Chapter 163: What is borrowed and returned makes subsequent borrowing easy

"Mom, you are truly amazing! These dried sweet potatoes are simply out of this world."

It seemed that her mother-in-law's undesirable background was the genuine article, and their family's circumstances in the past must have been quite well-off indeed.

For Tang Xin had long since observed that her mother-in-law did not possess the practiced culinary skills acquired by many housewives from spending too much time in the kitchen, but rather because she genuinely understood certain cooking techniques.

When circumstances permitted, she would also use a wide variety of seasonings to create mouthwatering dishes with wonderful colors, aromas, and flavors that only high-end chefs outside could produce.

Tang Xin got this impression because she had heard her mother-in-law mention more than once that she had been taught by the family cook from the old days.

Tang Xin had eaten these dried sweet potatoes in her past life as well, but she had always found them merely mediocre—how could they possibly compare to the flavor her mother-in-law created?

It was mainly due to the complex, step-by-step process she observed her mother-in-law performing; it must have been strictly necessary to follow those exact steps, for omitting even a single one would surely result in the dried sweet potatoes losing such deliciousness.

No wonder Madam Fang favored this daughter-in-law the most. Just look at Tang Xin's sweet mouth—listening to her speak made one's entire heart feel warm and cozy.

This time, after Brother Lisheng returned from the provincial capital, he went directly to the county town with Likai to find Chen Lilong. The three of them discussed in detail what business they should undertake in the future.

After all, the segregation between men and women was still quite strict in this era. To be honest, previously when Tang Xin and her brother-in-law went to the commune alone, they had been very careful.

One rode a bicycle while the other walked, maintaining a distance between them on the road, because gossip and rumors could still be quite frightening.

Now that Lisheng was stepping forward to handle things, whatever they did would be much more convenient. In any case, Tang Xin was primarily responsible for providing the source of goods, while the other three would negotiate the rest.

While the fruit basket business was viable, it was not the kind of commodity that could be shipped every day; after all, rarity bestowed value.

Moreover, such items currently belonged to the strictly rationed category, so producing them once every month or two, especially during holidays, was quite sufficient.

For ordinary days, they still needed to consider doing something else.

Since Lisheng had already returned, Tang Xin would no longer stick her neck out, leaving it just right for them to step up and negotiate.

However, having tasted such delicious dried sweet potatoes now, a thought stirred in Tang Xin's mind: could these also be taken to town to sell?

Uncertain of the reception, Tang Xin did not make a big fuss about it. Instead, she packed a large bag of dried sweet potatoes and headed to town the next day.

Tang Xin knew that these treats were not like candies and pastries, which everyone immediately recognized as delicacies.

Therefore, she prepared some small pieces specifically for people to sample. If others tasted her mother-in-law's dried sweet potatoes, those with the means at home would surely find it hard not to buy them.

She held this kind of blindly confident belief in her mother-in-law's culinary skills!

Tang Xin set the price low enough to make people feel that her dried sweet potatoes were cheaper than candy, yet eating them felt even better than having candy.

They were sweet without being choking, and eating a lot of them didn't cause any fear of toothaches. The crucial part was that these treats were fresh and attractive. At first, some people only wanted to take advantage of the free tasting, running over to Tang Xin with the mindset that a free meal shouldn't be missed.

Once they tasted them, however, they had no desire to stop. Since they weren't expensive anyway, why wouldn't they simply reach into their pockets and make a purchase?

Consequently, the large bag Tang Xin brought was sold out in no time, netting a full three yuan.

When she went back and told them about it, her father-in-law and mother-in-law were overjoyed as well, and immediately prepared another batch for Tang Xin to take out and sell.

This second batch of business wasn't quite as brisk as the first, but it still turned a tidy profit.

Tang Xin didn't mind too much; business was naturally like that, with risks and dividends coexisting.

Wanting to make a profit every single time without ever taking a loss was simply impossible, and one could not afford to linger in just a single spot—after firing a shot, one had to change locations.

Her primary purpose was to conduct preliminary testing, so if she went out to sell again later, she would have to visit different places.

Besides, running back and forth while enduring the wind and sun was utterly exhausting.

Tang Xin had no desire to subject herself to that kind of hardship again; her main role was to establish a pathway, while there were still several strong laborers at home.

Upon returning, they could fully hold a meeting to discuss and formulate a systematic plan, assigning different people to take charge of various routes. In this way, they could earn at least some money to supplement the household expenses and accumulate starting capital for their enterprise.

Yet when Tang Xin returned this time, she discovered an extra person in the courtyard of the old Li family—someone with a shifty look in his eyes who seemed utterly unfamiliar.

Seeing him standing there while all the family members wore expressions of utter fury, Tang Xin felt a wave of astonishment.

It was Lijiang and Lihai who pulled her aside and whispered the sequence of events to their sister-in-law.

As it turned out, this person was, by lineage, a generation brother to Lizhirong, and their relation wasn't even all that distant.

He was the son of Lizhirong's paternal uncle, who had passed away early, leaving behind only this single seedling of an heir.

Raising the child alone had hardly been easy for the widowed aunt, but unfortunately, this individual was extraordinarily lazy, spoiled rotten by his mother despite being her only son.

Now in his thirties, he possessed no practical skills and frequently shirked work when laboring in the fields; a grown adult, he failed to earn as many work points as the children of other families.

The work points he earned every single year weren't even enough to cover his own food consumption. Had his mother not been toiling away in hardship, it was anyone's guess how he had ever managed to take a wife.

Yet despite all this, the man possessed an extraordinarily thick skin, firmly believing that since they were all relatives, they ought to help one another out.

Back when he got married, he had borrowed money from Old Second Li's family, and later, after Lisheng obtained employment, he came to Lizhirong to borrow money as well.

Considering he was the only son left behind by his own paternal uncle, and although their own family's circumstances were far from prosperous, they hadn't reached the point of starving either.

Thus, two months after Lisheng started working, Lizhirong lent five yuan to this cousin.

Mind you, that was five yuan—a full five yuan.

Naturally, that person never repaid the sum, a classic case of throwing a meat bun at a dog with no hope of return.

In truth, Lizhirong hadn't really expected to lend the money out to begin with, knowing full well it was hard-earned cash from his eldest son's grueling labor; the crux of the matter was that once lent, he knew better than to expect his cousin to return it.

His decision was mainly out of consideration for his aunt, whose health was already failing badly by then, forced as she was in her old age to fret day after day over her good-for-nothing son.

Moreover, his uncle had treated him very well while he was still alive, so Lizhirong simply regarded that money as a gift given away.

What he hadn't expected, however, was that this man's skin could be thick enough to have the sheer audacity to come knocking on their door a second time to borrow money when the previous five yuan remained unpaid!

The two little rascals, Lijiang and Lihai, possessed quite eloquent tongues, and having attended school for a period, their vocabulary during the narration was considerably enriched.

The emotion with which they recounted the tale to Tang Xin set her blood boiling, describing the scene with vivid realism.

Tang Xin was almost amused to the point of anger; could such a person truly exist in this world, completely oblivious to the proverb, "Returning a borrowed item makes future borrowings easy"?

Not content with borrowing five yuan once, he actually wanted to borrow it a second time, and with zero intention of ever paying it back?