August 20th.
The weather in the northwest is getting cold very quickly. The north wind has started to blow and we have to wear coats in the morning and evening.
The merchants who came and went in the tile market and the streets also followed the local customs and changed into half-sleeved jackets.
But the cold weather doesn't stop people from enjoying the hustle and bustle. Qianjinlou is a much better place than Jufu Restaurant. It is right at the head of the street. Standing in front of the rightmost window, you can see the entrance of Wa City, and there is a lot of traffic.
In the middle of the morning, as soon as Qianjinlou opened its doors, many people came to join in the fun.
Firstly, I was thinking that there might be something good like free golden dew.
Secondly, the female soldiers standing on the left and right sides of Ruan Jialin are quite stunning. It is rare to see such beautiful women in the Northwest...women!
"Aren't all the women at Qianjinlou married? They're not that pretty. I haven't seen you for three days. Did you buy a Bodhisattva Man? You don't look your age."
Bodhisattva Man looks similar to Han people, but her facial features are more delicate. She knows how to dress well, and her clothes are also fancy. Just looking at her makes people feel happy, and rich people like to buy her as a concubine.
But the Bodhisattvas in the brokerage business are all young and don’t have the charm of these female soldiers in front of them.
The thin jackets and skirts that Madam Zhang and her companions hurriedly made were all ochre-colored jackets with lapels and narrow sleeves, paired with brick-red trousers, and newly made deerskin pointed boots. They looked heroic, which perfectly reflected the idea that women are as good as men and are suitable for entertaining both male and female guests.
They all had peony makeup painted on their faces with six peony petals between their eyebrows, but it was not as grand as the ones painted by noble ladies nowadays. Their faces were still the same, and they looked very beautiful no matter how you looked at them.
There was a maid who came here to represent her mistress. Her eyes were incredibly bright and her makeup was so beautiful!
Not to mention my own wives, they want it too!
The heart of the ambitious one was pounding. If only she could be as natural as a lotus flower emerging from the water, so that the mistress couldn't tell she was wearing makeup, and she would be favored by the master or the young master...
This time, they rushed faster than those who were just watching.
Others looked confused: We don’t even know what the new product is, why should we be excited?
Ruan Jialin smiled as he had the blackboard brought out and opened the door to welcome the guests. "The host has good news! We have small trial bottles of Golden Dew, Jade Hibiscus Body Wash, Toothpaste, and White Jade Dragon Cream. They're only 10% of the original price. Today only. Please come in!"
The six blackboards lined up in a row all had different shades of red on them, with patterns outlined in light green. They read:
Qianjinlou launches a series of "Hundred Flowers in Full Bloom", new products are released today——
The Yaohuang makeup powder of Peony can make the skin fragrant and tender, and leave no marks. It costs 2 taels per box, and buy ten and get one free.
Peony's Hidden Jade Makeup Powder can be used to cleanse the skin and remove blemishes, leaving it refreshing and thin. It costs 2 taels per box, and you get one free if you buy ten.
The second peony, Qiao Yanzhi, has a rosy face and is prosperous. The price is five taels per box, and one is given free for every twenty boxes.
The peony is as bright as fire, dignified and majestic. The price is five taels a box, and twenty boxes will give one free.
Su Rina also came. She was originally sitting in the carriage, but now she couldn't sit still anymore.
She knew more than anyone else and had seen what Yu and the others were like before.
Most women in the Northwest have sun spots on their faces, and Yu and Sun are no exception. But now, although they are not wearing white makeup, their faces are as clean and flawless as porcelain. Their eyebrows, eyes, and lips are all different!
She now truly believed what Miao Wan said, that she could make something better than her goods worth a hundred gold coins, and that Su Rina herself could use it!
She hurried in with her maid and went straight to Ruan Jialin.
"I want all the goods!"
A nearby merchant was unhappy when he heard this, "Hey... first come first served, understand? We're still waiting here."
Su Rina turned around and explained, "I'm the owner of Qianjinlou..."
"If you are the boss and you still want to snatch the goods from us, that's even more inappropriate. This is not how you do business!" The Dengzhou merchant who had placed the most orders was also unhappy.
Seeing that Su Rina was sticking her neck out and wanted to bring bad luck to Qianjinlou, Ruan Jialin quickly stepped forward to smooth things over.
"Don't worry, dear guests. You two are members of our Qianjinlou and have the right to buy before others. Please go upstairs and have some tea. I will ask someone to introduce you to the new arrivals. I guarantee they will be available."
