Chapter 102: Hiring Workers 1/2

With everything sold out in the embroidery workshop and some family matters to attend to, Jin Xiaoye asked Sister Wang and the others to go home and then closed the shop door.

Then, Jin Xiaoye gave Jin Xiaoshu five hundred wen to buy some braised snacks to celebrate.

After Jin Xiaoshu left, Jin Xiaoye asked Li Qingzhi, “Ah Qing, since you passed the top score, should we go back to the Miaoqian Village and hold a banquet?”

Li Qingzhi replied, “Let’s skip the banquet for now. I’ll be busy next, and in April, I’ll be participating in the provincial exam in the capital… After the provincial exam, we can hold a banquet.”

According to the regulations of Daqi, passing the provincial exam would make him a boy student, setting him apart from ordinary scholars.

Most importantly, after the provincial exam, there would be a gap of several months before the next exam in August, so it wouldn’t be difficult to find time for a banquet.

But things are different now.

He would need to interact with Peng Jingliang and others, prepare for next month’s provincial exam, and go to the capital in advance… His time was a bit tight.

Not only did he have insufficient time, but Jin Xiaoye also had a lot on her plate. At the moment, she had many orders to fulfill.

In the next month, Jin Xiaoye was afraid she would be even busier than she was at the end of last year.

“Alright,” Jin Xiaoye said, unable to resist kissing Li Qingzhi on the lips. “Husband, I really like you!”

She had seen someone testing Li Qingzhi’s knowledge on the second floor of the restaurant earlier, and Li Qingzhi had answered fluently… The more she looked at him, the more she liked him!

Li Qingzhi grabbed her hand. “I like you too.”

“I know!” Jin Xiaoye grabbed Li Qingzhi’s hand and kissed it.

Actually, she wasn’t used to being affectionate, not even with Li Damao and Li Ermao.

But Li Qingzhi was always affectionate with them… She had been influenced by him.

As for Li Qingzhi liking her… There was no doubt about it; she could feel it!

After the kiss, Jin Xiaoye let go of Li Qingzhi’s hand. “Ah Qing, I still have a lot of things to do today. Shopkeeper Wu has given me a big order, so I plan to hire some female workers to work upstairs in the shop.”

Previously, she would give the cut fabrics to nearby women to take home and sew.

But it was actually quite troublesome. She had to register these women, check the items they submitted, and if they didn’t do well, she had to make them redo the work… It was really time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Now, she wanted to hire some female workers to work at home so that the speed of their work would be much faster.

Take Fang Jinniang, for example… Fang Jinniang’s eyesight wasn’t good, so she didn’t work particularly fast. However, because she focused solely on her work without getting distracted, she consistently produced the most output.

Li Qingzhi thought it was a good idea to hire female workers to work in the shop. “Xiaoye, I have an idea that could speed up the work of those female workers.”

“What is it?” Jin Xiaoye asked.

Li Qingzhi said, “You can assign each female worker to do one type of work. For example, several people can specialize in cutting, several people can specialize in sewing, and several people can specialize in embroidery.”

What Li Qingzhi proposed was essentially an assembly line.

Some of the things in Jin Xiaoye’s embroidery workshop were quite complicated. Skilled workers like Fang Jinniang could do complex tasks quickly and well, but some women couldn’t do the work properly even after taking it home, and they had to ask others for help. Even if they eventually finished, the quality of their work wasn’t good. If she hired female workers to come back, she could completely divide the work among them.

Skilled workers like Fang Jinniang could do the most complex tasks, while those less skilled could do simpler tasks. This would result in more stable-quality products.

Once Jin Xiaoye understood Li Qingzhi’s idea, she became more and more excited. “This idea is great! I also want to hire someone specifically to help with threading needles. Threading needles is too troublesome!”

Threading needles for sewing activities could be tedious, sometimes taking a long time to complete. Jin Xiaoye found it quite annoying.

If someone helped thread all the needles, she could work much faster.

Of course, she probably wouldn’t be doing the work herself anymore in the future. She would be managing this large group of people.

“Sure, we can hire someone specifically for miscellaneous tasks, and we can also recruit a few people from Miaoqian Village,” Li Qingzhi said.

