Of the remaining three, two were men and one was a boy who was only eight or nine years old, which was not appropriate for the occasion.
The other one was a widower, and Ah Mian looked miserable.
Finally, only a kind-looking old woman remained. Her hands were deeply lined, and she was very thin, but her clothes and trousers were still relatively clean, showing that she was skilled at housework.
The woman identified herself as Liu Xiufang, 54 years old. She used to manage the household affairs, but now that her grandchildren have grown up, she is looking for work.
"Just give me whatever you think is fair about my monthly allowance, as long as I have enough to eat. If I'm old and still alive, I'll be a burden on my family, and if I live any longer, I'll be dragging down my children's good fortune... Young lady, to be honest, I've suffered my whole life, and I'll definitely work like a slave for you. Please, have mercy on me!"
As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes.
Imagine you're happily dancing in the square outside, but when you get home, your son's family is already eating. So you grab a small bowl and huddle in the kitchen eating plain rice with soy sauce. No matter how much your son, daughter-in-law, grandson, or granddaughter try to persuade you, you just won't sit down to eat. When you finally return to the guest room feeling wronged, you pick up your phone and start listening to free audiobooks.
The next second, somehow they found themselves in this strange place.
After two whole months of eating only bran and wild vegetables, you'll definitely be in tears.
Liu Xiufang used to never read novels. She was not very literate and only attended the first grade of the village primary school.
She heard from someone that there was something on this phone, similar to an old-fashioned radio, that could earn money while listening to stories, so she asked her granddaughter to help her download it.
I was immediately captivated by it.
Previously, she enjoyed listening to a type of story called "Old Lady Stories." Although she thought that protagonists in their forties or fifties weren't that old, and that it was seventy or eighty who should be called old ladies, the plot of these stories was generally that an old lady had worked hard for half her life, only to be swindled out of her property by her unfilial children and grandchildren, who then drove the protagonist out of the house, leaving the old lady with no way to live and causing her to die a miserable death.
Then, of course, comes rebirth.
The old lady who returns to the past can make up for her regrets, severely punish and educate her unfilial children and grandchildren, and at the same time lead the whole small family to prosper and live a good life.
However, Liu Xiufang didn't connect the plot of the story with the strange world she lived in at all.
Those are all things in a play; you can't take them for real.
In this strange world, she had three sons and two daughters, all of whom were married. The three sons were blaming each other. The eldest son said that his mother always loved the youngest the most and gave the youngest the most compensation when the family divided the property. The second son said that he was not the eldest. The youngest son said that it was the tradition in the surrounding villages that the eldest son supported his mother.
Every family says the same thing in front of others during the day.
He secretly guarded against her, even locking up an egg in the cupboard.
Liu Xiufang almost starved to death.
Her legs were so weak that she had no choice but to come out and find work. If A-Mian didn't want her, she probably wouldn't be able to make it through the winter.
"Seven hundred or five hundred coins a month is fine."
This is indeed much cheaper than hiring a kitchen helper on the market.
Amian thought for a moment and said, "I'll work for a month as a trial. The pay is 700 coins, and if I do well, it'll be 800 coins a month. Lunch will be provided."
The first time I hired someone, I signed an employment contract with the broker as a witness. After agreeing that he would start work the next day, I paid him one hundred coins as commission.
With helpers available the next day, Ah Mian's life became much easier.
Liu Xiufang was very efficient; she did everything well, from greeting customers to serving dishes and washing tables. A-Mian only needed to cook and collect money, which improved efficiency and allowed the stall to sell an extra 10 to 20 bowls a day, which was quite considerable.
Although she only runs a small stall, she already earns more money in a month than the blacksmith shop does.
Although iron tools are valuable, a forged iron pot or a purchased sickle is something that is passed down from father to son and from son to grandson. As long as it is not broken, it can be used for at least three generations.
The demand is relatively fixed to some extent; there are only so many people around here.
Ah Mian's tofu pudding stall already has a very regular customer base who go there every few days to have a bowl.
However, Ah Mian had really lost a lot of weight recently, and now she could finally rest for a while. After finishing her work for lunch, Ah Mian and Aunt Liu packed up the stall together. Then she put the money box into her small bundle, put on a new money box, roughly counted and estimated how much food was left, and then ran to the blacksmith shop for a midday rest.
During this period when there were few customers, Aunt Liu would make her own tofu pudding and rice.
Ah Mian wasn't the kind of employer who treated his employees harshly. She told Aunt Liu to add whatever ingredients were available at the stall to her own food, as long as she could finish it without wasting any.
Of course, one reason she could do this was that Aunt Liu's wages were lower than the market rate (one tael of silver). These two or three hundred coins were enough to order twenty bowls of deluxe tofu rice at A-Mian's stall.
Therefore, neither side suffered a loss in this exchange, and both sides even felt that they had actually gained something.
"Aunt Liu, you watch the stall here for a while, I'll come back later."
A-Mian ran into the blacksmith shop in the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn. Meng Chijian took her bundle and said, "Slow down, the starving ghost has been reincarnated."
"I've been eating tofu pudding rice for a month now, and I have no appetite for it anymore. Hey, where's Tiger today?"
"There's not much work to do these days, so let him stay home and help his dad dry the grain."
Amian looked around. Meng Chijian put her money box in the cabinet. In the afternoon, he would take it along with the silver from the blacksmith's shop to the money shop to exchange for silver.
Currently, their money is effectively mixed together.
Firstly, we can't let A-Mian always carry money to the money shop to exchange for silver, for fear that someone will be envious of her booming business and set their sights on her; secondly, now that A-Mian can keep accounts, she knows how many bowls she sells each day and how much money she makes.
The family's silver was kept by the strong and healthy Meng Chijian, who specially made a small, thin-skinned iron box for it.
On a dark and windy night, the two hid two gold ingots in the ground under the chicken coop in the backyard.
Although Meng Chijian was in charge of the family finances, A-Mian was initially worried that he would spend money recklessly again, so she would check the two ledgers from time to time.
In fact, ever since she thought she was pregnant and the two of them had a false alarm, Meng Chijian has become much more stingy.
We no longer work and spend on the same day.
Daily expenses were about fifty coins, mainly for the family's groceries, snacks, and so on.
“However, if we earn too much in the future, there’s a large money exchange in Zhoucheng where we can deposit our money. I heard that it not only protects our principal but also gives us extra interest every year,” Meng Chijian said to his little money god.
The little God of Wealth was skeptical, his eyes already glancing at the vegetable basket: "But what if they run off with our money? It's better to hide it at home."
"Um."
He was worried that if Ah Mian became extremely wealthy one day, his family would definitely not be able to hide ten thousand taels of gold.
Meng Chijian took out lunch from the vegetable basket, which contained stewed rabbit meat with potatoes, stir-fried edamame, stir-fried celery with dried tofu, and three steamed buns. "Xiao Jing brought this specially, eat up."
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