After the two of them followed Sun upstairs, Ruan Jialin wiped the sweat from his forehead and turned to look at Su Rina, "Madam Wuliangha, we are opening the door to welcome guests. If you consider yourself the host, you wouldn't dare to confront the guests like this."
Su Rina understood the social etiquette, but she felt that there was no need for her to bow her head.
"We agreed that the goods would be supplied to my Wu Rouge Shop first. I was just telling the truth."
Ruan Jialin's smile faded a little. "May I ask, Madam Wuliangha, who did you agree with? Why haven't I heard from our boss?"
Su Rina: “…” I supplied her with goods first last time.
"Please go upstairs first and let your sister-in-law introduce you to some new products. No matter what you want, it's the same as last time." Ruan Jialin didn't bother with Su Rina. This woman looked like someone not to be trifled with. After a few words, he left it to his brother-in-law.
"Last time, you were shipping with other distinguished guests. The Qiao family didn't choose the name Qianjinlou to make money, but to keep their promise. We agreed to give members priority, and we can't let them have a bad impression."
Su Rina had no objection. After all, the merchants were not trying to steal her business.
Last time she discovered that except for a few people walking around the streets, everyone else had entered the country.
Later she figured it out. The things sold in Qianjinlou were not cheap, and few people who could afford to buy things from a peddler were willing to spend that kind of money.
As long as she wasn't left behind, Su Rina nodded to Ruan Jialin and proudly followed Yu upstairs.
Because makeup powder and rouge were relatively cheap and only sold to women, the merchants were all men. Even though they knew there was good business opportunity in these products, they were not as enthusiastic as the previous rush to buy them. The turnover that day was only around 5,000 taels.
After Ruan Jialin finished speaking that night, he was stunned. "I never thought that one day I would be able to say 'only' to five thousand taels of silver..."
He seemed to be deeply touched. Ever since Ruan Jialin was old enough to understand things, his family had actually begun to decline. He had not experienced the time when the Ruan family was extremely wealthy like his uncle and his father.
I sighed so much that my eyes were red.
Although Miao Wan is not the original body, she knows that the Ruan family's decline was due to the original body and her daughter, so she wants to bring up the bonus issue to appease her cousin.
Unexpectedly, Ruan Jialin slapped his thigh with red eyes and said, "This feels so fucking good!"
Miao Wan: “…”
Her face was expressionless. "Cousin, if you speak any louder, you might wake up my daughter."
Since you're feeling comfortable, let's talk about the bonus at the end of the month.
Ruan Jialin didn't know what he had missed, but he still mentioned Su Rina's tough attitude when she asked for the goods.
"It's not that I'm not happy to sell it to her, but she clearly knows that this is a joint venture between the two companies, yet she's still so unscrupulous in front of the customers. I've seen people like her in Jiangnan before, and they're so high and mighty that they don't even take us seriously."
Miao Wan calculated the time and waved her hand generously, "It doesn't matter, let her be high and mighty. After all, she won't have much time left to be happy."
Ruan Jialin: "Hmm... hm? What do you mean?"
Miao Wan chuckled, "You'll know after a while."
Seeing that his cousin was acting mysterious, Ruan Jialin didn't ask too many questions. He knew he would know the answer sooner or later anyway. He happily mentioned another matter.
"Master Wuliangha also came today, and he brought good news. He found my uncle and my father and the others! They're quite fast, and when we caught up, they were already in the capital area. They read the letter we left behind and followed the caravan to the northwest. We estimate they'll arrive in about two weeks."
It was indeed good news, and Miao Wan was very happy.
This year, she asked her father-in-law and husband to order a lot of wool from Bayin.
She learned from Qiao Ruichen that there was a big pond next to the Wuliangha tribe in northern Mongolia. She had an idea and asked Bayin to do more work and even raise ducks for him.
Anyway, she can raise as many as she wants. Ju Fu Restaurant can serve roast duck in winter, and rotate it with Bo Xia Gong for customers to taste, without them having to pluck the feathers.
When the Ruan family arrives...the down jackets and duvets will also be here!
In the following days, good things happened one after another. After the harvest from the fields came out, Uncle Zhang fainted from excitement on the spot. It took him a day to recover before he and everyone else escorted the grain into Xining Town.
Uncle Wu and the others were also very excited.
"Boss, do you know how much the top-quality farmland yields per mu? It's a whopping 520 kilograms!!!"
Uncle Wu almost shouted it out, and his face flushed with excitement as he spoke about it.
Although he had guessed at the beginning that the yield per mu would be 300 to 500 kilograms, that was just the best he could hope for. Moreover, the number five was placed at the end, indicating that it would be the best that the yield could be in the middle.
