Chapter 327: Selling Cotton for Money
"Aunt——"
Sui Yu looked over and saw Lu Yaer and Congzu coming over on tall horses.
"Aunt, I haven't seen you for almost a year. Do you miss me?" Lu Yaer asked playfully.
"You just came back yesterday, and you come to school to learn to read today? Don't you want to take a break?" Sui Yu asked.
"Learning to read means sitting in a classroom, not working in the fields. Compared to traveling on the road, it's not tiring at all." Lu Yaer jumped off her horse and stood by the road, looking at the cotton fields filled with white and pink flowers. She asked, "How much cotton have you planted this year? How many acres? What was the price of cotton last year? What's the woven cloth like? Will it keep you warm in winter?"
"Last year, we didn't harvest much cotton, so we didn't sell it. We spent all the money on our family. This year, we've planted 47 acres of cotton. In another month, the bolls will start to bloom, and I'll give you a cotton-padded jacket then." Sui Yu stepped on a wooden plank to cross the river. "I'm going to walk around the fields. You two can go to the school. Have you had breakfast? There's still food in the kitchen. Last night, Sister Cui made a pot of chicken soup, and this morning she used it to make a pot of tofu-stuffed dumplings. They're fresh, fragrant, and not greasy."
Song Congzu's mouth watered after hearing this. He shook the reins and said, "I'll go have another bowl. Cuisao and Yinpo's cooking is better than my cook's."
"I'm going too." Luyaer got on the horse and said, "Aunt, I'm going over."
"Okay. By the way, is your mother okay? Is she home? Is she free? I'll go talk to her later."
Lu Yaer's face darkened. After their conversation yesterday afternoon, her mother's mood had been deeply depressed... No, it should be said that since the argument between her parents before the caravan left Dunhuang last year, her mother's mood had become somewhat off. It was as if she was forcing herself to hold on, her face often unsmiling, and a look of depression and struggle occasionally appeared between her brows. On the way back through Loulan, her mother learned from merchants from the interior that her brother had reformed and later killed three traitorous slaves. It was as if the pent-up anger had finally been released. Lu Yaer could feel that after that, her mother's sagging spine had straightened again. However, after returning, she had voluntarily and under duress severed ties with her husband and son, and she felt that the depression that had been emanating from her mother had returned.
Lu Yaer could sense Song Xian's emotions, but she couldn't share her worries. She was like a fledgling chick in front of her mother. Apart from making some lively sounds and saying some caring words to warm people's hearts, she couldn't touch the real deep-seated problems. It was like a wound with pus. All she could do was wipe away the pus, but she didn't have the ability to dig out the rotten flesh.
"Yes, she's at home." Lu Ya'er hesitated a little. She glanced at her brother who was about to run to the guesthouse and said with all her strength, "My mother is resting at home. She has nothing to do these days. Aunt, go talk to her when you have time."
Lu Yaer trusted Sui Yu's character and thought that even if she knew about her family's conflicts, she wouldn't make fun of them. Furthermore, she didn't say anything; she simply led the person over. Whether she was willing to talk or not depended on her mother's wishes.
The two of them were not too close to each other, so Sui Yu didn't notice that Lu Ya'er's expression was not right. She broke off a tampon and said, "Okay, I'll go see her when I'm done."
Lu Yaer rode away on her horse. When she was almost at the guesthouse, she saw Ah Shui coming out of the kitchen. She shouted, "Ah Shui, I'm back."
"We know you're back. Our caravan entered the city with you." Ah Shui went over to greet him and said, "You've lost weight again."
"You're so dull." Lu Ya'er complained, "You haven't seen me for so long, shouldn't you be more enthusiastic?"
For Ah Shui, the past six months have been the same as usual. Without a good friend, her life has not changed much. She is happy to see Lu Yaer come back, but she does not feel any emotion.
