Early the next morning, Xiaoxiao’s house was filled with people delivering cabbages.
"Don’t crowd, please line up. As long as the cabbages are well preserved, we’ll buy them,"
Xiaoxiao was maintaining order, Yang Dong operated the scale, and Xiaoxiao paid the money. The older and second sisters-in-law were in charge of picking out the cabbages, discarding the bad ones and only keeping the good ones!
"Yang Ming’s wife, what on earth do you need all these cabbages for?"
Someone couldn’t hold back their curiosity, and everybody else also wanted to know what their family would do with so many cabbages.
"Actually, I’m just collecting them for someone else. I have some connection with the Yuelai Restaurant in the county city. They need these cabbages for their dishes, so I thought of our village! I also negotiated some benefits for you, got an extra half wen for each!"
This was not the time to tell the truth, to avoid others getting ideas. It was still better to keep a low profile.
"Ah, so that’s what it’s about. Then we all have you to thank!"
"Yes, yes, we owe it to you for thinking of us!"
"Indeed, if it weren’t for Yang Ming’s wife, where would we get such a price!"
Seeing everyone expressing their gratitude, Xiaoxiao thought this was a good opportunity to establish a good reputation!
"No need to thank me, we’re all from the same village! Just don’t take me for a fool, okay? If the buyer gives two and a half wen, then it’s two and a half wen. I couldn’t do something like only giving you two wen. I just can’t do something like skimming money from these deals!"
After hearing Xiaoxiao’s words, everyone felt a bit embarrassed. They had often called Xiaoxiao a fool, someone who squanders family resources. Having not dealt with her before, they didn’t realize just how honest Yang Ming’s wife actually was. They were all thinking they should visit her more often in the future.
In fact, the villagers were very likable people who just lived their own lives, mostly concerned with trivial household matters, and weren’t bad or terrible people. Thus, Xiaoxiao managed to change their opinions of her without much effort. With a little more care in the future and leading them to become wealthy, she could definitely win them over!
The toughest one to deal with was probably her nominal husband, but Xiaoxiao had no intention of interacting with him or causing any sparks. So she didn’t need to trouble her mind over it at all!
After collecting cabbages for an entire day, they gathered about eight thousand catties. Xiaoxiao told the villagers that they would start with these and notify them when they were ready to buy more.
The twenty taels of silver set aside for buying vegetables were completely spent.
Xiaoxiao did the math: they used about eighty catties for the pickles each day, so eight thousand catties would just be enough to supply the county and the town for three months. The supply of cabbages for the other seven towns would have to be continued after they made more money, as she didn’t have much left now.
"Third sister-in-law, you spent all the silver on cabbages. Aren’t we buying other ingredients? The condiments cost so much more than these cabbages!"
Yang Dong, seeing his sister-in-law buy so many cabbages, grew increasingly worried. However, with the villagers present, he didn’t think it was appropriate to raise his concerns. Once people left, he immediately asked her about it.
Xiaoxiao was speechless; she couldn’t believe she had forgotten about this. It seemed Yang Dong was more reliable than herself.
Those apples, pears, were all expensive, worth a hundred wen per catty, and so was salt, which wasn’t cheap either at fifty wen per catty. Then there were the chili peppers, ginger, garlic... oh my goodness. She was way too irresponsible, focusing on the minor issue and forgetting about the major one, a big taboo.
What to do? What to do? Should she ask for an advance from the moneybags? She was too embarrassed to even think about it! Who could she borrow from? She couldn’t deal with losing face like that!