Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 209
Ingredients for Goat Hotpot
It was already past the fifteenth of January, and the workshop had continued working, but Chi Jie hadn’t returned yet, and it wasn’t sure if there was something at home keeping him from returning. Without him there, the workshop seemed like it was lacking its backbone.
This day, Mo Yan and Lu Juning were sitting in the office and staring into space bored out of their mind when they heard the sound of the front door opening. Lu Junming poked his head out to take a look, and it was Ze Wu opening the door. Chi Jie got out of the carriage and walked over with his hands behind his back.
After a call of ‘I, your father, have arrived,” the workers in the workshop all greeted Chi Jie, and even the drowsy Mo Yan immediately returned to her senses, leaped up and ran outside. [1]
“Chi Jie, you’ve finally returned, you spent too long away during the New Year!”
Chi Jie replied breezily, “I had to deal with a few things, or I would’ve returned a few days ago.”
Lu Junming stood at the doorway with his hands behind his back, “What is it, was your family talking about you getting engaged?”
“How did you know?”
“Aside from that, what else would you have to deal with? When you came back this time, your family members saw that you’ve become ‘normal’, so wouldn’t they naturally think about getting you engaged?”
“Don’t talk about me for now, I have an important thing to talk to you about.”
He dragged Lu Junming into the office, and even closed the door, appearing secretive.
“Lu Junming, did you know? Provincial Official Liu’s been dismissed from his position.”
Provincial Official Liu, wasn’t that Lu Hong’s father-in-law?
“Why?”
“I heard that it was because he said Prince Yi was a traitor and committed treason against the country.”
Saying that the new emperor had committed treason against the country and only losing his official position was a light punishment. Without this backer, Lu Hong’s wife’s arrogance would have to be diminished, then did that mean Ms. Jiao could enter the household?
Lu Junming was still lost in thought, and Chi Jie said, “At this point, that Mrs. Liu should be grovelling in front of your father and begging him not to divorce her. She hadn’t given birth to a son, so your father could have taken a concubine. If she refuses, it wouldn’t be overstepping to divorce her.”
Mo Yan heard this from the side, and became angered, “Should she be divorced just because she didn’t give birth to a son? The woman has no say in whether the child is born male or female, and you’re blaming her?”
“She forbade Junming’s father from taking concubines, so she’s a shrew, and deserves to be divorced!”
Mo Yan’s face turned as dark as a stormy night, and she raised her hand to slap the table, “Then I’ll also be a shrew, strangers should stay away from me!”
Lu Junming faced Chi Jie, and Chi Jie shook his head, “Junming, you’re done for!”
Lu Junming grabbed a piece of paper on the table and scrunched it into a ball, “You’re the one who’s done for, you’re the one who said everything!” [2]
Mo Yan went to the storefront, and it just so happened that Liang Lan and Chuzi’s newly-imported goods had arrived, and they were discussing where to put them.
She heard Chuzi say, “Manager Liang, this pottery might break easily, should we move it further back?”
Liang Lan said, “Place it to the side! We need to put people’s daily goods to the back, so people coming and going can see these luxuries and come over to take a look out of interest, and might even take a liking to it.”
“You have a point, let’s do it.”
Mo Yan strode in and said, “My two managers seem to be getting along nowadays!”
Chuzi said, “I made the wager voluntarily, and I’ll accept my forfeit voluntarily.”
Liang Lan said, “I only got the victory due to sheer luck, and it isn’t something I should be proud of.”
Cao Zhang was doing the accounts with an abacus behind the counter, acting like he wasn’t hearing anything they were saying.
After the engagement with the Lu family was cancelled, his mother didn’t force him to try and take the imperial examination again. Recently, his body had improved a lot, and he became much more energetic.
“Yan’er, do you remember the time we had hotpot at ours? You said you’d sell hotpot ingredients, but you haven’t done it yet!”
“You’re right! It just so happens that Chi Jie has come back, and we haven’t gathered together for a long time now. We’ll have goat hotpot at godmother’s tonight, and we’ll carefully pick out the ingredients for it.”
