Chapter 68 Building a House, Picking Dates, the Noodle Shop Owner from the Prefecture City Arrives...
After finalizing the details with the bricklayer, Ye Li had a new idea.
Since we're already undertaking such a major construction project, and we're even building a bathroom, why not just build a storage room next to the three main rooms, so it'll be symmetrical to the bathroom?
Nowadays, there is no storage room in the house; the former storage room has been turned into a mill.
Moreover, with a stable income for the family in the future, Ye Li plans to switch to collecting grain from the land that Jiang Ji rented out, instead of charging cash.
Now their family often has to buy food, and it's definitely better to eat what their tenants grow than to spend money on it.
Therefore, he planned to build an extra room to store grain or other miscellaneous items.
After the deal was finalized, Ye Lijiang hadn't even had time to purchase the bricks and timber when the jujube-picking activity at Yezaopo began the next day.
For the villagers, this is the biggest event after the autumn harvest and before the Spring Festival.
Jiang Fuzheng has already contacted suppliers, who are local to the county and vary in size.
The jujubes harvested each day would be picked by merchants at noon and in the evening, with cash on delivery and no delays.
Then the villagers divided the money that night.
The jujube trees on the slope are all old trees that have been growing for many years. However, since they are local common jujube trees, they are not managed in any way and are almost wild.
Therefore, the fresh dates that grow on a tree are about 50 to 70 jin (25-35 kg), which is incomparable to the dates that Ye Li grew on trees that could produce 200 to 300 jin (100-150 kg) in his previous life.
Even so, it can still bring considerable income to the villagers.
There are a total of 63 jujube trees on the slope, with an annual total yield of around 4,000 jin.
These fresh dates sell for between six and seven coins per pound.
Based on the calculation of six coins per pound, the total price would be a little over twenty-three ounces.
Each family can get a little over one or two ounces.
Based on a calculation of seven coins, the total selling price would be close to thirty taels, with the villagers receiving even more.
Yezaopo is located near Beiyang County and Baxian Town. With only a few jujubes, there's no worry about selling them.
As long as the dates are picked from the tree, someone will buy them.
Therefore, at this time of year, each household must send two people to quickly harvest the dates.
In previous years, Jiang Ji was not at home, but this year he is. However, now that he is a scholar, how can we let a scholar do such rough work?
Jiang Fuzheng didn't let him participate; he could just sit back and wait to collect the money.
Moreover, he and Ye Li had to go to the county town to buy bricks and timber, so they didn't join in the fun.
But Jiangmai and Jiangya, the two little ones, couldn't bear to miss such a big scene, so they ran over to watch.
Upon returning, the two of them enthusiastically recounted the situation on the slope to Yeli, which made Yeli want to go and see for himself.
In addition to the jujube trees on the slope, every household also has jujube trees planted in front of and behind their houses.
For example, Ye Li's family has two jujube trees in front of the door and one in the backyard. The three jujube trees can yield at least 100 kilograms of jujubes.
If they were willing to sell these dates, they could earn an extra six or seven hundred coins.
In the past, every household would choose to sell the jujubes they grew.
A single tree can be exchanged for three or four hundred coins; who would be willing to keep it for themselves?
This year, however, most villagers chose to keep the food for their own consumption.
A tree can yield dozens of kilograms of fruit, which sounds like a lot, but the jujubes are so delicious—thin-skinned, crisp, juicy, and sweet.
If people really eat as many dates as they want, and there are a lot of people in the family, that family can go through dozens of kilograms of dates in a week.
If you send some to relatives, the consumption rate will be even faster.
For example, Ye Li.
He would occasionally have Ye Liang carry some back on his back.
They gave two baskets to the messenger and one basket to Master Han.
Moreover, it is consumed as fruit after meals every day.
Now, more than half of these dates have already been harvested.
The rest was naturally kept for their own consumption.
The villagers worked for two days and sold all the dates on the hillside.
