Erniu still had no way of appreciating the profound implications of this sort of bluff by Zhang Xiaobao. So his answer was not the three words of âI have confidenceâ and not even âI guarantee mission completion.â Instead, he vigorously nodded his head as he said: âLittle Mister, please say so. Whatever you [honorific] say, I, Erniu will do it. Letting my [Older] Bro do it is fine, too.â
âWhat are you having Daniu do?â w.a.n.g Juan nervously asked.
âDonât worry. Keep listening. I wouldnât actually let him commit murder or arson.â Zhang Xiaobao turned his head to continue talking to Erniu: âOver the next few days, have your [Older] Bro and [Younger] Sister go up the mountain to find some mountain chili sprouts. After gathering them, thenâŠâ
âLittle Mister, what kind of thing is this mountain chili sprout that you [honorific] speak of?â Erniu didnât wait for Zhang Xiaobao to finish talking before he interrupted with a question.
âOh, itâs like this. See my hand? Itâs a plant thatâs this big. Green like gra.s.s. Basically, the mountains here should all have them. When you chew it in your mouth, itâs spicy. If you soak it in water and then eat it, itâs not as spicy. Seen it before?â Zhang Xiaobao gestured as he spoke.
Erniu watched for a while and nodded: âIn reply to Little Mister, Iâve seen it beforeâeven eaten it before.â
âThatâs good, then. Pick this thingâpick lots of it. Have your parents go buy some fish for me. Try to get fish with as few bones as possible and buy lots of them. Iâll get some money for you and give it to you tomorrow. Anything elseâŠ? Yes, there is. Go and find a blacksmith from our manor and have them make stuff for me. Like this. Iâll draw it for you. You, look.â
Zhang Xiaobao couldnât explain it well at the moment so he tightly gripped a little wooden stick in his hand to draw on the ground. Only now did he discover how inconvenient it was to do anything when so small. He clearly knew how it should be drawn in his mind. It was actually an iron case, the sort with a flap, that could be used to grill or bake things.
After drawing for a while, he finally finished. But upon seeing it, Erniu wrinkled his brow as he quietly said in a low voice: âLittle Mister, this thing you [honorific] want is entirely iron? This wonât be so easy to do. So much iron⊠It canât be kept hidden from people. IâŠâ
âNo matter what method you use, do this job for me. If you do it well, thereâll be a reward. After money is made, your family can split it. If you do it poorly, Iâll find someone else and you wonât need to follow us anymore.â Zhang Xiaobao didnât listen to this kind of rationale at all. He didnât believe that such a clever person as Erniu could do poorly. There was some difficulty but that didnât mean that it couldnât be solved.
âLittle Mister, Iâll go do it. I dare not split the money. Working for the master-family is what I should do. Just when the time comes, calculating my wages as rice grains will do.â Erniu still agreed. He wasnât prepared to ask for that rice at first. But he discovered that all of the people in his family had to work, meaning that they couldnât do any other jobs and that would lead to a huge difference. So he worked up the guts to say this.
âI said for your family to get a cut so your family should get a cut. Refuting our words is not allowed. Understand?â w.a.n.g Juan, seeing that Zhang Xiaobao seemed to not be scamming for money and was expanding into business, spoke up as well. Donât just look at how small they were, they were naturally not lacking in airs.
Erniu nodded and, not caring that it was still drizzling outside, immediately ran out to go home to set this up. w.a.n.g Juan now had the time to interrogate Zhang Xiaobao.
âWhat are your arrangements today for?â
âWhat else is it for? To make money, ~bei.2Â In this world, the most fundamental is military power. Other than military power, itâs money. Right now, military power is not doable. So letâs get money.â Seeing that Erniu had left to do the job, Zhang Xiaobao also loosened up as he leisurely replied.
âOrder after order come out after just a brow wrinkle and an eye blink? The International Criminal Swindler definitely doesnât have an unearned reputation. Tell me, what kind of profit?â Looking at that cute face of Zhang Xiaobaoâs right now, w.a.n.g Juan felt that this person was all right as she asked, smiling.
