Chapter 107 Chapter 107 Lively Xiaofu
Wan Jiaren followed Kang He to the material field. At this time of year, the field was full of spices and fruits.
The green pepper seeds had a strong aroma, and the branches were bent down by the clusters of them, so abundant were they.
Although the merchants had seen these spice trees, they had never seen a field like this. The joy of this bountiful harvest was really heavy on their hearts.
He couldn't help but pick off a raw pepper and put it into his mouth. He felt the spicy smell hit his tongue, and soon his lips were numb and he almost lost his sense of taste.
He even said to Kang He, "This smells great! The fragrance is long-lasting, it must be good stuff."
Kang He smiled and said, "Brother Wan, you came at the right time. The spices are ripening a little later this year than last year. If they had ripened earlier last year, most of the good ones would have been picked and sold at the market by this month."
Wan Jiaren also hurried to Luan County. In previous years, he would arrive in Luan County much later than this year. It was because he was thinking about this spice business that he came earlier.
It was worth the trip, as he was very satisfied with the spices from the Fan family.
After seeing the goods, Wan Jiaren discussed the price with Kang He. He wanted to take these fresh spices out and head north as soon as possible, sell them along the way, and buy local specialties to resell to other places.
"Right now, the price of fresh green peppercorns in the city is three hundred coins, and wild peppercorns are three hundred and twenty coins. You can find out about this everywhere. With peace and prosperity in the country, people's lives are improving, and prices are rising. To be honest, Brother Wan, the price of these spices has increased by twenty coins compared to last year."
Kang He said, "Brother Wan has come all this way to buy goods, and he must think highly of me. I can offer a small discount, but I can't offer a high price. Spices are rare, and they're easy to sell in the city."
Although selling in bulk brings in quick profits and is more secure, spices are also easy to sell in the county town. It is a bit troublesome to sell them in bulk, but the price can still be raised.
If he sells a large quantity at one time just to save trouble, he will inevitably feel that he is at a disadvantage if he sells at a low price.
Merchants know that sellers now have high prices and have no worries about selling goods. They cannot get any good deal on the price, but instead have the intention of asking for help from others.
To facilitate this long-term transaction, he said, "Let's go by the market price in Luan County. Brother Kang is willing to leave such a good commodity to me. I am deeply grateful. How can I be a petty businessman and not show my sincerity?"
Seeing this, Kang He thought there was no point in saying anything else and agreed to the deal.
In order to keep the spices fresh and in a hurry, the Wanjia people brought a few people to pick the spices. Kanghe also taught Yihuan, Erxi and Lian Sige to help pick them.
Although the thorns on the spices were difficult to clean, fortunately there were many people and more than a dozen pairs of hands were busy, and all the spices were picked in just three or two hours.
Kanghe had half an acre of green pepper seeds, weighing 118 kilograms. Wanjia only asked for 30 kilograms of wild pepper. Wild pepper was difficult to preserve, and since it was their first year doing this business, it was better to be safe.
For merchants, spices that cost more than 300 coins per pound may not be a lot, but if you take into account the labor, travel expenses, and depreciation, the cost is still quite high.
After calculating in this way, Kang He sold spices worth 45 strings of cash.
Since people bought quite a lot, he also gave Wan Jia Ren four small bottles of mountain pepper oil, the same size as those used to hold medicinal oil.
This little pepper oil is quite expensive. After all, it is a high-quality oil extracted from fresh mountain pepper. A pound of fresh pepper can only be consumed in a small bottle that is slightly larger than a finger.
But Kanghe added a certain amount of vegetable oil, which not only retained the unique fragrance of the mountain pepper oil, but also made the taste just right.
That's how it is, a small bottle can be sold for five hundred dollars.
In addition, smoked goods from one or two families were also given as a gift, which also provided a cheap way for Wanjia people to eat and consume while traveling for business.
Wan Jia was grateful. He told Kang He that he would go out and open up sales channels today. If all went well, he would come back next year and take some spices and oil with him.
He also gave Kanghe a box of ginseng and a box of poria cocos.
The two sides have just said goodbye.
This time, he sold all the green peppers in one go. Those who had bought spices from him last year came to the shop to ask for them.
But I couldn't buy green pepper seeds, I could only buy mountain pepper.
Kang He felt that the spice business was very profitable, but unfortunately the money he had on hand was too tight.
He and Fan Jingge traveled around the countryside, collecting fresh peppers and selling them in the shop.
The profit from the difference in price is not much, and it is not for the sake of making a small profit, but to let people know that he still sells this spice at home.
Even if Wan Jia doesn't come next year, others will still remember that they sell these spices here.
