The day number 21, for which Chunxiao had waited so long, finally arrived. The whole family waited to divide the money, their excitement returning to the day they'd first received it. Tian and Zhang each received 52 taels and 950 wen, while Chunxiao received 70 taels and 590 wen.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they got the money.
"Luckily, our family got this golden nugget, and we have income every month."
"I see you don't seem to be tired of braising meat every day. You are probably thinking about the money." Zhou teased.
"Mother, this is natural. Even if I were to do this for a long time, I wouldn't get tired of it."
They divided the money today at Zhang's house. Chunxiao calculated the date and found that Zhang would give birth at the end of January. Zhou had gone to several midwives a few days ago and asked them who was free in a month. She planned to take the baby to stay with her for a few days and was always ready at home.
There was no such treatment when giving birth before, so Zhang was even more grateful to Zhou.
When Tian asked Chunxiao if there was anything else she needed to prepare, Chunxiao said that she needed to prepare a lot of things such as hoes and sleds. She had to go to the town tomorrow. Now that she had received some money, she had to prepare these things early so that they would be useful at the beginning of the new year. Wang Shiwen had said last time that Zhuangzi was short of tools.
"Then I'll go with you. Your brother mentioned it before, but he's been busy these past two days and probably forgot about it. When the time comes to work, I don't think I'll need someone else to carry the tools."
"Sister-in-law, I'll give you the money, no matter how much you need." Now the manor belongs to the two brothers, and Zhang is very proactive in spending money. If someone asks her about it, she is afraid that things will not be so good in the future. Now she is very satisfied with this kind of relationship.
"Sister-in-law, don't worry. I still have some money. I'll come back to get it from you when I'm done."
The Yan family, father and son, still go out early and come back late every day.
The next day, Chunxiao and Tian went to the town in an ox cart driven by Shuwen.
"Shuwen, did you notice last time when you went to the tofu shop to pull out the bean dregs? Was that tofu shop big?" Chunxiao had wanted to go that day, but had something urgent to do so she couldn't go, so Shuwen went happily.
"It's quite big, auntie. The family seems quite wealthy. The village is a bit far from us. They have a brick house with a big stone mill. When we went there, the mule was working non-stop."
"Little sister, why are you asking about the tofu shop? Don't we have enough bean dregs?"
"We don't need much bean dregs. We have a lot of land, but 1,000 kilograms is enough. I was wondering if they'll be buying soybeans since their tofu shop is so big. We have a lot of soybeans this spring. I asked the farm manager, and he said people come to buy them every year. The price is 5 wen, and on a good day it's 6 wen. It's about the same here. We won't make much, but if we can find a good buyer, we can make a lot."
"Since she makes tofu, she must have grown a lot of soybeans at home. Otherwise, how could she make money by selling them? Besides, your farm has so many soybeans, how could she possibly collect so much from a tofu shop?"
Chunxiao felt that what Tian said was very reasonable.
"I heard that grain is growing a lot now, but I haven't bought any, so I don't know if it's true."
"Sister-in-law, who told you that?"
"As for what the villagers said, it's mostly hearsay. We grow our own crops and don't buy grain, so we don't know the price of grain. If it really grows, I'm afraid the soybeans will grow too."
"Then after we finish our business at the iron shop, we can go to the grain shop and ask for the price."
The three of them delivered the goods and drove to the blacksmith shop. The owner of the blacksmith shop smiled happily when she saw her.
"Girl, you haven't been here for a long time. What are you going to do this time?"
"Madam, we want a lot of things this time. I'm afraid you won't be able to make them all. Please give us a discount, otherwise I won't come next time."
"That's not right, young lady. We are all regular customers. I have given you all the discounts I could. There is no need for you to ask for anything."
Chunxiao remembered that the last time he bought a sled, he bought it at a grocery store. "Do you make sleds here?"
"We make anything that involves iron here. Girl, do you want a sled? How many do you want? There are several kinds of sleds. Take a look and see what kind you want." The woman took them into the house and took a look at the warehouse. There were quite a lot of things, but there were only a few of each kind at most.
Chunxiao picked out a sled that looked just like the one at home and pointed at it. "How much is this sled?"
"800 coins."
Unexpectedly, it was cheaper than the ones in the grocery store. "Make me ten." Although there were only seven oxen over there, they still had to prepare ten sleds. She looked at Tian and said, "Sister-in-law, how many will you prepare?"
"I have four cows now, and this thing will be used for a long time, so I'll prepare six."
The woman's eyes were shining with smiles. She didn't expect them to ask for so much. She was about to say something when Chunxiao spoke again.
"Madam, I need 40 hoes. How much is your axe?"
The proprietress was shocked that she wanted so many hoes, but she didn't expect her to ask for an axe. "Axe is 600 wen," she answered blankly.
"Then I need 30 axe." She couldn't buy more. She didn't have enough money. She looked at Tian again. Tian thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll ask for 20 hoes and 15 axe. If there's not enough, I can buy more later. It should be enough."
The owner of the iron shop was completely stunned. Although there were people in the town who sold tools and bought a lot at one time, it was really rare to see people like them. She didn't even have time to react.
"Madam, we're settling the bill separately. You have to give us a discount."
The proprietress immediately put on a smile and said, "Of course, of course." She asked someone to calculate and found that the girl's fee would be 66 taels of silver, and the sister-in-law's fee would be 33 taels and 8 cents.
"Miss, you know that in this business we rely on word of mouth, and the profit margin is actually very thin. You have given me such a big business today, and I am very grateful. How about this? These of yours cost 66 taels, and I will give you a discount of 3 taels, and charge you 63 taels. Your sister-in-law's costs 33 taels and 8 cents, so I will charge you 32 taels. What do you think? I am very sincere."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
