My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 24 Thoughts
Over the next period of time, their tea egg business gradually got on track, and the division of labor between the two gradually became fixed.

Lin Ying was mainly responsible for setting up the stall, while Zhou Jiye was responsible for collecting eggs and spices, including tea, from the suburbs.

In addition to needing grain coupons to collect eggs, Lin Ying also needed sugar coupons and bean product coupons to buy rock sugar and bean products. Therefore, she specially introduced the pile driver model that had been used to exchange coupons to Zhou Jiye, so that Zhou Jiye could regularly use money to exchange some coupons with the other party.

As their tea egg business flourished, the income from this trade also stabilized.

Profits sometimes vary, sometimes slightly less, depending on the specific circumstances. For example, business is better on weekends and holidays, while weekday business is slightly less busy. If you add the weather factor, there will be fewer customers when it's bad or rainy. Over time, they have gradually figured out the patterns and become more and more adept at it.

After finishing work that day, Zhou Jiye and Lin Ying cooked the tea eggs they would be selling the next day downstairs, then put them on the sealed coal stove to simmer before going back upstairs.

Lighting a cigarette, Zhou Jiye said to Lin Ying very seriously, "I have something to tell you."

Lin Ying tilted her head and looked at Zhou Jiye, as if asking him what was wrong with her eyes.

"The business of selling tea eggs has basically stabilized these days."

"Um……."

“I go to the suburbs to collect eggs every few days, and I’ve gotten to know all the production brigades there.”

"Um……."

“Our division of labor is basically like this now. I can’t help much when you set up your stall, and you don’t need to go to the suburbs every day.”

"What are you trying to say?" Lin Ying asked directly, "Are you beating around the bush and making me guess?"

Zhou Jiye chuckled and rubbed his hands together, saying, "I was thinking, since that's the case, I can't just sit around doing nothing all the time, can I? When I'm not shopping in the suburbs, I'm like a street urchin, squatting across the street on guard duty every day. It's fine for a day or two, but after a while, I feel really uncomfortable. So I'm discussing it with you and we're planning to find something else to do."

"Wow, Comrade Xiao Ling, you've got some serious awareness!" Lin Ying gave him a thumbs up. "I have to give you a good commendation today. You actually volunteered to find work. That's a real step up!"

"Human prejudice is like a mountain!"

Zhou Jiye sighed, looked up at the dormer window at a 45-degree angle and sighed, then said to Lin Ying earnestly, "You can't look at people with old eyes. You need to have eyes that are good at discovering the beauty around you. Your husband has many shining points. As your partner on the road of life, you should learn to appreciate them."

Zhou Jiye is really shameless. He dares to take advantage of a little challenge and try to make a name for himself.

However, Zhou Jiye was right. Compared to Lin Ying, who was busy every day, Zhou Jiye didn't have much work to do.

Aside from going to the suburbs to collect eggs, occasionally exchanging some coupons, and buying some spices and tea, he didn't have much else to do. Moreover, the egg collection in the suburbs had become stable these days. Zhou Jiye had selected Guilin, Huayi, Huaer, and two other production brigades, making a trip every three days or so, and the eggs he collected were enough for them to sell tea eggs.

For the rest of the time, Zhou Jiye had nothing to do. Apart from going home at noon to cook a meal, he basically spent all his time across the street with Lin Ying. One or two days was fine, but after a while, as Zhou Jiye said, he was no different from a street urchin, and watching her every day was boring.

"So tell me, what do you want to do?" Lin Ying asked with a smile. She supported Zhou Jiye's initiative.

“When I went to the suburbs to collect eggs, I thought about something and said to you, help me analyze whether I could do it.”

Lin Ying nodded, adopting an attentive listening posture. Zhou Jiye said, "Farmers in the suburbs all raise chickens. That's how I collected eggs. Since they raise chickens, they can not only make money from eggs but also from the chickens themselves. Hens don't lay eggs forever. Usually, hens stop laying eggs after a few years, and then the farmers will replace them with new young hens, so..."

"You mean bring old hens to sell in the city?" Lin Ying's eyes lit up. To be honest, Zhou Jiye's idea was pretty good; he actually came up with this.

"See! I told you so!" Zhou Jiye said cheerfully, "You understood as soon as I mentioned it, that's exactly it! Old hens are a real delicacy, old hen soup is incredibly nourishing! Here at the market, you need ration coupons for chickens and ducks, and genuine free-range old hens are in high demand. Others can't get them, but I can! I've been getting to know all the old men and women in the countryside and production brigades these days. When I'm collecting eggs, I'll also pick up a few old hens and sell them at the market. Isn't that better than doing nothing?"

Lin Ying nodded, tilted her head and pondered for a moment before asking, "Have you inquired about the price? How much profit is there?"

“I already inquired about it!” Zhou Jiye said excitedly, “Old hens at the market are 1.40 yuan per jin, and roosters are cheaper at 1.20 yuan per jin. However, there are very few old hens, and they are all white chickens. These chickens are not comparable to the free-range chickens raised in the countryside of Shanghai. I estimate that if we bring the old hens from the countryside to the market, we can sell them for at least 1.6 yuan per jin or even more.”

"Will you buy it? At what price are you planning to pay?"

