in2ebook Chapter 225: Aftermath of the Disaster
Chapter 225: Aftermath of the Disaster
Ten days later, Mrs. Zhuang sent someone with a letter to Shanglin Village.
The newly launched rose beauty soap is loved by the young ladies in Lin'an Prefecture. It is more popular than the Polygonum multiflorum black hair soap. More than a hundred pieces have been ordered even though the price is unknown.
The words between the lines of Mrs. Zhuang's letter revealed that she wanted Lin Xiaoman to hurry up and do more.
Lin Xiaoman suddenly felt a headache.
Only a dozen days had passed and more than a hundred pieces had been ordered. Madam Zhuang really didn't leave her any way out.
Lin Xiaoman was afraid that Madam Zhuang would oversell, so she wrote to tell her that the materials were expensive and scarce this year, and asked her to control the quantity. She also wanted to raise the price, and sold a piece of soap at 400 wen.
After writing the letter, Lin Xiaoman gave it to the waiter who was specifically responsible for delivering letters to Madam Zhuang, and asked him to make sure to give it to Madam Zhuang.
After seeing the waiter off, Lin Xiaoman ran straight home, rushed into the room, and slipped into the space.
The roses in the space have grown plump buds, and she began to calculate the time for them to bloom, so that not a single flower would be wasted.
Lin Xiaoman and Li Taohua mentioned the popularity of Rose Eyebrow Beauty Soap.
Li Taohua saw through Lin Xiaoman's plan at a glance, "Xiaoman, those two ridges of land in the backyard are the roses you mentioned. Aren't they the Yueyuehong roses? The soap made from Yueyuehong rose petals is really that profitable!"
"Of course. A piece of rose beauty soap costs 400 coins to sell to Madam Zhuang, and she sells it for even more."
"Four hundred coins, so much, my God!" Li Taohua couldn't understand why so many wealthy families in Lin'an Prefecture would buy it when the drought had just passed.
Lin Xiaoman had long witnessed that no matter where you are, the gap between the rich and the poor will always exist, and there will still be people who will buy it even if it is sold for 400 Wen.
"Four hundred coins is nothing in the eyes of the rich. After all, the monthly salary of a second-class maid is one to two taels of silver."
"The monthly salary of a maid is more than the money our family saved in a whole year. What a world this is!"
"Mom, you can just say this in front of me, but be careful not to let others hear it."
"Don't worry, I'm not stupid." Li Taohua simply shut up and talked about other topics.
"Xiao Man, since the new soap is so profitable, why don't you plant more Yueyuehong? Are you too busy to handle it?" Li Taohua asked, "If you are too busy, come to me and I will help you plant it."
Lin Xiaoman didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and was amused by A Niang's greedy look.
"Mom, do you have rose seedlings?"
Li Taohua was stunned for a moment. "No, doesn't Yueyuehong grow on the mountain? Except for the wealthy families who plant it in their yards, who would eat this useless thing that can't be eaten?"
Lin Xiaoman spread her hands and said with a smile: "So, mother, I only have those rose seedlings..."
"Next time I will tell your four uncles that there are many mountains in the area of Shadi Village. If your uncles come across it, ask them to dig it for you."
"Okay, mother is the best." Lin Xiaoman nodded.
-
In the blink of an eye, it was October. After planting cabbage and radishes, every household began to sow winter wheat.
Lin Dajiang started running back and forth again, so busy that he had no time to rest.
Fortunately, for breakfast at Ruyi Restaurant, the Lin family still only serves one kind of juicy steamed dumplings, which gives Lin Dajiang some breathing space.
The roses in Lin Xiaoman's space were harvested again.
In addition to drying the petals and grinding them into powder, the most important thing is to process the cut rose branches and leave them in the space for cuttings.
The weather has turned cooler, and it's time to make sausages and preserved eggs.
Lin Xiaoman felt that there were too many things to do and he could never finish them all!
-
The winter wheat planting has just ended, and the Lin family sausage workshop and preserved egg workshop have opened.
This time, Lin Dajiang did not recruit any new people. The old people who worked in the workshop last year came in, and the workshop became saturated with people.
There was a drought in Lin'an Prefecture, and almost all the chickens and ducks raised by farmers died of thirst shortly after the drought began.
This resulted in the egg collecting team in Shanglin Village being unable to collect eggs.
The egg-collecting guys who were so high-spirited last year now have their heads hung down.
No eggs, no money.
The chicken and duck eggs used nowadays are almost all laid by the chickens and ducks in the Lin family’s backyard.
In this case, Lin Xiaoman planned to discuss with the young master to raise the price of preserved eggs.
Ordinary people would not buy the flashy preserved eggs.
Preserved eggs are famous for their special pine flower patterns and are sought after by wealthy families. It is a great honor to give them to elders, teachers and friends as gifts during festivals.
It’s just that the county magistrate has previously ordered the young master to transport preserved eggs and sausages to Beijing, and I’m afraid the price will be difficult to negotiate!
Not only are preserved eggs facing the problem of scarce raw materials, but there is also not much pork this year.
Zhou Laosan had already come to the Lin family in advance to say hello. This year, the supply of pork is small, and only half of last year's amount can be supplied.
Natural disasters not only affect agricultural crops, but also have a huge impact on business vendors.
We can only take one step at a time and see how it goes. If it's really not enough, we will have to go to other counties to collect pork.