Ms. Hua bought all of the necessary ingredients, and Mo Yan and Chi Jie tried to create the soup base based off their memories. [3]
While they were experimenting, Chi Jie said, “These things all have flavours, and they wouldn’t be too suitable to be sold in the commercial firms and storefronts.”
Mo Yan thought about the Yanling storefront she and her storefront used to run, “There’s still an empty storefront in the alleyway, how about we sell it there. Aside from the ingredients for hotpot, we can also continue to sell my mother’s side dishes and salted duck eggs.”
“That’s not a bad idea, but who would sell them?”
Mo Yan had a person in mind, but she wasn’t in the position to give this benefit over to them.
The person she was thinking of was Xiuying. She was intelligent and capable, and it wouldn’t be an issue for her to run a small storefront. She could also work with Mo Feng to run the storefront, and on top of growing medicinal herbs, they definitely wouldn’t have financial problems in the future, and Ms. Liang wouldn’t keep asking her for money.
Mo Yan said, “How can we not include Zhao’er when eating good food, I’ll drive a carriage to go and pick him up!”
Lu Junming wanted to accompany her, but she said, “There’s no need, I want to go home and discuss something with my mother.”
Ms. Liang wasn’t confident about opening and running a storefront, but making side dishes was a cakewalk for her. In addition, the rent for the storefront wasn’t high, so making a profit wouldn’t be a problem. On top of that, the storefront wasn’t far from Mo Zenian’s, so they could compare with each other and beat Mo Zenian, which Ms. Liang was itching to do.
“Alright, then I’ll rent the storefront.”
Of course, she lacked Mo Zenian’s experience, and didn’t even ask about the rental contract.
“Then I’ll go back home to prepare the contract, you can just sign when the time comes. I’ll waive the deposit, but you still have to pay rent, since that’s Ms. Hua’s courtyard. If there are suitable goods in the future, I’ll think about letting you sell them.”
It was within Mo Yan’s expectations when just three days after she discussed this matter with Ms. Liang, Xiuying and Mo Feng went over to tidy up the storefront. When they saw Mo Yan, they regarded her passionately, like she was the owner of the storefront.
Mo Yan called Mo Feng to the back to sign the contract, “Is sister Xiuying going to be helping out in the storefront from now on?”
“Yes, women are more suitable for selling miscellaneous snacks.”
“That’s true, how about her pay?”
“We’re going to be all part of the same family soon, it’d seem odd to raise the topic of money.”
Mo Yan sighed internally, “Even blood-related brothers have a clear division of finances, when you get married in the future, you’ll naturally be part of the same family, but you still aren’t right now. If she’s willing to help out, pay her a monthly salary, it’ll be enough to pay her wages equivalent to a worker at the workshop, or slightly higher, since working at the storefront is more stressful than at the workshop. You can’t open a storefront and just let her be a manager who only collects money.”
“Alright, I know!”
Xiuying’s work truly couldn’t be criticised, and she had tidied up the entire storefront in just a day, and would be placing the goods the next day.
The next day, Ms. Liang and Mo Feng arrived at town with their donkey and carriage to place all of the goods. Looking at the clean and tidy storefront, Ms. Liang felt a sense of relief.
Xiuying was especially busy, and kept responding to Ms. Liang with ‘Auntie’, and even Ms. Hua couldn’t help but compliment her, “Yan’er’s mother, your daughter-in-law is really capable, you’ll have good fortune in the future!”
It’s true that in most people’s eyes, the talentless Mo Feng being able to marry Xiuying was like placing incense on the ancestors’ pyre.
When Ms. Liang heard that, she felt sweetness in her heart, “That’s right! She can spend good days with us. Us farmers don’t hope for much, but just want to live a good, stable life.”
P.S. Thanks for reading!
[1] A common way to sarcastically refer to yourself ‘arrogantly’ is ‘your father’ or ‘your mother’. This is a modern invention.
[2] I’m not quite sure why Chi Jie’s acting out of character, but I’m not going to question it? That argument just seemed contrived.
[3] So…are they good, or what?