The Li Family’s Old Homestead!
When Li Yi returned to the old family home with Tang Xue and his second older sister, they saw his third older sister, Li Na, unloading the cart.
Meanwhile, their father was helping lead the big red mule into the stable to feed it hay and grain!
Seeing the three of them come in through the gate, his third sister shot Li Yi a withering look and said, “Xiao Yi, you ungrateful brat!”
“How did I become an ungrateful brat?” Li Yi asked with a smile.
“Hmph, you’ve got a wife now and you’ve forgotten your sister. You didn’t even say you’d come pick me up from the back mountain when you got back—instead, you ran straight to the new house to see your wife!” Li Na said with a look of deep displeasure.
Li Yi chuckled and said, “Why would I pick you up? With your fierce fighting skills, even thugs would run away when they see you!”
“You’re asking for a beating…”
Tang Xue smiled and said, “Sis Na, come on, stop messing around. I heard he bought us gifts. Let’s go inside and check them out!”
“Gifts? Really?”
“With an attitude like that, there definitely won’t be any!” Li Yi said with a laugh.
“I don’t believe a word of it!”
With that, she grabbed Tang Xue’s hand and headed inside.
On the large heated bed inside, his eldest nephew, Zhang Ning, was happily playing with the building blocks Li Yi had bought. They were just the right kind of toy for a child his age.
The only downside was that they were a bit pricey—they’d cost Li Yi a full two yuan!
As his father, Li Shankui, put it, if they’d had the old carpenter at the east end of the village make them, it wouldn’t have cost even fifty cents.
So when Li Yi first mentioned spending two yuan on this pile of scrap wood, he was extremely reluctant.
But Li Yi didn’t listen to him; he genuinely loved that kid, Zhang Ning, from the bottom of his heart.
In his previous life, he had no children; his eldest sister and brother-in-law had passed away early.
His third sister never married either; although she had adopted a little girl, she didn’t live with them—in fact, she didn’t even live in the same city.
So this kid was the only child in Li Yi’s life. Though technically his nephew, Li Yi raised him as his own son.
And the boy never let Li Yi down. Even at a young age, he displayed remarkable business acumen and was always kind to him.
So much so that on his deathbed, aside from the tens of billions in cash he donated, Li Yi left him the vast majority of his fixed assets!
He’d already given away tens of billions—what’s a little money like this?
Over by the bed, there were a few cloth bags.
Third Sister couldn’t wait to pull the cloth bags over to her and untie them one by one.
When they saw that there were actually two pairs of little red leather shoes inside, Tang Xue and her two older sisters all widened their eyes in surprise.
These two pairs of little leather shoes were simply too beautiful; both their style and color had completely captured the hearts of the girls.
But Third Sister quickly realized something was wrong and immediately asked Li Yi, “Why are there only two pairs?”
“I told you I didn’t buy any for you!”
“Really?”
“No!”
Li Na fell silent at once, clearly genuinely upset.
Seeing this, Tang Xue hurriedly said, “Don’t listen to him—he’s just making things up. There definitely isn’t one for me. These two pairs must be for you and Second Sister!”
“Xiao Xue, hmph, this guy really didn’t buy me any. Look, the sizes on these two pairs are clearly for you and Second Sister. They’re so small—how could I possibly fit into them!” Third Sister said indignantly.
Li Yi chuckled and said, “You know your feet are big, don’t you?”
“What do you mean by that?”
Li Na shook her little fists and glared at Li Yi. She hated it when people said she had big feet, even though she did indeed have size 40 feet.
Li Yi immediately pulled a cardboard box from under his eldest nephew Zhang Ning’s buttocks and took out a pair of Huili sneakers.
“These are the ones I bought for you. For someone your size, dress shoes only go up to a size 39—unless you chop off a bit of your toes!”
Li Na looked at the stylish, trendy Huili sneakers before her, her eyes sparkling with delight.
She didn’t mind Li Yi’s teasing and immediately took the shoes to try them on.
Li Yi pointed to the little red leather shoes on the kang and said, “Honey, these two pairs of leather shoes are for you and Second Sister. The size 37 is for you, and the size 38 is for Second Sister. Try them on!”
“Okay!”
While the three of them were trying on shoes, Li Yi pulled a pair of black pants out of his cloth bag and said to his mother, “Mom, Dad and I picked out these pants especially for you. They’re made of Dacron. Try them on!”
Zhang Guiying immediately walked over, but said, “Dacron pants aren’t cheap. Why spend the money on that? It’s a waste!”
“We bought them for you, so just wear them. Stop nagging!” Li Shankui said, squatting on the doorstep.
