Little Miss Fortune: I Will Bring Prosperity to My Tang Family!-Chapter 15: A Sharing Agreement with the Stubborn Xiaolin
Chapter 14
A Sharing Agreement with the Stubborn Xiaolin
Xiaolin woke up late due to the relentless sound of wood cutting. Stumbling out of her bedroom with her hair as messy as a bird’s nest, Hui Ning had to lift her daughter to wash her face and comb her hair neatly.
This morning’s breakfast featured spicy squid soup and fried battered squid. Hui Song, having tasted it, enjoyed it so much that he had two bowls of rice before going out to check on the builders working on the new house’s frame behind. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Xiaolin also went to inspect the sweet potato field, which was sprawling along the walkway grooves. In another two months, they could start harvesting, just in time for winter. During this busy period of building the house and preparing winter supplies, her small squid grilling business had to be temporarily shelved.
"What else could we do besides dried squid?" she wondered aloud, stroking her chin thoughtfully.
"Right! Bamboo shoots! But I wonder if they are still around this season." With that thought, the plump figure hurried back to her mother at their small home.
Seeing Hui Ning sewing and hearing the pattering footsteps, she looked up to see her chubby daughter rushing to her side.
"Mother, let’s go pick bamboo shoots."
"Bamboo shoots? Are they still around?" Hui Ning put away her sewing basket and thread, turning her attention to her daughter.
"I don’t know," Xiaolin shook her head, causing her hair to flutter.
"Do you want to eat bamboo shoots? Is that why you’re inviting me to go picking?"
"Bamboo shoots can be dried and stored for later consumption, Mother."
"Bamboo shoots usually sprout during the rainy season. Now, they might not be available," Hui Ning gently stroked her daughter’s head. Accepting this, Xiaolin dropped the idea of bamboo shoots and suggested going to the seaside instead.
Initially, Hui Ning planned to stay and help her mother grind sweet potato flour, but Zhang Ruo insisted on doing it alone since Grandma Liu would be there to help in the afternoon. So, Hui Ning took her daughter to the seaside where her husband was temporarily living.
Upon arrival, Xiaolin observed the small shrimps, about the size of her fingers, and contemplated. Her father had half a bucket of these small shrimps. She wanted to try making dried shrimps, but salt was expensive. Although it wasn’t scarce, it was a widely used seasoning. Buying in bulk would cost a significant amount of money. The same went for sugar if she decided to make sweet shrimps.
"Are there many of these, Uncle?" Xiaolin asked Tianchen, who was cleaning the squid nearby.
"Plenty. But I only brought these because they’re small. Let’s see what you can do with them."
"We could make dried shrimps, but we’d need a lot of salt," her small hand stroked her chin thoughtfully.
"Would it be illegal if we made our own salt?"
"Uh, that’s... I’m not sure," Tianchen blinked rapidly. Could it be that his niece knew how to make salt?
Xiaolin ran to her father, who was cleaning squid with her mother, and they were chatting.
"Father, I have something to ask," the chubby figure trotted over.
"What is it? What do you need?" Tianrong looked up, his gaze meeting the round belly of his daughter.
"If we make our own salt, would that be illegal, Father?" The little girl stood waiting hopefully. Tianrong, upon hearing this, turned to look at his wife, Hui Ning, who shook her head, indicating she didn’t know either.
"I’ve never heard whether making our own salt would be illegal. But I think as long as we don’t make it in large quantities or sell it, there shouldn’t be any problem. But, do you know how to make it?"
"I do!"
Therefore, the following day, father and daughter went into town with a wooden cart to inquire at the blacksmith’s about the items they had ordered. Master Zheng Luan greeted them and showed them the items, which Xiaolin inspected and was satisfied with, then inquired about the price.
"Since it uses high-quality, rust-resistant steel and is durable, it’s quite costly. The total comes to fifty taels of silver," explained Master Zheng.
