Their first stop was An Shuyi's estate. When they arrived, the farmers were still digging grass in the fields. An Shuyi had the manager call them all over, and then she told them about the arrangements for the future. The seeds were also prepared and would be delivered to them when it was time to plant.
Tell them who Village Chief Lin is, and that they will send people to transport the grain in the future. They can also go directly to Village Chief Lin if they need anything.
After hearing this, the villagers all smiled and nodded to indicate that they understood.
After An Shuyi finished speaking, she told them to continue working before they left for Xia Hua's estate.
After getting into the carriage, Village Chief Lin said, "Sister-in-law, this estate is really big. It must have cost a lot of money."
One mu of fertile land costs six taels of silver. My sister-in-law said that this estate has several hundred mu, so it would cost several thousand taels. But that doesn’t seem like much. Of course, in the past, several thousand taels of silver would have been a lot. Even if the entire Lin family village had pooled together all their money, it wouldn’t have been that much. But now, several thousand taels doesn’t seem like much at all.
Their village can now sell several thousand taels of silver every day, and on the best day, they can sell tens of thousands of taels. Many people from other prefectures know about Taoyuan Village, and people often come to pick up goods. Moreover, Erwa and his group also take goods out to sell, earning a lot of silver every day.
The materials that were purchased were all bought by Sister An and Sister Xia at a particularly low price. It was said that because the materials were cheap, the selling price was high, and everyone would get more profit.
The larger families in the village probably have 20,000 to 30,000 taels of silver now, while the smaller families have several thousand or even tens of thousands of taels. After all, even if the population is small, as long as they can move, they can work in the workshops and it's not tiring. It seems that after the next distribution of silver, he can talk to his clansmen about buying some estates like his two sisters-in-law.
Looking at the two women beside him, he never imagined that one day, several thousand taels of silver would be nothing to him. You know, their village used to be just a little better off.
The villagers lived frugally, but with Brother Changhai leading the hunting, they were better off than other villages and managed to save some money. After Brother Changhai passed away, the hunting was taken over by Hunter Zhu. Although they earned less than before, they were still able to make ends meet.
So even though Erwa and his friends did bad things in the village later, no one cared. But after all, there were other people with different surnames in Linjia Village, which caused An's sister-in-law to be beaten. Fortunately, those people are dead, and there are no other people with different surnames in their Taoyuan Village.
“This estate didn’t cost much money!” An Shuyi replied. It really didn’t cost much; the only money she spent was the money she paid when she exchanged the contract. Everything else was free.
Village Chief Lin nodded, thinking that the several thousand taels of silver mentioned by Sister An was not much, and never imagined that the estate had not cost any money at all.
After arriving at Xia Hua's manor, they repeated what An Shuyi had said earlier, and the matter was settled. They got back into the carriage and left. When they returned to Jinnan City, it was already noon, so they went to eat at a restaurant.
Since An Shuyi and her companion had already tried all the delicious food in the small shops of Jinnan City, they wanted to try something different today.
Led by the waiter, we sat directly in the restaurant's main hall.
"Waiter, bring me a few of your restaurant's signature dishes, and a few bowls of rice." An Shuyi said, "Mu Tou, Wen Ming, is there anything you'd like to eat? Order yourselves."
"Sister-in-law, you can decide," Village Chief Lin replied. He wasn't picky about food; as long as it was edible, he was fine with it.
"Alright, then bring out a few of your restaurant's signature dishes."
"Please wait a moment, esteemed guests, I'll have the chef prepare it right away." After saying this, the waiter hurried off to the kitchen.
The dishes were served shortly afterward.
"Sister-in-law, what is this...?" Village Chief Lin looked at the dishes on the table, but didn't know how to say it.
This isn't a restaurant called Shikelou. Their braised meat in Jinnan City is only supplied to Shikelou. The rest is packaged and ordered by restaurants in other prefectures. So why does this restaurant have it?
"Sir, your dishes are all served. Please enjoy your meal. If you need anything, just call me." After saying this, the waiter went outside.
After the waiter left, An Shuyi picked up her chopsticks, took a piece of braised meat from the table, and swallowed it before saying, "Try it and see how this braised meat differs from the one made in our village."
Lin Wenming looked at her in surprise, "Auntie, you said this braised meat wasn't made in our village, so it must have been made in this restaurant. How could they... this is clearly from our village."
Looking at his silly expression, Xia Hua bluntly retorted, "From our village? What, only you can do it, but others can't? What kind of logic is that?"
"You can't have that kind of thinking. Anyone can make something. What we need to do is not complain, but make the braised meat even better. That way, others won't be able to surpass us, and our business will naturally get better and better."
An Shuyi nodded, "Your Aunt Xia is right. We can't complain. We just need to make our braised meat well, and of course, the same goes for everything else."
“Look at this restaurant. It’s the same size as Shikelou, but it does very well. Do you think the people of Jinnan City don’t know that it sells braised meat? They certainly do. Why don’t they come and eat there? Have you ever thought about why?”
Lin Wenming looked at the two aunts, then at the village chief eating braised meat, and suddenly realized that he had also picked up a piece of braised meat and put it in his mouth. Only after eating it did he realize that this braised meat was different from the one in their village.
Watching him eat the braised meat, An Shuyi said, "Tell me, what's the difference between this braised meat and the one from our village?"
Putting down his chopsticks, Liu Wenming replied, "The seasoning for this braised meat is too strong; it has no meat flavor at all, and it's salty. Most importantly, the meat already has a peculiar odor." Although the flavor of the seasoning masked it, he could still taste it.
In their village, there's braised meat every day or two, as well as braised chicken, duck, and goose. Once, they made braised meat but didn't sell it all, so they left some in the canteen's pot. The next day, the meat tasted just like this.
To avoid waste, they still finished the meat. But after that incident, any unsold braised meat was put into the ice workshop or packaged up. The meat at this restaurant tasted just like the meat they had eaten that day.
An Shuyi nodded, "You have a very good sense of taste, you can tell the difference. Just like you said, this meat is obviously not comparable to the braised meat in our village, so what are you worried about? The one who should be worried is the owner of Shikelou Restaurant. He has been ordering braised meat every day without any shortage, which means that the braised meat in this restaurant has no impact on him at all."
Liu Wenming nodded, "I'm not afraid. These two aunties are so skilled. Even if someone else tries to make this braised meat, they won't be able to." He had seen the aunties in the cafeteria braise meat. They used seasoning packets, which the aunties themselves took out. As for what was inside, they didn't know. It was impossible for anyone else to make the exact same thing.
"Don't worry, let's eat quickly. There's so much food, we can't waste it." After saying that, she looked at the plate of braised meat. Luckily, there wasn't much, otherwise they wouldn't be able to finish it.
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