After seeing Chen Liejiu off to the capital, Wang Wanwan and Chen Xiaomei also became very busy.
Both of them had established businesses in Xinghua Village. Now that Xu Huaiqian was going to the capital, they had to follow. Naturally, they needed to settle their affairs here properly.
First was Chen Xiaomei's chick-hatching kang rooms. She had two: was an earthen kang room built for her by Xu Huaiqian, and the other was a brick kang room she built herself.
The Xu Huaiqian built could hatch five thousand chicks, while her own could hatch ten thousand. Although chicks might seem insignificant, the demand was enormous.
Now that their village roads were good and connected everywhere, people from other counties came to buy chicks from her. There were even middlemen specializing in chick reselling. This business supported a large number of people.
Chen Xiaomei calculated on her abacus, then worriedly asked her second-largest shareholder, Xu Huaiqian: "Second Brother, what should we do with such a big business?"
After years of hatching chicks, Chen Xiaomei had gained experience. Hatching fifteen thousand chicks per month, after deducting costs for breeding stock, bad eggs, feed, worker wages, and other expenses, her net profit reached twenty taels of silver per month!
This amount couldn't compare to Xu Huaiqian and Chen Liejiu's frequent thousands of taels, but how old was she? A twelve-year-old girl, already with over four hundred taels in personal savings, soon to break the five hundred tael mark.
Was there any girl in the village wealthier than her?
No!
But if she went to the capital, her only business would be g. She couldn't bear to leave it.
Not only she, but the villagers also couldn't bear it. Although life was better now, Chen Xiaomei's kang rooms were still the village's treasure.
If she left, what would every do for chicks? They couldn't rely on their few hens to hatch them; that wouldn't be cost-effective.
"How are your two workers?" With Chen Liejiu away, Xu Huaiqian lacked energy. He lazily lay on a sheepskin-covered recliner, warming himself by the fire and reading. Hearing Chen Xiaomei, he casually asked.
"They're doing well." Chen Xiaomei told Xu Huaiqian: "Brother Xiaoqing is engaged! To a young man from the Xue family in our village. The betrothal gifts al were twenty taels! Not to mention other things. His mother, elder brother, and sister-in-law are overjoyed."
"As for Brother Xiaoshan..." Chen Xiaomei's expression became complex when mentioning Jiang Xiaoshan. "He's very diligent and careful. He often spots problems in the kang rooms that I miss and handles them promptly. Also, among the chicks we hatch, there are always some weaker s, right? He takes them home to raise and manages to keep most alive. His family now has forty or fifty chickens. Selling eggs has improved life for his younger siblings."
"It's just..." Chen Xiaomei said indignantly, "...he's too soft-hearted. Although Sun Wangcai doesn't beat him as much since he works for me, I still see bruises on him sometimes. When asked, he just says it's nothing."
"If I were him," Chen Xiaomei said, frustrated, "I'd divorce Sun Wangcai immediately! I don't understand why he stays with a man who hits him!"
She had given him a push, but he still couldn't stand up for himself. It was infuriating.
"Every makes different choices." Xu Huaiqian found it hard to intervene in other families' domestic affairs. "As long as it doesn't affect your kang rooms."
Chen Xiaomei narrowed her eyes: "He wouldn't dare!"
"With you here, of course he doesn't." Xu Huaiqian smiled at Chen Xiaomei's expression; she resembled Chen Liejiu. "But what if you weren't here?"
Chen Xiaomei was confident: "Even if I'm not here, the Chen clan members in the village wouldn't let him get away with it."
"Isn't that good then?" Xu Huaiqian turned a page. "Leave the kang rooms to them to manage. Your eldest brother comes back every year to sell charcoal and helps me sell peppercorns. Have them keep accounts and give them to your brother to bring back for you when he returns home."
Coincidentally, Chen Jinhu turned eighteen two years ago. Like Xu Huaiqian, he was allocated five mu of rain-fed land and five mu of mulberry land. Now the household had twenty mu of land combined.
Managing twenty mu would have been overwhelming for Xu Huaiqian and Chen Liejiu before, let al now when they were going to the capital.