Fresh mountain pepper is not as popular as green pepper seeds. When the fruits are ripe and can no longer be left on the tree, Kang He picks them all and sends them to the oil shop to be boiled and pressed into sesame oil.
They kept some for themselves in the shop to sell, and Kanghe displayed the rest in his own shop. He also kept some at home to give as gifts during festivals.
No matter whether they are rich or poor, they cannot do without three meals a day. For those wealthy families, they can consider it respectable if they pack two small bottles of spice oil.
This solved the problem of not knowing what gift to give to someone.
In early October, people were busy collecting crops and storing them in warehouses, and paying taxes.
Nowadays, farmers pay taxes based on their land, which can be divided into two types: one is to pay money, and the other is to pay property.
How to pay the money is that when the village head urges farmers to start farming in the early morning, they pay a tax of 1.5 kan per mu of land in advance as a buyout for the land tax this year.
The price is calculated based on about 30% of the annual output value of six strings of cash per mu of land.
After paying the money, the crops and grains grown during the year no longer had to be handed over to the government.
Another way to pay production is to pay 30% of the grain output at harvest time. No matter whether your crop yield is good or bad, you have to pay 30% of the total output.
Many farmers also chose the second option. Firstly, they were short of money during the spring sowing period and most of them could not afford the money. Secondly, farmers depended on the weather for their livelihood and no one knew whether the harvest would be good or bad this year.
If the harvest is very good, then it is worthwhile to pay the money in the spring. If the harvest is poor that year, then it will be a loss.
Most of the Fan family's land assets were paid in grain, but the spices they grew were paid in money.
Because there was no production in the first few years, they could not pay the taxes. If they had planted legitimate crops, the government would not blame them and would have given them some relief. However, there was no such preferential treatment for spices, and the government would not allow them to take advantage of loopholes.
But now that spices have been produced, the profits they can earn far exceed the amount of six strings of cash per mu of land. They pay taxes in money but not in kind, and their profits are very considerable.
However, some of the profits will have to be used as taxes paid in vain when there was no income in previous years.
The initial investment cost is quite high, so although this spice business has high profits, not many people are doing it.
One is the cost; the other is that in the early years, there was a lot of war and no farmer was willing to grow something that couldn't fill his stomach. Even those who had land and money didn't want to touch it.
But things have been different in the past two years. When Kang He and Fan Jing went out to slaughter pigs, they also met one or two families growing spices in other villages.
Only a few have been planted, and we are still in the trial and exploration stage.
Kanghe didn't know whether the tax laws in this area would be revised in the future, but it was always a good idea to make more money now.
In late winter, Xiaofu’s hundredth day celebration was held, and the Fan family also held a banquet.
The family hadn't had any big banquets that year, so they just held a nice one.
There were many people coming to the banquet from both the city and the countryside. Twenty tables had been prepared for Dafu’s hundred-day banquet, but they were not enough, so two more tables were added.
Now, after a few years, the number of families visiting their home has only increased rather than decreased compared to before, so Kang He prepared five more tables, for a total of twenty-five tables.
This time he got it right and was able to sit down.
"Look at this little guy, he looks just like Dajing."
Zhang Jingui, the eldest wife, was holding Xiaofu and chatting with a group of relatives.
"He's light, not as strong as Dafu."
Xiaofu spit out two bubbles of saliva. He saw that Zhang Jingui's face looked unfamiliar and the smell on her body was also rare.
He opened his cat's eyes and looked around curiously to see why there were so many people around him. After a moment, he burst into tears.
"Look at this child, so spoiled. Why is he crying when he's being held by a big breast?"
The nurse was heartbroken when she saw Xiaofu crying, so she wanted to take the child away from Zhang Jingui: "The child is a little shy, I will hold him and let everyone play with him."
Zhang Jingui refused to give Xiaofu to the wet nurse, saying, "It's not good for a child this age to be shy. Even if he's spoiled, he'll easily become a bad temper in the future. I'll hold him for a while longer and teach him to overcome his shyness."
After saying that, she sucked her lips to coax Xiaofu.
The wet nurse opened her mouth and said that it was not appropriate to tell the family's relatives about such a happy occasion, as it would make people feel that the child was so precious that he refused to let anyone hug him during the banquet.
She just watched anxiously.
When the relatives saw the child crying so hard, they all called Zhang Jingui to ask the wet nurse to take the child away, but she refused to listen and cheerfully told others that children just like to cry.
No one wanted to say anything to her, because everyone knew that she liked children, but she didn't have any at home.
