Chapter 8: Marketing

Yu Wan dug up a few earthworms and threw them into the water. After a while, there were indeed fishes swimming over with their tails wagging. In the blink of an eye, Yu Wan grabbed the dead branch on the ground and plunged it into the water!

The fish escaped without being stabbed. Yu Wan was not discouraged. She changed her location and continued.

After a few twists and turns, Yu Wan successfully stabbed a wild carp. This carp weighed two pounds and was considered very fat among the wild carp. After that, the ones that Yu Wan stabbed were not as heavy. However, there were four of them, which could be considered a great harvest.

It was close to noon, and Little Bruiser should be hungry. Yu Wan decided to stop at a good time and brought the wild fishes home.

Little Bruiser seemed to have heard her footsteps and ran out of the kitchen. “Sis! You’re back!”

“Yeah.” Yu Wan nodded. She walked through the small bamboo field in her backyard and followed Little Bruiser into the kitchen.

“Sis!” Little Bruiser wasn’t in a hurry to look at the things in her basket. Instead, he held her hand and pointed to the main room. “Big Brother is here! He brought us a lot of food!”

Big brother? Yu Wan’s heart skipped a beat. Uncle’s eldest son?

“Big Brother! Sis is back!”

Yu Feng had come on the orders of his parents to deliver corn noodles to Ah Wan’s family, but that didn’t mean he was willing to talk to his cousin. The moment he heard Little Bruiser call his sister, he turned around and left. However, Little Bruiser’s sharp eyes unexpectedly stopped him.

Yu Feng could neither leave nor stay.

Yu Wan walked over with a calm expression.

Yu Wan did not inherit any memories related to the old residence, so she did not know about the matter of the Host and Uncle Yu’s family. She thought that the two families had a good relationship. Otherwise, why would they take care of Little Bruiser?

Yu Wan placed the basket on the stove and went to meet Yu Feng in the central room. He was a tall man, about twenty years old. He had been under the sun for a long time and his skin was not white. However, his facial features were firm and he looked rather handsome.

“Big brother.” Yu Wan greeted him.

Yu Feng was shocked and almost thought he had heard wrongly.

Little Bruiser ran over, grabbed the two cloth bags on the table, and said to Yu Wan, “Sis! Big Brother sent this millet! Big Brother sent these corn noodles!”

Yu Wan caught the cloth bag. Yu Feng thought she was going to refuse, but he suddenly heard her say warmly, “Why are there so many? Did you leave some for your family?”

It was not that they did not give enough, but she was worried that if they gave too much, their family would not have enough to eat? When had she ever worried about their lives?! If he had not heard it with his own ears, Yu Feng would not have believed it.

Yu Wan looked at the stunned Big Brother and smiled slightly. “Thank you, Big Brother.” The young girl’s smile was clear and bright, without the slightest trace of disdain or perfunctoriness. She was sincerely expressing her gratitude.

Yu Feng composed himself and said with a straight face, “It’s not anything valuable. My parents asked me to bring it over. They said… thank you for the chicken yesterday.”

“Is it good?” Yu Wan asked.

Yu Feng was stunned for a moment before he vaguely acknowledged and said, “I have something to do at home, so I’ll take my leave first.”

“Big Brother, wait a moment.” Yu Wan called out to him and quickly went to the kitchen. After a while, she filled a basket with the largest wild carp and a few fresh and tender winter bamboo shoots. She handed them to Yu Feng and said, “The fish were just caught, and the bamboo shoots were also freshly dug. They’re all very fresh.”

Yu Feng opened his mouth, wanting to refuse, but Yu Wan did not allow him to say anything and just put the basket in his hand.

He had lied just now. His parents had asked him to bring the corn noodles and millet, but it was not to repay the chicken she had given them. They actually wanted to ask her what she was up to.

“What did she say?” After returning home, Yu Feng was surrounded by his family. The person who asked him was his younger brother, Yu Song. Before his brother could reply, Yu Song continued, “Does she want to borrow money from us?”

“Where do we have money?” Aunt Yu glared at her second son.

“She didn’t say anything. She didn’t ask for anything.” Yu Feng placed the basket on the table. “She even gave me these things.” And she called me Big Brother.

Looking at the winter bamboo shoots and large carp in the basket, the Yu Family members gasped.

…

The news of Yu Wan waking up gradually spread in the village. After that, people came to visit one after another. It was unclear whether they were really here to visit or to watch the fun. Everyone who came to visit smelled the fragrance of her fish.

As the saying goes, winter and summer are the best seasons to eat carps. In winter, the carp is in the most fertile season, and the wild carp tastes better.

As there was no salt, the taste of the fish soup was original, but even so, it was still unbelievably fresh.

Little Bruiser held a bowl of milky white fish soup and drank until his forehead was covered in sweat.

Looking at Little Bruiser eating heartily, Yu Wan felt like she had just discovered a new business opportunity.

“Bruiser, do we have embroidery needles?” Yu Wan asked her brother after lunch.

“Yes! Sis, wait, I’ll go look for it!” Little Bruiser ran into Madam Jiang’s room, opened the cabinet, and took out a sewing kit from a small bag.

Yu Wan picked out two long and thin embroidery needles, roasted them soft with fire, and bent them to make a pair of fish hooks. After that, she went to the backyard to cut a piece of bamboo and made two long fishing rods.

“Sis, what are you going to do?” Little Bruiser asked curiously.

“You’ll find out tonight.”

Yu Wan used a pole to carry two wooden buckets and a pair of fishing rods. She then went to the river where she caught the carp earlier. Four hours later, Yu Wan returned. The wooden bucket was filled to the brim with fish besides water.

Little Bruiser was squatting on the ground, his little hands moving as he counted. “…Two, three, four, five, six…” He didn’t know the rest when he counted to ten.

When the villagers came to visit at noon, Yu Wan exchanged some information with them using fish soup. For example, she knew that the village was called Lotus Flower Village and also knew where the nearest market was. Every ten days of a month, there would be a large market and a small market every three days. Tomorrow was the day of the large market. This meant that there would be many vendors, but following that, there would be more customers buying things.

And she had already thought of how to sell it.

…

The market was ten miles away. In order to reach the market before dawn and grab a good spot, Yu Wan woke up around three in the morning. She thought that she had woken up early enough, but when she saw the lights in the village gradually light up, she knew that the villagers were all working hard for this market.

It was not strange when she thought about it. With the end of the year approaching, those that needed to be sold had to be sold quickly, and those that needed to be bought had to be bought quickly. Once New Year’s Eve arrived, the market would be completely closed, and business would only resume on the Dragon-Head-Raising day in February.

The lights in Uncle Yu’s house also lit up. She had seen Yu Feng go home yesterday and already knew where his house was.

“Sis, Sis! Are you going to the market? I want to go too!” This little fellow, who could always sleep until late in the morning, had actually smelled the scent of marketing and woke up early for the first time. “Sis, Sis, bring me there! I promise I’ll be very obedient! I haven’t been to the market in a long time!”

You make it sound like you’ve gone to marketing before, Yu Wan thought, not sure whether to laugh or cry. She rubbed his little head. “Okay, I’ll bring you.”