After it got completely dark, the Shen Dashan family finally sat down for dinner.
The newly harvested rice smelled especially fragrant. In past years, they would sell most of the grain after paying taxes to save money, but now that the household was a little better off, Li Shantao took charge and cooked a thick porridge. She added soybeans to it, making it much more nourishing than before.
Shen Ruo cooked a simple stir-fried sweet potato vine, tender and bright green, and also made a pot of [1]Wuyi vinegar chicken is a traditional Chinese dish from the Wuyi region. It features chicken cooked with a special type of aged vinegar, giving the dish a rich, aromatic, and slightly tangy flavor. … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1842824_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1842824_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });Wuyi vinegar chicken, so fragrant that it made everyone wish they could swallow their tongues.
Once everyone had eaten their fill, Shen Ruo said, “I’ve made a deal, and I’ll need mother and sister-in-law’s help. If we do it well, it could become a long-term business.”
So far, he had only told Li Shantao; the rest of the family didn’t know yet.
“Our Ruo’er is really making a name for himself!” Shen Feng said, happily drinking another half bowl of porridge.
Liu Shan was surprised too, but soon smiled, and Ergou clapped his hands excitedly: “Little Uncle is amazing!”
Even Shen Dashan looked a bit surprised, but he was always tight-lipped and, having quarreled with Shen Ruo for so long, didn’t know how to respond.
Shen Ruo explained his plans for the future to the family, and they listened carefully, nodding occasionally.
Shen Ruo said, “Tomorrow, one of the aunties will bring her own cloth to trade for meat and eggs. We’ll also need a scale.”
The Shen household was too poor to own a scale, so they would have to borrow one from another family.
“Alright, I’ll go borrow one from the village head later,” Liu Shan said.
After covering all the upcoming matters, Shen Ruo felt he hadn’t missed anything, and then brought up the plan to repair the fence.
Shen Feng slammed the table in anger, “That Shen Fugui is nothing but trouble! Even the mother sheep almost got harmed!”
“After tomorrow’s harvest, I’ll stay up all night and put up a fence,” Shen Feng said.
Shen Ruo knew his brother was impatient and would act immediately, but since harvest work was already exhausting, he planned to hire someone else to do it. Now that the family had some money, they should spend when needed and save when they could, overworking themselves to save a little would be counterproductive.
Shen Feng understood Shen Ruo’s thoughtfulness and felt a warmth in his heart.
During the day, Shen Ruo had spent a long time out in the sun with Xiao Yuntun. Perhaps it was his imagination, but it seemed that the jaundice had noticeably receded.
Because of Shen Fugui sneaking into the house, Shen Ruo no longer dared to leave Xiao Yuntun alone in his room.
At this moment, everyone was eating in the main house, so he brought Xiao Yuntun over and placed him on Shen Dashan and Li Shantao’s bed.
Xiao Yuntun listened to his father speak and kept babbling “ah-woo, ah-woo,” which made everyone laugh.
After finishing his meal, Ergou excitedly lay by the bed watching his little brother, shaking the new grass-woven grasshopper toy he had gotten from his uncle to amuse Yuntun.
Xiao Yuntun’s big, grape-like eyes followed the toy everywhere, it was endlessly entertaining.
The Shens were a hardworking family. After dinner, they cleaned up the square table, wiping the surface thoroughly. The coarse ceramic bowls and wooden chopsticks were washed and set to dry.
In this era, there wasn’t much to do after a meal. If one didn’t want to go out to gossip with others, most of the time the family would just sit around the table and talk after dinner.
Some of the aunties couldn’t sit still at home, so they would stand outside with their bowls, chatting while eating, as if that somehow made the food taste better.
Shen Ruo recalled that his grandmother had been the same. When he was little, he often squatted outside with his bowl, listening to the neighboring grandmothers gossip. He treated it all as stories.
During the day, everyone had their own work to do, so after dinner was the only real free time.
Once the family was seated at the table, Li Shantao went to lock the doors and windows. At a time like this, it was the perfect moment to inventory the household assets.
Li Shantao took out the silver coins that Shen Ruo had entrusted to her and placed them on the table.
