Ye Caiping took the money: "How much will you take tomorrow?"

Hu Xiaosi said, "We'll take 150."

"Okay, but your mistress and brother-in-law both have to go to work tomorrow. How are you going to go alone?"

Hu Xiaosan and Ye Yong were taken aback.

Hu Xiaosi asked, "Aunt Ping, can my third brother leave the spicy soup workshop?"

Upon hearing this, both Hu Xiaosan and Ye Yong were stunned.

Ye Cai raised an eyebrow.

Hu Xiaosan said urgently, "No, absolutely not. I get 35 coins a day!"

This job is stable, and as long as you work hard, you can earn a considerable wage every month.

Although selling small furniture seemed like a lucrative business, he felt it was too risky.

Ye Caiping admired Hu Xiaosi greatly; at such a young age, he had such courage! If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to have guts!

Ye Caiping said, "That's fine. But I'll make it clear from the start: once you leave the workshop, you can't come back in. You two discuss it and see if you really want to leave."

Although she wanted to help the two children, there are no rules without regulations, and the workshop cannot allow people to come and go as they please.

"Okay, thank you, Aunt Ping."

After Hu Xiaosi finished speaking, he looked at Hu Xiaosan and said, "Third Brother, you can believe me, it will definitely work."

Hu Xiaosan was not very willing.

Doing business is like the weather; you might see profits today, but tomorrow is uncertain, and your future is uncertain.

If the business fails, everyone will go hungry.

But apart from her older sister, Xiao Si is the smartest and most resourceful person in the family.

Since Xiao Si has made this decision, it must be correct.

Hu Xiaosan hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Then... I'll resign. Aunt Ping, thank you for choosing me to join us. I've let you down."

Ye Caiping laughed and said, "What's this about letting someone down? It's decided then. Xiao Si, starting tomorrow, go directly to the furniture workshop to find Wang Neng. He's in charge of the workshop's inventory and accounts."

"Give him the money you receive every day. Yong'er, go back and tell Wang Neng."

"good."

...

After Hu Xiaosi and his brother left, they led the oxcart to the village head's house.

It was noon this time, and the workshops had all closed.

Ye Lizheng happened to be home and, upon hearing that they had made money, smiled and said, "That's wonderful."

"Grandpa Village Head, this is the rent for the ox." Hu Xiaosi took out 20 coins.

Ye Lizheng was taken aback: "No need."

"Yes, we need to rent it again tomorrow, otherwise we won't dare to use it."

"Alright, but not so much. Ten coins will suffice. It only took half a day to get back to the county."

Hu Xiaosi knew that 10 coins was a reasonable price, so he gave 10 coins.

Ye Lizheng was very happy. In the afternoon, when he was at work, he called Ye Caiping and Ye Ershu to the workshop for a meeting.

Wang Shuantou and his son, along with Uncle Ye, were overjoyed to learn that the batch of practice materials had actually been sold.

They originally thought this batch of goods was a waste of money when they were letting the novices practice, and they were afraid that even if they had a storefront in the future, they would have difficulty selling them.

Unexpectedly, the storefront was sold before it even existed.

This was the furniture workshop's first income! It was something to be happy and joyful about, greatly boosting the morale of Ye Lizheng and others; it was a good omen.

Wang Shuantou said, "I originally wanted to shorten the practice period, but now that we can sell them, let's practice a little more and practice three thousand."

Ye Lizheng said with a smile, "After deducting all costs, you can earn 10 coins per one, right? So today, these 50 will earn you 500 coins."

Ye Caiping said, "Yes. After all, these are just practice products, so we're going for the low-end, cheap route. It's just a small-scale operation. When the big products come out in the future, that will be the real show."

Wang Shuantou nodded with a smile. Having been in the furniture business for so many years, he certainly knew that the more expensive the item, the more money it would make.

In the afternoon, Hu Xiaosan completed his resignation procedures.

Ye Caiping asked Zhao Fan to find a new employee who could start work tomorrow.

At this point, Ye Caiping had also calculated the costs of the glass workshop.

The glass workshop is larger than both the furniture workshop and the spicy soup workshop.

Ye Caiping went to find Shen Zhiyan.

In the study of the Shen family home—

Shen Zhiyan looked at the village map of Qinghe Village drawn by Ye Caiping:

"Where should the workshop be built? Don't build it near the furniture workshop and the hot and sour soup workshop. Once your furniture workshop is up and running, there will be too many people, and it will be noisy enough."

"If we add the glass workshop to the mix, it will be too noisy and disrupt your sleep."

Ye Caiping said, "I think so too. Let's build further away then. We can buy two acres of land between Qinghe Village and Wangjia Village."

"Okay, let's build it there. How much money do we need now?"

Ye Caiping said, "I've calculated it, let's invest 6,000 taels first. But... there's something I don't understand."

As she spoke, Ye Caiping opened the ledger containing the prices of materials and labor that he had given her.

"If you want to collect these glaze sands, soda ash, and calcite in large quantities, you can only buy them from Ningzhou. The unit price is fine, but why isn't there any shipping fee? Is it transported by water?"

Shen Zhiyan: "My family has merchant ships, so we can just have them transport it over."

Ye Caiping was surprised; there were merchant ships. No wonder they were not short of money.

Shen Zhiyan said, "From now on, the workshop will be managed by you, and I won't be involved. You'll still be providing the prescriptions. So, you'll be at a slight disadvantage. I'll take care of transporting the materials, and that will even things out."

Ye Caiping smiled and said, "Okay."

As she spoke, she took out 3,000 taels of silver notes: "I'll keep the money here for you. If you need to buy materials, you'll need a lot of money. But if I need to build a workshop and customize molds, a few hundred taels will be enough."

Shen Zhiyan nodded: "If you want to buy something, just pay for it at Duanwu."

Ye Caiping said, "And who should we contact regarding registering our workshop?"

Magistrate Lu is in jail, and the entire Yue'an County is leaderless.

Shen Zhiyan said, "Lu Baiwen's verdict has been handed down. Both father and son have been dismissed from their posts, their property confiscated, and they have been exiled. Their actions of taking credit for others' work and seeking official positions are too serious."

"The newly appointed county magistrate is on his way to take up his post and will arrive in about half a month."

"Also, the officials inspecting yellow cassava are on their way. You will receive a reward then. Both groups should arrive around the same time."

Ye Caiping was overjoyed; that was truly fantastic news!

Ye Caiping said, "Thank you so much."

Shen Zhiyan smiled and said, "Didn't you already thank me?" She was referring to her glass workshop.

Ye Caiping scratched her face with her fingers, as if she had thanked him, but also as if she hadn't.

Although she provided the formula for the glass workshop, Shen Zhiyan also put in a lot of effort. He helped with finding materials, transportation, and being her strong backer.

The two cooperated fairly and mutually benefited, with neither taking advantage of the other.

If she provides the prescription and handles all the affairs herself, while Shen Zhiyan does nothing but take half the shares and benefits from it, then that would be something to thank him for.

But that didn't happen.

Ye Caiping thought for a moment: "I feel... I haven't thanked you enough. How about you think about whether there's anything you want, and I'll get it for you?"

Shen Zhiyan lowered his eyes and said casually, "It's no big deal. But if you really want to thank me... that's not impossible."

"Tell me quickly!" She doesn't like owing people money.