Xiaolin looked pleadingly at her father, who willingly paid. Watching the coins disappear, he felt a pang of loss. Despite having more than nine hundred taels of gold saved at home, fifty taels of silver was not a small amount for someone who had lived a hard life from birth. With fifty taels of silver, he could buy 5 mu of land in the village.
"Thank you. Uh, I would like to consult with you on something," said Master Zheng before they left the shop.
"What is it?" Tianrong asked.
"I believe the pans you’ve ordered could sell well. I was hoping to discuss a potential partnership to try selling them."
Xiaolin, hearing this, was all ears. She looked at Master Zheng with shining eyes, which made him somewhat bewildered, as if he wanted to scoop up the child and run home.
"I agree! But could we change from a flat sale to a share of each pan sold? I won’t ask for much, just one-tenth of the selling price," she said, her eyes gleaming and lifting one finger to emphasize her point. Master Zheng looked at her adorably earnest face and agreed.
"Alright, little miss. I plan to sell each pan for ten taels of silver. What do you think?" Because high-quality steel was used, the same type that is forged into high-quality, rust-resistant small pocket knives, the price is higher than that of regular iron pans.
"Great!"
Xiaolin was contentedly looking at the contract she had obtained as they walked home. Tianrong watched his daughter, who had been staring at the contract since they left the shop, not realizing that she could read every word. Even though she might not understand all of it, she was confident that Master Zheng would not cheat her – after all, she had been quite persuasive.
Chuckling to herself, she neatly folded the paper and handed it to her father for safekeeping. Master Zheng would pay her a share every month, and she would get one tael of silver for every pan sold. Next month, she planned to visit the blacksmith shop again.
Before leaving, they also bought a large piece of thick white cloth for filtering sea water and a beautiful red tanghulu, nibbling on it until her teeth nearly broke.
Upon returning to the beach, Xiaolin asked Uncle Tian for help in fetching a bucket of clean seawater, offering a red tanghulu as payment. Eager for the treat, Tianchen quickly complied and fetched the water.
Tianrong helped his daughter start a fire by arranging three stones into a stove, while Hui Ning assisted by filtering the seawater through a white cloth three times to ensure it was free from any debris.
After setting up a pan filled nearly to the brim with seawater, Xiaolin carried a smaller bucket to a rocky area crowded with clams, which were large and tightly packed. The villagers probably hesitated to collect them, as a cursory glance might give anyone the creeps due to their abundance.
Seeing that the rocky area wasn’t far, Hui Ning didn’t object and even told her daughter she’d watch over the boiling pot of saltwater since it needed to evaporate completely without constant supervision.
"Wow, they’re huge. Better to dry and preserve them. But let’s do it one thing at a time," chuckled the little one, who had her hands full but lacked the manpower. She had barely managed to start drying the squid, having only done so for a day.
With her mother’s old chisel in hand, she carefully extracted the large clams from the rocks, choosing only the large ones and leaving the smaller ones to grow.
Having eaten plenty of seafood recently, she was no longer worried about goiter. Some days, it was fish, shrimp, squid, occasionally grilling or steaming tilapia. After drying the seafood, she planned to ask her father to hunt wild boar, so they could also have smoked pork legs stored for consumption.
"Oh, Ling Hai, are you here to catch fish?"
Tianchen’s voice from the shack made Xiaolin look back. It was Ling Hai, approaching with an old wooden bucket, accompanied by a skinny boy clutching the hem of his shirt in fear.
"Hello there, brother and Uncle. May I fish here again today?" the boy asked timidly. Even though one could freely collect sea creatures anywhere, since this area was beyond his village, he didn’t want to ignore the proprieties if he encountered the landowners.
"Of course, you’re welcome to fish as much as you like. And is this your younger brother?" Tianrong looked at the skinny, scruffy-faced boy hiding behind him.
Seeing the strangers’ gaze, the shy boy ducked behind his brother again. Ling Hai pulled him to stand beside him.
"Yes, this is Ling Han, my younger brother. He’s 5 years old."
"The same age as Xiaolin, but quite skinny."
