Chapter 54: Setting Off

As the sun set, with a faint afterglow remaining, everyone gathered in Cao Xiangnan’s yard. Just then, Sun Ji returned from working outside. Sun Bailian had found him just as he was home, and he followed them without a word when he heard what Sun Bailian had to say.

When Cao Dapeng came, his wife Chen Hong came along as well. Chen Hong was also a good person, with a cheerful personality and diligence. If Cao Dapeng were to work with them in the future, he wouldn’t be able to keep it from his family.

“What do you think?” Cao Xiangnan told the two people he had invited to his house about their stall business. He needed manpower now, and he planned to promote hefen to restaurants and eateries. That would increase the amount of hefen they sold, and they would earn more money.

If someone could take over the stall, he could free up time to do other things.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Sun Ji said, nodding on the spot.

Cao Dapeng was an honest man. After listening to what Cao Xiangnan said, he realized that he had been farming in the fields for most of his life and didn’t know how to do business. He rubbed his hands together and realized that everyone was staring at him. He swallowed his saliva and said nervously, “I don’t know. All I know is how to farm.”

“Hey, you blockhead!” Chen Hong was anxious, wishing she could slap him. She said anxiously, “Do it! Why wouldn’t you do it? Husband, you go do business with Cao Si-lang [fourth son of the Cao family]. I’ll take care of the children and our A-mu [mother] at home.”

Cao Dapeng was the youngest of three brothers. His two older brothers didn’t want to take care of their A-mu, so they left her to him. He was also an honest man. How could he push his own A-mu away? So he kept her at home to take care of her. Fortunately, his wife was also filial and had no complaints about this.

“Okay, okay…” Cao Dapeng listened to his wife, smiling foolishly at her. “Whatever my wife says is what I’ll do.”

The others couldn’t help but laugh at the couple.

Chen Hong couldn’t help but blush. She scratched her ear, looked up at everyone with a cheerful smile, and said, “My husband is a bit slow. Don’t mind him. Just tell him what to do. He can do any hard labor or heavy lifting.”

Then they talked about some details, and since everyone was working together, it involved the distribution of labor income. They needed to make it clear now to avoid conflicts over distribution later.

Cao Xiangnan proposed two options. One was profit sharing, where they would divide the profits according to a fixed ratio, and if there were losses, everyone would bear them. The second was a base salary plus commission, where they would receive a guaranteed minimum income regardless of whether they made a profit or not. In fact, the first was like everyone running the business together, and the second was similar to an employment relationship.

“Cao Gang-ge [older brother], what do you think?” Cao Xiangnan knew that Cao Gang made the decisions for Sun Bailian’s family. He looked around at everyone present and asked, “Or if you have better ways or other ideas, you can bring them up.”

“Yeah, I have no problem,” the always silent Cao Gang said.

Sun Bailian listened to his husband, so he naturally had no objections since his husband agreed.

“Since everyone is running the business together, the profits and losses should be shared. How can we still get paid if we lose money?” Chen Hong shook her head in disagreement. She said, “Bailian, your family and Cao Si-lang’s family have put in money. I still have some money at home. I’ll give it to you later and count it as Dapeng’s share.”

Cao Xiangnan roughly understood what Chen Hong meant, and he nodded.

“I don’t have much money on hand. My family probably doesn’t have much to spare either. Si-lang, you can just pay me a salary,” Sun Ji said after a moment of silence.

“Then let’s do this. Sun Ji-ge, you can be treated the same as Dapeng-ge. As for the money you put in, you can make it up later when you get your share of the profits,” Cao Xiangnan said. What Cao Xiangnan valued was Sun Ji himself. He needed someone like him to grow and become his right-hand man. The small benefits in front of him didn’t matter.

“Okay,” Sun Ji said readily, without declining.

He glanced at Sun Bailian, understanding some things in his heart, so he was also very grateful to Sun Bailian and Cao Si-lang.

With that, it was settled. Their team had two more people, and the team had expanded once again.

They talked about the stall tomorrow. Starting tomorrow, Sun Ji and Cao Dapeng would come to Cao Xiangnan’s house to make hefen together and go to the town to set up the stall. Speaking of giving away radishes, Cao Xiangnan asked, “Does anyone in the village grow a lot of vegetables, preferably radishes, Chinese cabbage, and tudans [potatoes]? Instead of buying them in town in the future, it would be better to buy them in the village.”

Tudan was what they called potatoes here.

Radishes and potatoes were the main ingredients for stewing meat, and they would be used a lot in the future. Also, they needed green vegetables when serving hefen.

“Oh, I have those in my family. My family grows a whole field of radishes, and they’re all plump and juicy now,” Chen Hong said as soon as she heard it. “There are also many vegetables planted in the field. In the past, my A-mu would take them to sell for money. If you need vegetables, come to my field and pick them. If it’s not enough, I’ll find some more for you. I know several people who grow and sell vegetables, and they’re all good people.”

“Yeah, I forgot that your family has a field of vegetables,” Sun Bailian said with a smile.

“Okay, then we’ll trouble you with buying vegetables in the future, Chen Hong. As for the price, I’ll pay you the same price you usually sell them for,” Cao Xiangnan said. It was better to benefit their own people than to benefit others.

“Why would you need to pay? In the future, my Dapeng…” Chen Hong said.

“No, money must be given. Business is business,” Cao Xiangnan interrupted her.

They didn’t buy them in the village because they were afraid of being too conspicuous, so they mostly bought these things in town and brought them back. Cao Xiangnan added, “It’s best to find people who keep their mouths shut to buy vegetables from in the future, so as not to arouse the envy of some people in the village.”

“Okay, okay, okay, I know,” Chen Hong nodded. She was smart and wouldn’t be foolish enough to give benefits to unrelated people.

