Chapter 50 Setting up a Chicken Farm Again
"Sister Fang, there aren't many families in the village, so there's nothing I can do about the shortage of chickens." Xia Liu understood that Fang Fei, who was in the restaurant business, needed a large supply, and relying solely on the few chickens from the village, the restaurant would inevitably have to shut its doors sooner or later.
"Ah, it's worrying me to death, you know. The chickens from your village are very special. Even if you just boil them in clear soup, they will have a faint scent of osmanthus. Today, a table of guests ordered five dishes and even packed three to take away." When talking about this, Fang Fei became somewhat excited; now it's not just oysters that are profitable, even the chickens from Osmanthus Village are selling like hotcakes.
One thing worth delving into is that, while chickens are chickens, those from Osmanthus Village are particularly rare. Chickens from other places don't have this effect, and today this has caused quite a few jokes and surprises.
"Osmanthus fragrance?" Xia Liu was puzzled. How could chicken meat have the scent of osmanthus? Could it be that they were all raised on osmanthus?
"Exactly, Xia Liu, give me another batch later, I'm willing to pay eighty yuan per jin," Fang Fei said straightforwardly after some thought.
"Eighty yuan per jin!" Xia Liu was astonished by the price. Could it be that these chickens were a mutated breed, to be so valuable?
"You heard right. The reason those chickens have the meat quality with an osmanthus scent might be because they have been eating osmanthus since they were young. Your village is full of osmanthus trees, so it must be the case."
"Will you maintain this purchase price indefinitely?" Xia Liu was interested in this topic; after all, oysters and atractylodes are naturally occurring and could be depleted one day. Only producing his own supply could assure longevity.
"As long as it's from Osmanthus Village, it will always be this price!" Fang Fei affirmed.
"Alright then, I'll start buying a batch of chicks right away. Once they grow up, I'll be rolling in it!" The idea of raising chickens came to Xia Liu again. Last time, Zhang Tie caused a disruption, but this time, without any hindrance and combined with this price, every batch released would start in the millions.
"That's great, that's great. The chickens don't need to be too big, four or five jin is fine. As long as we can keep up with the demand, we're all going to make a fortune." Fang Fei was just as excited to go along with Xia Liu.
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As Xia Liu was about to leave, Fang Fei dropped another explosive piece of news—that she wanted to increase the supply of oysters to at least four and a half thousand jin a day, ideally five thousand, and the price per jin was also going up to eighty yuan!
Xia Liu's response was very confident: five thousand jin is four hundred thousand yuan! With this, the income of himself and the villagers would greatly increase. At this rate, it wouldn't take long for Osmanthus Village to take off!
After saying goodbye to Fang Fei, Xia Liu called Zhang Xiaoxue to ask her to hurry Uncle Li to gather some people to help tidy up that mountain peak.
There wasn't much to tidy on that mountain peak; mainly, we needed to clear some open spaces. The old thatched cottages were outdated; if we were going to breed on a large scale, we needed metal sheds.
After giving instructions, Xia Liu went to the county to find a place that constructs metal sheds. After several discussions, he spent fifty thousand yuan to build three metal sheds.
Each shed cost a bit over ten thousand yuan and covered an area of about two mu. With six mu of space, he could easily raise ten thousand chickens.
These chickens wouldn't just be kept in the metal sheds; those would only be for raising the chicks until they were capable of foraging for themselves. After that, they would be free-range, roaming the mountain top, to ensure the quality of the chicken meat improved.
Because Xia Liu only paid half upfront, the supplier was very eager to get started. That very afternoon, they loaded up a truck with materials and brought them to Osmanthus Village.
Arriving at the scene, Xia Liu and the accompanying workers were astonished to find forty-five villagers sitting under the mountain peak, smoking and chatting as if they were in a meeting.
After inquiring, Xia Liu was a bit amused and helpless. He had only instructed that Uncle Li find a few people, so it would be easier to settle their wages; he hadn't expected the whole village to learn about it and show up. Moreover, Uncle Li had said not to mention money, arguing that talking about money would mean not treating them as people.
With no other choice, Xia Liu instructed everyone to help move the materials to the designated area, aiming to get the metal sheds built as soon as possible.
One person worked particularly hard that day—Zhang Tie. Once he learned Xia Liu was raising chickens again, he refused to accept his wages that evening for oysters, saying he wanted to compensate Xia Liu for his previous loss.
The villagers clapped and cheered, approving of Zhang Tie's action. Xia Liu was also pleased but insisted on paying them. The matter with the chickens was in the past; it was over, and it was only good going forward that truly mattered.
Touched almost to the point of kneeling, Zhang Tie wiped away his tears and choked up for a long while on the spot.
While everyone was thrilled, Xia Liu released the news that the price per jin of oysters was increasing to forty yuan, which caused a sensation throughout the crowd.
"You can fish for one hundred and twenty jin in a day!"
"Forty yuan a jin!"
"Uncle Li, quick, calculate how much that is!"
"Over four thousand yuan! More than four thousand yuan!"
Wow...
If each family could fish one hundred and twenty jin, the daily income would be almost five thousand yuan, around four thousand eight hundred,
Upon calculating this price, the villagers who couldn't handle the excitement simply fainted.
After calming everyone down, Xia Liu also returned home before dark, where Zhang Xiaoxue and Zhang Xiaoman had already prepared dinner, waiting for him to join them.
Both women had heard the news in the village, so one of them grabbed an arm of Xia Liu, "Brother Xia Liu, we want to go oyster fishing too."
"No, it's too dangerous with the water being so deep; you could get hurt," Xia Liu firmly refused their request.
Despite being rejected, the two women used various tactics and whining, but were eventually met with a harsh refusal.
Dinner for Xia Liu could be described as both enjoyable and stressful, with two ample figures pressing against his arms, the heat almost scorching.
So, as soon as he finished eating, Xia Liu found an excuse to leave the house.
Zhang Qing was at home, washing cucumbers; she planned to use them for a facial mask in hopes of catching more oysters the next day.
However, when she saw Xia Liu enter the yard, she immediately threw the cucumber aside, standing there with an excited expression on her face.
More than an hour later, Xia Liu, with his attire neatly in place, sat on the couch, while Zhang Qing was panting heavily next to him, looking as if she were completely exhausted.
"If I'm unable to go into the water tomorrow, Xia Liu, you're going to have to compensate me," Zhang Qing spoke coyly; although her desires were strong, ever since she had met Xia Liu, she felt like she was eighteen again, often feeling overwhelmed, as if she was about to die.
"Heh heh, Sister Zhang, whatever you need, just tell me," Xia Liu teased.
"I need a child of my own."
"Well, that...we'll just leave it to fate. It's getting late. You should rest for now, Sister Zhang. Tomorrow we have to fish for more than a hundred jin of oysters," Xia Liu said, bitterly dodging the topic.
"Hmph, next time I won't let you leave. If the quality isn't up to standard, increase the quantity, and there will eventually be a child!" Zhang Qing inwardly affirmed as she watched Xia Liu's retreating figure.
As soon as Xia Liu entered the room, he found someone lying on his bed!
Smelling that familiar fragrance, Xia Liu knew it was Zhang Xiaoman.
As he moved closer, he noticed Zhang Xiaoman trembling slightly and then asked her, "So why exactly are you on my bed?"