"Old hens are 1.20 yuan, and roosters are 1 yuan. I specifically went to the supply and marketing cooperative to check, and that's about the price. It's a little more than the cooperative's purchase price, just like eggs." Lin Ying thought for a moment and agreed. This business was worth a try. She would get a few chickens to sell first. If they sold well, she would continue. If they didn't sell well, it wouldn't matter, since she wouldn't lose money on live chickens anyway.

"Why don't you give it a try? It's just a few chickens anyway. You can collect the eggs and sell them while you're at it. If you can make this business work, you can take charge of it from now on."

"Alright!" Zhou Jiye was full of confidence. With Lin Ying's support, he was even more certain. Moreover, this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision; he had been thinking about it for several days.

"Oh, right, there's one more thing..."

Zhou Jiye said to Lin Ying with a slightly guilty look, "Could you help me buy a bicycle? You see, I have to go to the suburbs every few days, and the round trip is quite a distance. If I were just collecting eggs, it would be fine, but I also need to collect hens. It would be too inconvenient to take the bus. Besides, eggs are fine, but chickens have a strong smell, and I'm worried that if I bring too many, I'll be kicked off the bus."

"You weren't planning this all along, were you?" Lin Ying asked Zhou Jiye with a suspicious look, her gaze sweeping over him meaningfully.

"No! Absolutely not!" Zhou Jiye swore to the heavens. He wasn't stupid; even if he did, he would never admit it, especially since he had mentioned collecting the old hen first, and only picked up the bicycle after Lin Ying agreed.

Although Lin Ying strongly suspected that Zhou Jiye had planned this all along, deliberately bringing up the hen business before mentioning the bicycle, she didn't delve into the matter further. Besides, it was indeed inconvenient for Zhou Jiye to travel to and from the suburbs each time, and with the need to collect and sell the hens, not having a bicycle was definitely a problem.

What kind of bicycle?

"A second-hand one will do. A Forever 28 heavy truck. A new one at the department store costs 180 yuan and requires a receipt, so I don't want to go for that. I've looked at second-hand cars at consignment shops. A 70% new one costs around 130 yuan. Then I can find a repair shop to get it serviced and add a couple of hanging baskets, which will probably cost 15 yuan. That'll bring the total to around 145 yuan."

"Oh my, you said you had it all planned out long ago? Not only did you find out the price of used cars, but you even knew the cost of installing a hanging basket. You're something else." Lin Ying suddenly glared at Zhou Jiye.

"Oh no! We've been tricked!"

Zhou Jiye's heart sank, and his smile froze. He hadn't realized that this girl had tricked him into revealing information. Now he was in trouble.

Just as he was feeling uneasy, Lin Ying's next words pulled him back from hell to heaven.

"Okay! Forget 145, I'll give you 160 directly. I'll also give you 20 for the old hen first, and that'll be calculated separately from the egg money. But let's make it clear, there's a management fee for setting up a stall at the market. That cost will be deducted directly from your chicken sales profit. You'll have to handle the relationships at the market yourself. Is that alright?"

"No problem, no problem! Thank you, wife, hehe... thank you, wife..." Zhou Jiye was overjoyed. He never expected things to turn out this way. He was so happy that his teeth were practically sticking out.

Lin Ying kept her word and immediately found the money box hidden under the bed. She took out a key from her pocket, unlocked the padlock, and counted out 180 yuan, which she gave to Zhou Jiye.

Although they had made some money selling tea eggs these days, they didn't actually have much money on hand. It hadn't even been a month yet, and they had only saved about three hundred in just over half a month. Giving Zhou Jiye one hundred and eighty at once wiped out two-thirds of their savings.

After receiving the money, Zhou Jiye vowed to repay it once he earned more. Although he knew that Lin Ying had worked hard to earn the money from selling tea eggs, he also knew that it wasn't easy for her.

Lin Ying sets up her stall every day, starting before eight in the morning and selling until almost eight at night. She spends twelve hours a day at her stall and doesn't even dare to drink a sip of water, for fear that drinking too much will make her need to go to the toilet and delay her business. Moreover, there are no days off for this business; it doesn't stop even if it's windy or rainy. Compared to Zhou Jiye, who can occasionally go to the suburbs for a stroll, Lin Ying works much harder than him.

Faced with Zhou Jiye's request, Lin Ying appeared quite magnanimous, smiling and saying that it was a serious matter, and there was nothing to be reluctant about. Moreover, she thought Zhou Jiye's business idea was good and worth trying. As for buying a bicycle, it was a necessary means of transportation for doing business, and spending this little bit of money was worthwhile.

Besides, money is worthless; you can always earn more! As long as it's used for good, there's no need to be stingy. The point of making money is to live a better life, not to become a slave to money. If that's the case, what's the point of life?

"Yingying, you're so kind, really!" Zhou Jiye said from the bottom of his heart.

"Stupid!"

Lin Ying chuckled and playfully tapped Zhou Jiye's forehead with her finger. When her finger touched him, Zhou Jiye felt as if he had been electrocuted. Suddenly, he thought Lin Ying was incredibly beautiful under the dim light, and a surge of heat rose in his lower abdomen. He couldn't help but grab her hand.

"You idiot, let me go!"

"No way! My wife can do whatever she wants with me." Zhou Jiye grinned shamelessly.

Lin Ying's face flushed instantly. Half-heartedly, she leaned gently against Zhou Jiye. Holding her petite and soft body, Zhou Jiye suddenly felt that nothing in the world was more beautiful than this. Time seemed to slow down at this moment, and it was so intoxicating.

(End of this chapter)