10 Chapter 10
◎Happiness shared with others is worse than happiness alone◎
Yesterday at home, Jiang Jingyun carefully reviewed the entire incident.
First of all, more and more people are imitating his methods. If he wants to retain customers, in addition to ensuring that his food tastes good, he also needs to keep trying to innovate. But the new dishes will also increase his burden. Although the three children in the family are well-behaved and can help, there is only so much they can do. Even if a person is made of iron, he still cannot keep up.
Secondly, he is too naive, and his consciousness is still stuck in the 21st century rule of law society.
This is a feudal dynasty that emphasizes power and fists.
Although public security is acceptable under the wise rule of our emperor, there are still loopholes in the legal society, especially in this era. There are always those people with evil intentions who do not work hard and just want to gain something for nothing. He was a weak scholar and had no ability to protect himself if something happened.
Furthermore, since there is a way to make money, he also wants to help his family.
It is better to share happiness with others than to enjoy it alone! [1]
So he wanted to do this business with his cousins. When he saved enough money in the future, he might be able to rent a shop in town to sell food.
I wanted to invite Brother Xiao to work together, but he was rejected as soon as I opened my mouth.
Xiao Muyan was not being polite out of nothing, he also had his own considerations. Firstly, his stall was too small now, and after the profits were evenly distributed, he would still not be able to make as much as he did from hunting now; secondly, compared to bargaining with others as a businessman, being in the mountains made people feel more comfortable.
Since the person is unwilling, Jiang Jingyun will naturally not force him. Even if you are anxious to repay a favor, you have to use a method that the other person is happy with.
Then there are only his and his uncle's families left.
Jiang Jingyun's idea was that the two families would each contribute half of the cost, he would provide the recipe, his uncle's family would provide the labor, and the final profit would be divided equally between the two families.
He told everyone his plan in detail, and then sat down and waited for a reply.
When the eldest and second cousins heard that they could follow Jiang Jingyun to do business, they were very excited and wanted to start helping right away. However, they were not the ones who made the decisions at home, so they could only look eagerly at the head of the family, Jiang Lao Da.
Uncle Jiang sat there in silence, pondered for a long time, then sighed and said, "Uncle knows your intention and wants to help his brothers. But they are stupid and only have a little strength. When you are too busy, you can just call them. Why do you need to pay? One cent is half. No, no, uncle can't take advantage of you."
"Uncle, even brothers should be clear about their accounts." Jiang Jingyun didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Although his uncle was thinking about him, who would push money away? "Besides, I'm not a black-hearted person. How can I let others work for free?"
Seeing that his uncle was still frowning and looking disapproving, he started to play the victim again: "Uncle, I would be embarrassed to ask my cousins for help if you don't agree. I've been targeted again recently, and if I get sick from being busy, it'll be ok. But if I run into those robbers again, not only will I lose my money, I might also be beaten..." As he spoke, he deliberately stretched his pig's trotter forward, showing a look of unbearable pain.
After hearing this, my uncle frowned even more. My nephew is a very tenacious person, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to stand up so quickly after suffering such a blow.
If he didn't agree today, Jiang Jingyun would really force himself to do it alone without asking for help. After thinking about it, the uncle finally compromised, but the money couldn't be divided like this, "Then you give them 20%... No, 10% is enough, they just put in some effort, it won't take that much."
Jiang Jingyun argued again, and finally the two families decided on a 3:70 profit sharing ratio.
As for my uncle's family... let's forget about it for now...
I'm not afraid of good opponents, but I'm afraid of bad teammates. Although my uncle is a good person, my aunt can't figure it out.
In the early stages of starting a business, you should cherish every moment.
After things were settled, no action was taken immediately. Due to a foot injury, Jiang Jingyun actually rested at home for several days.
However, it is impossible to be completely idle. If poor people lie down, they will starve.
During this period of time, Jiang Jingyun unceremoniously asked his two cousins to work in the mountains and fields, without any sign of embarrassment as he had expressed before. With the support of his uncle and aunt, he had the confidence to order them around.
Of course, he didn't just talk, he also did a lot of work himself.
Looking at the row of cans piled up in the corner, Jiang Jingyun pounded his tired and weak back and let out a long sigh.
The rest will have to wait until after the summer harvest.
***
There is no idle month for farmers, and people are doubly busy in June. The south wind rose at night, and the rice fields were covered with yellow.
Women and mothers-in-law carried baskets of food, and children carried jugs of water. We went to the fields together to collect supplies, and the young men were in the south.
The feet are steaming with the hot earth air, and the back is burning with the scorching sun. I don’t feel the heat even though I’m exhausted, but I regret that the summer is so long. [2]
Jiang Jingyun didn’t have so many poetic and picturesque thoughts in his mind. There was only one big word in his mind: tired!
He held the rice stalks tightly with his left hand and used the sickle in his right hand to cut the roots of the rice grains. He repeated the mechanical bending and straightening. He persisted for an hour and was already exhausted and sweating profusely.
Looking at the blisters on his palms and then at the seemingly endless rice fields, Jiang Jingyun's eyes went dark.
Is this the pastoral life that modern workers yearn for the most? It’s so horrible!
