After leaving the bookstore, she recalled that Old Yang and Land Officer Yang seemed to enjoy smoking dry pipe tobacco, so she bought two pounds of dry tobacco for both of them.
Looking at the fully loaded ox cart, Yang Dayong couldn’t help but smile at the corner of his mouth.
"Xiaxia, you sure know how to shop. Just look at it, you spent almost a year’s worth of expenses for others just by strolling around town."
In fact, what Yang Dayong really wanted to say was, ’Xiaxia, you are such a spendthrift!’ but he held back because of Brother An. He understood his third cousin’s intentions, so as an uncle, he couldn’t badmouth his niece at this time.
Yang Chuxia glanced at the ox cart. All of these were necessities. The only expensive items were the three sets of brush and ink, but their combined cost was indeed a bit high. So, she touched her nose and chuckled,
"Uncle Dayong, you don’t know that the more you spend, the more you earn."
"Ha, you always have these twisted justifications, even finding reasons to spend money!" Yang Dayong pursed his lips in dismay. "Let’s go, pack up and head back to the village."
On the way back to the village, Yang Chuxia thought about her plan to grow broad beans to make beanpaste. She would definitely need a lot of beans. She didn’t know how much their wasteland could produce and they hadn’t found good land to buy yet. She guessed her mother would not agree to planting beans on their more fertile land.
If only someone else was growing beans too, she could buy from them, which would solve a part of her supply problem and help them earn some money...
So, she asked Yang Dayong, "Uncle Dayong, do you want to plant some broad beans too? I’ll buy them from you next year." In fact, she was indirectly helping Uncle Dayong’s family make some extra income while also helping herself stock up on raw materials. Why not?
Yang Dayong was clearly somewhat tempted upon hearing Yang Chuxia’s words.
However, he shook his head, "No, your granduncle definitely won’t agree. That would be like stealing business from your family."
Well, honest people are really too honest and simple to the point of being foolish.
"Uncle Dayong, it’s fine. How could that be considered stealing from our family? Planting beans would actually be helping us. Think about it, I’ll need to make a lot of beanpaste soon, and our wasteland won’t produce much regardless of its size. I’ll have to buy some beans anyway. Who’s going to profit if I buy someone else’s beans? Why not give that money to our own family?"
Upon hearing her words, Yang Dayong thought it over and it seemed to make sense.
"Then, should I go ask my dad first?"
"Yes, just mention it to your grand uncle, and he should agree. As for the seeds, don’t worry. Shopkeeper Li has bought a lot more, so it won’t be a problem to divide some among you." Yang Chuxia thought for a moment and added, "Uncle Dayong, don’t overthink it. If beanpaste sells better next year than this year, I want everyone in the village to plant some beans and then sell them to me."
She had recently come up with this idea and discovered that beans have another use - they can be turned into small snacks like fennel beans, flavored with five-spice, numbing and spicy, pepper salt, and so on. Such snacks are easy to make.
However, she didn’t plan to do this right now. This was her plan for next year.
"Your idea is good. If you can get the people in the village to grow beans with you, it could improve living standards for everyone."
"Yes, that’s my plan. But remember, Uncle Dayong, I’m still just thinking about it, so don’t tell anyone yet."