Chapter 531 Plan
After the group settled down, Mr. Zhuang was not in a hurry to take them out. Instead, he kept the three of them in the residence and watched them read while they rested.
Daji stayed at home to take care of them, while Zhou Silang took some dried ginger and Ligustrum lucidum out. When he came back, he bought a lot of rice, flour and vegetables.
He used the money that everyone paid to him.
Zhou Silang also knew how to keep accounts, but his memory wasn't as good as Manbao's. So when he got back to his place, he put down his things and went to find Manbao. After getting a pen from her, he wrote down the accounts. Then he said, "Okay, eating out is too expensive. I've bought rice, flour, oil, salt, and today's dishes. Let's go cook."
Everyone in the study looked up at him.
Zhou Silang met their gaze, and directly ignored Mr. Zhuang. After looking at the three children, he decisively looked away and looked at Daji.
The two stared at each other, and Daji couldn't avoid it, so he said, "I can't."
Zhou Silang didn't expect that he not only had to buy rice and vegetables, but also had to cook. He widened his eyes, sighed for a long time, stood up and said, "Okay, I'll go."
Manbao was very worried, "Fourth brother, can you do it?"
"At least I did it, did you?"
Manbao shook her head and said that she only knew how to light the fire. She had parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, and nephews and nieces at home, so why would she be needed?
So she doesn't even know how to wash rice or cook, but she can light a fire!
So Manbao put down his pen and said, "Fourth brother, let me help you light the fire."
"Okay, go study. I'm not like my sister-in-law, who's busy cooking and frying things. I can do it on my own."
I don’t know why, but everyone felt a little nervous when they heard his words.
Zhou Silang rolled up his sleeves and went to the kitchen. Soon, smoke began to rise from the kitchen.
Zhou Silang knows how to cook. As for cooking, all the children in the Zhou family know how to cook, except Manbao.
Because housework is passed down from the older to the younger, Zhou Silang's first housework was to light the fire. Once he became good at it, all the cooking work was his.
When Zhou Wulang grows up a little, he will hand over this glorious job to him, and then he will wash the dishes, sweep the yard and feed the chickens...
It was not until the brothers had taken turns and Datou and the others were six or seven years old that these tasks were handed over.
As for cooking, he did cook occasionally.
For this thing, boil water, cook the meat, then pour in the vegetables, add some oil and salt, and it's done when it's cooked, right?
Anyway, my sister-in-law has always done this.
Zhou Silang made two dishes, meat stewed with wild vegetables and meat stewed with cabbage.
He placed two pots of food in the middle of the table, took out the steamed rice, and called everyone, "Come and have lunch."
Bai Shanbao looked at the two dishes in the middle and felt hesitant to eat them.
Manbao was not picky about food. He served rice to everyone, picked up his chopsticks and looked at his husband, waiting for him to start eating.
Mr. Zhuang picked up a piece of food with chopsticks, and everyone started eating quietly.
Although Zhou Silang's food was not bad, it was not delicious either, so everyone was very restrained in their appetites at noon today.
After finishing the meal, Bai Shanbao suggested, "Let's hire a cook."
Zhou Silang asked, "How much does it cost to hire a cook?"
Everyone looked at Mr. Zhuang.
Mr. Zhuang said, "I don't know."
Everyone looked at Daji.
Daji thought for a moment and said, "This is Yizhou City, maybe it's a little more expensive. Five hundred coins a month should be fine, right?"
Zhou Silang calculated the cost and immediately refused, "No, that won't work. Even if we hire a cook, we'll still have to buy rice, flour, oil, salt, etc. We might as well eat out."
He counted on his fingers and said, "A dish with sliced meat on it costs no more than twelve wen at most. A hundred wen a day is more than enough. I have to hire a cook and provide her with food and drink."
"Okay, then we'll eat out from now on. There are many restaurants nearby. We can have food delivered to our door, or we can buy it here and bring it back." Mr. Zhuang didn't want to let his stomach suffer.
Zhou Silang felt quite sorry and asked Manbao behind his back, "Are the dishes I cooked really not tasty? I thought they were quite delicious."
"Everyone feels this way when eating their own food. My second sister-in-law doesn't think her food is that bad."
Zhou Silang: "...So tell me, is my cooking unpalatable, or is my second sister-in-law's cooking unpalatable?"
Manbao thought for a moment and said, "It's about the same. Second sister-in-law's is a little bit worse."
Zhou Silang breathed a sigh of relief, "Then we can still eat it. Really, you guys have too much money to burn."
However, since five out of the six people in the group agreed, he had no choice but to agree.
After lunch, everyone went back to their rooms to rest, and Zhou Silang followed Manbao to her room.
Including the main room, there are seven rooms in total. The main room is in the middle. Mr. Zhuang lives in the room facing south, and the one facing north is used as a study. The light there is particularly good and it is spacious. Mr. Zhuang moved four tables from other rooms in, so everyone can study together in it.
As for the remaining four rooms in the east and west wings, the three children each occupied one room, while Zhou Silang and Daji shared a room.
Zhou Silang entered Manbao's room carrying a cloth bag, shook it, and said cheerfully, "Guess what's in this?"
"Copper coins, I heard the ringing." Manbao took it, opened the bag, and asked in surprise, "Did you get it from selling medicine?"
"Yes, I sold all the privet fruit and dried ginger I brought out, but the pharmacy doesn't like to accept silver payments, so they all pay in copper coins." Zhou Silang said, "I thought that the things we'll buy next time will be small, and copper coins will be more used, so I took them all."
“Do they charge high prices?”
"The price of Ligustrum lucidum is three cents higher than what Manager Zheng is giving us now, and the price of dried ginger is two cents higher." Zhou Silang said, "Don't underestimate the fact that it's only two or three cents more per pound. We have plenty of these two things, especially since we planted more than forty Ligustrum lucidum trees last spring. By next autumn and winter, these trees will also produce Ligustrum lucidum.
At the beginning of this spring, they cut more than 30 branches from the privet trees and planted them. They estimated that about 20 of them would survive...
Therefore, the amount of Ligustrum lucidum in their family will only increase. A pound of Ligustrum lucidum is three cents more expensive in Yizhou than in Luojiang County. How much more money can a truckload of Ligustrum lucidum bring in?
Isn't it true that little by little, it adds up to a lot?
Not to mention dried ginger. This year they persuaded their father to use the two plots of land in Xiaoling to grow ginger.
In fact, the harvests from those two plots of land were limited. They harvested very little from growing beans, but since the soil there was relatively sandy, it was perfect for growing ginger.
So wherever there is new ginger, the few ginger plots already available at home can be used to plant old ginger, which can then be dried and sold to pharmacies. The price is higher than that of Ligustrum lucidum.
Zhou Silang took out all the copper coins from the bag and gave them to Manbao, saying, "Keep this money and settle the accounts with your parents when you get home."
Manbao accepted the money. Who is the best and safest at hiding money?
Then it has to be her.
The next chapter will be around 6 p.m.
(End of this chapter)
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