After Liu Sanshun decided to compete with Zhang Huai, his fighting spirit soared. He felt energized, and his mind seemed much sharper than usual.

Because Juhua’s family had dug a fish pond, whenever he went fishing, he would bring a bucket to collect the small fry and give them to Juhua to raise.

He originally did this just to curry favor with Juhua. But then he noticed her frequently cutting grass and tossing it into the pond, and even dumping chicken manure in. In the winter, she also threw in the dregs left over from making acorn tofu. The fish weren’t particularly fond of it, but with nothing else to eat in winter, they would still eat it. This caught his attention.

In the end, he paid more attention to Juhua’s fish pond than she did herself, studying the fish’s habits and how they grew after eating these things. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

’It would be great to have my own fish pond,’ he vaguely thought. ’I’m sure I’d be better at raising fish than farming.’ Not that he was a bad farmer, of course. When it came to planting rice seedlings, at least, no one could beat him.

********

Twenty days later, Manager Mao did indeed return. This time, he came back with Li Changyu. Both of them wanted to buy more spicy cabbage and sausage.

Normally, the Qinghui Restaurant shouldn’t have been able to sell the spicy cabbage so quickly—after all, people don’t go to a restaurant just to eat pickled vegetables. The main reason was that some customers found it to be a great appetizer and bought some from the restaurant to take home. As a result, they went through it much faster.

The sausage, on the other hand, had been popular from the moment it was introduced. He hadn’t bought much from the Zheng Family last time, so he rushed back early to place another order. He also told the Zheng Family to make more, as he would be back for another shipment before the New Year.

Li Changyu was buying spicy cabbage for his aunt.

He also wanted to buy some acorn flour for himself. The stuff tended to go rancid if stored for too long, so it couldn’t be made in large batches.

To save on travel costs, the two of them rented a boat together and loaded it up with all the remaining spicy cabbage from Liu Xiaomei’s family, Zhang Huai’s family, and even Juhua’s family.

The cabbage from Zhang Huai’s family sold for over four taels of silver, and the Liu Family’s sold for four or five taels. Both families were overjoyed, beaming from ear to ear.

Juhua’s family sold another two hundred-plus pounds of sausage.

The pork bought from Xiatang Market was, as expected, not as tender as the pork from pigs raised on acorns in Qingnan Village, so the price was naturally a bit lower.

If pigs had spirits in the afterlife, they would probably cry out in grievance: ’If you don’t feed us enough or feed us well, of course our meat won’t be as tender as the pigs from Qingnan Village! It’s a miracle we grew more than just ribs for you. If we got to eat slop mixed with acorns all day, we guarantee we’d grow a fine layer of tender fat too.’

A few days later, Zhang Huai had someone come and butcher two of his pigs. Aside from the fat, the head, and the offal, all the meat suitable for sausage was used to make sausage.

Qingmu suggested he sell the fatty meat and buy some more pork from the market to make even more sausage, so he could sell a large batch to Manager Mao when he arrived.

This time, the Zheng Family didn’t make any themselves, which was equivalent to giving the money-making opportunity to the Zhang family.

Zhang Dashuan and his son were endlessly grateful. With this one venture, they could earn enough silver to buy a few acres of land. Because of this, they were brimming with energy.

Zhang Huai fully displayed his natural talent as a chef. After learning from Juhua for one afternoon, he managed the sausage-making without his parents having to worry at all. He mixed the seasonings into the meat and taught his mother how to stuff the casings, doing everything in a methodical and well-organized manner. He didn’t have to bother Juhua again at all.

Speaking of which, the pig small intestines at Xiatang Market had been selling extremely well lately. The butchers couldn’t figure out what was going on; the small intestines were bought up early every day. What was there to eat in such a small thing? They weren’t as thick as large intestines, yet people were willing to pay two wen for them.

That winter, the people of Qingnan Village were happy. Watching the pigs eat and sleep all day, sleep and eat, and constantly put on fat, those who fed them served the animals without any complaint. It was as if life had a new sense of hope.

On this day, Big Mouth Zhao was getting married, and all the young men flocked over to help.

Poor but lively, poor but lively! Even though the countryside was poor, occasions like weddings and funerals were incredibly bustling events. All the neighbors would come out to participate.

Early in the morning, the wedding procession was sent out. The bride lived in a village twenty li away, and if they didn’t leave early, they wouldn’t be able to bring her back on time that evening. Missing the auspicious hour would be a bad omen.

Since Qingmu was helping to record the gift registry and wasn’t in the wedding procession, Zhang Huai didn’t want to go either.

When he saw Zhao San calling for him, he said, "I’ll help out here at home. We need people to stay behind anyway. Let Sanshun go."

Liu Sanshun felt awkward whenever he saw Zhang Huai these days. He was staring at him right then, and seeing Zhang Huai try to push the task onto him, he grew displeased. "Then I’ll stay here, and you can go get the bride."

Seeing the two of them trying to get out of it, Big Mouth Zhao asked strangely, "Why don’t either of you want to go? Usually, you all fight for the chance to be in the wedding procession. My wife’s family has lots of female cousins. If you go, you might just catch the eye of one of the girls, and then I can have my wife play matchmaker for you."

He was especially happy today, talking about "my wife" this and "my wife" that, as if he had already brought her home.

But he would have been better off not saying anything. Now that he had, the two were even more reluctant to go.

Zhang Huai smiled at Liu Sanshun and said, "You should hurry and go. Who knows, you might come back with a wife."

He thought Liu Sanshun would surely scamper off eagerly.

Who would have thought Liu Sanshun would just smile and say back to him, "I’m not as handsome as you are. You’d be better off going. The moment you stand there, I bet all those girls will be crying and begging to marry you!"

The wedding procession was still short one person and was waiting for one of the two to be chosen so they could set off. Hearing Liu Sanshun’s words, the group burst into loud laughter.

Liu Sanshun wasn’t just teasing Zhang Huai; he really thought so.

’It’d be best if someone took a liking to you,’ he thought to himself. ’A matchmaker would come to your door, and your parents, eager for grandchildren, would probably arrange your engagement right away. My family has plenty of brothers anyway. My eldest brother is about to have a son, and my second brother is getting married soon too. It’s fine if I marry a bit later. I have plenty of time to compete with you. It would be perfect if you got married first. Juhua is still young; she definitely won’t be getting engaged in the next couple of years.’

He didn’t know about the matter between Huai Zi and his cousin Yu Qin, which is why he thought this way.