Traveling through troubled times to escape famine and cultivate crops as a grain merchant

Here, Zhou Guo and Zhou Su walked out of the village with a gong, beating the gong along the way.

When she was selling fat before, people in several villages knew her. When they heard the familiar voice, before she could even shout, someone said, "Fat is being sold, fat is being sold! The fat seller is here!"

A large group of people came running from all directions.

"You're here to sell fertilizer again. Is your batch of fertilizer ready?"

"Didn't they say we have to wait more than a month? The number of days doesn't add up!"

Zhou Guo said: "No, I am not here to sell duck eggs today. I am here to collect duck eggs. If anyone has duck eggs at home, please sell them to me. I will buy as many as you can!"

"Duck eggs?" Everyone was stunned. "Aren't they selling duck eggs for fat?"

Zhou Guo said, "I'm not selling fertilizer. Besides, you all know that we have fertilizer for sale. Why would I sell fertilizer? If any of you have duck eggs, I'll buy them. The price is the same as usual, one penny each. I'll take whatever you have."

"Yes, yes, yes. I have it at home. Just wait for me, boy. I'll go back and get it. Wait for me!" A woman in the crowd stood up happily and ran away, fearing that Zhou Guo would go back on his word.

"I have a few at home, but not many!"

Zhou Guo smiled and said, "Sell as many as you can. A few cents is still money. It can buy a pound of brown rice."

There are not many families raising ducks in this village, only five or six. After all, raising ducks is not as cost-effective as raising chickens.

Chicken eggs are easy to sell, but duck eggs are different. If the eggs cannot be sold, you can only sell the meat. You can only make money from a few eggs by raising the ducks to such a big size, and you can't make much just by selling the meat.

The others didn't leave either, as they all wanted to see if all the duck eggs had been collected.

Some even talked to Zhou Guo, "Boy, what are you going to do with all those duck eggs?"

Zhou Guo said, "Eat, Auntie, don't you have ducks at home?"

"Hey, I'd rather raise a few more chickens than raise that thing. It's useless. I only eat the eggs and the meat. Chicken eggs are much more delicious than duck eggs. Can you eat all the chickens you collect?"

Zhou Guo smiled and said, "We can finish eating. Have you forgotten that there are many people in my family?"

Everyone suddenly realized, "That's right, your family is big and powerful, and every day when you open your eyes, there are so many people waiting for food, so you have to buy more, and duck eggs are much cheaper than chicken eggs."

Who in the nearby villages doesn’t know the Zhou family and Zhou Guo?

Everyone knows that their family now has thirty or forty servants who manage their two hills and make compost. People like them cannot compare to them.

As he was talking, the woman who ran back first came over happily with her child, each carrying a basket. "Look, these are our duck eggs, more than a hundred of them. I was thinking of selling them at the market in town the day after tomorrow. It would be even better if you want to buy them."

It is not possible to sell all the items if you take them to town, and it is time-consuming and laborious. It is such a great thing that Zhou Guo comes to collect them!

Zhou Su took out the basket that had been prepared long ago, which was filled with thick hay.

Zhou Guo picked the fruits into the basket one by one, checking to see if there were any bad ones. He shook it, and if it shook like water, they were rotten and had lost their flavor.

The woman smiled and said, "Don't look at them, they are all good. We have a lot of ducks, more than thirty or forty of them. These eggs were laid recently, and none of them are bad!"

Zhou Guo said, "I know your eggs are good, but I have to check them out. Otherwise, if I buy a bad one, I won't have dinner today. My wife is really good."

Zhou Su said, "Who knows, maybe we won't be allowed to collect the eggs in the future."

This is indeed possible.

Everyone thought about themselves. If they gave this business to their children and they didn't do it well the first time, they wouldn't be allowed to do it.

The woman didn't say anything, she just waited happily.

After a while, several other families came with duck eggs.

But none of them had as many as this woman. The most she had was about twenty, and the least was only five or six.

Zhou Su took their duck eggs and shook them gently like Zhou Guo did to determine whether the eggs were good or bad. They had acquired this skill even before they could speak.

Zhou Guo picked out two bad eggs from the more than one hundred eggs and said to the woman, "Aunt, you can take these two eggs back and eat them yourself. There are one hundred and six left. I'll take them all."

"Why don't you want them? They're all fine!" The woman picked them up and shook them, saying, "They're only slightly shaken, but aren't all eggs like this? The ones that aren't shaken have already hatched. These two are good, take them all. What's the matter with me taking two back?"

Zhou Guo said, "Aunt, I spent money to buy your duck eggs. I have the final say on what kind of eggs I can have and what I can't have. You can't expect me to spend money and still listen to you, right? If you like to make decisions so much, then you should just take all these eggs back!"

Zhou Su nodded, "That's right, we are buyers, we don't spend money to buy bad guys."

Some people couldn't help laughing.

The woman was anxious. "No, no, no, no, no, okay, I'll listen to you. If you don't want these two, then don't. I'll take them home and eat them myself. That'll make 106."

Zhou Guo took out a string of money from the chain and counted out six coins and gave them to her.

The woman got 106 coins at once and was very happy. She carried the two baskets and the children back home, as if she was afraid that someone would snatch them away.

The others also received money, holding the money tightly in their hands and asked Zhou Guo, "When will you come again?"

Zhou Guo said, "It doesn't matter when. You have been to our village before. Next time, if you have a lot of duck eggs at home and I haven't come to collect them yet, you can just bring them over by yourself."

"Oh, I know. Haha, I know where your home is. I have been to your farm before. I will bring these eggs to your farm when the time comes."

The few people left happily. There were still a few breeding eggs left at home. It was the time to hatch ducklings. If there was no problem selling the eggs, it would be okay to raise five or six more. Ducks eat less than chickens.

Someone in the crowd couldn't help but ask, "You're going to collect duck eggs, but are you going to collect chicken eggs?"

"Yes, eggs don't smell fishy and are much tastier than duck eggs. We have a lot of eggs at home, why don't you take them back?"

Zhou Guo said: "I only want duck eggs. Chicken eggs are easy to sell. You can sell them all in a few times if you take them to town. You don't need to sell them to me."

Everyone was inevitably disappointed and couldn't understand why the eggs hadn't been collected yet.

Zhou Guo drove away with Zhou Su with his harvest.

Zhou Su said: "Sister, why don't we collect eggs? We can sell eggs to some shopkeepers."

Zhou Guo said: "Large restaurants like theirs have their own sources of goods and their own vegetable suppliers. They don't lack eggs. There is no need for us to compete with others for this bowl of rice and cut off their source of income. If we want to sell, we should sell what others don't have, and sell something unique. Only unique things will not be replaced."

Zhou Su thought for a moment and said with a smile, "We are the only ones who have the stuff, so we can ask for whatever price we want. They have to beg us to buy it, instead of us going to their doorstep to beg them."

Zhou Guo nodded, "That's it."