My 1995 Small Farm.

"Brother-in-law, you have no idea how much money I've made these past few days. It's more than I made catching and selling scorpions in the summer."

At the school gate, Wang Zhenzhen took the food and before she could say two words, she couldn't wait to show it off to him by rummaging through her pockets.

Seeing this, Chen Ling laughed and patted her on the head: "You've saved so much money, why don't you just put it in your pocket? Aren't you afraid of accidentally losing it?"

"It's okay, it won't fall out. My mom sewed a big one in my pockets, so I could fill them with mud balls and eggs to play with monkeys. It can hold a lot of money."

Wang Zhenzhen grinned, then took out a handful of bills, all tied together with small rubber bands, and waved them at Chen Ling. "My second brother and sister-in-law wouldn't let me take the coins, so they exchanged them all for one- or two-yuan coins. See, isn't that a lot?"

"many."

Chen Ling nodded and smiled, "I'll pick you up after school this afternoon. Your parents and sister miss you. You've been selling spicy strips with your second brother and sister-in-law and haven't mentioned going home."

"Oh dear, I can't go back now. My second brother and sister-in-law are selling spicy snacks very well. I need to help them out, and I also need to save money."

The little girl clutched the money tightly, stuffed it back into her pocket, and shook her head, swinging her two little braids back and forth.

Chen Ling was speechless: "Why are you saving money? Our family doesn't lack anything!"

"I won't tell you yet."

The little girl shook her head, her lips pursed.

Just as he finished speaking, the school bell rang, and students poured out of the classrooms, instantly making the campus lively.

Several boys and girls turned their heads to look around, their eyes lit up, and they ran towards the school gate.

He ran while shouting, "Wang Zhenzhen..."

"get out of class is over, brother-in-law, I'm going to play."

Wang Zhenzhen turned her head and immediately waved to Chen Ling before turning back and running towards her classmates.

Meanwhile, the students kept turning back to look at Chen Ling, their eyes constantly darting towards him.

"Wang Zhenzhen, is that your brother-in-law? I saw the big horse behind him."

Chen Ling looked at them, smiled slightly, waved gently, turned around, led his horse away, and went to visit Wang Qingzhong and his wife in their courtyard in the south of the city.

Upon arriving at the courtyard in the south of the city, before even stepping inside, a pungent aroma of chili oil wafted over.

Upon opening the door, the intense aroma was so overpowering it made me want to sneeze.

Wang Qingzhong and Guo Xinping, a married couple, were busy in the yard, wearing headscarves.

"Huh? Lingzi's here?"

"I heard there were wolves in the mountains. Your sister-in-law and I were just talking about going back around noon. Is everything alright in the village?"

"It's alright, it's alright. The wolves that came down the mountain have already been driven away. The village went into the mountains to hunt down the wolves this morning."

Chen Ling released his little green horse and walked over to see what the couple had accomplished in the past few days. He even picked up two bright red chili flakes covered in chili oil and tasted them.

After taking a couple of bites, Chen Ling couldn't help but chew faster and faster, giving a thumbs up: "Wow, Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law, you guys are amazing! This tastes so much better than it did at the beginning."

It has to be said that if someone wants to succeed in business, they have to taste the sweetness at the very beginning.

Once they got motivated, they figured out how to simplify production and scale up production on their own.

"Hey, I can't let you teach me for nothing, can I? This is because I've done it a lot and become quite skilled."

Wang Qingzhong chuckled.

Guo Xinping's face was also flushed as she laughed, "These spicy strips are selling so well that your second brother has been so happy he hasn't been able to sleep these past few days. Last night, he made all the stored bean curd sheets and spread them all over the east room. This will be enough to sell for several days."

Chen Ling laughed when he heard this, "It's gotten bigger and bigger without us even realizing it. Looks like we'll have to put two dogs on leash here, so thieves won't be tempted."

Wang Qingzhong said, "Everyone knows you, so they usually don't dare to come."

Then, with a hint of hesitation on her face, she whispered to Chen Ling, "Lingzi, there's something else I wanted to ask you. Several school convenience stores have contacted me..."

"Hmm? You're getting goods from you, right? That's normal. How about the price?"

Chen Ling wasn't surprised to hear this.

The owners of the small shops located in schools are always very shrewd.

They often wander around the morning market or other markets.

I buy whatever new gadgets I see.

Take it back and try to sell it.

The schools in the surrounding counties and townships are not large in scale, and the costs they invest are also very small.

Even if we don't make money, we won't lose money.

Spicy strips are so popular among students that they can obviously sell very well.

It would be strange if they were willing to let it go.

"They said they would take five sheets for one cent each."

Wang Qingzhong said, "I think we can make a profit at this price, even if it's not much. But this product is very easy to make. Even if we don't teach it, people can figure it out after buying it and trying it a few times."

"Yeah, that's right. Making spicy bean curd strips doesn't really require much skill... but five strips for one cent is really not much profit. We only sell two strips for one cent..."

Chen Ling shook his head, remembering that the situation with soybeans was not optimistic either, with prices rising instead of falling, and the cost of soybean skins would continue to increase. He said, "Let's not worry about them for now. You and your sister-in-law should just do it yourselves and sell our own. I'll send a few packs to Liu Jiancheng in a couple of days. His place is much more reliable than the small shops here."

The school store only takes one or two packs of spicy chips, with each pack containing about two or three hundred chips.

The profit margin on this stuff is already small.

Supplying goods to small shops might make them sell faster, but it cuts profits in half, and it's exhausting, so it's better not to do it at all.

"Okay, then let's sell them ourselves first, that way it'll be less of a hassle."

