Chapter 259: Seventies Treasure Appraisal System (33)

The water system in He Xi Commune, where Feng Juan's maiden home is located, is well-developed, and every production team has its own duck farm; commune members can exchange work points for duck eggs at any time.

As for the chicken eggs, they are laid by the chickens raised by her brothers; since her brothers have many siblings and each family can raise three chickens after the family property was divided.

She lacks chicken eggs in the city, while her sisters-in-law in the countryside lack various coupons, so every time she goes back, she takes a few Industrial Coupons to trade for some chicken and duck eggs, making both sides very happy.

Therefore, every time Feng Juan trades things with Xie Yang, what she brings is either chicken eggs or duck eggs.

"My eldest sister is pregnant and prefers spicy over sour, but once she gives birth, she will likely love these sour long beans and will definitely come looking for me. So I won't stand on ceremony with you; please try to pickle as much as you can for me."

Having dealt with her a few times, Xie Yang knew that Feng Juan's eldest sister had married into the family of a County Committee Cadre and was not short of money, so she might be a stable, big customer in the future, and immediately smiled and agreed: "Fine."

It is quite a coincidence that the in-laws of Feng Juan's eldest sister are neighbors with Chen Xiaoyu's family, and they are neighbors with a good relationship who occasionally share food with each other.

This day, Chen Xiaoyu tasted a bite of sour long beans at Feng Juan's eldest sister's place and instantly listed it as a divine artifact for porridge and rice in the morning. So, on her day off this Sunday, she followed Feng Juan's eldest sister over to hang out and incidentally wanted to buy some sour long beans to take back.

As it turned out, it was an acquaintance!

Chen Xiaoyu happily grasped Xie Yang's hand: "Comrade Xie! So you moved here? I even went to the Mechanical Factory Family Building to visit you last month, but when I heard people say you had moved, I felt depressed for a while."

Xie Yang then gave her an extra small jar of pickled sour radish.

"Wow! Is the sour radish this delicious too? Can I buy some to take back? The garlic cloves don't taste spicy at all when eaten this way, and they are so refreshing; I want some of those too..."

In the end, Chen Xiaoyu bought more by herself than Feng Juan and her sister combined, and she became the most loyal repeat customer, coming over every time she had a break.

Whatever Xie Yang had, she wanted; she wasn't limited to chili sauce, sour long beans, sour radish, sour pickles...

She said her family had many members, and they all liked sour and spicy dishes that went well with rice.

Just like that, before the chili sauce business had completely ended, the business for sour long beans and other pickles had picked up.

In the golden autumn of September, Qin Zheng successfully finished this Task and returned home; Xie Yang's low-key pickle business had already developed to about twenty households.

Of course, it all relied on word-of-mouth from Feng Juan's sisters and the Chen Family, and every purchase was made through them.

If so many people really came to her house to buy at once, the scene would be too spectacular, and she feared she would immediately be labeled for "speculation and profiteering."

The pickle products also evolved from a single chili sauce to fresh chili sauce, chili oil, assorted pickles, pickled cucumber, sugar garlic...

Previously, it was too hot, and she was afraid the chicken and duck eggs she traded for would rot if not eaten quickly, so Xie Yang successively turned them into egg rolls, century eggs, and salted duck eggs. As it turned out, the egg rolls and century eggs were also quite popular.

Because Feng Juan's sisters had been influenced by what they saw and heard since childhood, they knew how to pickle salted duck eggs themselves, but making century eggs was a technical job, and even in He Xi Commune, few families knew how to do it.

So, as soon as Xie Yang made them, they were bought by Feng Juan's sisters to try; century egg with tofu is a famous dish.

Because the egg rolls were mixed with white flour, they were high-priced snacks at the Supply and Marketing Cooperative, and only Feng Juan's eldest sister and Chen Xiaoyu were willing to buy them.

After this round, Xie Yang traded for a few taels of seaweed, dried shrimp, and dried razor clam, which were very suitable for making soup this season.

