The Fortunate Lady and Her Mountain Man

Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Seizing the Initiative

"Oh, right." Zhen Jili suddenly remembered something. "When I first came into the village and asked for directions to your place, why did they all act so strangely?"

"My reputation in the village isn’t so good," Ji Huan said frankly. "I’m the legendary ’hard-fated’ type—the kind that jinxed my father to death, then my mother, and will jinx any man I marry. Friendly reminder: stay away from me. I’m not responsible if you get jinxed by accident."

Zhen Jili was silent for a moment. Then, he rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, "How can I get you to swing by the military infirmary? It’d be great if you could jinx all those old codgers."

Ji Huan: "..."

Seeing her turn to leave, Zhen Jili quickly blocked her. "Hey, don’t go! I was just kidding. What’s all this about jinxing? You’re so considerate of me, I’m deeply touched. Besides, my fate is hard too, so I’m not afraid of your jinx."

’What on earth is he talking about? When was I ever considerate of him?’

"Still won’t admit it? I heard everything you said to those two old men in the courtyard. You refused to sell the formula to anyone else. Wasn’t that because you were afraid it would affect me?"

Ji Huan was getting a major headache. "That’s called contractual integrity, okay?!"

Zhen Jili waved his hand dismissively. "You don’t have to say anything. I understand completely."

Ji Huan walked around him and headed out. When she saw Zhen Jili was about to block her again, she said through clenched teeth, "I’m going to wash the pot!"

Zhen Jili didn’t block her this time, instead trotting in after her eagerly. "Are there any small yellow croakers left? I want to bring some back for our General to try."

Ji Huan: "..."

When he left, Zhen Jili was practically laden with goods: a large basket of dehydrated vegetables, a small basin of freshly fried small yellow croakers, and a bag of dried red dates.

He piled them into his cart one by one, grinning like the cat that got the cream. It was almost painful to watch.

However, just before getting on the cart, he stuffed the bronze token into Ji Huan’s hand.

How could Ji Huan accept something so important? She immediately tried to push it back to him.

"This private token was a gift from the General. It has nothing to do with military orders, so don’t worry and just take it. This way, those lackeys won’t come looking for trouble again."

At Zhen Jili’s insistence, Ji Huan had no choice but to accept the token.

But as she looked at him, she was genuinely confused. "You..."

"Are you wondering why I’m so good to you?" Zhen Jili said, half-joking and half-serious. "You’re my little sister. Who else would I be good to? When your big bro makes it big someday, I’ll treat you even better. Just you wait!"

’This guy! He never misses a chance to get the upper hand!’

Afterward, Widow Xie and her family learned that Steward Gu and Manager Wang had come together to cause trouble, but not only had they failed to gain any advantage, they’d even been driven away.

And that wasn’t all. Ji Huan also said she was going to do business with the army.

"Wan... doing business with the army isn’t that easy. The villages near my maiden home managed to secure the contract for delivering horse feed, and that was only after calling in a lot of favors... You haven’t run into a swindler, have you?"

Although that big talker Zhen Jili didn’t exactly look like a good person at first glance, Ji Huan felt she had to clear his name.

"That man isn’t a swindler, Aunt Xie. Do you remember when I went with you to Xie Ditch, and then went to the military camp with Uncle Xie? I was going to see him. I sold the hand cream to him, too. It was a real transaction with real silver, cash on delivery. He can’t fool me. You can think of him as our... connection."

Widow Xie recalled that after they came back from Xie Ditch that time, Ji Huan suddenly had money and had bought a lot of things. Ji Huan hadn’t hidden it from her, saying she had sold a formula.

So it turned out she had sold the hand cream formula, and to someone in the army, no less.

Widow Xie instantly breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, that’s a relief. Let’s see if that Steward Gu dares to cause trouble now! We’re doing business with the army. If he’s so capable, he can go try to steal the formula from them!"

