Shuiqing was counting her money at home again.
The piglets were sold for 800 coins each, and the lambs for 200 coins each. The prices were not expensive, and were even considered cheap in Guangning Prefecture. The women in the village thanked them repeatedly, believing that the woman was being so generous because she was looking out for fellow villagers.
She actually had ulterior motives.
She looked down on the money from selling livestock. She had never thought of making money by selling livestock before, and now that she had a stable source of income from the herbal medicine shop, she was even less likely to get rich through that.
She started raising livestock simply to improve her family's diet and give them a reason to eat fresh meat anytime.
Raising livestock is a tedious and laborious task, but the money earned is not much, meaning the profit margin is small and it is not worth spending a lot of manpower.
She sells them at affordable prices, and most importantly, she wants to encourage villagers to raise livestock, even if each household only raises a few head. With more than 30 households, that's over a hundred head!
How much wool can hundreds of livestock provide? And if all of these hundreds of livestock were raised by the family, how much land would be needed? How many houses would need to be built? Most importantly, how many people would need to be hired to feed them properly?
But it's different when it's scattered throughout the village. Since everyone in the family is involved, things like cutting pig feed and herding sheep are things that even the children in the family can do. It's like everyone in the family is using their skills.
The livestock are mainly sold for meat, with fur accounting for a very small percentage. Since they are all young animals bought from her, it would be mutually beneficial for her to buy fur back from them.
Shui Qing happily finished counting the silver and had just put it away when Fan Jin walked in.
Her fair face showed a slight hesitation, clearly indicating that she had something to say.
Shui Qing took the initiative to ask, "What is it?"
Fan Jin looked over with his dark eyes, and his words clearly carried a tone of discussion: "My original plan was to start teaching the village children after the school was built and the harvest season was over. However, a few days ago, when I went to the city, many men in the village were injured. I thought that these children could help with chores at home, so I planned to start teaching them after the injured men recovered."
Shui Qing listened attentively and nodded.
Children from poor families mature early. Except for a few particularly spoiled children, most of them are used as adults by their teens, and by nine they can be used as half adults. Even six- or seven-year-olds can go up the mountain to dig wild vegetables and pick mushrooms, go to the field to put potato chunks, and take care of their younger siblings.
They can help their families in some way, no matter what.
"I went to the village this afternoon to find the old village chief and learned that most of the men in the village had gone to a distant place to cut down trees and many had gone up the mountain to carry stones to use as desks and chairs. They were able to purchase a small portion of them today, and in another two or three days they would be able to purchase all of them."
They were more eager for the children to learn to read than I had thought, so I was wondering if we should officially begin in four days?
"Okay, you can decide on the teaching." Shuiqing felt that she had no experience in what to teach or how to teach, so she couldn't help with these things and had to listen to him.
After all, Fan Jin would become a high-ranking official later in life, roughly equivalent to the head of the provincial education department in China.
Consider this a good opportunity to practice and gain experience so that you won't be out of touch with reality later and can instead act based on facts and reality.
Fan Jin pursed his lips, somewhat reluctant to speak: "The old village chief and the others have already solved the problem of tables and chairs, and paper as well—they make paper while using bluestone slabs as desks, and use tree branches as pens, dipping them in water to write on the bluestone slabs."
However, writing with twigs is different from writing with a brush; I was wondering if I could…
Shui Qing understood. No wonder Fan Jin wanted to discuss this with her, who knew nothing about calligraphy. He wanted to buy calligraphy brushes through the shopping mall.
Thinking about it, it makes sense. In the prefectural city, a calligraphy brush costs at least 150 coins, and even a substandard one costs 120 coins. In the shopping mall, a calligraphy brush costs around 9.90 coins!
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