noffsinger Chapter 121: Satisfied
Chapter 121: Satisfied
Shen Xiaoye pressed down her aunt who was about to go out, "I'll go take a look."
She hurried out of the house. Her grandparents and uncles who were loading the truck in the yard were now standing at the gate, staring at the dozen or so people who came in and talking to them.
The clothes these people were wearing were mostly animal skins, and each of them had a large bag of stuff in front of them, basically blocking every inch of their front door.
But she could see clearly that there were villagers outside the gate watching the fun. Among them was Uncle Qian, squatting behind the earth wall and nodding his head from time to time.
Shen Xiaoye ran up to him and asked thoughtfully, "Grandpa, who are they?"
"The mountain people from Fushan." Shen Shanyou answered softly.
The strongest middle-aged man among the villagers, who should be a leader, bowed to my grandfather and said, "Little sister, we are all from Fushan. We heard that the Shen family in Jiuli Village was collecting white cloth, so we brought it here. Are they still collecting it now?"
As he spoke, he untied the big bag and looked at everyone in the Shen family nervously: "Master Shen, check it out. It's all made from the new cotton harvested this year."
The people around him were also staring at everyone.
"Collect." Shen Shanyou added, "You all have come all the way from the mountain, come in and warm yourself by the fire.
Boss, go to the kitchen and light a fire. Xiaoye, ask Erniu's mother to come and check the cloth."
"Hey." Shen Xiaoye acted together with his uncle.
The mountain man couldn't refuse, so he moved his big bag to the kitchen door. A moment later, Shen Xiaoye and his aunt came to check the goods bag by bag.
“Xiaoye, the weaving is very good, and it can be considered as top-quality coarse cloth.
With this skill, if you organize the yarn well, you can weave a top-quality product." Lin's cousin whispered in her ear.
Shen Xiaoye nodded slightly, and told his grandfather who was making ginger tea for the villagers in the kitchen that everything was qualified, and said, "The top-quality coarse cloth, four feet long, is priced at 150 coins per piece."
"What, one hundred and fifty cents?" Two mountain villagers jumped up and rushed to the door, while the others were still in a daze.
Lin's cousin stood in front of Xiao Ye and held out her hand to stop them: "What are you doing? What are you doing? I tell you, no one can offer a higher price than what we offer."
"No, no, no, I just didn't expect..." When the two were too anxious to speak clearly, their uncle who was in charge of cloth in the west wing came running over and stared at them with unfriendly eyes.
In the kitchen, Jiang Tong, a strong middle-aged man who was talking to Grandpa, also squeezed to the door at the same time. Without saying a word, he slapped the back of the two people's heads and said, "Squat down."
“Oh oh oh…” The two men shrank to the ground obediently and reached out to grab their leader’s trouser legs.
Seeing this, Shen Xiaoye sighed inwardly. People from the mountains seldom leave the mountains often, and some of them take refuge in the mountains without even registering their household registration with the government. It is probably because people from outside often cheat them on prices.
In this world, it is a common phenomenon to respect the clothes before respecting the person.
Jiang Tong leaned forward slightly and apologized, "They mean that no one has ever offered such a high price."
"As long as you weave well, I'll pay you a high price. If your uncle has new cotton that can be woven into the best fine cloth, it'll be one hundred and eighty cents per piece." Just as Shen Xiaoye finished speaking, the two people squatting at the door stood up again, but were held down by Jiang Tong.
But everyone in the kitchen heard it, and they all stood up excitedly, "Really?"
"Seriously, you can finish weaving and collect it whenever you want." Shen Xiaoye promised that she could lower the price of Master Wu Qi, but she would never lower the price of these people.
Grandfather Shen Shanyou then smiled and said, "Sit down, sit down. We never cheat anyone in business."
As he spoke, he served the ginger tea and came to the door to pull three people over to drink. The group of people thanked him profusely.
