Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 252
Virgin Urine Tofu
Duan Caimei couldn’t stand this kind of heartless mother the most, ‘Even if she is a girl, you were the one who gave birth to her. I am also a girl, but because my grandfather is a court official, people have to respect me. It’s you, her parents who didn’t give her a decent status, but instead trampled on her dignity. How can there be parents like you in the world?’
Everyone agreed with Duan Caimei and said that Mrs. Liang shouldn’t be so mean to her daughter.
Mrs. Liang went back to her shop, packing up her things and angrily dumping all the rotten side dishes on the street.
When the shop was empty, Mo Yan said towards Mo Ling, ‘Sis, that shop belongs to you now, I see that your place here is too small and isn’t enough for you.’
Mo Ling nodded, ‘I’ll pay rent on time.’
They now have two shops, one selling side dishes and the other selling tofu products. Mo Ling and Zhong Cheng each looked after one shop.
Zao’er was already able to run around, and could also speak fluently. The older he got, the naughtier he became.
One day, Mo Ling was busy with something so Mo Ling took him to the shop. There was a barrel of tofu waiting to solidify, and after a moment of inattention from Mo Ling and Zhong Cheng, Zao’er stood on a small stool and peed on it.
When Mo Ling went to see if the tofu was ready, she smelled a strange odour, and then looked at Zao’er, who had narrowed his eyes and had a mischievous smile.
‘What are you laughing at, what did you put into the tank?’
Zao’er smiled cheekily, ‘Nothing much, just urine.’
‘Why! You…’
Looking at the people coming and going in the alleyway, Mo Ling didn’t dare to raise her voice, but only called Zhong Cheng over, pointing at the barrel of tofu, ‘Your son peed in it, what should we do?’
Zhong Cheng questioned Zao’er with a stern face, ‘Really?’
Zao’er nodded vigorously and Zhong Cheng couldn’t help but laugh, ‘Child’s urine is a medicine, and it’s hard to find sometimes! It’s fine.’ [1]
‘You might be willing to eat your son’s urine, but others might not be. This barrel of tofu can’t be sold anymore, let’s pour it out.”
‘It’d be a shame to waste it, why don’t we sell it for cheaper?’
‘No! We need to run our business honestly.’
‘Then tell everyone that there is our son’s urine in it. We’ll sell it cheaper, and they can buy it if they want to. We aren’t cheating them.’
His words made sense, and that barrel of tofu had already been made. Mo Ling had Mo Yan write a sign saying ‘contains virgin urine’.
This tofu was a third cheaper than usual, and not only were people willing to buy it, there were people who specifically came to buy it.
Of course, for those who dislike virgin urine, they could buy normal tofu at the usual price.
After Ms. Hua heard about this, she also came to buy a block of virgin urine tofu, ‘Zhao’er coming back today, I’ll make slippery tofu for him.’
Mo Ling looked at Zao’er, who was playing to the side, ‘Godmother Wu, this child is really too naughty, and my shop is busy, so I really can’t take care of him. I want to trouble you to help me take care of him, how much money would you find reasonable?’
‘What are you talking about, paying me back? You just want me to look after a child, and I brought Zhao’er up personally, don’t worry!’
‘Then I’ll pay you one silver tael a month, and I’ll pay for all of his food and drink.’
Ever since this incident, the regulars of the alleyway all knew Mo Ling and her husband’s businesses had integrity. Their business became better and better, but Zao’er was causing chaos in Ms. Hua’s courtyard.
Zao’er was getting more and more energetic, and couldn’t help but make a ruckus every day. Inside the house, out in the courtyard, he didn’t spare anything that could move.
That would be fine, but Ms. Hua feared he would find the well in the courtyard. Although the windlass is set up at the mouth of the well, it couldn’t stop him from crawling into it!
Zhao’er picked up a small brick and threw it into the well, and listening to the sound of it plopping in the water, he became more and more curious. He approached the mouth of the well to take a better look inside the black hole, actually sitting in the bucket attached to the windlass, and wanted to go down. Fortunately, Ms. Hua found him in time and pulled him out.
This scared Ms. Hua out of her wits, if something happened to the child at her place, how could she explain it to his parents? She didn’t dare take care of him anymore.
It was surprising, Zao’er was incredibly mischievous and didn’t even listen to Mo Ling’s words, but was always obedient towards Mo Yan. Mo Ling said this was because every thing was a natural counter to another thing, and Mo Yan was Zao’er perfect counter.
Mo Yan could only bring him around with her. Zao’er would still be naughty, but ultimately didn’t do anything inappropriate and just had fun.
The cotton hadn’t been harvested yet, so the workshop could only do the exterior of the winter clothing, and fill the cotton in later.
The work schedule wasn’t rushed, so Mo Yan decided not to lease the work out and only recruited some more workers to the workshop
With more workers, the number of managers also needed to be increased. Managers would be paid 200 dollars more than ordinary workers. Xiuying, unable to let go of this opportunity, took the initiative to ask for a management role.
She wasn’t on good terms with Mo Yan and was afraid that she would refuse so she talked to Chi Jie, who agreed to save face.
Everyone in the workshop knew Xiuying was Mo Yan’s sister-in-law, so usually followed her bidding. Now that she had become a manager, Xiuying no longer did any work, and she even instructed others to do her managerial duties.
One day, Mo Yan and Chi Jie were in the office discussing how to increase production. The two of them agreed to change the original salaried pay to piecework pay, which would increase the motivation of the workers more.
The man who supervised the workshop knocked on the door and came in, but he stammered and couldn’t say anything. However, his eyes kept glancing towards Mo Yan.
She took one look and understood what was going on. ‘Did my sister-in-law make a mistake?’
He nodded, abashed. ‘Their group not only works less than others, but the quality is poor too. This is military clothing, I’m afraid that it’ll be bad if it causes trouble for the workshop in the future.’
“I’ll go and take a look.”
When Mo Yan entered the workshop, she saw Xiuying sitting there, drinking tea and leisurely eating sunflower seeds. Then she looked at the workers under her control, who were nominally working but actually chatting and joking in twos and threes.
Seeing Mo Yan come in, Xiuying hurriedly put down the sunflower seeds and awkwardly said, ‘I just divided the work, and have just sat down for a water break.’
Mo Yan smiled. ‘Don’t worry about it, you can keep resting. Anyways, from now on you will be paid by commission, the more you work the more money you get. If you just drink tea and eat sunflower seeds, it’s fine, you just won’t get any money by the end of the month. In addition, there’ll be a bonus for good quality and a penalty for bad quality. There needs to be enforced rules and clear rewards and punishments to maintain order.’
She turned back and told the supervisor, ‘In the future, before the end of the day, report the quantity and quality of work done by each group for that day to me, and I’ll make a record. At the end of the month, we will give everyone a grade according to that, and pay everyone accordingly. This will start this month.’
The productive workers all stopped and clapped. ‘It should have been like this a long time ago. If you get the same result no matter how hard you work, who would work hard?’
Xiuying heard that, and according to this calculation, she wouldn’t be able to get much money this month, ‘You are deliberately targeting me!’
Mo Yan nodded. ‘Yes! But I’m not targeting my sister-in-law, but the workers in this workshop. This isn’t a charity, and I don’t keep idle people. If you want to make money by drinking tea and eating sunflower seeds, become the manager of a large business.’
She turned to leave, and said one last thing, ‘Those who want to stay will do a good job, and those who want to leave won’t stay.’
P.S. Banged this chapter out in record time, I think I’m getting faster at this. Thanks for reading!
[1] Yes, this is actually considered traditional Chinese medicine. Yes, I find it revolting.