Chapter 12: Not Much Earned

Qin Jin hesitated for two seconds. The moment he did, the young ger’s eyes lit up: “There should still be some left, right?”

“I’m not sure,” Qin Jin replied.

He had left one jin (about 500g) at home. It wasn’t even noon yet, but if Ye Miao had started lunch early, then that one jin of tofu sheet might already be gone.

After explaining this, the young ger thought for a moment and said, “Little brother, where do you live?”

“Just up ahead, in Wuligou village.”

“If it’s convenient, can you take me there so I can recognize your place? Just in case I can’t make it in time tomorrow, I can come buy from your home,” the young ger said.

“Alright,” Qin Jin nodded.

What he said made sense. This was a business he planned to run long-term—it was good for the villagers from miles around to know where he lived.

So Qin Jin set aside his plan to buy meat for the moment and led the young ger toward the village.

This young ger was quite talkative and soon shared his family situation. His name was Gu Nan, and his husband’s family was from Wang Family Village, and they were fairly well-off.

Wang family village was about seven or eight li from the county town—not too far. But since Wuli village was southwest of the county, and the Wang family village was southeast, Qin Jin wasn’t familiar with that area.

He wasn’t usually good at conversation, but since he’d recently been looking to buy peas in the countryside, he casually asked if anyone in Wang family village grew peas.

“My family grows them,” Gu Nan said with a surprised but smiling face. “My father-in-law loves drinking with peas—whether fresh green ones or dried—he loves them all. So we plant several mu every year.”

As soon as Qin Jin heard that, he asked right away: “Brother Gu, would your family be willing to sell the peas? I’ll pay the same price as the grain shop.”

If the price was too low, farmers definitely wouldn’t sell.

That’s why his offer matched the grain shop’s price. It might not seem like a big difference, but cutting out the middleman meant saving quite a bit of money.

Even if it was just one li cheaper per jin, ten jin would save a whole copper coin.

For a thousand jin, that was a hundred copper coin saved—not a small amount.

“I’ll go home and ask my father-in-law. This year’s green peas are about ready to harvest, and we still have three sacks at home,” Gu Nan said.

“Then thank you in advance, Brother Gu. If your father-in-law is willing to sell, I’ll bring a cart to pick them up.”

Normally, when farmers sell on their own, they have to take their goods to the grain shop. Since he was willing to come pick them up, and the price was the same, of course they’d prefer to sell to him.

Gu Nan agreed.

The two of them soon arrived at the village. When they got home, Ye Miao was in the middle of making lunch.

After breakfast, he finished tidying up the house and had planned to go with Zhao Feng to grind the wheat and corn they had washed yesterday into flour. However, Qin Jin had instructed Wang Xiuqin the night before to keep an eye on him and not let him do such heavy labor.

So when Wang Xiuqin stopped him today, his heart was filled with sweetness all morning. Considering they had been eating only green vegetables recently, and since Wang Xiuqin had given him three eggs, he decided to make a slightly more elaborate lunch: big dumplings.

They had plenty of wild vegetables at home, and there was still a good amount of tender dandelion picked yesterday. He planned to make dandelion and egg dumplings.

Come to think of it, tofu sheets don’t taste like tofu—it’s more like meat. So he decided to cut that one jin of it into the filling.

When Qin Jin came home, he had already chopped the dandelions and was just about to cut the tofu sheets.

Gu Nan immediately waved his hand and said he would come back tomorrow. Today, he had been delayed by the children—not only his own two kids, but also his brother’s little son was at his place. With so many kids, things got noisy quickly, so he came out late today.

He promised to come early tomorrow and asked Qin Jin to save him three jin of tofu sheets.

Ye Miao felt a bit embarrassed, but since the tofu sheet had already been washed and placed on the board, it really wasn’t suitable to be sold anymore.

Gu Nan didn’t mind at all. Smiling, he said he’d return tomorrow, and also mentioned that there were other households in Wang family village that grew peas—he could help ask around.

Upon hearing that, Qin Jin wanted to give him the remaining half jin of pea cake as a thank-you gift.

Thinking about his own three children and the others, Gu Nan asked how much pea cake they had left in total.

Qin Jin had kept two jin of pea cake, sold one jin, and had one jin left. So Gu Nan left twenty copper coins and bought the remaining one and a half jin.

“This Brother Gu seems like a good person,” Ye Miao said.

“Yeah, quite generous,” Qin Jin nodded, then handed over the bulging money pouch. “Count it.”

“So much?” Ye Miao cradled the pouch with both hands, surprised.

“It’s actually not that much.”

Fourteen jin of pea cake, minus the samples, brought in about one hundred copper coins.

Twenty-five jin of tofu sheets, a total of 150 sheets, with 10 used for sampling, left 140 for sale, earning 140 copper coins.

After subtracting 120 coins for costs, today’s profit from it was just 20.

Ye Miao froze after hearing that, his face full of disbelief. The money pouch was about to burst, and yet they only made 20 coins from all that tofu sheet?

“We used a lot for sampling. But without samples, sales would’ve been much slower,” Qin Jin explained. He’d rather earn a few less coins but let customers try it first—especially since it was hot, and they didn’t store well. Better to sell it quickly.

Besides, today was special—Zhang Qi and his husband gave a 12-wen discount, but that tofu curd ended up in their own family’s stomachs.

Also, this was just the trial run. They hadn’t made much tofu sheet yet. In the future, sales would definitely go up. On average, they could earn at least 50 copper coins a day from it.

