The first-class set meal consists of rice with four dishes and a soup, which can serve four people and is priced at one tael of silver.
The Class B set meal consists of rice with one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and one soup, enough for two people, and is priced at 500 coins.
The Class C set meal consists of rice, a meat dish, and a complimentary side dish, priced at 100 coins.
The D-class set meal consists of steamed mixed rice (rice and millet), a vegetable dish, and a complimentary side dish, priced at fifty coins.
This price was strictly determined after discussions among everyone.
Classes A, B, and C are for the guests, while Classes D are for the servants.
The village chief originally thought that vegetables were not worth much and that the price should be set lower.
But Li Lao Er insisted that he would rather give away more side dishes than lower the price.
Because once the price is set, it's difficult to raise the price of winter vegetables once they become expensive.
On the contrary, serving dishes as a complimentary gift, no matter how much, will make guests happy, and Suijintan can also gain a reputation for being generous and hospitable.
Soon, Li Laosan brought back the vegetables.
Seeing that they didn't lack anything, Tao Hongying immediately led the women to start steaming rice, while the mischievous and stingy children ran around to count how many set meals were needed.
They had been learning writing and arithmetic on and off with Li Lao Er for over a year, and now it was finally coming in handy.
The rapid recitation of the menu and the calculation of the bill surprised the guests once again.
However, some customers complained that the dishes were simple. Li Lao Er had already instructed the waiters, who smiled and said, "Since it's the first day we've welcomed guests, there will definitely be some shortcomings. We hope the guests will understand. It will get better in the future. Besides, our chef's skills are excellent, and the guests are guaranteed not to be disappointed."
The guests were just saying it casually, and they didn't hold a grudge.
Some people who had just met got together and, on a whim, ordered the top-tier set meal together.
But this raises another question: who pays, and how much?
In short, all sorts of minor problems arose one after another, and eventually they all came to Li Lao Er.
Li Lao Er also frowned. He had worked as an accountant before, but it was in a cloth shop, not in such a trivial way.
Jia Yin has never managed a hot spring bath, but even if he has never eaten pork, he has at least seen pigs walk.
She thought for a moment, then took out the little mare from her purse and waved it at her second uncle. "Second uncle, my little mare also needs to eat grass. Write it down and have it pay for it."
Li Lao Er was both amused and exasperated. He hugged and kissed his niece, but suddenly a brilliant idea flashed in his mind, and his eyes lit up.
Before he could even put his niece down, he called out to Li Laosan, "Laosan, Laosan, come here quickly!"
Li Laosan, who was helping to stoke the fire, quickly stepped forward and asked, "Second Brother, is something the matter?"
"Yes, yes! Go find some wood and carve some signs. For now, don't bother with any fancy designs, just write simple serial numbers on them. For example, which courtyard is number X, or which guest is number Y. That way, anyone who has extra expenses can show the sign to have it recorded, and we can settle the bill when they leave."
Li Lao Er became more and more excited as he spoke, "When I have some free time in the future, it would be best to carve some unique markings on the back of the sign to make it easier to identify."
Li Laosan was a man of few words, but he was very clever and loved carpentry. He immediately took on the job, went back to the village, and called a few young men to help him get to work.
On the other side, Tao Hongying led the women to fry, stir-fry, and cook, and soon the aroma wafted into the valley.
The guests climbed ashore, changed their clothes, and prepared to eat.
After all the set meals were delivered, the guests nodded and praised them, and only then did Li Lao Er and the others feel exhausted.
In the afternoon, the guests who had booked cabins and courtyards went back for a nap, while the individual travelers played until the sun began to set before leaving.
This inevitably led to another flurry of activity and chaos, with even mule carts being used to transport guests.
Because some individual travelers hired horse-drawn carriages to come, and when they returned, they couldn't walk since there were no carriages available.
After finishing all that, I prepared dinner for the overnight guests...
Only after everything was finished and the moon was high in the sky, and after leaving some people to guard the entrance of the valley, did Li Lao Er and the others finally drag their tired feet back to the village.
Meanwhile, the village chief and most of the villagers were waiting in the Li family's courtyard, all eager to know how the valley's income had fared that day.
Li Lao Er drank a bowl of water before announcing with a smile, "Today we harvested more than 330 catties of grain and more than 60 taels of silver."
The group looked at each other, somewhat bewildered; this was completely unexpected.
Once they realized what was happening, everyone cheered!
"This is too much! More than 300 catties of grain a day is enough to feed our whole village for three days."
"And there's still silver, over sixty taels! Won't we break even in just two months!"
The village chief beamed, tapping his pipe on the table to signal everyone to be quiet. "Keep your voices down, or people will laugh at us for being so unsophisticated. Besides, this is just what we've collected; we haven't even factored in the costs and wages for everyone's work!"
Li Lao Er nodded and smiled, "The cost was indeed not deducted, but the profit is at least forty taels. Similarly, there are a lot of problems, which need to be solved slowly."
The village chief coughed twice and called to Jiaren to get paper and pen. "Since everyone's here and business is open, let's draw up some rules tonight!"
Everyone nodded quickly and moved forward.
The village chief pointed at Li Lao Er and said, "I'll say it again, on the day I die or grow old, the second oldest in our village will become the village chief. No one will object to that, right?"
"We don't object, we respect the second son, we'll all listen to him!" the villagers responded almost in unison.
Li Lao Er is literate and good at math, has worked as a manager, and is tactful in his dealings. Now he is in charge of the business at Hot Spring Valley.
No one can replace him in any of these tasks!
The village chief then said, "These past few days I've been wandering around the village and have divided the work in our village into several parts: the hot spring valley, the riverbank, the two hills, and the village itself. Our village sticks together, no one cares whose land on the hills or the riverbank belongs to anyone, we all work together, and we share the burden, good or bad."
"But you can't work carelessly. The more you do, the more you earn; the less you do, the less you earn. Nobody should take advantage of anyone. From now on, our village will divide the work into different levels. For example, people like Hongying and Lao Er, who take on more work and endure more hardship, will be considered first-class workers and will earn more work points. For example, light jobs like sweeping the streets or watching over the crops will earn fewer work points."
Someone couldn't help but ask, "Uncle, how many work points are there for shoveling and weeding, and how much is one work point worth?"
"What's your hurry? Let me explain slowly," the village chief glared, suppressing the impatient young man.
He added, "I just wanted to let everyone know that this is something. As for the specifics of the work and how many work points it will be, we'll discuss it together when we have some free time. We can't let anyone suffer a loss."
Li Lao Er had heard a few words from the village chief beforehand, and now he said, "What I meant to the village chief was that from now on, half of the income from the entire village, including the hot springs, mountains, and riverbanks, should be used as wages, and the other half should be distributed as dividends according to each family's investment."
"For example, if the whole village earns a thousand taels in a year, then five hundred taels will be distributed as dividends, and the remaining five hundred taels will be exactly five thousand taels. The total work points earned by all the villagers will be fifty thousand taels, and one work point is worth ten coins. If your children watch over the melon fields, they will earn three work points, which means they will earn thirty coins a day."
Everyone finally understood and nodded emphatically, realizing that the Li family and Young Master Ye were making concessions.
After all, those two families invested the most money, so if most of the income were distributed as dividends, they would receive even more money.
Someone asked, "Village chief, everyone benefits from this, shouldn't we ask Young Master Ye before deciding?"
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