As for Yu Luya, she had been away from Dunhuang for many days and nights. During her time away from home, she would often miss her relatives, friends, and classmates in her hometown. She was excited when she set out on her journey home, and as soon as she returned, she couldn't wait to see her old friends and acquaintances, full of high spirits. However, the scenes she imagined did not appear, and she felt like a pig bladder with a punctured bladder.
"Ah! Who's back?" Yang Erlang caught up on his camel. He circled around Lu Yaer and said, "I saw someone riding a horse in the city who looked like you. I called out, and in the blink of an eye, you were gone. Why are you so limp as a piece of pickled vegetables? Have you forgotten all the words you learned? You've come at the right time. Today, the teacher is going to explain the scroll of law you copied. Yesterday, he said your handwriting looked like it was licked by a dog—a mess of ink, not even a single word."
"Your handwriting looks like a dog licked it." Lu Yaer rolled her eyes. She looked at Ah Shui and saw her shaking her head slightly, knowing that Yang Erlang was talking nonsense again. She pulled the reins of the horse and raised her head provocatively, "You come to school every day to study, and I've only been studying for a short time. How can you humiliate me with handwriting? If you have the guts, come and compete with me in horsemanship. You, a boy, can't be better than a girl like me, right?"
Yang Erlang choked. His family didn't have any horses, and even if he rode a camel, he only took it out to school. How could he compare to this girl who lived on a camel's back all year round?
"You don't dare to compete?" Lu Yaer laughed.
"King." Yang Erlang uttered the word, and Lu Yaer immediately stopped laughing. She jumped off the horse and asked excitedly, "Did you guys do that again? What happened after I left?"
"What's the matter?" A Shui asked curiously.
"It's none of your business, kid, don't interrupt." Yang Erlang waved his hand. He held the horse in one hand and the camel in the other, and walked towards the school with Lu Yaer.
Ah Shui curled her lips, she was too lazy to listen.
"A Shui, what did you have for breakfast? Is there anything left?" Yang Sanlang arrived late, followed by seven classmates riding camels and mules. He heard Gu Dalang calling him halfway, so he waited on the side of the road for a while and did not follow Yang Erlang who was running all the way.
"The dumplings we had cooked in chicken soup are gone. You're late, and Lv Ya'er's brother is here to clean up first." Ah Shui said, "Don't worry about the food. It's almost time. Let's go to school."
It was already hot in June, so Mr. Chen moved the class time forward by one hour. Only after the class was over did the heat begin to set in outside.
Sui Yu wiped the sweat from her head. She came up from the field, washed her hands and face by the river, went back to get a bag, and led the camel into the city to the Song family.
When she arrived, Song Xian was sorting the goods she brought back, and the manager waiting nearby was reporting on the camel business for the year.
"Are you busy?" Sui Yu sent away the maid who was leading the way.
Song Xian also asked the steward to leave. She walked out and led Sui Yu to the main courtyard. She said, "You are the busiest one right now. How are the crops in the fields growing?"
"It's growing well. But I'm not busy. I've hired ten women to help pluck the buds, and I have twenty-three merchants to help me carry water for the crops. I don't have to worry about anything in the cotton fields." Sui Yu sat down. She handed over the bundle and said, "I left you fifty of the menstrual belts I made last year."
Song Xian accepted it. When she left Dunhuang last year, Sui Yu had Xiao Chunhong bring her fifty cotton-padded menstrual belts. These were much more useful than those filled with ash and reed fluff. Reed fluff was unusable if it got soaked, but cotton could be washed and dried, then shaken and stretched to become fluffy again. It could also absorb water and blood.
"This is a good thing." Song Xian pointed to the cotton.
"Yes, the cotton cloth and quilts have been presented to the emperor. Last month, the official sent by the court arrived. Now he spends all day in the cotton field like an old farmer, pulling weeds and pinching buds." Sui Yu said with a smile.