âInsulting people, ~ne?3Â Donât keep saying swindler, Comrade w.a.n.g Juan. Right now, I must solemnly request of you to please respect me. At this moment, I am a good citizen, a good person.â Zhang Xiaobao looked at w.a.n.g Juan who was just as cute. But who let the two of them both be children? They were children of affluent families as well with no lack in their diet and were well-dressed so that they were white and plump.
Seeing the face full of disapproval on w.a.n.g Juan, he continued speaking: âBuying fish is for the sake of making grilled fish strips to sell to other people. No, to exchange with others. Things arenât easy to sell but bartering is simpler. That case is going to be used to dry the fish strips. It can be used as an oven later on, tooâto bake breads, cakes, whatever. It can also be used to exchange for things.â
âDonât grilled fish strips use filefish?4Â You had them go buy it but where can they get that type of fish? Isnât that a marine fish? Then, what did you get the chili sprouts for? To rub on the fish strips?â w.a.n.g Juan still had this little bit of common sense as she knew the fish that grilled fish strips used.
âWho am I? According to you, a big swindler. How can the idea I thought up be that simple? Even if other people donât know grilled fish strips are dried using an iron case, there are other methods to dry it with. As long as they find it good, theyâll study it. Thereâs no patent protection, either. The fish over here is cheap. We can buy quite a few with only a little money. But food grain5Â is expensive. I can ask my mom [modern] for a little bit of money to use to buy fish but I have no way of using it to buy enough food grain.
Actually, any fish is fine. Exchange the grilled fish strips for soybeans.6The real money-maker is in making soybean paste.7Â Specifically, in making spicy soybean paste. Add in douban8Â and diced meat. Weâll sell the soybean paste. This soybean paste wonât be used for bartering but sold for money. Or for silk textilesâwho let it be so that this stuff could be used just like money?9
After we have enough money, we can go forward with the next step. The more capital there is, the better deals I can make. First, clear up the matter of the land. Then, buy land, plant stuff, buy more things, make some more deals. Of course, if you donât object to my using a few little tricks, I can directly make currency exchange deals using money and silk textiles. You should get my meaning.â Zhang Xiaobao explained with the same slow leisure as before.
âWhat do you mean, currency exchange deals? You want to swindle again? No, when you make currency exchanges, thereâs no resource generation. Itâs nothing more than to get your hands on money and it needs to be done with speed. I wonât allow it. What if you get caught? Arresting you wonât even need any legality. Thereâs too much abuse of power in this time period. You canât even run to escape.â w.a.n.g Juan firmly opposed it.
Zhang Xiaobao thought w.a.n.g Juan didnât wish for him to run scams. Only now did he understand that w.a.n.g Juan was afraid he would get in trouble. His mood naturally not the same, he thought for a bit before speaking again: âThen, I wonât do anything like that. In regards to the actual capital, Iâll take care of it. Donât worry. I wonât do anything that would harm others. When forbidden to acc.u.mulate capital through pure robbery, I, as an International Criminal Swindler, can think of a lot of ways to slowly earn it. This slowness is relative. I will work through the production and processing method.â
In listening to Zhang Xiaobaoâs words, w.a.n.g Juan suddenly discovered that the att.i.tude of this swindler who had violence and caring, brain and brawn that everything was all in his hands at this very moment was such a dazzling sight.
How could Zhang Xiaobao know w.a.n.g Juan what was thinking? Even if he had studied so much psychology, he had never come in contact with the field of female psychology. He was currently pondering how to ask for money from his mother as the funds were all controlled by Mrs. Zhang-w.a.n.g. He at last decided to bite the bullet10Â and just ask.
The next day, the sky was clear. Erniu had already told everything to his family members and even stayed overnight at his house. Knowing that Little Mister was in a hurry over this matter, he rushed back. At this time, Zhang Xiaobao and w.a.n.g Juan usually got ready to go to sleep after having finished their milk.
