After watching the village head descend the mountain, Cheng Yue had Chen Lin lead the oxcart into the yard. Then, the three children either cut grass or fed the pigs.
Chen An sat outside the courtyard talking to Liu Chunlai and the others, while Cheng Yue was also busy, sitting down to settle the wages for the group of men.
She originally wanted to settle wages on the same day so that everyone would have cash on hand every day and wouldn't have to rush if they needed it.
However, everyone felt that daily and monthly payments were inconvenient for them, and it would be better to wait until the project was completed and settle the accounts uniformly.
Anyway, there are plenty of days when I'm broke, so I won't rush to spend my earnings on shopping sprees.
Besides, it feels better to have a lot of money in your hand; it makes it seem like you have a lot.
Of course, Cheng Yue had no objection to any settlement method; the amount owed would be exactly the same, neither more nor less.
Cheng Yue took out her accounting notebook, calculated the wages, and seeing that it was still early, she also checked the family's existing savings.
The silver left over from the division of the family property, plus the money earned from setting up a stall and the money given by Master Chen, totaled approximately thirty-six taels.
Today's profits haven't been calculated yet; they'll be added together at the end of the month when the profit sharing is finalized.
Thirty-six taels may sound like a small amount, but at that time, money still had considerable purchasing power. This amount of silver could buy more than two thousand catties of pork. In modern times, wouldn't that be considered a monthly income of over ten thousand?
Cheng Yue hadn't achieved a monthly income of over ten thousand in modern times, but she had in ancient times. At this moment, Cheng Yue was quite satisfied.
Just as she excitedly punched the pillow a few times, Chen An's voice rang out from outside, "A-Yue, it's all covered up now. Come out and see if there's anything wrong with it?"
Cheng Yue rubbed her face, sighed, and walked out with the calculated copper coins.
A group of men stood to the side, looking like they were waiting for an inspection.
Cheng Yue looked around and found that both the courtyard wall and the shed were exactly the same as her requirements, without any difference.
"No problem, thank you all for your hard work, let's settle the wages!"
Upon hearing Cheng Yue's words, everyone immediately relaxed, their shoulders slumped, and their whole bodies became at ease.
"Phew, Sister-in-law Cheng, you were pretty scary just now. I was afraid you'd say something was wrong and make us redo it."
Liu Chunlai is usually very talkative, but he didn't dare to say anything just now.
Cheng Yue raised an eyebrow. How endearing and adorable she was to hear that!
Zhang Dajiang gave him an elbow strike, saying, "You haven't been doing your job properly, are you feeling guilty?"
"Don't wrong me! I didn't slack off, what are you feeling guilty about!" Liu Chunlai puffed out his chest and raised his voice.
He just felt that Cheng Yue had changed a lot after the family split. Although she was still as kind as ever, she seemed to know a lot more, which made him unconsciously nervous.
"Say less, it'll be dark soon. Come over, collect your wages, and go home for dinner."
Chen An felt utterly helpless at how such a grown man could be so incessant. He recalled how the man used to chatter incessantly after him when they were kids—it was a nightmare!
The copper coins had already been strung together, and Cheng Yue handed them to them one by one. "You've been working on this for eight days, earning thirty coins a day. This string is worth two hundred and forty coins. Please count them and see if there are any mistakes."
Zhang Dajiang took the lead in nodding, not because he didn't trust Cheng Yue, but to make things easier for her.
When his mother first came up to sell sweet potato noodles, she mentioned this matter. At that time, the noodles were ordered on the spot, and his mother praised Cheng Yue for being thoughtful.
"No problem, it's correct, thank you, sister-in-law!"
"Ours is fine too, it's all correct!"
Seeing that everyone had made their orders, Cheng Yue smiled and said, "That's good. Thank you all for your help these past few days!"
"We should be thanking Aunt Cheng!"
Everyone was overjoyed as they held the heavy copper coins in their hands. They worked hard and even had sweet soup to drink every day. Where else could they find such treatment?
After expressing their gratitude, the group descended the mountain together.
"It's good to be rich! I'm going to buy two pounds of meat tomorrow so my mother can have a taste!"
"I want to buy my child a candy to sweeten their mouth!"
"..."
The discussion gradually subsided, and Cheng Yue and Chen An entered the courtyard.
After dinner, the family went to bed early. They were exhausted from working from morning till night.
The important thing is that tomorrow will be another tiring day.
The next day, the family went to the county town as usual. Business was booming yesterday, and today's customer traffic has increased rather than decreased.
In particular, the servants and maids in each household were sent out early in the morning by their mistresses to actively line up.
This braised food is incredibly delicious; no wonder it cured Qin Xiaoyun's inability to eat and made her go to great lengths to recommend it to them.
After trying it yesterday, how could I not understand? It was just so delicious!
They want it spicy today! Sweet and spicy! The spicier the better!
Thanks to the strong support of these people, the 200 jin of braised food sold out in less than half an hour.
Those who were in line behind and didn't get any complained a few times, but their attire clearly indicated they were servants from a wealthy family. They had the money to buy as much as they wanted, so they couldn't expect them to buy less!
They'll definitely arrive even earlier tomorrow!
The group clenched their fists secretly and left angrily.
The three Chen siblings were dumbfounded. "Why did they buy five or ten pounds at a time? Can they finish all that?"
Cheng Yue shrugged. "Like I said, rich people are just different."
People spend money to have fun; if they can't finish the food, they can give it to the servants, or they won't care if they throw it away.
The main thing is that ten catties isn't worth much money. Three hundred coins is nothing to them. If someone wanted to, they could buy out her entire shop in the blink of an eye.
Cheng Yue shed tears of envy. There are so many rich people in the world, what difference does one more make?
After lamenting, she continued to work hard, thinking that with effort, she might still have a chance to become a rich woman.
Cheng Yue thought she had things to do in the afternoon, so she just made something simple for lunch. After lunch, the family went directly to Wangshan Village.
The nest is all built, so of course the chicks and ducklings should be brought home as soon as possible.
All five hundred chickens and ducks have hatched, and the villagers even helped raise them for a few days. They are all lively and healthy.
Now that she had gathered all 500, Cheng Yue disregarded her initial plan to raise them in batches and brought them all home.
He was thinking about the business of the braised food shop. He originally planned to prepare 100 jin every day, but judging from the current situation, he estimated that 200 jin would be just right.
With so many chickens and ducks needed every day, relying on Wangshan Village is not enough.
After all, they weren't in this business by profession, so she couldn't very well say that she needed a large quantity and just let them raise more.
The cost of raising livestock is still very high, and she can't afford to take responsibility if something goes wrong someday.
Self-sufficiency is the best course of action, and it also provides an opportunity to develop other businesses.
Such a large quantity would require raising at least several thousand animals. We can only gradually increase the quantity once Zhao Xiangxiu and her daughter have mastered the skills.
For the next year or two, the supply to Wangshan Village will not be a problem, and she can afford to wait.
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