Chapter 6 — The Food Business Path Opens Up

The grilled fish had been selling for two days, and business was gradually getting better.

Zhou Run was so happy that he hardly knew what to say.

Even though the fish in the stream behind the mountain were becoming increasingly difficult to catch, he still threw the fish basket over his back and scampered around energetically.

“An’an, there aren’t any fish left in the stream behind the mountain. I’m going farther out to look. I’ll be back a little late!”

“Okay.”

Zhou Run was gone for most of the day.

When he returned, his head was hanging dejectedly because his fish basket was completely empty.

Then he noticed the large basin in the middle of the courtyard.

Several fish were swimming inside, their tails flicking up little splashes.

They looked healthy and delicious.

His eyes immediately lit up.

“Who brought those?”

Chu An’an listed several names.

They were all villagers from Ankang Village.

“They sold them to me. Two or three wen each.”

Fish of this size could probably sell for five or six wen each in the county town.

Selling them to Chu An’an for two or three wen was practically half-giving them away.

Of course, that was simply the going price in the village.

They hadn’t given him a special discount, nor had they cheated him.

Zhou Run lowered his head and muttered,

“How could they do this?”

Catching fish was time-consuming and exhausting.

Apart from him, only a few people in the village knew how to do it.

And those people normally had their own work to do, such as farming or going into the county town for odd jobs.

When he wasn’t catching fish, they didn’t catch them either.

But now that they’d seen him making money from fish, they were competing with him.

Still, Zhou Run knew the fish in the stream belonged to no one.

He had no right to stop anyone from catching them.

So he could only mutter unhappily under his breath.

Chu An’an knew Zhou Run was an honest person who genuinely wanted him to make money.

Naturally, he wanted all the ownerless fish to belong to An’an.

But did the villagers really want to watch him scoop up free fish and make a fortune?

It was better if everyone could make a little money.

Still, Zhou Run’s good intentions touched Chu An’an deeply.

In his heart, he’d already begun treating Zhou Run as a friend.

Since they were friends, he said,

“Actually, I’m not going to sell grilled fish forever.”

“Why? Grilled fish makes so much money!”

“Because I have an even more profitable idea. I’ll put it into action once I’ve saved enough money.”

“Oh.”

The moment he heard that, Zhou Run immediately stopped worrying about other people competing with him for fish.

His mind was filled with only one thought:

I absolutely have to stick close to An’an.

He hoped that once An’an became successful, he would take him along.

Even if he didn’t, that was fine.

He really liked having An’an as a friend.

Recently, eating grilled fish had become fashionable in Ankang Village.

If someone hadn’t tried grilled fish, they couldn’t describe that intoxicating, mouthwatering aroma.

And if they couldn’t describe it, they couldn’t join in the village gossip.

They’d practically be looked down upon.

Chu An’an hadn’t expected business to become this good either.

Although he eventually had to buy the fish and spices himself, greatly increasing his costs, the final profit was still substantial.

He was suffering and enjoying himself at the same time.

He was making money.

But his arms were practically about to fall off.

Zhou Run even laughed at him.

“I thought your arms were so thin. I didn’t expect you to have so much strength!”

Strength, my ass.

Chu An’an was only managing because he was gritting his teeth and forcing himself through it.

His body was healthy in this life, but it wasn’t anywhere near Zhou Run’s level of freakish strength.

One day, while he was calculating how much money he’d earned, he heard a commotion outside.

He opened the door and saw Zhou Run returning angrily.

Thinking he’d gotten into an argument with someone, Chu An’an asked,

“What happened?”

Zhou Run pointed outside with an ugly expression.

“See that family? They’re copying your grilled fish.”

“Their fish tastes terrible, but they’re still selling it. First they got into an argument with a customer, and then they started fighting among themselves.”

After Zhou Run explained everything in greater detail, Chu An’an finally understood what had happened.

Not far from them lived a family of three.

