Chapter 241: Let the Bullets Fly for a While
The Li Family’s New Home!
Hearing her younger brother ask about business matters, Li Lan immediately pulled out an account book and handed it to Li Yi!
“All the income and expenses are recorded here. Take a look yourself—I’m going to grab a bite to eat first!”
Li Yi didn’t hesitate; he immediately picked up the ledger and began reading.
It had been a month and a half since they left, and Li Yi could see from the ledger that the family’s income had been steadily declining during that time.
Especially since mid-September, it had nearly halved!
Looking at the expenses, it was much the same!
In August, the family spent at least 600 yuan daily on purchasing mushrooms and mountain produce, sometimes even reaching 700 yuan.
But by October, that figure had dropped to just 200 yuan—and often, not even 200 yuan was enough!
This meant that the Li family was now receiving less than 500 pounds of mushrooms per day.
“Do you see the problem?” Second Sister asked as she ate thin porridge with flatbread.
“Yeah, things aren’t looking good,” Li Yi replied.
“Lately, both the mushroom business and the cold noodle business have been significantly affected, and our income has dropped considerably!”
She then gave a brief overview of the situation.
Upon learning that they were now collecting less than 1,000 jin of mushrooms daily and selling fewer than 200 servings of liangpi a day, Tang Xue immediately felt a pang of guilt and said, “I’m sorry. If it weren’t for me, our family’s business wouldn’t be in this state!”
Li Yi pinched her cheek playfully and smiled. “Don’t take the blame for everything—this has nothing to do with you!”
“How can it not be my fault? If you hadn’t come with me to visit my parents, none of this would have happened!” Tang Xue said stubbornly.
“I told you it has nothing to do with you. Why won’t you listen?”
Li Yi continued, “Whether it’s the liangpi business or the mountain produce business, it’s directly related to the weather. Since it’s gotten colder, naturally fewer people are eating liangpi. It’s the same with mushrooms—once it gets cold, their growth is affected.”
“Is that really true?”
“Yeah, and that’s just now. In another two weeks, once the first frost hits the fields, the mushrooms will be gone!” Li Yi said.
“Does that mean our business is finished?” Tang Xue asked, sounding worried.
“Haha, how could that be?”
Li Yi then said with a smile, “We’ve been investing money over the past few months. Once the weather turns cold and fresh mushrooms are no longer available, it’ll be time for us to ship out our dried mushrooms.”
“So the colder it gets, the better it is for us. Harvest season is almost here!”
Hearing this, Tang Xue and Li Lan both breathed a sigh of relief.
Lately, with business slowing down, both Li Lan and the rest of the family had been getting anxious.
But since they couldn’t get in touch with Li Yi, all they could do was worry!
“Yi, have you found a buyer for these dried mushrooms yet?” Li Lan asked.
“Not yet, but there’s no need to worry. Besides, it’s not a good time to ship them out right now!” Li Yi replied.
“Then when would be the right time to sell them?”
“After the Lunar New Year—preferably around the end of the year!”
“That’s so long—doesn’t that mean we have to wait another two or three months?”
“Yeah!”
Li Yi had a pretty good grasp of this year’s dried goods prices. Prices for dried mushrooms would start to rise in November, but the increase wouldn’t be significant until just before New Year’s Day.
However, after New Year’s Day, prices would suddenly surge, reaching their peak by the end of the year.
So there was absolutely no need for him to rush into action now—he’d let things play out for a while!
Just as they were talking, the sound of a bicycle bell rang out from outside the door, and immediately afterward, a bicycle rode straight into the courtyard!
Upon closer inspection, it was none other than Third Sister Li Na!
After entering the courtyard, Li Na glanced around, then immediately parked her bicycle!
She then ran straight over to Tang Xue and exclaimed happily, “Xiao Xue, you guys are really back?”
“When I got home and saw your suitcases, I guessed you must have come back—I never expected it to actually be true!”
Tang Xue was also delighted to see Li Na, her older sister-in-law and best friend.
“Sis Na, you’re back from your stall. How’s business?”
Li Na sighed and said, “Fewer and fewer people are eating liangpi these days. I only sold a little over 200 portions today—about half as many as before. But the white flatbreads are selling better than ever; I actually sold over 400 today!”
“That many?”
“Yep!”
At that moment, Li Yi, standing nearby, said with a smile, “That’s to be expected. The weather’s getting cooler, so fewer and fewer people will be eating liangpi!”
“What are we going to do then?”
“Let’s just shut down the liangpi business in a few days!” Li Yi said, making a startling announcement.
“It’s… it’s over?”
Hearing this, the three women in the courtyard froze, and everyone’s gaze fixed on Li Yi.
“Don’t look at me like that—I’m serious!” Li Yi said.
“Are you really going to stop? If we stop, we won’t have any income!” Li Na frowned.
“Selling liangpi is a seasonal business. Once this season is over, it won’t be easy to keep going.”
Li Yi continued, “Besides, I only started this little business as a temporary solution to marry Xiaoxue. It wasn’t really meant to be a long-term plan!”
“If we don’t sell liangpi, what else can we do?”
“Heh, I’ve already figured out what to do. I’ll let you guys know later!” Li Yi said with a smile.
Li Na had every confidence in her younger brother’s abilities, so she immediately replied, “Alright, I’ll leave it up to you!”
Li Yi glanced at his watch—it was almost two o’clock!
“Tonight, I plan to invite Dongzi, Qiangzi, and Shitou over for dinner at my place to discuss our next steps. You guys stay here for now—I’m heading home to cook!”
“Do you need my help?” Third Sister asked immediately.
“No, thanks!”
Then Li Yi asked, “By the way, do we have any meat at home?”
“We’re out of fresh meat, but there’s still plenty of cured pork in the jar!” his third older sister said.
“Got it!”
After saying that, Li Yi hopped on his bicycle and rode away from the new house!
Back at the old house, Li Yi first carried his luggage from the room into the west wing!
He also sorted through the gifts he’d brought back from Chang’an before starting to prepare dinner!
He took a quick look at the ingredients at home: half a jar of cured pork with pork fat scraps, a small amount of potatoes, twenty or thirty heads of Chinese cabbage, two large baskets of daikon radishes, and a dozen or so gourds!
At the sight of these items, Li Yi knew the village had distributed the vegetables.
Every year, the village planted turnips, Chinese cabbage, gourds, and the like near Xihegou. By late September or early October, they would distribute the produce to the villagers, who relied on these vegetables to get them through the winter.
Li Yi did the math: with six people in his household, plus Dongzi, Shitou, and six or seven others, there would be at least twelve or thirteen people coming over for dinner that night.
With so many people, stir-fried dishes just wouldn’t be practical.
Besides, there wasn’t enough produce to stir-fry anyway!
After much deliberation, Li Yi finally decided to make a big pot of stewed vegetables and steam a batch of flatbreads!
No sooner said than done, Li Yi immediately got to work!