Wealthy beyond measure, yet you call me a sister-supporting-brother demon?

"Liang Shi, I'd like to buy your chili and tomato seeds."

Liang Shi was a little angry. "If you consider me a friend, you shouldn't say this to me. If you want to plant, just ask me directly."

“Of course I’m not being formal with you, but these seeds are indeed very valuable. If you don’t make an offer, I won’t take them,” Yuan Sheng said, feigning anger.

Fearing that Yuan Sheng would be angry, Liang Shi said weakly, "Okay, I asked my grandma for three hundred coins before I bought these seedlings. If you want to buy them, give me five hundred coins."

Grandma doted on Liang Shi the most. Everyone else thought Liang Shi was foolish, but Grandma only believed that Liang Shi was simply sincere and genuinely devoted to the world. So, despite being scolded by her family, she spent three hundred coins to fulfill Liang Shi's wish.

"One hundred taels of silver, Liang Shi. I'll pay one hundred taels of silver for all your seeds. In addition, I need your technical guidance on planting." Because Liang Shi was Yuan Sheng's good friend, Yuan Sheng couldn't let him suffer a loss; he knew the value of these seeds.

In his previous life, he was deceived by Wang Damao and became addicted to gambling. When he was extremely destitute, this childhood friend gave him food many times, otherwise he would have starved to death much earlier.

If you're buying from strangers, Yuansheng can negotiate the price and take advantage of their lack of knowledge about the value of their products to persuade them to buy. But you can't do that with your childhood friends!

Liang Shi jumped up. "Yuanbao, do you know what you're saying? One hundred taels of silver! My father said that last year the family only saved four taels of silver, plus his two hundred cash of private savings!"

Yuan Sheng sighed, realizing there were still many things he couldn't tell Liang Shi. Liang Shi was a real scatterbrain, sometimes a bit naive, and now he'd spilled his father's secret stash of money. It was fine for Liang Shi to tell him about the secret stash, but if Aunt Zhou found out, Uncle Liang would be in trouble.

Yuan Sheng pulled Liang Shi back from shouting, "Liang Shi, I mean it when I said I'd give you a hundred taels. But you have to keep this a secret. If you leak the news, I won't come to play with you anymore."

Liang Shi still had a childlike heart, and Yuan Sheng was his only friend, so he immediately promised not to tell anyone.

If others knew that Yuansheng had spent so much money buying Liangshi's chili and tomato seeds, they would naturally be very curious. The spread of the chili and tomato seedlings would slow down Yuansheng's ability to make money from these two crops; being first is crucial.

"Here's what I'll do: I'll talk to Uncle Liang and give you one tael of silver so you can teach me how to grow these new things. Then you can come to my house more often. As for the remaining ninety-nine taels of silver, if you trust me, I'll give it to you later. Or if your family needs it, I'll give it to you anytime."

"Of course I believe you! You're my best friend! And it's so great to be able to visit you so often!"

Yuan Sheng went inside and told Liang Youcai and Aunt Zhou about it.

Liang Youcai immediately refused, "What? Give me a tael of silver? Yuanbao, there's really no need. You and Liang Shi have been good friends since childhood, why would you need to give me money?" Liang Shi had been cooped up at home all day and didn't have any friends. Now that he could go to Yuansheng to play, Liang Youcai was very happy.

"Uncle, Aunt, even brothers should keep clear accounts. You're not complaining that the money isn't enough, are you?" Yuan Sheng said deliberately.

Aunt Zhou took the silver tael and said, “Yuanbao, what are you saying? Then I won’t stand on ceremony. His grandmother spent three hundred coins to buy these seedlings for him. At the time, his grandmother was scolded by her family a lot, but now she’s finally seeing the return on her investment. Next time Liang Shi takes this silver to his grandmother’s house, let’s see what they say.”

After exchanging pleasantries with everyone, Yuan Sheng prepared to go home. Liang Shi reluctantly saw Yuan Sheng off at his doorstep.

Uh……

Fortunately, Yuan Sheng knew in his previous life that Liang Shi was a straight man with a steely personality; otherwise, it would have been quite frightening.

When Yuan Sheng returned home, he talked to Yuan Laifu about the chili peppers and tomatoes.

"This stuff can really make so much money?!" Yuan Laifu found it unbelievable.

Yuan Sheng nodded. "Yes, especially chili peppers. They can be used as a condiment and have a wide range of applications. We can't sell salt, but we can sell chili sauce in the future. With our fine salt and unique chili peppers, I believe we can make a fortune!"

"Being first is very important. If others want to learn from us, they can steal a small number of seeds, cultivate them, and develop them into large-scale planting. It will take at least several years. Therefore, we have basically had a monopoly in the chili pepper market in recent years."

This is also why Yuansheng directly invited Liang Shi to guide the planting, in order to quickly obtain a large number of seeds and expand the planting area.

He just has an exceptional memory; he's not a god. He doesn't know things he hasn't seen before, like how to grow chili peppers. If he bought the seeds and figured it out himself, he would not only waste the seeds but also his time.

Asking Liang Shi for technical guidance directly would be much more efficient and would also subtly boost his friend's confidence. It would make him truly realize that he's not mentally unstable and that he's a valuable person.

Yuan Laifu nodded, but he didn't really understand what his son was saying. Anyway, as long as he could make a lot of money, that was all that mattered. His son had been enlightened by the old sage, so how could his ideas be wrong?

Yuan Laifu took a puff of his pipe. "Son, I think what you said makes a lot of sense!"

“Dad, Liang Shi is here. You should learn from him. Every step, from seedling cultivation and transplanting to pest control and harvesting, is very important.” It’s not that Yuan Sheng doesn’t like farming, but he spends most of his time studying and can only help out in the fields occasionally.

Yuan Laifu got excited as soon as he mentioned this, "Don't worry, your dad is an old expert in farming. Even though we're all farming, my dad can harvest more per acre than others. You can't underestimate farming; every step is crucial."

After talking with his father, Yuansheng began to watch his mother, wife, and eldest sister prepare the pig offal. Strictly speaking, the three of them were making different attempts under Yuansheng's inspiration.

According to his memory, Yuansheng knew that to properly prepare the intestines, they needed to be washed with flour and salt after cleaning. He told his older sister this, but his mother and older sister thought it was too wasteful.

Under the influence of Yuansheng, Zhu Chenxi developed a rigorous experimental spirit.

Finally, they concluded that the first step in properly handling pork intestines is to cut them into sections, turn them inside out, and rinse them with clean water.

After rinsing, remove the fat from the intestines and then rub them with wood ash.

After scrubbing, wash it again with clean water, then blanch it. After blanching, soak it in lightly salted water containing scallion and ginger juice for half an hour. After this treatment, the pork intestines will have no strange smell at all.

The process of preparing pig stomach is similar, except that you need to remove the white membrane inside the pig stomach.

Other offal was easy to handle; Sheng Guihua put them into a large iron pot to braise, and a fragrant aroma wafted out.

Yuan Sheng couldn't help but swallow hard, not to mention the younger ones, who were squatting at the kitchen door playing with pebbles in their hands, their eyes fixed on the big pot of braised pork hock and offal.