An eight-year-old kid emptied his scumbag father's warehouse and followed his grandparents into

The tea had a unique fishy and bitter taste of the sea breeze. It might be tea picked from the mountains. Xu Zize felt his tongue tip numb after taking a small sip.

He glanced at Jing Chunxi beside him and saw that she was frowning secretly, but she still forced herself to swallow the second mouthful. Then he gently pulled her sleeve from under the table, signaling her not to drink anymore.

"Dad, I heard that a distinguished person has come to our village!" There were hurried footsteps outside the courtyard gate, and a middle-aged man with his trouser legs rolled up rushed in. There was fresh mud and sand on his straw sandals, and one trouser leg was high and the other was low, as if he had just come back from fishing.

Beads of sweat covered his dark face and his chest was heaving violently, obviously he had been running all the way back.

The man standing at the door strode forward with his hands clasped together, "Is this Village Chief Zhang?" This forced him to stop, otherwise, with his hurried look, he would have overturned the table.

The old man smiled until his eyes narrowed into slits, revealing a few yellowed teeth. "Yes, yes, this is my eldest son, Ah Sheng, the village chief of Danjia Village." He turned to his son and said, "These distinguished guests are here to collect seafood."

Village chief Zhang wiped the sweat from his face with his rough hands and bowed repeatedly: "Sorry to bother you, sorry to bother you." His eyes lingered on Xu Zize's luxurious clothes for a moment, then quickly moved away.

"We are sorry for disturbing you." Xu Zize bowed in return and noticed that more and more villagers were watching outside the yard. They must have all returned from collecting eggs.

Several barefoot children were lying on the fence with their eyes wide open; the women were whispering to each other, their coarse dresses rustling in the sea breeze.

Village Chief Zhang rubbed his hands, the wrinkles on his face smoothing out. "I heard you're here to buy duck and bird eggs? We'd love to hear you!" He suddenly raised his voice, as if speaking deliberately for those outside to hear. "I wish you would come every month!"

A chorus of agreement suddenly rang out from outside the fence. An old man with missing front teeth shouted, "No other village has eggs like ours!"

Xu Zize exchanged glances with Jing Chunxi, then stood up and said, "Village Chief Zhang, why don't you take a look at the goods first? If they are all fresh eggs, we can negotiate the price and guarantee payment." As he spoke, he caught a glimpse of several villagers who were excitedly clutching the corners of their clothes, with joy on their faces, as if the white silver was right in front of them.

"Okay, okay!" The old village chief responded repeatedly and stood up. "The things are all in the Mazu Temple. Ah Sheng, you lead the way!" His mouth was almost pulled to his ears.

As soon as he left the courtyard, Xu Zize noticed that almost the entire village had followed him. Children ran in front of the group like little tails, leading the way. A little girl with pigtails bravely tugged at Jing Chunxi's sleeve, then blushed and hid behind her mother. Jing Chunxi gave her a gentle smile in return.

The Mazu Temple is probably the best house in the village. It has two halls built of stone and is covered with green tiles. Although it is a bit shabby, it is kept very tidy.

Fresh seaweed was offered before the central deity, and three sticks of incense were burning in a censer, emitting curls of smoke. Most striking were the neatly stacked bamboo baskets in the two halls, densely packed with bluish-white sea duck eggs, mottled bird eggs, and turtle eggs.

"There must be hundreds of baskets here, right?" Quick Foot exclaimed, reaching out to touch the nearest basket.

Village Chief Zhang puffed out his chest. "Two hundred and twenty baskets here! I just had them count what we picked up today, and there were seventy baskets, so two hundred and ninety baskets in total. Each basket weighs about thirty pounds. I guarantee none of them are bad." He added carefully, "It's not easy for them to go bad in this season."

Xu Zize picked up a duck egg and held it up to the light. The natural lines on the eggshell shone like pearls in the sunlight. He casually handed the egg to Qingfeng.

Qingfeng gently knocked the egg against the wall, splitting the eggshell in two. The almost transparent egg white immediately flowed onto Qingfeng's hand, with distinct layers of egg white and yolk. "It's really fresh."

"I want them all." Xu Zize suddenly announced, "What price do you want to sell them for?"

The temple suddenly became so quiet that one could hear the sound of the waves. Village Chief Zhang opened and closed his mouth for a long moment before he stammered, "All of it? Two hundred and ninety baskets?"

"We still think it's not enough." Xu Zize raised his eyebrows deliberately.

"There are about ten eggs per pound, and each can be sold for two cents. These eggs can be sold at a lower price." Village chief Zhang is an honest man. He doesn't even have the confidence to bargain. After saying this, he lowered his head embarrassedly.

Xu Zize looked at Jing Chunxi and saw her nod. Knowing that she was satisfied, he decided, "Twenty cents a pound, please! We'll take them all."

Village Chief Zhang was so excited that he was incoherent. He turned around and shouted to the outside, "Did you hear that? You want them all! And you're paying the price of eggs."

Cheers erupted like a tide. Children leaped and spun in circles, and several elderly people kept wiping their eyes. They knew that eggs of varying sizes like these would only fetch twelve or thirteen cents at the market town, and even at the county government, they might not fetch that much. The main reason was that they couldn't sell all of them, so they had to leave a lot for the villagers.

"Good man! Good things will come to those who do good."

"You are a living Buddha. We will never have to worry about food."

Some people even put their hands together and prayed.

Xu Zize signaled Qingfeng to take out his purse, and what came out was not the common copper coins or silver notes, but pure silver. Jing Chunxi also handed over the silver bag he had prepared in advance.

"One basket is six hundred wen, so two hundred and ninety baskets is one hundred and seventy-four liang."

"This...this..." Village chief Zhang looked at the pile of silver on the table, picked up a few larger ones and held them in his hands, his hands shaking like leaves in the wind.

"Pay in cash, no cheating." Xu Zize said with a smile.

Although the old village chief had just said he wanted food, he wasn't stupid enough to actually trade like that. Otherwise, how many carts would it take to get enough food? And maybe the girl would reveal her true identity.

A woman outside the yard suddenly burst into tears and was hurriedly pulled away by her husband.

"Sir, do you want other seafood? There are still a lot of kelp boxes, dried fish, dried shrimps, and dried oysters in the inner hall." Although he got the silver, Village Chief Zhang was still sober and knew how to sell the things in the village.

"You should buy some as well. The return of the south wind is coming soon, and it is difficult for us to keep them. Those things are not valuable, so I will give them to you at a lower price." The old village chief came to the door at some point and spoke for his son.

Since the old people said so, of course they wanted to take a look, and they wanted to buy these things in the first place.

Seeing Xu Zize and Jing Chunxi really move, Village Chief Zhang quickly put down the silver in his hand and said to the old man at the door, "Dad, you keep the silver. I'll take them in to see the goods."

Only after making sure that his father was standing next to the silver did Village Chief Zhang dare to move. There was so much silver that he was a little nervous about guarding it.