Soon, the villagers washed all the sweet potatoes that hadn't been washed properly before.
People, their hands white from washing, carried their own sweet potatoes to be weighed.
Shen Qingyu requested: "For all the freshly washed sweet potatoes, remove one jin of water from each load of sweet potatoes."
Someone immediately objected: "The sweet potato only had a little water on it, how much could that be? How can you remove a pound?"
"That's ten coins!"
Shen Qingyu looked over and saw it was Shen Dalan again.
What does Bao Gong with a stern face look like? That's exactly what Shen Qingyu looks like at this moment.
She glanced at Shen Dalan expressionlessly: "I'll say it again, if you had washed and dried them at home before delivering them, this wouldn't have happened."
"If it's delivered wet again in the future, we'll deduct the money if we want, there's no room for negotiation. If you don't want to have your money deducted, that's fine too..."
"How can you say that?" Shen Dalan thought Shen Qingyu had given in.
"Then take them back, dry them in the sun, and then send them over."
Shen Dalan immediately jumped up and down: "I'll go to you..."
Before he could finish speaking, Shen Dalan's mouth was covered by someone behind him.
"Shen Dalan, I'm warning you, if you use foul language and offend Qingyu, causing her to stop accepting our sweet potatoes, we'll each kick you to death!"
With a clang, the sound of the Dragon Guardian Blade being drawn from its sheath was heard.
Shen Dalan was so frightened he nearly died: "Waaaaah..."
Under the contemptuous gazes of the crowd, he reluctantly nodded, and only then was his mouth released.
I just blurted it out without thinking, but now I realize: this is someone else's business, if they say they don't want it, they really don't want it, and it's no use being unreasonable.
Didn't you see those gleaming swords drawn?!
As a result, everyone fell silent for the first time and lined up to be weighed.
Xiao Taohua and Shen Dasong weighed the sweet potatoes together; one checked their cleanliness, and the other checked the scale.
The two men placed the sweet potatoes in the yard, packed them into baskets of fifty jin each, and then reported the numbers and names to the four junior accountants.
Four junior accountants: one writes down names, quantities, and amounts of money; one is responsible for verification; and the other two are responsible for distributing money.
Strings of copper coins were taken out; a load of sweet potatoes weighing one hundred jin (50 kg) was worth one string of coins.
Some were stronger, weighing over 100 pounds, so the cashier would give them extra loose change...
A load of sweet potatoes and a string of coins—they were immediately and tangibly in his hands!
It felt heavy in my hand!
This is truly unprecedented!
Where have you ever seen such a good thing before?
The villagers were excited, and those who received the money carried their empty loads and the money home.
"It's still early, let's go dig up two more loads of sweet potatoes! Hahaha..."
"Now we're really rich!"
Everyone left laughing and joking, each one of them walking briskly.
The eyes of those waiting to weigh the sweet potatoes were already burning with anticipation.
At the back of the stone mill, five men working in the grinding group were already ready.
Each person carried two baskets of 50-pound sweet potatoes, cut them into chunks with a few strokes, and threw them into the millstone to start grinding them into a paste.
Before Shen Qingyu could even leave, she heard the people in the grinding team saying, "Only the surface of this basket of sweet potatoes is clean; the bottom ones aren't clean at all! There's still mud and sand in them!"
What?
Shen Qingyu immediately walked over there.
Sure enough, a lot of the mud and sand at the bottom of that basket of sweet potatoes hadn't been washed off.
Who sent this?
When Shen Qingyu asked, Shen Dasong went to look at the basket.
The sweet potatoes that had just been delivered were immediately recognizable to Shen Dasong: "These belong to Shen Dalan's family."
The expressions of the people waiting to be weighed immediately changed: This Shen Dalan is incredibly lazy. He's supposed to be making money, but he's still thinking about slacking off.
Isn't he afraid that they won't buy his sweet potatoes anymore?
Someone familiar with the situation whispered a word of advice: "Peach Blossom, you'll ruin yourself by doing this."
Having finally received Shen Qingyu's help and shelter, it would be a huge loss if I were to be fired by Shen Qingyu because of this!
Shen Qingyu looked at Xiao Taohua.
Xiao Taohua was in charge of checking that basket of sweet potatoes.
Xiao Taohua blushed: "I...he...I'll take it to wash now, I'll check more carefully next time."
"Let's leave it at that for today. But if you fail to do a proper inspection in the future and the grinding team finds out, you'll not only be responsible for keeping it clean, but you'll also have your wages for that day deducted."
Shen Qingyu had said this to Xiao Taohua and Shen Dasong before.
Xiao Taohua's face paled, but she still nodded in acceptance of the punishment, picked up the basket of unwashed sweet potatoes, and went to wash them.
Because it was said in front of everyone, everyone had strange expressions and looked at Xiao Taohua and Shen Qingyu.
No one expected that Shen Qingyu would be so ruthless when she got serious.
Xiao Taohua, a widow, must have felt terrible to be humiliated in public like this.
Shen Dasong's face darkened. While weighing the items, he said to Xiao Taohua, "Even if Shen Dalan's mother helped you in the past, you can't use your own work to do favors for her."
"Not only does it delay things, it also makes it easy for people to misunderstand."
Everyone realized what was going on when they heard this: So that's why Xiao Taohua went easy on Shen Dalan!
At first, everyone was curious.
Why did Xiao Taohua give Shen Dalan water? Those sweet potatoes weren't even properly washed; how dare she accept them?
Xiao Taohua blushed and said softly, "I know. It's my fault. I'll go wash it again right away."
Shen Dasong replied, "I'll weigh myself here, you go wash up first."
Xiao Taohua could be said to have fled in disarray.
As Shen Qingyu's most trusted person, and arguably the person Shen Qingyu took the most care of, he was humiliated on his very first day of work.
Xiao Taohua squatted by the spring stream at the entrance of the workshop, washing sweet potatoes, which surprised the people who brought sweet potatoes later.
"Peach Blossom, what role do you play in washing the sweet potatoes?"
"Didn't you say the sweet potatoes would be delivered only after they were washed?"
Then someone lowered their voice and told them the whole story.
Upon hearing this, everyone began to discuss it amongst themselves. They felt sorry for and sympathized with Xiao Taohua, but looked down on Shen Dalan.
It's outrageous to bully a widow and then take advantage of her kindness.
Moreover, originally the two of them were weighing the potatoes, but now Xiao Taohua has gone to wash them, leaving only Shen Dasong to do the work, which makes everyone feel like they are wasting everyone's time.
Fortunately, Shen Dalan only had a total of 100 jin of sweet potatoes, and Xiao Taohua quickly finished washing them, wiped her sweat, and went back to work.
"Peach Blossom, you must never do that again!"
"Yes! It's wasting our time."
Xiao Taohua was almost in tears. Her face flushed red as she nodded and gritted her teeth, saying, "I know I was wrong. I'll be more careful next time."
Shen Qingyu didn't say anything more and turned to leave.
The village head watched the whole thing from the sidelines, essentially acting as the overall coordinator, and he was very unhappy about it.
Thinking about it, I'll go talk to Shen Dalan's mother and tell Shen Dalan to wash the sweet potatoes properly before sending them over in the future.
Once the sweet potatoes were ground into a paste, they were immediately put into the corresponding pot, and someone was already tending the fire, preparing to make the noodles.
The sweet potato starch workshop was bustling with activity and a scene of great activity.
Shen Qingyu looked at the people still queuing up.
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