Chapter 258: Reborn in the 90s: The Tyrant Flower Chapter 259 — Dealing with People Is Hard

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

As a member of the Chai family, and even the most learned and highest-status person Sanjiacun had ever seen, once Chai Zhongliang spoke, everyone instantly fell silent.

Even many people who didn't know the inside story had to say: "I think what the old Principal said is right..."

By rights, when this kind of dispute arises, it's usually the village or the township that steps in to mediate, or the eldest elder of the Chai family handles it.

However, Chai Zhongliang's identity is simply too special, his former status too high, so his words have become a kind of authority.

Even Chai Zhongxiao and Wang Huirong felt a bad premonition in their hearts at this moment, especially after Chai Mi showed that newspaper to Chai Zhongliang. After Chai Zhongliang stated the result of his handling, Chai Zhongxiao was even more dissatisfied, but didn't dare say anything, and could only fall awkwardly silent.

Che Lianyun saw the situation was turning bad. If Chai Zhongxiao couldn't swindle money out of the eldest and second brothers' families, then only she was left?

Could it be that this disaster was meant for her, Che Lianyun, to bear?

That Che Lianyun absolutely could not bear it either.

"So you mean my eldest brother's family doesn't have to pay, Chai Lao'er pays two or three thousand, and the rest, all of it, falls on Chai You De?" Che Lianyun asked aggressively: "On what grounds?"

"On what grounds?" Chai Zhongliang frowned, then handed the newspaper to Che Lianyun to read.

Che Lianyun's face instantly turned the color of pig liver.

"Nonsense, groundless rumors!!! This is all fabricated, baseless talk." Che Lianyun was indeed a teacher, directly throwing out four idioms to prove this matter was fake.

Then Che Lianyun tore the newspaper to shreds.

Chai Mi sneered from the side: "Who knows if it's fake or not, but I know for a fact that Chai Zhongxiao and Wang Huirong spouting nonsense to swindle money is real. The two of them want to swindle money from our family and my Second Uncle's family so badly, yet they don't swindle yours — that's a bit unreasonable, isn't it?"

The rest of the Chai family didn't quite understand the details, but this kind of face-losing affair was better ended sooner, so they all started dispersing.

Chai Mi wasn't in such a hurry, but said cautiously: "No matter what, today while all the big fellows and Chai family elders are here, this matter must have a settlement. If we disperse today, and tomorrow my grandparents kick up a fuss again, there'll be no place to reason. Grandfather must state his position. How exactly is this money to be settled."

Chai Zhongxiao naturally didn't want to state a position, but the current situation forced him to: he pulled the disaster, he repays it.

Everyone bore witness, and the matter was settled.

The crowd slowly dispersed, and Chai Youqing, hiding in the crowd, lowered his head and quietly left...

As for whether Chai Zhongxiao and Chai You De would come to blows later, Chai Mi didn't know.

She couldn't be bothered to care; anyway, this time she counted as having solved this problem once and for all.

Now the relationship between Chai Zhongxiao and her family was just short of signing a severance document... but in this era, that thing wasn't really needed, so no need for superfluous actions.

Chai Mi had just taken a few steps when Song Qiuping and Chai You Fu came up to ask: "Niece, what the old Principal just said about our family having to repay those two thousand plus..."

"That's up to you, whether to repay or not — my say doesn't count." Chai Mi didn't want to get entangled in this: "Anyway it's not a huge amount. Give it to the old man, and your family will have peace of mind."

"Mm-hmm..." Chai You Fu nodded.

…………

In the afternoon, Chai Mi was staying at home when Liu Zhijing arrived driving a motorcycle tricycle.

Or more accurately, a motorcycle inverted donkey.

Because it wasn't the later-generation kind of small motorcycle tricycle, but a motorcycle's rear half with engine and wheel, front part with two wheels.

It's actually the inverted donkey often seen in the past, just changing the rear from human-powered to motorcycle-powered, nothing complicated.

"Chai Mi, this inverted donkey motorcycle has been delivered to you."

Chai Mi examined this strange "motorcycle inverted donkey"; the engine was still chugging, the air filled with a faint smell of gasoline and dust.

Liu Zhijing grinned, patting the cargo box stained with some oil: "I resprayed the paint, fixed the engine, fixed the exhaust pipe, no problems. This cargo box, I also widened it, doing whatever is absolutely enough."

