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Li Xiaobao didn't bother with other things and went to sleep after dinner. He had thought the entire day about how he had a Five Elemental Space and it would be a waste not to use it.
Li Xiaobao went to bed early and didn't wake up late either. It was still dark when he got up and went ghosting around his own yard looking for a large plastic bucket. Upon seeing the fish he had taken from the Five Elemental Space in the bucket, he immediately felt a wave of excitement.
Last night, as soon as Li Xiaobao fell asleep, he entered the Five Elemental Space. He wandered around inside, turning left and right, thinking about what to bring out. Finally, he discovered a river in the Water Elemental Space that contained fish, and they were exceptionally plump and juicy.
So, that's what led to the scene in front of him now.
"Xiaobao, why are you up so early?" Just as Li Xiaobao was feeling a burst of excitement looking at the fish he had brought out from the Five Elemental Space, Zhou Cuihua's voice surged from behind him.
"Ah! Sister-in-law, can't you pop up less mysteriously?" Li Xiaobao exclaimed as he jumped up, amusing Zhou Cuihua immediately.
"Are you missing Zhang Ling?" teased Zhou Cuihua while watching Li Xiaobao.
"Sister-in-law, stop joking around. No, not at all!" Li Xiaobao outright denied Zhou Cuihua's words. He had just been considering plans to make money, after all.
"Really not? It doesn't look like that to me. What could be so engrossing to you? You're also at that age, sister-in-law understands," Zhou Cuihua said with a smile on her face, looking at Li Xiaobao. She had previously caught the two of them hugging and embracing in the river.
Zhou Cuihua originally wanted to tease Li Xiaobao, but then she remembered that day and suddenly felt a tension throughout her body, her breathing quickening without reason.
"Sister-in-law, what's wrong?" Li Xiaobao asked, looking puzzled at Zhou Cuihua's state.
"You little rascal." Zhou Cuihua glared at him for no apparent reason, hoisted her hoe, and walked out.
"What's gotten into sister-in-law?" Li Xiaobao muttered helplessly as he watched Zhou Cuihua's departure. But looking at her retreating figure, he noticed that Zhou Cuihua's way of walking seemed different from before.
Li Xiaobao planned to take the fish in the bucket to the market to sell, but what troubled him was the issue of transportation. Carrying a large bucket with dozens of fish to the market was definitely not something he could manage on his own.
In the end, with no other option, Li Xiaobao thought of the abandoned tricycle at home. It had been bought by his father to haul things before his legs had become disabled. Since Li Detian's legs gave out, the tricycle had been discarded there, and today it finally came into use.
"Xiaobao, what are you doing?" Seeing Li Xiaobao tinkering with the old tricycle early in the morning, Luo Guiying came out of the house to ask.
"Nothing much, mom. I'm heading to the market," Li Xiaobao said as he rode the worn tricycle out the door. Although he wasn't very good at farm work, he knew that it was better to head to the market early to secure a good spot.
Li Xiaobao left his house, whistling while pedaling the rickety tricycle along the country road toward the market.
The nearest market to Kao Mountain Village was also ten miles away, and Li Xiaobao estimated he would arrive before the sun came up.
However, once he got to the market, things were different from what Li Xiaobao had expected. Although he thought he had come early, there were no good spots left on the market.
Li Xiaobao had no choice but to find a spot on the edge, paid the stall fee, and set up his stand.
What Li Xiaobao hadn't anticipated was that no sooner had he put down the bucket, people began asking about the price of the fish. And there were many of them, quickly crowding around his stall.
Although Li Xiaobao came to sell fish today, he realized he had rushed out without bringing a scale. But quickly, an idea struck Li Xiaobao, "These fish are caught from the Five Elemental Space, they're extremely fresh, and the nutrition must be somewhat higher than ordinary fish, right? Why not just sell them by the piece?"
With that thought, Li Xiaobao immediately announced to the inquiring crowd, "I'm selling these fish by the piece, thirty yuan for a big one and twenty yuan for a small one."
"Kid, you kidding me? At that rate, a pound would cost ten yuan!" The people buying fish immediately objected upon hearing Li Xiaobao's pricing.
"That's the price. If you don't agree, feel free to check out other stalls." Actually, Li Xiaobao had already seen the fish from other vendors, all belly up and far from fresh.
"Alright, thirty it is. Give me three of them."
"I'll take two as well."
"Hey! Wait, I want some too, I want some too."
What Li Xiaobao did not expect was that even selling the fish by piece, it was still in such high demand that they sold out in minutes.
"Hehe." Li Xiaobao looked at the eight hundred yuan he made in just a few minutes, grinning from ear to ear. He had not expected his fish to be so popular.
"No way, I need to bring more next time." Li Xiaobao was already planning to get a bigger bucket at home, to carry a few hundred fish at a time. Getting rich was just around the corner.
"Looks like I need to take a trip to the pharmacy to buy some seeds for Chinese herbs." Li Xiaobao figured that with the speed of selling fish like this, he could afford to lease the vacant land after a few more trips, so he should prepare in advance.
