some pocket money, hehe..." Jiang Xiaoman quickly came up with a good idea.
Actually, when I filmed the video last time, quite a few people asked in the comments section if he sold his salted eggs.
However, Jiang Xiaoman didn't think much about it at the time. Firstly, he didn't have many salted eggs at home, and they were mostly pickled for his own consumption. Secondly, his salted eggs were all pickled from free-range eggs, and the cost would be too high if he were to sell them.
For the same price, wouldn't it be better to buy those salted duck eggs that are pickled until they ooze oil?
But now, hearing Shan Chunhua say that the wholesale price of eggs here is only 1.8 yuan! Jiang Xiaoman silently did some mental calculations and realized that this business might actually be viable.
Besides, even if he couldn't sell the salted eggs he made, he could still deliver them to schools to supplement the students' meals, so there would be no waste, and he could afford to lose that little bit of money.
Chapter 75
"Buy them all? Xiaoman, you should think this through carefully, or maybe discuss it with your dad again?"
"To tell you the truth, I don't just have a few hundred or a few thousand eggs. I estimate there are at least 20,000, which adds up to about 3,000 jin. You're going to use them all to make salted eggs?" Shan Chunhua was shocked.
Jiang Youliang also got anxious: "Xiaoman, with so many eggs, how many trips will we have to make to get them up the mountain?"
"Don't worry, Dad, I'm not moving back. I plan to use an empty room on the third floor of the school building and pickle the vegetables down the mountain. If we can sell them, great; if not, we'll just eat them ourselves and ease Uncle Baichuan's burden a bit!"
Jiang Xiaoman briefly explained her plans to her father.
"Sigh~ Your Uncle Baichuan has had a tough time too, so let's do it your way." Jiang Youliang had nothing more to say when Jiang Baichuan and the kids at school were mentioned.
He was never someone who only cared about money. In his view, he was content as long as his son was by his side and the family had enough to eat and drink.
As for whether he could make money, his limited perspective prevented him from knowing.
Making money still depends on my son!
When Shan Chunhua saw his insistence on helping her clear out her inventory, and heard that he planned to donate the unsold salted eggs to the school, she felt both touched and amused.
"Xiaoman, I didn't expect you to be so loyal at such a young age. Well then, I won't stand on ceremony with you. I'll give you all of these stored eggs! But I can't give them to you at the price I give to the vendors. How about this, I'll give you a discount of 30 cents per pound, making it 1.5 yuan per pound!"
"I have a few boxes here that are about to expire. They're edible, but the yolks are a bit runny. Could you ask your Uncle Baichuan for me? If he doesn't mind, I can load them all into the truck and take them to the school. I can stir-fry some chives for the kids and they can still eat them."
"That's great! No need to ask him anymore, just give it to me!" Jiang Xiaoman was immediately delighted.
What do you mean by "almost expired"? That's just city people being picky and having too much money. In the mountains, as long as the eggs haven't gone bad, they're still edible!
To save face for her uncle, Jiang Xiaoman didn't dare gossip with Shan Chunhua. Actually, Jiang Baichuan, that stingy guy, always did the same thing.
Eggs should be separated by date, and the ones collected earlier should be eaten first... to avoid mixing old and new eggs together, which could spoil and be a waste.
Isn't this just eating eggs that are close to their expiration date every day?
With Jiang Xiaoman's words, the once lifeless chicken farm suddenly came alive. Shan Chunhua and her husband busied themselves opening the warehouse, taking out the eggs that were still within their shelf life, packing them into boxes, and loading them onto the truck. Jiang Youliang and his son also went up to help. In the end, they carried up a full seven large boxes of eggs that were nearing their expiration date!
They even made a fool of themselves while moving the eggs.
When the villagers saw the chicken farm moving eggs out again, they assumed that the farm couldn't sell all its eggs and was dumping them. Many people carried bamboo baskets and plastic buckets and ran towards the chicken farm, trying to grab the eggs.
I never expected to find out here that Shan Chunhua had actually sold all her stored eggs!
Upon hearing that Jiang Xiaoman planned to buy them and make them into salted eggs to sell, the villagers looked at each other in bewilderment, then burst into laughter.
"Whose child is this? Doesn't the family keep an eye on them? Is this how you waste money? Salted eggs? Every family has them, right? Who would buy them?"
"Exactly! These eggs are almost spoiled, aren't they? What if they turn out rotten after pickling and we can't sell them!"
"These two, Shan Chunhua and her husband, are heartless. I don't know where they found such a sucker."
There were even "kind-hearted villagers" pulling Jiang Xiaoman aside to advise him, saying that Shan Chunhua's chicken farm hadn't sold any eggs for a long time, and that he should be careful not to buy any that were rotten, and that he should hold each one in his hand and shake it to check...
Shan Chunhua was furious and chased away all the onlookers who were there to cause trouble, carrying a large broom.
She believes she has always treated the villagers well. Whenever someone comes to buy chickens or eggs, she usually gives them the wholesale price. Sometimes, if the chickens from the farm are about to expire and have not been sold, she will give some away to the villagers.
Unexpectedly, her good intentions were not rewarded; instead, they only fueled the appetites of these people, which is truly disheartening!
"If I ever give eggs to these people again, I'm a pig!" Shan Chunhua was so angry that tears were almost in her eyes.
"Sister-in-law, don't be angry. It's not worth it for these people. Look, most people in the village are actually good. It's just a few old foxes who come here to take advantage of the situation," Jiang Xiaoman comforted her.
“Xiaoman is right. As the old saying goes, ‘one kind of rice feeds a hundred kinds of people.’ We can’t expect everyone in this world to be a good person.” Jiang Youliang also advised her.
"Sigh! What a loss! Three years of hard work for nothing! We're not planning to raise chickens next year either. It's exhausting, earning only a few hundred thousand a year, and living in constant fear. It's better to go out and work." Shan Chunhua raised the back of her hand to wipe her eyes.
"Sister-in-law, have you ever thought about leasing the mountain to raise free-range chickens? These factory-farmed chickens don't fetch a good price, but free-range chickens and eggs always sell very well, don't they?" Jiang Xiaoman asked, puzzled.
“How could I not have thought of that? But our place is too remote, and the roads are difficult to travel. It’s troublesome to transport feed in and chickens out. Even though they are the same free-range chickens, we have to sell them for a higher price than others. No wonder people are unwilling to buy them.” Shan Chunhua sighed heavily.
Jiang Xiaoman was speechless.
In fact, he is now facing the same difficulty - the logistics situation in the village is too poor.
Sending goods via postal express takes several days longer than other companies. If a customer requests another courier service, they have to take the goods themselves and travel to the county town to find a courier outlet to ship them. Their village doesn't even have a courier outlet that offers paid delivery services!
The four of them loaded the truck together, and the more than two hundred boxes of eggs were loaded in no time.
Shan Chunhua insisted on charging Jiang Xiaoman a wholesale price of 1.5 yuan per jin, and even rounded it down to zero. Jiang Xiaoman only spent 5,500 yuan for more than 3,000 jin of eggs, and they even delivered them to his door. No wonder young people nowadays are unwilling to return to their hometowns to start businesses. This is simply a losing proposition!