Chapter 100 Visiting the Peng Family and the Situation at the Peng Family

When Manager Xing arrived, Yu Cai was sitting at the table, writing and drawing on a piece of paper.

With the Lunar New Year just around the corner, business at the store is getting better every day, and many customers have said they want to enjoy taro paste during the holiday.

Therefore, he wanted to conduct a survey to see whether or not businesses should operate on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Upon hearing Steward Xing say that Peng Ximing wanted to see him, he paused for a moment, then nodded gently: "Let him in."

A moment later, Peng Ximing lifted the cotton curtain and came in.

He stopped at the door, rubbed his hands together, and seemed somewhat reluctant to speak.

Seeing this, Yu Cai spoke gently, "Please speak freely."

Upon hearing these four words, Peng Ximing raised his hand and scratched his head, still somewhat embarrassed.

It's one thing for him to be late or leave early on weekdays.

I still want to ask for leave!

But this is something that must be done.

He didn't dare look at Yu Cai, his eyes fixed on the ground, and explained, "Shopkeeper Yu, Brother Jiang took pity on my family's poverty and not only agreed to give me a batch of preserved eggs on credit, but also to help me transport them home."

"I would like to take two days off to settle this small business down."

Yu Cai: "..."

He paused, his breath catching in his throat.

Needless to say, this must have been Ye Li's idea.

After Ye Li recommended Peng Ximing to him last time, he often came to Banxianju to see him during this period, but he did not mention Peng Ximing again.

He thought Ye Li had let it go, but unexpectedly, she actually took action behind the scenes.

He unconsciously gripped the brush in his hand tighter. This guy!

They're determined to bring them together.

He breathed a sigh of relief, looked at the person in front of him, and asked, "This is a good thing, and we really can't delay it. Go back and take care of it before you come back."

Upon hearing this, Peng Ximing breathed a sigh of relief and quickly thanked him, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, Manager."

He wanted to express his loyalty, such as promising to work harder after returning.

But then he remembered that he was already working as hard as he could without slacking off, so he shut his mouth, bowed to Yu Cai, lifted the curtain, and went out.

After leaving the house, he first told Steward Xing about the matter, and then left Banxianju and went to Yezaopo.

Jiang Ji told him at noon after school that he had to go to their village early the next morning, so he had to count the eggs and load them onto the truck today.

Considering that every household needs to prepare for the New Year, Jiang Jiyuan was willing to give him three thousand magical eggs on credit!

More importantly, Jiang Ji will give away 300 coins for every 1,000 transformed eggs!

This discount was based on the initial price of one thousand eggs, which would earn a profit of over eight hundred coins, and was not a discount made after Gong Lisheng raised the price.

In this way, when they sell preserved eggs, they can offer customers a slight discount, such as buying thirty and getting one free.

With this discount, even though Daqiao Town is far less developed than Baxian Town, the preserved eggs will definitely sell well.

Jiang Ji had arranged everything; his family could simply wait to sell the preserved eggs and count the money.

This moved him so much that he didn't know how to express his gratitude.

My benefactor!

Three thousand eggs can fit in a car if you squeeze them in.

However, considering that Jiang Ji might have to travel at night if something happened to delay their return trip, Ye Li asked Jiang Tong to go with them.

With two cars, the space suddenly became much more spacious.

In order to leave earlier the next day, Peng Ximing stayed overnight at Jiang's house.

He lived in the west room of the old house, which was the room that Ye Li and Jiang Ji used to live in.

The next morning, once the workshop started operating, Jiang Ji, Jiang Tong, and Peng Ximing also went out.

The Peng family's town, Daqiao, is located southwest of the county seat, while Yezaopo is north of the county seat, so they bypassed the county seat directly.

If we wait for the city gates to open and then cross the county town, it will take too much time.

Although taking a detour will add a distance to our journey, it will take more than three hours to reach the Peng family home once it gets light.

With Jiang Tong absent, Ye Li took his place.

After sending away today's taro paste, Ye Li went to the workshop to filter the soybean pulp and make tofu.

