Before they even reached home, quite a few villagers were already braving the bitter cold, waiting at the village entrance.
They had caught a whiff of something unusual coming from the Feng Family yesterday. When that meaty aroma drifted over, everyone initially thought some family was having meat, but then an overbearing spicy scent followed—a smell even more stimulating than the meat itself.
After that came the fragrance of wheat, leaving many families lying in bed at night with their stomachs still rumbling.
This morning, people had kept a close eye on the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, deciding to wait right here to see what the Feng Family was up to.
As Li Xiulan and the other two reached the village entrance, they saw a group of people sitting there, stretching their necks to look at the things on their cart.
"Guifen, where are you folks visiting, dragging a flatbed cart along like this? What's on here? And a big steamer basket too—goodness gracious, the only time I've ever seen a steamer basket that big is when someone in the village is holding a banquet."
Niu Dali walked over, cracking pumpkin seeds while sizing up the flatbed, her eyes practically glued to the steamer basket.
She was the village's notorious gossip; whatever happened passed through her mouth transformed from dead to alive, black to white, and then into every color of the rainbow.
"Don't tell me you went into business? With pots, stoves, and a huge steamer basket to boot—I smelled big meat buns last night, and that must have been coming from your place. Well, how is business? How much money did you make? Must be a yuan or two, right?"
"How could that be? You all know our situation; we don't have as many able hands as your family, so we just have to figure out some way to make a living. We're just trying to get by, and we still have to work the fields this afternoon—how could we make that much! Setting all this up meant borrowing money from people, and we're just terrified of taking a loss and plunging the family even deeper into debt. Oh well."
Zhang Guifen forced a bitter smile. Although she knew in her heart they had made far more than that, people like this laughed at poverty and resented wealth; there was no way she would let them pry the truth out of her.
Still, there was no longer any need to keep their business venture a secret; the villagers would find out sooner or later.
Right now, they needed to play the victim, painting their business as bitterly hard, exhausting, and unprofitable so that nobody would get any ideas.
"Oh come on, that can't be true. I saw you haul a cart out this morning, and then another cart at noon. I thought business was booming."
"Niu Auntie, if business were that easy, everyone would be doing it. We're just at our wit's end, unlike you folks with so many laborers at home. We were up working since the middle of the night, and by this morning we hadn't even made a few cents. I was just telling Grandma and my mom to see if any of the families they're close with might be willing to lend us some money so we can keep going and see if we can make a go of it."
As soon as Li Xiulan finished speaking, several of them quickly backed away: "Borrow money? Goodness, who has money to throw away these days? I suddenly remember I left water boiling on the stove at home, I have to run back or the pot's going to burn through."
"Oh right, I remembered my kid peed on the *kang* again, and I haven't cleaned it up yet. I'm heading out too."
Hearing the word "money," they all grew worried that the three women would hit them up for a loan. By the time Niu Dali snapped out of it, she was the only one left standing there.
"Let me tell you, my family doesn't have any money! You'd be better off quitting while you're ahead. If I were that wasteful, my old man would beat the living daylights out of me. I'm leaving too."
Seeing everyone scatter, the three women exchanged a smile and continued pushing the cart home.
Feng Sixi was still weaving a wicker basket. Hearing the commotion at the front gate and seeing them return, he looked somewhat surprised.
"How come you're back so early? Could it be you sold out completely?" He wanted to ask if nobody had bought anything, but this was only the first day of business. If he actually voiced his thoughts, his old mother and his wife would chew him out from head to toe.
"You guessed it!" Zhang Guifen gave him an appreciative look, then lifted the covers off the wicker baskets on the flatbed. Sure enough, only a few remaining buns and mantou lay inside.
"Oh, that's wonderful! Sounds like business is good." Feng Sixi beamed along with them.
"Dad, where's Jiayu?" Li Xiulan asked, noticing the girl was nowhere in sight.
"She went for a nap and hasn't woken up yet. She'll definitely be thrilled when she sees you're back."
"Grandma, Dad, Mom, let's count today's earnings first." Li Xiulan stepped inside and, seeing Jiayu fast asleep, decided not to disturb her.
Hearing this, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately carried the cloth money bag into Grandma's room. Feng Sixi hadn't witnessed today's bustling scene firsthand, so he wasn't quite as excited as the two women.
However, when he saw handfuls of cash spilled out from the cloth bag, he wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
Most of the money consisted of one-cent, two-cent, five-cent, ten-cent, twenty-cent, and fifty-cent denominations—some in paper bills, some in coins—with just a few one-yuan notes sprinkled in, though those were relatively rare.
The three of them sorted and categorized the small bills before sitting down to count them.
In no time, the total was tallied. They had started out in the morning with a total of two yuan in change, but calculating it now, they actually had fifteen yuan and thirty-seven cents.
"We actually have this much? I never would have imagined it! On just the very first day, we made this much—more than I earn farming?" Zhang Guifen found it hard to believe; in her heart, she had thought getting five or six yuan would be a huge haul.
Grandma hadn't expected this much either, guessing it would be around seven or eight yuan. As for Feng Sixi, he initially figured making two or three yuan would already be impressive.
"We haven't factored in our startup costs yet. If we count the cost of goods, what we made today hasn't even broken even yet. If we calculate the daily cost, we'll probably have to cut this amount in half to figure out our actual profit."
"Even half is seven or eight yuan! That really is too much. I never knew doing business could be so profitable," Zhang Guifen said excitedly.
"That's right, this is a tidy sum. If we figure it by half, that's over two hundred yuan a month! Good grief, that's more than our family's savings from all these years combined. But this is all thanks to the dishes Xiulan made; if I'd cooked them, nobody would have given them a second glance. Xiulan, you're our family's greatest contributor."
After giving it some thought, Grandma realized this was no small amount. She never thought she would live to see the day someone could make hundreds of yuan a month. Regular workers at the mine supposedly made a few tens of yuan a month, which could feed a whole family and still leave some over. If they kept doing business, they'd make more money than factory workers! No wonder there used to be so many capitalists—doing business brings in money fast.
"Indeed, Xiulan, if it weren't for the recipes you thought of, we wouldn't be making nearly this much. Your mom and I discussed it: you keep this money. Once you're making a profit down the road, you can just pay us back our initial capital. From now on, your mom and I will just be your assistants."
"Mom, you're all so good to me, I won't turn you down. But let's get one thing straight first: regarding the money you provided initially, I think we can set it up as a dividend. After we set aside next month's wholesale capital every month, we can divide up whatever is left, or I can pay you wages according to standard labor rates. Think it over and let me know which way you prefer."
"We're all family, there's no need to draw such clear lines between us. This household will belong to you in the future, so keep the money yourself. We still need to fund Lihua's schooling with our savings, so we only need the principal back," Grandma protested, disagreeing with her proposal.