Finally, Chen Liejiu decided to plant all twenty mu with peppercorns. Once the peppercorn trees matured, they'd only need weeding, making them easier to manage.
"That's possible," Chen Xiaomei still seemed listless, "but that way, when I go to the capital, it seems like I won't have anything to do."
She had been hatching chicks for years. Suddenly stopping, she didn't know what to do.
"Who says you'll have nothing to do?" Xu Huaiqian raised the book in his hand, teasingly saying: "Can't you also study?"
Chen Xiaomei wilted at the sight of books: "But I can't just study all the time, right?"
"You can also hatch chicks in the capital," Xu Huaiqian didn't understand her worry. "Who says you can't hatch chicks in the capital? You can hatch ducklings and goslings too."
"Really?!" Chen Xiaomei's eyes lit up. "Ducklings and goslings too?"
"They're all eggs, why not?" Xu Huaiqian found it strange. He thought since she and Chen Liejiu were siblings, she'd eventually think of this. Yet after years, she was still only hatching chicken eggs. She was still too young and needed more study!
"Right!" Chen Xiaomei slapped her forehead, annoyed. "Why didn't I think of hatching other eggs? I'm so stupid!"
Reassured by Xu Huaiqian that she could hatch chicks, even ducklings and goslings, in the capital, Chen Xiaomei stopped worrying: "I'll go tell Brother Xiaoshan and Brother Xiaoqing to look after the kang rooms for me."
Chen Xiaomei explained to Jiang Xiaoshan and Chen Xiaoqing, asking them to continue working in the kang rooms.
Thinking they would lose their jobs when Chen Xiaomei left for the capital with Xu Huaiqian, they were overjoyed to hear not only were their jobs secure, but their wages increased to five hundred wen per month.
"Don't just be happy," Chen Xiaomei reminded them after explaining, "find time to learn to read at the village school. When I'm g, you must keep proper accounts. I'll have my brother check the account books every year when he returns."
Chen Xiaomei wasn't clueless. She assigned both to keep accounts. Unless they colluded, any falsification would be obvious, ensuring they monitored each other.
The two, with raised wages, readily agreed.
Seeing that Chen Xiaomei's affairs were settled, Xu Huaiqian went to find Wang Wanwan and asked her, "Do you need any help here?"
"Everything is arranged, Second Brother." Wang Wanwan was nearly nineteen. With good food at the Chen household and growing over the past two years, coupled with studying under Xu Huaiqian, she had blossomed into an elegant young woman.
Moreover, having learned business over the past two years, she had become much more confident.
From stammering when speaking at silk shops initially, now people greeted her as "Manager Wang."
Manager Wang's business reached far. Relying on the knotting techniques Xu Huaiqian taught her, she not only cooperated with silk shops in several surrounding counties but also worked with shops in the prefectural city and even the Provincial Administration Commission.
She even had Chen Jinhu promote her knots to other Provincial Administration Commissions. Although progress was slow, the village women never lacked knotting work.
Pei Wangshu's mother liked Wang Wanwan very much. If Wang Wanwan hadn't been betrothed early, she would have wanted to hire her as a daughter-in-law.
She once told Pei Wangshu, "She seems born to be our family's daughter-in-law! Pity some else got there first!"
This scared Pei Wangshu into quickly dismissing his mother's idea. Both he and his mother were business-minded; adding another business-savvy wife would mean daily scenes of all three holding abacuses, clicking beads. The thought of such a life made Pei Wangshu uncomfortable. He preferred some with a bold, free-spirited personality like Chen Liejiu!
But back to the topic. While Chen Xiaomei worried about her immovable kang rooms, Wang Wanwan was different. Wherever there were silk shops, her skills were in demand.
As for the village, it was simple. She arranged with several skilled girls to deliver finished knots to the county silk shop on the first and fifteenth of each month for payment.
For more distant places, people would send some to collect; they just needed to make knots according to requirements.
Seeing she had everything organized without omission, Xu Huaiqian nodded satisfactorily. Indeed, an older girl handled matters differently.
While they were packing, other families were also busy.