In the afternoon, Jiang Dahe, Liang Erxiang, and a few others came over again to wash the taro.

He also helped out.

When you have something to do, the day flies by.

Winter days are short, so dinner is eaten early. After dinner, Ye Li played with Jiang Ya for a while. After the little one went back to her room to sleep, he opened the money box and started counting the coins to prepare year-end bonuses for the workshop employees.

Actually, it's still a long way off before the year-end bonus is paid out.

Today is only the fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

But there's nothing to do.

He would doze off while reading, and he couldn't sew; only counting money could keep him focused.

The workshop has a total of 28 people. If you include the little guy Jiang Ya and Jiang Shun who lives far away in the county town, there are a total of 30 people.

Because the village workshops were established relatively recently, the year-end bonus certainly cannot be calculated based on the entire year – three hundred coins per person would be about right.

Three hundred coins per person, thirty people would be nine taels.

This expense is not small.

Moreover, the New Year's gift is three times the festival gift, which means 15 catties of rice, flour and meat per person.

This little bit of stuff may not seem like much, but it's worth about five hundred copper coins.

Five hundred coins per person, thirty people would be fifteen taels.

He spent twenty-four taels of silver during that New Year.

However, this expenditure was planned in advance.

It will not affect his monthly profit of sixty taels.

The workshop did not stop operating until the end of the lunar year.

Roughly speaking, it has been running for two months.

He can earn five and seven cents for a pound of tofu puffs. If he can eat six hundred pounds a day, he can earn three thousand four hundred and twenty cents.

The total profit for the two months was 205 taels.

But he still needs to pay his employees.

When Jiang Ji returned at the end of the lunar year, the workshop paid out the first month's wages.

Each person earned 30 coins a day, and there were 28 people in total. The workshop operated for 33 days in the first month, so the total wages were close to 28 taels.

The second month, which is the twelfth month, lasted for thirty days, and the wages were calculated to be twenty-six taels.

The wages for two months totaled fifty-four taels.

In addition, there are expenses for gifts on the Winter Solstice and Laba Festival. The first expense is counted as five taels, and the second expense is counted as six taels because of Laba porridge. The two expenses are eleven taels in total. Birthday gifts are not much and can be ignored.

In this way, 205 taels minus 54 taels and then 11 taels leaves 140 taels.

Of the 140 taels, he only took 120 taels.

The remaining twenty taels will be used next year to build a village school, buy farm tools, and dig a well.

Anyway, he won't lose out.

He counted and counted, taking out all 300 coins from the thirty people and putting them into the money box one by one.

But Jiang Ji still didn't come back.

Without a watch, he didn't know the exact time, only that after waiting for a while, he finally heard Jiang Ji and Jiang Tong talking outside.

He quickly got up and left the small living room.

As soon as he stepped into the courtyard, he called out to the gate, "Jiang Ji?"

"Hey!" Jiang Ji answered loudly from the doorway, adding, "Is there any hot food? Let Brother Datong eat before going home."

"Yes, yes, yes! They're all keeping warm on the stove!"

Ye Li laughed and hurried back into the house to pick up the oil lamp and go to the kitchen.

At this moment, Jiang Ji and Jiang Tong also led the oxcart into the gate.

After the two washed their hands and went into the kitchen, Ye Li had already set the food on the table: "Brother Datong, sit down and have something hot to drink."

Tonight he cooked sweet potato soup, and it took so long to cook that the sweet potatoes almost dissolved.

It has a noticeable sweetness even without added sugar.

The soup was kept warm on the stove, slightly scalding hot, and drinking it at this time was just right to dispel the chill.

Jiang Tong didn't stand on ceremony. He sat down at the table with Jiang Ji and picked up his bowl to drink some sweet potato soup.

Actually, when the two were returning, Peng's mother prepared white flour pancakes and eggs for them, but after walking for more than three hours, they had already digested most of the food.

