Aunt Fang turned around and saw Chen Fang. She quickly told Da Huang to stop barking.
Despite hearing its owner's calls, Da Huang continued to bark wildly at Chen Fang outside the yard, still putting on an act.
Upon hearing this, Aunt Fang angrily slapped Big Yellow on the head.
rhubarb:?
The slap was just the right amount of force, enough to stun you without hurting your brain.
“I told you to stop yelling. You don’t even yell like this when you actually see a thief.”
After being beaten, Da Huang looked at its owner with a wronged expression before sheepishly shrinking back and continuing to gnaw on the bone.
Seeing Da Huang being beaten, Li Juhua felt heartbroken and looked at her mother, saying, "Mom, please don't beat Da Huang."
Big Yellow wagged its tail and whimpered pitifully.
Chen Fang, standing at the door, was amused by the scene and couldn't stop laughing. What a lively family!
Aunt Fang heard her laugh and walked over, a little embarrassed.
"Fang'er is here! Come in and sit down. Have you eaten yet?"
Chen Fang nodded and went inside. She smiled and nodded at Li Chaoyang, saying, "Hello, Brother Li."
Li Yang was a man of few words and a reserved nature. He simply smiled and nodded in response to Chen Fang's friendly greeting.
Then they brought a stool over for Chen Fang.
Aunt Fang poured Chen Fang a glass of water and then went inside to get some sour jujube cakes that her family had made some time ago.
Seeing her busy, Chen Fang quickly stopped her: "Madam Fang, don't bother. I have something to tell you. I'm in a hurry to go back later."
Aunt Fang, who happened to be carrying a bag of sour jujube cakes out of the room, asked after hearing Chen Fang's words, "Tell me what's going on?"
In response to Aunt Fang's question, Chen Fang explained:
"Madam Fang, it's really nothing serious. Someone recently ordered a large batch of dried kelp from us, and they need it urgently. So I was thinking of finding some villagers to come to my house and help dry the kelp. But it won't be free; we'll pay the villagers sixty coins a day..."
The time for drying seaweed is not long, only a few hours during low tide. Pei Yao calculated the wage based on comparisons with the dockworkers.
After finishing her sentence, Chen Fang added, "If anyone has dried seaweed at home, you can bring it to our house. We will buy it for one coin per pound."
After all, the Pei family only knew that there was seaweed on the Black Coast. If the villagers could find seaweed elsewhere, they could sell it to them.
Aunt Fang couldn't remember what seaweed was for a moment and was puzzled for a second, but only for a moment.
Because she quickly realized from the dried kelp that Chen Fang handed her that the kelp she was talking about was what they called seaweed.
She looked at Chen Fang in surprise:
"Fang, you mean that unwanted stuff can be sold for silver? And for one coin a pound?"
If she remembered correctly, nobody in town would even want a big bowl of this stuff for a penny...
Chen Fang nodded, explaining why she had come to see Aunt Fang today.
—Because Yao said that Aunt Fang's mouth was like the village's loudspeaker.
Telling her is the same as telling the whole village.
Chen Fang: "Yes, Madam Fang, I'll trouble you to tell the villagers about it later, since you have a wide network of connections."
Aunt Fang initially couldn't believe it, but seeing Chen Fang's serious expression, it didn't seem like she was joking.
After thinking about it for a while, I understood. The Pei family would even buy unwanted snails and thunderbolts, so it's understandable that they would buy seaweed now.
Maybe they really do have connections to sell it.
After all, they came from the capital, and their families used to be officials. They must be more quick-witted than country folk like us.
She looked at Chen Fang and asked, "When are you going to hire people?"
Chen Fang: "The tide is out today, so we'll wait for you at the intersection leading to the beach."
Aunt Fang agreed, "Okay, I'll talk to my sisters about it later."
It was evening, so it wasn't a good time for anyone to go up the mountain to pick pita seeds. Besides, drying seaweed would earn them sixty coins, which was much better than the hard labor of the porters at the docks.
Besides, it would be foolish not to make money when it's available.
When Chen Fang returned, Pei Yao was busy breaking up the steamed glutinous rice and letting it cool. Seeing her come back, she immediately went over and asked:
"Aunt, how is it? What did Aunt Fang say?"
Pei Yao asked about having Aunt Fang bring the villagers over.
Chen Fang nodded: "Madam Fang agreed."
This surprised Pei Yao, who had thought the villagers would complain that sixty coins was too little.
After all, the wages for drying seaweed are only sixty coins, but they usually earn more than that by picking pitaya seeds.
In the afternoon, the family barely rested before finishing the remaining glutinous rice and packing it into jars.
We'll just have to wait and see how it develops.
Yunniang went back to cook dinner first; the Pei family ate dinner earlier than usual today.
Everyone was eager to finish eating quickly so they could go to the beach to harvest seaweed.
When dinner was ready, Pei Yichen, who had confidently declared at noon that he didn't want to eat dinner, was now obediently coming over to eat.
After all, the whole family, except for Xuan'er, was busy making lychee wine all afternoon.
The dumplings I ate at noon have long since been digested and disappeared without a trace.
After dinner, the family took their tools and went to the crossroads at the end of the village to wait for someone.
Even from a distance, you could see a group of women and a few men standing at the intersection.
—Most of these people were familiar to Pei Yao, and there was even Liu Tie from the next village, but there were a few that Pei Yao had never seen before.
The one leading the group was Aunt Fang. Chen Fang walked over and said, "Madam Fang, you've arrived so early."
Aunt Fang introduced the people behind her to Chen Fang:
“Fang, there are relatively few people in our village. The men are all at home with other work to do. Only these women have nothing to do after eating, so they are willing to come along. There are also a few from the next village. They are all my sisters and brothers from my maternal side. They are all honest and hardworking people who don’t talk much on a daily basis.”
Before she got married, Aunt Fang was from the neighboring Liu family village.
Pei Yao didn't mind whether someone was from the village or not; as long as they were a quick worker, it didn't matter.
The majority of the crowd were from this village, with only six or seven from other villages.
Drying seaweed is a task that Pei Yao actually prefers to do for women, rather than men.
Women are meticulous, reliable, and more patient when they work.
After all, their seaweed needs to look presentable.
The Liu family and Niu Qingshan also came over.
Qiaohui also wanted to come, but because her family had an order from Deyun Restaurant, she would be busy for a while after dinner.
Niu Qingshan came to help simply because he was worried that Pei Yao and the others would be too busy.
So Chen Fang led the group to the Black Coast.
When they arrived at the beach, it was just at low tide.
There weren't enough ropes for drying seaweed on the beach, so the three men from the Pei family, along with the other men in the crowd, went to the woods behind the beach to find kudzu vines to braid into ropes.
We plan to add a few more drying areas.
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