Chapter 800: Who is the profiteer, after all?

Selling fish bait?

Zhang Yanping looked at Brother Loach suspiciously, then turned his head to look at Great-Uncle Seven: "Did we put earthworms in that bait of ours?"

"Pah, pah, pah!" Great-Uncle Seven would never allow anyone to insult his craftsmanship like that! Even if it was just a simple mixture for baiting a spot, it was still made with a combination of beans and rice grains; how could it possibly contain earthworms?

Wouldn't that be mixing meat and vegetables indiscriminately?

Then Zhang Yanping couldn't figure it out: "If you didn't put earthworms in it, what's in there that can be used as fish bait?"

Could it be that he didn't understand fishing and his common sense was flawed?

Brother Loach gave him a smug look—it was like pride, and yet also like contempt: "Look at you, you're a student from a prestigious university, can't you broaden your perspective a little?"

"Does it have to be earthworms to catch fish? Can't you just string some sorghum together and have it work just as well?"

Zhang Yanping:...

Great-Uncle Seven:...

At this, both those who knew how to fish and those who didn't fell silent.

Even Song Tan found it quite curious: "What? You strung sorghum?"

How big is a grain of sorghum, anyway? Even if you steam it until it's soft and mushy for wine, isn't it still just that tiny little bit? And it's vegetarian, too.

Is that even worth stringing onto a fishhook?

Anglers are truly unfathomable.

"Yup!" Brother Loach was extremely proud: "I was the one who discovered this!"

He felt a bit shy when he got to this point: "At first, I was... well, let me state this clearly, I wasn't being greedy, I was just curious! You understand the need for caution, right?"

Song Tan nodded with "uh-huh, yeah": "Right, you were greedy... ah, no, cautious. Cautious, plus curious."

Brother Loach paused, wanting to clarify, but finally gave up: "Anyway, that was the mindset. I tasted the rice grains first."

Those rice grains were a handful Great-Uncle Seven had grabbed from the mountain canteen; it would be a miracle if they tasted good.

And yet, Brother Loach actually tasted something: "Maybe it was because it was soaked with the fermented rice wine, it had a bit of chewiness when bitten, and it was actually quite good. Then I tasted the corn, the millet, and everything else..."

Hearing about the corn, Song Tan couldn't help but glance at Great-Uncle Seven.

Aside from the corn they grew themselves, there was only one place in the house that would need dried corn kernels—that was by the pigsty.

Great-Uncle Seven was certainly unconventional.

In any case, Brother Loach reached a conclusion: "Only the sorghum tasted the best! The most authentic! I couldn't even help myself and ate a whole bunch—I mean, I had a sudden flash of inspiration and strung three of them onto the hook!"

"Guess what happened?" He asked the question, his eyes shining: "Did you see my Moments? A big fish in less than ten minutes!!!"

"You look at my Moments, you'll see, it's all thanks to this sorghum!"

"I've tested it with the brothers, three grains have the best effect, you're guaranteed a big fish in ten minutes!"

"Two grains are just okay, but maybe the flavor isn't as tempting—pah, fish-tempting! In any case, it takes ten or twenty minutes to get a fish."

"One grain is the most economical, you get a random fish in half an hour, big or small!"

He was actually quite rigorous, and finally said: "Of course, we were fishing in a wild pond where the fish are extremely cunning and scarce. If you put this in a family fishing resort or a river, I estimate it would work even better!"

Song Tan was stunned, looking at this thick-browed, big-eyed young man: She thought, you also look like one of our Song family people!

Zhang Yanping pondered for a moment; selling the sorghum from the fermented rice wine like this wasn't impossible, but the problem was... how many grains would he sell at a time? Wouldn't it seem too expensive and stingy?

He asked persistently: "Is it impossible to use it for baiting a spot?"

Brother Loach hesitated: "It's possible, but if you bait the spot, the fish all around come swarming like a plague, but! They won't eat the regular bait!"

"Unless you cast a net—but you tell me, we're serious anglers, what kind of skill is casting a net? It's too boring."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Zhang Yanping and Song Tan sincerely: "So? Was this trial okay? If it's okay, the fish bait... well, sell me some more!"

"Look, this was all gathered through the collective wisdom of the brothers, this fish bait isn't just something I..."

He didn't finish his sentence, his dark face full of sincerity, contrasting with Zhang Yanping's fierce appearance, making it seem like he was being cruelly oppressed.

And wasn't he being oppressed? He was about to spend a lot of money!

But Zhang Yanping thought about it and decided to check the inventory first; after all, Song Tan had said some were reserved for the pigs for the New Year and couldn't be touched.

Therefore, he quite kindly let the fresh leek before him go, and would harvest the next batch later.

"Let us discuss it, and we'll let you know when we have stock."

Brother Loach was dismissed just like that.

And Zhang Yanping rubbed his hands and opened the freezer to take a look—wow! There were still several hundred jin of fermented rice wine!

"Xin Jun, what do you think is an appropriate price?"

Song Tan was now a hands-off proprietor, and she almost never participated in pricing, because Zhang Yanping was much more ruthless than her...

For instance, at this moment, he proposed: "How about a trial pack, 9 grains for 99.9 yuan?"

He even had a complete calculation formula: "Look, one sorghum grain catches a fish in half an hour, 9 grains can sustain a whole day of joy and harvest—fishing, isn't it worth spending money to buy happiness?"

Even Song Tan was left speechless by this pricing model.

But Xin Jun said helplessly: "You can joke about being a capitalist, but you can't actually be one!"

"9 grains for 99 will get you scolded. Besides, there's no need to earn this money—Song Tan, should we order some packaging boxes, and then 9 grains for 39.9 yuan with free shipping, limited daily?"

He looked at the backend: "There are still too few things sold in the shop now, try to maintain the monthly sales, this is beneficial for the stability of the shop and cultivating customer stickiness."

The implication was that they weren't looking to make money on this.

Song Tan thought about it: Indeed, counting the sorghum grain by grain is quite time-consuming, it's purely just labor costs.

Zhang Yanping looked at Xin Jun, then at Song Tan; although he admitted he was a profiteer, the two of them had such a considerate look of "this doesn't earn money at all"...

Isn't this even more cunning than a profiteer?

On the other hand, Wu Lan became happy again: "Need people to work again? Then talk to your grandfather later and let him lead that group of old men and women to do it."

Zhang Yanping was surprised: "Isn't it easy to count wrong if their eyesight isn't good for this sorghum?"

Wu Lan glanced at him: "What do you know? They've been trying to weave patterns recently and even entrusted our Secretary Xiao Zhu to buy reading glasses online! 29 or 39 a pair, they have money, they're willing to spend!"

"Once they put on the glasses, this work is just a matter of fine detail, we don't need to rush the time, they won't exhaust their minds, can't they just do it slowly?"

"Indeed." Song Tan thought about it and carried out a bag of portioned fermented rice wine: "Just package one bag a day, and once it's packaged, we'll put it on the shelves... as for the wages..."

She looked at Wu Lan.

Wu Lan pondered: "For a bag like this, they get five—20 yuan per person, lunch included, ask them if they'll do it?" ===== CHAPTER 801 =====