After the news spread that Cen Xiao was not dead, Yang Cui breathed a sigh of relief. Now that the factory was stable, many wealthy families in the county town held banquets under various pretexts and sent invitations to Yang Cui.
"Reject all of them." Yang Cui didn't want to attend such a boring banquet on such a hot day.
Isn't it nice to eat an ice pop at home?
Speaking of popsicles, they're incredibly overpriced. Some people even say that mung beans are so cheap, yet popsicles are so expensive!
This made her wonder if she had set the price too high, but after going to Kyoto, she found out that Su Murong sold them for even higher prices—goodness, sixty-six yuan a stick!
Crucially, it's also a top seller.
There was no way around it; ice was too precious in this era. Ordinary merchants couldn't afford it; only top-tier wealthy merchants and powerful families could afford it.
She originally planned to lower the price of popsicles, but then she thought that those who could afford them wouldn't care about the price, while those who couldn't afford them would still be reluctant to buy them.
"Madam, Manager Yu has delivered an invitation."
"An invitation from Manager Yu? What's the occasion?"
"Manager Yu is getting married," Xi Hongmei said with a smile. "Now our general can rest assured."
Cen Xiao's dark history of sending ten beautiful women to Manager Yu is probably something he can't let go of.
Only when Cen Xiao was not around did Xi Hongmei dare to make jokes.
“The first day of the eighth lunar month? That’s still early. Cen Xiao will definitely be back by then,” Yang Cui said. “Hua Yuqing? Isn’t that Manager Yu’s cousin?”
Hua Yuqing had wanted to marry Manager Yu for several years. Back when Yang Cui and Manager Yu first met, Hua Yuqing was extremely worried. Now, she had finally gotten her wish.
"Prepare a generous gift then."
When I first arrived in this strange world, I was able to earn money and establish myself here, all thanks to Manager Yu. He couldn't be stingy with his wedding gifts.
"How is the health station doing?" Yang Cui asked.
"The Zhou and Yan families each contributed ten strong laborers to build the health station. They are working hard and enthusiastically. If it doesn't rain, it is estimated that it will be completed in ten days at most. Village Chief Zhou said that they do not want wages."
Once the health station is built, generations of people in Zhou'an Village and Pigeon Village will benefit. They know this, which is why they are building it as if it were their own house. How can they ask for wages to build their own house?
Moreover, Yang Cui has decided to set up two basic medical classes at Hope Academy and has hired two doctors from the county clinic to give lectures for an hour and a half every day.
At present, Yang Cui hopes that these children can recognize medicinal herbs and know how to process them, so that they can also collect and sell herbs in the future, which is a viable way out.
In this era, there is no Western medicine, almost no artificially cultivated medicinal herbs, and few doctors. There is a huge shortage of medicinal herbs. Mastering this skill will ensure that you will not go hungry in the future.
If any of them have a talent for medicine, Yang Cui will invite doctors to teach them intermediate and advanced classes in the future.
The first cohort of students in the elementary medical theory class consisted mainly of girls from the Zhou family and Pigeon Village, along with a small number of boys who had received some basic medical education but did not pursue the imperial examinations. There were a total of seventy students.
This era is too harsh on women. Yang Cui hopes that they can have a skill to support themselves so that they can have a better life after they get married.
As soon as this news came out, matchmakers from both the Zhou and Yan clans practically wore down their doorstep.
"Then go and tell the kitchen to prepare two buckets of iced mung bean soup every day for the workers building the house to cool them down, and to add more sugar. Also, send two hundred eggs, twenty chickens, and twenty ducks to Village Chief Zhou as an extra meal for the workers."
Since they don't want wages, then compensate them more in terms of food, ensuring they have chicken, duck, and eggs to eat every day.
The food was comparable to that during the Lunar New Year, so the group worked even harder. The weather was also good, and the project was completed in ten days, consisting of three brick and tile houses.
After the house was built, cabinets, tables and chairs were immediately installed, and common medicinal herbs were personally delivered to the door by the herb merchant Feng Liyuan.
Feng Liyuan also wanted to get on Yang Cui's good side, and since this was a good thing for the people, the price was relatively cheap, and the quality was controlled by Qi Langzhong.
Qi Langzhong was also in charge of the health station, which meant that Yang Cui had hired him as the station manager. Yang Cui would give him a subsidy of twenty taels of silver every year.
This is much more than he used to earn as a doctor. In this poor and remote place, although he was the only doctor, people couldn't afford to see a doctor or buy medicine. As for making money, he really couldn't earn much. At most, he was better off than the average villager, since he could still collect herbs to sell.
On the opening day of the health station, the Zhou and Yan families jointly funded a lion dance troupe, which entertained the crowds for a whole morning with gongs and drums.
Many villagers from the surrounding area came to watch the spectacle, and the people from Zhou'an Village and Pigeon Village couldn't stop smiling with joy.
This made people in other villages very envious, and the Lin family once again became the talk of the town and a laughing stock, which comforted the people of Anjia Village who were filled with envy.
The Lin family members could only slink away at home, and some of the more radical members even wished they could dig up the dead Lin patriarch and whip his corpse!
"Clan leader, write to Lin Shikang and ask him to send someone back with money so we can build an academy and invite some doctors back to teach our children medicine." A group of people blocked Lin Gouya's house.
He didn't reply to my last letter.
Lin Gouya had previously written to Lin Shikang, asking him to help out the younger generation in the clan.
Seeing that the children in Zhou'an Village could read and do math, while the people here didn't eat or dress well and the children were still blind, he was naturally anxious. However, it had been half a year since the letter was sent out and there was still no news.
"Then write a few more letters, thank you a few more times. It's such a long distance, there's a chance the letters might not even arrive."
"That's right, write a few more letters."
"Clan leader, look at the lives they're living! If it weren't for Lin Shikang, if it weren't for Fan Shi and Lin Rongguang, we wouldn't have made things difficult for Yang Cui. Look at the lives we're living now! Who in the surrounding villages doesn't want to marry a girl from the Zhou family? Who doesn't want to marry a boy from the Zhou family? It's probably difficult for our Lin family's girls and boys to find husbands."
Many members of the tribe had already begun to shed tears.
Lin Gouya was also extremely annoyed and said impatiently, "I know, I'll write them now, ten or eight letters, okay?"
With so many letters, he refused to believe that not a single one would reach Lin Shikang!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
