Wang Shuantou and his son listened with great excitement: "Will we get paid without having to work?"

Ye Caiping smiled and nodded: "Yes, but Uncle Wang, you should take on more apprentices. If you teach them well, you won't have to do it yourself in the future."

This is why she didn't hire Wang Shuantou and the others to work for her, but instead invested in them.

If you don't give them a share of the profits, why would they be willing to teach you their best skills? This is called contributing skills as equity.

Wang Shuantou said, "But if we teach them... what if the apprentices run away? If they leave the workshop and go out to do their own thing, we'll end up creating a competitor."

"Don't worry, I'll have the apprentices sign a contract that they have to work in the workshop for ten years after they learn the skills. Otherwise, they'll lose money! We'll also raise the wages a bit, and the apprentices will naturally be more motivated to work."

Wang Shuantou's eyes lit up; this was promising!

Ye Daquan and Ye Yong were also very excited.

Ye Daquan rubbed his hands together, eager to get started: "Hehe, then I'll go with my little sister to run a furniture workshop."

Ye Yong said, "But... 45, 20, 20... that's only 85 shares, isn't there still 15 'dry shares'?"

Ye Caiping said, "Of these 15, I plan to give 7 to my second brother, and 4 each to the village head and my second uncle."

Ye Caiping wanted to help Ye Erquan, Ye Ershu, and Ye Lizheng.

Although Ye Erquan is currently in the business of selling toilets, he is afraid that this product will be copied and the price will drop in the future.

As for Uncle Ye and the village head, they were both people who had helped him, so it was only right that he help them.

Wang Shuan nodded: "I'll do whatever you say, my dear niece."

Anyway, no matter who gets the remaining shares, their family will get 20 shares.

Ye Caiping said, "Yong'er, call your second uncle, village head, and second grandfather over."

"Why."

After a while, Ye Lizheng and Ye Ershu followed Ye Yong in.

Ye Erquan did not come; instead, it was Wei Shi who came.

Madam Wei said, "Your second brother just finished looking at your eldest brother's house and went to work with Tie Niu and San Quan. I heard from Yong'er that your younger sister is going to open a furniture workshop or something. Are they hiring?"

Ye Lizheng and Ye Ershu looked at Ye Caiping with the same question in their eyes.

If they really need to hire people, there's no one left in their family. All the able-bodied men in the family have gone to work at the spicy soup workshop.

Ye Caiping smiled and said, "I'm not recruiting people. I'm thinking of starting a joint venture for my furniture workshop."

Ye Lizheng and Ye Ershu's eyes lit up.

Even Wei's eyes lit up. Ye Erquan's current latrine business is some kind of joint venture, anyway, it's agreed that whatever amount is taken, whatever amount is saved, it will be divided together.

Ye Lizheng excitedly said, "A furniture workshop is..."

"It's about making furniture. I'll provide the blueprints, and Uncle Wang and his son will work with their apprentices. Once it's finished, we'll sell it."

"So how are these shares distributed?"

Ye Caiping said, "I'll take 45 shares, my eldest brother 20 shares, Uncle Wang 20 shares. I'm planning to give my second brother 7 shares, and the village head and my second uncle 4 shares each, how about that?"

Ye Lizheng and Ye Ershu were more than willing to agree; Ye Caiping was getting them on board to make money! They were happy to do whatever it took!

They nodded quickly: "Okay, we agree."

Mrs. Wei frowned: "My eldest brother's family has 20 shares, why does my family only have 7 shares?"

“My eldest brother didn’t participate in building the outhouse back then!” Ye Caiping said. Even though her eldest brother didn’t participate, her second sister-in-law still made a lot of money and was quite happy. “Besides, Yong’er is a carpenter now. This workshop is centered around carpentry.”

Mrs. Wei was speechless for a moment.

Now his family has a job building outhouses, which earns them eighty or ninety taels a month! The eldest son's family doesn't have this kind of income.

Ye Caiping continued, "But I must make it clear beforehand that although Uncle Wang owns 20 shares, he doesn't need to put up any capital. After the workshop starts up, Uncle Wang and his son will be responsible for training apprentices. This is investing in the workshop with their skills. Their skills are their capital."

"So we also have to share his 20 shares of capital."

Ye Lizheng and his second uncle exchanged a glance, neither objecting, and nodded: "That's only right."

Mrs. Wei was completely confused: "What does this mean? Capital? You have to pay for this?"

Upon hearing this, Ye Caiping, Ye Daquan, Ye Lizheng, and the others all looked at her.

Ye Daquan shouldn't have been giving his sister-in-law advice, but he was still annoyed: "Setting up a workshop naturally requires money. If we, as the owners, don't contribute, who will? Did my sister's spicy soup workshop just appear out of thin air?"

Ms. Wei choked up. She thought that Ye Caiping had invited them, so it must have been Ye Caiping who sent them.

Moreover, Ye Erquan's toilet work didn't require any capital!

Mrs. Wei tugged at her sleeve: "Oh...Is that so? I've never run a workshop or anything like that, so I don't know."

Ye Caiping was also somewhat speechless, and continued, "I had planned the furniture workshop a long time ago, and I had already calculated the costs. The cost of building the workshop, the tools for woodworking, the wood, the labor costs, and the wood that the apprentices would waste in the early stages of their training... is about eight or nine hundred taels."

“Let’s divide it into 1,000 taels. I have 45 shares, so I’ll contribute 450 taels. My eldest brother will contribute 200 taels, my second brother 70 taels, and Uncle Lizheng and Uncle Er will each contribute 40 taels. Since Uncle Wang’s family doesn’t need to contribute, that adds up to 800 taels.”

Wang Shuantou and his two sons gasped in shock. 200 taels for 20 shares? They... actually got such a huge bargain!

Ye Lizheng and his second uncle nodded. Forty taels of silver was a lot, but not much for a workshop. They could scrape together the money.

Ye Daquan looked miserable. 200 taels! That's more than enough to buy him!

Thinking it over, he looked at Ye Caiping with a pleading expression.

Ye Caiping rolled her eyes at him, as if to say, "Calm down!"

Of all the people here, besides Ye Caiping, the only one who could come up with the capital all at once was the Wei family.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!