Shen Feng’s mouth dropped in shock: “This…”
Shen Dashan had worked hard for most of his life and had never seen so much silver. He was moved, his face flushing red. Even if he had earned this much before, supporting the family’s expenses meant he could never save silver. Being able to accumulate enough for a proper house, marry Shen Feng off, and cover the household’s daily needs was already a huge accomplishment.
Li Shantao looked proud: “This is all earned by Ruo’er!”
Liu Shan was astonished and quickly asked, “All from selling patterns? But just those cotton handkerchiefs, how could it amount to so much?”
Shen Ruo explained, “This is a deposit. From now on, any new patterns or toys our family produces can only be sold to this boss. The payment will be deducted from this silver first. I’m running a monopoly business with him.”
So for now, the plan was to save on costs and make more interesting little items.
Shen Feng laughed, genuinely impressed: “Our Ruo’er is really something! The boss liked your patterns too, and your sister-in-law even embroidered one on my underclothes!”
Ergou immediately chimed in: “Mother even embroidered mine! It says Ergou!”
Liu Shan felt a little embarrassed and apologetic: “I didn’t realize you were planning to do business like this. I just thought you were making them to sell in town. I wanted to practice my embroidery, but I was afraid others would copy it, so I embroidered it on Shen Feng and Ergou’s clothes. If it’s sold to that boss, will it have to be removed?”
“Sister-in-law, we’re family, we don’t have to worry about outside opinions. If we wear these patterns ourselves, the boss won’t say anything. As long as they’re not sold or given away, it’s fine,” Shen Ruo said.
“I never thought of it that way,” Shen Feng scratched his head, his bronze skin a little flushed. “Ruo’er, your drawings are much better than before. I still remember when you were little, you used to draw tortoises on people’s doors with firewood sticks.”
N—No, don’t remind me. He really didn’t want to hear about that dark history.
Li Shantao laughed and added, “Right? But, to be fair, those tortoises actually looked decent.”
Stop, stop!
Shen Ruo quickly changed the subject: “I set the price for these handkerchiefs at fifteen wen each. Smaller patterns cost less.”
“Fifteen wen?!” Li Shantao had assumed that it would take several years to cover that much silver. She thought each cotton handkerchief was worth four or five wen at most, and never expected they could sell for fifteen!
Shen Ruo nodded with a smile: “That’s after a discount. The original price was thirty wen.”
He smiled slyly, like a fox, his phoenix-like eyes narrowing slightly. He had originally thought of thirty wen per handkerchief, and saying the original price was fifty wen was just to leave room for bargaining with the boss.
As it turned out, Lan Fan bargained it down to thirty wen, the exact price Shen Ruo had hoped for, and he almost laughed himself silly.
“Th-thirty wen?!” Now Liu Shan was shocked. This price was comparable to handkerchiefs embroidered by professional embroiderers in the town’s embroidery houses.
The handkerchiefs were small, about the size of two palms, and the embroidered part was also small, so making one didn’t take long.
She remembered that Aunt Zhang from the village, who had bought an embroidery pattern book in town, had once mentioned in a chat that wealthy families liked to hire professional embroiderers. Those women, trained in embroidery houses, would only earn about twenty wen for making a handkerchief for a madam or young lady, far less than the money they made for clothing.
If Shen Ruo could sell one for thirty wen, that was ten wen more than a professional embroiderer could earn!
Liu Shan’s heart surged with pride. This was her work, enhanced by Shen Ruo’s influence. A natural sense of accomplishment rose within her.
“Yes,” Shen Ruo said with a smile, “in the future, if we make more intricate patterns, they could sell for even more. Lan Fan will probably bargain hard, but then I’ll explain the value and firmly defend the price in my mind.”
Liu Shan nodded vigorously: “I feel full of energy now! Let’s start embroidering! This is real money, every extra handkerchief earns fifteen wen, and without discounts later, that’s thirty wen each!”
She had never dared to dream of this before. Shen Feng would help with the fieldwork, while the household expenses, food, oil, salt, sauces, were all covered by her mother-in-law. Shen Feng contributed labor but never asked for money.
The money they managed to save each year came from Shen Feng doing odd jobs in town, a few copper coins at a time, and it was exhausting for him.
