107 – Expanding Production

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Back in town, Lei Tie first went back to the village to send Uncle Quan, Aunt Quan, and Miao Miao.

Qin Mian took Qiangzi and Ye Fengqiu to Double Xiang House. He had the waiter to take them to wash, while he took Manager Sun to the lounge.

“Manager Sun, find someone to make clothes for two storytellers as soon as you can; make them the same clothes and two sets per person.”

“Yes, Little Young Master.” Manager Sun was no stranger to this process. Their Double Xiang House’s work clothes were uniformed and all had the ‘Double Xiang House’ logo. However, the colors of the clothes were different for each division of work. Nowadays, many wine houses in other places imitated their practice. Yet, they could never erase the fact that Double Xiang House was the first place to uniform the work clothes. Manager Sun was proud of Double Xiang House.

“Little Young Master, how are you going to decorate the tea room?”

Qin Mian took out a piece of paper and handed it to him, “Separate the lounge with shuttering, build a higher platform on the north side, and put a lecture table on it – that is the storyteller’s seat. The bottom is arranged with a row of long tables and benches. This is the blueprint. There will be fruits, drinks, snacks, and pastries in the tea room. I’ve written all the prices on it.”

Manager Sun took it and looked at it.

Leisurely Farm Residence’s seasonal fruits cost 68 Wen per portion; other fruits cost 18 Wen per portion. Tea was priced according to different tea grades and charged per cup. Juice drinks cost 28 Wen per cup. Melon seeds in half a jin per serving; five-flavored melon seeds cost 28 Wen, plain melon seeds cost 18 Wen, and fruit-flavored melon seeds cost 38 Wen (Note: the fruits were produced in Leisurely Farm Residence). Peanuts in half a jin per serving; five-flavored peanuts, plan peanut, spicy peanut, and green tea peanuts varied in price, which was surprisingly high. There were five kinds of unique pastries; glazed fried egg cake cost 68 Wen per portion, water-chestnut pudding cost 68 Wen per portion, and small pastries such as egg tarts, egg pudding, and tea cupcakes cost 28 Wen each.

“Little Young Master, the prices are not low.” When Manager Sun saw the list, he sighed.

Qin Mian disapprovingly laughed, “The tea room is only open to Double Xiang House’s customers. The price of the dishes in Double Xiang House is higher than that in other wine houses. Since the customers can afford the dishes, they can afford the fruits and snacks. Besides, many drinks are unique only in our wine house. Worthy of the high price.”

Manager Sun repeatedly nodded. He knew that five-flavored melon seeds and peanuts were made of five spices, but he had never heard of the glazed fried egg cake, water-chestnut pudding, egg tart, and so on.

“Also,” Qin Mian tapped on the table, “three days later, all the dishes made with vermicelli will be 500 Wen per dish for vegetarian dishes and 2 silver taels per dish for meat dishes.”

Manager Sun made obeisance and said, “Yes!”

“Since a tea room is added to Double Xiang House, more staff is needed to pour tea and serve snacks. You see how many people to hire. Just let me know when you’re done.” Qin Mian added, “At present, each of the five kinds of pastry can only be supplied for 50 portions a day. I will have people send them over every morning.”

“Yes.”

“You call Qiangzi and Ye Fengqiu in.”

“Yes.”

Qiangzi and Ye Fengqiu came in, looking somewhat restrained. Ye Fengqiu looked down because he was not used to the new environment, which one could see that he still had some inferiority complex. When he entered Double Xiang House, the staff and customers kind of stared at his leg.

Qin Mian leaned on the back of the chair, crossed his arms, and frowned at Ye Fengqiu, “Ye Fengqiu, look at my eyes.”

Ye Fengqiu was taken aback. He raised his head to look at Qin Mian but his eyes unconsciously dodged. The little young master looked up to him, but he felt the pressure from the little young master.

“If you look down on yourself, why do you want others to look up to you?” Qin Mian gazed at him with a pointed look, “I don’t want to regret buying you one day!”

Ye Fengqiu looked apprehensive. He straightened up and respectfully said, “Little Young Master, this servant knows his mistake. Please believe in this servant again!”

Influenced by Qin Mian’s imposing manner, Qiangzi unconsciously stuck out his chest.

Qin Mian nodded and turned to Qiangzi.

“What’s your full name, Qiangzi?”

Fearing that the little young master would not be satisfied with him, Qiangzi replied in a loud voice, “Answering to Little Young Master, this servant’s full name is Lin Qiang.”

“Afterward, you two will stay in Double Xiang House to be storytellers, which include food and accommodation. There are two storytelling sessions every day with different stories. Qiangzi takes the session in the afternoon, and Ye Fengqiu takes the session in the evening. Your work is not hard. You two only need to work for an hour every day. The rest of the time, you will recite and ponder the content of the next session. Still, it is not heavy manual work. Lin Qiang, your monthly payment is tentatively set at 50 Wen per month; Ye Fengqiu, your monthly payment is tentatively set at 80 Wen per month.”

Story-telling in the same period, but the monthly payment was different. Both Lin Qiang and Ye Fengqiu were puzzled.

Qin Mian asked Lin Qiang, “Do you know why your monthly payment is less than Ye Fengqiu?”

Lin Qiang only shook his head, “This servant only knows that Brother Ye is more excellent than me. He can read, while this servant can’t read.”

