CH 31

As the day got hotter and hotter, the amount of passersby on the road lessened. If they didn’t hurry, they wouldn’t be able to buy chicken eggs. Additionally, they had already sold everything, so Mo Yan and Mo Ling went to the market.

“Sis, you’re so smart. You made Mo Feng hand over the money easily,” Mo Yan said.

“This time, we actually have to buy chicken eggs, but next time, mum will definitely safeguard the money herself. Even if we want to buy something, she’ll count out the precise amount needed and not give us an extra dollar.”

Mo Yan sighed, “I really hope winter will come soon.”

Mo Ling smiled as she poked her sister’s forehead, “You’re so unfilial!”

The sisters went to South Street, where the eggs were sold. Mo Ling left the wheelbarrow at an out-of-the way corner of the street and then took Mo Yan to go look at the goods.

There were only a few dozen people left there. When the sisters arrived, they crowded around them and asked, “Are you here to buy eggs?”

“How much per egg?”

Mo Yan said from the side, “Eggs vary by size, it’d be better to pay by the kilogram.”

When they saw the two were actually looking to buy, they quickly said, “That’s fine with us.”

“Twenty-six dollars per kilogram,” Mo Yan raced to answer.

The normal price of an egg is two dollars each. A kilogram’s worth of large eggs was around twelve, or fifteen if they were small eggs, so this was a fair price.

The sisters rummaged around the baskets. Everyone would obviously put the best goods on the top, so all the large eggs were at the top.

They eventually settled on a basket of eggs that hadn’t been sold as they were very small.

The owner of that basket of eggs was a young lady who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen. She was incredibly shy, and only said that she was willing to sell the eggs by weight when Mo Ling asked her.

The young lady didn’t have a scale, and neither did they. They were thinking about where best to borrow one when a plump woman timidly asked, “Are…are you buying duck eggs?”

They had looked at her basket before, but because all the eggs in it were fairly big, they eliminated it fairly quickly. It turns out she was selling duck eggs and not chicken eggs.

“How much for an egg?” Mo Ling asked.

“Two dollars per egg,” the woman replied.

Mo Yan went over and said, “Duck eggs don’t taste great fried, which is why no one has bought your basket of eggs yet.”

The woman had been there for half a day already. No one wanted her eggs as soon as they heard they were duck eggs. Since someone actually seemed like they were interested in her eggs, she said reluctantly, “I’m fine if they’re sold for cheaper. I’m short on cash.”

Seeing as she was being so forthright with them, she probably was a good sort. Mo Ling said, “One and a half dollars per egg.”

“Deal!”

The young lady selling the chicken eggs thought the sisters didn’t want her eggs anymore, and was so upset she was about to cry, “Then what about my chicken eggs?”

Mo Ling said comfortingly, “We’ll take them as well. We’re running a small vendor by the main road, and we’ll have any eggs of a similar size that you have.”

They borrowed a scale from a vegetable seller. The young lady’s eggs weighed just over four kilograms, and after transacting the money and the eggs, she left happily.

The plump woman’s duck eggs were also counted. There were exactly a hundred in her basket; she had probably counted them before going to the market today.

“Mrs., we don’t have any spare baskets. Could we use yours for now? Next market day, if you bring another hundred duck eggs to the main road, we’ll happily take them off you.”

After their business transaction was completed, the woman was so happy she almost started crying, “I’m from Xiahe Village, and we have forty to fifty ducks in our home. They lay over a hundred eggs in a week. Normally, we sold our eggs at the market nearest to ours, but the market day there was cancelled. As I was short on cash, I decided to sell them here and hire a doctor to help treat my husband’s illness as well.”

“Our stall’s just on the opposite side of the main road, you can’t miss it.”

Mo Ling put the two baskets of eggs onto their wheelbarrow and then went to North Street, where delicacies were sold. Fried dough sticks, marinated tofu and dumplings were all common street foods, but they were delicacies to the Mo sisters’ eyes.

“Freshly butchered pork, there’s not much left!” The voice seemed familiar, and the two turned around to see the meat seller who had bought salted eggs from them earlier in the day.

He also recognised them and said happily, “Hello, what do you want to buy?”

They scanned the store quickly before a pile of pork skin on the chopping board caught Mo Yan’s eye, “Sis, we can make meat jelly with the pork skin, and we can make a lot of it with half a kilogram of pork skin.”

The meat seller nodded towards Mo Yan and said, “Yes! Young lady, you’re truly knowledgeable. Meat jelly tastes especially delicious with biscuits.”

Mo Ling asked, “Doesn’t meat jelly dissolve when it’s too hot? It’s currently summer, and it might not even form at all.”

From the morning, they knew the man knew his stuff about food. If he said something tastes good, it probably tastes good.

There was just over half a kilogram of pork skin on the chopping board, which costs eighteen dollars. Mo Ling bought it all.

There were only a few irregular pieces of meat on the chopping board, such as the tendons and the brain, but a pile of white goop caught Mo Ling’s attention. It was pork oil.

Poor people not only didn’t see meat often, even oil was rare to have. Vegetables fried in pork oil would taste better, and the remaining oil could be used to make dumplings. Most importantly, pork oil was much cheaper than pork meat.

They spent just over thirty dollars on both the pork meat and the pork oil. They still had a large portion of their profits of the day left, so Mrs. Liang wouldn’t be mad.

On the way back home, Mo Yan asked, “Sis, should we keep some of the remaining money?”

Mo Ling rolled her eyes at her, “You can’t take the money for yourself, or people will think you’re untrustworthy.”

“I know, and I wasn’t planning on taking it for myself. I wanted to open a few businesses because I’m afraid mum won’t dole out the startup fees and lose out on business opportunities.”

Mo Ling thought for a while before replying, “Don’t bother. This is just our first day of really doing business, we’ll earn a lot more next time than this time.” [1]

“Sis, have you realised that most of the people who bought a wrap were passersby?”

“Yes, most of our customers weren’t going to the market either, so we can do business every day.”

“Sis, you’re so smart!”

There was one thing that was plaguing Mo Yan. Who did my smart, beautiful and capable sister take a fancy to? [2]

Back home, Mrs. Liang still wasn’t there. She probably hadn’t returned from the Lu family. Mo Ling put the wallet and the eggs they bought on the table so they wouldn’t have to explain to Mrs. Liang later.

Making the meat jelly would require Mrs. Liang’s help, so she cooked the pork oil and stored it in a jar first. She left the waste for Mrs. Liang to dispose of.

There was still a little oil in the pan, so Mo Yan made a few fried pancakes and sprinkled some onions on top.

Mrs. Liang smelt the food and said as soon as she entered the door, “What are you doing?”

Post-edit notes: Money is everything in this story, and the main character’s attitude perfectly reflects that.

[1] The previous time was just a trial run for them.

[2] I mean, there have been a few hints here or there about who it is…