The Ma family was in a miserable state now. It was bad enough that their house had collapsed, but the newly harvested grain stored in the partitioned room of the main hall was completely blown to bits, not a single grain remained. Farming families relied on this grain to survive the year. Now... it was a disaster.
Madam Ma and her sisters-in-law had been wailing and crying since midnight, and they still hadn't stopped.
Zhao Ger only felt they deserved it, the resentment in his heart was finally vented.
The Ma family was in complete chaos, the main hall and the kitchen had become a pile of ruins overnight.
These were the only two rooms in their house that weren't used for living. When Fang Zichen was making the explosives, their lethality was precisely calculated. If he said he would blow up exactly the Ma family's one mu and three fen of land, then that was exactly what would happen, definitely not one fen more or one fen less.
[1 Mu (亩) = 666.67 m²; 1 Fen (分) = 66.67 m²]
But he hadn't calculated that the Ma family also kept an old sow and over ten chickens in their backyard. These were originally being raised for the New Year celebration. Well, now they were all hit by flying rubble and killed.
That old sow had been raised for many years and could produce two to three litters a year. And she was very productive, every litter had twelve piglets.
The old sows in the village were all fed with pigweed, so they didn't develop much fat, and their meat was tough, not fetching a good price. The Ma family had originally cherished her greatly. Now that she was dead, they cried their eyes out.
When Fang Zichen found out he had harmed an innocent old sow, he was sad for two seconds, then said: "Amitabha, sin, sin."
After the uncle and aunts of the village came to the Ma family to look around and saw the scorched earth, they shook their heads, feeling that the Ma family's state was due to having committed too many sins. Heaven could no longer stand the sight and specially sent the Thunder God to strike them.
Once this statement spread, the villagers believed it. When Madam Ma went to fetch water, she overheard it, spat, and immediately said to the women who were whispering and pointing at her: "Sin? What sins have we committed? You explain it clearly to me, otherwise don't think about leaving today."
She was irritated and wanted to vent her anger on someone.
A woman said: "You want me to say? Don't you know what you yourselves have done?"
"Exactly," an old fulang chimed in: "Your man wanted to drown Guaizai back then. Your whole family also beat and scolded Zhao Ger. Count for yourselves, how many times did you almost beat him to death? Let's not even talk about Zhao Ger first. Guaizai is such a small child, yet you could still bring yourselves to do it. Heartless creatures. See, hasn't the retribution come?"
I heard that a certain someone tricked a child into going to the mountains to catch poisonous insects not long ago.
"There's a saying, what is it again? Something about 'it's not that there's no retribution, it's just that the time hasn't come yet.' Is that how it goes?"
When Madam Ma heard this, she instantly didn't dare to talk back.
Seeing her silent, those few people became even more aggressive. Madam Ma had bullied them plenty in the past.
When her family's paddy field had no water, instead of digging a ditch to channel water herself, she secretly dug through their field ridges. When caught, she would act shameless. Near their vegetable plot, even with the bamboo fence properly put up, she would deliberately make a hole and then chase her chickens inside, ruining the vegetables they had worked so hard to grow. She was simply rotten to the core.
They went on and on. Madam Ma listened, her heart growing panicked. Although she didn't want to admit it, she felt what they said seemed quite reasonable.
If they hadn't done too many wicked deeds, why was it that out of all the houses in the whole village, even the Wang family next to them was fine, but only their family had this happen?
She had lived for several decades and never seen anyone's house struck by lightning until not even slag remained.
The more she thought about it, the more afraid she became. The more she thought about it, the more she regretted. If she had known earlier, she wouldn't have tricked that little bastard into catching poisonous insects.
____
The chili sauce was ready. Zhao Ger went to town and visited several shops, bought some small bottles, filled twenty bottles, and planned to take them to trial sell tomorrow to see how it would go.
Just after setting up the stall the next day, as soon as the chili sauce was opened, customers smelled the aroma and immediately inquired.
Zhao Ger said it was homemade chili sauce, one hundred coppers per small jar.
