My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 17 Tea Eggs

Just as Zhou Jiye was deep in thought about this matter, Lin Ying's shout suddenly came from downstairs.

"I'm coming!"

Zhou Jiye quickly responded, stubbed out his nearly finished cigarette, and ran downstairs in a few steps.

"what happened?"

When Zhou Jiye got downstairs, he thought something had happened, but to his surprise, nothing was wrong. Lin Ying had already lit the coal stove, and a pot of rice was bubbling away on it. The vegetables she had bought that morning had also been washed, chopped, and placed in a basin.

"Keep an eye on the stove for me. Once the water boils, seal the stove door most of the way and let it simmer on a low flame for a while. Just remember not to let the water spill out," Lin Ying said, pointing to the rice cooker on the coal stove. She then untied her apron and tossed it to Zhou Jiye before heading out.

"Where are you going?" Zhou Jiye was stunned for a moment, then shouted at the top of his lungs after realizing what was happening.

"I'm going out for a bit. Just bring the pot up when the rice is ready. I'll cook the other dishes when I get back." Lin Ying said this without turning her head, and her figure quickly disappeared into the distance. Zhou Jiye opened his mouth to ask something, but Lin Ying was already far away. He glanced back at the pot of rice on the stove, then reluctantly tied on the apron that Lin Ying had given him. He squatted down beside the stove, staring at the flickering fire, lost in thought.

He waited for a long time, until Aunt Wang got off work and Lin Ying still hadn't returned. Zhou Jiye waited until the rice was cooked, then took the pot upstairs and waited downstairs for another ten minutes or so before he saw Lin Ying come back carrying two paper bags.

"Where have you been? Why have you been taking so long?"

"Is dinner ready?"

"I've taken everything upstairs, just waiting for you to come back and cook," Zhou Jiye said, pointing to the stove.

Lin Ying nodded without saying anything, and reached out to Zhou Jiye to give her an apron. After tying it on, she quickly started cooking.

The two vegetables were quickly stir-fried. Zhou Jiye was asked to get an egg and make a pickled vegetable and egg drop soup. After everything was done, the stove was sealed, and the dishes were taken back to the small apartment upstairs.

"What did you buy?" Zhou Jiye put down the groceries he was carrying on the table and his gaze fell on the two paper packages that Lin Ying had brought back.

"See for yourself," Lin Ying said casually as she picked up a bowl to serve rice.

Zhou Jiye had been wanting to see it for a long time. When Lin Ying said so, he quickly picked up the paper package. The two packages were not big, only about the size of a palm. When he opened one of them, Zhou Jiye was stunned for a moment when he saw what was inside, and then his face lit up with a smile.

"thank you!"

"Thank you for what?"

"Hehe, of course it's thanks to you, my wife." Zhou Jiye felt good and pointed to the tea in the paper package, saying, "My wife loves me the most. She knew I wanted to drink tea, so she specially went to buy some."

Lin Ying couldn't help but chuckle, tilting her head to look Zhou Jiye up and down: "Hey, Comrade Xiao Ling, how did you figure out that this tea was bought for you? And that you're worried about me? Aren't you overthinking it?"

"Not for me?" Zhou Jiye's smile froze, then he shook his head and said, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible! You don't drink tea, and it's just the two of us in this house. If it wasn't for me, who else could it be for? Hehe, wife, don't be so sharp-tongued but soft-hearted. I know you love me. Did you feel bad after I slapped you earlier? Hehehe, it's okay, it's okay. I don't have any other good qualities, except that I'm tough and resilient."

"You're not pretty, but you dream big. You're certainly thick-skinned, especially your shamelessness," Lin Ying mocked without hesitation. Zhou Jiye, however, didn't care at all. Just as he said, there were only two people in the family. If she bought tea, who else would she give it to if not him? Was it just for display?

Seeing Zhou Jiye's disbelieving look, Lin Ying shook her head, both amused and exasperated, and pointed to another paper package, telling him to take a look before speaking.

Zhou Jiye opened another paper package and was immediately stunned by what he saw inside. The package contained star anise, fennel seeds, cinnamon, bay leaves, and other such things. What were they for? Were they planning to make braised pork? But they hadn't bought any meat at home!
"It's really not for me?"

At this point, even Zhou Jiye, who was slow to react, realized that if it was just a packet of tea, it was most likely for him. But the packet of spices was different. Why would Lin Ying buy these things out of the blue?

"It's a secret that can't be revealed." Lin Ying smiled, then said nothing more, handed the bowl of rice to Zhou Jiye, and invited him to eat.

Lin Ying's cooking was quite good, and after their trip to the suburbs that day, they were all quite hungry. Zhou Jiye ate heartily, but he kept wondering why Lin Ying had bought all this stuff. The more he thought about it, the more it itched to ask her. He wanted to ask Lin Ying, but when he looked up, he saw she was eating, so he had to hold back for now.

Before long, Zhou Jiye finished eating first, and then sat waiting expectantly for Lin Ying to finish eating slowly as well. When he saw her preparing to clear the dishes, he couldn't hold back any longer and quickly took over, saying, "I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll clean this up."

"Oh my, why have you suddenly become a stay-at-home husband? So diligent!" "What do you mean suddenly? I've always been diligent, okay?" Zhou Jiye said with a smile, quickly clearing away the dishes and taking them downstairs to wash them at the sink. After finishing, Zhou Jiye went back upstairs and couldn't help but ask Lin Ying why she bought all these things.

