Chapter 105: Female Workers 2/2

Li Qingzhi was in a very good mood.

In the past, no matter what dangers he was about to face, no one cared about him.

Now, he was just going out for a while, accompanying Magistrate Guo, but Jin Xiaoye and the two children were so worried…

In the end, Li Qingzhi received a headband with many hidden silver coins inside, as well as a pair of shoes with hidden iron pieces.

These shoes were quite heavy, and coupled with the iron pieces hidden inside, Li Qingzhi felt that kicking someone at the right angle with these shoes would definitely injure them with the iron pieces.

Early the next morning, Li Qingzhi got up.

Magistrate Guo was planning to depart around noon, so Li Qingzhi wasn’t in a hurry. After getting up, he helped Jin Xiaoye prepare breakfast.

In the future, for those female workers in the county who didn’t live in the dormitory, they would be provided with two meals a day. Breakfast would be served around seven in the morning and lunch around noon. They would be allowed to go home for dinner in the evening.

These female workers were mostly married, and they were not willing to spend the whole day in the dormitory.

As for the apprentices living in the dormitory, dinner would also be provided around five in the evening.

Recently, the weather had turned hot, so the days began earlier. According to modern timekeeping, it would start to get light around five in the morning and become dark around six in the evening.

As summer approached, the days would become longer… This mealtime was the most comfortable for everyone.

Preparing meals for so many people was quite troublesome. Jin Xiaoye even had to add two more stoves and buy two larger pots.

Fortunately, the kitchen was spacious enough to accommodate them.

“We’ve almost spent all the money at home. Luckily, Wu Baichuan paid most of the money in advance this time,” Jin Xiaoye sighed.

In recent months, their expenses had been particularly high, especially now that they had to purchase fabric, which cost a lot of money.

Because they were short on money, the plan to have a carpenter make bunk beds had to be put on hold, and for now, those girls had to sleep on the floor.

“In a few days, I’ll find a way to earn some money,” Li Qingzhi said.

Jin Xiaoye couldn’t help but laugh. “You don’t need to worry about earning money. Just focus on studying!”

“Okay,” Li Qingzhi smiled.

In the morning, Jin Xiaoye didn’t prepare any complicated dishes. She simply used the two large pots she had bought to cook two pots of porridge, boiled fifty eggs in the original small pot in the kitchen, and stir-fried some pickles.

While she was cooking, Jin Xiaoye and Jin Sangshu brought nineteen girls from Miaoqian Village.

These girls were all very thin; there are no fat people nowadays.

Among them, four looked good in their appearance and clothes, indicating that they should come from better-off families. The rest of the girls were thin and shabby.

All of them chose to stay with Jin Xiaoye, so they all brought bedding with them. The bedding of the first four girls looked quite good, while the bedding of the others was tattered. There were even a few who didn’t have bedding and said they would squeeze in and sleep with someone else.

Seeing them, Jin Xiaoye thought of her past.

Back then, she didn’t even have a new piece of clothing.

“Find a place to put down your bedding and come drink porridge,” Jin Xiaoye smiled.

These girls found a place to put their things and then lined up to drink porridge.

Being from a rural background herself, Jin Xiaoye knew that people of this age, even girls, had big appetites.

She specially bought some new pottery bowls from the new pier to serve them full bowls of porridge, added a large spoonful of pickles to their porridge, and gave each of them an egg.

These girls were extremely surprised.

This porridge was made from white rice, not brown rice!

What’s more, there were even eggs!

Even those four girls from well-off families couldn’t afford to eat eggs every day at home. Eggs were usually sold for money to buy salt.

White rice porridge was delicious on its own, not to mention having eggs… They all ate very contentedly.

The female workers in the county were also very satisfied with such meals—they came from ordinary families and rarely got to eat meat at home.

At first, Jin Xiaoye was a bit reluctant to let them eat like this, because she herself had never eaten well when she worked as a helper.

But Li Qingzhi said that if the female workers ate better, they would work harder… She gritted her teeth and decided to give them an egg for breakfast every morning and make a meat dish for them at lunch, just like at the new pier.

Today, Jin Xiaoye didn’t cook anything else. She and Li Qingzhi just ate porridge and eggs together.

The extra eggs were packed by Jin Xiaoye for Li Qingzhi to eat on the way.

After breakfast, Jin Xiaoye moved Li Qingzhi’s luggage onto Jin Xiaoshu’s boat. Then Li Qingzhi took the boat to send the two children to school first before heading to the county government office.

Jin Xiaoye didn’t go to see them off; she was too busy.

And she had already explained everything she needed to explain. She had stayed up half the night talking to Li Qingzhi…

Seeing that the female workers had finished eating, Jin Xiaoye let them go to work, and then she asked the nineteen girls to take turns boiling water and taking baths.

Although Jin Xiaoye had told the people from Miaoqian Village that she was only taking apprentices and wouldn’t pay them, she actually planned to pay them.

But looking at the appearance of these girls… She planned not to pay them for the first two months, but instead, she could make them two sets of clothes and two pairs of shoes and buy some odds and ends, such as basins.

These things would be given directly to them. If they saved for a few months, they could save up a decent dowry!

Some of the girls from Miaoqian Village had never been to the county town before.

When they set off this morning, they were particularly nervous, afraid that life would be difficult after coming to Jin Xiaoye’s place.

One of the girls was especially scared.

She was Jin Xiaoye’s distant relative, named Jin Mao’er.

Jin Mao’er had been sent by her parents to be a foster daughter in another family before. Because she was not their biological child, that family treated her very badly, not even allowing her to eat enough. When she was hungry, she could only go to the field to dig up the broad beans planted by others to eat.

When she was caught digging up broad beans by the owner of the field, that person scolded her and told her mother. Her mother cried and took her back, but she still couldn’t eat enough at home.

It wasn’t that her parents treated her unfairly; her parents couldn’t afford to eat either. Their family only had one acre of paddy fields.

This time, being sent here as an apprentice, Jin Mao’er was especially afraid, worried that she would live the same life as when she was a foster daughter.

But then… They had just arrived, and Jin Xiaoye actually gave them steaming, hot white rice porridge!

Jin Mao’er was only twelve years old, the smallest of them all, but she drank all the porridge. She didn’t eat the egg, though; she hid it away.

After eating the porridge, Jin Mao’er thought they were going to work, but Jin Xiaoye asked them to take a bath again…

After they finished bathing, Jin Xiaoye took them to work, but they didn’t have to do any heavy work, just needlework.

And to top it off, not long after they started working, it was time for lunch again, and there was meat for lunch!

Jin Xiaoye learned from her father’s suggestion about the menu at the new pier.

For lunch today, she made tofu cooked with spinach leaves, oil residue, and diced meat.

“This place is really good!” someone couldn’t help but say.

Jin Mao’er nodded earnestly, her eyes reddening.

Her family hardly ever ate meat all year round. Occasionally, when they did, it was fish and shrimp caught by her and her siblings. Those fish and shrimp had no oil, not like pork!

Working here was really too good!

This place was simply like heaven!

As for sleeping on the floor at night… Jin Mao’er’s family only had two rooms, and they even raised sheep inside… Jin Mao’er and her siblings had always lived with the sheep, and the smell was unbearable.

Sleeping upstairs in a clean brick house was too good!