Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Meanwhile, Xia Yu and Liu were promoting their watermelons to the people standing in front of their stall when a man suddenly squeezed through the crowd. Xia Yu looked closely and realized it was the same man who had sold them watermelon seeds. Xia Yu turned to look at her mother, Liu, who clearly recognized him as well.

The man stopped beating around the bush with Xia Yu and the others. Seeing that there were cut melons on the table for them to try, he asked Liu for a piece. After taking a bite, the sweet taste made him want to cry. So this was a watermelon. He spat out the seeds and looked at them carefully. Weren't these exactly the same seeds he had sold?

"Is this the watermelon you grew from the seeds you bought from my shop?" the shop owner asked the mother and daughter, pointing to the watermelon on the ground next to them.

“Uncle, we only bought those seeds a few days ago. Do you think they could have grown from those seeds?” Xia Yu spoke up before Liu Shi could say anything.

"Yes, yes, I was confused. You only bought those seeds a few days ago? Where did you get these seeds from?" the shopkeeper muttered, looking somewhat absent-minded.

"We got this by chance. When we saw the seeds in your store, they looked a bit like the ones we have, so we bought them. But the seeds you sold me haven't sprouted yet, so we don't know if they're actually watermelons." Xia Yu continued to lie, telling one lie only to cover it up with countless others.

"What I'm selling to you is definitely watermelon. I've examined that seed countless times." He stopped abruptly after saying this, glancing at the many people standing around him.

"Oh, never mind, never mind. I heard someone at the market selling fruit called watermelon, and I was curious if you guys grew those seeds, so I came to see what kind of melons grow from those seeds and what they look like." He patted the top of his head as he spoke.

"I was so confused. How could it have grown so quickly?" He sighed again, thinking to himself, "My wife was right. This family must have recognized the seeds back then. Oh well, there's no point in saying more."

She sighed inwardly before saying, "Pick a watermelon for me, I'll take it home for my family. But I have another favor to ask." The shopkeeper then spoke to Liu Shi and Xia Yu.

"Uncle, just tell me what's wrong. It's not like we've never dealt with each other before," Xia Yu said generously.

The shopkeeper thought to himself, "This isn't the first time we've done business together; it's the second." Thinking this to himself, he still voiced what he wanted to know: "I just hope that if you can grow that seed, you can come to the shop and let me know, so I can find out what that 'melon' looks like. Is it a watermelon?"

"Okay, no problem. We'll be buying seeds from your shop again in the future. As soon as that watermelon variety is ready, we'll come to the shop and let you know." Xia Yu said, holding up the watermelon she had chosen for the shopkeeper. "Uncle, what do you think of this watermelon?"

"Hmm, good, very good. Are they all sweet?" the seed shop owner asked again.

"Don't worry, Uncle, it'll be sweet. Sweeter than sugar water."

Liu weighed it on the scale; it was thirteen jin and five liang. "Brother, that's six hundred and seventy-five coins in total. Forget about the five coins; I'll just keep it as six hundred and seventy coins." Liu was very generous and simply rounded down the five coins.

The seed shop owner remembered that they had spent 570 coins at his shop. In just a few days, not only had the money been returned, but an extra 100 coins had been earned. He silently counted out the money, and after Liu confirmed it was correct, he didn't delay and simply picked up the watermelon and left. Xia Yu hadn't expected that he still remembered how much she had spent at their shop. Xia Yu wondered what the seed shop owner would think if he knew that the watermelon he had bought for 670 coins was actually grown from the seeds he had sold for 500 coins. Regardless of his thoughts, the seed shop owner became even more obedient to his wife after returning home.

After watching the seed shop owner leave, the mother and daughter continued loudly hawking their watermelons. However, because a single watermelon was too expensive, although they attracted many people, few actually bought any. Some people tasted them and wanted to buy, but couldn't make up their minds. Xia Yu looked at the people lingering at the watermelons in front of the stall, and suddenly thought of the sliced ​​watermelons from her previous life. She turned to her mother and said, "Mom, why don't we cut the watermelons and sell them? You see, many people want to buy some for their families to try, but a single watermelon is too big and expensive. Let's divide one watermelon into several pieces and weigh them separately. That way, each piece will cost a little over a hundred coins, and we should be able to sell them."

“Okay, I think your idea is good.” When Liu heard her daughter’s words, she thought it was worth a try.

"Uncles, aunts, and grandmas, my mom and I just discussed it, and we think we can cut our watermelons open and sell them by weight. What do you all think?" Xia Yu stood on a small chair and spoke loudly to the hesitant crowd in front of the stall.

"Good!" the person in front of him exclaimed in agreement.

"That's more like it! You should have sold them like this a long time ago. Otherwise, how many people could afford such expensive watermelons?" said an older woman to the man standing next to her.

"Exactly, if they sold it cut up, I would have bought it just now."

Hearing the discussion, Xia Yu spoke up again, "Everyone, please be quiet and listen to me. This melon, once cut open, cannot be stored; it must be eaten on the same day. It will spoil by the next day."

As soon as she finished speaking, another round of discussion broke out. Xia Yu didn't listen to what they were talking about anymore. She took out a large watermelon, cut it in half with a knife, and then cut it in half again, turning one watermelon into four pieces.

"Alright, uncles and aunts, let's line up one by one." Xia Yu put down the knife in her hand and beckoned to the large group of people surrounding her.

Soon, everyone automatically formed a line, and the first person in line bought their melon. She was a woman in her fifties, looking back and forth between several melon slices, unsure which one to choose.

"Auntie, you can choose whichever you like. They're all about the same size, and they're all cut from the same melon, so they're all the same," Xia Yu explained softly beside her.

"This piece will do!" the old woman said, pointing to one of the pieces.

Xia Yu glanced down, picked up the piece with both hands, and carefully placed it on the scale for Liu Shi to weigh.

"Sister-in-law, this piece weighs three jin and seven liang, and costs a total of one hundred and eighty-five wen." After weighing the piece, Liu calculated the price.

"One hundred and eighty coins is fine. You saved them a lot of money just now." The old lady had been watching the seed shop owner buy a watermelon.

"Auntie, no, he only saved five coins by buying a whole one. You can't cut corners like that with a cut one." As he spoke, he looked at the watermelon samples next to him and said to the old woman, "Auntie, let me give you two more slices of watermelon to sweeten your mouth. I really can't cut back on the money. These two slices of watermelon weigh about two ounces."

The old woman looked at the watermelon next to her, and then calculated the price in her mind. Two ounces would cost nearly ten coins, so she would still make a profit. Therefore, she nodded and agreed.

After the first person sent two slices of watermelon, everyone else asked for two slices as well. Mrs. Liu agreed to all of them, but it kept Xia Yu quite busy. It was easy to cut the large watermelon into four pieces, but cutting the smaller slices took quite a bit of time.

When Zhang Youtie returned with his child, Xia Yu and her mother had already sold seven or eight watermelons using this method, and there was still a line of people waiting. Seeing how busy they were, the father and son returned the car and quickly came to help. With their help, Liu Shi and Xia Xia felt much more relaxed. Everyone divided the work, operating like an assembly line. First, they selected watermelons at Changyun's table; then Zhang Youtie weighed them; they paid at Xia Yu's place and collected their watermelons; finally, they took their purchased watermelons to Liu Shi to collect the two small slices that were given as a gift. The group worked together remarkably well; there were no mistakes in weighing or calculating the money, and no one tried to sneak in and take watermelons from Liu Shi without permission.

Xia Yu's hands were sore from collecting money, but she was as happy as a rabbit. She now had enough for her brother's school fees and the money her family had for buying land and digging a pond.