140 Teacher's New Year Greetings

On the first day of the first lunar month, Ping An took Er Qiang and a few others to pay New Year's greetings to their parents and uncle, received red envelopes, and were preparing to go out to their teacher's house.

Da Wu, Xiao Wu and Qing Shi came over.

They came to wish their master, his parents, and Military Doctor Sun a happy new year.

Ping An had already prepared red envelopes for these people. There were eleven people including Fang Wu. Now Fang Wu, Zhang Xiaoshan and Wu Jun were not here, but they still had to be given. Twenty silver leaves per person, a total of two hundred and twenty leaves. They were heavy, shiny and looked very good.

Erqiang was so pleased with it that he declared that he must keep it for himself and would never give it to his family. He wanted to play with it himself now and give it to his son later.

This made everyone laugh for a long time.

When all the people were present, they were loaded into a carriage and taken to the city.

Sun Yat-sen naturally waited at home for his apprentice to wish him a happy new year.

Ping'an led everyone to kowtow and wish the teacher and his wife a happy new year. After receiving red envelopes, Erqiang and the other children followed Qingshi to play on the street, while Dawu and Xiaowu went their own ways.

On the third day of the New Year, Ping An promised them that as long as they paid attention to their own safety, they could still play freely, but they could not act alone and had to play with a few others.

Ping'an also brought gifts to the teacher's two sons. His senior brother Sun Zhiyuan got a box of good ink, and his junior brother Zhichen got the same silver leaves as Erqiang and the others. It was all because of the thoughtfulness.

Senior Brother Zhiyuan also gave him an inkstone as a return gift.

Sun Yat-sen took Ping An to the study.

"Ping An, look what this is?"

Ping An took the purse and looked inside, there was a thick stack of banknotes: "Teacher, this is..."

He knew the number in his mind. His teacher had told him that at the end of the year, those braised food shops would settle their accounts. He would just need to send the numbers over and withdraw the money directly from there.

"Count them." Sun Wen looked at his disciples with a smile.

Ping An took out the banknotes, and his heart was really happy. At this moment, he was really excited. "Master, so many?"

Twenty silver notes of fifty taels each, in just three months.

"Silly child, the income from the sixteen shops in three months, not counting the decimals, is more than ten thousand taels, which is not much. The average profit of each shop is a little over two hundred taels per month. I paid the bills of ten thousand and put the remaining small amount in the shops for cash flow. Your master is already preparing to open four shops in the capital.

Ping An, you get 30% of the profit, but here there is only 10%, which is one thousand taels. The remaining 20% ​​will be placed under another identity of your master as agreed before, and will be given to you when you come of age.

I am somewhat selfish in doing this with your master, although you said that your stepfather told you to keep the money you earn for yourself and just give some to your family, so doing this does not go against his original intention.

You are still young, so keep the money with your master for now. When there is any good investment, he can help you buy some. Be safe. Once you do this, don't tell anyone, otherwise it will be difficult for your master and I. Just assume that you only have 10% and the other 20% belongs to others.

Also, this is the first three months after the shop opened. You may not be able to make this much money every month in the future. It may be less. You have to keep this in mind."

Ping An nodded and said, "Teacher, I know everything. You are all thinking about me. If I sell the house myself, it will be a one-time transaction and I won't make much money.

In fact, if I were to do this business with someone else, they would give me at most 10%, and not necessarily even that. This is the case only because you are my master. When I go back, I will tell my parents that I used the recipe to invest in the company, made some money, and I will give some to them for household expenses.

Let alone earning so much in three months, even if I earn so much in a year, I will be very satisfied. Many families in the countryside can't even save five or ten taels a year."

Sun Wen was very satisfied: "Ping An, it is good that you think this way. Life is long, don't waste money. You can make money now, but there will be times when you can't make money. When the time is right, it is best to ask your master to help you buy some property. Money will not work if it is left there.

Also, the harvest this year is uncertain, I don't think it will be too bad here, but you'd better quietly tell your father to stock up some food, but not too much, it should be enough for two years, and you mustn't tell anyone, or else it will upset the people and cause trouble."

"I understand, teacher. If the food is stored for a long time, it won't go bad, right?"

"Silly Ping'an, the grain won't go bad if it's stored for two or three years. If the harvest is good this year or next, the worst that can happen is that we can sell some of the grain. We won't lose much. But if things really go wrong, we need to eat three times a day, and people will panic if they don't have grain."

Ping An thought so too.

In the past life, people didn’t have to worry about these things. They would just buy one bag after they ate, and the country would never let the people go without food. But this was not the case in ancient times because food was already in short supply.

"Ask your father to buy some at a time. Don't make it too conspicuous. You have to find time to read during the New Year holidays. You work harder than others. In addition to studying, you also have to learn medicine. But it doesn't matter if you work hard. What you have learned is in your mind, and others can't take it away from you.

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, I will go with you to the valley. Your master has sent me a letter saying that he will be back soon after he finishes his work in the capital. By the way, here is the red envelope your master gave you."

Sun Yat-sen took out a bag of gold leaves and handed it to him.

Ping An grinned. The two masters each had a small bag. A bag of ten taels was equivalent to one hundred taels of silver. However, he had no plan to exchange it for silver. It was golden and pleasing to the eye. No wonder so many people liked to buy gold in their previous lives.

The master's wife invited him to have lunch and had already started working with the maid.

When Sun Yat-sen saw that it was still early, he simply called his eldest son. His eldest son, Sun Zhiyuan, was now twelve and a half years old, four years older than Ping An, and had already become a tall and handsome young man.

"Zhiyuan, since we have nothing to do, I'll give you some math problems to do. Ping An is pretty good at math."

Sun Zhiyuan said with a smile, "Dad, my junior brother just came to visit us in the New Year, and you're already asking us math problems. I think it would be better if we guess some riddles, or some poems, but I'm not very good at poetry."

"It's feasible, but Zhiyuan, you are much older than me, so we won't compete today. We can just kill time."

Ping An had no objection. Whether competing with his senior brother or just killing time, he was prepared to show some strength, but not too much. It was New Year's Day, and it would not be good to be much better than others, nor would it be good to be too far behind others.

If you want everyone to be happy, you have to find the right balance.

When the master's wife came to call them for dinner, the three of them were in high spirits in the study. Ping'an's performance surprised both the Sun family's father and son. After all, he was only an eight-year-old child, and his guessing of riddles was only slightly inferior to Zhiyuan.

The father and son were even more surprised by his poetry. Although it was a little immature, it was extraordinary in its immaturity. It couldn't be said to be very good, but it was only slightly worse than Zhiyuan's.

But Zhiyuan started to learn at the age of six and has been studying for more than six years.

It is said that this child in front of us was only taught a little at home by his parents and had never really studied. The actual time he spent studying was only half a year.

This is shocking.

Sun Wen did not give any questions on arithmetic as it was time for lunch. Otherwise, even if he had given any questions, Ping An would probably be no worse than his son in arithmetic.