Chapter 13 Just Mind Your Own Business
After that, I hurried to take the bus to my fourth uncle's house. I don't know how many bamboo shoots my fourth aunt had picked from yesterday to today.

After getting off the car and walking along the path for half an hour, Hua Xiali arrived at his fourth uncle's house. Seeing that the door was open, Hua Xiali walked in directly. He saw his fourth aunt sorting bamboo shoots in the yard. Hua Xiali was surprised, "Fourth aunt, you have picked so many bamboo shoots? You are amazing, right?"

Fourth Aunt smiled embarrassedly, "This bamboo shoot is too difficult to peel, and it takes too long to peel it. Can I not peel it?"

Hua Xiali nodded, "Of course, if you don't peel the bamboo shoots, it's only one cent per pound, as long as Fourth Aunt is willing."

"Then let's charge one cent per pound!" Fourth aunt said readily. This was mainly because peeling bamboo shoots took too much time. She could break off several pounds of bamboo shoots by peeling one pound of bamboo shoots.

"Okay, then let's go out and pick bamboo shoots together now!" Picking bamboo shoots is something that can make people feel better. While picking them, you can forget all the unhappy things.

Fourth aunt also brought a basket for Hua Xiali, and then the two of them went up the mountain together to pick bamboo shoots. They would only pick the ones that were farther away from their house.

"Fourth aunt, the villagers don't know that you're picking bamboo shoots, right?" Hua Xiali asked while picking bamboo shoots when they came to the bamboo forest on the mountain.

Fourth Aunt shook her head. "Am I that stupid? I won't tell anyone if I'm not sure whether I can make money. If I can, I will wait until my family has made enough money. Besides, the bamboo shoots grow here and won't run away. If everyone doesn't pick them, what does it have to do with me?"

"Yes, we are ordinary people and cannot control other people's affairs. We just need to take care of our own affairs." Hua Xiali agreed with his fourth aunt's point of view.

They have just started to break bamboo shoots and don't know whether they can make money from them. If they tell everyone about this now, and everyone rushes over to break bamboo shoots, and then can't sell them and make no money, will everyone blame them?

Even if they can make money, will people be grateful to them?
I'm afraid not. Instead, they would think it's too late for them to say it, and they would think they have already made a lot of money quietly. So, as a human being, you just need to take care of yourself.

Hua Xiali and his fourth aunt picked bamboo shoots and hurried back home after filling a basket. They ran back and forth like this until dusk, when they would carry the last basket of bamboo shoots home.

Afterwards, the two of them weighed the bamboo shoots that Fourth Aunt had picked in the past two days. Hua Xiali did not expect that Fourth Aunt had picked more than 600 kilograms of bamboo shoots in these two days.

Bamboo shoots with shells cost one cent per pound, and more than 600 pounds cost more than six yuan. Hua Xiali first gave six yuan to her fourth aunt. Her fourth aunt was very happy and counted the six yuan several times. She didn't expect that something that no one touched on the mountain could actually be sold for money.

If she could earn a little more every day, would her income be comparable to those of the city dwellers?

After his fourth uncle and aunt fell asleep, Hua Xiali added a little bit of spiritual spring water into the water tank, and then went to the mountain with a flashlight to pick bamboo shoots.

There is a hilltop not far from my fourth uncle's house, and it only takes about ten minutes to walk there. Without my fourth aunt around, she would just pick the bamboo shoots and put them directly into the Lingquan space.

After working overtime for two hours, Hua Xiali went back to her fourth uncle's house to rest. The next morning, before she had a good night's sleep, she was awakened by screams. Hua Xiali quickly got dressed and went to the yard, asking worriedly, "Fourth uncle, fourth aunt, what happened?"

"The bamboo shoots are gone, my bamboo shoots are gone." Fourth aunt said anxiously. She had already collected the money, but the bamboo shoots were gone. How could she explain this to the other party?

Hua Xiali chuckled and said quickly, "Fourth aunt, don't be nervous. The bamboo shoots are not gone. The owner of the pig farm came over at night and took them away. You were all asleep at that time, so I didn't call you." "Is that so?" Fourth aunt still couldn't believe it.

"Fourth aunt, can I still lie to you?" Hua Xiali spread his hands helplessly, as if saying 'there is nothing I can do if you don't believe me'.

Fourth uncle asked anxiously, "Xia Li, can you really make money from these bamboo shoots?"

"Didn't Fourth Aunt get the money yesterday? If Fourth Uncle doesn't believe it, he can ask Fourth Aunt!" Hua Xiali raised his head proudly and smiled complacently.

Fourth uncle came close to Hua Xiali and asked in a low voice, "Xiali, can I also pick bamboo shoots with you?"

"Of course you can!" Hua Xiali nodded, "But you two can only break up quietly, and you can't tell too many people."

Huo Beixi lent her 1,500 yuan, and she gave her eldest sister 800 yuan for tuition and living expenses, leaving 700 yuan. In addition, she had to spend money to buy tools, packing boxes, etc., which means that her cost of purchasing bamboo shoots can only be controlled at around 500 yuan, which is enough to purchase about 50,000 kilograms of bamboo shoots.

If there are too many people picking bamboo shoots, she won’t have that much money!

My fourth uncle and my fourth aunt can pick about 1,000 kilograms of bamboo shoots together a day, so it will take about 50 days to pick 50,000 kilograms of bamboo shoots. The shoots will have grown into bamboos by then, so we can add two more people.

So Hua Xiali whispered to his fourth uncle, "Fourth uncle, you can ask your second uncle and third uncle's families to send one person each to help you pick bamboo shoots."

Why is it not called uncle’s house? That’s because uncle’s family bought a house in the town and they don’t live in the mountains very often now.

Moreover, she did not have much money and could not purchase bamboo shoots in large quantities. The most important thing was that she had not started the bamboo shoot business yet. If the sales were not good, she would not be able to make money from the bamboo shoots for the time being. She could only store the bamboo shoots in the Lingquan space and sell them when the bamboo shoots were valuable.

Everything was still unknown, and she didn't dare to do too much. If she lost the few hundred dollars in her hand, it was lost. She could still make it up from other sources.

After breakfast, the three of them went up the mountain together to pick bamboo shoots. Picking them in the bamboo forest would make it less likely for the villagers to see them. If they were still seen by others, they would just say they were picking bamboo shoots to feed the pigs.

Those who raise pigs at home will naturally come over to pick bamboo shoots without them having to call out.

At lunch, Hua Xiali said, "Fourth Uncle, Fourth Aunt, Qiuli is going home tonight, so I will be back in the afternoon. I will come back in two days. Just leave the bamboo shoots you picked at home and wait for me to pay you."

Hua Qiuli is a second-year junior high school student this year. He has to attend morning reading classes before dawn, and it is already late at night when he finishes his self-study classes. It is impossible for him to catch up if he lives at home, so he lives in school and only goes home on weekends.

(End of this chapter)