Jiang Ji also picked up his bowl and drank the soup. As the sweet taste spread in his mouth, he explained before Ye Li could ask, "Aunt Peng is too hospitable. She slaughtered a chicken at noon, and this meal has made us a little late."

According to the original plan, after the three of them arrived at the Peng family's house, they would transport the preserved egg directly to the town so that Peng Ximing's younger brother, Peng Xiliang, and Peng's second uncle could demonstrate it.

With Peng Ximing not home, the job of selling preserved eggs fell to Peng Xiliang and Peng Ershu.

With the Lunar New Year approaching, the town was quite crowded.

The preserved egg dish has been popular in the county town for more than half a year, and many residents in the town actually know about this delicacy.

Even those unaware of the dangers are drawn to the beautiful appearance of the egg.

In addition, they had a buy-30-get-one-free promotion, so the preserved eggs sold relatively quickly, with more than 300 sold in just one morning.

At noon, they returned to the Peng family home, planning to have lunch and then come back.

Peng Ximing will stay one night and return to the county town the next day.

When they arrived at the Peng family home, Peng's mother had already stewed the two young roosters.

Moreover, Peng Xiaomei went to her uncle's house to invite her two uncles to be her guests.

Now Jiang Ji and Jiang Tong couldn't just leave.

When the two uncles arrived, the whole family sat down at the dinner table, including Peng's father, who had difficulty walking—Peng's father could get out of bed and walk around with the help of a cane.

The arrival of Jiang Ji and Jiang Tong today is like a divine intervention for the Peng family, a blessing from heaven. It has instantly kicked away the heavy stone of poverty that weighed on the Peng family, and filled their future with warm light.

The Peng family was overjoyed, beaming with happiness, and some even wept with joy.

real.

The group of people at the table, talking about the past, started wiping away tears as they spoke.

Daqiao Town is not wealthy, but the banditry that occurred twenty years ago also affected Daqiao Town, so the local farmers acquired land.

At that time, young Peng Ximing went back to his mother's home with his mother.

There was a small village school in Peng's mother's village. Just for fun, Peng Ximing secretly slipped away and stood by the window to listen to the teacher's lecture. As a result, he memorized most of the chapters that the other students in the school had not memorized that afternoon.

Uncle Peng and Uncle Peng were very happy.

Peng's father and second uncle were also very happy.

Anyway, now that the family owns land, they don't have to pay rent to the landlords like before. If those four families grit their teeth, they can afford to support Peng Ximing's education.

Thus, Peng Ximing embarked on the path of taking the imperial examinations.

The four families relied solely on the meager income from their fields, scrimping and saving for over ten years, finally managing to raise Peng Ximing to become a scholar.

But even among scholars, there were distinctions between the rich and the poor.

This achievement brought little change to the Peng family.

So the four families put their heads together and decided to grit their teeth and persevere a little longer, and let Peng Ximing try to get into the county school.

I should at least try to take the provincial examination, right?

If that doesn't work, then find another way and make money.

As a result, Peng's father had an accident, disrupting the plans.

Recalling the hardships of the past four years and the difficulties of the past twenty years, and comparing them with the surprises and hopes of today, they were overwhelmed with emotion and could not hold back their tears.

So Jiang Ji and Jiang Tong went around persuading them one by one.

The meal took more than an hour to eat.

This delay, coupled with the slow pace of walking at night, meant that the two returned late.

This explanation left Ye Li somewhat speechless.

It's incredibly difficult for children from farming families to rise above their circumstances.

Fortunately, Peng Ximing was lucky.

Soon, Jiang Tong and Jiang Ji had their food.

It was late at night, and Jiang Tong led the oxcart home.

Jiang Ji locked the courtyard gate and prepared to wash up and go to bed.

Ye Li followed beside him and asked the question she really wanted to ask: "So, everything Peng Ximing said before was true?"

Jiang Ji nodded: "Yes. Moreover, the whole family looks rather weathered."

Even though Peng Xiaomei was in the prime of her life, her hands and face were covered in chilblains, and her clothes were patched upon patched.

