Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

By nearly noon, they were still working hard, and there were still seven or eight watermelons left to sell. The manager bought five, the butcher bought two, the grain store owner bought one, and everyone else bought pre-cut watermelons. Zhang Youtie was preoccupied with the butcher's mention of the deal with the Shen family, and he didn't plan to sell the remaining watermelons.

Xia Yu was thinking about helping her aunt buy pig stomach and large intestines, so she went over to the pork stall when she saw that there weren't many people there.

"Young lady, business is good today! Planning to buy some meat to satisfy your craving?" the butcher said to Xia Yu with a smile.

Xia Yu looked at the pig liver and stomach in the basket next to him, and the large intestine on the ground, and smiled at him, saying, "Uncle, I want pig liver, pig stomach, and pig intestine. How much are they?"

"These things smell terrible and don't taste good." The butcher didn't understand why Xia Yu wanted these things, since her family didn't seem to be short of money.

"Uncle, I brought these for someone else. Do you have any offal? Give them all to me!" Xia Yu wanted to make more for her family when she got home and store them in her space to eat slowly.

Just then, Zhang Youtie came over carrying half a watermelon: "Brother, just give it to her. Our neighbors in the village asked us to bring it for them when we came here."

As he spoke, he placed the watermelon in his hand on the corner of the pork cutting board and said, "This is a watermelon that was just broken. It's too hot to keep it, so I brought it over for you to quench your thirst, brother."

"Oh no, no, this is too precious." The pork stall owner wanted to pick up the watermelon and return it to Zhang Youtie, but he had been cutting meat all morning and his hands were greasy with meat scraps. He couldn't just touch the half watermelon directly, and for a moment he was a little flustered.

"Brother, you're joking. Although it's expensive, it's grown on our own land. We can still afford it," Zhang Youtie said, waving his hand dismissively.

Hearing this, the butcher generously accepted, but insisted on giving Zhang Youtie two jin of meat as a gift. After some back and forth, Zhang Youtie finally accepted. Then, seeing that Xia Yu wanted to buy pig offal, the butcher generously said, "Don't worry about money, my niece can take it all if she likes it."

Xia Yu disagreed this time and said to the butcher, "Uncle, I'm buying this for someone else. I'll definitely buy it again in the future. If you don't take the money, how can I have the nerve to buy things from you again?"

The man, finding this reasonable, sold Xia Yu all three sets of pig offal at a slightly lower than normal price, essentially a "familiar face" price. He charged forty coins for the three sets. This price was indeed very cheap; Xia Yu felt forty coins wasn't enough.

The pork stall owner said, "Normally, nobody wants the pig intestines; they're mostly thrown away. Only the pig liver and stomach can be sold for a few coins. Forty coins from my niece is enough."

Hearing this, Xia Yu stopped arguing. After paying, she put the items into her large basket and covered it with two layers of felt cloth, finally managing to mask the stench of the large intestine. In fact, the Zhang family knew that covering the basket with felt cloth was just for show; the moment the large intestine went into the basket, Xia Yu had already stored all the offal in her spatial storage.

Zhang Youtie and his family finished tidying up their stall and were about to invite the pork vendor to go out for a meal when a woman carrying a food basket came up to the stall. She had an indigo headscarf wrapped around her head, a large face, and was taller than the average woman, about the same height as the pork vendor.

Just as Zhang Youtie and his friends were wondering if this person was the pork vendor's wife, he ran over to them and asked to borrow a knife: "Brothers, that's my wife bringing me food. We're going to the Shen residence later, so I asked her to stay and watch the stall for a while. It's hot today, so I'll borrow your knives to cut up that half watermelon for her to quench her thirst."

"It's your sister-in-law. I was thinking of inviting my brother to go out to eat with us, but it turns out she already brought it from home. Brother, you're so lucky. Your sister-in-law is so virtuous."