Chai Mi didn't answer immediately. She circled this iron lump once; the cargo box was badly worn, tire treads half-bald, oil stains and dust on the engine mixed into a thin crust. An old piece, but since it didn't need pedaling, it was indeed better than walking. She calculated in her heart, but also understood: cheap goods aren't good, good goods aren't cheap.

This was all stuff people had used for many years, otherwise it couldn't have been sold as scrap iron.

"How much?" Chai Mi confirmed, her voice revealing neither joy nor worry, "I feel the repair labor alone costs more than the purchase price. You add whatever you should add, can't let you keep losing money."

"I definitely won't lose." Liu Zhijing nodded, fishing out half a pack of crumpled cigarettes from his trouser pocket, wanting to smoke one, but meeting Chai Mi's gaze, he silently put them back. "This thing sits at home taking up space and burning gas. Letting you take it counts as... making the best use of it. Just give me cost price, three fifty."

"Forget it." Chai Mi directly pursed her lips: "Da Zhi, you're not being fair. A new motorcycle now costs eight or nine thousand up to ten thousand, even a wreck beyond recognition costs a thousand or eighteen hundred. You selling at a loss like this, no good. Be practical, tell the truth. Don't play that routine."

"Really three fifty." Liu Zhijing scratched his head: "No lying here. Three fifty is cost price, labor I'm not counting. Anyway I'm staying put, fixed it when idle with nothing to do. No labor charge. Besides, whatever I fix for our village, I don't charge. Not making an exception for you. Don't overthink this."

"Deal."

"Then, can you ride it?" Liu Zhijing asked somewhat awkwardly.

You have to understand, in this era motorcycles are rare things, many people have never even seen one, let alone ridden one.

Chai Mi awkwardly shook her head.

Actually, she definitely knew how to ride a motorcycle.

In her previous life going out to work, to save money, she'd ridden plenty of motorcycles and electric bikes.

But right now Chai Mi definitely couldn't say she knew how to ride a motorcycle, only hedged perfunctorily: "You put it in the courtyard, I'll try another day, might not be too hard."

Liu Zhijing then mounted the inverted donkey and rode it into Chai Mi's courtyard.

The two exchanged a few more pleasantries. Chai Mi took out three hundred fifty yuan and gave it to Liu Zhijing, who didn't refuse too much — after all, he wasn't well-off now either...

Then, Liu Zhijing left.

After Liu Zhijing left, Su Wan came out holding the child, and Chai Xiu was also squatting at the door peeking secretly.

"Three fifty, not expensive. Question is, what do you need it for?" Su Wan hadn't heard Chai Mi wanted to do some small business.

She only knew Chai Mi had some plans, but didn't know specifically what.

"Set up a stall or something... I figure, if it's not too busy, I'll do a dumpling or wonton stall."

"Can this work? Dumplings and wontons aren't youtiao or shaobing — if you can't finish them you can take those away. This has to be eaten on the spot... if you set up a stall..." Su Wan spoke from her experience: "Either go to the market fair, or go to a crowded place and rent a restaurant. But, are restaurants easy to run now?"

Su Wan had never left the village, and didn't know if restaurants or stalls could make money.

Anyway, in Su Wan's eyes, besides farming, everything was as hard as it could possibly be.

Dealing with people is hard.

Farming depends on the weather, but as long as you work a bit harder, the grain yield increases. Doing business, however, faces too much uncertainty—you might make money, or you might lose it.

As ordinary commoners, we basically can only earn, not lose.

If we actually lose money, it would take many, many years to recover.

"How about... setting up a small stall first to try it out?"

"Mm, take it slow. No rush." Chai Mi wasn't in a hurry; taking things slow was better.

"But before doing business, I think our family should raise a few pigs; it would be better. Whether making dumplings or wontons later, we need pork. If we buy it all, it'll cost a lot more." Chai Mi analyzed: "They say pig farmers don't make money, but pig butchers do. In the end, the money earned might all go to the butcher. Better to raise some ourselves and butcher them ourselves—saving money, and besides, the pork would be fresh."

Besides, raising pigs isn't hard in itself. In this era, pigs don't have many diseases, no swine fever or African swine fever; they're easy to keep alive.

Actually, we could even go to the countryside to buy pigs and butcher them ourselves.

Anyway, it's far more profitable than selling meat.

