Chapter 33: Collecting River Snails

“Wear them tomorrow! Don’t step anywhere dirty! Take good care of them, do you hear me?”

Xie Tian nodded like a chicken pecking at grain, her eyes curving into crescent moons as she smiled.

“Mom, don’t worry! Even if I fall, I won’t let these shoes get dirty!”

As she spoke, she crouched down and carefully tried on the shoes.

They were just a half-finger too big.

Perfect!

She loved them so much!

“Second Brother is the best! I’m going to pick wild vegetables in a bit to make money! I want to make lots of money too, and buy even more new shoes and clothes!”

She looked at him with bright, shining eyes.

Without the past distance and wariness, that wondrous bond of blood surged once more, making Xie Zhao smile along with her.

“Eldest, clear the table. Time for noodles!”

Tian Xiufen called out.

Xie Cheng’s stomach had been growling for a while.

He quickly pulled out the wobbly square table, found a stone to prop it up, wiped it down with a rag, and hurried to the kitchen to fetch the noodles.

Xie Youzhen tapped his pipe and stared at the square table for a moment.

Once he had some free time, he would have to give it a proper repair.

Tian Xiufen found an enamel basin, filled it to the brim, and topped it with a thick layer of minced meat sauce. “Scoop it yourselves,” she said. “I’m bringing some to your brother’s wife.”

Xie Cheng nodded.

He scooped a bowl for Xie Youzhen first, set aside a bowl for Tian Xiufen, and only then served himself.

Xie Zhao and Xie Tian followed, lining up to get a bowl of noodles each.

Xie Tian stared at the mushroom and minced meat sauce in the pot, which clearly had much less oil than yesterday’s, and muttered, “Second Brother’s noodles still taste better!”

Xie Zhao was amused.

His mediocre cooking skills relied entirely on heavy oil.

Yesterday, when he rendered the lard, he hadn’t saved a single drop, using all of it for the meat sauce.

How could Tian Xiufen bring herself to do that?

She had definitely poured the rendered lard into a small clay jar to save for future stir-fries.

“You’re lucky to have white flour noodles to eat, and you’re still complaining?”

Xie Cheng teased her with a smile.

The three of them carried their bowls out, finding Xie Youzhen already eating.

He took a bite, looked up at his three children, and suddenly said, “This household division wasn’t fair. Making you all suffer with me… your dad is useless.”

The three of them froze.

Xie Cheng, however, had a strange look on his face, his expression hard to read.

He lowered his head, took another bite of noodles, and said, “That was Grandfather and Grandmother being unfair. What does it have to do with you?”

“Besides, our family isn’t doing any worse than them now.”

Xie Zhao nodded.

He recalled how, over the past year, he had repeatedly gone to the Chen Family to find Chen Donghai and Zhao Lanzhi.

Looking back now, it was truly foolish and ridiculous.

Having lived two lifetimes, he finally understood that many things couldn’t be won by fighting for them. When parents favored one child over another, no matter how much you complained, they would only think you were putting on an act to win sympathy.

The human heart was made of flesh, not machinery.

As long as one was human, there would be bias.

Besides, Xie Zhao knew in his heart that Tian Xiufen and Xie Youzhen’s attitude toward him was just another form of favoritism, wasn’t it?

They were simply unaware of it themselves.

“Now that the household division is done, it’s one less thing to worry about. Don’t think about it anymore.”

Xie Zhao cleared his throat and said, “I also have something to say.”

He explained what had happened when he met Liu Zhi at the Aquatic Products Supply and Marketing Cooperative today, and then mentioned the State-Owned Restaurant on Hongxing Street buying fish.

“Catching fish is freezing work, and we might not get them every day, nor will they always sell well. In the future, we can try selling them at the mining area’s residential quarters first. Whatever we can’t sell, we can deliver straight to the restaurant. Even if the price is a bit lower, it’s better than letting them die on our hands.”

When Xie Zhao finished, Xie Cheng and Xie Youzhen both nodded in agreement.

Besides, selling everything in one go would save them a lot of trouble.

What the two of them cared about more right now was the river snail business Xie Zhao had mentioned.

“Those things can actually be sold for money? And at one yuan and ten fen a catty?”

Xie Cheng frowned, looking at Xie Zhao hesitantly. “Second Brother, you sure it’s not a scam?”

Xie Youzhen lost his appetite for the noodles, his hands itching to smoke his pipe again.

“Yeah, how could there be such a good deal in this world? Those things taste terrible and take too much oil to cook. They’re dug out of the mud and are filthy. I’d think fifty fen a catty is too expensive! Why would anyone buy them?”

Xie Zhao said, “Dad, that’s what we call an information gap.”

He thought for a moment and used an analogy.

“You know about cigarettes, right? A pack of southern cigarettes sells for two yuan locally, and the tobacco and alcohol shops all charge the same. But who would have thought that once they reach us, they sell for three yuan?”

“It’s the same thing. The cigarettes from our region seem ordinary to us and are everywhere, but if you transport them to the south, they become a rarity, and the price goes up quite a bit. That’s the information gap.”

Xie Youzhen tilted his head, only half-understanding.

Xie Cheng, on the other hand, understood quickly.

His eyes lit up. Looking at Xie Zhao, he clicked his tongue and said, “I get it! We don’t care for these river snails, but the people in Liuzhou love them! They can’t even get enough of them! That’s why they come to Hudong County to buy them, and that’s why the price is so high! Right?”

Xie Zhao nodded and smiled. “Exactly!”

“But while those things are easy to find, they take a lot of time to gather!”

Xie Cheng paused, his brow furrowing again. “Gathering three or four catties in an hour is already considered good. Even if our whole family went, we probably wouldn’t make as much in a day as we do catching fish.”

This was indeed the truth.

With a scoop of the net, they could easily catch ten to twenty catties of fish if they were lucky.

But river snails were different.

Small and thumb-sized, they had to be picked up one by one by hand.

It was incredibly time-consuming.

If this had been before, making three or four yuan an hour would have had Xie Cheng and Xie Youzhen jumping for joy.

But after making over two hundred yuan in a single morning from catching fish, their appetites had grown. In comparison, the difference was stark.

They might as well just catch fish.

Xie Zhao was amused.

He took a bite of his noodles, sat up a bit straighter, and his expression turned serious.

He reached out, curled his fingers, and lightly tapped the table.

The tapping sound drew suspicious looks from Xie Youzhen, Xie Cheng, and Xie Tian.

“As the Chairman^[1] said, only by mobilizing the power of the masses can we win the battle!”

Xie Zhao cleared his throat and said with a straight face, “Making money is the exact same way!”

Huh?

The three of them looked completely baffled.

What did he mean?

“It’s the winter downtime right now, and there’s still a while before spring plowing begins. Everyone in the village, young and old, is resting. If we mobilize the power of the community and get them to gather river snails, and then we buy them up, won’t we have plenty?”

Xie Zhao said, “We’ll pay fifty fen a catty. I’m worried we’ll have so many we won’t even be able to buy them all!”

As soon as he said this, the eyes of the other three lit up in unison!

Exactly!

In the paddy fields of Shishui Village, the river snails were all huddled in the mud!

If the villagers gathered river snails to sell, they could turn the soil and clear the weeds at the same time, all while earning some money. Who wouldn’t want that?

They would buy them at fifty fen a catty and sell them in the county seat for one yuan and ten fen a catty. With a simple turnover, that was a net profit of sixty fen!

Instantly, the group grew excited, wishing they could go out and start buying them up right away.

Xie Zhao suppressed a smile and gestured to their bowls. “Eat your noodles first. You’ll need your strength to work!”