110 – New Money-making Plan

The driver’s seat was also very unique. It was designed to look like an armchair with a special place for feet, so the driver would not be uncomfortable when driving for a long time. In addition, there was a semi-circular rod around the awning above, with a rainproof cloth hung on both ends of the rod that could be opened and closed like a sliding curtain. There were two fixed planks on the shaft on both sides of the armchair; when the passengers wouldn’t sit in the carriage, two could sit here.

Lei Tie slowed down and asked, “Wife, how is it?”

“Very comfortable.” Qin Mian lifted the curtain of the small window and said, “A-Tie, I want to drive. Why not you experience it too?”

Lei Tie stopped the carriage, climbed into the carriage, and looked down at the long table, “What about the bed?”

In Qin Mian’s mind, a disharmonious¹ image involuntarily emerged, making his heartbeat skipped a beat, “Didn’t try.”

Without saying a word, Lei Tie pulled it up and pushed open a mechanism. After the long table slowly flipped over, it lowered and very closely joined together with the two seats.

With a push from Lei Tie, Qin Mian fell on the bed. He immediately jumped up and nervously looked out of the window, “W-what are you doing? There are so many people out there.”

A ghost of a smile flew past in Lei Tie’s deep eyes. His big palm caressed his wife’s face before he turned and got off the carriage.

Qin Mian opened his mouth but words failed him for a long time. In other words, he was under the hallucination that the other party was willing?

Seeing Lei Tie was back to the driver’s seat through the screen curtain, Qin Mian crawled over, lifted the curtain, and called out, “A-Tie.”

Lei Tie looked back, “What’s it?”

Qin Mian hooked his finger to indicate that the man should get closer. Then, he took a bite on the man’s thin lips and quickly backed away.

Lei Tie looked at the shaking screen curtain and took a deep breath before he turned his head and looked ahead.

Qin Mian pushed open the door, crawled to the man’s side, and sat down.

Lei Tie shook the reins, and the sound of horse’s hooves clattered, slowly approaching the crowd under the big locust tree. A few curious villagers looked over.

Qin Mian jumped out of the carriage and greeted the villagers, “What are you chatting about?”

Sister Zhang said with a smile, “We’re chatting about when your fourth brother will marry a wife.”

Qin Mian laughingly looked at the uneasy Lei Xiangli, “Fourth Brother’s marriage should be done within the year, right? Let your eldest brother lend you the new carriage to pick up the bride at that time.”

It was a matter of great honor to be able to pick up one’s bride with this unique carriage. Lei Xiangli was very moved. He didn’t feel embarrassed as he said, “Then, that’s a promise, Eldest Sister-in-law, Eldest Brother. There’s still some work left at home, so I’ll go first.” After leaving that sentence, he ran away as fast as he could.

The villagers laughed even louder.

Qin Mian and Lei Tie didn’t stay much longer. They got on the carriage and went home.

“Hey,” Fang Hongliu bumped into Sister Zhang with her arm. “When do you think Du Shi will be able to fix the marriage of her family’s Old Four?”

Before Sister Zhang said anything, Zhou Cuihua disdainfully curled her lips and tucked the soles of her shoes in her hands, “Ever since her Old Five become an entry-level examinee, haven’t there been eight matchmakers arranging marriages for Old Four? However, Du Shi has been picking and choosing, none of them she likes. I’m waiting to see what kind of fourth daughter-in-law she will find.”

“I feel that it’ll be hard,” said an aunt mysteriously. “Don’t you know? All kinds of troubles in their family have spread to other villages. The Lei’s Old Four is good – he is capable and can bear hardships; the eldest brother and eldest sister-in-law are promising; the youngest brother is also promising. But if one can’t stand that he has a mother like that, it won’t be easy to be their family’s daughter-in-law.”

“Stop it, don’t talk so much,” Sister Zhang stopped her. “The new bride will be married to Old Four, not to the mother-in-law.”

The villagers knew that Sister Zhang and Qin Mian were close, and they were also willing to keep propriety in speech for the sake of respect toward Qin Mian and Lei Tie, so they chatted about other things.

Back at home, Qin Mian changed into a short-sleeved shirt and shorts and lay in bed that was covered with a bamboo mat. The floor-to-ceiling windows were fully opened, and the gentle summer wind slowly blew into the room, dispelling a bit of heat.

Qin Mian relaxingly spread out his four limbs while his empty eyes fell on the beam without blinking.

“Thinking about what?” Lei Tie grabbed his ankle.

“Thinking of how to spend money.” Qin Mian faced him sideways, “Can’t keep fifty thousand silver taels to grow mold. Money has to be spent to make more money. There’s so much business to do, but I can’t think of what is best to do first.”

“Wine,” After Lei Tie spat out a word, he lay down beside Qin Mian and raised the youngster’s head to let him rest on his arm.

“Wine? That’s a good idea!” Qin Mian was absorbed in thought, “What kind of wine is made in that small winery in our village?”

“White wine and rice wine.” Lei Tie held Qin Mian’s hand and kissed from the fingers to the arm, gradually went upward.

Qin Mian breathed unsteadily and glared at him, “Don’t want to do it. It’s hot.”

Lei Tie rolled up Qin Mian’s clothes. His breath puffed on Qin Mian’s neck was scalding hot.

