It was a false alarm, and everything had sold out completely; Shen Mianmian and Lu Siyuan were both very happy.
They drove the ox cart back cheerfully. Because they were so happy, they didn’t notice that they nearly collided with Zhou Lanfang and several others at an intersection.
Zhou Lanfang was heading towards the market with Zhou Siyu and a few sisters-in-law from her maternal home when, at the street corner waiting for the bus, Zhou Lanfang turned around and realized Zhou Siyu hadn’t kept up.
She hurriedly shouted, "Siyu, what are you looking at?"
Jolted back to reality by the shout, Zhou Siyu trotted to catch up with Zhou Lanfang, "Aunt, I thought I saw my sister just now."
Zhou Lanfang looked in the direction Siyu was looking but saw nothing.
"You must be seeing things. Our ride has gone, how could she come to the city?"
Besides, no one would bring Shen Mianmian here!
Zhou Siyu thought about it and felt it made sense. Shen Mianmian had no friends, and was only a bit close to Xiaocui. Xiaocui, who only knew how to work, would probably not run around for fun, and certainly wouldn’t bring her to the city.
Both of them probably had no idea which direction the city was in.
Shen Mianmian, who was oblivious to the near miss with Zhou Siyu, had left the city with Lu Siyuan in the ox cart.
Sitting bored in the ox cart, she began discussing the sale of winter melons with Lu Siyuan, "Your uncle’s family still has about ten winter melons left, which surely won’t be enough to sell. Take me over to your neighbor’s place again!"
They could sell at least a dozen winter melons tomorrow.
Truth be told, even if it was thirty winter melons, Shen Mianmian was confident; but Lu Siyuan’s ox cart couldn’t carry that many.
Even if it could, she couldn’t be so selfish as to occupy the entire cart. After all, their family’s cart was meant for selling bamboo baskets.
With this in mind, she asked, "Do you still have bamboo baskets at home?"
Having never dealt with bamboo baskets before, she had thought they would be easy to weave. Only after watching the process yesterday did she realize that weaving them was not so simple and was actually very tedious and time-consuming, with at most only one or two being made each day. Fınd the newest release on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵•𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒•𝙣𝙚𝙩
Since Grandpa Lu’s back was in poor condition, the output was naturally even lower, nowhere near enough to sell.
Lu Siyuan going to the city with her every day was also delaying his own work, which was definitely not good.
"No more." Thinking she was worried about having no one to take her to the city tomorrow, Lu Siyuan added, "If you want to go to the city, I’ll accompany you."
There was no need to go to school now, anyhow. If it came down to it, he could sleep a bit later at night to help Grandpa make more bamboo baskets.
"I can’t always be dragging you along!"
"What do you mean?" Lu Siyuan glared, "Have you found another ox cart?"
"No." Seeing him getting upset, Shen Mianmian quickly explained, "I mean, it definitely wouldn’t do if I kept holding you back. Have you thought about selling things together with me?"
Worried that Lu Siyuan might refuse, she added, "The output of bamboo baskets is low, so they definitely won’t be enough to sell. If you want to make money, you’ll need to do small business like me, earn some initial capital, then gradually expand."
With an ox cart at home, transportation of goods to the city was convenient for Lu Siyuan. Being daring enough to sell in the city and having a thick enough skin gave him advantages over most people.
It would be a waste not to make good use of these advantages.
"Sell vegetables as well?" Lu Siyuan immediately grasped Shen Mianmian’s point, but he hesitated somewhat. If he also sold, wouldn’t he be taking Shen Mianmian’s business?
Seeing what he was thinking, Shen Mianmian said, "It’s not necessary to sell only vegetables. For instance, chicken eggs, duck eggs, and dried goods as well—anything not produced in the city, we can sell."