The women in Miaoqian Village were generally good at needlework. Jin Xiaoye had been hesitant to give them work before.

But now, if she hired female workers to work at their home… Recruiting some young women and training them would quickly improve their skills.

“Yes,” Jin Xiaoye nodded repeatedly, taking out a pen and paper to start planning.

When Li Qingzhi saw this, he suggested hiring a cook as well. Jin Xiaoye wasn’t busy before, so she and Li Laogen had been cooking together for the past month. But she would become busier in the future, and it wouldn’t be worth spending time cooking.

Moreover, since they were hiring female workers to work at their home, it would be best if they could provide meals as well.

When they had almost finished discussing their plans, Jin Xiaoshu returned with a pile of things he had bought.

In Chongcheng County, there were many people selling vegetables in the morning, but very few in the evening. By evening, there was hardly any good meat left, especially pork.

So Jin Xiaoye had Jin Xiaoshu buy a bunch of braised snacks.

Braised tofu, braised vegetarian chicken, braised chicken, braised pig ears… and even a whole duck marinated in soy sauce.

These items emitted a rich aroma, causing Li Damao and Li Ermao to drool when they saw them.

Seeing this, Li Qingzhi took out three pieces of braised tofu and gave each of them one, then gave one to Zhao Xiaodou as well.

Li Laogen immediately came over. “Ah Qing, I want one too!”

Li Qingzhi gave him one and then took another piece to Jin Xiaoye’s mouth.

Jin Xiaoye ate it, then took a knife and started cutting the chicken. “Xiaoshu, your parents are waiting at home. I won’t keep you and Jinniang for dinner. I’ll cut half a chicken and half a duck for you to take home and eat with your parents.”

Jin Xiaoye chopped up the chicken and duck and placed them in a pottery basin. She also used chopsticks to pick up some braised tofu and vegetarian chicken, asking Jin Xiaoshu to take them home for dinner.

Since they moved to the county, Jin Xiaoshu and Fang Jinniang have been eating breakfast and dinner at their own homes, only having lunch with them. Now, Jin Xiaoye’s mother was waiting for them to return home for dinner.

“Sis, then I’ll go back now! My brother-in-law passed the examination; my parents must be very happy,” Jin Xiaoshu said.

Without delay, Jin Xiaoshu left with Fang Jinniang.

At this time, the news of Li Qingzhi passing the examination had already spread throughout Miaoqian Village.

The villagers had long known about Li Qingzhi going to study with Li Xiucai.

Regarding this, they simply sighed about how wealthy Jin Xiaoye was.

Previously, they thought it was just Li Laogen boasting when he said Jin Xiaoye earned ten taels of silver a month, but now it seems to be true.

This truly made people envious. If the Li family still lived in the village, surely some people would have gone to them to borrow money!

However, although the villagers knew about Li Qingzhi going to study, they didn’t know he was going to participate in the county examination.

In fact, many of them didn’t even know what the county examination was.

It wasn’t until a few days ago, when Mr. Yao took Yao Zhenfu to the county town, and out of curiosity, they went to Yao’s house to inquire, that they found out Yao Zhenfu was going to participate in the county examination.

With this inquiry, they also learned that Li Qingzhi was participating in the county examination.

The villagers thought Li Qingzhi was very good at writing stories, but Yao Zhenfu kept saying that being good at writing stories didn’t mean having good knowledge. Yao Zhenfu said that with Li Qingzhi’s knowledge, he definitely wouldn’t pass the county examination… and they believed him.

After all, five years ago, the scholar from the neighboring village had said that Li Qingzhi’s knowledge was not good.

On the other hand, Yao Zhenfu… He had been studying for so many years, so he should be able to pass, right?

Recently, there hadn’t been much going on in Miaoqian Village, so the villagers were very concerned about this matter. When Mr. Yao and his family left the village in the morning, some people even went to see them off.

Yao Zuming had been wandering around the village, sharing his opinions: “Yao Zhenfu has been studying for so many years; he will definitely make it to the list in the county examination. But Li Qingzhi is different; he has only been studying for a few days, right? He definitely won’t pass this time!”