"Raise pigs? Do we need that much meat? It'll spoil in the summer..." Su Wan analyzed: "Besides, raising three or five pigs is fine, but too many and there's no place to put them."

Su Wan rejected the idea: "If you're craving meat, raising one New Year pig is okay. But raising many definitely won't work."

Su Wan made sense; this era isn't very prosperous, and several families pooling to kill one New Year pig is already a luxury. Also, meat keeps in winter.

But not in summer—the weather is too hot; the pork would spoil in a day.

It can't be eaten for that long.

Besides, there are already two cows and some sheep in the yard.

It's already a mess; raising pigs would mean no sleep at all.

In the morning, the sheep start bleating nonstop, and the cows sometimes join the ruckus. Add a few pigs, and this house could start a "band." It would keep the whole family awake.

Besides, raising pigs needs capital. We haven't earned a cent yet, already spent 350 on this Inverted Donkey, and spending several hundred—or even more—on pigs would be too much investment.

You know, Liu San's fruit business, excluding the vehicle, actually doesn't require much money.

Buy fruit, sell fruit.

Small capital, quick returns.

Su Wan actually supports setting up a stall—it pays back quickly. If it fails, the loss won't be too great.

But Chai Mi wanting to raise pigs makes it unreliable; it's a bit overly ambitious.

"Fine, forget it. I'll just buy a freezer." Chai Mi gave up the pig-raising idea for now, but a freezer was a must; otherwise, meat and vegetables bought home would spoil in a day or two, and there'd be nothing to do.

Though we could decide how much to buy based on how much we sell.

But here, only Daji has markets; if we want to buy meat and vegetables based on daily sales, we'd have to go to the county's early market.

That's too far—not even enough for gas money.

Of course, vegetables are easy to handle, but meat is harder, so this freezer is a must.

"Ah... what's a freezer? Is it that thing at the small shop that sells ice cream?"

"Yeah, that thing." Chai Mi said with a smile: "Anyway, we'll have to use that thing in the future, so it's not a waste. Buying it early isn't bad either."

Su Wan didn't oppose it much and agreed.

The mother and daughter chatted for a while. Su Wan finally said: "At home, you have the final say. Anyway, I only have one principle: whether we make money or not is unimportant. What matters is, never bring on famine... losing a bit or earning a bit is fine; everything has profit and loss, but you must keep the scale right. Don't end up losing money and making a mess."

"Don't worry, I definitely won't end up like my grandfather with several ten thousand in famine." Chai Mi answered with a smile.

"And you're laughing. You fought yesterday noon; I heard about it later and nearly died of fright." Su Wan said with lingering fear: "I heard you were chasing Wang Huirong with a brick again? If something happens, it won't be good."

"I know what I'm doing. I wouldn't smash her on the head; I'm just scaring her." Chai Mi hehehed: "Who made her shameless? At her age, running off to hang herself—she's not afraid of making things difficult. By the way, who told you?"

"Your dad said..."

"When did he go? I didn't see him all morning..."

"Sigh... your dad has been in the crowd, not going out. He's disheartened now and doesn't want to mention your grandparents at all." Su Wan sighed: "With grandparents like that, even the best son would turn against them."

"Turning against them is fine. Turning against them means living a few more years." Chai Mi said: "Otherwise, sooner or later, the old man and old woman would drive him to death."

"Right, what was I supposed to do today..." Chai Mi slapped his forehead: "My memory isn't great; I forgot a bit."

"Haven't heard you have anything to do..." Su Wan looked blank.

Chai Mi looked at Chai Xiu: "Xiu'er, help Sister think—what should Eldest Sister do today?"

"I don't know. But the Art of War says: pursue a fleeing enemy with remaining vigor, do not seek fame by imitating the Hegemon-King... By rights, Eldest Sister, you should now beat the dog in the water." Chai Xiu said, pouting: "Or else, remove the firewood from under the cauldron. Grandfather and grandmother have a lot of famine; they not only owe the Credit Union, but also owe the Village..."

"Worthy of being my little sister, your brain works so well." Chai Mi's mouth curved slightly: "Go cause trouble for the old man and old woman. This morning, my Second Uncle had the old man and old woman cheated out of some money, right? This money can't fall into Chai Zhongxiao's hands. I'll go urge Song Qingshan; Chai Zhongxiao owes the Village money and should pay it back. Can't get it out, then just forget it..."

"You..." Su Wan sighed: "You're afraid your grandmother won't actually hang herself..."