He exhaled a smoke ring, and Old Walker smiled as he said, “That stuff doesn’t sell well, and the price isn’t high. I heard it sells pretty well over in Pingchuan, but we don’t have any connections there, and it’s a long way off. I can’t be bothered with all that trouble.”

 “How about it, you have something in mind?”

 David Thompson’s heart skipped a beat—so businesspeople really aren’t simple. He’d thought no one knew about the market in Pingchuan, but it turned out Old Walker actually did.

 Luckily, the wholesalers in Dongping only stick to their own little patch. Not many have the ambition to try their luck in the provincial capital, otherwise it wouldn’t be his turn.

 “What could I be thinking? I just had a plate of it at the barbecue stand last night, tasted pretty good, so I was thinking if the market’s good, maybe my dad could get some and make a little money.”

 David Thompson dodged the question and continued, “Uncle Walker, do you think if I got a few thousand jin, I could sell them all in Dongping?”

 “Heh, that’d be tough. But this stuff is hardy—even out of water for a week, it won’t die. If you get a few thousand jin, you probably won’t lose money, but you likely won’t make much either. It’s a lot of trouble for not much gain.”

 Old Walker scoffed at David Thompson’s idea, but didn’t try to talk him out of it. Young people have lots of ideas, that’s normal. Besides, it’s not his own son—if he loses money, it’s not his problem.

 “I kind of want to give it a try. Uncle Walker, I noticed there aren’t many people wholesaling crayfish. Isn’t it pretty hard to get a few thousand jin?” David Thompson kept probing.

 “Haha, that’s where you’re wrong. There’s plenty of this stuff in the countryside, people just can’t be bothered to bring it in—the profit’s too low. If you really want it, your Uncle Walker could get you ten thousand jin without much trouble.”

 Old Walker thought to himself, even a mosquito’s leg is still meat. If this kid really takes ten thousand jin, that’s a profit of several thousand yuan.

 Hearing Old Walker’s words, David Thompson was delighted—things had taken a turn for the better. Looks like he was definitely going to make this money.

 He quickly pulled Old Walker aside and whispered, “Uncle Walker, I actually do have an idea. Can you tell me how much crayfish cost per jin at wholesale?”

 “Red-shelled ones are 2.5 yuan, green-shelled are 1.5. How much do you want?” Old Walker was an expert; he rattled off the prices without thinking.

 The green-shelled ones don’t sell well, so David Thompson wasn’t interested. The red-shelled ones were only 2.5 yuan a jin—compared to the thirty or forty yuan they’d go for in later years, it was nothing.

 But he still didn’t know the market price in the provincial capital. He was sure it was higher than in Dongping, but David Thompson didn’t want to take risks. After thinking it over, he said, “Uncle Walker, give me your phone number. I’ll think about it and call you if I decide.”

 “Your dad has it…”

 “No, please don’t tell my dad. You know what he’s like—timid. If he finds out, he definitely won’t agree. I want to try it myself first, and if I make money, I’ll tell him then.”

 Old Walker was a shrewd guy—no reason not to do a money-making deal. Hearing this, he quickly handed a business card to David Thompson.

 Even if the deal didn’t go through, it didn’t matter—it was just a business card. If it did, a few thousand yuan in profit wouldn’t be bad. Crayfish collected in the countryside only cost about a yuan a jin.

 After chatting a bit more with Old Walker, someone came over to pay, so Old Walker got busy and didn’t have time to keep talking with David Thompson.

 You can’t put all your eggs in one basket. Seeing his dad still haggling, David Thompson went to a few other vendors who sold crayfish and got a few more business cards the same way before stopping.

 When he got back to Old Walker’s place, Charles Thompson had already finished buying the goods.

 Seeing David Thompson, he smiled and said, “Well? Have you ever seen so many kinds of seafood? Our stall is small, so we don’t have much variety. When we have some spare money, we’ll open a shop.”

 David Thompson smiled and brushed it off, thinking, The stall’s small and you’re already busy enough. If it were bigger, you’d work yourself to death.

 With the way Mom and Dad are, they’d never hire anyone. No matter if it makes money or not, it’s better to end this business sooner rather than later.

 After chatting with his dad for a bit, Charles Thompson had to go back to the market to set up the stall, and David Thompson didn’t go with him—he headed home first.

 He planned to go to the provincial capital today to check things out. He’d spent twelve years in Pingchuan, so he knew the place inside out. Finding the right connections wouldn’t be hard.

 If there was really money to be made, he’d have to get ready to stock up.

 As for the capital, he had his own ideas. With this information gap before summer really started, he had to make a good profit.

 Once word got out in Pingchuan, even the slowest merchants in Dongping wouldn’t miss out.

 He couldn’t match them in connections or capital. By then, no matter how much profit there was, none of it would be his. So he’d just have to work a bit harder for now.

 Thinking this, David Thompson unconsciously picked up his pace.

Chapter 8: Scouting the Provincial Capital

 Pingchuan, the capital of Jiangbei Province.

 In his previous life, David Thompson had lived in this city for twelve years—four years of college, eight years of work.

 Nearly half of his thirty years had been spent in this city. Pingchuan was his second hometown.

 Dongping County was about two hundred-plus kilometers from Pingchuan, a bus ride of about three hours.

 David Thompson caught the early bus and set foot on this familiar land again around nine o’clock.

 Feeling the change in his pocket, David Thompson was secretly glad that bus fares hadn’t gone up yet—he had just enough for a round trip. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even have had money for the ride.

 He tossed in a coin and got on the bus to the nearest market. David Thompson stared out the window at the familiar yet slightly unfamiliar scenery, lost in thought.

 …