The man was An Derong, the woman was Liu Cui, and their twenty-two-year-old son was An Zhi.

All three were locals, and there was nothing particularly unusual about them.

If anything could be called unusual, it was that the couple had only one child, so they spoiled him excessively.

They had spoiled their son into becoming extremely lazy.

The worst part was that they had no real family wealth, yet they still raised him like a young master.

At twenty-two, he still wasn’t married.

Not a single woman or ge’er in the village wanted him.

Normally, Zhou Run only mildly disliked their son, An Zhi.

He had never had any particular problem with the older couple.

But who would have thought they’d actually steal An’an’s business?

That was practically theft!

If they’d simply competed with him by catching fish before him, there was nothing he could do.

But now that they were selling the exact same grilled fish?

Everyone knew what they were up to.

If An’an hadn’t said he wouldn’t be selling grilled fish forever and had an even more profitable business planned, Zhou Run would have gone over and flipped their entire fish stall upside down.

Speaking of this family, Chu An’an suddenly remembered something.

A few days ago, Liu Cui had been particularly friendly when buying fish from him.

She’d been smiling and chatting away.

At one point, she’d even tried to walk from the courtyard into the kitchen to see what he was doing.

Chu An’an had immediately made up an excuse.

“The kitchen is smoky.”

He’d guided her back outside.

Liu Cui had quickly replied,

“It isn’t smoky at all.”

Chu An’an had simply tilted his head and stared at her curiously.

Whether his gaze had been too sharp or Liu Cui had simply felt guilty, she hadn’t stayed any longer and immediately followed him back outside.

At the time, Chu An’an hadn’t actually suspected anything.

He was simply cautious.

After all, he’d lived two lifetimes.

In his previous life, he’d lived in the modern world, where the internet was everywhere.

He’d seen countless examples of people losing their morals for money—selling counterfeit or inferior products, betraying friends, and so on.

As long as there was money to be made, some people were willing to throw away their conscience.

In this life, he’d grown up beside his mother.

His mother had owned a small shop in the capital.

It might have been small, but because it actually made a profit, she’d encountered all sorts of schemes.

Distant relatives coming to freeload.

People trying to extort money.

People setting traps and framing others.

These things didn’t happen every day, but over more than a decade, they’d encountered several such incidents.

Now, his ability to make money depended on recipes that were unique to him.

Naturally, he needed to protect them carefully.

Seeing how furious Zhou Run was, Chu An’an didn’t tell him that Liu Cui had not only copied his business but had also tried to secretly learn his methods.

He was afraid Zhou Run would actually go over and start a fight.

The rest was easy to understand.

Liu Cui hadn’t managed to learn the real technique.

But she still wanted to make money from grilled fish.

So she bought some spices and tried to figure out the recipe herself.

The result was terrible.

The fish was tough and tasted awful, yet she stubbornly tried to sell it.

She only charged ten wen per fish.

Even so, the customer thought it wasn’t worth the money.

He stood outside their house, cursing and demanding a refund for the entire morning.

He apparently even mentioned Chu An’an, calling An Derong and Liu Cui shameless old fools who had copied Boss Chu.

Poor little Chu An’an, barely in his teens, had been bullied by these shameless old people.

But An Derong and Liu Cui refused to refund him.

The customer eventually realized there was nothing he could do and could only accept his loss.

But after making such a scene, their grilled-fish business was probably finished.

After the customer left, An Derong and Liu Cui started yelling at each other.

Apparently, they were blaming each other for coming up with the idea.

They’d also lost quite a bit of money buying all those spices.

Hearing that the couple had turned on each other, Zhou Run felt extremely satisfied.

Then he suddenly thought of something.

“An’an, why don’t you keep selling grilled fish?”

“Your cooking is obviously better than theirs. They can’t steal your customers.”

Chu An’an didn’t answer directly.

Instead, he asked,

“What do you think about the peddler who comes to our area?”

“Pretty good.”