Even if the vegetables in the field were picked and sold, they wouldn’t necessarily all be sold every day. If they couldn’t sell them, they would bring them back and feed them to the chickens if they couldn’t finish them. It would be good if they could sell 70% of the vegetables from a field. Now, all the vegetables in the field had a use.

As the sun set, they sent off the people who had come and closed the gate to the yard.

Cao Xiangnan tore off the dried paper one by one. What disappointed him a little was that these sheets of paper were fine for writing, but they were too stiff to be used as toilet paper. It seemed that he still had to work harder, but at least he had made paper, right?

“Husband, is this paper?” Qi Wanfeng asked, looking at something in his husband’s hand.

“Yes, it’s paper.” The color was a little yellowish and not particularly good, but it was still usable. Cao Xiangnan said, “Sew these together with needle and thread. We can use this to record our daily income in the future.”

Paper was still very expensive in this era, and papermaking techniques weren’t very mature. But he didn’t have any ideas about changing the history of this era. The only thing he wanted was toilet paper for the toilet.

The red glow in the west sank into the mountains, and the sky gradually darkened. Until the last bit of light disappeared, the sky became dark. They soaked the rice for tomorrow morning. Considering how good business had been on the first day, they had discussed it that night and decided to grind ten more pounds of rice tomorrow.

Back in the house, they went to bed. Lying in bed, Cao Xiangnan let out a comfortable sigh.

When Qi Wanfeng came in, he heard his husband telling a story to the child, but the story he was telling was one he had never heard before. Cao Xiangnan was telling his little An An the story of the Little Mermaid, but he changed it to the Little Merman, and so the story began.

“A-die, are there really beautiful mermaids in the sea?” An An asked, biting his little finger. He also wanted to go to the sea to see the mermaids.

“Yes, a group of mermaids live in the sea,” Cao Xiangnan said, deceiving his child in a serious manner.

Qi Wanfeng couldn’t help but smile, listening to his husband哄 [to coax, to humour] their child. He blew out the oil lamp and got into bed. Listening to his husband telling the story to the child, he moved the child inside when he fell asleep and covered him with the quilt.

“Husband, we need to go back to Luo Laodafu [Old Doctor Luo]’s place tomorrow,” Qi Wanfeng said.

“Okay.” He would have forgotten if he hadn’t said it. Cao Xiangnan said, “When we go tomorrow, let’s send some food to Luo Laodafu.”

“Yeah,” Qi Wanfeng responded.

The voices in the room quickly quieted down, and everything became quiet.

The next day, as soon as they got up, while they were still in the house, the door outside the yard was knocked on. Standing outside the door was Cao Dapeng, who had come with a lantern. He had seen the light on in the house before he dared to knock on the door. He had been woken up early by his wife and sent over.

Last night, Chen Hong had quietly told their A-mu [mother] about this matter, and his A-mu had said it was good. His A-mu had gone back to the house to get a package containing all the money she had saved for most of her life and wanted to give it to him, but Chen Hong didn’t take it.

She and A-mo [grandmother] went to the field to pull a basket of radishes and picked a lot of vegetables to put in a basket, asking her husband to bring them over together tomorrow morning. Chen Hong was so happy that she couldn’t sleep all night. Listening to her husband snoring like a pig beside her, she was afraid that she would fall asleep too and wouldn’t be able to wake up the next day. Hearing the first crow of the rooster, she shook her husband awake and sent him out. She could finally sleep soundly.

“Dapeng-ge, why are you here so early?” Qi Wanfeng went to open the door. Seeing the person standing outside the door, he quickly welcomed him in.

“A-hong wanted me to come earlier.” Cao Dapeng wasn’t one to lie. It was indeed his wife who had asked him to come earlier. He carried a basket of radishes and vegetables into the house, took out the money bag his wife had given him from his pocket, handed it to Qi Wanfeng, and said, “This is what A-hong wanted me to give you.”

“Yeah, I’ll give it to my husband,” Qi Wanfeng said, accepting it. He knew what was inside.

“Okay,” Cao Dapeng said, rubbing his hands together, still listening to his wife.

They didn’t have scales at home, so Cao Xiangnan had Qi Wanfeng estimate the weight, gave a rough number, and gave the money for the vegetables to Cao Dapeng. “Take it. Take it back to Chen Hong, it’s not for you.” Seeing Cao Dapeng decline, he stuffed the money into his hand. Cao Dapeng had no choice but to take it.

“Wanfeng, we’ll go to town to buy a scale today,” Cao Xiangnan said.

“Okay,” Qi Wanfeng replied.

Not long after, Sun Ji came, followed by Sun Bailian and Cao Gang. One by one, everyone arrived.

It wasn’t even dawn yet, and their yard was already buzzing with activity. The steamed hefen in the small kitchen was cut into strips one by one and put into pots. The soup was simmering on the stove, and the pig offal stewing in the pot smelled delicious, emitting an enticing fragrance.

Sun Ji and Cao Dapeng were coming for the first time. Sun Ji was smart and understood everything after seeing it once. Cao Dapeng did whatever he was told and was a hard worker. With the addition of two more people, even though they made more hefen today than the day before, the speed wasn’t slower than yesterday.

“Cao Gang-ge…” Cao Xiangnan whispered a few words to Cao Gang, and Cao Gang nodded.

He turned around and told Qi Wanfeng something, and Qi Wanfeng went into the house to get a money bag for him.

Today it was Sun Bailian’s turn to stay at home and take care of the children, and the others went to set up the stall in town.

Leaving the house, the ox cart slowly set off. Because there were more people today, Cao Xiangnan, who had difficulty walking, continued to sit on the cart, while the others took turns walking.