When he goes out to play, he always wants to hold someone's child when he sees one, and is very affectionate, but he doesn't know the proper manners. Even if he makes the child cry, he won't give it to the other child's parents.
Whenever someone gets angry with her, she will say that the person is too petty and treats the child like a gold ingot, and that the child will be spoiled sooner or later.
Dafu, Shiwu, and a few other children of similar age from the same village were outside picking up duds for fun.
Hearing the child crying, Dafu pricked up his ears, suddenly dropped the dud in his hand, and ran to Zhang Jingui.
Seeing that Xiaofu's eyes were red from crying, he still happily hugged his big breasts and boasted about them to his relatives.
He raised his eyebrows and became angry: "Big Breast, my brother wants to sleep, let Madam Liu carry him back to the room to sleep."
"It's time to go to bed. You'll cry if you don't get enough sleep."
Seeing this, the wet nurse hurried to bring Xiaofu back. If Dafu had not come, she would have gone to find Fan Jingkanghe who was receiving guests.
The relatives couldn't help but laugh when they saw this: "Dafu even knows when his younger brother is sleeping. He really is like a big brother."
Dafu was not bothered by his relatives' flattery. He bowed and ran off to play.
Zhang Jingui felt uncomfortable for a moment when she saw that the two children from the second house were well-behaved, with crooked mouths and noses.
The days passed slowly, neither hurried nor slow, and two more years went by like this.
"Master's fortieth birthday party was a blast, even the county magistrate was showing his support. We're going to celebrate his birthday, are you really not going?"
"It was really hard for me to get this post. If I hadn't remembered all the kindness you've shown me, I would have sold it to someone else at a high price."
Kang He put a piece of spicy rabbit meat into his mouth, and smiled as he and Bao Sange poured a glass of wine.
"That lawyer and I have never had any friendship, so why should I join in the fun? Besides, a note costs twenty strings of cash, I can't afford this feast."
"I often think you're capable, but sometimes I also think you're a little inflexible. The county magistrate will be attending his banquet, and there will inevitably be many important people at the banquet. If you can get to know one or two of them, it will be a benefit that is worth more than twenty strings of cash."
Brother Bao San actually cares about Kang He sincerely. After getting along with him for a few years, he feels that this brother is kind and they get along very well.
"If I hadn't paid for the ticket, I would have given it to you for nothing."
"I appreciate Third Brother's kindness. But I really don't like this."
Kang He and Bao San Ge said, "Why don't you go with me to carefully look for a good shop. I'm going to get a suitable storefront to start another business."
Seeing that Kang He really didn't want the post, Brother Bao San sighed helplessly and didn't try to persuade him anymore.
Then he said to him, "I got some news a while ago. There are several good shops on South Street near the entrance of this place that are up for sale."
Kang He's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Are you talking about the three shops in front that dominate the street?"
"That's right. He's been locked up for some time. I heard it was the property of a big merchant from another county. It seems he committed a crime, and the property was confiscated. There's news that the house is going to be sold."
Bao Sange said, "The news isn't entirely accurate, so I'm telling you this in advance. If you're interested in that shop, prepare the money early. If you really want to take it out, there's no doubt someone will want it. It might not end up in your hands, but if you don't have the money, it definitely won't end up in your hands."
Kang Helian responded and poured another glass of wine for Bao Sange.
The two talked for a long time. Third Brother Bao walked out of Fan's shop carrying a piece of fresh pork, his face slightly flushed.
The weather was scorching, and Qiao'er went to Luo's house to find Zhen'er for some iced drinks. Zhu Hua, the shop assistant, took advantage of the lack of business at the moment and also made some stews in front of the He's shop.
Fan Jing did not take a nap. He sharpened all the knives used for slaughtering pigs at the back of the house and made them shiny.
He Xiaoqiu is about to give birth and her belly is very big. She has been taking care of her at home recently. Zhang Shili's heart is also very focused on her husband and child. He rarely comes to the shop on weekdays and only runs around outside to slaughter pigs.
The couple stayed in the shop for a while longer.
Kang He said to him, "This Third Brother Bao wants to invite me to his place again and have a meal at Master's house."
He took a dry towel and helped Fan Jing wipe the knife, which had just been sharpened and was still wet. "Remember one year there was a man in the county who passed the imperial examination and wanted to sell me his certificate. I heard a while ago that he had set up a private school and was looking to accept a few students. If I had gone to the celebration banquet, maybe I could have established a relationship and sent Dafu to study there."
Upon hearing this, Fan Jing said, "Master Ju doesn't accept ordinary students. How can it be that easy?"
