Chunxiao sat by the stove in the main room, diligently drilling holes for brushes. An awl would have been helpful, but she feared the hole would be too large. She had already made two brushes, which, after testing them with water, were quite good. Now she needed to make two more toothbrushes, one for her and one for Zhou. The others would have to wait.
Drilling the hole was a laborious task, and time flew by unnoticed. She glanced at the position of the stars and began collecting the last day's charcoal. This batch of charcoal, collected according to schedule, took several hours, and finally, it was done. Daybreak had arrived.
When she got to the front, Yan Dashan and the others had indeed arrived. Yan Bingfa and the others had also gotten up. Knowing that she was behind them, they did not bother them.
"Boil the pot, wash up and go to bed."
"I'm going to wash my face and not go to sleep yet. Amber said he would come in the morning. I'll wait until he collects the charcoal before going to sleep."
"That won't work. You've already been up all night." Zhou was worried.
"It's okay, mom. Otherwise, it would be even more uncomfortable to get up again after just falling asleep. I'm still energetic right now."
Zhou also knew that she would have to settle the account today, so she had to come. "Okay, then you can take a stool and sit in the yard to bask in the sun later. Don't get involved in the work for now."
"Aunt, why don't you teach me how to read? You've been busy for several days and don't have time. I remember everything you taught me before. Even Duoer knows it now." Shuwen suddenly appeared from the doorway.
"Okay, I'll teach you a few more today. Let's move the stools to the dirt floor outside the yard and write." The aunt and nephew sat at the entrance of the yard, one teaching carefully while the other listened attentively. They continued teaching long after the sun rose.
Shuwen was very happy today. His aunt taught him a lot at once. He had to study hard and remember everything carefully so as not to forget it.
As he was writing, he heard a voice coming from afar.
Chunxiao also heard it, and when she looked up, she saw the ox cart at the entrance of the fence.
"Aunt, this is the ox cart that delivered the wood last time. I'll go call Dad and the others." Shuwen said and ran to the back.
Chunxiao invited those people in. She saw Amber sitting on the ox cart at a glance and hurried to greet him.
"Miss Yan, is your charcoal cooked well?" the old man stepped down from the cart. "I brought you this seed just as I promised." He pointed to a sack on the cart.
Chunxiao smiled when she saw the sack. "Uncle, it's ready. I'll have someone bring it out for you right away."
The family members all came over quickly and were very polite to the financial sponsor. Yan Bingfa invited him to come in and sit down, but he declined. "There's a lot going on at the manor, so I won't sit down. Let's settle the bill and then I'll leave. Sorry everyone."
"What are you talking about? You are the manager of the manor, so you are naturally busy. Please wait a moment, we will do it quickly."
The whole family joined in and soon all the charcoal was moved out. When weighed, the total weight was 972 kilograms.
The old man took some seeds and broke them apart, looking at them. He was very satisfied and also very happy with their efficiency. He handed the sack of seeds to Chunxiao and gave Chunxiao 30 taels of silver. "You are a trustworthy family. You don't need to change the extra few hundred coins. This is my reward. If I need you next year, I will come back to you. I will be leaving now."
Seeing him leave, Zhou whispered a few words to Tian, then looked at the old man with a smile, "You never know what will happen in this weather. To be safe, I'll put up a curtain for your charcoal, just in case."
Amber looked at the high sun. Although he felt that this action was a bit unnecessary, he also felt that this family was rare and thoughtful, so he did not object.
Soon, Tian came out with a stack of straw mats, and the whole family worked together to cover the charcoal on the cart tightly and sent the ox cart out of the intersection. Once the ox cart was out of the intersection, the driver increased the speed and soon the cart disappeared from sight.
"That's great! These rich people are so straightforward when doing business. They just inspect the items, pay the money, and the deal is done. There's no dragging your feet at all."
"Let's go back and put the seeds in Chunxiao's room first."
"Chunxiao, it's over, go to bed quickly."
"There's still work to do. We have to divide the money." Chunxiao winked at everyone. "Isn't dividing the money the happiest time? Come, wait in the main room." She tossed her hair behind her and went into the house to move out the jars of money.
"Shuwen, go guard the gate of the yard and notify everyone immediately if someone comes." Tian sent Shuwen out.
The family sat at the table watching Chunxiao count money.
"The unsettled charcoal bill is 19 taels and 5 qian of silver. Adding today's 30 taels, the total is 49 taels and 5 qian of silver. I'm going to give each of my brothers 9 taels and 9 qian of silver, making it exactly 10 taels per person."
"That's not good. We didn't contribute to the charcoal in the back, so how can we share the money? How about we share the charcoal in the front and you can keep the charcoal in the back for yourself?"
"That's right, brother. At least I accompanied you to Deer Village. I didn't do anything."
Tian and Zhang sat aside without saying a word.
Her eldest brother was too honest. "We agreed beforehand that you would take 20% of the charcoal, but I'm covering all the costs." She took out two large silver ingots and pushed them in front of the two men. "Put them away. I need to go to bed." After that, she counted out 7 coins and 50 copper coins and pushed them in front of her eldest brother. "Brother, this is the money for yesterday's water tank."
"Take it quickly, we still have to continue working." Yan Bingfa said.
The two brothers then happily accepted the money.
"In just over a month, we have earned almost 40 taels of silver." Yan Dashan was very excited. 40 taels was something he had never dared to think about before.
"Lan'er, save it all. It will be enough for my daughter's dowry in the future." Yan Dahe gave the money directly to Zhang.
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