Ye Miao puffed up his cheeks. If he calculated it that way, then with the pea cake too, they could make 150 copper coins a day?

“Not satisfied?” Qin Jin looked at his fair little face and couldn’t help but ask.

“I thought we’d be raking in gold daily…” Ye Miao mumbled softly.

Making tofu sheet was easy, and it tasted so good—like meat. What a great food.

Qin Jin chuckled. “This is already very good. At this pace, we can repay our debts early, and we can afford to buy some meat now and then.”

Before, when he earned only 100 copper coins a day, he didn’t dare buy meat.

They were in debt, and their old courtyard was nearby. Even if he secretly bought meat, unless it was steamed, the smell would drift next door.

And then, he’d surely get an earful from Wang Xiuqin.

Besides, he didn’t want to eat in secret. Old man Qin and Wang Xiuqin treated him very well, and Qin Bing and his wife were also kind. If they were going to improve the meals at home, they definitely had to let the folks in the old courtyard have some too.

Hearing this, Ye Miao weighed the money pouch in his hands again, then nodded.

He had been too greedy.

Before they married, this was a kind of life he wouldn’t have even dared dream of. He stuck out his tongue and gave Qin Jin an embarrassed smile. “I’ll count it after I eat.”

Saying that, he carried the pouch into the house.

“Make a new money pouch—this one’s too small. Tomorrow we’ll be making more tofu sheets,” Qin Jin added.

“Okay,” Ye Miao replied.

After putting the money pouch away, he washed his hands and went into the kitchen. He had to hurry up and cook lunch.

Dumplings were already a hassle to make, and now that Qin Jin was home, he couldn’t let him wait on an empty stomach.

Qin Jin washed his hands and followed him into the kitchen. Zhao Feng had gone to collect firewood. Dumplings were a fiddly job—no way Ye Miao should be doing it all alone.

Besides, it was a good chance to bond.

He manned the stall in the morning and worked the fields in the afternoon— mealtime was the only chance to really chat with his little husband.

Qin Jin offered to help. Ye Miao tried to persuade him not to, but when he wouldn’t back down, he gave in.

Ye Miao quickly rolled out dumpling wrappers, while Qin Jin wrapped them. These dumplings weren’t for boiling—they were steamed, and each one was about the size of his palm.

Because they were large, they were quick to wrap. In no time, over thirty big dumplings were done. They poured millet into the pot and placed the dumplings on top to steam.

Just as Zhao Feng returned with dry firewood, the dumplings were ready. He mixed a chili dipping sauce, and the three of them enjoyed dumplings and porridge, eating their fill.

After the meal, Qin Jin took 200 copper coins and headed to Zhang Qi’s house.

Zhang Qi and his husband were delighted to see him. Wow, their earnings had nearly doubled again today— tofu sheets were selling really well.

When they heard from Qin Jin that they could be chopped into dumpling filling, they urged him to make more. They wanted to buy some tomorrow to make dumplings too.

Since Qin Jin didn’t use tofu curd to make tofu, he’d still buy tofu from them. But if they wanted tofu sheets, they’d buy from him.

Qin Jin recalled what Gu Nan had said and asked how much tofu curd and tofu they could make in a day.

Currently, during the busy farming season, they couldn’t set up their stall by the city gate, so Zhang Qi and his husband made about 70–80 jin of tofu daily. Shen Yucheng’s younger brother took away 30 jin, and they sold the rest at home.

During the slower season, they could make around 150 jin a day.

But if they didn’t have to set up a stall to sell and didn’t need to worry about unsold products, then they could make 200 jin of tofu a day.

After setting aside what they needed for themselves, they could provide Qin Jin with 120 jin of tofu per day, which, converted into tofu curd, would be about 360 jin.

That was their limit.

After all, their household only had limited stone mills and stoves. Even if they had a donkey to help grind the soy milk, the speed wouldn’t increase much. It’s not like they could whip the donkey to make it go faster.

They simply couldn’t bring themselves to do that.

After hearing this, Qin Jin went back and fetched another 50 wen. Though things were looking very promising, he didn’t want to get ahead of himself. It had only been three days of trial sales—who knew what the future held?

He had to take it step by step.

Zhang Qi and his husband had no objections. Either way, their family was making a profit. They didn’t have to go out to sell, yet could still earn money. They also hoped Qin Jin’s business would run smoothly and last a long time.

After returning from the Zhang family, Qin Jin went to the old courtyard to fetch the cart. He loaded the wheat and corn they had washed yesterday onto the cart, preparing to head to the village entrance to grind it into flour.

There was a large stone mill at the village entrance, purchased collectively by the villagers, and available for anyone to use.

It was just after mealtime—typically the hottest time of day—and since no one liked to queue in this heat, it was the perfect time to grind flour.

Naturally, Ye Miao insisted on going too. He told Zhao Feng to go home and rest, while he followed Qin Jin to the village entrance.

When the two arrived, they found someone already at the mill.

Qin Jin saw who it was, set down the cart, and walked over, saying, “Brother An, take a break. I’ll take over.”

The person was none other than Qin An, the original body’s cousin—a slightly older, unmarried young ger.

Qin An was more robust than the average young ger, with a somewhat dull personality. Though he had delicate features, he hadn’t managed to secure a good marriage match for Zhu Erhong, and over the years had fallen further out of her favor.

In the sweltering midday heat, he had been left to push the heavy stone mill and grind flour. Who knew how long he had been at it—his face and head were now soaked with sweat.