Chen Xiaoyu brought a can of baby formula directly, saying it was to offset the chili sauce, pickles, century eggs, etc., she had taken during this period.

Baby formula! This is a precious item! If there isn't enough breast milk later, she can mix it for the child to drink.

Xie Yang accepted it happily and indicated that she would cover the Chen Family's chili sauce and pickles for this year.

Chen Xiaoyu was delighted: "Then I'll bring two more cans of formula for the New Year; can Sister Yang cover the pickles for the whole of next year too?"

"No problem!"

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Even though Qin Zheng had returned, she didn't plan to stop this small business; she even planned to pull up all the autumn eggplants and autumn cucumbers in the vegetable patch once they matured to plant Chinese cabbage, so she could pickle spicy cabbage later.

She had once spent a few years in the Korean ethnic region in a past life and specifically learned the local way of making spicy cabbage, which is tastier and healthier than traditional pickled vegetables and is said to have the effect of preventing arteriosclerosis.

Qin Zheng had no objections to this; he only looked at her high, protruding belly and warned her with a trembling heart not to overwork herself. He was the one to earn money to support the family, and she only needed to do what she liked.

Compared to Xie Yang's happy, comfortable, and fulfilling pregnancy routine, Bai Xiuyuan, who was also pregnant, had a much more agonizing time.

Just as Xie Yang guessed: there aren't that many fools in this world willing to raise a son for someone else.

Of course, that is on the condition that the woman is aware of it.

When she was twenty-eight weeks pregnant, Xie Yang specifically went to the hospital where the daughter-in-law of the He family's neighbor worked for a prenatal checkup, and feigned an inadvertent reveal that she and the He family's eldest daughter-in-law, Bai Xiuyuan, were colleagues:

"I envy my colleague so much; she married into a good family. Not only are her parents-in-law both employed, but her siblings-in-law have all entered the factory one by one. It's just that her brother-in-law is unlucky and injured his 'root of life,' so he's afraid he won't be able to have children in this life... Fortunately, for the sake of face, her parents-in-law still want to find him a wife. Anyway, my colleague can give birth, and look, she had a big, fat boy for her first child, and she's pregnant again recently. Judging by the fetal position, it's another son. Her mother-in-law is overjoyed, saying she should just keep giving birth, and no matter how many sons she has, they can afford to raise them; at worst, she'll let the younger son and his wife help raise them..."

The daughter-in-law of the He family's neighbor: "..."

A few days later, the news that He Jianming couldn't have children but still harbored delusions of marrying a wife to deceive everyone spread through the nearby alleys. The family that had originally wanted to become in-laws with the He family immediately turned around and changed their choice of son-in-law.

After the He family found out, they all shrank like quails; even if they were furious, they didn't dare to make a scene, fearing that if it blew up, more people would know about it, and where would the He family put their faces?

If they couldn't do anything to the outside world, couldn't they vent internally?

He Mu called Bai Xiuyuan over and scolded her severely: "You have no gate on your mouth! How could you say such a thing to your colleague? Now it's done! Jianming's marriage has fallen through! Our family's face is lost!"

Bai Xiuyuan cried out that she was wronged: "I didn't say it to anyone! It definitely wasn't me! Mother, you can't wrong me!"

"Who wronged you? If it wasn't you, who could it be? In this family, you're the only one with that mouth, always gossiping! A country bumpkin is a country bumpkin! Even after marrying into the city, you can't wash away the bad habit of a country woman wagging her tongue!"

"Shut up!" Bai Xiuyuan hated others calling her a country bumpkin the most; for a moment, she lost her reason and forgot that the person in front of her was her mother-in-law, "What kind of good stuff are you? Counting up three generations, aren't you the same country bumpkin!"

"How dare you! How dare you talk to your mother-in-law like that!" He Mu was so angry that she slapped her across the face.

If it weren't for Bai Xiuyuan holding a big belly, a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law fight might have broken out.

It ended with Bai Xiuyuan pretending that she had been slapped by her mother-in-law and had triggered a miscarriage, and she was sent to the hospital.