After his initial surprise, Hu Liang asked a more practical question: "If we’re selling dehydrated vegetables to the army, how do we set the price and collect payment?"

Well... Ji Huan had actually forgotten to discuss the details with Zhen Jili, but she figured he wouldn’t treat her unfairly.

Taking a step back, even if the army connection fell through, she still had a fallback plan. With the large backup markets in town and the county seat, the products wouldn’t just be stuck on her hands.

"When selling to the army, our price has to be reasonable, not too inflated. We can discuss the specifics when they come to pick up the goods. Also, here’s the initial capital."

Ji Huan took out three silver ingots and handed them to him.

Hu Liang’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Thir-thirty taels?"

It was no exaggeration to say that in his entire life, he had never seen so much silver.

"Mhm, it’s the deposit they gave us."

Zhen Jili had advised her to spend the silver on building a new house, but the house could wait. If she missed this window for the vegetables, they would become scarce and impossible to buy even if one had the money.

Seeing her hand over the silver to Hu Liang without batting an eye, Widow Xie felt both touched and worried.

"Liangzi hasn’t handled anything like this before. I’m afraid he’s not up to it. If it were one or two taels, I wouldn’t say anything if he worked up the courage to take it. But this much... if anything goes wrong, he couldn’t bear the responsibility even with his life. Why don’t you manage the money instead?"

Hu Liang snapped out of his shock. After a moment of silence, worried he might really mess things up, he tried to return the money to Ji Huan.

Ji Huan stopped him.

"Aunt Xie, people only gain experience by doing things. If you don’t let Liangzi give it a try, how will you know he can’t do it? He is steady and responsible. We all need to have a little faith in him."

Being trusted was in itself a tremendous encouragement. No one, not even his own mother, had ever shown such confidence in him.

Hu Liang’s heart swelled with emotion. "Wan, don’t worry! I’ll definitely get done what you’ve asked me to do. I guarantee there won’t be any problems!"

Ji Huan was clearly happy that he had taken this step. "Mhm, I’m sure you can handle it. But, Liangzi, where are you planning to start buying?"

Without a second thought, Hu Liang replied, "In a bit, Dacheng and I will take the handcart to the other villages and call out for sellers. Every household is waiting to clear out their gardens right now, so the vegetables won’t be hard to collect at all."

"Why start with other villages instead of our own Dafeng Village?"

"Well..." Hu Liang scratched his head. "With the outer villages, once we buy the vegetables, that’s the end of it. But here in our own village, the slightest activity will get everyone asking questions, and they might even show up at our door... Our business hasn’t even started yet, so I was thinking it’s best not to be too conspicuous at first."

It was a simple but sound sense of business confidentiality. Ji Huan gave him a thumbs-up.

"It’s good that you’re thinking this way. Before we’ve bought enough raw materials, it’s definitely best not to draw attention to ourselves, just to avoid unnecessary complications."

Hu Liang hadn’t expected to be praised by Ji Huan for what he thought was just a random worry.

Even though Ji Huan was two years younger than him, her way of doing things often made him feel inadequate by comparison. So, receiving her praise boosted Hu Liang’s confidence quite a bit.

But he still had one lingering concern. "We’ll have to haul the vegetables back here. Trip after trip, it’ll be really hard not to attract attention. When people start asking..."

Ji Huan corrected him: "We’re doing business, not acting like thieves. There’s no need to make a big show of it, but there’s also no need to be timid. Once we’ve bought up most of the available vegetables on the market, our goal will be accomplished. Why would we be afraid of people asking then? Even if they ask, if we don’t say anything, that will be enough to keep them guessing."

An easy road in this world is never traveled by only one person. They had no right to interfere with what others did.

But following the trend wasn’t so easy.

Dehydrated vegetables seemed easy to make, but in reality, many of the details were difficult to master. Even if others did figure out the method, by then everyone would have cleared their gardens. Where would they go to buy vegetables?

"So..." Ji Huan added, "what we need to seize right now is the first-mover advantage."

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