Chapter 371 Confidence

Zhou Shuren washed his feet and stopped thinking about it. It was not easy to choose this person. The main reason was that the money was paid by the government. He had to be more cautious when choosing a person. "By the way, has Mr. Zheng left? He said he would stay for a while and then go back last time."

Zhulan really knew, because her mother's family had a lot of land, and she had been back quite often recently. "Grandpa is back. This time he came mainly to see you. After meeting you, he left."

Zhou Shuren's mouth twitched. He really came to see him. He first sighed, and then regretted that the Zhou family did not have a boy who could marry into the Zheng family. The old man did not hide the fact that he did not like Chang Zhi, but was thinking about Ming Yun, but he was distracted by him. Bah, he came to the door to dislike his son and still wanted to think about his grandson. No way.

What's more, this old fox is so frightening to him that he doesn't want to marry her!

Zhou Shuren didn't want to mention his grandfather anymore. "It's getting late. Go to bed early."

Zhulan took the pillow and said, "The autumn harvest is about to end in my hometown. The last time I received a letter was more than half a month ago. I should have set off now."

Zhou Shuren pulled Zhulan, "Go to sleep, don't worry, they are all adults with families, they can take care of themselves, they will arrive naturally when the time comes."

Zhu Lan knew that Zhou Shuren was worried about her, so she lay down and said, "Okay, okay, I won't worry about you, go to sleep."

Zhulan didn't say anything, but she was calculating the days in her heart. She estimated that Zhou Laoer and the others would arrive in late November. As soon as she calculated the days, she closed her eyes and thought about hiring people to pick apples. It would take a lot of people to transport the apples down from the mountain. Oh, this was a hassle.

The only thing that made Zhulan feel relieved was that she had already signed a contract with the foreign merchants for her apples, and the price was fifty cents per pound, regardless of the size of the apples.

Zhulan made a calculation in her mind before falling asleep. Zhou Shuren opened his eyes and tucked Zhulan in, muttering, "You are a life of worry."

The next morning, as soon as Zhou Shuren left, Li and Zhou Lao Da went out shopping.

Zhulan called Eryue and asked her to hire some people to prepare for picking apples five days later. Many people in Lizhou City followed suit and planted apples, so many people hired servants, which was an extra income for the people.

Zhulan's family did not sell any food. Even though there was more food, the settlement was still half food and half money, twelve cents a day, two pounds of cornmeal, and a meal of coarse grain vegetarian buns for lunch.

The Yang family's orchard also signed a contract. Zhulan sent someone to the Yang residence to ask her father, and they would pick the fruit together when the time came.

Zhou Shuren was the prefect. No matter whether the merchants were from foreign countries or from the dynasty, they dared not withhold money. They all accepted the payment in exchange for the rewards.

After Zhulan had made the arrangements, Boss Zhou and Li came back. Zhulan looked at the things Li had bought and asked, "I gave you ten taels of silver, and you only bought a few pieces of fine cotton cloth?"

Zhulan calculated the time. The couple had been shopping for one and a half hours to three hours, and they only bought a few pieces of cotton cloth?

Li touched her purse, she was reluctant to spend it. In her hand was the monthly allowance from the eldest wife, plus her own savings and the money her mother-in-law gave her from time to time, a total of only one hundred and fifty taels of silver. Not to mention the ten taels of silver from yesterday. There would be more children in the future, and as a mother she had to give them money, so it was enough for her to just feast her eyes on the things today. If the needlework room had run out of muslin, she would not even want to buy any.

Zhulan pressed her forehead and waved her hand, "You must be tired after walking around for the whole morning, go back and rest!"

Boss Zhou moved his lips. He felt uncomfortable. Although Li was carefree, he was very clear about money. But he still didn't give Li the confidence.

Zhulan saw this and decided not to keep the eldest son. First, the family had few industries and she did not have enough money to invest. It was impossible for her to give the family industry to the eldest son to manage. Her partiality would not break the balance. There were many talented people in the family. Once she favored the eldest son too much, she would have no peace.

In the following days, Li did not go out again, and used the newly bought cloth to make small clothes.

After arriving in Lizhou City, there was a sewing shop. Zhulan would give money to the sewing shop every month to buy cloth for making clothes. She and Zhou Shuren would make two new sets of clothes a month, and Zhou Lao Da, Li and others would make one set a month.

There are twelve months in a year, and except for her and Zhou Shuren, each person has twelve sets of clothes, which means three sets of clothes in a quarter, which is quite luxurious.

But there was no other way. Zhou Shuren became an official, and Zhulan received many invitations, several every month. She had to take her daughter-in-law or daughter out, and her son and grandson were also invited. The whole family couldn't always wear the same clothes, so they spent a lot of money just to look decent.

In the blink of an eye, it was time to pick apples. Zhulan went to the orchard the day before picking the apples. The closer to the top of the mountain, the sweeter the fruits tasted. Zhulan asked people to keep all the apples from the twenty trees on the top of the mountain for her own consumption.

The fruit trees in Zhulan's house are five years old, and are in their productive period. Although some of them were damaged during transplanting, each tree still produces thirty kilograms of fruit.

The history of apples in the fictional dynasty is that they were introduced from Europe by the previous dynasty, and first settled in the northwest region. There were apples in the local area as well, but they were of different varieties and were not called apples. The fruit had little water and a poor taste. Later, European apples were introduced and the local ones were eliminated.

Butler Ding went to Chuanzhou to buy fruit trees. It is said that the apple varieties introduced here are the best. Although the taste is still not as good as modern ones, it is not bad. The valuable thing is that it is purely natural without pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

The Zhulan family hired fifty servants to work in the apple orchard, which covered more than 100 acres. Due to various problems such as transportation, it took six days to finish picking the apples, and most of the time was wasted on transportation and picking the fruits.

Although all fruits, big or small, are needed, there are some bad fruits, such as those eaten by squirrels, mice, birds, etc. These bad fruits must be picked out.

The merchants also want the picked fruits, but they are very cheap.

A fruit tree produces 30 kilograms of fruit, but in reality only about 20 kilograms can be sold. In winter, animals come out to look for food and set their sights on the orchard.

Zhulan had a total of more than 3,000 apple trees, including those that were given away, and more than 2,600 of them survived. The mortality rate was quite high. Excluding the 20 apple trees that were left, there were only a little more than 2,600 apples that could be sold.

Finally, I settled the accounts and saw a deposit of more than 2,700 taels of silver. I didn't make back my one-year investment. If so many fruit trees hadn't died, I would have made back my money this year. The only consolation is that this is the first year, and next year will basically be pure profit.

In fact, the profit from growing apples is still very high, and a tree does not only bear fruit once a year. Of course, the premise is that there is no drought, otherwise the fruit trees will die of drought and all the investment will be wasted.