In the past few days, every villager who has returned to work in the preserved egg and sausage workshops is filled with joy.
Even though there was no harvest in the drought-stricken fields, at least I could still earn money working in the workshop and at least make back the grain tax.
The villagers who were originally waiting for the Lin family workshop to expand and recruit people waited and waited, but never received any news.
I asked someone and found out that there were not many eggs and pork this year, and the workshop was not hiring new people.
Now the villagers who had no work to do could no longer sit still.
The preserved egg and sausage workshops were not hiring, so they could only ask the soap workshop, which they did not think highly of, to see how business was going there and whether they needed anyone this year.
As a result, I learned that lard is needed to make soap. Since pork is in short supply, the shortage of lard is a foregone conclusion.
The disheartened villagers discussed going to the town to find work.
When we arrived in the town, we found that many shops had been closed for several days, and some even had seals on their doors.
Not to mention permanent workers, even the tiring and dirty short-term jobs had already been snatched up.
When the villagers from Shanglin Village who came to look for temporary jobs met the villagers from nearby villages, they became discouraged when they heard that they had been searching for more than ten days without finding any wealthy families hiring workers.
"Don't you have a workshop in your village? Why aren't you hiring?"
"Yes, my wife told me that her elder brother works in your village's workshop. I envy him! Unfortunately, your village's workshop only accepted people from your village at first. Later, people from other villages were accepted. Unfortunately, I was working as a farmhand for two months and couldn't leave. I missed the opportunity. Oh, I regret it so much."
The square-faced man laughed and said, "Hey, even if you were here you wouldn't necessarily be chosen, why are you regretting it, hahahaha... Shanglin Village is still blessed, with the 'Fujing' and the workshop. When my daughter grows up, I'll ask the matchmaker to introduce her to a young man from Shanglin Village."
"Your eldest daughter is only eight years old, and your youngest is two. You have to wait at least six or seven years. It's too early for you to think about it."
"There are only a few guys in Shanglin Village who are about the same age as my daughter. You should ask around in advance, okay?"
After the square-faced man finished speaking, he immediately asked the villagers of Shanglin Village, "Brothers, do you have boys aged seven or eight, eight or nine in your family? Although my eldest daughter is only eight years old, she can do everything from washing clothes to cooking. As for her looks - you can look at me."
The villagers of Shanglin Village looked at each other in confusion.
Is there anyone who promotes his own daughter like this?
This is too hasty!
They didn't dare to answer. Judging from the other person's eyes, if they said yes, they might be like the rice grains with too much water in them and couldn't get rid of them.
Seeing that they didn't answer, the square-faced man asked, "Do you brothers have boys at home? If there's no boy of the right age, a few years younger won't matter."
The villagers of Shanglin Village shook their heads and said no.
I found an opportunity to get away and said I wanted to go somewhere else.
"What should I do if I can't find a job?"
"Alas, Ruyi Restaurant's business is not good this year, and the fish harvest is also less."
"Just wait and see. We've planted so many radishes and cabbages, but in the end, I'm afraid they won't be sold and will just rot in the fields."
"It's a waste to let anything rot in the field. Find an excuse to pickle the cabbage and radish."
"Pickled? Are you kidding? How much coarse salt do I need for so many cabbages and radishes? I might as well buy so much coarse salt as pickled salt from the rotten ground."
"Hey, this won't work, and the government hasn't said anything about reducing taxes yet. What are you going to do with the grain tax?"
"What should we do? We have to sell everything we have to get the money. How dare we not pay the grain tax?"
After another round, I still couldn't find a temporary job.
The villagers dragged their tired bodies with bitter faces. It would have taken them nearly two hours to get home on the road that would have taken them more than an hour to get back to the village.
"Lin Dacheng, didn't you find a job?"
The villager named Lin Dacheng looked up and replied helplessly, "Yeah, there's no work to do!"
When I got home, before I even entered the door, my wife came out to greet me, with a flattering look on her face, "How is it, head of the family?"
"Oh, forget it. There is no work at all. Not to mention long-term workers, even short-term workers can't find work."
"What should we do? We don't have enough money to pay the grain tax!"
"Why don't I try in the county? There should be work there."
"The county town? So far away? Once you leave, we will be left with only an orphan and a widow..."
"You think I want to go so far? What else can I do if I don't go? There's always a glimmer of hope if I go to the county town. Sitting at home and eating out all my savings is a dead end."
......
The same scene happened in many homes of villagers in Shanglin Village.
In a family of brothers, one or two of them will go out to find work, leaving one to look after the family.
This is life. On the one hand, you complain about the unfairness of God, and on the other hand, you have to leave your hometown and find work elsewhere.
-
At the end of October, Mrs. Zhuang came to pick up the goods for the third time.
Brought five cartloads of lard.
Lin Xiaoman looked at the five carts of pig fat with shining eyes. She did not mind the grease and walked around the carriage twice. She touched the pig fat exposed outside and said with a smile: "Sister Zhuang, you really solved my urgent problem."
"Then why don't you make more beauty soaps? You don't know that they are selling like crazy in Lin'an Prefecture."
"Sister Zhuang, things are valuable because they are rare. People will fight for them because they are rare!"
"Stop talking nonsense. Tell me if you need anything."
"Sister Zhuang, with your help in sending lard from a thousand miles away, I have everything I need except the most important thing - the petals of Yueyuehong."