When he got to the entrance of the pharmacy, Li Xiaobao parked his tricycle and went inside. The entire pharmacy was bustling with good business; there were so many people that no one came to greet them even after they had browsed for a while.
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"Looks like the traditional Chinese medicine business is quite profitable, huh, I should consider it," Li Xiaobao said excitedly, watching the crowd in the herbal medicine shop.
"You think you can do the Chinese herbal medicine business?" Li Xiaobao had just muttered to himself when a sharp and harsh voice rang out.
Upon hearing the voice, Li Xiaobao turned around and saw a female sales assistant, who was the daughter of the pharmacy owner, Wu Xiaoli. Wu Xiaoli had been discussing business with several people who looked like they would place a large order, but unexpectedly, after they looked over the shop's stock, they were not completely satisfied and left.
Wu Xiaoli was very annoyed after losing a sale, and when she saw Li Xiaobao's countryside attire, she couldn't resist mocking him.
"What's wrong with me wanting to do the medicine trade? Besides, I'm a customer, aren't I? Is this how you treat your customers?" Li Xiaobao said with a tinge of amusement. He had just come in and hadn't even started to buy anything when the woman had already given him an earful.
"Hmph, with the way you look, I doubt you could afford it. Go cool off somewhere else," Wu Xiaoli, already angry about the lost sale, grew even angrier at Li Xiaobao's words.
"Where's your manager? Call the manager over," Li Xiaobao said, too lazy to argue further.
Upon hearing the request for the manager, Wu Xiaoli's face slightly changed. Her father, Wu Fengqing, was the owner of the pharmacy; why would she be afraid? She coldly replied, "I'm just like this, so what are you going to do about it? Take it or leave it."
In the end, with no choice left and under Li Xiaobao's forceful demeanor, Wu Fengqing intervened and sold the seeds to Li Xiaobao at half price.
By the time Li Xiaobao got home, it was already dark. Seeing him return after a whole day out, Zhou Cuihua hurriedly warmed up some food for him.
"Xiaobao, I saw you caught so many fish in the morning, what did you do with them?" Zhou Cuihua, curious, asked as she watched Li Xiaobao wolfing down his meal.
"Sold them!" Li Xiaobao replied, his mouth full of food.
"Sold them? All of them?" Zhou Cuihua was incredulous, she had seen Li Xiaobao catch several dozen fish that morning.
"Of course, Sister-in-law!" Li Xiaobao recounted the day's events at the market.
"What? You sold fish for eight hundred yuan this morning?" Li Detian was shocked when he heard Li Xiaobao's words.
"Of course, Dad, you don't know, the moment I put the fish out, they were snatched up, and I sold them by the piece," Li Xiaobao said, nodding his head excitedly.
"I always said our Xiaobao was someone who'd do big things," Zhou Cuihua smiled lightly.
"Xiaobao, where's the money?" Eight hundred yuan was a large sum to Li Detian, who had never earned that much in a month when he worked for others.
"Yeah, Xiaobao, where's the money?" Li Xiaobao's mother, Luo Guiying, also asked excitedly.
When his parents asked about the money, Li Xiaobao froze, almost dropping the rice from his mouth. After a moment of helpless thought, he said, "The money's on the cart!"
"You silly boy, how could you leave the money on the cart?" Luo Guiying scolded him with a glare, hastily stepping out the door and running towards the three-wheeled cart in the yard.
"Easy, take it easy!" Seeing Luo Guiying so anxious, Li Detian hobbled out with his cane. His leg had regained some feeling thanks to Li Xiaobao's massages, but it was still quite stiff, and he couldn't yet abandon the cane.
Seeing the rice nearly falling from Li Xiaobao's mouth, Zhou Cuihua knew that it wasn't as Li Xiaobao had said. She glanced at him and asked, "Xiaobao, tell your sister-in-law the truth, what exactly happened?"
"No, that's not the case, is it?"
"Xiaobao, where's the money?"
Before Li Xiaobao could answer Zhou Cuihua's question, Li Detian's anxious shouting came from the yard.
"Not there? That's bad." Li Xiaobao sprang to his feet and dashed out as soon as he heard his father's words. Upon seeing the several bags of herbal medicine seeds on the cart, he couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief.
"Xiaobao, there's no money? Did you drop the money?" Having searched the entire cart, Luo Guiying didn't find the eight hundred yuan and was stomping her feet in distress.
Eight hundred yuan was a huge amount for their family.
"Yeah, Xiaobao, where did the money go?" Li Detian looked anxiously at Li Xiaobao.
"It's not there, is it?" Li Xiaobao pointed at the several bags of medicinal seeds on the cart and said nonchalantly.
"What did you say?" Li Detian burst with anger upon hearing Li Xiaobao's words and yelled at him, "Tell me, did you spend the money on seeds?"
"I figured since we were going to lease the village land anyway, I might as well buy the seeds now," Li Xiaobao stated his intentions straightforwardly.
"You ungrateful child!" Li Detian roared, raising his hand to slap Li Xiaobao, but Li Xiaobao deftly dodged the blow.