Chapter 87: Inquiry
The women left angrily.
"You've grown wings. You were so pitiful before. Your clothes and shoes were full of holes. You couldn't even lift your head when you walked. Now you dare to talk back to us."
"She is just a fool. Don't we know who Li Taohua is? She is a leech. Once you get caught by her, she won't let go until you have sucked all your blood dry. How could a vixen like her be nice to her stepchildren? If Tang Yichen hadn't been a good student, she wouldn't have pretended for so long." Wang pouted.
"So, Li Taohua has been pretending until now because she is waiting for Tang Yichen to pass the imperial examination so that she can follow him and become the wife of an official?"
"That must be the case. Otherwise, why would she ignore Song Ruize, but buy clothes for the Tang family's children when they are both step-sons?"
"Sister Wang, if you had a stepson like Song Ruize, you would be lucky if you didn't beat him to death. How could you still care about his affairs?"
Wang opened her mouth, but Song Ruize's gloomy eyes appeared in her mind, and she dared not say anything.
"What kind of business do you think Tang Dafu's family is in?"
"Didn't I tell you? Food business."
"What kind of food do they make? They go to the city every three days, leaving early and returning late. Every time they go, they bring buckets and buckets, and when they come back, they bring bags and bags. It seems like they've made a lot of money."
"Whether they earn a lot or a little, what does it have to do with us? We don't have any friendship with Li Taohua, so how can she tell us?"
"Aren't you curious? Who doesn't know how to cook a few dishes? If they can make money, so can we. We just need to find out what they are selling."
Several women had their own plans in mind.
The relationship between Wang and Li Taohua was so strained that Li Taohua wouldn't even let her into the house, so sending her out to get information was useless.
As for the other few people, at least they did not fall out with Li Taohua.
How could we not visit each other as fellow villagers? For example, Mrs. Zhang, Tang Dafu bought the old hens from her, so she could use this as an excuse to visit him.
Tang Yi drank up the medicine with a smile, frowning his face and looking uncomfortable.
Qin Huiyin stuffed a candy in his mouth, put the candy jar in his hand, and said, "Take one after taking the medicine in the future, and it won't be so bitter."
"Where did it come from?"
"I bought it!" Qin Huiyin said, "You take medicine all the time, and your mouth is full of bitterness. I'll give you a sweet one."
Tang Yi's eyes turned red with laughter.
Qin Huiyin was helpless: "Why do you cry so easily?"
"I didn't cry." Tang Yi smiled and looked at her stubbornly.
"Okay, you didn't cry." Qin Huiyin chuckled, "We're having dry pot pig intestines for lunch, can you help me clean the pig intestines?"
"Okay, leave it to me." Tang Yi smiled and put the pig intestines into the wooden barrel, then carried the barrel to the downstream of the river.
Now there is someone to fetch water for the house and someone to deliver firewood to the house. They only need to pay a few cents to have these two hard jobs done by others.
The two people they had been working with for a long time were both honest people in the village, and they had no grudges against Tang Dafu, Li Taohua and others. They never looked around and left after they had done their job.
"Oh, Yin girl, are you alone at home?" Mrs. Zhang walked in with a smile.
Qin Huiyin went over and asked, "Auntie, is there anything I can do for you?"
"Your father bought an old hen from me. It was not very energetic before. I was worried that something might happen to it right after I sold it to you. That would mean you would have wasted your money. So I came to take a look."
Qin Huiyin pointed to the old hen running around the yard and the chicks that it was taking good care of, and said, "Don't worry, Auntie. It's in good spirits and nothing will happen to it."
"That's true! The soil and water in your home are really good. Not only can you raise people, but you can also raise chickens." Zhang said with a smile, "By the way, has your family made a fortune in business? What kind of business is it?"
"We just sell some food." Qin Huiyin said crisply, "Please don't laugh at us, Auntie. We are just busying ourselves just to have something to eat. In fact, we don't make much money."
"You are such a dishonest girl. If you don't make money, why are you still busying around like this all day? Don't worry, your aunt is very tight-lipped and will never tell anyone. Tell me, what kind of business are you doing and how much money can you make?"
"We mainly sell meat and cakes. Auntie knows that both meat and flour are very expensive." Qin Huiyin said, "The cakes we sell are filled with a lot of meat, and we make at most one penny from each cake. As for the meat, because the ingredients we bought are too expensive, sometimes we can't sell it all, so we have to keep it for ourselves. What if we don't eat it ourselves? We can't just give it away, right? Those foods can't be kept overnight. If they are left overnight, they will go bad, and we will get an upset stomach. In addition, we have to rent a stall, pay the city entrance fee, and pay tribute to the local tyrants..."
"My goodness, the stall fee is not low, right? I know the entrance fee, one penny per person. And the local tyrants are not easy to deal with." Zhang's eyes widened, "Then how much do you have left every day?"
"After deducting the expenses and tributes, I can earn fifty or sixty cents a day."
"With so many people in your family working non-stop in the city, you can only earn fifty or sixty coins?" Zhang looked at Qin Huiyin with suspicion, "Little girl, you are kidding me!"
"Auntie, is fifty or sixty coins a small amount? I think it's a lot! Think about it, if you sell it ten times a month, wouldn't that be five or six hundred coins? We don't have any other income, this money can support our family, and also give my brother some writing fee."
"If you're just after this little bit of money, then your family might as well go to the city and find a job. Your family has sent so many people out just for a few hundred coins. It's a losing business no matter how you calculate it."
"Who in our family do you think is suitable to find a job? Uncle Tang's leg is injured, so he can't work anymore. My mother is so pretty, she can't go out casually. My eldest brother? You think that's ridiculous, right? There are only Sister Luwu, my younger brother, and me who is only eleven years old. Who can work?"
Zhang: “…”
Regardless of whether others believed it or not, she believed it a little.
Such a big family can't find anyone who can go out to find a job. If they keep growing crops at home, they may not even be able to fill their stomachs, let alone save money for Tang Yichen to study.
"Besides, it's not always fifty or sixty. For example, last time we met a very generous customer, and we made a hundred coins that day." Qin Huiyin looked around, with a mysterious look on her face, as if to say, 'Don't tell anyone else, I only told you.'
"That's good. I have to go back to cook. I won't chat with you anymore. I'm leaving first." Zhang quickly found an excuse and left.
Tang Luwu came back carrying the wooden basin and just passed by Zhang.
"What is she doing here?"
Qin Huiyin burst into laughter and then repeated what had just happened.
"Will she believe it?"
"Whether you believe it or not, this is the version I have here. If she doesn't believe it, then she can go and ask. However, it's easy to enter the town, but the county town requires an entrance fee. Will she be willing to pay to satisfy her curiosity?"
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