Chapter 223 (1/2)
By the time the warmth of spring arrived, the Yu Family's green vegetables were already ready to sell. At this time, other people hadn't even scattered vegetable seeds onto the ground. The four mu of land in the front courtyard were all planted with green vegetables that had short growing cycles. In general, most green vegetables required twenty to forty days to finish growing. However, their family's produce still only required twenty days to be ready for harvest, and this was during a time when snow had fallen twice.
As the rest of the world was recovering from the silence of winter, the whole courtyard was filled with lush and verdant green vegetables. It was a sight that comforted people's hearts. Lady Fang, who was now eight months pregnant and on the verge of childbirth, strolled in the vegetable fields every day with one hand supporting her back and the other cradling her belly. Not only was she able to get some exercise but she also felt her spirits rise whenever she looked at the growing plants.
Every morning, multiple carts came to and from the Yu Family's residence, purchasing vegetables. Most of these customers were the wealthy families in town. Last winter, Zhenxiu Restaurant made a killing off of their oyster sauce green vegetables dishes, which cost five taels a plate. Because the Yao Family had fresh vegetables last year, their reputation rose within the town. This year, some people found out early where they bought their food from and had especially signed a contract with the Yu Family well in advance. They were afraid that if they didn't come to an agreement early, there wouldn't be any spots left for them to become a customer.
The Yu Family's vegetables grew very well, and each stalk was healthy and flouris.h.i.+ng. They looked so tender that it seemed as if one pinch could draw out water. They weren't cheap though. Other than Zhenxiu Restaurant and the Yao Family, who were given last year's prices as old customers, the rest of the new customers had to pay a third higher to obtain these vegetables.
Although each of the Yu Family's four mu of fields was able to produce around three thousand five hundred catties of vegetables, it still wasn't enough to satisfy the town's demands for fresh produce. Following the rule of 'first come first serve', the Yu Family chose the first ten families that approached them as their customers of the year. Luckily, each family didn't buy too many vegetables every day, so they were able to supply them all.
The Liu Family's eldest son, who was Xiaocao's eldest maternal uncle, had been enlightened after his business with selling watermelons, so he bought his own donkey and cart. Using his cart, he hauled a bunch of fresh vegetables every few days from his younger sister's home to the prefectural city. Because he had General Fang's help, he was able to find ready customers from the city's grocery stands. Whenever he pulled into the city with his cart full of vegetables, he no longer had to wait for customers to buy. Instead, all he had to do was arrive at a grocery store, weigh all of his vegetables, and get paid before he headed back. Although he made less profit doing this than selling at market price, it wasn't as exhausting for him.
Liu Pei wasn't someone who would take advantage of his younger sister and brother-in-law. The three of them disputed the wholesale prices for half a day and finally came to an agreed price. They would sell the vegetables to him at the same price they sold to Zhenxiu Restaurant. Originally, Liu Pei was trying to get them to sell the vegetables to him at the higher price the other eight families were paying, but Yu Hai resolutely rejected that idea. Luckily, he was the only source of such fresh vegetables in the prefectural city. Even if he sold all of it at a wholesale price to the grocery stores, the price was still much higher than what he paid for. Liu Pei was therefore able to earn dozens of taels of profit for each run he did.
As for harvesting the vegetables, the Yu Family, once again, had more work than they could deal with. Thus, they spent some money to hire some scrupulous young girls and matrons to help. Every day, they received a salary of twenty copper coins for four hours of work. In the past, twenty copper coins could only be earned by a brawny man doing hard labor for a day.
Ever since the construction of the harbor started, the need for labor steadily increased. Naturally, salaries slowly went up. An adult man in his prime could earn around thirty to fifty copper coins a day. However, these people were all doing back-breaking labor to earn this money. How could it compare to working at the Yu Family picking vegetables for four hours?
Anyone in the village who could make a connection with the Yu Family did their best to cozy up. Thus, there were many people who came around. However, the Yu Family only needed around a dozen people to help out. Since all of the women who came over were known to them, it made Madam Liu very worried. She didn't know how to refuse any of them.
Xiaoao knew her mother's personality well, so she gave her a couple of presents and had her mother go back to her maternal family for a couple of days. Ever since she married over to the Yu Family, she never went back to her maternal family as she was afraid that Madam Zhang would be unhappy. After they separated from the family, they were so busy that there was no time to even rest, so she had very few opportunities to go back. Now, using this opportunity, Xiaocao had her mother go back to her home to rest for a few days and enjoy the time with her parents.
As for the sticky job of hiring people, that was left to her G.o.dmother's two handmaids. Those who were able to become the primary handmaids of the managing lady of the residence definitely weren't simple. These two maids knew when to be careful and when to reveal their shrewish sides for the benefit of their mistress. In addition, they also had the support of the general and his wife. Even if the women asking for a job got rejected, they couldn't do or say anything.
The two maids were also quite clever. They wrote down the details of every person who came by asking for the position into a small book. By doing that, they were able to a.n.a.lyze the connections and relations.h.i.+ps that each prospective candidate had. Using that knowledge, they chose a dozen from the bunch. After dispatching the messages to everyone, they instructed the new workers arrive at five in the morning sharp every day. Those who were late naturally had their salary deducted. As for the other people who came by, the two handmaids looked at them with calm expressions and merely stated, ”In the future, when there is more work, we will first consider you” before sending them off.
The workers included the following people: Shuanzhu's wife, Ergou's wife, Xiaocao's two paternal aunts (Yu Xi and Yu Jiang's wives), Xiaocao's older female cousin (Yu Xi's eldest daughter), Zhou Shanhu who was trying to earn some pocket money, and some other women who had decent relations.h.i.+ps with the Yu Family. All of these people knew that Zhenzhu and Linglong chose them because they were good friends with the Yu Family, so they worked especially hard.
All of them were used doing work in the village, so the task of picking vegetables wasn't considered hard. Every day, they were able to finish four hours of work in two. Furthermore, there wasn't even a speck of dirt on the vegetables and they were all stacked neatly. All of the servants who came over to buy vegetables praised them for being hardworking and nimble.
There wasn't much work left to be done at home, so Xiaocao wanted to rest a bit. Before two days pa.s.sed, Xiaolian called her over to the docks to help. Xiaolian's business at the docks had continued to grow. Now that it was spring, the docks, which had been more quiet over the winter, were now becoming more and more busy.
The docks had workers, which meant that there were also people selling food. The mornings and evenings were a bit chilly in the early spring, so they had stopped selling starch jelly last autumn. Xiaolian and Eldest Maternal Aunt were now busy with their noodles and braised food stand. There was so much work that they couldn't keep up.