"Brother, I'm not bragging, but your sister-in-law is truly a master homemaker. Marrying her is a blessing I've accumulated over eight lifetimes." He deliberately raised his voice, afraid that his wife wouldn't hear him.

"What nonsense are you spouting again? Hurry up and come back for dinner, or you'll delay your brother's business again."

"Hahaha, I have to let everyone know that I, Pork Dragon, have a wonderfully virtuous wife!" With that, he grabbed a knife and went back.

Zhang Youtie and Liu Shi were relieved. It seemed that their elder brother still remembered what they had talked about that morning! They sent Changyun and Xia Yu out to buy some sesame seed cakes, which they rolled up with the braised pork intestines they had brought from home. Finally, each of them ate a few slices of watermelon to quench their thirst. The whole family ate very comfortably.

After quickly finishing their meal, Brother Pork Dragon came over and called Zhang Youtie to go to the Shen residence together. Following his instructions, Zhang Youtie planned to bring six watermelons. Learning that the residence was some distance away, he hitched up the oxcart, leaving Liu Shi and the children to wait for them while he and Brother Pork Dragon went. Just as they were about to set off, Steward Wang, who had bought five watermelons that morning, arrived again. Seeing Zhang Youtie preparing to leave with the oxcart, he quickly called out to him.

"Brother Zhang, please wait!"

Hearing the voice, the group turned to look. Seeing that it was Manager Wang, Zhang Youtie said to the pork butler beside him, "Brother, wait a moment, I'll go see what Brother Wang needs."

After saying that, he jumped down from the cart shaft, took two steps to meet the person who was walking quickly towards him: "Brother Wang, is there anything you need?"

"Well, I just went back and cut the melon open to present to my wife, and she liked it very much." He paused here to catch his breath. Xia Yu quickly brought a chair and placed it behind Steward Wang. "Uncle Wang, please sit here and rest for a while before you talk."

Manager Wang was probably a bit tired from walking here. He gave Xia Yu a complimentary look but didn't say much. He lifted his shirt and sat down, then looked up at Zhang Youtie, who was still standing, and said, "Brother Zhang, you should sit too. Otherwise, standing like this makes my neck hurt from looking up at you."

Changyun cleverly brought a chair and placed it behind his father, and Zhang Youtie sat down.

"Brother Zhang, my wife really likes the watermelons you sell. She's planning to send holiday gifts to relatives in the city in the next few days and would like to use your watermelons as a gift. She'll need about forty of them. Do you have enough watermelons at home?"

"That's enough, that's enough. We only brought a small portion with us today. We have enough at home for Madam's needs." Upon hearing that the other party wanted forty watermelons, Zhang Youtie hurriedly nodded excitedly in agreement.

Listening nearby, Madam Liu instantly thought of the giant watermelon in her daughter's spatial dimension. She gently patted her daughter's arm and whispered "giant watermelon" in her ear. Xia Yu understood immediately. Seeing that her father and Steward Wang had quickly settled their agreement, she seized an opportunity to interject:

"Uncle Wang, the ones I brought out today aren't the biggest ones. I was worried they wouldn't sell, so I brought out some smaller ones to try first. I still have watermelons that weigh over 20 jin each." He gestured with his hands. "And they're all about the same size. If you're just eating them yourself, these are fine. But if you're giving them as gifts, don't you think it would look better and be more presentable to give them out if they're about the same size?"

"Oh? There are even watermelons bigger than this one? What you're saying, little girl, makes sense. Hmm, alright, bring the bigger one over tomorrow." He then looked at Zhang Youtie and smiled, saying, "Brother Zhang, your daughter is quite something, very clever."

Zhang Youtie's face showed an embarrassed yet proud expression, but he said, "Brother Wang, you flatter me. She's just a little girl."

Steward Wang didn't say anything more. Before leaving, he gave Zhang Youtie a few instructions about his time in the mansion the next day, and then he left.

Zhang Youtie didn't have time to celebrate with his family before he hurriedly drove the oxcart and pork dragon to the Shen residence.