She had come to terms with it—her son’s spending was like water flowing through a sieve, and she couldn’t dissuade him anyway. Rather than nagging endlessly, she figured it was better to turn a blind eye.
In addition to clothes and shoes, Li Yi had also bought quite a few specialties from the provincial capital: beef jerky, dried mutton, and the famous Qingcheng baked pastries and sugar-coated sesame sticks.
And, of course, the sugar cookies sold by that young girl at the train station.
This trip to the provincial capital had gone smoothly—his father was in good health and had brought back so many gifts—so everyone at home, young and old alike, was overjoyed.
For dinner, Mother—in a rare gesture—stewed a pot of pork with pickled pork and steamed a pot of rice.
After eating their fill, the family began their daily ritual—tallying up the accounts!
Li Yi’s trip, including the round trip, took a total of three days, during which Li Na went to the city to sell mountain produce and set up a stall.
So, she was the first to report:
“Over the past few days, I delivered a total of 2,879 jin of mountain produce to the state-run restaurant—1,782 jin of mushrooms and the rest all wood ear mushrooms. I made a total of 2,187 yuan and 60 fen!”
“Also, over the past few days, I delivered 476 sheets of liangpi to the restaurant, sold 912 sheets on my own, and sold 828 white-skin pancakes, earning 332 yuan.”
Li Yi immediately asked, “What about your expenses?”
“Expenses were about 80 yuan—all spent on high-gluten flour, plus a little salt!” Li Na replied.
“Hmm, not bad at all!” Li Yi said sincerely.
“Of course! I am your big sister, after all!”
No sooner had Li Na finished speaking than Tang Xue chimed in, “Over the past few days, we’ve collected a total of over 10,800 jin of mushrooms and wood ear fungus, with total expenses coming to just over 2,000 yuan.”
“But Second Sister and I sorted out all the wood ear mushrooms and had Third Sister send them to the city. That way, we can bring in a bit more cash, since wood ear mushrooms sell for a slightly higher price than regular mushrooms.”
Li Yi nodded and said, “That’s a great idea. My wife is so smart!”
Tang Xue said somewhat sheepishly, “That was Second Sister’s idea!”
Li Yi: %#$…
Second Sister Li Lan pretended not to notice Li Yi’s embarrassment and immediately said, “Your brother-in-law came by a few days ago. He’s collected over 30,000 pounds of wild produce so far, and he’s running out of money. I had Xiao Xue give him 3,000 yuan to take back so he can keep buying!”
“Hmm, so how many pounds of wild produce have we collected in total so far?” Li Yi asked again.
“We have about 40,000 pounds here, and my husband has 30,000 pounds—that’s a total of just over 70,000 pounds, but less than 80,000!”
Li Yi did a quick mental calculation: five pounds of fresh mushrooms would yield about one pound of dried mushrooms, so 80,000 pounds of fresh mushrooms would equal 16,000 pounds of dried goods.
By year-end, the price of dried mushrooms could soar to around two yuan per jin, which would amount to 32,000 yuan.
But their total investment was just over 10,000 yuan. In other words, even if they stopped right now, they’d already made 20,000 yuan.
Twenty thousand yuan in the 1980s—that’s two “ten-thousand-yuan households”!
“How much money do we have left at home?” Li Yi asked again.
As the family’s chief steward, Tang Xue replied immediately, “Less than two thousand yuan. And that’s after Mom and Dad dug into their savings. If this keeps up, I’m afraid we won’t be able to hold on much longer!”
No sooner had she finished speaking than Second Sister chimed in, “If it’s not working out, we’ll just have to lower our prices a bit—the financial pressure is too much!”
“That’s right—we still owe the production brigade money for two head of livestock!”
“If it’s too much, let’s just charge less…”
However, Li Yi shook his head and said, “We can’t charge less. If possible, we should charge even more!”
“Why?” Second Sister frowned.
“It’s almost August now. The weather here starts to cool down in mid-September, and by then, mushroom yields will drop sharply. By mid-October, it’ll be practically impossible to harvest any more mushrooms!”
Li Yi continued, “That means, at best, we’ll only be able to harvest for another two and a half months before it’s all over! While there’s still a harvest to be had, we should try to get as much as we can!”
“But the money…”
Before she could finish, Li Yi cut in, “I’ll figure out the money!”
“Where are you going to get the money? This isn’t something that can be solved with a few hundred yuan,” Li Shankui said gravely.
“Dad, don’t worry. Your son wouldn’t stoop to doing anything shady just for a little money!”
Li Yi knew exactly what his father was worried about and replied immediately.
“As long as you know your limits, that’s all that matters!”
“Got it!”
……