Chapter 86
"Oh, the teahouse is so lively today. Madam Xu, why don't you go over and see what's going on today?"
Liu Xianglan went out early in the morning with her basket and met several villagers walking towards the tea stall along the way.
The guesthouse over there at the tea shed opened today, and all the idle folks wanted to go over and take a look. Liu Xianglan loves to join in the fun, so she would definitely go, but she was also rushing to the Fei family to look after Xu Shaochun.
Now she has an eldest grandson and her daughter is in confinement. She is afraid that Fei's mother will not be willing to take care of her and Xu Shaochun may not be well taken care of and suffer from a chronic illness. Fei Lian is also in the private school and not at home, so her mother's family will have to worry about her.
"Aunt Qiu, you go ahead. I'll be there later."
The woman was pulling a three or four-year-old child, and was a little disappointed that she didn't find a companion, but she didn't say anything in the end: "I heard the sound of firecrackers, so I'll go first."
The Tangjiaba watermelon orchard is open for business. An announcement was posted in the city a long time ago, and people were asked to pass the message on. Today, many people came to the city for outings.
The sedan chair, horse carriage and horse riders came out of the city and stopped at the tea stall to rest. At the end of the morning hour, more than ten horse-drawn carriages were parked on the open space on the other side of the tea stall. The business in the tea stall was booming, and while taking a break, one could visit the small stalls next to it.
Whether they rented stalls to sell fruits or cold drinks, they all shouted loudly to attract customers. Representatives from each village were even more active, handing out brochures to passers-by, trying their best to introduce their own villages.
Xu Heqing came in the morning, and the two children were placed in the pavilion in the middle of the guest house to watch the big koi, and Wen Zi was asked to watch over them. Xu He had to greet the customers on one hand, and collect the rent for the stall on the other. Just like in Tian Street, the rent was ten cents a day.
The villagers thought the price was too high and tried to bargain with him, so Xu He filed a price lawsuit against them.
I've been talking all morning and my mouth is dry. It's even hotter in the hot summer.
Zhang Fangyuan was even busier as he had to manage the horse-drawn carriages and donkeys coming from the city. If the servants of these wealthy families were not careful, they would park their carriages and horses randomly, which would not only take up a lot of space, but also cause the horses to be frightened and might even hit people if there were too many people. Therefore, he had to go and maintain order with a fierce look on his face.
"It seems from the map that there are quite a few places to have fun."
"That's right. You can stay in our guesthouse for two days. Go to Tangjiaba to pick winter melons today. There is a melon-eating competition there today. You can go and have a look. Have fun for a few hours and then come back. Have dinner in the guesthouse to escape the heat. We have special dishes at this time. For example, cold-mixed winter melon, spicy and sour winter melon, fried winter melon cakes, stewed chicken with winter melon, stewed pork ribs with winter melon..."
The guy was drooling as he was talking about the San Di Jing, so he stopped in time and said, "You can go to the Guanyin Temple to burn incense tomorrow. I heard that Master Baozhen and Master Qingyun are both in the Guanyin Temple recently, so it's okay not to burn incense and tell fortunes. After burning incense, you can also go to the Xinlong Tea Farm. Although the tea leaves have been picked up at this time, the scenery on the top of the mountain is very beautiful. After returning, you can go to Jijiu Village to enjoy the green mulberry pond and fish on the stone platform. Isn't it beautiful."
Several young men from the city sat together: "It's a lively arrangement, with plenty of food. Can we go there on horseback?"
"The road is wide and you can ride a horse. As long as you go to the village and the horse doesn't trample the crops, you can go there."
Several city folks were tempted by what he said, and the waiter immediately took them upstairs to see the room.
The scholars who came were immediately attracted by the wine flowing down the winding stream in the courtyard. They ordered a few dishes of food, ate some cold melon, and did some summer exercises. Soon the atmosphere became lively.
"There are so many tourists in Tangjiaba this year. Fruit trees are still popular. Sometimes we grow loquats, sometimes winter melons, and soon there will be bayberries. Every household is making a lot of money. Even Hongshi Village, which was the first to attract tourists, can't compare to it."
"Hongshi Village is suitable for spring and autumn outings, but other seasons are certainly not as good as Tangjiaba."
"All three villages have made things to attract tourists, but our village is not making any money right now. I think growing winter melons would be better than what we have now. We insist on planting mulberry trees and digging fish ponds. Do you think anyone is buying it now?"
Several villagers from Jijiu Village gathered around a table outside the tea shed, drinking some tea and watching the excitement over there, feeling a little uncomfortable.
"If you say Zhang Fangyuan allowed our village to do all those things just for his own guesthouse, look, waves of tourists are flocking to his guesthouse. The Zhang family is making a lot of money."
"Well, each has his own profit."
Business was good on the opening day of the inn. More than half of the twenty rooms were occupied, with only four or five left.
At night, some people eat at the guesthouse, and some eat at the teahouse. There are kitchens on both sides.
With more guests this morning, the jar dishes made by Xu He came in handy.
Previously, a row of shelves were set up against the wall of the tea shed, and the jars of vegetables were placed side by side on the shelves. They could be seen when entering the tea shed, serving as decoration.
As people lead a prosperous life, they also tend to love elegance and seek to make everything pleasing to the eye. The tea shed has been constantly being tidied up and decorated over the past two years. It is not as luxurious as those in the city, but it has the characteristics of the neighboring village.
Nowadays, visitors from the city ask about everything strange they see.
"They are all homemade local dishes. They are also on the menu. If you like them, you can open a jar and try them."
