Chapter Thirty-Six Selling Dried Sweet Potatoes

  The people at home thought it was strange, how did Lin He know so much? Lin He said she saw it in a book, these things are all written in books. Lin Er Niu didn't recognize any characters anyway, and just said "How did He'er see so many strange and weird things in the book, Da Bao you haven't seen them, besides you've only been to school for a few days, how can you recognize so many characters?"

  Lin He said, "Big brother likes to read the books arranged by Mr., I don't like reading those books, so I bought some idle books from the street and came back to read. The words on this book that I didn't recognize, I asked Mr., some of them have pictures, I can understand."

  Lin Erniu said, "So that's how it is. From now on, I'll buy more books to bring back and read, and help Dad see how to farm." He thought to himself that it seemed letting the child read books was the right thing to do, as he had already learned so many good things in less than a month of reading.

  Lin He secretly smiled and nodded in response.

  After staying at home for a few days, fortunately the weather was also quite good these days. Today is the day when Huayu Town holds a fair. Lin He felt that the dried sweet potatoes were almost done, so she picked one up and tried it in her mouth. It tasted very delicious, probably because she made them herself, and they seemed to taste even better than those from her previous life.

  Lin He was afraid that she was too subjective, so she let her family members try it. Her family members all said it was delicious, especially the sweet potato dry, because it wasn't dried particularly dry, so it was very sweet and not hard either. The sweet potato chips looked better, but were drier and harder. However, after chewing them in your mouth for a while, they would become more and more delicious. They are extremely suitable as snacks.

  Lin He planned to take some goods to the street with Da Bao to sell and see if anyone would buy them. The two of them sat in Qin Lao's ox cart going to the street, and there were also many people on the side of the road going to the town. When Qin Lao saw that they were from Linjia Village, he would stop and take them along, as Huayu Town was not too far away, and most people wouldn't spend money to ride an ox cart, so this ride was free.

  Qin Lao Die bumped into a woman on the way, and as soon as she got in the car, Da Bao called out "Er Tang Shu", Lin He also followed with a call, and the woman responded. Lin He knew this woman, who was the wife of his grandfather's brother, which made her their relative, but since they didn't often interact with her family, Lin He wasn't very familiar with her.

  The woman saw Dabao and Linhe on the ox cart, very enthusiastic. Seeing the frame in Dabao's hand, her eyes rolled around and said, "Dabao, go to the town, what good things are for sale, let Auntie Er see."

  As the saying goes, "the face is born from the heart", this woman had narrow and long eyes, somewhat similar to phoenix eyes, but not purely phoenix eyes. Her cheekbones were high, her lips thin, and her figure was slender. Her eyeballs kept rolling around. Lin He felt that this second aunt had a sharp and cunning appearance, and she had some resistance to this person in her heart. She just pushed Da Bao, and Da Bao smiled and said "Nothing, it's just the embroidery mother made, let's go to the street to deliver it and then buy some things back."

  The woman listened to Da Bao's words, which were about embroidery, and she didn't believe it in her heart. Lin Er Niu's family had recently become wealthy, which was something everyone knew, but as for how they became wealthy, no one really knew. Perhaps they had obtained some treasure that they didn't want others to know about.

  The woman's face suddenly looked a bit unsightly, although she didn't believe it, she couldn't just lift up the frame to take a look. So they just sat there without moving, all the way until they arrived at Huayu Town, where Old Man Qin let the woman off. Dabao and Linhe found a spot by the side of the street, spread out a piece of cloth on the ground, and put the dried sweet potatoes on it to sell.

  Dabao and Linhe stood by the road for a while, and some people came to ask the price. However, when they heard that it was ten cents per catty, they thought it was a bit expensive and didn't know what it was. The people who asked left after inquiring. Linhe felt that this wouldn't work and needed to think of a good sales pitch.

