The work of the female laborers was even simpler, mainly involving cleaning, tidying up, transporting food, and so on. In short, they went wherever they were needed. However, the work locations were quite large, including the official road and shops, the construction site halfway up the mountain, the three peaks of Lishan, and the villas on the back mountain. So, the workload was quite considerable.
The days went by in this orderly fashion, and before we knew it, it was the beginning of winter.
Everyone had hoped for a drop in temperature after the start of winter, but the sun continued to shine brightly every day. The winter that people were looking forward to did not arrive as expected. Many people thought that the drought would continue, and the refugees outside the city began to move south again, hoping to live in places with more abundant water.
This included many people who worked for the Cheng family. Fortunately, the construction of the hillside villa has been nearing completion in the past month or so, and the remaining work can be completed by the old craftsman's original subordinates.
As for the female workers, nearly half of them have also left. With the screening process over this period, only eight kitchen helpers and about thirty general female workers remain.
Meanwhile, the snack shops and wooden craft shops along Chengjia Official Road finally opened for business.
After the start of winter, although the daytime temperature is still hot, it is not as unbearably hot as before. At least at noon, you can still walk on the street for a while.
As soon as Cheng Ruyi noticed this change, she knew that the drought was probably almost over. However, she was not happy at all. Instead, she was panicked because it meant that a new natural disaster was about to come.
So she immediately went to Guantian and asked everyone in his village to do their best to find wood to make charcoal, and the Cheng family would buy as much as they could find.
Thanks to the booming business of Cheng's furniture shop, the Guan family has made a fortune in the past year. They have become the first family in the village to build a brick house, and their lives have improved significantly. The villagers are very envious of this and ask him to help them if he has any business to do.
The village where the Guan family lived was located in the mountains. They originally relied on hunting and selling timber and charcoal for survival, so almost every household had its own charcoal kiln. However, when they sold their charcoal individually, they were often pressured to lower the price and accidents were very common. Therefore, when they received such a large order from Cheng Ruyi, the whole village was overjoyed and felt that at least they could have a good New Year this winter.
Of course, Ruyi also casually chatted with Guantian and the others about the weather, saying that the weather in various places this year was abnormal, and that something unexpected might happen in winter. She suggested that it was best to stock up on enough supplies for the winter just in case.
Guan Tian, having lived most of his life, instantly understood Ruyi's meaning. After all, their village had survived the drought this year thanks to Ruyi's previous reminder, so he naturally believed her words without a doubt.
After contacting Guan Tian, Cheng Ruyi was still not entirely at ease, so she made another trip to the prefectural city and bought several truckloads of coal.
Coal is a relatively scarce resource, so it's cheaper to buy it in the prefectural city. She could also remind her aunt's family about it.
Unlike droughts, if there are snowstorms, major temperature drops, or small ice storms, even abundant river water nearby won't help. What matters is having enough warm clothing supplies.
After returning to the county town, Ruyi continued to place large orders with several charcoal merchants in the town. She did not try to hide her actions and even paraded through the streets with several carts of charcoal, which quickly aroused people's discussion.
After a year, the Cheng family's name was known to almost everyone in Huaishan County. As a result, many people paid attention to her every move. Now, seeing her buying so much charcoal in the sweltering heat, they couldn't help but gossip.
Anyone who inquired about the Cheng family knew that when the temperature first started to become abnormal at the beginning of this year, Cheng Ruyi began to build water conservancy projects on a large scale and stockpile a large amount of water. As a result, only their family's fields in the entire Huaishan County had enough water to support them until the autumn harvest.
So, after seeing Cheng Ruyi's actions, the slightly smarter or more cautious people began to follow suit, while the ordinary people who didn't know what was going on saw so many people rushing to buy charcoal and also bought a lot to hoard.
In no time, almost all the charcoal in the entire county was snapped up. Although the charcoal merchants were puzzled, they were still very happy to bring in large quantities of charcoal from all over the country to sell, and made a fortune.
This outcome is something that Ruyi was happy to see, and could even be considered intentional.
After all, her individual strength is limited and she cannot save the entire county. Therefore, she hopes that the people of the county can actively save themselves, which is why she released such a signal.
She had actually considered whether to take advantage of the current low price of charcoal, spend all her savings to stock up on a large quantity, and sell it when the temperature dropped to make a profit.
However, she later considered that different industries are like different worlds, and her family didn't need to offend the entire charcoal and coal industry for this. In addition, if there was a real snow disaster, she definitely wouldn't have the heart to sell it at a high price.
In the end, you won't make much money, and you'll just offend people for no reason. It's not worth it!
Of course, there is another reason, which is that she herself is not 100% sure that there will be a snow disaster. What if there isn't?
However, reality is cruel. As if to confirm Cheng Ruyi's guess, on the day of Minor Snow, the temperature suddenly began to drop sharply, from more than 30 degrees to below 10 degrees within two days, catching all the people off guard.