The guests from the city looked at the dazzling array of jar dishes on the menu and wanted to try them all, so Xu He took out a large flower plate and took out all the jar dishes one by one and put them on the plate, so that the amount of each dish was not too much and they could still taste the flavor of each dish.
"wonderful!"
Xu He cut another two-dish plate, salted duck eggs and preserved eggs.
The tourists from the city kept pestering Xu He to explain the jar vegetables, so he simply sat down and talked to the tourists a few more words: "The jar vegetables can be stored for a long time. They were originally used as food for travelers on long journeys. Peddler passing by like to buy a jar to eat on the road. It tastes better when sandwiched between steamed buns, flatbreads, or steamed breads."
"It's not easy to make a living on the road. Eating jar vegetables can make the food taste better and also keep the heart of the hometown in mind, right?"
"Although this dish is made for convenience, it tastes just as good as freshly cooked side dishes." The man, who prided himself on being elegant and knowledgeable about life, fanned himself and said, "I'll take two jars back with me when I return to the city tomorrow."
"Brother Yun, wouldn't it be good to prepare two altars when you are taking the exam?"
"That's very true."
Seeing that everyone at the table was chatting and laughing, Xu He left and started to entertain other guests.
He found that the guests from the city were different from those from the village. Those from the city liked wild vegetables when they came to the teahouse, and jar dishes like wood ear mushrooms and bamboo shoots were very popular.
Ordinary people and villagers like to eat good food when they come here, such as braised food, fried meat, chicken, duck and so on.
Fortunately, these tea stalls have them.
After a busy day, Zhang Fangyuan and Xu He finished their work only when the moon was rising high in the sky.
After having dinner in the teahouse, the two kids played in the empty room of the guest house for more than an hour and are now fast asleep in the guest house.
The couple each held one, stuffed the little ones into the carriage, and pulled them back together.
After returning home and settling the children, Zhang Fangyuan and Xu He did not sleep either. They lit the lamp and spread out the account book to do the accounts.
A lot of money has been spent on building guest houses and teahouses in the past two years, with the investment alone amounting to hundreds of taels of silver. Fortunately, the shops in the city were doing good business, and the incense chips were very popular with merchants, who bought a lot of goods. He made a lot of money, which was just enough to cover the cost of building the guesthouse.
In addition to this huge expense, the villagers planted mulberry trees and opened fish ponds.
After spending a lot and investing a lot for a long time, it's finally time to make money again, and the couple can't wait.
Xu He used an abacus as he said, "I have three first-class rooms at 200 wen, ten middle-class rooms at 160 wen, and seven second-class rooms at 80 wen. The total is 2,760 wen."
"The total revenue of the tea stall today is 1,800 wen. The profit from renting the stall today is 120 wen. The previous monthly rent is not included in today's calculation." Zhang Fangyuan flipped through the account book and talked with Xu Henian.
He was silent for a moment, and then he and Xu He said in unison: "Four thousand six hundred and eighty coins."
Xu He laughed and said, "You can calculate very quickly. You don't even need to use an abacus."
"I have calculated these a lot and now I have a number for them." Zhang Fangyuan wrote a few entries in the account book: "Today's income is not bad. If it is like this every day, it will be much better than the business of the shops in the city."
Xu He was very sober and said, "How can it be so good? Even if I take only 4,000 coins based on today's income, 4 taels of silver a day, that's 120 taels a month. Even the big restaurants in the city may not be able to match this income."
Zhang Fangyuan leaned back and enjoyed the cool and pleasant night breeze, which made him feel relaxed and comfortable.
He rested his head on his palm and said lightly, "I've been busy for so long, can't I be pretty for a while?"
Xu He was very happy to see that he finally made some money. He packed up his abacus and account book and said, "I won't say much. Even if we can earn half of what we calculated every month, that would be great."
Nowadays, Linglong Shop has a monthly income of thirty to forty taels. Originally, their shop was small and they paid five hundred coins in taxes per month. Later, someone became jealous of their business and reported it to the county government. The county government also felt that they had to spend several taels of silver to rent the shop, and their monthly income could not be less than ten taels, so they raised the tax to five thousand coins per month.
Although this is true, who doesn't want to make more money and pay less taxes to the court?
Now that the guesthouse has been built, we cannot avoid the monthly tax of 5,000 wen. The two shops together had to pay 10,000 coins in taxes alone.
Xu He sobbed: "The more you earn, the more you spend."
Zhang Fangyuan smiled and said, "If we earn more than fifty taels a month, the tax will be higher than five thousand coins, it will be eight thousand."
"I've already calculated that if we can't pay the 8,000 yuan tax, our tea stall's business won't be that good every day. It will only be better during the temple fair."
"You are still very careful in your calculations."
Xu He turned to Zhang Fangyuan and said, "But I think today is a good omen. The people in the city like the jar dishes I make. Both preserved eggs and salted eggs are good. Our chickens and ducks have laid a lot of eggs, so we can make them in batches."
He patted the hand of the person beside him in a flattering manner and said, "Why don't you go and do some business for me and ask the restaurants and teahouses in the city if they are interested. We can also provide jar vegetables and preserved eggs like we provide toothbrushes to other shops."
"Just take a break." Zhang Fangyuan looked at Xu He: "Aren't you tired of taking care of those two little guys?"
"There are people at home to help take care of it, so it's not tiring."
Zhang Fangyuan reached out and pulled the man closer, kissing him: "Okay, I'll go, okay? After we finish drinking the Fei family's wine in a couple of days, I'll go to the city to do business for you. I'll keep an eye on the business at the tea shed and guesthouse for a couple of days."
Xu He was overjoyed: "Okay."
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