Peng's father was even older, with a full head of white hair and wrinkles on his dark red face that looked as if they had been carved by a knife. Coupled with his thin body, it made Jiang Ji feel a little heartbroken.

After listening to Jiang Ji's description, Ye Li was silent for a moment, then asked, "What about his family? Are they easy to get along with?"

"They were all very kind, and I was full of words of gratitude."

"When I entered the village, some villagers saw Peng Ximing and called him Master Peng. He seemed to be well-liked."

Jiang Ji picked up a bowl and prepared to brush his teeth.

Ye Li nodded and remained silent for the time being.

However, he had asked all the questions he needed to ask.

Peng Ximing was not lying.

The Peng family members are easy to get along with.

Although people change, Yu Cai doesn't expect things to last forever.

This couple looks perfect together!

So, on the sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, after making the taro paste early in the morning, Ye Li and Jiang Ji personally drove an oxcart and delivered 350 catties of taro paste to Banxianju.

The two arrived early, but Yu Cai hadn't come yet.

They went to the fabric shop where they had previously ordered their clothes.

After working overtime for several days, half of the clothes ordered have been completed, including those for the two little ones and his.

So he took the clothes and drove the oxcart back to Banxianju.

Yu Cai had already arrived. He wasn't staying in the backyard; he was sitting on the first floor, watching the waiter use paper and pen to conduct a survey among the diners on the first floor about whether they would be open for business on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

The first floor is almost full.

Seeing Ye Li and Jiang Ji enter, he blinked. Jiang Ji was already back, but what about Peng Ximing…?

As soon as Ye Li entered, she casually glanced around and saw Yu Cai sitting in the corner. She walked over with a smile and said, "Oh, Brother Cai, why are you sitting here? Come on, let's go back to the backyard. We'll have lunch together today."

"……good."

Yu Cai smiled and stood up, supporting herself on the table.

With Jiang Ji around, he didn't believe Ye Li would mention Peng Ximing.

They didn't have hot pot today; Yu Cai asked the chef to make some stir-fried dishes.

At the dinner table, Ye Li did not mention Peng Ximing; instead, he asked about the results of the investigation at Banxianju.

Upon learning that a third of his customers wanted to operate on a semi-closed basis on New Year's Eve and the first day of the Lunar New Year, he discussed with Yu Cai how much stock they should prepare for that time.

Unlike later generations, people at this time ate their New Year's Eve dinner at home.

Therefore, about 20 jin (10 kg) of tofu puffs is enough.

You can make more taro paste, tentatively set at 100 jin.

Taro paste is considered a snack and won't affect the New Year's Eve dinner.

After finishing her meal, Yu Cai asked someone to remove the bowls and chopsticks.

Ye Li then asked Jiang Ji to go out and buy some dried fruit.

Yu Cai: "..."

Sure enough, once he and Ye Li were alone in the room, Ye Li immediately spoke up: "Brother Cai, Jiang Ji returned from the Peng family last night."

“What Peng Ximing said to Jiang Ji before was all true.”

"His family has had a particularly difficult journey..."

With a sigh, Ye Li recounted the Peng family's past and present situation to Yu Cai in detail.

During this time, Yu Cai's brows never relaxed.

He only knew that the Peng family was poor, but he didn't know that the Peng family was in such dire straits!

Then there's Peng Ximing, who, after passing the imperial examination at the county level, hadn't even had time to rejoice before opening a small village school at home and taking care of his elderly father.

No wonder Peng Ximing was so skilled at serving tea and water.

So that's how they trained...

After Ye Li finished speaking, he changed the subject and asked, "So, Cai Ge, do you know what Peng Ximing's ideal is now?"

What is it?

That's what they said, but Yu Cai already had a guess in her heart.

He should have saved enough money to study hard and repay his family by passing the imperial examination.

But the next moment, Ye Li's words rang out: "His ideal is for a rich young man to fall from the sky and marry him, so he won't have to work hard."

Yu Cai: "?"

His brows furrowed even more deeply.

What is it?