Xiaomi frowned: "Old man, aren’t you asking too much? Just this? Twenty silver, are you robbing ?"
The old man didn’t even blink: "I caught it myself. I’ll sell it for however much I want."
Xiaomi re-covered the bamboo cage: "It’s so badly injured, it might not even survive, and it’s so small. Even if it dies, the fur isn’t worth anything. Five silver, if you sell, I’ll take it, if not, never mind."
From twenty silver directly down to five, Xiaomi was already thinking that if it didn’t work out, she might add another two, which she could accept.
But to her surprise, in the next second, the old man suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, pushing the bamboo cage straight to Xiaomi: "Deal!"
Xiaomi was instantly shocked, her mouth wide open, and seeing the old man’s sly expression, she was imdiately filled with anger.
"You tricked again!"
Clearly, in the old man’s heart, getting five silver for such a nearly dying little fox was an absolute steal!
"All’s fair in trade, little one. Learn from this, five silver, not a penny less!"
The old man laughed so heartily that his eyes squinted into slits.
Xiaomi was helpless; the price was set by herself, and to lower it further, the old man definitely wouldn’t agree. She could only hand over the silver.
Five silver, not a word more, and of course, no less either.
After paying, Xiaomi lifted the bamboo cage: "Swindler!"
The old man bit the silver hard, leaving a clear tooth mark, then smilingly waved at Xiaomi: "Little one, welco back next ti."
Xiaomi huffed, picking up the little fox and turning to leave.
Only after rounding a corner did she quickly open the cage, slipping the little fox into her space, then left the market with the empty cage.
As for the little fox, once it entered the space, it should be alright. Ling’er would bandage its wounds, and with so spiritual spring water to drink, the space had spiritual energy, so it should recover.
After circling the market, aside from this injured little fox, there were no other gains, and as she left, she saw her dad still surrounded by a crowd.
So were buying fish; others were asking what field fish were. Xiaomi didn’t listen closely, left quickly to change back to her original clothes, and then returned carrying the cage, buying so food before heading to find her dad.
"Xiaomi’s back? What did you buy?" Jiang Hu called her over to his side upon seeing her.
"Bought a little animal, Dad, how much fish is left?"
It wasn’t early anymore; it was almost ti to go ho.
"About half left. We’ll wait a bit longer, if no one buys, we’ll head back."
Jiang Hu was quite satisfied with selling so much today; the rest could still be sold tomorrow or the day after.
Though the fish couldn’t be kept long in the mixing tub, two or three days would be just fine.
"Dad, let’s co earlier tomorrow, more people buy groceries in the morning."
Jiang Hu nodded: "Alright."
They waited another half an hour in the market, then Jiang Hu packed up to leave. In that ti, only a few people ca to buy fish.
Even though the fish looked good, and so who ate it at noon said it was tasty, fish wasn’t everyone’s first choice. After all, buying fish was easy, but cooking it well required a few things.
During this ti, Xiaomi put the bandaged little fox back into the bamboo cage. The densely woven, dirty bamboo cage didn’t draw any attention.
While leaving the city, Xiaomi noticed that the guards at the gate had indeed changed, not the sa ones from the morning.
"Brother Jiang, selling fish is really profitable, not less than farming."
One copper coin for a pound of fish, even though Jiang Hu typically gave an extra half pound or so, they still sold six or seven hundred pounds!
That was over a silver!
A large sack of copper coins!
Except for when they sold grains every year, he’d never seen so much money!
And this wasn’t all of the Jiang family’s field fish.
Not to ntion there were still three or four acres of paddy fields not yet drained, without the fish being caught.
Just from today’s catch, at least another hundred or two pounds were given to the Liu residence!
"Raising fish is indeed profitable, but it’s only for these few days; next ti we’ll have to wait until next year."
Jiang Hu spoke lightly, after all, he wasn’t relying on this for inco. For the Jiang family, field fish were just making use of paddy resources without waste, which also helped increase rice yield.
But it was different for Yang Shulin; his wife raised chickens all year and still didn’t earn so much money by selling eggs for a year.
Plus, raising chickens required weeding and feeding every day, sotis even catching bugs in the field, unlike field fish, where you just put the fingerlings into the fields after transplanting rice and fish them out after half a year.
"Once a year is good enough, and according to those shop workers, the custors really like field fish, so we won’t worry about selling them in the future, no need to run around like today."
This Jiang Hu agreed with, since today was about opening up the market and promoting field fish.
Strictly speaking, tomorrow they could just stay in the market and wait for people to buy, without having to shout everywhere.
Yang Shulin was overly excited, talking all the way about wanting to raise fish himself in the future, and Jiang Hu agreed to teach him.
Yet, Jiang Hu also knew that if word got out about field fish making money, many villagers would probably follow suit.
But Jiang Hu didn’t mind.
After all, teaching Fu’an Village didn’t matter, adding Xiangmu Village wasn’t a problem either.
As he said, the county was big, with many people. An acre of paddy could only produce about four to five hundred pounds of fish, since the main focus was still rice planting.
Also, they only sold for those few days a year. Once the field fish’s reputation spread in the city, just knowing they were only available for a few days each year would ensure they’d sell out next year.
Besides, apart from the county, there were several nearby villages and towns, also being markets.
As for other villages jumping on the bandwagon to raise field fish, Jiang Hu wasn’t worried at all.
Even at Fu’an Village, surrounding villages did raise them, but compared to the fish from their village, they truly lacked a bit of flavor.
Now, Jiang Hu still believed this, not worried at all.
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