Qin Mian approvingly looked at him, “Smart. He gets 30 Wen more because that is the tuition fee I paid for you. He will read to you the story that you need to tell every day, and you will memorize it. Also, in leisure time, he’ll teach you how to read. When you can read normally, your monthly payment will be the same as Ye Fengqiu.”

“Many thanks, Little Young Master!” After that, Lin Qiang gave a simple and honest smile to Ye Fengqiu, “Brother Ye, I’ll be troubling you later.”

Ye Fengqiu returned with a friendly smile, “Don’t mention it. We have to help each other.”

Qin Mian handed him several sheets of paper. “Three chapters on top are Lin Qiang’s story, and the following three chapters are yours. Every day, I will send new stories. You have to memorize the story in advance and try to figure out what tone and expression to use when telling a story. In short, you must not tell a story in a flat tone to avoid dissatisfaction from the customers.”

Lin Qiang and Ye Fengqiu answered in chorus, “Yes.”

“If there is anything else you don’t understand, ask Manager Sun.”

Qin Mian motioned them to withdraw and said a few words to Manager Sun before he rode on horseback home. The sun was about to set, so he sped out of town.

“Lei Tie’s wife!”

Zhang Dashuan waved his whip and drove the donkey cart to catch up.

“Shh–” Qin Mian stopped to wait for him. “It turns out to be Brother Zhang. Such a coincidence.”

“I just sent some passengers back to Zhaoyang County.” Zhang Dashuan smiled with eyes full of gratitude toward Qin Mian. “Thanks to you and Tiezi, I can earn 50 to 60 Wen every day just to pick up and see off the passengers. Sometimes, I can earn more by selling some ornamental knots and pouches!”

“That’s what Brother Zhang is capable of. Otherwise, it doesn’t work no matter how good an idea is, isn’t it?” Qin Mian looked at the sky, “Brother Zhang, it’s late. Let’s talk while we go?”

Zhang Dashuan nodded. “Right, let’s go.”

As they approached Green Mountain Village, the sun had set, and half of the sky painted with a faint sunset glow. On the grain-sunning ground, children who didn’t want to go home were still playing, catching dragonflies with bamboo sticks stuck with spider webs.

Seeing a tall figure standing motionless on the side of the road with a black wolf quietly crouched at his feet, the corner of Qin Mian lips spilled out a smile. He shook the reins.

“Jia–”

Zhang Dashuan slowed down, knowing how to behave in a delicate situation.

The brown horse ran to Lei Tie and stopped. It affectionately snorted toward him.

Lei Tie grabbed the reins and handed over a bamboo tube to Qin Mian. With a nod to Zhang Dashuan, he led the horse to the west of the village. Leisurely Farm Residence was too big, so they had to go around the west side to get home.

“A-Tie, nothing happens at home?” Qin Mian was too lazy to dismount. He opened the bamboo tube, which contained mung bean soup.

“Uncle Quan helps Uncle Fu, and Aunt Quan takes over Aunt Fu’s previous work. If you feel that this arrangement is not appropriate, you can make another arrangement.”

“There’s nothing wrong with it.” Qin Mian finished the mung bean soup in one breath and smacked his lips.

Lei Tie added, “The day after tomorrow is the old man’s birthday. Du Shi wants it to be lavish.”

Qin Mian was stunned, “If I remember correctly, the old man is going to be 41 years old, not the round decade¹?” Du Shi was going awry again?

Lei Tie shook his head.

Qin Mian thought about it for a while and soon decided, “Let them do whatever they want. There are a lot of things to do these days, so neither of us will go there. Just let the steward go in person with generous gifts. I believe the people in the old house will have nothing to say.”

“Listen to you.”

As they passed the Vermicelli Workshop, they went to have a look.

Qin Mian thought of the lively scene in Double Xiang House today and discussed with Lei Tie, “A-Tie, eight people are still too slow to work. Do you think we should hire some more people to work in the evening?”

Lei Tie nodded, “Doable. Wife, I’m worried about another matter.”

“What matter?”

Lei Tie flipped over on the horse and sat behind his wife. He pulled the reins, not letting the horse grazing, and clamped its belly to urge it.

“The appearance of vermicelli is bound to cause a sensation, and there will be people coming to inquire for information. The workshop is a little far away from home, so it may not be safe.”

Qin Mian sat cross-legged and touched his chin. The reason why he didn’t open the workshop in the farm residence was that he didn’t want too many outsiders to enter. Alas, he had ignored the issue that Lei Tie was worried about.

“Well then.” He immediately came up with a solution, “Open a corner gate at the north wall. The starch extraction is originally done by our servants. Afterward, it will be done in the residence and only adds a transportation procedure.”

Lei Tie nodded.

The next day, they settled the matters of hiring people and the corner gate. Safety factors should be taken into consideration when working in the evening, so male workers were hired – a total of eight men. The work started at the beginning of the dog hour (19:00) and ended at the beginning of the dragon hour (7:00). Qin Mian did not intend to exploit them. Because the male workers worked longer hours than the female workers and working at night for a long time was not conducive to their health, their monthly salary was 20 Wen more than that of the female workers. Every three days, the eight men were divided into two shifts and took turns to have a day off. Lei-Qin Le and Uncle Quan took turns to supervise the work.

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