The following night, a sudden light snow began to fall. The snowflakes melted quickly after falling, and overnight, the river's water level rose rapidly. Huai Mountain County entered winter without any transition.
At first, most people were very happy, after all, it meant that the drought and heat that had lasted for nearly half a year was finally over.
Unfortunately, no one expected that the snow would fall for three days straight, and then even get heavier, instantly turning the entire county into a frozen wasteland. Before people could even celebrate, they discovered that a new disaster was about to strike.
From the moment he received Cheng Ruyi's order, Zhang Hui did everything he could to work overtime. In three months, he barely managed to complete one-third of the work. The more than 600 kilograms of cotton were successfully made into more than 100 quilts of varying thicknesses, more than 60 short cotton-padded jackets, and more than 30 long cotton-padded jackets.
Compared to cotton-padded clothes and quilts, the processing of fur is more complicated, so for the time being, only about fifty fur vests and about ten cloaks have been made.
Cheng Ruyi kept only one-third of these thermal insulation materials, and sold the rest at Zhang Hui's shop.
Zhang Hui was quite surprised by Ruyi's move. He thought that such a large order would be shipped to other places to be sold, since the weather was so hot at that time that it was almost impossible to breathe.
Even now, watching the crowds thronging the shops, scrambling to buy cotton-padded clothes and quilts, he can't help but marvel at how some people were so prescient. They truly deserve to make money!
Ruyi bought this batch of cotton cheaply, and since more than half of the female workers were refugees, the production cost was not high. Most importantly, the styles and fabrics were not particularly sophisticated, so the selling price was about half the price of the mainstream silk and cotton on the market.
The people of the county town are already terrified by this year's scorching heat, and now, seeing the heavy snow that has been falling for days without stopping, they are immediately plunged into a new panic.
Therefore, without Cheng Ruyi's deliberate promotion, everyone consciously began to hoard various supplies. These inexpensive, high-quality, and cost-effective cotton clothes and quilts were naturally enthusiastically sought after by the lower and middle classes, and most of them were sold out in just a few days.
Besides cotton-padded clothes and quilts, charcoal and grain also became hot-selling items in the city.
The charcoal is doing well. Because it was sold out in a rush before, several charcoal shops in the city have transferred a large amount of stock from other places, so the supply is now quite sufficient. Unexpectedly, this has made things convenient for people who did not stock up before.
However, the situation with grain is different. Due to the drought throughout the northwest this year, many areas have almost no harvest. Even in Chongzhou, the local grain harvest this year is less than half of what it used to be. Many grain shops are short of supplies and need to transfer goods from the southeast of Dai Viet.
With reduced quantities and increased transportation costs, grain prices have naturally continued to rise.
After seeing the scene of the people in the county town suffering from high grain prices, the Cheng family members couldn't help but feel worried. However, when Ruyi led them to the two cellars filled with grain, they were all shocked. The amount stored here was definitely enough to feed everyone in the entire villa for more than a year!
Moreover, Ruyi distributed cotton-padded clothes, quilts, and charcoal to several employing families. Compared with the panic outside, the atmosphere inside the Cheng family's villa was completely different, appearing very peaceful and tranquil.
Although the cotton and fur products brought Cheng Ruyi a small profit, the business of cold drinks and ice cream could no longer continue as the weather cooled down, which caused Cheng's snack shop to lose an important source of income.
To make up for this loss, Cheng Ruyi plans to launch new snacks suitable for eating in the cold weather.
So she spent some time modifying the modern mala tang, creating an ancient version of mala tang with a flavor more suitable for today's people.
Although there were no chili peppers, Ruyi had previously bought several boxes of various spices from merchants in the northwest of the prefectural city, including pepper, which was extremely precious in ancient times.
According to the price trends in Dai Viet in recent years, one liter of pepper costs about ten taels of silver.
However, the entire Northwest has been in turmoil this year, which has seriously affected the transportation cost of pepper. Northwest merchants are asking for 20 taels per liter, which means that it costs 2,000 taels of silver to buy one shi (a unit of dry measure). No wonder it is said that pepper was as precious as gold in ancient times!
Actually, compared to other more precious spices, pepper is already considered cheap. However, Ruyi doesn't understand fragrances, and the Cheng family isn't extravagant enough to use spices, so naturally they aren't interested in those exorbitantly priced spices.
Later, the merchant probably realized that Ruyi was just an ordinary small vendor, not his target customer, and didn't buy much. In order to get rid of her, he agreed to sell her a box for ten taels of silver.
Looking at the large box of pepper in front of her, Cheng Ruyi couldn't help but sigh. She had read in a book before that there was a corrupt official in the Tang Dynasty whose house was searched and hundreds of bushels of pepper were found. At the time, she didn't understand why pepper was worth hoarding. Now... she finally understood.
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