Chapter 13

This is what he wrote on the mountain this afternoon.

This is also the result of his careful consideration over several days. At his young age, the opportunities for him to earn money were indeed limited. To improve the family's financial situation, it could only rely on his parents. However, the businesses that his parents could engage in to earn money were also limited. Raising pigs, for example, the price of pigs was low, and if they were unlucky and the pigs got sick, they could only slaughter them for their own consumption. Moreover, raising two pigs was already the limit for a family; raising more would make it difficult to provide enough feed for the pigs.

Given the current conditions, selling candied chestnuts was a more realistic choice. When he was in elementary school, one year, chestnuts once sold for 5 yuan per catty, which was the highest price in history. Now, the price was at most 3 yuan per catty. Everyone felt that the price was low, but there was nothing they could do. In the prices of agricultural products, farmers always had little say.

Moreover, he knew how to make them.

After starting work, whenever he saw candied chestnuts, he would buy some from time to time. It wasn't because he liked to eat them, but mainly because he had helped his parents harvest chestnuts every year since he was young, from beating the chestnuts to picking them, peeling them, and finally selling them, which took more than ten days. However, he could not recall ever eating a single meal of chestnuts at home, not even a bowl of cooked chestnuts. He guessed that it was the same in the whole village; even if the price was low, no one could bear to eat them, and at most, they would eat the broken ones raw while peeling them.

To put it another way, after starting work, when he bought candied chestnuts, he wasn't eating chestnuts; he was eating the regrets of his childhood.

It was like how many people still listened to children's songs like "Let's Row the Boat" in adulthood, listening to the regrets of their childhood. When Feng Yiping, dressed in his sister's old clothes that were too small, helped with the household chores as much as he could, the children in the capital city, on weekends, were dressed up nicely and rowing boats in the park surrounded by green trees and red walls near Tiananmen Square. Because of this, when Feng Yiping's family later visited Beijing, he specially took his son to row a boat in Beihai Park.

Zhang Yan, on the other hand, loved to eat chestnuts. There were vendors selling them at the entrances of shopping malls and farmers' markets, and she would buy them about once a week. At that time, candied chestnuts were already selling for 16 yuan per catty. After her parents went to help in Guangzhou, especially her mother, seeing that a small paper bag of chestnuts cost nearly 20 yuan, they felt it was not worth it and said, "If you like to eat them, I'll make them."

However, she didn't know how to make them. Feng Yiping looked it up online, and it was easy, with step-by-step instructions and specialized sand for roasting. They tried a few times, constantly adjusting the sugar and oil ratios and adding other spices. Eventually, the enhanced version of the candied chestnuts they made tasted better than those bought from outside.

Now, all they needed to do was to scale up the process from roasting one or two catties at a time to roasting ten catties at a time in a large iron pot.

Feng Yiping had another consideration in mind when he made this suggestion.

Because his parents had always been financially strained, they valued money greatly, often trying to stretch a penny into two. Over time, this became a habit. Even after Feng Yiping earned some money, this mindset did not change. Living together, his parents' frugality, to the point of being stingy, was something even Feng Yiping found hard to get used to. This frugality was comprehensive, from clothing, food, housing, and transportation, saving every possible yuan. Zhang Yan, who came from a relatively well-off family, found it even harder to adapt. As a result, there were many conflicts over spending between his parents and Feng Yiping and Zhang Yan.

Feng Yiping remembered that Jia Pingwa once wrote something like, "In my eyes, two yuan is not just two yuan; it's a pile of white salt."

In his parents' eyes, money was not just money; it was life itself. Spending money was like taking their life, and at their age, it was very difficult to change this mindset. This time, Feng Yiping was confident that he could do better and wanted his parents to earn some money while they were still young, so they wouldn't value money more than life.

Feng Zhenchang read the note several times and handed it to Mei Qiuping, "This doesn't seem too difficult. River sand is easy to get; we just need to go to the river and scoop it up. Sugar and tea oil are also easy to buy. The only question is whether we can make it taste good."