During this period, Ye Li and Jiang Ji drove a mule cart and bought back timber such as blue bricks and main beams.
I bought a lot, and since it was nearby, the brick shop delivered it to my door, so I got everything I needed in two days.
That's ten taels of silver gone in one go.
Next, we started work.
First, find workers.
In addition to three bricklayers, Ye Li also plans to hire twenty laborers.
A bricklayer earns 30 coins, and an ordinary laborer earns 20 coins, which adds up to 500 coins a day.
With the addition of the Ye family's three members, as well as Jiang Dahe and Liang Erxiang, there's strength in numbers. With so many people, the main structure of the house can be completed in four or five days.
He doesn't plan to build it very tall, just one story, and the small rooms on both sides are also small. As long as there are enough people, the work can be done quickly.
The remaining minor tasks, such as leveling the ground, can be left for family members to do at their own pace.
But Ye Liang and Jiang Dahe immediately shook their heads and rejected his plan.
At this rate, the wages alone would amount to three or four taels of silver. They're really sucking them out!
When ordinary families build houses, they do everything themselves if they can, and they never hire anyone!
If you absolutely have to hire people, then the fewer the number, the better.
When Jiang Tong built his house, he only hired five villagers in addition to bricklayers, so the labor costs were not high.
Now, we can gather ten people just from our own family members—Jiang Tong had already given the word that Jiang Dachuan, Jiang Tong, Jiang Shun, and Jiang Da would all come to help, so why hire so many outsiders?
It's not like I have too much money!
After being lectured by Ye Liang and Jiang Dahe, Ye Li changed his mind.
Okay, his main goal is to finish building the house as soon as possible before the temperature drops drastically.
Winter is approaching, and temperatures can drop sharply at any time.
Moreover, Jiang Tong's family was busy making wind chimes. Although Jiang Tong had already informed them, he felt embarrassed to ask them to put aside their small business to help him.
However, now that Jiang Dahe has specifically pointed this out and even sought out Jiang Tong, he has no choice but to agree.
Including Jiang Ji, we have a total of ten people. We should hire ten laborers.
There are more than twenty people in total, which is not a small number.
The laborers were found among the villagers. It was the off-season for farming, and turning eggs was easy and didn't require much manpower or time. The corvée labor was next month, so everyone was available.
Villagers who couldn't get jobs as laborers had no choice but to go to the city to find work.
Although they made some money this year, their family is poor, and they dare not be idle at all. They get anxious whenever they are idle!
Taking advantage of the fact that there are many merchants and travelers from other places before winter arrives, they want to earn more money.
In response, Ye Li decided to find Jiang Fuzheng to discuss the tofu puff workshop after she finished her work in the next few days.
The reason he delayed for a few more days was that he wanted to observe the situation further.
Previously, the villagers were busy either working in the fields or making preserved eggs. In addition, Jiang Fu was keeping a close eye on things, so no one leaked the recipe for the preserved eggs.
Now that it's the off-season for farming, villagers are no longer confined to the land. They either go to the city to do odd jobs or visit relatives and friends. With more contact with outsiders, if they get carried away and blurt things out, the possibility of it being leaked increases significantly.
So he decided to observe further.
If no one leaks the information after a week, then he will go to find Jiang Fuzheng.
He has just spent a large sum of money, about fifteen taels, and he is getting anxious if he doesn't quickly find a new source of income.
Currently, his main source of income is preserved eggs. As the weather gets cooler, the sales of cold preserved eggs are not as good as in the summer.
However, since it was not yet winter, the decline was not very noticeable.
Ye Li originally had high hopes for Yinzi, but relying solely on Bao Beiyuan, the monthly income was limited.
Speaking of preserved eggs.
Shi Yi, who went to the prefectural city to take the exam with his father, came over a couple of days ago in an oxcart and bought a thousand preserved eggs.
His home is in another town, neither next to the Nantong Canal nor close to the county seat, and the cost of living is not as high as in Baxian Town.
