Ye Erquan and Sanquan Tieniu arrived in the small town together.
I was planning to get some chicken, goose, duck, and fish, but I stumbled upon a place selling mutton.
After thinking for a moment, the three of them spent one tael of silver to buy more than 80 catties of mutton and made a mutton hot pot.
After preparing some side dishes and buying two jars of fine rice wine, they happily returned to the village.
Although it's already March, the weather is still chilly, which is perfect for hot pot.
That evening, Uncle Ye's family, including the little kids, a total of sixteen or seventeen people, all came, while Tie Niu's family only had two people.
More than 30 people sat at four tables and began to eat in a lively atmosphere.
Tie Niu and Uncle Ye's family were especially grateful to Ye Caiping.
I thought that earning one or two ounces a month from building outhouses would be good, but I ended up earning more than four ounces after only eight days of work.
When Du learned that Ye Erquan and his two companions had made so much money, she looked on with envy and said, "I'm so jealous! It's all your fault for not going."
He then went to twist Ye Daquan's flesh.
"Ouch, you old hag, you pinched me again." Ye Daquan slapped her hand away. "What am I supposed to do? Just stand there? My skills aren't good enough to make a living in this line of work. I'm doing so well now, I'm out and about with my little sister every day."
As he spoke, Ye Daquan beamed with satisfaction.
Ye Caiping was amused by the situation. Why did Ye Daquan sound like someone who walked his dog every day?
Tie Niu's wife clung to Du's shoulder: "We're actually lucky."
Du glared at her with a smile: "Fine, fine, you can all benefit from this."
Mr. Wei was very proud and drank a couple more glasses of wine, his smile never fading throughout the entire meal.
Ye Sanquan downed a bowl of wine: "Even if this kind of work only happens once every two months, we'll still make a fortune, hehehe."
Zhao Tieniu said, "This is called 'no business for three years, then live off the profits for three years'."
Everyone laughed as they listened.
...
Back home, Ye Erquan was still thinking about when this business would come again.
To my surprise, it arrived the very next day!
Shopkeeper Chi ran into Ye Caiping's house, sobbing, "Madam Ye, you are so heartless. Back when Madam Ye was still running a stall, I was the first person to ask your family for supplies, and that Lin fellow was still making things difficult for Madam Ye."
"Then I helped Madam Ye get closer to Miss Shen, and later I even helped deliver noodles to those two idiots. Logically speaking, I'm closer to them than that guy surnamed Lin, right?"
"But Madam Ye had something good, and she gave it to that Lin fellow first... I... I'm heartbroken!"
As she spoke, she patted her chest and burst into tears, though without a single tear.
Ye Caiping's face darkened, and her lips twitched slightly: "Shut up! Who's close to whom? This outhouse wasn't built by me begging that Lin guy to build it. It was he who recognized its value when he came to pick up goods and had my second brother build it."
Shopkeeper Chi: "Anyway, anyway, I'm heartbroken! You have no idea, now half the town knows that his family built several special new outhouses, and many customers come to his house to eat just to use those outhouses."
Ye Caiping laughed when she heard this: "Then just ask my second brother to build it. Hurry up! If you don't go now, another day will be wasted, and a group of your guests will leave."
Shopkeeper Chi didn't even have time to cry anymore; he turned and ran away without hesitation.
Ye Erquan was so excited that he pulled Tie Niu and the other man to go with Manager Chi to take measurements. He was so excited that he didn't expect business to come back so quickly.
In less than three days, Ye Erquan had received more than thirty jobs, mostly from restaurants and wealthy families. People from not only the town but also the county came knocking on his door.
Ye Erquan's orders are already booked for two months from now.
With more work, the three of them increased their speed, and on average, they could build one every two days.
According to the calculations, at this rate, after deducting costs, Guangye Erquan could earn about 67 taels a month. Adding the 23 taels and 5 qian earned from delivery, their family's monthly income would be 90 taels and 5 qian.
Mrs. Wei was overjoyed; from now on, she was considered a wealthy woman!
Thinking about it, she started going out every day to show off, and she stopped wearing coarse cloth clothes and started wearing cotton clothes.
Seeing how busy Ye Erquan's business was, Old Lady Ye was completely baffled.
He was picking vegetables with Ye Caiping in the corridor.
"It's really strange, why does the town love to build these kinds of outhouses? It's such a waste of good things!" said Grandma Ye.
Ye Caiping laughed and said, "The town is different from the village; they don't compost fertilizer."
"I've heard that there are people in the town and county who collect night soil. They pay a penny for a big bucket of it."
“Those who do this are families who don’t lack a penny or two a day; they all want their homes to smell nice. Besides, restaurants have to pay people to clean their latrines to keep them clean. The money from selling night soil isn’t even enough to pay their wages.”
Grandma Ye understood: "That makes sense."
Mrs. Du came over carrying a small bowl of garlic: "Tsk tsk, I'm so envious."
"I think you're getting envious too," Grandma Ye said with a smile.
Ye Caiping smiled and said, "I do have another business."
Du's eyes lit up: "What kind of nutrition?"
Ye Caiping thought for a moment: "Let's wait a bit longer! I'll let you know when I have an idea. By the way, how's the house?"
"The wall was built a while ago, and the beam will be installed in a few days. The date has been chosen: March 18th. After the beam is installed, the tiles will be laid, the floor tiles will be installed, and the doors and windows will be installed. It should be finished by mid-April."
Ye Caiping nodded; she needed to set up a furniture workshop.
Ye Caiping asked, "How is Yong'er's learning going? It's been four months since last December, hasn't it?"
Speaking of this, Mrs. Du said with a proud look, "He's learned very well. He said that he would make all the tables, chairs, and cabinets in our new house by himself. If my younger sister wants to see it, she'll know once the new house is built."
Ye Caiping said in surprise, "Uncle Wang is quite honest. Yong'er can make furniture by himself after only a few months of learning."
Many other masters have to make their apprentices do heavy and miscellaneous work for free for one or two years before they can learn their skills. This Wang Shuantou, however, teaches real skills right from the start, which is truly rare.
Just then, they saw Jinhua return, followed by a woman, who turned out to be Manager Yao.
"It's only noon now, why is Jinhua back at this hour? Oh, is this... Manager Yao?" Madam Du was taken aback.
Jin Hua blushed slightly: "Ah, this..."
"Oh, it's Jin Hua's mother!" Manager Yao walked over. "Madam Ye and...Auntie are here too!"
Shopkeeper Yao had never met Old Lady Ye before, but he recognized her identity at a glance.
Ye Caiping introduced, "Mother, this is Manager Yao from Jixiang Cloth Shop. She's the one who taught Jinhua how to tailor clothes."
Grandma Ye, not knowing why Manager Yao had come, stood up with a smile and said, "Please come in and sit down."
The group arrived at the main room.
After serving the tea, Manager Yao said, "Well... the day after tomorrow is our young master's birthday. Our master doesn't have many relatives here, so he wanted to make it more lively. Therefore, he invited everyone from our cloth shop and asked us to bring our families along."
Ye Caiping and Grandma Ye immediately understood that the employer wanted to make an appointment with their future in-laws!
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