Seeing Zhou Jiye's eager and curious expression, Lin Ying immediately laughed. However, this time she didn't keep him in suspense like before. Pointing to the paper package, she told Zhou Jiye that these things were for making a living.

"Doing business? What kind of business? Don't tell me you're not planning to sell eggs anymore and switch to selling tea and spices, are you?"

"What an idiot." Lin Ying laughed and scolded, then said seriously, "You know the situation in the suburbs today. It's not that we can't get eggs now, the key is that the number of eggs is small and the collection points are scattered. If we follow our original plan, we would have to go to two or three brigades at a time to get enough eggs. If we also consider the daily egg production efficiency of the chickens raised by the farmers themselves, it will be more and more difficult as time goes on."

Zhou Jiye agreed. Lin Ying was right; a plan is a plan, and reality is reality. The actual situation they encountered in the suburbs today was indeed like this. Buying eggs directly from farmers was feasible, but efficiency was limited due to the current situation. Today was only the first day, and they had only collected thirty jin of eggs from the entire Guilin brigade. The problem was that tomorrow's collection would be much less; at most, they might get half, or even less than a third.

In this way, to collect enough eggs at once, one would have to visit several places. If a production brigade can collect 30 catties of eggs, then to collect 100 catties of eggs, one would have to visit at least three brigades. In addition, due to other factors, the number of eggs collected from a single production brigade would be even lower in the later stages. In the future, one would have to visit seven or eight production brigades to collect 100 catties of eggs. Even if Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying worked themselves to death, they still couldn't visit all those places in a day!

In addition, they need to sell the eggs they collect. Without enough supply, how can they work sporadically? It's not that they won't make money, but the input and output are somewhat outweighed.

Do you remember what you said before?

"What did you say before? What did you say? I've said so much, which one are you referring to?"

Lin Ying reminded her, "It was when we moved in the day before yesterday, and we were discussing what kind of business to do."

Zhou Jiye scratched his head and recalled that they had indeed discussed this matter at the time, and he had offered many suggestions, but Lin Ying had rejected them all in the end. It wasn't until they went out to investigate the situation the next day that they decided to go into the egg trade.

"Which sentence exactly?" Zhou Jiye tried hard to recall, but he just couldn't remember which sentence he had said that was related to today's events.

"You idiot!" Lin Ying pointed her delicate finger at Zhou Jiye's forehead and said, "Braised food! You've already forgotten?"

"Oh, this! I haven't forgotten!" Zhou Jiye suddenly realized, but then looked at Lin Ying with a puzzled expression: "Wait a minute, didn't you say that you couldn't make braised food? You couldn't get the ingredients, and you didn't have a good recipe. Didn't you just reject it outright that day?"

He had barely finished speaking when he suddenly remembered what Lin Ying had bought and exclaimed in surprise, "You're not going to tell me you bought all this stuff to make braised food, are you?"

"What kind of braised food do you make? Do you have a recipe? Are you able to get the ingredients?"

Seeing Zhou Jiye shaking his head vigorously, Lin Ying pointed to the two bags and said, "When we were downstairs, I suddenly thought of a solution. It's not that we can't do egg trading, but if we only sell eggs, the supply will be a big problem. This amount of eggs is not enough to sell, and relying solely on public transportation for purchasing and transportation is not reliable."

"I've been thinking, how does the maximization of commodity profits occur? From an economic perspective, when raw materials become primary commodities, their profits increase, and when primary commodities evolve into finished products, profits increase even further."

"The principle is similar to running a restaurant. The same dish might only cost two cents a pound at the market, but if it's pre-processed, washed, and even chopped before being sold in a supermarket, it could cost three cents or even three and a half cents a pound. If you turn the vegetable into a finished product, like a restaurant's stir-fry, one pound of vegetable can make two servings, and the two-cent cost becomes one dollar. What do you think?"

Zhou Jiye pondered Lin Ying's words, and suddenly a thought flashed through his mind. He looked at the two paper packages on the table, then turned to the wicker basket containing eggs in the corner and tentatively asked, "Are you planning to process the eggs before selling them? Are you going to make tea eggs?"

Lin Ying snapped her fingers, a look of "this child is teachable" on her face.

"They really are making tea eggs?"

Zhou Jiye was quite surprised. He never expected Lin Ying to come up with such a method. However, after careful consideration, he felt that Lin Ying's method made some sense. As a college student from decades later, and living in an era of information explosion, Zhou Jiye had some understanding of the basics of economics, even though he was not an economics major.

Lin Ying is right. The same product can have completely different values ​​after primary processing and fine processing. Just as she just gave an example, vegetables that are very cheap in the market can be sold for several times the price when cooked in a restaurant.

If all the purchased eggs were processed into tea eggs and sold, it would indeed increase the profit margin on eggs. Moreover, selling tea eggs is different from selling regular eggs. Selling only eggs relies on volume, and although the profit margin on eggs can reach around 20%, the total profit is limited because the price of eggs is not high to begin with.

The reason for choosing this business is to consider the ration coupons and supply and demand. However, if they want to achieve a certain scale, they need a large and stable supply of goods. If they rely on the amount they are currently purchasing to sell, they can only sell a maximum of thirty or forty catties of eggs a day, and the profit will be extremely limited.

According to their original plan, they intended to gradually expand the business by purchasing and selling eggs, like a snowball rolling downhill. However, they now realized that this approach was simply not feasible. The business could be started, but it could never be scaled up significantly unless they could secure a sufficient supply of eggs, which was practically impossible in this era.

(End of this chapter)