“It won’t be hot after doing it. Wife, in the carriage before, I was—”

Qin Mian covered the man’s mouth and hesitated. Lei Tie tore off his clothes in a sweeping manner. Qin Mian saw that the situation was beyond salvation, and could only obediently put his arms around the man’s neck.

……

Qin Mian had to admit that it was a great pleasure to take a bath after sweating in the hot summer, and after changing into fresh clothes, there was a person beside him to fan and feed him grapes.

“If we want to open a winery, we’d better notify the owner of the small winery. After all, we’re fellow villagers; we don’t want to accidentally get into a feud.”

Lei Tie said, “Maybe you can hire him to handle the winery. The business is getting bigger, it’s impossible to do everything by yourself.”

Qin Mian was enlightened, “That’s plausible.”

He turned over and lay on Lei Tie. It was a little hot, but he liked to be close to the man. “There are so many things I want to do. I also want to make instant noodles, manage a vineyard, build a mountain resort…”

“No hurry, we have a lot of time.” Lei Tie stroked his hair, “I’ll be with you.”

“Of course!” Qin Mian put his arm around the man’s waist. “What do you think about buying a large piece of land behind our farmhouse? Then, connect it to Leisurely Farmhouse and build a perimeter wall around it, including the vermicelli workshop. Afterward, the winery, food processing workshop, and so on are built here.”

Qin Mian was mainly responsible for mental work, while Lei Tie was mainly responsible for physical work, “Listen to you.”

They did what they discussed. After reorganizing, they went out to Li Zheng’s home first. When Li Zheng’s family saw the two men, they all smiled happily and very enthusiastically served them tea.

Li Zheng had both status and position in the village, so he was quite respected. Qin Mian and Lei Tie were not pretentious at all. After saying a few polite greetings, the two men took the tea.

Qin Mian explained his intention. Li Zheng was happy and straightforwardly sold him a large open space behind the village at the price of the uncultivated land.

“Are you still going to plant fruit trees this time?” Li Zheng asked.

Qin Mian said, “No, we plan to open another workshop. The specific work is still under discussion.”

Li Zheng nodded, “It’s good to run a workshop. The more business you do in the village, the more workforce you need, so the villagers don’t have to go far to look for work. This is a good thing for the whole village.”

“Li Zheng can rest assured that A-Tie and I will do our best to make allowances for the villagers.” Qin Mian didn’t want to say too much. He didn’t mind hiring people in the village for ordinary jobs, as long as the key technologies were in his own hands.

After coming out of Li Zheng’s house, they went to visit the owner of the small winery. Before they entered, they smelled the aroma of wine, but the door of the small winery was locked.

Their trip was in vain. They went to ask the neighbors, and it turned out that the eldest brother-in-law of Chen San, the owner of the small winery, had a newborn son. Chen San and his wife went to attend the feast.

The next day, Qin Mian and Lei Tie went to visit again. Chen San and his wife were busy. Qin Mian and Lei Tie’s arrival surprised both husband and wife.

Seeing that they didn’t come to buy wine, Chen San wiped his hands and asked in a puzzled way, “What is it?”

“Sorry to disturb Uncle Chen and Aunt Chen.” Qin Mian handed over the pastries in his hand and directly pointed out his intention, “It’s like this. After some time, our family plans to open a winery, and most of the wine will be exported. I’m afraid that Uncle Chen will misunderstand, so I came to notify you. I hope Uncle Chen doesn’t take offense.”

Chen San and his wife were stumped for words.

Chen San’s expression carried a sense of loss as he shook his head, “Nothing to take offense for. Opening a winery doesn’t break the law. It’s very remarkable of you to think of informing us.”

Sitting at the side, Chen San’s wife sighed. The wine in their winery was not very good, but the villagers would come here to buy it when they wanted to drink. They earned 50 to 60 Wen a month, or more than 12 silver taels a year. When Lei Tie Family’s winery opened, there would be fewer people coming here to buy wine; their income would be less. However, she was not an unreasonable person and would not say anything to blame others.

The husband and wife did not show any resentment. Qin Mian discovered that they were sincere people and said to Chen San, “Uncle Chen, I want to be honest with you. A-Tie and I have some good wine recipes, but we know almost nothing about brewing wine. We’d like to hire you to oversee our winery. What do you think?”

Immediately, Chen San’s wife looked happy. They had just lost sesame seed and never expected to pick up a watermelon soon!

Chen San was a little excited. If he worked in Lei Tie Family’s winery, his salary was paid monthly, which meant a stable income. Moreover, the salary for managing their business was not low and much better than running a small winery.

“For you to think highly of me, how can I be unwilling? It’s just, I still have a lot of wine here…”

Qin Mian said with a smile, “That’s easy. It will take about half a month for our winery to start operating. Uncle Chen can take this opportunity to deal with your remaining wine.”

Chen San’s wife asked with some embarrassment, “If my husband works in your family’s winery, how much… How much is the salary per month?”

Qin Mian frankly said, “Because I don’t know how good Uncle Chen’s craftmanship is, I can only pay 100 Wen a month at most in the beginning. If Uncle Chen performs well or makes important contributions to the winery, his salary will increase. Besides, those who work for our family, whether they’re our servants or hired workers, have their own bonuses at every festival.”

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Footnotes