Wei and Jin Hua and Yin Hua set out the dishes, and soon the table was full, with a total of ten dishes.

The group ate and chatted at the same time.

"How's Hu Fen's situation?" Old Mrs. Ye handed a chicken foot to Ye Caiping.

My daughter loves chicken feet, especially when they're stewed until they're very tender.

Ye Caiping then recounted the entire situation over there, and Grandma Ye and the others all laughed as they listened.

"Little sister is the best." Madam Du looked at Ye Caiping with admiration. "If it were anyone else, even if they were a bit tougher, they would only be able to make eldest sister divorce. Only little sister is capable enough to have those three, Yang Guangzong and his companions, completely under her control."

"Mom, why is the village chief called 'village head' in Nanwa Village, but we're called 'village head' here?" Ye Jin'er asked doubtfully.

"Because Nanwa Village is small, one village head is in charge of several villages. Our Qinghe Village is big, so Uncle Village Head serves as both the village head and the village head, and is in charge of one village."

"oh."

Ye Jin'er and the others nodded, indicating that they understood.

Grandma Ye smiled and said, "Second son, Caiping, it's time for you to move houses too. After the Lantern Festival, I'll go find a fortune teller to pick an auspicious day for you."

Ye Caiping and Ye Erquan were both overjoyed at the thought of moving into their new house soon.

“Mother…” Madam Wei took a bite of her greens, “Well, our two houses were built together, and the roof beams were raised on the same day. How about we move in on the same day? That would save us a lot of trouble.”

Ye Caiping frowned.

Ye Erquan and Ye Daquan were bewildered and only focused on eating.

Old Man Ye slammed his chopsticks on the table: "That's not fair. The banquet can be held by two families together, but should the guests give one gift or two? It can't be that two families hold a banquet together, and then people who only attend give two gifts!"

Mrs. Wei was taken aback, and lowered her head: "That's right, I didn't think of that."

Ye Erquan then realized what she meant and glared at her: "You can't skimp on this kind of thing. Just do it step by step."

Ms. Wei blushed.

Seeing that the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Ye Xuan said, "Auntie, we start school on the first day of February. The teacher said he wants to see you and Mom and Dad before classes start."

"Hmm." Ye Caiping thought for a moment, "Then let's go see him on the last day of this month."

Du asked, "Is there something you want to say?"

"We don't know either."

After dinner, Ye Caiping was so tired that she went straight to her room to lie down.

"Awoo, Mother!" Ye Jin'er pounced on her.

Ye Caiping was nearly vomiting blood from the impact: "You're so big and still acting like a baby. Move, move aside... You almost broke my ribs."

Ye Jin'er pouted, moved off Ye Caiping, and lay down to the side.

Her hand was tightly clasped around Ye Caiping's arm, and her little head nestled in the crook of Ye Caiping's neck.

Ye Huan'er happened to come in and, seeing this, rushed over and leaned against Ye Caiping's other side.

Ye Caiping was sandwiched between her two daughters, one on each side, which was... both oppressive and heavy, yet also sweet...

"How do you feel about spending the Chinese New Year here for the first time?" Ye Caiping asked.

"Hmm...of course I'm happy! It's a hundred times better than being at the Li family's house, but...I should have gone to Aunt's house with Mother." Ye Jin'er pouted as she finished speaking.

"What's wrong?"

Ye Huan'er chuckled: "These relatives are all so mean... They grabbed my sister's hand and said they wondered which lucky boy would be able to marry her. The way those aunties looked at my sister was like they were looking at a piece of fat meat."

Ye Caiping's expression changed slightly.

Jin'er was born in August, so she will be fourteen by then, which means she is old enough to be married in this era.

Putting aside Jin'er's beauty, just considering her current wealth, many people have already set their sights on her.

“You’re not in a hurry. After February, I’ll ask Mr. Qian where there are any female tutors. You can learn from them for a few years before talking about marriage.”

“Okay, thank you, Mother,” Ye Jin’er said.

"Besides those who care about my sister, there are others who want to offer us fatherly love and warmth," Ye Huan'er continued.

Ye Caiping choked for a moment. Luckily, she was far away, otherwise she wouldn't know how to face these waves of attacks.

...

After the Lantern Festival, everyone got busy.

Grandma Ye asked someone to choose an auspicious date for Ye Caiping and her brother.

The final two families set their move-in dates as follows: Ye Erquan on January 23 and Ye Caiping on January 28.

Ye Caiping was quite satisfied with the timing, as it gave her ample time to run her workshop.

Ye Yongde had just started working in February, so Ye Caiping asked him to deliver goods for Ye Daquan.

Ye Daquan took her to discuss business in an oxcart.

Ye Caiping took Ye Daquan to find a medicinal herb supplier, only asking them to supply ten kinds of spices. She planned to buy the most expensive cardamom, Sichuan pepper, and black pepper from her space.

The price was negotiated smoothly. On average, excluding the most expensive pepper, the cost of one pound of spices was about 50 coins.

Ye Caiping placed an order for 2,000 jin (1,000 catties) of herbs, which was delivered to Qinghe Village by the herbal medicine shop in early February.

On the way back, Ye Daquan worriedly said, "I buy all the spices from him. Aren't you afraid he'll find out what he used?"

"If you know, you know. Baiweilou had doctors try it out before. The key is the proportions of seasoning and the cooking method."

"Let's do this for now! If the market changes, I can do something else."

Actually, what she really wanted to open was a glass or soap workshop. As long as she had the craft, she would be invincible!

But precisely because the profits were so high, she couldn't keep it.

As the saying goes, wealth can move people's hearts. Unless she finds a powerful backer, she will either end up doing someone else's favor or bringing disaster upon herself.

For now, let's set up a hot and sour soup workshop and accumulate some wealth.

Ye Daquan nodded: "Then what should we use to wrap the finished ingredient packets? Oil paper?"

Ye Caiping said, "Use jars! My workshop mainly supplies restaurants, so the quantity of each item needs to be large."

"Clay pottery jars are cheap. A jar that can hold four or five pounds only costs ten or eight coins. If we buy in bulk, we can negotiate a lower price. After filling the jars, we will seal them with wax."

Ye Daquan asked, "Besides the jar, what else is there?"

"We also need to buy some stone mills, as we have to grind the raw materials ourselves. We also need to put our own labels and usage instructions on the jars. We can have this done by a printing and dyeing workshop."

Ye Daquan was completely bewildered: "Selling ingredients is so complicated? It's better to just set up a stall."

"It's not troublesome at all." Ye Caiping chuckled. "Once the preliminary work is done well, the rest can be done step by step."