Chapter 12 Mao Sui Volunteers Himself_1

In her previous life, rice generally cost around 60 yuan for twenty kilograms, vegetables were relatively cheap, approximately 1 yuan per kilogram. However, vinegar and oil were very expensive, around 7-8 yuan. Overall, the cost of living wasn't much different.

In ancient times, one tael of silver was equivalent to 1000 coins, or approximately the modern equivalent of 1000 yuan. Liuliu calculated that she had 24 taels of silver, that's 24000 coins, roughly the modern equivalent of 24,000 yuan. It was decent, as long as she didn't gamble, she could cover her expenses for a year with 24 taels of silver. But if she wanted to live a better life and afford Xiaowen's schooling, it was far from enough. She needed to make money from money.

As Liuliu looked around, she suddenly had a feeling that something was missing in the market. What exactly was missing? Why did it feel so off? She had to think!

Aha! Liuliu finally realized what was missing in the market. There were no vegetable baskets! My god! There were no vegetable baskets in the market? All the customers and vendors used little wooden barrels or just bundled everything up with ropes. What a business opportunity! Such a significant opportunity! The market was ripe for a real vegetable basket operation! Now she understood why there were no vegetable baskets in her house or her mother-in-law's. The concept of a vegetable basket hadn't been invented yet!

Wait? How exactly were vegetable baskets made? She suddenly became puzzled. She didn't know how to weave! She'd only seen vegetable baskets, knew they were made of bamboo strips, some were made of large bamboo strips split into thin ones, some were directly made from thinner bamboo. But as for how exactly they were woven, she'd never done it before. Should she just try to fumble her way through it?

Even if she managed to weave vegetable baskets, that alone wouldn't be enough to support a household! Vegetable baskets were easy to make, even if she figured it out, there were many skilled craftsmen in the ancient times who could copy and produce them, not to mention, she didn't want to do this arduous farm work! Wasn't this different from just tapping away at a keyboard?

"Liuliu? Liuliu?" Just as Liuliu was thinking about her vegetable basket plan, she suddenly heard someone calling her.

Huh? Did she know someone here? No, that sounded like her brother. Both of her brothers had gone to the vegetable market to sell pork in the morning.

Guide by the sound, Liuliu found Xiaoquan and several cousins were also there. There were only six pork stalls in the market, and the Liu family owned half, three stalls.

"Brothers? You're all here!" Liuliu was delighted. When she came to the market, she didn't expect to see her brothers.

"Liuliu, what are you looking to buy at the market? Brother can buy it for you!" Liu Hu was delighted to see his little sister.

"Just browsing, and buying some vegetables to take home!" Liuliu initially planned to buy some rice, but then she heard Xiaoquan whisper that the money they earned from selling fish a few days ago had been spent by Xiaowen on rice! Then she wouldn't buy rice for now. Let's buy some vegetables to take home! She didn't know whether there was a vegetable garden in her mother-in-law's house. Anyway, there were no vegetables in the yard, so she'll buy them, expect nothing!

"Liuliu, take this piece of pork fat home!" Upon hearing Liuliu's mention of buying vegetables, her second brother cut a particularly fatty piece of pork without saying a word. In ancient times, people prized fat meat, which was also more expensive, lean meat was cheaper, mainly because oil was expensive! Fatty pork could be used to extract oil.

Liuliu, who had just traveled from affluent modern times, didn't eat much of the fatty meat at all, even if she ate meat, it was lean meat. Looking at the fatty meat where she could hardly see any lean meat, Liuliu hurriedly waved her hand, "Second brother, no, I don't want it, you guys sell it!"

"It's our own meat, why be so polite? Take it!" Her second brother insisted.

"I really don't want it! Look, you don't have much fat meat left!" Liuliu really wanted to say, second brother, if you insist on giving something, just give me a lean piece! This fat piece of meat, I just have no appetite for it!

"Liuliu, take it! Why are you still arguing with your brother?" He continued to insist on giving Liuliu a fatty piece of pork.

"Hey? Why haven't you sold much of your pork bones, pig liver, kidneys, and stomach? "Liuliu didn't bother arguing with her brother, but she noticed that hardly any of these parts of pork had been sold at all three stalls. She had cooked these kinds of dishes for them in the past few days, right? And they all said it was delicious, why were they not being sold?

"Liuliu, we did as you said, we didn't just toss these parts in with the meat for free, we also told the customers that these parts were very delicious, but no one believed us! Thankfully, the weather is cold, so they can be stored for a few more days. In summer, they would spoil!"

Her second brother Liu Hu said helplessly. But fortunately, these were not considered a loss, they usually sold these casually, as long as they could make a coin, if they couldn't sell, they just gave to those who bought meat, it wasn't a big loss. The upsetting part was that although these dishes Liuliu made were delicious, they just couldn't sell.

After hearing her brother's words, Liuliu also realized the shortcomings of her previous ideas. In ancient times, these pork organs were considered offal, only poor people would eat them, rich people would probably despise them! Even the poor people wouldn't know how to cook these dishes, they would just boil them randomly, since they were cheap, if the taste was bad so be it, who let them lack the money to eat fish and meat!

Suddenly, Liuliu thought of a plan, which might not only open the market for pork offal for her brothers, but also bring benefits to herself.

"Second brother, third brother, listen to me, don't just give away these pork bones, liver, kidneys, stomachs, maybe soon someone will want to buy them. Instead, second brother, you don't have to give me that fatty pork, just give me more livers, kidneys, bones, etc., which I like to eat!"

Liuliu didn't want to reveal her plan, fearing that she would reveal too much and make them suspicious. After getting these organs, she was going to go to the town's full-scale restaurant, cook them for free for the shopkeeper to taste, or try to serve them to the restaurant's customers.

Upon hearing what Liuliu said, not only did her brothers insist on giving her a fatty piece of pork, but they also gave her quite a bit of pig liver, kidneys, and so on.

Seeing her brothers being so stubborn, Liuliu stopped nagging. As long as she could pull off her plan today, not only could she make a little money, but her brothers could make a little more every day! So, she decided not to argue anymore with her brothers.

Liuliu, carrying the pork, liver, and other bits given by her brothers and accompanied by Xiaoquan, headed straight for the restaurant in the town. Liuliu didn't just go into any restaurant, she looked around and had an estimate in her heart.

This Taohong Street was the main street of the town, with a dazzling array of shops on both sides, including a few restaurants. Two of which were relatively large, both two-story buildings with large premises and high-grade exteriors. One, though lavish, had customers of various strata based on their clothing. Its name was Yanbin Building.

However, the other one, although it looked very elegant, the customers who went in appeared to be either rich or noble, well-dressed, almost no one in shabby clothing entered. Its name was Yingxiang House.

Liuliu had a clear idea, it seemed that these two restaurants followed different tracks, one was oriented towards the masses, and the other was towards the high-end market.