"That's what I said. In the past two years, more and more families have been enrolled in schools. The schools are packed with students, and some prestigious teachers are charging exorbitant fees. Not only is the tuition high, but it also depends on the student's qualifications."
Even Fan Xin's private school, which only provided early childhood education, had many more students than before, and the classroom was packed.
Firstly, the world has been peaceful for a long time, the people have lived and worked in peace and contentment, they have more money, and they have more children. So, wouldn't there be more families with students going to school?
It is not easy to be Ju Ye's student.
Although they knew the reason, they were still moved after hearing what Third Brother Bao said. Dafu was willing to study, and as his father, they would definitely want to send him to a better place to study.
In the afternoon, I closed the shop and drove back home.
When they got home, Kang He was drenched in sweat. Just as he was about to take a shower with Fan Jing, a soft little figure jumped into his arms.
"Daddy, little daddy."
Kang He's expression softened as he bent down and picked up the little guy. "Have you been well behaved at home?"
Chen Sanfang chased him out of the house and saw that the kid had already jumped into his father's arms. He said angrily, "His ears are still fine. He was just pestering me to get his slingshot, but he disappeared the moment he turned his back.
Fortunately, I haven't heard of any kidnappers in the past few years. If it were Dafu, who is such a person, he might have been stolen by a kidnapper that year."
Seeing Xiaofu lying on Kang He's shoulder with his eyes rolling around, Fan Jing couldn't help but pinch the tip of his nose, and his eyes and brows became visibly softer.
"I don't know where he gets all that energy from. He refused to take his nap today. When Dafu came back and slept for a while, he crawled onto the bed and started fiddling around, so much so that Dafu didn't get even an incense stick of sleep. Look at what time it is now, and he's still so lively!"
When Chen Sanfang talked about Xiaofu, she was really both in love and annoyed. At the end of the day, Kanghe and Fan Jing would go home with endless complaints.
Kang He kissed Xiaofu on the cheek and said, "It's good for children to be lively. Look at Dafu, he was young and active two years ago. He has been studying all the time these past two years, so he wasn't lively to begin with, and now he's even less lively."
A few of them chatted and laughed as they carried Xiaofu into the house. After sitting and playing for a while, Kang He said he was going to take a shower, but he heard Fourth Brother Lian come in and say that Xu Yang was here.
Fan Jing went to hold Xiaofu in his arms. The little guy was really active and didn't stay still in his arms. He wanted to touch Fan Jing's mouth and his ears.
After a while, he lay on my shoulder and bit my ear, but he knew not to use much strength, but he just loved biting people's ears.
"How do you get time to come here?"
Xu Yang walked into the house, gulped down a bowl of tea, and sat down on a chair. "It's not a big deal, but it's still a bit serious."
Kang He said, "Why keep it a secret? It's both important and unimportant."
"Haven't these two brats been studying at Daxin's school for two or three years? A while ago, my father came to visit and questioned them about their studies. He said they were quite good at studying. Daxin also said that among all the children he taught, these two brats were the most diligent and intelligent."
Xu Yang said, "My father and grandfather mean that the child is now seven or eight years old and should be taken to the city to be well educated. He has some talent and should not let it go to waste."
"Daxin's teaching isn't bad, but he only teaches the basics. If the child wants to go out into the world, that little knowledge won't be enough."
"My family's been urging me to come back, and I've got some free time today, so I came over to talk to you two and see what your plans are."
When Kang He heard that Xu Tongsheng had questioned the two children about their academic performance and that they were good, he felt very happy.
"Xu Tongsheng wants both children to study under Master Xu?"
"They've been inseparable since they were little, studying together and encouraging each other. My father and grandfather love them so much, there's no reason not to send them to the same school."
Kang He said, "I have discussed this with Da Jing and have considered sending him to the city to study. However, we don't have a house in the city yet, and if the child has to go to school every day, winter and summer, it would be too hard."
Xu Yang said, "Why are you so anxious to buy a house in the city? You have to take your time to find a good one. It's hard to find a good one in a hurry. Dafu is a sensible and obedient child. It wouldn't be a problem if he lives with my father."
"How can that be done? Wouldn't that be too much trouble for your family?"
"What's the trouble? It's more fun with two kids."
Kang He was worried about causing trouble for the Xu family, and secondly, "If these two children live together, they might end up playing together. Well, let's all discuss how to arrange Dafu's studies."
Xu Yang replied, "Of course I should. Anyway, if you're not willing to trouble our family, and if the child doesn't have a suitable place to stay, feel free to send him to our house."
Kang He smiled and thanked Xu Yang for his kindness. Since their relationship was too close, they didn't want to be overly polite.
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