The Farm Life Of a "Fool"

Chapter 35

So Xu Ran began to prepare to buy chestnuts. They would buy raw chestnuts in the village, asking villagers to pick chestnuts, peel the shells and then sell to Xu Ran. They would also buy from the nearby villages if they didn't get enough in their own village.

Villagers probably would not deny this opportunity to earn some extra money for their families.

Xu Ran asked Liu Tong to invite Wu Mei and the other two families over and shared his idea with them. Wu Mei agreed immediately. No one would reject extra money; besides, it was not a difficult job.

Xu Ran also said it would be enough that each family sent one family member for this job. Wu Mei and others went to the town to buy chestnuts and Liu Tong stayed in their village. Xu Ran would cover the cost in advance.

The tools to roast chestnuts was pretty simple-one wok, one spatula, some firewood and sand, plus some oil paper to wrap chestnuts, not very complicated. Xu Ran trained them at home several times and they had all learned this skill.

Before knowing if it was a good business, they had taken many chestnuts picked by Xu Ran from the hill to sell. Xu Ran had put a lot of efforts on this, filling his pack basket with a lot of peeled chestnuts.

On the first day, Xu An and other men found somewhere to place the wok in the town, then left leaving their spouses to do the business in the way they liked.

Wu Mei had been always bold and after the first batch of chestnuts were done, he started to hawk his wares, "Roast chestnuts, hot tasty chestnuts, don't miss when passing. Come to have a look!"

The hawking was also taught by Xu Ran, no matter it was coarse or not, as long as it worked. Besides, according to Xu Ran's instruction, Wu Mei also offered some free chestnuts for customers, so people could taste before they bought.

This stuff was surely new here, and no one had done that before. It was not bad to hold the warm chestnuts in hands especially in such a cold weather. The cost of roast chestnuts was not high and the price for customers was quite favorable so many people came to buy a pack of chestnuts.

Wu Mei was in charge of hawking and collecting money. Wu Lan and Liu Qing were on the roast and pack work, splitting the work clearly and wasting no time. They sold out all the chestnuts in the pack packet in only one morning.

There were still guests who came back to buy some more when they were putting their stall away. Wu Mei answered with a smile, "Today all sold out. Please come back tomorrow! We will still be here then."

The customer was also very easygoing and said, "Okay. If I come late tomorrow, you must keep some more for me."

Surely Wu Mei agreed.

In the morning, Xu An and other men came by the ox cart and walked out, leaving the ox cart to their wives. Wu Mei, Wu Lan, and Liu Qing loaded everything into the ox cart and drove back to Xu Village. They arrived at Xu Ran's first with the ox cart. Wu Mei shouted as soon as he walked into the room, "Are you there, Husband, Xu Ran, Liu Tong? Come out, come out, all are sold out, all are sold out!"

Several people who had been conversing in the room rushed out after hearing Wu Mei's words. They were both taken aback when they saw Wu Mei's empty pack basket. "I wasn't expecting such good business." Xu Ran said.

"Yes! Yes! There were even customers would like us to reserve chestnuts for them tomorrow before we left. Xu Ran, go get some more chestnuts in the village. What if we have nothing to sell tomorrow?" Speaking of this, Wu Mei was kind of worried.

Xu Ran waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about this. We have already prepared all the tools. We are going to buy chestnuts later. You can go back and have a rest first. You must be very tired today."