They didn't dare buy too many; they bought a thousand to test the waters first.
Shi Yi failed the academy examination this time, and the next examination will be the year after next. He will have to study for another two years, and the tuition fee alone will be twelve taels.
Out of consideration for their shared studies and shared exams, Ye Li gave the father and son a special price.
On top of the initial price of two coins for small and three coins for large, we further reduced the price by one hundred coins.
After all, there are few wealthy people there, and if the price offered by Gong Lisheng is followed, the speed of repayment will be frustratingly slow.
As for the noodle shop owner that Jiang Ji mentioned, he hasn't arrived yet.
He needed a large quantity, but the daily consumption of preserved eggs in the county town had not decreased significantly due to the cooler weather. Therefore, Ye Li had to ask each household to squeeze out the 30,000 units.
The villagers were delighted to learn that the young boss from the prefectural city had taken a liking to the preserved egg.
More channels mean more income!
The new house was built on the west side of the yard, so it did not affect Ye Lijiangji's normal life.
The main structure of the old courtyard remained unchanged, and they continued to make tofu and fry tofu puffs every morning, taking the tofu puffs back with them when the Ye family father and sons returned.
With the oxcart, the Ye family father and his two sons could make the round trip every day.
In the past, when the Ye family father and son came to work, they would stay at the Jiang family's house. If they had to travel back and forth every day, their physical strength simply wouldn't have been enough to sustain them on foot.
Ye Li also kept Ye Liang's instructions and ate pancakes with tofu every day.
With three more strong laborers, the amount of food for breakfast and lunch doubled—Ye Daji was only forty, considered to be in his prime.
With her appetite doubling, cooking became a chore. Although Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya helped, Ye Li only had them pick vegetables and start the fire; Ye Li was in charge of the main tasks.
To save time, Ye Li stews tofu every day.
First, fry the tofu in oil until both sides are golden brown. Then add water, potatoes, radishes, and cabbage.
Then put a steamer rack in the iron pot, and steam corn and soybean cakes on the rack. Each person also gets a steamed egg, and the meal is complete.
In the eyes of the Ye family father and his two sons, the meal was already very good.
The Ye family was used to being frugal. Although they had been in business for more than half a year, they were still poor. In the meantime, Ye Wen got married and bought an oxcart. Therefore, they were extremely frugal when it came to food.
Compared to before, when Ye A-di cooks, he just adds more oil, and he can eat eggs every day.
As for meat, I never buy meat unless it's during the busy farming season.
Now Ye Li makes plenty of food, dishes, and pancakes; this is real rice.
The stew was also quite oily, with a noticeable layer of oil clinging to the broth.
Not to mention there's an egg with every meal.
In the past, this kind of feast was only for festivals.
Therefore, the Ye family father and his two sons ate to their hearts' content.
But this was tough on Jiangmai and Jiangya.
Especially the little glutton Jiang Ya, ever since the news came that Jiang Ji had passed the academy examination, the family has never stopped eating meat.
Now that the house construction has started, the quality of the food has plummeted, which he finds very difficult to adjust to.
He even considered using his own money to buy meat.
He only spent a little over 300 coins in the county town last time, and he still has 700 coins left in his wages, which can buy a lot of meat!
But every day after his two older brothers came over, they would tell Li Ge not to buy meat.
Sigh, what a predicament.
I want to eat meat.
Ye Li also wanted to eat meat; in fact, he was even more greedy than Jiang Ya.
When he first transmigrated, he was broke and could only eat meat once a week. Later, when he had money, even if he didn't eat meat, he would eat something else. In short, his meals couldn't be so vegetarian.
After eating stew for three days in a row, he couldn't take it anymore.
On the morning of the fourth day after work started, he took Jiang Ji with him and prepared to go to the county town to buy meat.
He didn't do this specifically to entertain the Ye family father and son; this is just the standard of living at his home.