"Also, where are we going to sell it? In the county town, selling it for 6 yuan per catty, I doubt many people would buy it. Even in the city, it might not be easy. In the provincial capital, there might be more buyers, but we've never been there, and we don't know anyone. Plus, we need a place to stay in the provincial capital, and buying sugar and tea oil, as well as a stove, will all cost money. Altogether, it will be quite a bit," Feng Zhenchang continued.

Feng Yiping said, "I'm not saying we have to sell it in the provincial capital. This is just one idea. If this doesn't work, we can think of others. The main point is that the biggest cost, the chestnuts, we have ourselves and don't need to buy. If we don't have enough at home, we can borrow a few hundred catties from Brother Zhiming. We can pay him back after we sell them. This shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Feng Zhenchang nodded, "That's fine. His child is young, so they don't need much money. If we talk to him, he should be able to lend us some."

"The key issue now is whether we can roast the chestnuts well. So, my idea is that by the end of this month, we should start harvesting the chestnuts. We don't need to rush to sell them; we can try roasting them first. If the taste is good, we can consider doing this. Roasting 10 catties a day should be no problem. Over two months, we can roast 600 catties. At 6 yuan per catty, the gross income would be 3600 yuan. Uncle Xiao has been in the provincial capital, so we can ask him to help us rent a place. Rent is 200 yuan per month, and we can bring our own rice. 200 yuan for vegetables per month should be enough. Travel expenses would be 300 yuan in total, and the stove, sugar, and oil would cost 200 yuan. Altogether, the expenses would be 1300 yuan. 600 catties of chestnuts would cost 1200 yuan, so we would make about 1100 yuan in profit. That's over 500 yuan per month, and if we do well, this business can be done year-round, so making 5000 yuan a year should be no problem."

Feng Zhenchang, who had been an accountant in the production team in his early years, said, "You're including the 400 catties we have at home. If we don't count the cost of those 400 catties, we could make about 2000 yuan in two months?"

Feng Yiping said, "If we want to do this long-term, we should still count the cost."

Feng Zhenchang nodded, but Mei Qiuping was a bit stunned. After her illness and building the house, they had accumulated over 3000 yuan in debt. She was an impatient person and worried every day. According to their current income, it would take years to pay off the debt. How could her son's calculation show that they could pay off a large part of the debt in just two months?

She asked anxiously, "Yiping, did you make a mistake?"

"It can't be wrong," Feng Zhenchang said, "How could the calculation of over a thousand yuan be wrong?"

"A thousand yuan, you make it sound so easy," Mei Qiuping, who also had a strong personality, said, "In recent years, which year has our family had more than a hundred yuan left at the end of the year?"

Feng Zhenchang was speechless, and Feng Yiping quickly said, "Mom, it's not wrong. I'll write it down for you."

Holding the paper, she first questioned, "200 yuan for vegetables per month? That's like eating fish and meat every day!"

"Mom, this is a rough estimate. It's better to be a bit generous," Feng Yiping explained.

Mei Qiuping read it several times, "It's correct. This way, we can indeed make over 500 yuan per month. Even if we make half of that, 200 yuan per month, I would be satisfied."

Feng Zhenchang, now in a better mood, joked, "We haven't even started, and you're already talking about making 200 yuan per month."

Mei Qiuping said, "Anyway, this is a way. As Yiping said, if he gets into university, we can't afford it just by farming. We'll just keep accumulating debt. Besides, is it easy to borrow money? Since the calculation shows that this can make money, let's try it with all our heart!"

"According to what Yiping said, it's worth a try!" Feng Zhenchang agreed.

He also found it difficult. Due to his father's landlord status, he didn't get married until he was 37 and had always worked hard in the fields, but it didn't earn much. Although he was respected in the village, with everyone calling him Uncle or Father, the thousands of yuan he owed for his wife's medical treatment and building their current house had not been paid off in all these years.

Currently, his son was his pride and their hope. His son was right; tuition fees were getting higher every year, and university was even more expensive. They couldn't wait until the last minute to think of ways to earn money. It was indeed time to find a way to make money. However, he didn't have any good ideas, and his son's suggestion was a viable option.

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