Chapter 69

So Xu Ran began to prepare to buy chestnuts. They would buy raw chestnuts in the village, asking villagers to pick chestnuts, peel the shells and then sell to Xu Ran. They would also buy from the nearby villages if they didn’t get enough in their own village.

Villagers probably would not deny this opportunity to earn some extra money for their families.

Xu Ran asked Liu Tong to invite Wu Mei and the other two families over and shared his idea with them. Wu Mei agreed immediately. No one would reject extra money; besides, it was not a difficult job.

Xu Ran also said it would be enough that each family sent one family member for this job. Wu Mei and others went to the town to buy chestnuts and Liu Tong stayed in their village. Xu Ran would cover the cost in advance.

The tools to roast chestnuts was pretty simple-one wok, one spatula, some firewood and sand, plus some oil paper to wrap chestnuts, not very complicated. Xu Ran trained them at home several times and they had all learned this skill.

Before knowing if it was a good business, they had taken many chestnuts picked by Xu Ran from the hill to sell. Xu Ran had put a lot of efforts on this, filling his pack basket with a lot of peeled chestnuts.

On the first day, Xu An and other men found somewhere to place the wok in the town, then left leaving their spouses to do the business in the way they liked.

Wu Mei had been always bold and after the first batch of chestnuts were done, he started to hawk his wares, “Roast chestnuts, hot tasty chestnuts, don’t miss when passing. Come to have a look!”

The hawking was also taught by Xu Ran, no matter it was coarse or not, as long as it worked. Besides, according to Xu Ran’s instruction, Wu Mei also offered some free chestnuts for customers, so people could taste before they bought.

This stuff was surely new here, and no one had done that before. It was not bad to hold the warm chestnuts in hands especially in such a cold weather. The cost of roast chestnuts was not high and the price for customers was quite favorable so many people came to buy a pack of chestnuts.

Wu Mei was in charge of hawking and collecting money. Wu Lan and Liu Qing were on the roast and pack work, splitting the work clearly and wasting no time. They sold out all the chestnuts in the pack packet in only one morning.

There were still guests who came back to buy some more when they were putting their stall away. Wu Mei answered with a smile, “Today all sold out. Please come back tomorrow! We will still be here then.”

The customer was also very easygoing and said, “Okay. If I come late tomorrow, you must keep some more for me.”

Surely Wu Mei agreed.

Xu An and other men came by the ox cart in the morning and walked back, leaving the ox cart to their spouses. Wu Mei, Wu Lan and Liu Qing moved all the stuff on the ox cart, driving back to the Xu Village.

They drove the ox cart to Xu Ran’s first. Entering the room, Wu Mei shouted immediately, “Husband, Xu Ran, Liu Tong, are you there? Come out, come out, all sold out, all sold out!”

Hearing Wu Mei’s words, several people who had been talking in the room also hurried out. Seeing Wu Mei’ empty pack basket, they were all surprised. “I didn’t expect the business so good.” Said Xu Ran.

“Yes! Yes! There were even customers would like us to reserve chestnuts for them tomorrow before we left. Xu Ran, go get some more chestnuts in the village. What if we have nothing to sell tomorrow?” Speaking of this, Wu Mei was kind of worried.

Xu Ran waved his hand and said, “Don’t worry about this. We have already prepared all the tools. We are going to buy chestnuts later. You can go back and have a rest first. You must be very tired today.”

“No, not at all. ” Making so much money, the three Ge’ers all agreed that they could sell chestnuts for another half day.

Xu Ran stopped him decisively, “More haste, less speed. Don’t always think about making money. Leave the rest things to us! Just send your children here. As for you, go back and need no worry!

As he spoke, Xu Ran also winked at Xu An and the others, implying that they should take their spouses back home.

Sending all to leave, Xu Ran reached out for the tools on the table, hawking in the village with a swarm of kids.

Xu Ran was with a brass gong, which was borrowed from the village head. This thing was usually taken out only when something big happened in the village. It took Xu Ran a long time to get the permission to borrow the gong from the village head.

Xu Ran was striking the gong while he was walking, hawking, “Buy chestnuts, five pence for half kilo of peeled chestnuts! No matter how many you have, I will take all!”

With Xu Ran’s hawking, the kids also followed to hawk. Everyone heard it in the village, from the end to the entrance of the village.

When they turned back, some people began to ask whether it was true or not, where their chestnuts should be sent and it was paid by cash or something.

Xu Ran answered every question. By the time he was home, there were already some chestnuts there. Liu Tong checked the chestnuts on the site, paying brass coins to the sellers after weighed the chestnuts.

Since the examples had been set, others just followed. Moreover, many families which didn’t have chestnuts went out right away to the hill with their back packets.

Not only hawking in the Xu Village, Xu Ran also drove the ox cart to villages nearby to hawk. Xu Ran needed to go to the village himself to buy chestnuts. He visited the village head in the nearby village, leaving some money to the village head, asking him to help to keep the chestnuts temporarily, and he would come to pick up every afternoon.

The village head wasn’t stupid and of course he was willing to lead his villagers to make some more money so he agreed smilingly. Xu Ran also didn’t take it for granted and gave the village head what he was deserved.

When Xu Ran checked after arrived at home by the night, there was already more than 50 kilos of chestnuts.