Just because the Ye family father and son are watching him doesn't mean he should deliberately make himself suffer.
Besides, the house has already been built taller than him, so he should have a good meal to celebrate.
After he delivered his eloquent speech, the three members of the Ye family dared not nag anymore. They had never been able to control Ye Li before, and they tried their best not to let Ye Li suffer any grievances.
Now that Ye Li wants to eat meat, then let her eat it.
They cannot expect Yeli, who is already married, to be frugal just because they are frugal themselves.
This is the Jiang family, and Ye Li is in charge.
So Jiang Ji went to Jiang Dahe's house and brought over the mule cart, preparing to go to the county town with Ye Li.
He naturally supports Ye Li.
Moreover, he has been busy building houses these past few days. Although he is at home, he works after meals during the day and has no time to be alone with Ye Li.
We can only get close to each other at night.
Since they were in town today, he and Ye Li decided to spend a little more time together.
He had planned it all out, but as soon as he stepped out of his house, he saw Aunt Lü leading the noodle shop owner from the prefectural city toward his house.
The noodle shop owner's surname was Yue. He and his brother-in-law, along with three employees, arrived in five oxcarts.
His brother-in-law was the manager of a car dealership in the prefectural city. He had previously gone to Baxian Town to deliver goods and saw Ye Liang selling preserved eggs, so he paid for some.
At that time, Ye Liang didn't have much stock, so Boss Yue started a limited-time sale to ensure a steady stream of revenue.
Previously, he only knew that preserved eggs sold well, but he didn't know about Gong Lisheng's income.
Besides, winter is almost here. Once winter arrives, who would still eat cold, chilled dishes?
Won't the sales of these preserved eggs plummet?
Therefore, he had never thought of making a special trip to Beiyang County to buy preserved eggs.
Is it too much trouble to make a trip?
It would take six days to travel to and from here!
Moreover, Beiyang County itself really doesn't have enough to sell.
But to everyone's surprise, Jiang Ji happened to be eating noodles at his restaurant, which gave Boss Yue a big surprise.
With just one dish of cold preserved egg salad, a small jelly shop can earn ten taels a month?
Unbelievable!
Furthermore, can preserved eggs be used to cook porridge?
The taste is just as good as a cold dish?
Jiang Ji's words stirred his emotions, yet he remained skeptical.
He asked Jiang Ji to wait a moment, and he immediately went back to the kitchen to prepare the preserved egg porridge.
Although he wasn't good at making porridge, the taste of boiled eggs was indeed different from that of cold porridge, but it was just as delicious.
So he made a verbal agreement with Jiang Ji.
Jiang Ji drew him a detailed route map, so if he really came to Beiyang County, he could easily find Yezaopo.
After Jiang Ji and Shi Yi left, his feverish mind and restless heart remained unable to calm down.
But his family disagreed.
Investing a hundred taels of silver at once is far too risky.
Although their family has run a noodle shop for many years, they've earned their money through hard work! If it all goes down the drain, they'll have nowhere to turn for help!
Boss Yue had no choice but to approach his brother-in-law to inquire about the situation in Beiyang County and find out if Jiang Ji's words were true or false.
His brother-in-law only stayed in Baxian Town for one night. He only heard Ye Liang say that the preserved eggs were selling well, and since Ye Liang's stall was indeed doing well, his brother-in-law bought a batch of preserved eggs to take back.
But if you ask his brother-in-law to provide more evidence of the egg's popularity, he can't.
No.
Now, Mr. Yue's family was even more opposed.
However, Boss Yue was really tempted by the wonderful scene described by Jiang Ji, and the taste of the preserved eggs was truly unparalleled. So, despite everyone's objections, he still hired a car from the car dealership and came over with his brother-in-law.
Actually, they arrived in Beiyang County the day before yesterday.
They spent two days investigating the sales of preserved eggs in Beiyang County and confirmed that Jiang Ji's words were not false or exaggerated, so they came over today in an oxcart.
