The eldest sister-in-law became rich by farming in the mountains

Xu Yingtao raised her hand and pinched his face.

"Little money-grubber, why is it that when it comes to making money, your brain can't turn around?"

Now, the whole family has gained weight due to her high-standard meals, and the naughty child's face finally looks a little fleshy when pinched.

Xie Bai's eyes became even more confused.

Xu Yingtao patiently explained: "First of all, I still say that if I do food business, I will be tied to it most of the time except for sleeping. I will lose my freedom completely. I don't want to do that."

"Secondly, when the weather gets hot, cooked food won't last long. At best, we can only sell it in town, but the town's spending power is limited, so we can't make much money. We can go to the county town, but we are a widow and orphan, and it's hard for us to protect ourselves. How can we keep the recipe?"

If the first reason is not convincing enough, the second reason will be enough to convince Xie Bai.

Especially since he had witnessed with his own eyes the police officers extorting money from merchants and exploiting the people a few days ago, he still had lingering fears.

Although he had never been to the county town, he knew that in addition to officials, there were also powerful people and local tyrants.

This is not something they can afford at this stage.

He was about to say that he understood when Xu Yingtao continued, "In the end, no matter how well these two foods sell, I can't make money with the whole village. I can't open a breeding farm, right?"

Having said this, Xu Yingtao paused.

She is considering the feasibility of opening a breeding farm.

But after a few thoughts, she chose to give up.

The reason is simple: the period of raising native chickens to market is too long, at least half a year, unlike modern white-feathered chickens, which can grow fat and strong in forty days.

The growth cycle of farm pigs is longer, at least one year.

Moreover, the breeding industry has a very poor ability to resist risks. As the saying goes, even if you have a fortune, the fur doesn’t count.

Once an epidemic or natural disaster occurs, the losses may lead to bankruptcy.

Forget it, let’s just focus on her food processing industry.

Gathering her thoughts, Xu Yingtao smiled and said, "In short, I'm not at a disadvantage in giving out recipes. Instead, it's a win-win situation. Whether it's garlic pork or mouth-watering chicken, they both require a lot of red chili oil. We can get a share of the money for every portion sold by Hongbinlou. When the supply of chili peppers increases in the future, we will also supply Zuixianglou, restaurants in other towns, and even restaurants in the county. Isn't this more profitable than retailing food?"

The mother and her two children were so excited as they listened.

Originally, the family planned to pick the stinking broom leaves before dark, but they didn't expect that Mrs. Zhou, along with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, had already taken care of the matter.

Mrs. Zhou also asked, "Are these cherries enough? If not, we can pick more."

"That's enough." Xu Yingtao was very grateful and hurried to the kitchen to bring out two bowls of spicy chicken and garlic pork.

Mrs. Zhou was unwilling to accept it and said with a stern face, "If you treat me like this, I won't dare to help you again in the future."

Xu Yingtao said in a gentle voice, "Grandma, you misunderstood. These two bowls of meat are for your family to try. Secondly, I'm afraid Uncle Awen will have to run errands for me in the future. If you don't want to accept the food, then I can only pay you for running errands."

Mrs. Zhou was surprised and delighted, and asked, "Did you close another deal in town?"

Xu Yingtao then gave a brief account of the cooperation between her family and Hongbinlou.

Mrs. Zhou was deeply moved and kept praising Xu Yingtao for her ability.

But she didn't even want food, so how could she ask for money?

The two sides argued for a long time, and finally Mrs. Zhou accepted the two bowls of meat dishes and ordered Xu Yingtao not to mention the money for running errands again in the future.

The next day, as soon as she closed her stall, Xu Yingtao went straight to Jishidiang with the list given by Village Chief Zheng.

Shopkeeper Luo was about to introduce the vendor selling lime plaster to Xu Yingtao when Xu Yingtao called out in surprise, "Brother Wang, why is it you?"

Wang Hu was also very surprised: "Madam Xu is the one who wants to buy lime plaster?"

After the two confirmed their identities, they couldn't help but laugh in unison, sighing that there is really no coincidence in the world.

Since they parted at the gate of Gejiazhuang, Wang Hu has visited Xu Yingtao's stall many times, sometimes eating two bowls of jelly, and sometimes eating a bowl of cold noodles.

The two had dealt with each other three times, if not five times. Xu Yingtao thought that Wang Hu was just doing odd jobs to make a living, but she didn't expect that he was actually a businessman.

Wang Hu was ashamed: "Ordinary people rarely use these two things. Only clinics and wealthy families use them to paint walls. To be honest, it's not as good as the young lady's jelly business."

Xu Yingtao smiled modestly, handed him a piece of yellow paper, and asked, "Brother Wang, take a look. Can your family supply this amount of limestone?"

Wang Hu scratched the back of his head and asked for help from Shopkeeper Luo beside him: "Please, Shopkeeper Luo, help me take a look. I can't read."

Shopkeeper Luo took it and looked at it without saying anything. His eyes widened immediately: "Madam Xu, is there something wrong with this bill? A total of 15,400 kilograms of limestone?!"

Wang Hu was no longer calm.

Even when we painted the walls of Gejiazhuang white last time, the total amount of lime used did not exceed 3,000 kilograms.

Xu Yingtao nodded calmly, "That's correct. It's exactly this number."

It looks like a lot, but there are actually only about a hundred bags.

This is also the result that every household is afraid to spend money. Except for the Zheng family, the Wang family and the eldest branch of the Xie family, all other households only ordered one or two acres of land.

In this case, Shopkeeper Luo did not ask any more questions.

In the end, Wang Hu accepted the order at a price of 195 wen per hundred catties because of their acquaintance, and promised to arrange a convoy to deliver the goods to Nanxi Village in two days.

Shopkeeper Luo wrote the deed for the two of them.

Before leaving the town, Xu Yingtao also bought a small stone mill and a piece of white linen.

The stone mill is used to grind the brine, and the linen cloth is used to hold the powder.

Because she didn't have a car, she could only add things to her home bit by bit every day, like an ant moving house.

"How about in a couple of days, when we have enough money, we can buy an animal?" Xu Yingtao asked the mother and her three daughters for their opinions.

Jiang was a little hesitant: "But I can't handle these."

"It's okay. We can send him to Grandpa Zheng's house when the time comes. His house is big and has many people. It would be unsafe to tie him up at our house."

Even though he had only received fifty taels of silver yesterday, he had already spent a lot of it on buying grain, oil, and seasonings. After paying the deposit to Wang Hu today, he was left with less than thirty taels.

For the purchase of limestone this time, except for the Zheng family, the other families basically cannot afford the money out of pocket, and they all choose to deduct it from their wages in the future. Therefore, for now, this money can only be paid in advance by Xu Yingtao.

As a result, there was only a few taels of money left.

Naturally, the mother and her two daughters agreed wholeheartedly.

They all saw that as more and more deals were concluded, they could not always rely on manpower to carry things on their shoulders and backs, so buying animals was the wisest option.

Xie Li even planned that she would take on the task of collecting fodder in the future.

Xu Yingtao smiled and said, "Then let's hold on for another two days. Once the spicy noodles and fried tofu are on the market, we'll have money to buy livestock!"

As soon as she entered the village, Xu Yingtao was stopped by Village Chief Zheng as expected.