"When the cotton bolls start to bloom, the imperial rewards will be coming down soon, right?" Song Xian asked. "I'd like to congratulate you first."
Sui Yu's excitement had faded. Upon hearing this, he simply smiled and said, "Let's not talk about this for now. We'll talk about it later. I came here to tell you that your son hasn't been back since you left Dunhuang. Did you know about this? Of course, the family steward should have told you. Did he have a conflict with his father? Is it anything serious? I asked him, but he wouldn't say anything."
Song Xian nodded, "Yes, we're separated, but it's not a big deal."
Seeing that she didn't want to talk, Sui Yu stopped asking.
"Hey?" Sui Yu sat up straight and leaned over to look. It wasn't her eyes playing tricks on her, Song Xian had white hair.
Song Xian reached out and touched her hair, gave a tired smile, and asked, "Are your gray hairs showing?"
"You should take a break." Sui Yu said.
"I'm forty-one, old, and it's normal to have white hair." Although she said this, Song Xian felt that having white hair had nothing to do with doing business, nor did she feel that she was old at this age. She was just worrying too much. She understood the root cause of her unhappiness, and could only wait until she could think it through.
"Your stomach still not moving?"
"No, I don't plan to this year. I will probably have to go to Chang'an." Sui Yu said.
"It's just right. Since you are going to Chang'an, I will let Lu Yaer lead the caravan to go with you, and I will rest at home for a year." Song Xian felt relaxed.
Sui Yu nodded. "Okay, take a break. I can tell you're tired. If you're not happy living at home, you can move in with me, or choose a place you like and live there for a year. Anyway, you have Lu Yaer and Congzu to support you, so the family business won't be in trouble if you leave."
Song Xian listened carefully and lowered her eyes thoughtfully.
"You make so much money just to give yourself and your children a good life. Make yourself happy first. Buy whatever you want to eat. If you can't buy it, spend money to ask others to buy it. As long as you are willing to pay, anything flying in the sky or swimming in the water can be delivered to your table. You have traveled many times inside and outside the pass. If you like the water or the mountains in a certain place, you can take your servants and move there to live for a year or two. If you miss your children, ask the passing caravan to send a message and let the children come to see you." Sui Yu comforted.
Song Xian nodded, "Thank you, Sister Yu."
Thank her for not asking too many questions or delving too deeply into the matter. I guessed that there was discord in her family and said it directly, but I tried to persuade her in different ways.
Sui Yu waved his hand, "Why thank me? I have a secret plan. I asked you to explore the way first. When I build my guesthouse there, I will have someone I know to help me."
Song Xian didn't believe this. She asked, "How's the guesthouse you built in Zhangye?"
"It's not good, nor bad. I'm on the right track. I have business and can make money. It's just that the return on investment is slow, but I'm not in a hurry."
"Is anyone causing trouble?" Song Xian asked.
Sui Yu shook her head. She was about to show off Sui Liang's cleverness, but before she could finish her words, she remembered that Song Xian was still thinking about matchmaking Liang Ge'er and Lu Ya'er. She swallowed the words that were about to come out of her mouth and said nothing.
Song Xian chuckled.
Sui Yu lowered her eyes and ignored him. She twisted her fingers and pinched the cotton buds, but the green juice on her fingertips and nails could not be washed off no matter how hard she tried.
Song Xian glanced outside and said, "It's almost noon. Would you like to have lunch with me?"
"Okay." Sui Yu nodded.
Huang Ancheng was not seen during lunch. When Sui Yu left, she ran into him walking out in the front yard. Only then did she realize that Song Xian and Huang Ancheng had been separated. If the middle door was sealed, the couple could be considered to be living in separate houses.
Huang Ancheng nodded and greeted Sui Yu, then walked out with a swagger.
Sui Yu followed him out, and once she walked out of the Song family's door, she put their family affairs behind her and had no intention of interfering.
