Chapter 328

Shuiqing was counting money at home again.

The piglets were sold at eight hundred wen each, and the young lambs at two hundred wen each. The prices were reasonable, even considered cheap in Guangning Prefecture. The women in the village expressed gratitude and thanked her repeatedly, believing she offered such affordable prices because she cared for fellow villagers.

However, she had her own motives.

She didn’t care much for the money earned from selling livestock offspring. She hadn’t intended to rely on selling livestock to make money before, especially now that she had a steady income from the medicinal herb workshop. She wasn’t looking to get rich from this.

Initially, raising livestock was just to improve the family’s diet, ensuring fresh meat was available whenever needed.

Raising livestock was tedious and brought in little profit due to narrow profit margins and high labor costs.

The main reason she offered affordable prices was to encourage households in the village to raise livestock. Even if each household only raised a few animals, with over thirty households, that would still be over a hundred animals!

Over a hundred animals would provide a lot of material. Moreover, since all these animals would be bought as young from her, it would be mutually beneficial when their skins and fur were sold back to her later.

Shuiqing happily finished counting the money. Just as she finished storing the money away, Fan Jin walked in.

With fair skin and a hint of hesitation in his eyes, it was clear he had something to discuss.

Shuiqing took the initiative, “What’s the matter?”

Fan Jin’s dark eyes glanced around before he spoke, clearly with a proposal in mind, “Originally, I planned to finish building the schoolhouse and officially start teaching the village children after the busy farming season. But recently, when I went to town, I found many men in the village were injured. I thought these children could help at home and we could start sooner.”

Shuiqing listened attentively and nodded.

Children from poor families often started working early. Except for a few spoiled ones, most children were useful adults by their teens and could help with tasks from the age of nine. Even six or seven-year-olds could pick wild vegetables, mushrooms, and help with planting potatoes, as well as take care of younger siblings at home.

“They’re more eager to learn than I thought. So, I’m thinking, why not start in four days?” Fan Jin suggested.

“Sure, you decide on the teaching schedule,” Shuiqing said. She had no experience in teaching or deciding how to teach, so she could only defer to him. Besides, Fan Jin was essentially a high-ranking official in the future, equivalent to the head of the education department in Hua State. This was just practice for him, allowing him to accumulate experience and stay grounded in reality.

Fan Jin pursed his lips and hesitated before speaking, “The school desks and chairs have been taken care of by the former village head. They’ve also made paper—using slate as desks, tree branches as pens, and water for writing on the slate. But writing with tree branches is different from using a brush. I was wondering if…”

Shuiqing understood. No wonder Fan Jin came to discuss this with her, someone who knew nothing about it. He wanted to purchase brushes through the shopping mall?

It made sense upon consideration. A brush in the prefectural city cost at least one hundred and fifty wen, and even defective ones were priced around one hundred and twenty wen each. In the shopping mall, brushes were around nine wu and ninety wen each!

“How big is this price difference? Anyone with common sense can figure out which one is more cost-effective.”

She answered without hesitation, “Okay, I’ll buy them from the shopping mall.”

Fan Jin shook his head urgently, interrupting, “No, that’s not it. What I meant is to donate the brushes I’ve used before, and also those that Yan Qiuxing’s children have used, to the school for the village children to use.”

Although these brushes weren’t completely worn out, some were a bit bald and didn’t hold ink well, but since the village children were just starting to learn and weren’t doing formal writing, they would be completely adequate.

Shuiqing found the brushes from the shopping mall to be very cost-effective, but aside from not needing to pull out several dozen new brushes at once, he was also concerned about causing different thoughts from his mother and elder brother’s wife.

Originally, fearing jealousy from others due to their good fortune, he hadn’t expected that in the end, the person most envious and resentful would be his closest relative.

He didn’t want to attract too much attention. If Shuiqing could agree to his proposal of donating used but still usable brushes, he would be quite satisfied.

Shuiqing thought she had misunderstood. Did Fan Jin really need to consult her about giving away some used brushes?

“Okay, I have no objections. From now on, you can decide on these small matters yourself, no need to ask for my opinion.”

Fan Jin’s attractive lips lifted slightly with a satisfied smile. “You are the head of the household, of course, your opinion matters. Besides, these are valuable items.”

Shuiqing thought it was a trivial matter, considering how inexpensive the brushes were in the shopping mall. However, brushes from the Ming Dynasty weren’t inexpensive at all; this was a substantial amount of wealth, so of course, he should consult her and obtain her approval.

Shuiqing: How is she more meticulous than an ancient young bride? If you didn’t know, you would think she’s a strict mother tiger who manages him tightly!

She sighed and changed the subject, mentioning that the former village head was preparing a village feast, and Sister Guifen wanted to arrange it on the day school started.

“Since you’re planning to officially start school four days from now, I’ll go and inform Sister Guifen later.”

“Okay.”

Four days later, on the twelfth day of the twelfth month, the weather was getting colder day by day as winter approached.

The workers at the medicinal herb workshop had already put on their winter clothes early.

After the fabric arrived, the family was afraid the workers would get cold and slow down, so they quickly made their ‘work clothes’ first, even though the children at home came later!

Therefore, the first batch of workers at the medicinal herb workshop wore warm winter clothes. The neat and uniform colors looked extremely pleasing. The thin cotton clothes were close-fitting and comfortable, while the outer coarse cotton clothes with padded cotton were warm and resistant to dirt. Everyone was very satisfied with the warmth.

However, there were also those who were dissatisfied.

That would be Fan’s mother, who had caused trouble several times since she arrived. Seeing that the workers at the medicinal herb workshop didn’t dare to do anything to her, she became more and more unscrupulous, ranting day and night.

Later, she realized that just ranting was useless other than wasting her breath. Thinking that she was Fan Jin’s birth mother and Shuiqing’s mother-in-law, they couldn’t do anything to her. They couldn’t even do anything to the workers who worked for her son. When she thought about this, she changed her mind and planned to join them for lunch!

The meal was amazing! It was so delicious that she almost swallowed her tongue.

After eating two meals and not being satisfied with just eating alone, she thought of her eldest son and four grandchildren and hurried to join them before lunch.