Now Liu Shan thought that if she could embroider more handkerchiefs, their little household would be much more comfortable, and her husband wouldn’t have to work so hard. Before this, she had never imagined that the skills she had only used to patch clothes for her family could actually earn money.
Shen Ruo thought to himself that no wonder Shen Feng married Liu Shan, they were both fiery, impulsive types, always itching to act on whatever idea came to mind immediately.
He smiled and said, “No rush. The first batch of handkerchiefs, the koi pattern and the cat paw pattern, will only have five pieces each. The previous two were just samples, so they don’t count. Delivery isn’t until the end of the month, so there’s still about ten days. Mother and sister-in-law can take their time embroidering. Tomorrow, when the aunts bring the fabric, I’ll decide what new patterns would be suitable.”
Li Shantao nodded, and Liu Shan also nodded, restraining the excitement burning inside her. She really was a little impatient.
Lan Fan wanted to implement Shen Ruo’s marketing strategy at the start of next month, so by now he should have already begun preparing for the promotion phase.
Shen Ruo talked with him for a long time and even gave him some ideas for distributing flyers. Soon, everyone in town would know that at the beginning of next month, Lanshan Jewelry would launch a “buy jewelry, get a gift” event, and it would be for limited edition items!
Anything labeled “limited edition” could sell at a premium. After all, if only I have it and no one else does, showing it off is so satisfying!
Shen Ruo also shared a little personal idea: a decorative ribbon for the handkerchiefs with Xiao Yuntun’s name drawn on it, intentionally lengthened as a trademark. He had even tried it on for Lan Fan that day, and it really added charm to a plain outfit. Even if you wore a solid-colored outfit, pairing it with a contrasting handkerchief instantly made the outfit look stylish.
This trademark ribbon also needed embroidery, but it didn’t require his mother or sister-in-law. Such simple work could easily be handed to village aunts skilled in embroidery.
As long as there was pay, Shen Ruo was confident many would come.
Thinking of wages, Shen Ruo said, “Mother and sister-in-law will be paid for their embroidery work. After deducting the cost, each handkerchief earns ten wen. The remaining five wen will be saved as capital to buy fabric in the future.”
Li Shantao’s embroidery wasn’t as skilled as Liu Shan’s, so she would handle the simpler cat paw appliqué, while Liu Shan embroidered the koi.
“This is the pay for Mother and sister-in-law. I’ll give it to you in advance,” Shen Ruo said, counting out fifty copper coins for each and pushing them forward.
“Mother will save it to help our Ruo’er get a husband one day!” Li Shantao laughed as she accepted the coins. She was more convinced than ever that her Ruo’er was exceptional, and no one else was worthy.
Shen Ruo rubbed his forehead. To be honest, now that he had Xiao Yuntun, he wasn’t really thinking about finding another father for his son.
Even though he was still called a “Ge’er,” Shen Ruo had a man’s heart.
Besides, one father was more than enough for his son!
Liu Shan didn’t take it. She thought for a moment and said, “This is too much. Even though I embroidered the handkerchiefs, the patterns were your idea, Ruo’er. I can’t take so much.”
Although she wanted to earn money, she couldn’t take advantage of her little uncle.
“If we’re going to split it so strictly, the fabric still came from sister-in-law. Every bit of thread and needle cost money, didn’t it?” Shen Ruo knew his family were honest folks who didn’t like taking advantage of others. But honestly, splitting things too clearly could hurt feelings. “If sister-in-law refuses, then the fifty wen for ten handkerchiefs will also count the fabric money for you.”
“No, no, no. I’ll take it,” Liu Shan said, her eyes a little misty with emotion as she looked at Shen Ruo. “I’ll save it for Ergou, for when he gets married in the future!”
Well, it seemed the whole family were money-saving fanatics.
Shen Ruo smiled. In his previous life, so many people had been brainwashed by the idea that money was “earned, not saved.” But they never thought: if you earn little and spend a lot, how much would you have left in hand?
Besides, you always regret having too little when you actually need it. If you can both earn money and save money at the same time, why choose just one?
Naturally… you take both!
Author’s note:
Li Shantao: Saving money to help Ruo’er find a husband!
Liu Shan: Saving money to help Ergou get married!
Shen Ruo: Save money! Saving money is for living a better life! (Philosophical upgrade)
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