Lili scratched her chin, "It shouldn't be, right?"
"It's alright, Second Brother is here, Uncle Liu will just help us spread the word."
Only then did the Yang family realize that the Shen family's carpentry business was booming, and they were even selling their products in the capital.
After a long silence, Madam Yang said to her husband beside her, "Old Master, the Shen family is probably about to rise in power."
Looking at the large group of people enjoying themselves, Old Master Yang said, "Since we're here, let's make the best of it."
Lili, the Crown Prince, the capital city.
The still pool in Yang Sizong's heart was rippled with waves.
Things are likely to change soon.
*
A few days later, Zhui Feng arrived with Xia Ning's letter, and also brought back an answer that Li Li had expected.
The person Liu's mother found—or rather, the person who approached Liu's mother—was indeed Pan Wei, who was hopeless about his future and unwilling to accept his fate.
However, Pan Wei was already on his way back to the capital, and he hadn't left any evidence of this. The people involved were all hired in Nanlin County, and Liu's mother had been silenced, leaving no way to verify the facts.
Gu Zi also wanted to hold Pan Wei accountable, but ultimately could not produce any solid evidence.
Lili didn't care much: "It's not that he won't be punished, it's just that his time hasn't come yet. Don't worry, he'll get his comeuppance in the future."
Lili was even more curious about how her 180 taels of silver had gone.
As Lili looked at Xia Ning's letter, Zhuifeng took out a picture album and two silver notes from his pocket, handed them to Lili, said goodbye, and rode away.
The total was 150 taels, which was the deposit from the six young ladies. Xia Ning also charged each person an additional 10 taels for transportation.
Lili was quite happy, having received an extra sixty taels.
Lili handed the picture album to Shen Lao Er, along with Xia Ning's letter.
The letter clearly stated the different requirements of the six people, including the type of pattern and the dimensions of the bed.
Shen Lao Er glanced at it and found that, apart from two beds for adults, the other dimensions were not much different from the finished size and only needed slight modifications.
Nowadays, apart from the necessary farm work and housework, the Shen family spends all their time making beds for Shen Lao Er.
Besides some intricate details, there are also things like the hand-held mechanism that require Shen Lao Er's personal supervision. Everyone helps with tasks such as cutting wooden boards and polishing them to a smooth finish. After so much time, the Shen family members have become skilled at these tasks and their speed has increased considerably.
A few days ago, Shen Lao Er even took some time to think about the wheelchair that Li Li mentioned. With Li Li's guidance, he actually came up with a rather rough one after a few days of thinking.
Today, the divine physician Sikong took Shen Jiaqing in a wheelchair to Liucheng to treat Old Madam Liu.
"Luckily, the two beds I made later were large ones, and two of them are actually for adults," Shen Lao Er said. "The other sizes are all pretty much the same, so they can be fixed with a little work. We can finish them today and start carving them tomorrow. It's just that some of the patterns are quite intricate, so they might take a few days. After carving, we can paint and glaze them, and then let them sit for two days to remove the odor. If we hurry, we should be able to load them onto the truck and send them to the capital before the autumn harvest."
Lili nodded and smiled, "No rush, no rush, the money is all here. We're not worried about losing customers. Ensuring quality is the most important thing."
Shen Lao Er nodded: "That's right, I'll go check it right away. If there are any oversights, there's still time to fix them."
After saying that, Shen Lao Er went straight to the backyard.
Lili then said to Shen Laoda, "I'll have to trouble you to make the trip yourself then, Uncle."
"We're all family, what's the trouble? Besides, our family pays the caravan, the brothers will definitely handle it well!"
"Uh-huh."
Just then, Old Man Shen and his third brother Shen returned from the fields with a few boys. Shen Jialuo, who couldn't keep a secret, shouted to Lili with a beaming smile as soon as he entered, "Little sister, you have no idea how well our fields are growing now!"
Lili looked up and saw that everyone's joy was overflowing, and they looked very excited.
“Yes, Lili, you don’t know, we haven’t been to the fields to check on the rice for a long time. When we went today, we were all stunned. The rice stalks were so heavy that they almost touched the ground!”
"Yes, yes, it wasn't even this good when the weather was good and the harvest was plentiful. There are so many people watching from the sidelines!"
"It must be Lili's methods that worked! Lili is amazing!"
Even the usually taciturn old man Shen smiled broadly. Although the Shen family no longer lacked food, the joy of a bountiful harvest was still what farmers looked forward to most.
He could already imagine the mountains of rice that would be piled up.
Lili was also very happy. To be honest, she hadn't seen the rice for a long time.
Moreover, her methods can only be described as intervention, and cannot be considered her contribution at all.
If we really want to say whose credit it is, it's probably the rice itself.
Lili smiled, her lips pursed. Everything in the family was going in a good direction, which was a wonderful thing.
Shen Jiahao gulped down a mouthful of water and wiped his mouth heartily: "The rice from other villages isn't bad either. The village chief said that among all the villages within a ten-mile radius, our Xinghua Village's rice grows the best!"
No one said why, but everyone knew why.
Lili nodded seriously: "Oh dear, it seems we need to move to a bigger yard to store our food?"
Shen Jialu asked, "Why? Is the previous courtyard no longer big enough?"
Lili shook her head: "No, it's just that Lili was thinking that we could take some of those vegetables and stuff and use them as seeds, so that we could keep having food."
Old Mrs. Shen nodded: "Lili is right. We still have land. Our family is a little richer now, but we can't be complacent. We still have to take precautions."
"I'll do whatever Mother says."
“Okay, I’ll ask the village chief in a few days to see if there’s any land left in the village that I can buy, and I’ll buy it all.”
Lili thought for a moment and said, "Grandma, how about... we just buy a manor?"
"Zhuangzi?"
In short, Zhuangzi was a huge farm. Smaller farms had hundreds or thousands of acres of land, while larger ones had thousands or even tens of thousands of acres.
However, such large estates are generally only owned by royalty and nobility; the estates of ordinary wealthy people are at most a few thousand acres.
The land in the village belongs to the owner, and the grain crops grown on that land naturally belong to the owner as well.
With such a large planting area, the grain produced is naturally used for selling in addition to supplying their own needs.
It can be said that, if managed properly, Zhuangzi is a business that guarantees profits.
But with huge profits come investments.
For example, farmers who cultivate the land in a village are called long-term laborers. Long-term laborers cultivate and manage the land for their masters, and the masters have to pay them wages, as well as provide them with three meals and lodging.
The larger the estate, the more long-term laborers it needs.
There's also the price. Estates are more expensive than small plots of land. A typical small estate of 500 mu would cost about 700 taels of silver.
If it's a farm with fertile land, then it will require even more, probably around nine hundred taels.
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