The shop was constantly getting new fruit cakes and tea drinks, and customers kept coming in. Many young women and ladies were tempted to ask about the clothes worn by the shop assistants, which were well-tailored and showed off their waists. However, since these clothes were for the shop assistants to work in, they felt that asking would make them look cheap, so they didn't say anything. However, a few maids who accompanied the young ladies and wives couldn't help but take a second look.
Chen Haiping is extremely efficient. He found a shop in just two or three days. It was located by the dock, with a large flow of people, so he didn't have to worry about selling his goods.
Qin Xiaozhou not only had to manage the smooth-sailing shop, but also had to teach the people that Manager Chen had found how to make braised dishes.
That's great! This collaboration project is to open a braised meat shop together. Braised pig intestines and braised pig head are Qin Xiaozhou's favorites. It can satisfy his cravings and make money at the same time. Why not?
With the Qingming Festival approaching, Yifanfengshun Store received several large orders, all for snacks and offerings for the ancestral worship of wealthy families. The Shen family, the county magistrate, placed orders with eight families in total, and the total profit from the offerings alone was more than thirty taels of silver.
The shop was just too busy. Zhao Fang, Lu Yujing, Yue Jinghe worked day and night for four or five days, so busy that they were practically running around like headless chickens. They had to make hundreds of each kind of pastry: lotus, peach, and crabapple. They had to use both the kitchen in the shop and the kitchen in the backyard to barely keep up.
It wasn't until the night before Qingming Festival that the shop was quiet after closing up. Qin Xiaozhou then announced a two-day holiday for Qingming Festival and gave Jing Yue and Jing He their March wages of one hundred wen and Qingming Festival gift money of fifty wen.
Jingyue and Jinghe had signed a contract of servitude, and had been paid for it beforehand. When they were offered wages, they were shocked and dared not accept them.
They worked in the shop, had food, drink, and lodging, and even lived and ate with the owners. The Lu family made clothes for them, and didn't beat or scold them. They were already incredibly lucky to have such owners, so why would they ask for wages?
Jinghe, being older and more eloquent, kowtowed three times, saying, "Madam and Master, you are already incredibly kind to have bought me and allowed my husband and son to live. You have also given me food and shelter. I have even gained weight now. You are good people, and I will serve you like a slave for the rest of my life to repay you."
In the past two weeks, Jinghe has gone from being a emaciated woman to being healthy. Every time she eats the desserts that the shop didn't finish making, she feels so happy that she wants to cry. Those are made with the finest white flour and milk. She has never eaten anything so good in her entire life...
Jingyue was not good with words, but when she saw Jinghe kneel, she also knelt down and kowtowed earnestly, "Me too, Madam, I will repay you for the rest of my life."
Qin Xiaozhou quickly pulled the people up, "We'll be closed for the next two days, so you can stay here and keep watch over the shop."
After dismissing the two men, she took out the account book. "March has passed. Let's calculate this month's income and expenses."
Lu Yan took out her expense ledger and carefully calculated the figures. She had been following Qin Xiaozhou's accounting every night for the past few days, and she had already memorized the names of the desserts in the shop. She read the ledger aloud, albeit haltingly.
"One bucket of milk costs 150 coins, and we use three buckets a day. The fine flour, white sugar, brown sugar, lard, sesame oil, and salt we use are all purchased just before opening, costing a total of 22 taels and 4 mace. Eggs were purchased four times in March, costing a total of 4 taels and 8 mace. Taro cost 5 mace, and tapioca flour cost 7 mace... Sister-in-law, our expenses in March were 54 taels and 4 mace."
Flour wasn't expensive, nor were lard and sesame oil, but white sugar and brown sugar were expensive items in ancient times, as were fine salt, which increased the cost.
“Hmm, although these things are all recorded in the March expense account, some things haven’t been used up yet…” Lu Yan thought for a moment, “Sister-in-law, how should we calculate this?”
Qin Xiaozhou took the ledger and recorded all the income and expenses in one ledger. "This is a very important thing I want to teach you: checking inventory. We don't have much stuff at home, so we can see how much of everything is left at a glance in the kitchen. If we have more stuff in the future, you will need to check regularly to see if the purchases, usage, and surplus are equal. As long as the business is still going on, you will always need to prepare for unforeseen circumstances, so there will always be surplus. Therefore, you need to know how to check inventory."
"Xiao Yan, are you still missing one of the most important things?"
Lu Yan flipped through the ledger, checking each item one by one. "Sister-in-law, this is quite a lot. I've included everything."
"Silly girl." Qin Xiaozhou rubbed Lu Yan's head. "Labor costs are also a big expense. Look, we bought Jingyue and Jinghe, isn't that an expense? I also have to give each of them one hundred coins a month, that's also an expense. If we don't give them some money, they'll call us skinflint Lu and skinflint Qin in private. Roughly speaking, we'll earn two hundred and seventy-eight taels and three qian this month, and that doesn't include our initial investment costs, like buying a house, tableware, and so on."
"Business is small now, and we don't have many people, but we'll be too busy when all the fruit is on the market. I'm planning to hire more people. What do you think, Dayun?" Qin Xiaozhou asked, writing in the ledger.
Zhao Fang, holding her youngest son, started packing. Tomorrow is Qingming Festival, and they're going back to Wangjia Village. "Do we still need to buy things?"
Lu Yunfeng thought for a moment, then said, "I want to buy it."
Early on the morning of Qingming Festival, Lu Yunfeng rowed his newly bought small boat back to Wangjia Village with his family.
The boat was just bought yesterday. From now on, we'll need to transport our fruit and firewood to the county town, and having our own boat will make things much more convenient.
As soon as we arrived at the ferry crossing at the village entrance, we were surrounded by onlookers.
Wang Chao was alarmed and ran to the ferry to look at the boat. He couldn't help but touch it and exclaimed, "Dayun, you've struck it rich? You actually bought a boat!"
Standing on the shore, Zhou Meixiang was filled with envy. "Your Lu family is amazing! You can buy a boat after being away for half a month. Did you steal it?"
The others chimed in, "The Lu family has opened a shop in Shuxing Lane now, and the money is flowing in like crazy! I heard you have to queue up to spend money! If you go too late, you won't be able to spend any of it!"
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