CHAPTER 157: CHAPTER 157: JIANG HU’S SOLUTION

Jiang Hu’s words left the village chief and Li Yang speechless.

This was a fact, even though everyone had never openly discussed this issue.

But now, the village was full of boys, and no girls, precisely because of this reason.

Even if no one wanted to admit it, the truth was, on the road of fleeing, the daughters were the first to be abandoned.

So now, among those of marriageable age, it’s almost all boys, an entire village, a dozen marriageable boys, yet you can’t find many girls.

It’s just that everyone understood this in their hearts, but no one had ever stated it as bluntly as Jiang Hu.

One could say, no one dared to, after all, on the road of fleeing those years ago, very few people could really feel no guilt in their hearts.

And even fewer dared to do what Jiang Hu did, for the sake of their children, taking the whole family with them, leaving with nothing.

The village chief felt a little embarrassed, lightly coughed twice, "Jiang Hu, let’s talk about the current situation. You just said you have a solution, what is it?"

Let’s solve the issue of the boys finding wives first, the rest, we can discuss later.

Jiang Hu raised an eyebrow, glanced at Li Sheng, then at the village chief, whose eyes were clearly wandering, and knew that family had its own issues.

It’s just that he’s an outsider, and the fleeing happened a few years ago, anything could have happened back then, and it’s certainly not just the village chief’s family.

So Jiang Hu didn’t ask much, just nodded, "I do have an idea, but whether it works depends on whether the villagers are willing."

Liu Yang didn’t notice the village chief’s awkward reaction, although his wife lost a child, their family didn’t abandon a daughter.

So Liu Yang didn’t make any further associations with the reactions of the village chief and his son,

Hearing Jiang Hu’s words at this moment, his mind raced.

"Brother Jiang, do you mean to say, let the villagers sell the grain seeds to others, then use the money to buy food?"

Although that’s also a solution, however...

"But Brother Jiang, the price of selling grain and buying grain isn’t the same, isn’t that a losing business?"

Jiang Hu gave him a glance, "Who told you to sell it?"

Liu Yang was even more surprised, "Not sell? Isn’t that bad?"

Jiang Hu: "Not sell, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a solution."

All three looked at Jiang Hu.

Jiang Hu calmly said, "We can barter!"

The three didn’t react immediately, stunned for a moment, suddenly eyes lit up.

The village chief was overjoyed, "Sure enough, Jiang Hu, you’re clever, in this way, isn’t it that no one loses out, at most, the grain from other families isn’t as tasty as ours in Fuan Village, but it’s not important if it’s tasty or not, as long as it fills the stomach!"

According to Jiang Hu’s barter suggestion, everyone just needs to keep enough seeds for next year, and exchange the rest with others, not sell for money.

After all, buying grain oneself is really unfeasible, the money would just go to the grain store.

Liu Yang also nodded repeatedly, "That’s right, it’s like this, it’s best to make it clear, grain seeds are limited, each household can exchange a certain amount only, and in the village, each household can only exchange once, to prevent exchanging in one house and then in another."

Jiang Hu looked at Liu Yang curiously, "Your son Liu Hai is only seven, why are you more anxious than others?"

Finding him even faster than the village chief, it was for this matter.

Liu Yang giggled, "In a few years, he’ll grow up, besides, what if those who come to buy seeds are future in-laws, planting our village’s seeds early, my future daughter-in-law can eat sooner, right?"

That makes sense, but how come it sounds so strange?

Jiang Hu shook his head speechlessly, Liu Yang’s thoughts were always peculiar.

Then he looked at the village chief, "Village Chief, regarding exchanging grain, I have another thought."

The village chief gestured, "Go ahead."

"I think, for exchanges, it doesn’t have to be a one-to-one exchange, eleven pounds of regular grain for ten pounds of seeds, five and a half pounds for five pounds of seeds, that’s about right."

"Why, doesn’t that make it seem like we’re taking advantage?"

Jiang Hu shook his head, "You can’t say it like that, first of all, our village’s grain yield is high, selling it, the price is already relatively high."

"And it also tastes good, these past two years, I’ve occasionally sold some grain to the Tongfu Restaurant, the price is much higher than what the grain store offers."

Selling grain to the restaurant was something Jiang Hu mentioned for the first time, which surprised both the village chief and Liu Yang.

"Grain can be sold directly to the restaurant?"

Unanimously, showing their high level of surprise.

In everyone’s mind, unless it was paying a grain tax, grain was either sold to the government or carried to the grain store to be sold.

When buying grain, people went to the grain store, this idea of selling directly to a restaurant, seemed no one had thought of it before.

Jiang Hu nodded, "Yes, but I didn’t sell much, however, Shopkeeper Liu said our grain tastes good, and offers a better price than the grain store."

But for farmers, restaurants are too upscale, no one would really spend money to dine there, so no one in the village knew, or had heard of it.

"But none of that matters, we just need to know that our village’s crops are not bad, they’re even very good! We need to let others know this too."

"Exchanging an extra half pound of grain for every five pounds of seeds isn’t taking much advantage, others won’t lose much, it just shows an attitude, an attitude that our village’s grain is very good."

The village chief nodded thoughtfully, "What Jiang Hu said isn’t wrong, we can’t let others think our village’s grain is just so-so, right?"

Jiang Hu meant exactly that.

Helping means helping, establishing good relationships with other villages is also necessary, but there’s no need to overly lower our stance.

Most people tend to overreach when given an inch.

The village chief patted Jiang Hu’s shoulder, "Jiang Hu, I suddenly feel you’re more suited to be the village chief than I am."

Jiang Hu was startled, waving his hands quickly, "No, no, no, village chief, don’t say such things, you’re doing well as the village chief, everyone trusts you, don’t scare me."

The village chief was just joking, and seeing Jiang Hu’s reaction, burst out laughing.

"You lad, you seem quite diligent, but actually are quite lazy, every day apart from handling family matters, you ignore outside affairs, clearly not the material for being a village chief."

Jiang Hu chuckled sheepishly, not explaining much.

The village chief’s words were quite true, Jiang Hu only cared about his family, unless there was a big event like a wedding or building a house in the village, he might help, but otherwise, he rarely went into the village.

Luckily, there was Liu Yang in the village, who was quite close to Jiang Hu, otherwise Jiang Hu might have been even more clueless about village affairs.