Chapter 114: The Villagers Arrive in Succession to Sell Crawfish
After the teachers left, Li You went back to his rocking chair and lay down again.
He put on a song.
"Alone in the night,
Too lonely to fall asleep.
I really want to find someone to be with,
I don’t want to get drunk alone,
Tears will fall after I’m drunk.
..."
He quite enjoyed listening to these kinds of online songs that were popular over a decade ago.
After listening to several songs in a row, a villager rode up on a motorcycle.
A plastic box was tied to the back rack of the motorcycle.
"Xiaoyou, I’ve come to sell some crayfish. Can you take a look and see if they’re any good?"
The villager’s name was Li Chi, and his face was full of anticipation.
At the same time, he took a bag out of the plastic box on the back rack.
Li You smiled. "Uncle Chi, let me see."
The bag was full of crayfish, weighing about five or six jin.
They were all quite large.
"Ingredient: Crayfish.
Quality: Medium."
The system promptly gave its quality assessment.
Moreover, all the crayfish in the bag were of Medium quality.
If there had been any of Low quality, the system would have issued a notification.
The lack of a notification meant that all the crayfish in the bag were Medium quality.
Li You was delighted. ’I knew it! The crayfish in the village are basically all Medium quality.’
He then said, "Uncle Chi, these are great. I’ll take them all. Did you weigh them?"
Hearing Li You say he’d take them all, Li Chi was overjoyed and said repeatedly, "Great, great. Thank you so much, Xiaoyou. I haven’t weighed them, you can go ahead."
Li You smiled. "Don’t mention it, Uncle Chi. I needed to buy crayfish anyway. You bringing them here saves me a trip to the market. So this is a good thing for me, too."
With that, Li You brought out an electronic scale from the shop.
After weighing them, it came out to six jin and four liang.
"Let’s call it six and a half jin. That’s 91 yuan in total."
Li You got the money.
But Li Chi said to just count it as six jin, so 84 yuan would be enough.
After a bit of friendly haggling, Li You ended up giving him 90 yuan.
Tucking the money into his pocket, Li Chi was even happier. He said, "Xiaoyou, so many people in the village were out catching crayfish in the fields this afternoon. It was so lively! It feels like the village hasn’t been this bustling in a long time. Everyone was talking and laughing, all in high spirits. And when they talked about your restaurant, they all gave a thumbs-up and said you’ve really made something of yourself."
Li You replied modestly, "Uncle Chi, I’m just getting started. It’s hard to say how things will turn out in the end."
Li Chi said, "I heard that lots of people from the county town, and even the city, are coming all the way here just to eat. Your place is definitely going to get famous and make a lot of money."
Li You laughed and said, "I hope you’re right, Uncle Chi."
Just then, another villager arrived on an electric scooter.
Seeing Li Chi, he asked with a hopeful look, "Old Chi, have you sold yours already?"
Li Chi grinned. "I have! Over six jin, and Xiaoyou took it all. Got 90 yuan for it."
The newly arrived villager was named Liu Zhanghong. Hearing this, he was quite envious. Then, he turned to Li You with an expectant look and said, "Xiaoyou, can you take a look at mine?"
His were also in a bag.
Li You opened the bag. These crayfish were also quite large.
Since Li You had said he didn’t want small ones, everyone surely just threw the small ones back after catching them.
"Ingredient: Crayfish.
Quality: Medium."
’As expected, all Medium quality again.’
Li You was very pleased. He said, "Uncle Zhanghong, these crayfish are great too. I’ll take all of them."
"Great, great! Thank you, Xiaoyou," Liu Zhanghong said, also very happy.
"Don’t mention it, Uncle Zhanghong. Like I just told Uncle Chi, this is a good thing for me too," Li You said.
After speaking, he placed Liu Zhanghong’s bag of crayfish on the electronic scale.
Five jin and six liang.
Calculated properly, it should be 78.40 yuan.
But Liu Zhanghong said to just count it as five and a half jin.