You have to know that these wheats were planted before the land was bought. If fertilizer was applied before planting, wouldn’t there be more?
Miao Wan had experienced the common yield of 1,000 kilograms per mu in later generations, so she was calmer than others, but also happy.
The grain seeds at that time were not good. In the Jiangnan area, it was possible to produce 500 kilograms per mu, but in the northwest, 300 to 400 kilograms per mu was considered good.
Now there is an extra 100 kilograms per mu of land, and ten mu of land means 1,000 kilograms. If it is distributed, it will be enough for the people in the whole village to survive the winter.
Miao Wan asked, "What about the other land?"
Uncle Zhang's mouth cracked open when he heard this. "I'm so happy about this! The boss is so happy! The sugar beet yield in the medium-sized fields is 1,500 kilograms per mu! The soybean yield is also 300 kilograms per mu. The yield in the hilly areas is generally good, and the grain yield is about 300 kilograms per mu. This was unimaginable before!"
Sugar beets are heavy, and in the past the yield per mu could be around 1,000 kilograms. Soybean yields of 200 kilograms per mu were considered a good yield.
All the people who came to deliver food looked at Miao Wan excitedly, and even thought that even if the rent of the Qiao family was higher than that of other landlords, they would still farm for the Qiao family.
Even if you collect more than half, what's left will still be more than half of the original amount.
Miao Wan calculated that three pounds of beets can produce one pound of sugar. After removing the leaves and excess parts, only 70% of the weight remains. Ten acres of land can produce more than 7,000 pounds of sugar, which is about 600 dou.
Three strings of cash for a dou of sugar, that's eighteen hundred taels of silver.
Thinking about it this way, Miao Wan couldn't help but take a deep breath. If it weren't for the fact that there was not enough food now, she really wanted to plant beets on all the land she bought.
At this point, Miao Wan suddenly had an idea, "Wait a moment, let my father tell you the rules later."
Qiao Shengwen was standing by and was a little confused when he heard this. He was already prepared, so why was he saying no now?
But when he saw Miao Wan winking at him, he smiled, knowing that his daughter-in-law had another clever idea, and followed her into the main room.
Geng was holding Taotao and changing her diaper, and the couple happened to hear it.
Miao Wan's eyes sparkled as she said, "Dad, we can actually make a lot of money just from beets, but we don't have that many people to work there. If we hire more people, General Dingbei's men might find out what we're doing. How about we use the labor to pay for the fertilizer?"
Qiao Shengwen found this interesting and asked, "How do you resist?"
"Please ask Uncle Lin to build a few more kang houses on the farm. Anyone who wants to learn our method of composting can learn it, but if they want to learn, they have to help us work for half a month first.
In the next few days, I'll have Uncle Zhang and Uncle Wu teach them how to compost. This way, they'll cherish the fertilizer they've earned through hard work and know how to apply it appropriately."
Moreover, these people would only think that the Qiao family did not want to hire temporary workers, and that once others learned how to ferment compost, they could no longer hide it. The Qiao family did not want to suffer a loss, so they made everyone wash and cut the dried vegetables so as not to attract the attention of those who were secretly watching them.
When the dried vegetables were delivered to Ju Fu Restaurant, Old Master Sun supervised the people in making the sugar. Since they were all family members, there was no need to worry about the news getting out.
Miao Wan became happier as she spoke. "Anyone who wants to learn can come and work. After processing the beets, there's also the soybean dehulling, wheat and barley shelling, and fertilizing our fields. It's all done!"
When hearing her father-in-law praising her, Miao Shiren, who had achieved new heights in nesting dolls, thought to herself, how come I am so smart!
Nowadays, renting land from landlords usually involves exchanging labor for land, paying silver directly after the harvest, or directly paying rent with grain. There are three other methods.
In the northwest, landlords collected rent from their tenants, which was about half of the total harvest based on grain output.
Some landlords even asked their tenants to pay half of the land tax on the remaining grain, and then sell some grain to supplement their family income, so there was basically not much grain left for them to eat.
Qiao Shengwen had originally set a 30% land rent, with the land tax to be paid by the Qiao family. The price of grain was set high, almost equivalent to 25% land rent, which was half of that of other landlords.
It cannot be too low, otherwise it will arouse the anger of the landlords, and if the tenants feel that they are too easy to bully, it will be easy for them to cause trouble. The tenants of the Qiao family had been instigated to cause trouble before.
Now that we have Miao Wan's method, we can add some rewards to encourage them to work, which will save trouble at home and the people can at least survive the winter.
I have to say that Miao Wan's occasional ideas are always surprising.
