Cao'er's words reminded Lin Changfa and the others, and they all nodded: "Yes, this is the secret of our Lin family. We must not let outsiders spy on it and ruin our reputation."
Seeing them say this, Lin Rui could only compromise and say, "How about this? We build another house next to the tofu shop, move the stone mill from the current workshop there, and then hire workers to do the first step of making tofu, grinding the soaked beans into soy milk."
"This...!" Lin Changfa, Lin Changshou, Lin Changtai and others were still a little hesitant, mainly because they were scared by the method of growing bean sprouts last time, and they were determined to protect this technology at all costs.
He would rather his own family members be tired than pass on his skills to others.
Lin Rui said helplessly, "My dear uncles, if you know how to make tofu, it seems very simple. If you don't know, you won't be able to master it. Otherwise, why is it that after so many years of ruling the country, I am the only one who accidentally learned how to make tofu?"
"While tofu is selling well now and can make money for our Lin family, we must do everything we can to expand the scale and make more tofu to sell for more money. If we are timid, how can we make a fortune?"
"Just listen to me and start recruiting."
Lin Rui made the decision immediately after hearing this. If he didn't expand the business scale, he would not be able to keep up with the market demand. If he didn't make money, his parents would nag him again.
When the Lin Workshop announced it was hiring, the first to be alarmed were the neighbors. As the saying goes, not everyone has the courage to venture out into the world, especially women and children, for whom feudal ethics are particularly important. Furthermore, with the men still at home, how could they take the lead and make decisions?
Such a job opportunity is very rare. It is freezing cold today and the amount of relief food is limited. Everyone has tasted hunger enough while fleeing the famine and they don’t want to go hungry again. Now that there is a chance to work and earn money, everyone will rush to do it.
Feng Zhenniang and other female members of the Lin family became popular. Countless neighbors started chatting with them, praising them in their words, and their words revealed their desire to come and work in the workshop.
Feng Zhenniang raised her chin high, looking very proud and confident. "I can't make the decision on this. Rui Ge'er said that after the recruitment is confirmed, we will do something... something like an interview. Only those who meet the requirements can enter the workshop to work!"
Many people curiously ask: "What is an interview?"
Another group of people answered hesitantly: "It should be some kind of assessment."
In fact, even without saying anything about these neighbors, Lin Rui also planned to recruit workers nearby. Otherwise, the distance was too far and the time spent on the journey every day would be exhausting enough. Especially, grinding tofu is a physical job, and it is not easy to do mechanical movements all day long.
Even so, there was a constant stream of job seekers. Lin Rui hired dozens of people this time, and the expanded tofu workshop was more than five times larger than the previous one. During this period, he also rented planned land from a nearby neighbor.
The land in Huangmoguan was worthless these days, and with the heavy burden of clearing land, no one had the energy to build houses. Instead, every household built a thatched hut like the one in Lin Rui's workshop, which was lightweight and labor-saving. One or two small huts were just enough for a family to live in. The remaining large tracts of land suitable for courtyards and houses lay abandoned, becoming the land Lin Rui rented out.
Lin's workshop allocated two-fifths of the land for the large stone mill for grinding tofu. The men and women who were invited were all neighbors nearby, and most of them were people with difficult lives.
Not everyone who fled famine was as lucky as the Lin family, whose clan escaped completely without a single one left behind.
Just like what Lin Rui and others saw, countless people were fleeing from the famine, dying of starvation, thirst, bloating from eating Guanyin soil, or bloating from stomachs full of grass roots and tree bark. Among these dead people were fathers, mothers, and grandparents.
The youngest employee hired by Lin Rui is only fourteen years old, the same age as Lin Mu (Little Wood), but he has to shoulder the responsibility of supporting his younger siblings.
Lin Rui originally didn't want to use such a young child, but the child was very stubborn and he knelt down in front of Lin Rui to beg for mercy. He was not afraid of hardship or fatigue, as long as he could have enough food to eat and get paid.
Although he was the head of the household, he was too young to be an adult as required by the imperial court. The officials in charge of dividing the wasteland at Huangmo Pass could only give the three siblings one acre of land as a token of their appreciation. With the relief food, they estimated that they would not starve to death.
Not starving to death and having enough to eat are two different things. It is not so easy to feed three mouths with relief food. All they can do every day is cook porridge. It is freezing and snowy in Huangmo Pass at this time, and they can't even pick wild vegetables outside. His brothers and sisters are so hungry that their eyes turn black after walking a few steps. He is a little older and barely old enough to work. He insists on staying in the Lin family workshop so that he can find a way to survive for his brothers and sisters and himself.
Lin's Workshop provides three meals a day, which is rare even in Baituo Town. Most businesses only provide two meals a day at most.
Breakfast is bean dregs cake to fill everyone's stomach, noon is bean dregs cake and bean sprout meat soup, and dinner is multi-grain noodles and fried bean dregs. In short, bean dregs are indispensable for three meals a day.
Bean dregs, bean dregs, bean dregs. Now people who work in the Lin’s workshop feel sick when they hear the bean dregs. In fact, the Lin family is really a very good boss. There is flour in the bean dregs cakes, and oil is added when making the cakes. The meat in the bean sprout soup is all real. But even if you eat the Manchu Han banquet for a long time, you will get tired of it, not to mention the Lin family’s three meals a day.
Many workers would rather drink only some bean sprout soup at noon and then take the bean dregs cakes and bean dregs cakes home for their children to eat rather than eat them again.
Such good employee welfare benefits have made the work at Lin's Workshop very popular. Every day, the children of the employees look forward to the cakes their parents bring home when they come back from work.
Lin Rui had no choice. He couldn't let so much bean dregs go to waste. Now all the bean dregs were picked out and sold by the Lin family. They were very cheap, one penny for five pounds. It was considered a sell-off, but for poor families, these bean dregs became food for survival.
It’s not that they didn’t plan to sell bean dregs cakes in Baituo Town, but there was no market for them. Some of the people who fled to Baituo Town were pastry chefs in big restaurants and could make many delicious and sweet pastries. The desserts in Baituo Town were much better than bean dregs cakes in terms of taste and appearance. Although the price was much higher than that of bean dregs cakes, many people were willing to pay for them.
There is no way. The living standard in Baituo Town is much better than that in Huangmoguan. There is only a small market for bean dregs cakes in Huangmoguan. Many people also come to Lin's Workshop specifically to buy some bean dregs to make bean dregs cakes to sell, but the price of flour and salt is much higher than that of bean dregs and they cannot be sold at a high price.
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