Li You nodded and didn’t insist on calculating it as five jin and six liang.
Five and a half jin came to 77 yuan.
He gave the money to Liu Zhanghong.
After receiving the money, Liu Zhanghong was also overjoyed, thanking Li You repeatedly.
He’d never thought selling crayfish could be so easy and simple.
Xiaoyou’s restaurant was a success, and they were benefiting from it too. This was a huge and unprecedented surprise.
After that, more and more villagers came to sell crayfish.
Every villager’s crayfish met the Medium quality standard, and Li You bought them all.
Each villager who received money was extremely happy, thanking Li You again and again.
Li Zhong and Liu Jialiang also came, each with a bag of crayfish.
Both of them insisted on not taking any money.
They both said that if he was going to pay, it should start from next time. This time, they absolutely wouldn’t accept any money.
Li You thought for a moment and said, "Alright, how about this? Uncles, my restaurant started selling baijiu today. I’ll get some for each of you to take home and drink."
It was perfectly normal for a restaurant to sell liquor.
So, neither Li Zhong nor Liu Jialiang found it surprising. But they both refused the offer, saying they had liquor at home, infused liquor at that.
Li You chuckled and said, "Uncles, why don’t you have a taste of my baijiu first? Then you can decide."
Have a taste?
A taste was fine.
Both men said, "Alright, just a taste then."
Li You led the two of them to a liquor jar. He lifted the lid, and before he could even start ladling out the baijiu, both men exclaimed in disbelief, "Xiaoyou, what kind of baijiu is this? Why is the aroma so rich and mellow?"
Li You smiled. "The good kind."
He then got two small bowls and ladled a small sip into each for them to taste.
Because both of them had ridden motorcycles, Li You only gave them a small sip, nothing more.
But even that small sip was enough to leave them both completely astonished.
’This baijiu is just too good, isn’t it?’
"Xiaoyou, what kind of baijiu is this? How is it so delicious?" both men asked.
Li You said, "It’s just bulk baijiu."
They couldn’t believe that bulk baijiu could taste this good. Then they asked, "It must be very expensive, right?"
Li You said, "I have a special supplier, so the cost price isn’t too high. Uncles, I don’t have any proper wine flasks here, so I’ll just use two clean mineral water bottles and fill one for each of you to take back. How about that?"
Li Zhong asked, "So what’s your selling price?"
Li You said, "Twenty yuan per liang."
Both men nodded. Judging by the price alone, it wasn’t cheap. But for this particular baijiu, it was a steal.
Then they both thought to themselves, ’Twenty yuan per liang. A mineral water bottle holds about a jin, which is ten liang. So this is 200 yuan?’
Both men were shocked. They quickly said they couldn’t possibly accept it.
Even though, deep down, they desperately wanted it.
It was just that good.
That tiny sip had left a lingering, unforgettable aftertaste. What kind of pleasure would it be to have a small glass?
It would be a divine experience.
But a gift worth 200 yuan was something they really couldn’t accept.
It was too expensive!
Li You said, "Why can’t you accept it? The crayfish you just brought are worth almost 100 yuan, and I didn’t refuse them, did I? Wait here, I’ll go get two water bottles."
With that, he went to the kitchen, got two mineral water bottles, and filled them with baijiu.
The two men repeatedly tried to refuse, but in the end, Li You’s persistence won out.
"Well then, thank you so much, Xiaoyou."
"Uncles, if you keep being so polite, you’ll be treating me like a stranger!"
"Hahaha! Alright, alright, we won’t be so formal then."
Having received such a fine bottle of baijiu, both men were extremely happy. They rode away cheerfully on their motorcycles.
Meanwhile, Li You thought to himself, ’Right, I should also get some of this baijiu for Dad to take home.’
’I won’t use a water bottle for him. Tomorrow, I’ll go to Boss Deng’s shop at the market and buy a smallish liquor jar. I’ll just fill up a whole jar for him.’
’That’s the plan.’
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Please and thank you!
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