They had to be cautious about investing a hundred taels of silver at once!
Of course, there's no need to explain the reasons behind this to Jiang Ji.
Boss Yue smiled warmly and bought two packs of pastries and a pig's hind leg, subtly complimenting Ye Li and Jiang Ji.
That was a genuine compliment.
It's amazing that Ye Li, a country boy, can run such a large preserved egg business!
Don't be fooled by the fact that Ye Li is still living in the countryside now; once next year is over, his family's wealth will surpass that of his in-laws.
Starting from scratch!
How could he not admire him?
Moreover, Ye Li's husband is already a scholar at a young age, with a bright future ahead of him!
Now, thanks to good fortune, he's managed to get on the good side of Ye Li and Jiang Ji, and he's counting on this couple for next year's egg.
Boss Yue was deliberately flattering her, so Ye Li naturally wouldn't act arrogantly.
What's more, they even bought some snacks and meat, saving him and Jiang Ji the trouble of going to the county town.
He immediately instructed Jiang Mai to bring out a small stove to boil water, intending to make tea to entertain Boss Yue and his party.
He then instructed Jiang Ji to notify the families with whom the agreement had been made, and to have them transport the preserved eggs over.
Since Mr. Yue is a newcomer and unfamiliar with the area, and he is carrying a large sum of money, he can't go door-to-door to buy them like Gong Lisheng. It would be better to have the villagers transport the preserved eggs over.
Of course, the most important thing is that he has to teach Boss Yue how to make preserved egg and lean pork congee.
If we want preserved eggs to sell well in winter, we can rely on this porridge.
It just so happened that Aunt Lü was also there, so he invited her to come and learn as well—Boss Yue was an outsider, and it wasn't appropriate for him and Boss Yue to be alone in the kitchen.
Aunt Lü smiled and agreed.
She'd been curious about preserved egg and lean pork congee for a long time!
Actually, this porridge is very easy to make. The whole process doesn't require frying; you just need to boil it.
In this way, even if oil is added, it won't be greasy at all; you'll just want to drink more and more.
Since there were many people, he made half a pot so that Boss Yue and his group could all try it.
When Jiang Ji returned after taking a walk around the village, the porridge was almost ready.
By the time the porridge was ready, some villagers had already brought back the preserved eggs.
Boss Yue didn't have time to greet the villagers; all his attention was focused on the braised egg and lean pork porridge.
Ye Li served him a bowl, and after thanking her, he immediately sat down at the small table, ready to savor it.
In fact, he had tried making preserved eggs several times during this period, but Jiang Ji only mentioned preserved egg porridge and not lean meat, so the savory porridge he made tasted so-so.
If it weren't for the preserved egg inside, it would be truly unremarkable, even unpalatable.
But this bowl of porridge in front of me, with its pink slices of meat and beautiful preserved eggs, and garnished with green leafy vegetables, looks so appetizing that it makes your mouth water.
As for the taste, he picked up the spoon and couldn't wait to take a bite.
The porridge was a little hot, but he cared more about its delicious, savory flavor than its heat!
The exquisite taste made him forget the heat; he had only one thought in his mind: he had made the right decision to come here!
With just this bowl of porridge, I won't have to worry about selling my preserved eggs!
Moreover, how many customers can this bowl of porridge attract to his noodle shop?
Although his family's noodle shop is a long-established brand, its taste is not irreplaceable, so business has remained stagnant for many years.
It was only after the introduction of preserved eggs that the restaurant became so popular during mealtimes that customers had to wait for a table.
But this time!
He couldn't help but recall what he had seen at the jelly shop yesterday.
Hehe, when he got back to the noodle shop, he followed the example of the cold jelly shop and started selling porridge separately.
In addition to the income from the noodle shop.
Tsk tsk, I can't even imagine it, I really can't bear to think about it, just thinking about it makes me laugh out loud!
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