Chapter 57: Profits Can Be Far More Than 300%
Without a knife, Sang Yu could only use a stone knife to cut vegetables.
Each piece is of different sizes and thicknesses, so the taste is also different. The smaller pieces are more flavorful, while the larger pieces have a chewy texture.
Xie Qiujin always loved drinking soup. She first filled a bowl of chicken blood soup, picked up a piece of chicken blood that was shaking and seemed to be about to break at any time, and took a small bite.
After just one bite, her eyes widened and she looked at the blood clot on the chopsticks in disbelief.
So delicious!
The chicken blood that has absorbed the soup has no fishy smell at all. It feels like eating tender tofu pudding when you take a bite, and you can swallow it without chewing.
The addition of cattail leaves is the finishing touch; its sweet taste does not overpower the other and blends perfectly with the chicken blood.
Without hesitation, she put the remaining chicken blood on the chopsticks directly into her mouth, chewing it gently while drinking a mouthful of soup. This is the most comfortable thing in the world.
Mrs. Tang picked up a piece of fried chicken offal with chopsticks and put it into her mouth. She thought it would be crispy and hard, but after she chewed it twice, the chicken offal in her mouth melted like soft and glutinous pastry.
The chicken hearts, gizzards and intestines are mixed together, and the taste is very wonderful. When paired with cattail leaves, it feels like eating a meat-filled pancake, with a crispy outer skin and juicy inside.
Sang Yu was originally waiting for everyone's comments, but when she saw that they kept picking up the food one bite after another after taking the first bite, she already had the answer in her mind, and silently picked up the bowl and chopsticks to start eating.
The next morning, Sang Yu and Sang Yongjing got up early and rushed to the canyon. They had something on their minds and no one slept well last night.
It was the first time Xie Qiujin had seen such a grand scene of cutting and transporting firewood. Looking at the scene at the foot of the mountain, she couldn't help but lose her mind and muttered, "How many trees do they have to cut in a day?"
"Actually, there's not much." Sang Yu explained to her. It had been more than ten days since she first came here, but in fact the nearest hill had not been cleared yet.
"From a distance it looked like there were a lot of people, but not many were actually cutting down trees. Plus, a lot of people were lazy and followed the old ways, so the only people who actually worked were the criminals."
There are so many trees on a mountain that it is impossible to count them. Although there are many people here, their tools are backward and their productivity cannot keep up, otherwise the price of charcoal would not be so expensive.
After finding out that the best quality silver bone charcoal that could be presented as tribute to the palace could be sold for ten taels of gold per tael, Sang Yu was really jealous.
If the charcoal business in Lingnan was not controlled by the government, she would really like to get a piece of the pie. The profit would be much greater than their hard work in making sugar.
It is said that if there is a 300 percent profit, people will dare to commit any crime, even risk being hanged. The profit here is far more than 300 percent.
Unfortunately, she really didn't dare to try.
Firstly, her household registration was restricted to Lingnan and she could not leave. Secondly, she did not know how to burn silver-bone charcoal. However, she could easily make charcoal for barbecue.
"Then the government still pays them for slacking off? Isn't that a losing business?" Xie Qiujin was puzzled.
Sang Yongjing, standing by, took the opportunity to show off his knowledge: "How could the government lose money? I specifically asked when I went into the city yesterday. The simplest job in the city pays fifty coins a day. That's one and a half taels of silver a month."
He then continued sourly, "They only pay twenty cents a day here. I don't know how many people pocket the money."
He had never suffered any hardship in the first half of his life. If he had no money, he could just ask his eldest or second brother for money. At most, he would be scolded for being useless.
So when he first came here to chop wood and work, he thought that twenty cents a day was the normal market price, but he didn't expect to be deducted so much.
The government was indeed not afraid of them slacking off. The wages for hard work were not low, but each person was only given twenty cents, so they could make a lot of money from the wages.
You can't just slack off and not do any work. As long as you work, you can make charcoal. The money from selling the charcoal doesn't have to be distributed to the workers, it's pure profit.
Hearing this, Xie Qiujin's eyes lit up and she said excitedly, "The wages in the city are so high, so let's go work in the city."
Each person earns fifty cents a day, so she and her husband together earn a hundred cents a day. After working for a while, the family will have enough money to do some small business.
Sang Yongjing sighed with a bitter face: "Alas, I would like to, but I am not qualified."
He had inquired and found out that if he wanted to work in the city, he would either have to sign a contract to sell himself as a slave in a wealthy family, or settle down in the city and own a house.
If you don't want to sign a contract to sell yourself and don't have a house, there are still ways. You can work illegally.
They enter the city early in the morning when the gates are open, and leave the city before they are closed at night. They do the same work but are paid less than half of what the residents in the city get. It's not worth it.
Let me tell you a joke. The fourth master of the Sang family, who used to be treated with arrogance in front of others and respect in the back, now wants to go to the city to serve others, but he can't even reach the threshold.
"Okay, Dad, don't look so sad. Today is a good day. You should smile more."
Seeing that the two were getting sadder and sadder as they talked, and were about to start crying, Sang Yu interrupted them. She didn't want to comfort one and then the other, and besides, she had other important things to do today.
Reminded by her, Sang Yongjing finally remembered the reason for coming here today: "Yes, it's a good day, we should smile more."
When passing through the shed area, Xie Qiujin covered her nose tightly, frowned, and quickly passed through. After she was far away, she asked Sang Yu: "Why was the smell so bad there just now?"
She didn't see anyone living there, so why was there such a foul stench? It would be terrible in the summer.
"No one's here now, but someone will be staying there tonight."
Sang Yu didn't want to talk much about this matter. She was afraid that Sang Yongjing would find out about the people who bullied him and rush up to cause trouble for them.
This is not a place where you can gain the upper hand just because you are right. Only those with bigger fists and stronger connections can speak with confidence.
When passing by the entrance of the canyon, Sang Yu did not avoid the sight as usual, but instead carefully observed the figures on both sides.
The person she questioned last time had disappeared. She didn't know whether he left on his own or his body was cleared away after his death.
There were still a few familiar faces lying on the roadside, gasping for breath, but there was still no woman to be seen.
Sang Yu suddenly thought of a question. If the woman at the entrance of the canyon was taken away, then why were the people inside the canyon safe and sound?
Not to mention the indigenous people living in the thatched huts, even in those makeshift sheds one can see many women. Did they pay protection fees or for some other reason?
She was not in a hurry to get answers to her questions, because she knew clearly that once she started building her house, the answers to her questions would come to her.
She also discovered one thing. It seemed that the number of people lying at the entrance of the canyon had always been controlled at a certain number. No matter how many people died, the number of people on both sides seemed to be constant.
Is it intentional control because they are afraid that there will be too many people and it will be difficult to control, or is there a specific number of indicators every month?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com