Qiao Shengwen knew his daughter-in-law liked to be praised, so he continued to praise her, "Awan has really grown up. She thinks things through much more carefully than before, and kills three birds with one stone. Not bad, not bad. She has become a typical member of our Qiao family."
Miao Wan suppressed her joy, pursed her lips and tried to be shy. "I'm not as good as Dad said. I will definitely keep working hard and come up with more good ideas in the future!"
Qiao Shengwen and his wife: "..." That's totally unnecessary, right? My daughter-in-law sometimes has good ideas, but most of the time she's still a bad person.
Miao Wan didn't care. She felt that she had grown and sublimated, and she had to celebrate.
The main reason was that Jufu Restaurant reported a profit of nearly 4,000 taels at the end of the month, and Qianjinlou, after deducting costs and the share given to the Wuliangha family, still had a full 10,000 taels left!!!
Converted into gold, wouldn't it be a real Qianjinlou?
Miao Wan was so happy that she secretly bought two pots of green plum wine from a traveling merchant the next afternoon when Uncle Geng took her to Ju Fu Restaurant.
Hehe, in this situation, how can we not have a few drinks?
Influenced by Lu Chenxi, Miao Wan still likes to pay attention to the sense of ritual when enjoying such things.
Aunt Geng lives in Qianjinlou. There aren't many people at home, so it's a perfect place for her to have some fun quietly.
Miao Wan asked her mother-in-law to look after Taotao while she went to boil some hot water and took a comfortable bath.
This time no one came to disturb her. After taking a bath, she applied cinnamon essential oil on herself. The warm and sweet aroma made her a little intoxicated. She smelled so good!
Now that Taotao is older, he doesn't need to be fed as often at night, so Geng doesn't always sleep in her room anymore and has returned to the main room.
Qiao Rui followed Taotao. When Taotao slept next to Miao Wan, she went back to her room to sleep. When Taotao followed Geng, she went to sleep with her parents and niece.
Miao Wan used the excuse that she had to research new products and customize a plan for new products for Jufu Restaurant, and sent Taotao to Geng's house. Coincidentally, her loud-mouthed sister-in-law also followed her to the main room.
There is only my cousin's wife living in the next room to the east row of houses, so she shouldn't be able to hear anything.
She closed the door, took out the strange-tasting orchid beans that she had asked Sun Ada to make that afternoon, a wine cup, and two pots of sweet wine.
He took a sip of wine: "Ah! Refreshing!"
She leaned back on the pillow, threw the orchid beans into her mouth, and drank it with sweet wine. Her beautiful almond eyes narrowed into a crescent moon.
Her savings finally exceeded five figures!
After the Ruan family comes, we will soon be able to reach six figures!
Maybe she will become the richest woman in Xining Town!
…
Counting happily, Miao Wan drank up a pot of green plum wine without realizing it, and had even finished most of the second pot.
So Qiao Ruichen couldn't push the door open, and when he came in through the window, he saw his wife lying on the kang with her legs crossed, reaching for the orchid beans with her bright red mouth, and holding a glass of wine in her hand.
Why is her little mouth so red? A sense of ritual, a sense of ritual. She also painted herself into a peony makeup. If she wants to feel good, she must make herself beautiful.
After drinking it, she took a sip with great satisfaction and chuckled twice. She looked... like a little turtle that was drunk and scratching around.
Even someone as calm as Qiao Ruichen was amused by his wife's appearance.
Afraid of scaring her, he called softly from a distance, "Awan?"
Hmm? Miao Wan raised her head. Who called her?
Seeing Qiao Ruichen, she laughed out loud just like Taotao, "Husband, you're back too? Hahaha... Then we can have a full-on beauty tonight!"
Good wine, good food, beautiful women and beautiful men, perfect!
Miao Wan laughed and threw herself into Qiao Ruichen's arms, hugging his neck. "Husband, I'm so happy! Did you know I made a lot of money?"
Qiao Ruichen looked a little reluctant, and he really didn't know how to say the next words to Miao Wan.
Miao Wan rested her chin on his chest. "It doesn't matter if you don't know. It's okay as long as you know that I'm very happy. Hehehe... Husband, do you want to do something happier?"
After saying that, she winked and pulled Qiao Ruichen.
Qiao Ruichen felt that if he didn't speak up now, he might be bitten to death. He held onto the edge of the kang and managed to steady himself. "Wan, wait a minute. Listen to me..."
Miao Wan hummed twice, then kissed him directly, blocking his lips and muttering, "Now the mouth, is the mouth used for talking? How come you are even dumber than me!"
Qiao Ruichen: “…”
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