Huo Erhuai strode ahead carrying a load of fish, while Yang Fu carried a small basket and pulled Huo Xi behind.
The three of them walked all the way from the ferry, passed through Jiangdong Gate, and entered the outer city.
It takes more than an hour to walk from Jiangdong Gate to Shicheng Gate in the inner city. Through Shicheng Gate, you can enter the inner city. It is the waist and abdomen of the inner city and is the busiest. And this road is also the shortest from the outer city to the inner city.
of a road.
Any other way would take a long time in a horse-drawn carriage.
Yang Fu pulled Huo Xi and encouraged her to enter the inner city, whispering.
There are many rich people in the inner city. If you wave your hand and leak a little bit, they will squat on the ground and set up a stall to shout, and they may be rounded up.
Sometimes he yelled until his throat was filled with smoke, but he couldn't even sell even half a pound.
And maybe there will be rewards.
Besides, if they sell out the fish quickly, they can find other ways to make money. Maybe they can earn enough to buy a piece of pig's trotters today, and maybe they still have enough money to buy a piece of meat to satisfy their craving.
No matter what you say, Huo Xi just doesn't agree.
Huo Xi doesn’t want to make money?
No, she wants to make money more than anyone else. She still has a lot of things to do. The family has spent a lot of money on her two siblings during this period, and she cannot reach out to them.
Even if I stretch my hand, I can't get much out of my house.
She has to earn it herself.
But now is not the time to enter the inner city.
"That's what you said. There are many rich people in the inner city, but we can't offend the rich. Mud water splashed on his clothes while walking, and he could beat and scold the people walking next to him. We can't offend them.
rise."
Yang Fu choked.
Just as he was about to refute, Huo Erhuai nodded: "Xi'er is right, we don't have any power, so we can just make some real money. The business in the outer city is also good, this area is closest to the inner city, and there are a lot of people living there.
, this load of fish from our family will be sold in a short time.”
Today we moved the boat to the mouth of the Yangtze River. With good luck, the fish we caught are big and should be sold at a high price. Huo Erhuai is not worried about not being able to sell them.
If things continue like this every day, after paying the fishing tax on the river this year, there will still be a lot of money left.
Yang Fu followed behind with a slumped face. He wanted to enter the inner city not for fun, but just to make more money.
Huo Xi looked at him, thought for a moment, and shook his hand.
"Uncle, the Double Ninth Festival will be here soon. If dad catches plump crabs by then, we might be able to sell them in the inner city. People in the inner city like to enjoy chrysanthemums, drink chrysanthemum wine, and eat crabs.
.”
Yang Fu's eyes lit up after hearing this, "No, the Double Ninth Festival is coming soon!"
Suddenly the wind became clearer and the air became brighter.
Pulling Huo Xi, she rushed forward: "Brother-in-law, Xi'er and I are going to grab a good stall!"
Huo Erhuai watched the two of them running away, shook his head and laughed, holding on to the burden and trotting to keep up.
"Selling fish, selling fish, the fresh fish caught in the river just now, big and plump, it will be too late..."
Yang Fu stood in front of the stall and shouted in a loud voice.
Huo Xi did not follow the instructions and just stood next to Yang Fu with a smile. Every time she passed by, she would ask innocently: "Uncle, mother-in-law, aunt, do you want to buy fish? It's fresh and still alive."
He stares at you with his round eyes and smiles at you. Hey, anyone who wants to buy fish will come to the stall for this neat and tidy boy.
Therefore, his business is much better than others.
Huo Erhuai fished out the fish from the fishing basket with a smile. Huo Xi took out the scale from the basket carried by Yang Fu and handed the reed pole over. Huo Erhuai took it, opened the gill cover of the fish, and pulled the reed out.
Put the rod through, string the fish together, and then use the weighing hook to lift it up, "Three catties and four liang, no change, I will give you forty coins."
Huo Xi took the copper plate and put it into the small satchel on her body.
The three of them work together in perfect harmony.
Those who gathered around looked at it and said, "You are twelve cents per pound? Is it so expensive? It only costs seven or eight cents!"
Huo Erhuai scratched his head and looked at Huo Xi.
Huo Xi then smiled and said: "Auntie, there are also those with seven coins. Look..." He picked up the fish in the fishing basket on the other side and showed it to the other party.
