Chapter 51: Business 1/3

Since the rice has matured, it must be harvested quickly; otherwise, it will be eaten by sparrows and rats. In fact, some households have already started harvesting. Their rice grew slower because Li Laogen didn’t take care of it as carefully, so they fell behind by two days.

Jin Xiaoye has recently been making sleeve covers and similar items. Everyone who needs to buy them in Miaoqian Village has already bought them. These days, when she returns from the county town, nobody stops her to buy things.

This makes her much more relaxed, and as soon as she returns to the Miaoqian Village, she heads straight home.

Jin Xiaoye hasn’t been paddling around lately. She has been busy with her own small business. It’s not physically demanding, but by evening, she’s still very hungry.

Arriving near her home and seeing their newly built house, Jin Xiaoye smiles. When Li Damao and Li Ermao shout “Mom” and rush out of the house, her eyes are already squinting.

But what makes her even happier is yet to come! At this moment, Li Qingzhi also comes out of the house, with the scent of food lingering around him. “Xiaoye, we’ve been waiting for you. Come and eat.”

Jin Xiaoye feels particularly satisfied.

The feeling of earning money outside to support the family, and coming home to find her daughter-in-law has already prepared the meal and the children are welcoming her together, is really wonderful!

Well, Li Qingzhi isn’t her daughter-in-law, he’s her husband, and he earns more than her!

“It’s already autumn harvest season, some boats came to sell meat and tofu, so I bought some…” Li Qingzhi smiles as he talks to Jin Xiaoye.

As soon as he finishes speaking, Li Laogen rushes to Jin Xiaoye to complain, “Xiaoye, your man is really extravagant! He eats meat every day.”

Of course, Li Laogen is happy to eat meat every day. He used to be overjoyed when he ate the leftovers Li Qingzhi brought back from the Zhu family. But recently, Li Qingzhi has been buying meat every day!

After Li Qingzhi returned from the Zhu family, they initially had to build a house. They hired people to work on it, so it’s reasonable for them to have better food.

Later, just after the house was completed, Li Qingzhi broke his arm, so it’s normal for him to eat well.

But now it’s been over twenty days since Li Qingzhi broke his arm, and yet he eats meat every day… Mr. Li feels anxious about it.

Especially since Li Qingzhi still has a big appetite, he has already eaten all the grain they harvested this summer!

Li Laogen didn’t know that Li Qingzhi had earned a lot of money by writing books.

He thought that Li Qingzhi only earned one silver coin a day by copying books at the Zhu family, and that money was used to build the house.

Later, when Li Qingzhi broke his arm, he certainly couldn’t copy books anymore and couldn’t earn money… In Li Laogen’s view, their family’s fortune consisted of the fifty taels of silver compensated by the Hong family for Li Qingzhi’s broken arm, and some gifts from the Zhu family.

But those fifty taels of silver were used by Jin Xiaoye to do business!

Jin Xiaoye even used all the fabric sent by Master Zhu to do business!

Li Laogen likes to boast, but deep down, he actually feels like he can’t accomplish anything.

In his view, Jin Xiaoye is more capable than him, but she’s just a rural girl, and he doesn’t think she can do business successfully.

“Xiaoye, your husband can eat a lot, he has eaten all the grain at home!” Li Laogen said with a hint of panic.

He had experienced hunger and had almost starved to death for a while.

So, although he is not very reliable, seeing that there is no grain left at home, he is genuinely afraid from the bottom of his heart.

“Dad, it’s okay. Let Ah Qing eat more if he can.” Jin Xiaoye said.

Before, they only had two acres of land, and Jin Xiaoye calculated their food consumption carefully.

But now they have six acres of land! Both Li Qingzhi and she can earn money!

She always wants Li Qingzhi to eat his fill.

“But… but… Xiaoye, what about the fifty taels of silver compensated by the Hong family? Shouldn’t we use it to buy some land? It’s hard to buy land fields, but buying some dry land is also good…” Mr. Li looked pitifully at Jin Xiaoye. “Otherwise, what if we run out of food one day?”

“Don’t worry, Dad, we have enough food at home. Didn’t I always ask you to keep an eye on the four acres of land sold by the Yao family next door? And let you weed it? I’ve bought all the grain from those four acres of land.” When the Yao family sold the four acres of land, it was already planted with crops. They bought both the land and the crops, so now it belonged to them.

Jin Xiaoye herself didn’t have time to take care of it, so she asked Li Loagen to look after it and told him that they were paid to look after it.

Although Li Laogen wasn’t meticulous, he did take good care of the land.

Li Laogen said, “The rice in those four acres of land doesn’t look very good. How much did you spend to buy it? Um… Xiaoye, it’s not my concern if those rice don’t grow well. The Yao family hired people to work on the land, and they didn’t do it properly from the beginning!”

Indeed, the rice on those four acres of land didn’t grow as well as theirs.

This was because the Yao family’s workers were rather sloppy, and also because Li Laogen didn’t take care of those four acres of land as diligently as their own.

“It didn’t cost much, and we won’t lose money.” She was afraid that if Li Laogen knew they had money, he would go gambling, so she dared not tell him the true situation of their family.

Even if Li Laogen didn’t go gambling…Li Laogen liked to boast. If he were to boast about their wealth, it wouldn’t be a good thing either.

Seeing Jin Xiaoye looking indifferent, Li couldn’t help but ask, “Xiaoye, did you use the fifty taels of silver to do business? Did you make any profit? Did you lose any money?”

Jin Xiaoye finally understood what Mr. Li Laogen had been worrying about all along. “Dad, I didn’t lose money! The capital was earned back long ago, and now I can earn two silver coins a day.”

Jin Xiaoye’s business wasn’t about earning two silver coins every day on average. She couldn’t earn money when she didn’t sell anything, but when she sold a batch of goods to a shop or a traveling merchant, she could earn several taels of silver at once.

But she had indeed earned back the capital, mainly because Zhu Qian had given her a lot of fabric, so she didn’t have to spend those fifty taels of silver.

When Li Qingzhi came back from the Zhu family, he brought back fifty taels of silver. Later, after breaking his arm, the Hong family compensated him with fifty taels, and then Ding Xi came to see Li Qingzhi and gave him another fifty taels.

Now she had one hundred and fifty taels of silver hidden in her room, and the gold and silver jewelry sent by the Zhu family were worth more than one hundred taels. Their family was definitely considered wealthy in Miaoqian Village!

In addition, she still had more than twenty taels of silver and a lot of fabric on hand.

Of course, after paying the women who helped her with sewing work, she would have much less money on hand, but when she sold another batch of goods, her money would increase again.