His heart was filled with extreme guilt and lack of confidence when he said this. Yesterday, he discussed with Fang Zichen what price would be suitable for a small jar. He himself thought twenty coppers was enough. After all, the small jar was small. At twenty coppers a small jar, only the rapeseed oil inside was a bit expensive—the chili, garlic, etc., were all cheap. The spices only cost thirty coppers. Subtracting the cost, they could still make eight or nine coppers profit per small jar of chili sauce.
Who knew that upon hearing this, Fang Zichen directly said to sell it for one hundred coppers. Zhao Ger immediately wanted to feel his forehead to see if he had a fever. Fang Zichen grabbed his hand and said something about "no merchant isn't shrewd," and although it was a bit expensive, someone would definitely buy it.
No one in Fu'an Town had ever sold chili sauce before. The food here was relatively simple. Their chili sauce was expensive not because of the raw materials, but because of its 'novelty.' It was something others didn't sell, only his family had it. As long as it tasted good, some people would be willing to spend money.
Xiaohe Village was poor, everyone would definitely be reluctant to spend one hundred coppers on something that couldn't fill their stomachs. But this one hundred coppers was only small change for people in town.
Moreover, Zhao Ger only calculated the cost of materials—he didn't factor in his own labor. Chopping the chilies, chopping the garlic, frying the spices, etc.—which task wasn't exhausting?
This chili sauce was truly delicious. Never mind mixing it with noodles, it would probably taste good even mixed with shit.
Fang Zichen even thought one hundred coppers was cheap.
Upon hearing the price, a customer's hand trembled, almost dropping the blood sausage: "What is this?! Something this small and you sell it so expensive?"
Zhao Ger had broken off a few small wooden sticks for them to dip and taste themselves. Seeing their eyes light up after trying it, he said: "It's a bit expensive," Zhao Ger bluffed, "but we use a lot of rapeseed oil inside, and also many precious spices, white sugar, and salt. To be honest, at one hundred coppers a jar, I'm really only making a hard-earned money."
Rapeseed oil wasn't abundantly produced in Fu'an Town. The rapeseed oil sold in town was imported from other counties, so it wasn't cheap—much more expensive than lard.
The chili sauce was oil-rich, clearly using a lot of rapeseed oil. As for the mentioned precious spices, those couldn't be seen, but the chili sauce smelled fragrant and tasted spicy and numbing, with a very unique taste—fragrant but not greasy, spicy but not harsh—making people want to eat more after the first bite, somewhat hard to stop.
Zhao Ger saw they were all tempted and hadn't been scared off by his one hundred coppers, so he felt more confident: "This chili sauce is a bit salty on its own, but it's especially delicious paired with steamed buns, noodles, congee, or the like. My husband loves it very much."
The customers' cravings were all aroused by these words, and they also wanted to try it. One hundred coppers... didn't seem that expensive after all!
A few burly men working as porters at the dock said generously: "Give us two jars."
The work at the dock was hard, but the pay was good. There was no need to be so stingy with themselves. Moreover, the chili sauce was indeed excellent. Buying it to eat with steamed buns—steamed buns were cheap and filling. If they went to eat wontons or dumplings, these big men would need two or three bowls to feel full, but one bowl of wontons or dumplings cost nine coppers already. The filling was supposedly something like leek and pork, but in reality, when eaten, it was full of leek—a complete rip-off. Eating three steamed buns would make them full, saving a lot of money per meal!
With the first buyer, immediately came the second. The twenty small jars of chili sauce sold out quickly.
When there were only a few jars left, the customers almost fought over them. Zhao Ger hugged a small bag full of copper coins, his heart pounding. But seeing that more than half of the blood sausages remained unsold, he felt puzzled.
Usually, a basket of blood sausages would sell out by noon. Today, quite a lot were left. After asking around a little, he understood—someone was also selling blood sausages on the next street over today.
Blood sausages were simple to make—after eating them a few times, one could figure out how to make them. Seeing he sold well, someone was bound to imitate him. Zhao Ger had anticipated this, just not this soon.
It wasn't until afternoon that the blood sausages finally sold out. Zhao Ger wanted to go buy more small jars, but when he asked at the shop, he was chased out.
"Go away, go away. Seeing a ger like you irritates me."
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