  Just then, a woman came over to ask the price. Lin He didn't directly say the price, but instead handed her a piece of dried sweet potato and asked her to try it, saying that whether she bought it or not was no big deal. The woman thought this was fine, so she took a piece of dried sweet potato and tried the flavor.

  The woman put it in her mouth and chewed for a while, thinking the taste was not bad. It's suitable for making some snacks for kids usually. Then she asked what it was. Lin He said "It's a kind of wild fruit that my brother dug up on the mountain, and then our family processed it ourselves. You can't buy it outside, this wild fruit is good for strengthening your body and prolonging your life."

  Lin He didn't talk nonsense, this sweet potato was a good thing in the previous life, can prevent cancer, can strengthen the body and prolong life. The woman listened to Lin He's words, feeling that it wasn't bad, but ten cents were indeed a bit expensive, which could buy a catty of corn flour, finally bought half a catty.

  Actually, the dried sweet potatoes are already dry and shriveled up, half a catty is quite a lot. To get one catty of dried sweet potatoes, you need to dry several catties of fresh sweet potatoes. Moreover, the white sugar from our own home and the labor cost money too. Lin He thinks selling it for ten cents is not expensive at all.

  As soon as the woman opened her stall, many people came over to take a look. Lin He was generous and gave each person who came a small piece of dried sweet potato to taste. If they thought it was good, they would buy some; if not, that was okay too.

  Lin He smiled from start to finish, and didn't urge people to buy. Many customers thought it was interesting to see such a young child with such composure. Generally, after tasting, they would still buy some to take back, mainly because there were too few snacks in this era, and the good ones were expensive. Ordinary farming families couldn't afford them. This sweet potato dry goods cost only a few cents, but it was also a big handful, taking it back for the kids to eat was also good.

  After selling for a whole morning, they had sold out more than half of the goods. The sweet potato sticks were almost all gone, but there were still many sweet potato slices left. Lin He thought it was probably because each slice was quite big, so even if you bought a catty, you wouldn't get many slices.

  Sweet potato dry because it's a small piece, so visually people think the amount of sweet potato dry is more, naturally also willing to buy sweet potato dry. Plus sweet potato dry is harder to dry, some are not dried through, but eating up is very fragrant and sweet. Lin He plans to bring more sweet potato dry next time to sell, and cut the sweet potato slices into small pieces to sell.

  Lin He saw that it was almost noon, and the people who had come to the market were all gone. Thinking that they wouldn't be able to sell much more, she and Da Bao packed up their things and prepared to head back home. The two of them gathered up the cloth and dried sweet potatoes on the ground and set off on the road back home.

  When they arrived at the town entrance, they saw Qin Laotou still waiting for them there. Lin He followed Qin Laotou and got on the ox cart. "Qin Grandpa, weren't you supposed to head back first? You've been waiting here for a whole morning, it must have been hard for you."

  "Ah, what's the big deal? It's just sitting here and chatting with people passing by, time will pass quickly. Anyway, I'll be back home soon, nothing to worry about. Now it's winter, no farming work to do, staying at home is also boring."

  Lin He smiled, old people are like that, they don't like to stay idle, it's good to give them something to do. Together with Da Bao on the ox cart, they counted the money earned from selling sweet potato today, and there were 150 coins.

  Dabao is also happy, originally was going to come and try his luck, didn't think that this sweet potato would actually sell, thinking that in the future he can sell all the sweet potatoes at home.

  Old Qin saw Lin He and his sister chatting happily on the ox cart, suddenly thought of something, he took out a cloth bag from his body and handed it to Lin He. Lin He opened it and found that there were as much as seven taels of silver inside. Lin He asked: "Grandpa Qin, what's this for? Why are you giving me money?"

  "Here's the money I got from selling the cow to you. Last time Xiao Jun was sick and spent some, I kept some on me, we're now eating and living at your place so it won't cost much. I also know about your family's situation with the eldest uncle, this winter will need silver too. You take it first, leaving it here doesn't have much use, when the time comes I'll ask you for it."