However, in the days that followed, Sui Yu often asked Lu Yaer to tell Song Xian to go to the north of the city to play. As soon as Song Xian arrived, she led people to work in the fields.
Water and temperature caught up, and by the end of June, the first cotton plants had begun to boll. Sui Yu sent all the servants who had nothing else to do to work in the fields. Every morning before dawn, they would go out to pick cotton, yawning and carrying their water bags. When the sun came out, the cotton leaves would be scorched and the husks would be hardened. Then the group would return with baskets full of cotton.
When Yin Po and Cui Sao saw people coming back, they brought out steamed buns and cooled mung bean porridge. The hungry people took their bowls to eat as soon as they got home. After eating, they sat down under the shade of trees or at the foot of the wall, each holding a basket of cotton and sitting down to pick the flowers.
The cotton was picked and dried in the sun. After drying, 40% was reserved for the government, and the remaining 60% was ground into cotton seeds and sold to Jinxiu Weaving Workshop.
At the beginning of this spring, Sui Yu found someone to buy another ten acres of wasteland. Together with the two acres she bought last year, the cotton grown on these twelve acres was exempt from government taxes. The remaining thirty-five acres of cotton were planted on land owned by Sui Liang and Xiaozai. Originally, the government was supposed to split the profits 40% to 60%, but since the cotton seeds were her own, not government-issued, she kept 60% and gave the government 40%.
A piece of cloth requires about 50 jin (Han Dynasty jin) of cotton thread, but after the cotton produced by an acre of land is squeezed out of the cotton seeds and the grain tax is deducted, only about 60 to 70 jin is left.
Sui Yu thought about it for two days. When Du Fangzhu and Du Jibai came to ask for the price again, she said, "Twenty coins for a pound of cotton wool."
"Impossible! It's too expensive," Master Du flatly rejected. "Shopkeeper Yu, you have to understand that it takes fifty kilograms of cotton thread to weave a single bolt of cotton cloth. At your price, we need to sell it for fifteen hundred coins per bolt to make a profit. You've also been to Chang'an, where silk and satin are only twelve hundred coins per bolt. A nobleman can afford finer-quality silk and satin, so why pay a higher price for cotton cloth?"
Sui Yu smiled slyly and said, "Why not just not sell cotton cloth to officials? Have you forgotten? Merchants can't wear silk. They have a lot of money and can only wear linen and silk. Isn't that a shame? Cotton is softer than linen, thicker than silk, and less in quantity. Isn't wearing cotton clothes a display of wealth? These people don't mind the price. On the contrary, the more expensive the price, the more face they have."
The uncle and nephew of Master Du were silent. What he said really made sense and they couldn't help but accept it.
"But in a few years, when more cotton is planted, it will be impossible to sell it at this price." Master Du looked at Sui Yu, and his implication was obvious. The two families had signed a contract, and he was worried that she would continue to sell cotton to him at the price of twenty coins per catty in the future.
"When cotton is grown elsewhere, I'll sell it at the same price as others," Sui Yu promised. "That is, before cotton is planted on a large scale, you have a monopoly and can make a lot of money. Why not make money now?"
"Okay, I feel relieved when you say that. I'll call someone to weigh the cotton right away." Master Du made the decision.
After five days of accumulating cotton and removing the seeds, only 176 kilograms were left. After selling the cotton, Sui Yu earned 3,520 coins.
When she received the first payment, the postman from Dunhuang delivered 235 kilograms of cotton, including seeds and fluff, to Chang'an, along with a handwritten letter from Geng Zhongcheng.
On the second day of August, during the cotton harvest season, Sui Yu received the emperor's decree that she must enter Chang'an City with Geng Zhongcheng before the end of the year.
"Brother Liang, my dear, pack your bags and come with me to Chang'an." Sui Yu shouted happily, "Zhao Xiping, you come with me too. Let Shopkeeper Yu introduce you to the beautiful scenery at the foot of the Imperial City."
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