Chapter 45

The next morning after breakfast, Xu Ran asked Tangtang and Guoguo to practise calligraphy at home. As for him and Liu Tong, one went to the village head’s house and the other went to find Wu Mei.

When Xu Ran arrived, the village head’s family were having breakfast. Xu Ran took a look at the food on the table and found that even he was the head of the village, their food was just so so. It was true people in this era were generally poor.

Xu Ran directly told the intention of his coming,”Village head, I want to invite someone to help our family open up the newly bought land. We can’t do the farming by ourselves on the land of more than 30 mu. We can hire short or long-term workers. Money is not a problem and it can be discussed, but only one condition is required, that is, their work is satisfying. ”

The village head looked Xu Ran up and down and then said, “Oh, Xu Ran! It costs a lot of money to hire people to work the land. Are you sure you got money for that? ”

Xu Ran nodded, “Don’t worry about money, village head. I can pay for it since I’ve promised it. By the way, village head, how much should I pay a short-term worker a day?”

“Few people in the village hire short-term workers nowadays, but generally speaking, they are willing to pay a worker 80 pence for a day, not including food and accommodation.”

“How about this way, village head? I’ll also pay 80 pence a day including lunch?”

“Alright, since you say so, I’ll go and ask others to help you. It just so happens that everyone has finished their work by this time, and they are going to look for short-term jobs in the town. Now, they can make money without going out. I think they will like to take your jobs.

Xu Ran replied smilingly, “Thank you so much, village head. Please tell those who are willing to come prepare their tools well. They can just gather outside my house tomorrow morning.”

The village head nodded, “All right.”

“By the way, village head, I want to buy some rice and vegetables. You know my family has not done any farming and need to buy all the food in the town. These days more people will come to work and need to eat. I wonder if there are any families who are willing to sell us some food?”

“If you want to buy brown rice, I have some in my family. Later, let me weigh some out for you. As for the vegetables, my younger brother can suply you some. I’ll let him send them to you. As for the money, you decide how much to pay. After all, we are all from the same village.”

“Well, thank you very much, village head. But can you also deliver your brown rice to my home? You know I don’t have any vehicles. I’ll pay you according to the price in town.” Xu Ran didn’t want to let the village head lose money. He also knew he couldn’t save much money in it, either. By doing so, he could also make a good impression on the village head.

Smilingly, the village head nodded and agreed, “I’ll send it to you in a minute. Is 200 kilos enough for you!”

“Enough. Thank you, village head.”

After returning home from the village head’s house, Xu Ran began to tidy up the things in his bamboo house. There were not many things in it, actually. As he did not plan to take out the potatoes for the time being, he had to put them in the cellar. The chili paste was already stored in the cellar, so there was no need to worry about it. However, he wanted to find a way to cover the stone mill outside. During this period, the bamboo that was left after the building of the house had been used as firewood and it was almost burnt out, so they were not enough to cover the stone mill well. And he had to find another way instead.

After thinking for a while, he decided to go and find some straws. He believed Wu Mei’s family should have stored a lot of straws, so he instructed Tangtang and Guoguo and left in a hurry.

At Wu Mei’s house, Xu Ran found both Wu Lan and Liu Qing were also in, but only three Ge’ers stayed there. All the Xiaozis of the family were out.

Seeing Xu Ran, Liu Tong stood up right away and asked, “Ran, why are you here?”

“I need some straws to cover up the stonemill. Do you have any in your family, Wu Mei?”

“Yes, I have some, but not much. I have raised a cow and have to feed it.”

Liu Qing said to Xu Ran, “Go to my house and get it! We have some store of it and plan to use it to light fire.”

“Alright, thank you so much. Liu Tong should have told you that we’ll open up the wasteland! Please come and help me cook tomorrow! The pay for the work is eighty pence a day including food, the same as others.”

Speaking of money, Wu Mei turned against him, “We don’t want money. It’s not easy for you to earn some money. You have to spend a long time in order to open up the land.”

Xu Ran waved his hands and said, “It’s fine. Don’t worry about this. It won’t be long to finish opening up the land. Tomorrow not only will you come, but even Xu An and the others will come as well. I’ll tell you my arrangements when you are all there.”

Under this circumstance, it was not good for Wu Mei to refuse anymore. Since Liu Qing and others had always been centered around Wu Mei, they naturally wouldn’t refuse.

After talking for a while, Xu Ran and Liu Tong followed Liu Qing to his house to get the grass. On the way, Liu Qing warned, “Liu Tong, you can’t hire anyone for help! I believe some people just come to play tricks and earn money. ”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll find some supervisors. As long as the supervisor finds out anyone that is not doing his job properly, I’ll let him go, and I’ll never hire him again. ”

“That’s fine. Xu Ran, it’s thoughtful of you. People who have read books are different,” Liu Qing said with emotion.

Xu Ran felt a little bashful. He knew that modern people were generally clear about this.