Things like "opening the window facing the field, drinking wine and talking about mulberry and hemp" and "picking chrysanthemums in the southeast, leisurely seeing the southern mountains" are all fake. Only "hoeing the field at noon, sweat dripping to the soil" is true! [3]
Those who enjoy a leisurely pastoral life are the gentry and landlords, while those who work hard in the fields are the poor peasants.
Jiang Jingyun stood up and looked at his second brother who was working hard beside him. His face turned red. It was bad enough that he couldn't compare with the adults, but how could he not even compare with a younger brother than himself.
Just as he was trying to maintain his dignity as an older brother and continue working, his third brother Jiang Jingfeng thoughtfully brought a bowl of water to his eldest brother and said, "Brother, it's hot, drink some water and take a rest first."
Emmm...Although face is important, we also have to affirm our brother's good behavior, right? I'd better drink some water to calm down first. It's not that I can't do it anymore.
Jiang Jingyun rode the donkey down the hill and sat down on the pile of straw with the bowl of water in his hand.
The third brother looked at his eldest brother, who was busy harvesting rice in the field with sweat all over his forehead even though his foot had not yet fully healed, and silently handed him a handkerchief. Jiang Jingfeng originally wanted to join in the harvest, but his eldest brother insisted not to let him and his younger sister touch the sickle, saying that they were too young and unsafe, so he could only help pick up rice ears and bundle rice stalks, and by the way, look after his younger sister who was clamoring to work and pick up rice ears, but actually spent most of her time wandering around chasing butterflies.
"How many paddy fields do we have..." Jiang Jingyun sat there, drinking water while trying to turn the CPU that had been sunburned, and counted the farm work for the next two months one by one. "Five acres...all planted with rice. After the rush harvest, we will plant late rice. The one acre of dry land planted with peanuts can be harvested later, and later it will be time to plant sweet potatoes..."
"Hiss..." Jiang Jingyun gasped, and even in the scorching heat of June, he was sweating profusely. "Why does this job seem endless?"
We can't go on like this, there's no end to the work.
Jiang Jingyun calmed down. With his physical strength, farm work was too inefficient. It would be better to hire someone to help take care of the fields this year so that he could focus on business and find a way to expand the business and make money as soon as possible. Then, next year he could directly rent the fields to tenants and just take a share of the profits.
Money makes the world go round. As long as you make money, why worry about not finding people to farm the land?
Doing everything yourself will only lead to a thankless task. Professional matters should be left to professionals!
After figuring it out, he began to think about the candidates.
Jiang Jingyun estimated the work on the fields and thought he could find two people first. The third cousin from my uncle's family can be counted as one, and as for the remaining one... he has to ask his uncle and the others first. He has to find someone who is hardworking and down-to-earth. Otherwise, not only will the money be wasted, but he will also starve if the land is wasted.
After thinking about all sorts of things, Jiang Jingyun was almost ready to rest. He poured another bowl of water and called his second brother, who never took a break from work, to come over and have a rest. He stood up, brushed off the rice leaves stuck on his clothes, looked at the rice field in front of him with tired and numb eyes, and sighed deeply.
Oh, let's finish the work at hand first.
After three days of hard work, and with the help of his uncle's family who had finished harvesting their own fields, Jiang Jingyun finally managed to harvest the five acres of rice.
Then comes the process of beating rice mats, drying rice grains, and raising rice seedlings.
After all the busy work, Jiang Jingyun's skin was tanned and he lost 6 kilograms due to exhaustion. He looked even thinner, as if a gust of wind could blow him away.
However, looking at his own full granary, he felt full of satisfaction.
But before they could be happy for two days, they had to pay a lot of taxes, such as land tax, head tax, exemption tax, etc. They were collected layer by layer, and one third of the harvest obtained from hard work was gone before they could even feel it in their hearts.
…
This damn feudal exploitation system!
But this is not the time to worry about these things, because the leg injury and the delayed summer harvest need to be put on the agenda now.
Jiang Jingyun first asked his eldest uncle to help him and asked his third cousin from his uncle's family and Li Daniu, a very poor family with very little land in the village, to take over the work on the fields. Finally, his farming career came to an end.
Then, we have to start business quickly while everyone has just finished the harvest and their pockets are still full.
Before the summer harvest, Jiang Jingyun bought a stone mill for his home and asked a bricklayer to make a clay stove similar to the modern coal stoves. He stuffed firewood into the stove and placed an iron pot on it, so he could make a fire and cook at any time, which was just right for the new food he had prepared.
These two days, taking advantage of the low price of old rice after the summer harvest, Jiang Jingyun took his two cousins to the village to buy a lot of last year's old rice, amid the puzzled looks of people around him. Then the three of them immediately washed the rice they bought, soaked it thoroughly, and ground it into fine rice paste to make rice flour.
Two or three days passed like this, and the three Jiang brothers finally prepared everything.
Everything is ready, only the east wind is missing.
Whether it succeeds or not, will depend on tomorrow.
【Author’s words】
[1] From Mencius: King Hui of Liang, Part 2
[2] From Bai Juyi’s “Watching the Wheat Harvest”
[3] From Meng Haoran’s “Visiting an Old Friend’s Farm”, Tao Yuanming’s “Drinking (Part 5)”, and Li Shen’s “Song of Pity the Peasants”
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