Today, Zhang Xiaobao who normally readily went to sleep suddenly said to Mrs. Zhang-w.a.n.g: âMom, Juan-Juan and I want to buy some things. We need 1 guan [string] of cash11Â prepared to let Yingtao go buy it.â
âSo much? Tell Mom, what does my Baolang want to buy? Mom will go buy it for you.â Upon hearing it was 1 guan [string] of cash, Mrs. Zhang-w.a.n.g was also a bit hesitant. Thinking that the children didnât know what to buy so they had just casually said 1 guan [string], she wanted to clarify so she could purchase it or maybe trade for it as there was basically no need to spend too much money.
Zhang Xiaobao certainly did not agree. He hoped to use this money to buy fish. One guan [string] of cash or 1,000 wen could buy several hundred fish. Southern fish, Northern sheep;12Â the fish here had always been very cheap. He said: âMom, we need to buy lots and lots of stuff. I canât think of it all for now. Give money for Yingtao to buy it.â
Hearing this, Mrs. Zhang-w.a.n.g looked at w.a.n.g Juan as well. w.a.n.g Juan felt unable to ask for this. After all, this money wasnât being taken from her family. So she could only nod.
âAll right. Mom will give it. If Baolang wants to buy it, Mom will give it. Mom will come along and see thenâthe things my Baolang buys will definitely be better than anyone elseâs.â Seeing her son speak like this, Mrs. Zhang-w.a.n.g didnât reject it, either. One guan [string] of cash was a bit much but who else had children that knew how to spend money when they were so small? So just let him spend it. Whatever things he bought back would be fine. It wasnât like that 1 guan [string] of cash would suddenly disappear.
Giving permission to her son on the one hand, she then called over Yingtao on the other hand. Removing a wooden piece that had 1 guan [string] written on it, she placed it in Yingtaoâs hand as she said: âYingtao, take this money. Whatever you buy, remember to account for it. Remember, prices that should be bargained over still need to be negotiated.â
âI understand, Mistress.â Yingtao accepted the wooden piece. After glancing over at Zhang Xiaobao and w.a.n.g Juan and seeing the two of them nod slightly, she respectfully answered.
Having settled their concerns, Zhang Xiaobao and w.a.n.g Juan naturally wanted to sleep. Waiting until his mother had left, Zhang Xiaobao sighed as he said: âI keep feeling like I deceived my Mom.â
âNo, itâs not even deception. You really do need to use this money to buy things. Youâre not squandering it and you can even make money later on.â w.a.n.g Juan comforted him.
âThe deception Iâm talking about isnât this. Itâs that I didnât tell my Mom the things that I want to do.â
âYou stupid? If you really told your mom [modern], would she agree? You must know that deception can be divided into good and bad intentions. Your deception is for the sake of making money for the family to spend. This is a good intention. Itâs at least much better than how you were before. Over 30 billion, ~ah! And itâs even U.S. dollars. All just stolen by you. Those officials all deserve to die.â w.a.n.g Juan continued rea.s.suring him.
âThe total is over 200 billion. Your investigations are not detailed at all. Domestically, itâs over 30 billion.â Zhang Xiaobao explained.
âI have nothing to do with overseas. You should haveâthe more, the better. Justice belongs to the whole of humanity but my citizenship has me belonging to my own homeland.â It looked like w.a.n.g Juan was not suited to work for Interpol as she was a bit radical.
Having gotten money, everything was easy to accomplish. Zhang Xiaobao had Yingtao take the money out and give it to Erniu. He told him that when buying in bulk, he could further lower the price and even to try credit billing13Â after making two purchases. After letting Erniu go off to work, he and w.a.n.g Juan continued exercising their bodies as they considered their future development.
Ten days quietly pa.s.sed. Something called grilled fish strips began getting popular in the surrounding manors. It used no currency but trading in soybeans or other things like millet, which was foxtail millet,14Â wheat, meat, and eggs was possible.