Chapter 199: Teachable
The four siblings were happily busy in the small corner of the kitchen and didn't notice Qin Yao standing outside the house with a smile on her face.
She looked at them quietly for a while, resisted the urge to eat a midnight snack, and not wanting to break this warm scene, she turned around and went back to her room.
It was late at night when the kitchen finally became quiet.
Dalang put the fried pancakes into each of his younger brothers and sisters' wooden lunch boxes, opened the lids to dry them, covered them with covers, put out the fire in the stove, checked the doors and windows to make sure there were no remaining safety hazards, took his younger brothers and sisters to wash up, and then went back to his room to sleep.
The chickens at home crowed on time, and the quiet yard became lively again.
It rained today as expected, but the rain was not heavy, as fine as hair, falling heavily. An umbrella is enough.
Qin Yao continued to drive the carriage to take the children to Xiahe Village. She watched the driver pick them up before returning to the village.
When she placed the fifteen magical book boxes that Erlang brought back in front of Carpenter Liu, he jumped up from his squatting position.
"Oh my God! Has your Erlang become a spirit?" Carpenter Liu asked in disbelief.
Qin Yao glanced at him and said, "Don't talk nonsense. Liu Erlang just has a high financial quotient."
However, she does not encourage selling one's book boxes just to make money.
Carpenter Liu calculated the cost and time required and found that he could make two book boxes a day, but this was based on the premise that the wood had been processed in advance.
The cost of wood is actually not that much. The material used for the box is not the best, but the common fir wood in Jinshi Town.
Only the pull rod and the small wooden wheel are made of harder wood and are slightly more expensive.
Calculated this way, the cost would be only about one hundred and eighty or ninety cents.
If he were the one selling it, he wouldn't dare ask for five cents of silver.
At this point, Carpenter Liu sighed again: "Your Erlang has learned his father's trickery."
Qin Yao curled her lips, "I'll just assume you're praising them father and son."
Carpenter Liu said, "People are willing to buy it at five cents of silver, so why don't we set it at that price?"
Qin Yao: "I think we can add a little more, how about 588?"
Carpenter Liu thought that you are too cunning, but he felt guilty and said, "It's a bit expensive, let's compromise and pay 568."
Qin Yao nodded: "That's fine!"
The two reached an agreement and started working immediately.
Qin Yao doesn't know how to do delicate carpentry, but she can saw the wood into boards. With some pointers from Carpenter Liu, the two of them can one produce the raw materials while the other makes the mechanism pull rods and wheels, and finally paint and assemble them.
There was still one painting step left, so Qin Yao went to call Yunniang over.
At first Yunniang didn't want to come. The wheat at home had to be harvested, and she had to weave, cook, take care of the children, and look after the vegetable garden. She had no time to spare.
Qin Yao asked her to come and help first. Helping for four or five days would not delay anything, and the wages were calculated on a piece-rate basis, so she would be paid fifteen cents for each piece.
These fifteen orders cost 225 wen, which is more than two cents of silver.
As expected, money makes the world go round. After hesitating for half an hour, Yunniang put the baby on her back and went to the factory.
There are fewer people in the factory now, so children can play with wood blocks in the yard by themselves without worrying about getting hurt.
Yunniang quickly got back to work, and with three people in the factory, they created an atmosphere like a group of people working together.
There is still plenty of time to complete the order, but Qin Yao needs to make a dozen more magical book boxes so that she can take them to the county town to test the waters.
Moreover, the city has begun preparations for the preliminary imperial examination in the past few days, which will begin in two days.
She finished this batch just in time for the end of the preliminary examination, when candidates from all over the country were still in the county town and had not had time to leave, so she had a customer base.
It was agreed that it would only take four or five days, but when Yunniang saw the boards Qin Yao had made piling up higher and higher, she felt a pang in her heart and had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, on the fifth day, there was still half of the work left to be done. For the sake of money, he gritted his teeth, took out fifty cents, and hired a man in the village who had little land to work as a temporary worker for five days. Only then did he get back to work.
On February 10th, Yunniang, whose hands were sore from exhaustion, finally finished painting all the wood that needed to be painted.
Qin Yao counted and found that the amount was slightly more than expected, enough to make forty book boxes in total.
Yunniang rubbed her sore wrist, fearing that Qin Yao still had some material to paint, and quickly said,
"I have to go home. My mother-in-law is going to scold me to death for not being able to bring food to my father-in-law and his family for so many days."
She also said that when she was working on the waterwheel before, she was not as busy as she is now. She didn't know what she was busy with. She was nowhere to be seen all day long from morning to night. She must be doing something messy.
It was the slack season after the autumn harvest, and the family was not busy. She could get her wages from the factory and go home on time. The housework was not heavy, and her mother-in-law did a good job, so naturally she didn't say anything to her.
But this time it was different. All the miscellaneous chores at home fell on my mother-in-law alone, so some complaints were inevitable.
When Qin Yao heard Yunniang say this, he quickly gave her his wages, one silver dollar and five cents plus a dozen copper coins.
Forty wooden boxes, each costing fifteen coins, totaling exactly six hundred coins.
It was only eight days of work, and she could get the previous two months' wages in one go. The sadness on Yunniang's face instantly disappeared and she began to smile.
"Madam Qin, please call me next time if you need such work!" Before leaving, Yunniang cheerfully reminded her son while carrying him on her back, and it seemed that the pain in her wrist had already healed.
Carpenter Liu laughed, "He is really greedy for money."
Qin Yao shrugged. It was all the same. No one could resist the charm of money.
After the materials were left to dry for two days, Qin Yao finished her work and accompanied Carpenter Liu to assemble all the wooden boxes.
Forty book boxes painted black with pink and white patterns are neatly placed on the warehouse shelves, which looks a little shocking.
On the 12th, Qin Yao took the children home. After dinner, she asked Erlang to remember to inform his classmates when he went to school tomorrow and prepare the balance in advance. She would personally deliver it to the gate of the academy the day after tomorrow to hand over the money and the goods.
"Erlang, tell them that my mother gave you a discount because we were classmates. The original price of the magic book box was 668, but now it's only 568."
Qin Yao raised an eyebrow, "Did you remember it?"
Erlang chuckled and nodded repeatedly, "Don't worry, mother. I will tell them word for word. I will ask them to remember a small favor from us."
Qin Yao patted his little shoulder with relief, "This boy is teachable."
"But this kind of favor is useless. We should just do what we should do normally. If we don't have equal strength, it will only appear as flattery."
Dalang and Erlang put away their smiles, listened carefully, and learned some worldly wisdom.
Sanlang and Si Niang were still confused because they were not in the same classroom with Dalang and Erlang, and even their teachers were different.