Shen Xiaoye pulled Lin's cousin to get the money, "Cousin, I'm young and easy to be bullied, and my aunt won't be able to help me in the next two years.
I really want to hire you as a housekeeper, and I'd like you to take care of the things in the future.
The cloth woven by Aunt Tu needs your help."
"We're family, I'll be there whenever you call." Aunt Lin was happy to do this, and she couldn't suppress her joy.
Shen Xiaoye discussed with her, "Then you can't refuse to take my money. This is not a job that can be done in a day or two. It takes a lot of effort and energy. I won't pay you much, just five cents a month, and travel expenses are extra.
The wages for dyeing cloth every year and helping to sell the cloth are also calculated separately.
I think so. Your home is only about ten miles from the county town. You can set up a purchasing point so that the surrounding villagers can get there easily. After all, Jiuli Village is too remote and it’s too far to come here all at once.”
When Lin's cousin was about to say something, she held her hand and said, "Cousin, the emperor doesn't need hungry soldiers. Our small business doesn't make much money per month, but if we have the opportunity to expand it in the future, we will definitely increase the monthly salary.
Also, it is not easy for the villagers nearby to grow cotton. If they have looms and are willing to weave cloth for sale, they can place an order first. This way, they will not have to worry about not having white cotton cloth for dyeing in the summer."
"Okay, I'll listen to you." With five cents in deposit every month, Lin's cousin secretly decided that she would visit every village within a dozen miles.
She pointed towards the gate and said, "Why do I see that everyone else has left, but Qian Er is still hiding behind the gate and peeking in?"
"He is probably regretting it now." Shen Xiaoye didn't need to guess, he knew that Uncle Qian had bargained for too low a price when he bought cloth twice in the mountains, and he didn't expect that the people in Fushan would find out about his family through him.
She collected more than a hundred pieces of cloth without moving a muscle in one trip home. When she set out for Beijing again, she asked her grandfather to rent a few vehicles from the escort agency to transport the cloth. She was very proud of herself.
As soon as the 3,000 pieces of cloth arrived in Beijing, Shen Xiaoye arranged to set up a stall in the outer city. At the same time, in order to avoid paying taxes again when entering the inner city, he directly rented a place in the outer city to store the goods.
Moreover, she was more cautious this time, and her uncle had hired patrolling yamen runners early on to ensure that no one would be jealous and come to sabotage her.
In addition, Lu Guan asked Brother Lu to greet the people in charge of patrolling the outer city, so basically no one came to disturb her.
But she didn't expect that the business in the outer city was even more prosperous than that in the East and West閣. Many people from the inner city still came from far away to buy New Year's goods. Her cloth was cheap and of high quality, and she sold out in less than eight or nine days.
Of course, there were savvy merchants who came to her to exchange cloth, and Shen Xiaoye even sold more than a thousand pieces.
At this time, Lu Guan was still working hard in the examination room, and there was finally a glimmer of light in fourth uncle's eyes.
After the examination, the old imperial physician smiled proudly and said, "From today on, you can change to acupuncture every ten days, and change the external application medicine to fumigation medicine."
"Old doctor, ten days from now will be the first day of the Chinese New Year.
Do you still have to attend the grand court meeting? And then how many days will you be on duty?" Shen Xiaoye was not afraid of spending the New Year away from home, but was worried that he would not have time that day.
The eldest uncle then asked, "Sui Ge'er can't spend the New Year at home?"
"I'm here to celebrate the New Year with my fourth uncle." Shen Xiaoye didn't expect that he would arrive just in time for New Year's Day.
"This... is indeed a problem." After the grand court meeting, the emperor gave a banquet. The old imperial physician was not sure if he could leave the palace early that day. He said, "It's OK to do the injection a day in advance. I won't be on duty on the 30th.
I'll come early that day, and you can go home quickly after I finish. It's just a bit time-consuming."
"Will it not affect your eyes if you ride a fast horse for long distances?" The uncle was very cautious. He said that he could skip the New Year celebration but he must treat his eyes.