Zhou Run answered instinctively, then began thinking about it.

The peddler came to their area every five or six days.

He carried two large baskets of goods suspended from a shoulder pole.

Every time he arrived, crowds of elderly people and children gathered around him.

Even if they didn’t buy anything, they enjoyed looking at his goods.

Zhou Run added,

“His things are a little cheaper than those sold in the county town. I suppose it’s a small-profit, high-volume business.”

“And carrying such a heavy load over so many roads every day is hard work.”

“But what does that have to do with grilled fish?”

“What if the peddler came every day?”

“Or what if he opened a general store right here in our village?”

“Do you think his business would still be that good?”

“Definitely not.”

Zhou Run answered without hesitation.

Their village simply didn’t have enough people.

And everyone was extremely reluctant to spend money.

If someone opened a general store there, they’d probably be waiting for it to close.

He seemed to understand what An’an was getting at.

Grilled fish could only stay popular for so long.

It couldn’t remain a profitable business forever.

Sure enough, after selling grilled fish for more than ten days, business began declining.

People weren’t nearly as enthusiastic as they had been at first.

The fish still tasted just as good.

But their wallets couldn’t keep up.

The only truly loyal customers were the village chief’s family.

They bought two grilled fish every single day without fail.

Everyone said the village chief’s family was incredibly extravagant.

Sister Xiu wanted to explain to everyone that they weren’t actually extravagant at all.

Her father-in-law had simply said that An-ge’er’s grilled-fish business wouldn’t last long.

So they had to enjoy it while they could.

Otherwise, they’d never get to eat it again.

As the grilled-fish business began declining, Chu An’an brought Zhou Run back to the morning market in the county town.

Only then did Zhou Run realize that An’an’s mysterious “other profitable business” meant opening a business at the county’s morning market.

Although this had nothing directly to do with him, even accompanying An’an was enough to make Zhou Run’s heart race with excitement.

For country folk like them, being able to hold a steady job in the county town, running a small food stall, or having relatives living in the county were all things they could brag about.

It was something they could use to boost their own status.

What surprised him even more was that An’an had actually been planning this for a long time.

He had already come to investigate the market more than half a month ago.

If someone else had such an idea, they’d have already bragged about it to everyone and made everyone jealous.

But An’an had managed to keep quiet about it for so long.

No wonder he seemed like someone capable of accomplishing great things.

Chu An’an examined everything in the morning market much more carefully this time.

Every morning, various people passed through this street.

There were constables and clerks heading to the government office for work.

They weren’t part of Great Xia’s official bureaucracy, but they were still government employees.

Their income was higher and more stable than that of ordinary people, but they didn’t have the airs of actual officials.

There were also families who owned houses nearby.

Some might even have two or three servants.

They lived comfortable, relatively wealthy lives but weren’t members of the great aristocratic clans.

After all, the truly powerful clans were based in prefectural cities.

There were also merchants doing business along the frontier.

The owners of merchant caravans were naturally willing to spend more.

But the workers traveling around with them might not be so generous.

Overall, these people weren’t short of money.

They could afford to spend money at the morning market every day.

But they weren’t particularly wealthy either.

The small vendors had accurately identified their target customers.

They could charge slightly higher prices, but the flavor and ingredients had to be good.

Overall, the food had to offer good value for money.

That was enough to convince these relatively comfortable townspeople to open their wallets.

Besides the somewhat wealthy locals, there were also many outsiders who had come to the county town looking for work.

In fact, there were already several mantou stalls and flatbread stalls along this street.

They were cheap and came in generous portions.

So far, Chu An’an understood that he couldn’t simply take out any random recipe and expect to make money easily.

He couldn’t compete on either price or flavor.

So what was he supposed to do?

Suddenly, he spotted a beautiful young woman walking down the street.

Then an adorable little child.

And finally, a mother holding her child’s hand.

An idea suddenly occurred to him.

There was an entire market that hadn’t been developed yet.