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

She kept sighing on the way back. Even with the crab seedlings and the various pastries, meats and fresh fruits that Manager Yang gave her, they couldn't make her happy.

How come these people are so rich that they can spend several hundred coins on a dish without blinking an eye?

She seemed to have forgotten that the restaurants she cooperated with were the best ones in each city. A meal would cost one or two taels of silver, and ordinary people would not come to eat there.

Did she get the positioning wrong?

After thinking about it all the way, before entering the village, I saw Wu Jiang and his men guarding the roadside.

As soon as he saw them coming, he waved his hands and said excitedly, "Hurry, hurry, hurry."

Zhou Guo didn't have time to think about anything else, so he jumped down the driveway and asked, "Are the things I asked you to prepare ready?"

"Ready."

Zhou Guo said: "Okay, transport it over."

The crab seedlings have traveled such a long distance, so they have to be disinfected before they can be put into the fields. She doesn't have disinfectant, so she can only use salt water, soak it, wash it, and then put it in.

The big bath tubs are now in the fields. According to Zhou Guo's instructions, disinfectant salt water has been prepared, and the water used for cleaning is half from the river and half from the fields.

The servants put the crab fry into salt water.

Zhou Guo calculated that it would only take a cup of tea for someone to get up.

Then soak it in water, take it out for a while and put it back in to soak again. After soaking it three times, let people put it in the fields.

A thousand crab seedlings were thrown into the two acres of rice fields, and they disappeared in a short while.

Although they were called crab seedlings, they had actually been raised for several months. When autumn came, they were at their plumpest. She felt that she had actually gotten a good deal.

These thousand crabs can make money in a few months. If they are taken to a restaurant, each crab will sell for one or two taels, so a thousand crabs will sell for a thousand taels!

Thinking of this, her mood improved again. She looked at the crab seedlings happily. From now on, she would have endless crabs to eat!

Wu Jiang was also very happy, his mouth never closed, and he said excitedly: "Master, so you are talking about crabs?"

Zhou Guo looked at him and said, "Have you ever eaten crab?"

Wu Jiang shook his head. "I've never eaten that before. I've only eaten small crabs from the river. They tasted pretty good when I grilled them."

Zhou Guo waved her hand and said, "You guys work hard and take good care of these crabs. When they grow up, I'll give one to each of you."

"Yes!!" The servants' excited voices resounded in the air.

Crabs, they can eat them too!

In the next month, flower mushrooms and sheep mushrooms were harvested one after another. After the harvest, Zhou Guo led people to apply fertilizer one by one. Although the weather was not right later, the mushrooms were still able to grow because of the fertilizer.

Sheep mushrooms are different from pine mushrooms. Not only do they not last long, but you can’t consume that much at one time.

After making two deliveries to various restaurants, Zhou Guo estimated that each restaurant carried more than a thousand kilograms, so he stopped sending any more.

The ones at the back are harvested and dried directly.

The shop in the county town finally came in handy at this time.

Zhou Guo went back and forth more than ten times before he finally cleaned up the shop. He chose an auspicious day and would open it in a few days.

Li said, "If you ask me, why not just wait until next year? Didn't you say that there is no one suitable to take care of the shop now? They have only learned to write for a few months? You can't let your eldest brother go, right? There are so many things to do at home, and we have to rely on him, let alone you."

Zhou Guo swayed in the recliner and said, "I originally wanted to wait until they had studied for at least a year before I could take care of the shop, but I can't wait any longer. I have to learn how to manage the shop while learning to write.

Otherwise, it would be even more unreliable to suddenly hand over a shop as big as the one in the prefecture to them. If they start with a small shop, they will have experience by then, and they won’t be so flustered when encountering problems. At least they will know how to deal with them.”

The old man asked, "Do you have a choice?"

Zhou Mai and the others were curious about who it could be.

Zhou Guo said: "The shop is small, I think one person is enough, but they have no experience now, and they are still young, I am afraid they will be cheated, for the sake of courage, it is better for two people to go together, so that they can look after each other.

There is no need to select specific people. There are so many shops anyway, so let them take turns every ten days. This way, after a year, at least everyone will have experience in managing a shop, and we will know who is capable in this area. Then those with outstanding abilities will go to manage the big shops."

The whole family nodded as they listened.

Zhou Mai said: "I think a small shop has its advantages, it won't attract attention."

Zhou Mi said: "Yes, even if it doesn't make money, it's not a big problem. Our own shop doesn't need rent. As long as we can train them, that's its greatest use."

Li said, "Okay, then you can handle this matter yourself. I have to take people to fertilize the wheat, so I won't be free these days."

After choosing the person, you still have to prepare a name.

The whole family sat together and thought.

Zhou Xing thought for a moment and said, "How about calling it Zhou's Shop?"

Zhou Mi disagreed, "This is too ordinary. How about a more elegant name, like Yunlai Pavilion?"

Zhou Mai laughed, "You are too elegant, you are more suitable to sell spices, rouge and powder."

Li clapped her hands and said, "I think it's pretty good. It sounds very nice."

The old man didn't comment, he couldn't think of anything in this regard.

Zhou Su said, "We are a shop that sells enoki mushrooms and flower mushrooms. This name is a bit out of place and weird."

Zhou Guo nodded, "Then we'll call it Zhouji Mountain Goods Shop. We'll mainly sell goat mushrooms and flower mushrooms, both of which come from the mountains. We'll also have some salted duck eggs and preserved eggs, and we'll add some grains later."

"Okay, let's call it this name, Mountain Goods Store. You can tell what it sells right away. It's very good."

Everyone agrees.

After the name was decided, Zhou Guo wrote a few words casually and had it sent to be made into a plaque.

Then we prepare the things to sell. Sheep mushrooms and flower mushrooms are transported to the county town in truckloads, as well as salted duck eggs and preserved eggs. These are the only things the family can sell now.

Fortunately, although this shop is small, there is a room at the back, which was originally a warehouse. The warehouse is quite large, so she divided it into two rooms, one for warehouse and the other for them to rest. That's enough.

As for eating, just buy a small stove.

The small warehouse was packed full.

Zhou Guo led them to arrange the shop, put the things in place, and then the counter, account books, pens, ink, and abacus.

It would be useless if there was no one in the shop who could use an abacus. Fortunately, Huzi had gained some experience in the past two years. He could not recognize many words, but he could do accounting and some abacus. So we let him stay here for a while, and let him go back when the shop was on track.

A few days before the opening, she took Hu Zi to the government office to say hello, paid taxes and got the documents. Everything was ready and they were just waiting to open.

She said to Hu Zi, "As a deputy housekeeper, you can't stay here all the time. You have to bring them out as soon as possible. The family still needs you. In two or three months, the pine mushrooms in the mountains will be out. This year may be the last year. We have to seize this opportunity and make more money."