When they carried the straws back from Liu Qing’s family, the two kids were already waiting in the yard. They might be hungry, and they immediately went up to both Liu Tong and Xu Ran upon seeing them.

Guoguo told them, “Hey, dad and daddy, I’m hungry.”

Tangtang was unwilling to lag behind, “I am also hungry.” He even proved himself by touching his stomach.

Xu Ran was amused, “All right. Wait a minute. I will cook for you.”

Xu Ran’s present culinary skills were better than Liu Tong’s so the two children liked to eat his food best. Hearing Xu Ran say that he would cook, they both hurrayed and ran away happily.

Xu Ran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry now! The kids knew how to be coquettish.

Still, Xu Ran felt pleased about it, because both of his kids finally looked like real children.

Early the next day, those people the village head had summoned were waiting outside their bamboo house. Xu Ran quickly took a few mouthfuls of food and went out to meet them.

First of all, he took out all the edible seeds he had bought the day before, and entertained everyone present sincerely

Most of the people who came to be the short-term workers were honest and obedient. Thus, they ate before they started working.

After dividing th seeds, Xu Ran started his opening speech, “Hello, everybody, my house is too small, so I won’t invite you in. You are invited here by the village head for me. You all know that I’ve just bought 30 mu of wasteland. In my family, however, there are only two laborers, my spouse and I. It is really out of our ability to manage it by ourselves, so we invite everyone here.

However, I can assure you that you will not work for nothing. I will follow the price for short-time workers in the village, that is, eighty pence a day for each person. Apart from that, I will provide you with an additional lunch. However, I have to make sure that everyone should abide by my rules, which are that those who work hard will be rewarded while those who are lazy and cheating will be asked to leave. Moreover, they will be never hired again here even if we have any work in the future.

For this reason, I have hired three supervisors. In a minute, we will divide you into three groups each of which has the same number of people. Each group will be given the task of 10 mu of land. Finally, for the first group to finish their task, I will not only pay them the daily wages, but also offer each of them an extra of twenty pence per day. At last, after the work is completed, each of them will get home a kilo of meat.”

Hearing Xu Ran’s words, most people there began to whisper. This business was definitely the biggest in the village up till now. They had never made so much money before. Therefore, many people were very excited and full of enthusiasm. They all wanted to fight for the first place. In this way, they could get 100 pence in total every day as well as a kilo of meat, because they all knew that they needed to spend more than 100 pence on a kilo of meat in their place.

Xu Ran paused and watched their reaction. Then he went on, “The second place also has a reward, that is, an extra one pence a day. However, there’s no meat for them.

As for the third place, they will only get their planned pay. Now let me introduce you the three supervisors.”

Xu Ran invited Xu An, Xu Fa and Xu Zhen out from the crowd. Then he pointed to them and said, “Everyone knows these three people, right? They are the supervisors. Well, those of you who are willing to stay to work here will be divided into three groups, and my supervisors will lead you to your task land to start your work.

I wonder if everyone is willing to stay and help me?”

Xu Ran looked sincere and modest, and many people present were moved by him.

“Such a good treatment that I am naturally willing to work here. Bro Xu Ran, I’ll do it.”

“I’ll do it as well.”

“I’ll do it as well.”

With the first person to respond positively, more and more people agreed and joined the team. At last, over 30 people stayed .

Xu Ran then asked Xu An and the other two supervisors to divide the workers in groups. Next, all he had to do was to pay.

As for the location of the 30 mu of land, it was easy to find. He didn’t need to worry about it at all.

Xu An and his colleagues didn’t expect Xu Ran to make such an arrangement, but they knew that it was all because they used to help him and his family, otherwise they would not have got such easy tasks while earning money. Naturally, three of them would not fail Xu Ran’s trust.

They three indeed shared the same idea, and all worked very hard.

Of course, the task of cooking was handed over to Wu Mei and the other two Ge’ers. Xu Ran himself and Liu Tong were in charge of running errands.

Soon, Xu Ran drove Wu Mei’s ox cart to the town and bought big bones and pork back. The pork would be used to fry with vegetables, while the big bones for stewing soup.

The brown rice from the village head’s house and the vegetables from his brother’s had been delivered yesterday. To pay them both, Xu Ran had also spent several taels of silver.

In addition to his own work, Xu Ran also arranged for a group of children to follow the workers opening up the land to pick houttuynia cordata, because he thought  it would also be a good dish on the lunch table.

In the end, people who came back from work at noon saw that there were totally four dishes and one soup on the table. Usually, these dishes were only eaten during the Spring Festival. Now they could also eat them when they worked for others. Thus they had not only good food to eat, but also money to take. The workers were so moved that they were all appreciated for the kindness and enthusiasm of the host family.

Before eating, each of the workers first drank a bowl of delicious bone soup, and then they all ate their fill. In this way, they were naturally more powerful when they worked in the afternoon.