In the afternoon, thanks to Da Ya and the others' promotion, a lot of children gathered in front of the Chen family's house.
Seeing that more and more people were gathering at the entrance, Chen Kai told everyone to gather in the open space at the village entrance, and then told Daya to wait at home. If any more children came, he told them to go to the village entrance.
Half an hour later, more than fifty children had gathered at the village entrance. The oldest was about seven or eight years old, and the youngest was only two or three years old. They were all thin and sallow, dark-skinned, wearing patched clothes, and some even had snot running down their noses and were filthy.
Although Chen Kai and Xiao Tian knew there were many children in the village, they still didn't expect so many children to come.
At the village entrance, many adults were watching the commotion. When they heard that the Chen family was going to use candy to hire children to pick flowers, they found it very funny and exclaimed how much the Chen family spoiled their children, actually letting several kids buy so much candy to hire them to pick flowers.
Although the villagers all thought Chen Kai and his group were making a fool of themselves, no one came out to stop them. Most of the villagers were just watching the spectacle. The parents of the children who were chosen felt that their children couldn't do much work at home, but they would get candy for working for the Chen family, and they would also have to watch over their children. If anything happened, they would go after the Chen family.
Seeing that almost everyone had arrived, Chen Kai told Xiao Tian to quickly quiet everyone down.
As the number of children increases, and they are all at an active and energetic age, the children are becoming increasingly noisy, chattering like a flock of little ducks.
Seeing this, Xiao Tian stood up and shouted loudly, "Quiet down, everyone. Next, I'll talk about how we're going to distribute the candy."
After hearing Xiaotian's shout, the older children quieted down, and the younger children, seeing that no one else was talking, also quieted down. If they kept talking, they wouldn't get any candy.
Once everyone had quieted down, Xiao Tian continued, "I've already told you all before that if you work for us, we'll give you one piece of candy a day. But not everyone gets one piece of candy. You only get one piece of candy if you follow our instructions and collect a certain quantity and type. Otherwise, you'll only get one piece of candy every two days."
"Alright, that's all for now. I'll let you know if there are any other rules later. Everyone who wants to participate, please raise your hand. I'm going to start calling on people. If anyone has any questions, please raise your hand again." Xiao Tian paused, took a breath, and continued.
There are many children in the village, but Chen Kai has never played with most of them, so he doesn't have much of an impression of them.
After Xiaotian finished calling out names, many children immediately raised their hands to ask questions.
Xiao Tian chose a child who looked a little older and asked him to ask a question. The child asked loudly, "Xiao Tian, I also have to help with chores at home, so I might not be able to pick many flowers in a day. How should that be calculated?"
Xiao Tian said, "You don't need to worry about that. Every day after we finish picking flowers, if we don't have enough to give you a piece of candy, we will record it. You can pick for a few days, and when you reach a certain amount, we will give you candy."
After hearing what Xiaotian said, the child had no more questions, and many people also put down their hands, as it seemed that they had the same question.
Next, Xiao Tian called on a few more children to ask questions, and Xiao Tian explained and answered each one. After that, no one raised their hand anymore, as everyone's questions seemed to be similar.
Seeing that no one raised their hand, Xiao Tian said, "It seems that no one has any questions. Now I have a few rules for everyone to follow."
Children are easily distracted, so rules must be set to restrain them. They cannot be allowed to do whatever they want, picking a little here and a little there. Three rules must be agreed upon first to ensure their safety and to be more efficient.
Xiao Tian continued, "First, when picking flowers, you must listen to us and not pick them randomly, otherwise we won't accept them. Second, when picking flowers, don't go to dangerous places. If there are any other issues that require new rules, I will add them later."
"Alright, that's all for now. If there are no problems, everyone should go home and get baskets, sickles, or other tools for picking flowers. We'll meet here again later and set off to pick flowers together."
Upon hearing what Xiaotian said, everyone rushed home to get their tools. Seeing the children disperse, the adults also went home to work.
After everyone left, Er Ya asked worriedly, "Was there too many people? Do you have that much candy?"
Chen Kai said with a smile, "Er Ya, don't worry, we'll definitely earn back the money we spend now. As for the candy, the one we bought last time can last for two more days. Tonight I'll ask my sister-in-law to help me, and she can buy some more candy when she comes back from selling tofu in town tomorrow."
Xiao Tian chimed in, "That's right, Er Ya, don't worry, we'll definitely make money."
Chen Kai thought to himself that these people were just the beginning. Once they made money, they would definitely hire more people. He was confident that he would succeed. Back in his modern days, he had an older sister who liked making these kinds of things for a while, and Chen Kai had learned a lot of production techniques and methods from her.
Many kinds of flowers can be dried in modern times, such as buttercups, globe amaranth, baby's breath, ferns, golden balls, silver leaves, roses, eucalyptus leaves, lavender, jasmine, etc.
During his time in Anping Village, Chen Kai saw many kinds of flowers that could be made into dried flowers.
Many flowers haven't bloomed yet, but they can try it out with some wildflowers and plants first to see if they can succeed and what conditions are needed to make dried flowers.
Before long, the children who had just run home ran back again, each carrying a basket on their back. However, few of them carried sickles. In this era, few families had spare tools for their children to play with.
After everyone had arrived, Chen Kai counted and there were about thirty children left. Chen Kai and Xiao Tian then called everyone to set off.
As this large group of children walked together, they attracted the attention of many people working in the fields, who asked them what the group of children were going to do.
The children chattered excitedly, saying, "Let's pick flowers and exchange them for candy."
As soon as they reached the foot of the mountain, Chen Kai saw a large patch of flowers. He then asked one of the older children to lead a few of the younger children to pick the flowers. He instructed them to tie the same flowers together with a blade of grass so that they wouldn't have to pick them out later.
After giving instructions to several people, Chen Kai led the rest of the group to continue up the mountain.
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