Wang Qingzhong breathed a sigh of relief. He was mainly worried that Chen Ling would think he was timid and wouldn't be able to expand the business.

Hesitation when someone comes to pick up goods can lead to missed opportunities.

"Yes, we're not in a rush right now. Let's get familiar with it first. Later, when we have machines, we can use wheat flour, which will be much better than this."

Chen Ling laughed and said, "Didn't you see that Jusheng and his family are still just having small-scale squabbles?"

"Haha, Lingzi, you don't know, now everyone's joking that, regardless of whether Jusheng and his team are making money or not, they're actually supporting the freight station."

"That's true. They're indispensable when delivering anything to the city, even the cannery needs their trucks."

Chen Ling thought of the little lamb who had been running around like crazy lately. This kid was indeed a capable person, good at seizing opportunities, and willing to work hard. Although he was a bit dull and clumsy in interpersonal relationships, it wasn't a big problem. On the contrary, this made Wang Lixian like this third son-in-law, whom he had previously found so disagreeable, even more.

"This is because the road has been repaired. To get rich, you must first repair the road. We still need to finish repairing the mountain road leading out."

After a brief chat, Chen Ling rushed back to the village. There were still quite a few people affected by the monster and wolf packs in the past two days.

Many women carried baskets full of paper money and incense to the temple to burn incense.

Many of them believe that when the water monster appeared, the Turtle King did not come out, and they are worried that they will no longer be protected by the Turtle King.

Many people from the countryside and the county town go to the water's edge to burn incense.

Chen Ling saw it all but said nothing.

These past two days, there has indeed been a sense of unease in several nearby villages, especially among the elderly who are feeling quite uneasy.

"...There are too many wolves. We just need to drive them away."

Chen Ling thought to himself.

In the past six months or so, too many wild animals have come from the deep mountains.

They can no longer see the familiar creatures from their own past, such as the wolf pack descended from Heiwa, or the little foxes.

But Chen Ling knew they were still there.

Heiwa and Xiaojin often go out to play in the mountains when they have nothing to do at home and don't need their guards.

That's what we're going to do.

"Where is Fugui going?"

"Oh, I went to town to make a phone call. Fifth Uncle, what are you all doing here?"

When Chen Ling passed by the village entrance, Wang Laishun, Lao Niwai, and a few young men were driving two donkey carts towards the dam.

“We’ll go to the county and bring back some fireworks. Things are getting restless in the mountains these days; we can’t go without setting off some fireworks at night.”

Wang Laishun said.

It turns out they used up all the remaining firecrackers in the village last night.

Should we continue to arrange for someone to keep watch tonight, or should we prepare firecrackers?

Chen Ling hesitated for a moment.

He thought to himself, "I even learned how to use a wild boar cannon in the Miao village. Let's see if they need it. If they do, when it's my turn to keep watch, I'll fire a few for them."

……

The atmosphere in the village has been very tense these past two days.

Now that it gets dark earlier, due to the current situation, when students from other villages come to Chenwangzhuang to study, the teachers tell them that they only need to come for half a day each day.

The teacher then gave them extra lessons.

In short, the atmosphere in Chenwangzhuang was very tense, and the atmosphere in the surrounding villages was also very tense. The children were not allowed to run around and play.

Only two Japanese soldiers had the leisure to wander around the village.

They don't know what to think either.

That afternoon, Chen Ling was at home making leg wraps, preparing to go into the mountains.

The two of them actually came back to buy fish again.

Chen Ling was in a hurry to go into the mountains to hunt wolves, so he didn't bother with them much. He just casually caught a net of ordinary fish for them in the ditch next to the lotus pond and sent them on their way.

The two men didn't say anything, paid the money, and left with the fish.

Chen Ling muttered something under his breath at the hurried look on his face.

"It doesn't look like someone buying fish to eat."

"Take it back to study? You definitely won't be able to figure anything out from that thing!"

Chen Ling couldn't help but think of what Little Sheep had said about running into these two people at the provincial university. He shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

He simply shouldered his gun, slung his hunting knife over his shoulder, and set off with his dog and eagle.

Around noon today, Dujuan and her family returned from burning incense at the Yaowang Temple.

Wang Susu was entertaining them at home and couldn't pay attention to Chen Ling.

Chen Ling then secretly slipped out.

However, this time, unlike before, he brought a horse along with him, in addition to the dog and the eagle.

It's not Little Green Horse.

Instead, it was a black packhorse.

Pack horses are short and wiry, adept at traversing mountain paths, and can easily cross mountains and valleys.

Yu Qi'an had gathered a group of these packhorses deep in the mountains, but after returning home, he hadn't come back to take them away for a long time, so it was perfect for him to use.

Passing by the local earth god temple, I lit incense and started climbing the mountain from the west.

After entering the mountains, Chen Ling draped a wolf skin over the packhorse and hung two pieces of fresh, bloody wolf meat on it. There was still wolf blood on the packhorse's hooves and rump.

They just swaggered around in the mountains like that.

He wanted to verify whether what his friend said on the phone was true.

To his disappointment, after walking for a long time, there was still no movement.

Remembering how the people of Jinmen Village had praised Heiwa and Xiaojin, Chen Ling took the two guys into his cave.

A man was leading a horse, traveling north and west.

They specifically choose to go to desolate and dark places.

They would dive into any woods they came across, their machetes making a loud rustling sound as they chopped at the bushes.

And so, after walking for a short while, about ten minutes, the packhorses began to pant and growl restlessly, becoming hesitant to go any further.

Chen Ling was both surprised and delighted: "These wild beasts in the mountains... are actually afraid of Heiwa and his companion?" (End of Chapter)