The scared little boy, trembling under the gaze of three strangers, buried his face into his brother’s side again. Tianrong, feeling pity, told Ling Hai to go ahead and fish as they pleased.
Ling Hai, leading his brother by the hand, went to the pool where they had fished before, only to find the plump figure of Xiaolin busy with something beside the rocks, so they stopped to greet her.
"Xiaolin, what are you doing?"
"Oh, Brother Hai, I’m collecting clams," she replied with wide eyes, not forgetting to glance at the scared, skinny boy clinging to his brother’s shirt.
"Is this a clam?" he asked, moving closer to look.
These things were all over the beach in his own village, but people generally considered them just something that sprouted from the rocks and didn’t pay much attention to them. He peered into the little girl’s bucket and saw three or four clams she had collected.
"Yes, they are," she replied. "They’re delicious. You can boil them with kaffir lime leaves... uh, just boil and then stir-fry the meat with chili and herbs, and it’s delicious," she scratched her head gently. In her previous life, she had only eaten them boiled with kaffir lime leaves. Ah, but last time she had her mother boil them with lemongrass. She had forgotten about that.
"Oh, really?" Ling Hai looked at the plump girl with sparkling eyes.
"You should collect some too," she suggested. "Besides being good to eat when they’re fresh, you can also boil and dry the meat for the winter."
"Really?" he asked excitedly. The skinny boy behind him began to edge forward to look too. Xiaolin glanced at him but didn’t say anything, fearing that if she stared too much or spoke up, he might cling to his brother like a scared kitten again.
"I’m not lying to you. After my parents finish drying the squid and shrimp, I’ll ask my father to dry these clams too," she looked around before covering her mouth and whispering softly, "But don’t tell anyone. I plan to sell them."
The siblings nodded excitedly at her secret. Xiaolin smiled at their adorable reaction.
"I thought since we know each other, I would share. Because I’m very kind," she declared proudly, crossing her arms and looking at them with a smug expression.
"Hurry up and collect them. Don’t dawdle. Oh, find some twigs like this to pry them off. We’re still kids, if we use our hands directly, we might get hurt," she advised at length, showing the siblings how to do it.
After learning from the plump girl, Ling Hai and Ling Han excitedly gathered twigs before returning to sit and happily pry off clams.
"What are you kids up to?" Hui Ning, who had been checking on her daughter occasionally, saw the three kids sitting by the rocks, busy with something. Their round heads almost burrowed into the rocks.
"We’re collecting clams, mother. After drying the squid and shrimp, we’ll dry these too. Then we’ll have a variety of foods to eat," Xiaolin chirped brightly, while her chubby hands were busy prying off mussels with her mother’s old chisel, intently focused on her task.
Hui Ning smiled fondly at her little daughter, who was already thinking about the family’s meals. "Okay, dear. But do one thing at a time, sweetheart. Your hands are so small, you don’t have to do everything yourself."
A slender hand stroked the rounded head, causing Xiaolin looked up at her mother with a pout, her eyes welling up. She got up and hugged her mother around the waist and buried her face there.
"What’s wrong, hmm?"
"I love you, mommy" Xiaolin muffled her declaration of love against her mother’s waist, causing Hui Ning to laugh with a clear, loving sound.
"You little drama queen, why the tears all of a sudden? Aren’t you embarrassed in front of Ling Hai and Ling Han, huh?"
Shaking her head, Xiaolin sniffed and stepped back, wiping her teary face with her sleeve. The words echoed those her mother had said in a past life, triggering an uncontrollable emotional response. She wondered how those back there were doing now.
"Let’s continue collecting clams, but don’t gather too much, sweetheart. Just enough for us to eat. After we’ve dried enough squid, we can come back and dry these. How does that sound?"
"Yes, mother," she nodded vigorously. Hui Ning patted her daughter’s head affectionately before heading back to the cottage.
The plump little girl turned back and squatted by the rocks to continue prying off clams. Now, the Ling siblings had managed to collect more than she had! Unacceptable!
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