"This is too small, weighing less than a pound."
"Yes, they are all under one kilogram here. We sell them for seven cents and it is not expensive. It is not easy to catch them and keep them with water on the boat, and then keep them with water all the way. They are still alive. Look, they are still jumping around.
Of."
After saying that, she threw the fish back into the fishing box. The fish suddenly broke away from her hand and hurriedly squeezed into a ball with the fish inside, with water droplets splashing out.
The woman stepped back and looked around, unsure of her decision.
"I, I'll take a look." The price is the same everywhere else, so how come this one has different prices?
The man left, and Huo Xi didn't care.
She insisted on sorting the fish into three, six or nine grades. Otherwise, who wouldn't want to buy the big ones at the same price? The remaining small ones often couldn't be sold and Huo Erhuai had to work hard to pick them back all the way. He dried the fish and ate it every day.
I didn't even finish eating until I vomited.
You get what you pay for. If you are willing to eat, you will naturally choose the good ones, and you don't care about the few pennies. If you are reluctant to spend money, you can also buy small fish. If you lower the price of the fish, if you have less money, you will always sell it.
.
"Selling fish, selling fish, big and plump, cheap..."
After selling for a while, the big fish on the stall were sold out, and the small fish under one kilogram were finally sold out for six to seven cents.
"Sold out, sold out."
"Why is it sold out? Are there any more here?"
The eldest lady had just walked to the fish stall with her little feet. She saw two boys standing in front of the fish stall from a distance. Although their clothes were patched, they looked clean and she was willing to come and buy them.
"Mom, we are keeping the rest here to give away."
"Can't you give me one?" The lady took the fishing basket and looked inside. When she saw that the fish was still alive and kicking, she felt happy and kept holding on to it.
"Xi'er..."
Huo Erhuai couldn't bear to let people down. He knew that Huo Xi had left two big ones, one to be given to Butcher Gao, and one to be exchanged for meat with Butcher Gao. Otherwise, he could sell one and get the money from Butcher Gao later.
Buying meat?
Huo Xi thought for a while, then nodded: "Okay, I'll give you one."
"Okay." The lady was very happy and released her hand from the fishing basket, "Then you can help me remove the scales and clean it up."
"Okay. I will definitely clean it up for you."
Huo Erhuai responded as he fished out the fish and put it on the chopping board. He slapped the fish's head with the back of his knife, and then pressed the fish's head to quickly remove the scales, disembowel and remove the internal organs.
"Can I cut it into pieces?"
"No, just the whole piece will be fine."
"Okay."
After cleaning it and washing it with the water in the fish basket, he put the fish in her basket and watched her go away.
In less than an hour, all the fish were sold out. The three of them were very happy.
Huo Xi looked at the bulging little satchel full of copper coins and was very happy. She had earned at least three or four coins today!
The three of them quickly poured out the water in the two sealed fishing baskets, leaving only a small amount of water to hold the fish and about twenty shrimps given to Butcher Gao.
"Uncle Gao, I brought you fish."
"Oh, how can this be so embarrassing?" Butcher Gao grinned at Lao Gao. He said that these two boys would definitely bring him fish, and now it's coming? His wife even pinched his ears.
"Why are there still shrimps here? I can't take them. The fish weighs two kilograms, so I can't take them." Butcher Gao refused.
Huo Xi saw that there was a piece of pig's trotters on his stall. Although she was not going to buy pig's trotters today, she had crucian carp at home, so her mother told her to just drink crucian carp soup.
He glanced at Huo Erhuai and said, "How about Uncle Gao give us this pig's trotter and we'll pay you another ten cents?"
"I don't want ten cents, you can take it." Butcher Gao picked up the piece of pig's trotters with great dignity, quickly skewered it, and stuffed it into Huo Xi's hand without even weighing it.
"How can that be done? We can't let you lose money." Huo Erhuai refused.
In the end, Butcher Gao accepted the ten cents and happily watched the three of them leave. Hey, he is an honest man. He likes to deal with honest people.
Bring the fishing basket they left on the stall to the shop.
"Xi'er, my brother-in-law is going to move goods, where should we go? Should we also go to the outer city dock?" Yang Fu and Huo Xi walked behind Huo Erhuai and whispered to Huo Xi.