C37

The Road to Well-off (13)

Early morning of the second day, Auntie Li specially cooked a hot breakfast, letting the three siblings eat their fill before leaving.

Although they were in a hurry, the three of them still reached the village of Zhang when it was almost lunch time. He didn't know the way before, but this time, he was familiar with the place. When he knocked on the door, Zhang Family was having lunch.

"Why did the three of you suddenly come to my door? You haven't eaten, sit down," Zhang Yaomei was happy, he immediately asked his eldest daughter to add a few sets of chopsticks.

Black Bean pulled his brother and sister to sit down. Just as he was about to explain the reason for this trip to his grandmother, he saw First Uncle winking at him with his eyes. He hesitated and changed his tone, "Yes, it's Mao Dou who says he misses your grandmother and wants to come and visit your grandmother. "Since there's nothing to do at home, I'll just bring two young ones over, and say hello to Grandma."

Zhang Yaomei's smile blossomed as she hugged Mao Dou and gave him a fierce kiss. "You really are grandmother's obedient grandson."

Mao Dou's big black eyes blinked as he shyly smiled and hid behind Li Yannian.

As long as he didn't invite anyone into his house, Xia Taohua liked his sister-in-law's children. She gently stroked Mao Dou's small head and said with a smile, "Little Mao Dou, don't be shy. Grandmother kissed you because she was happy when she saw you. After walking for half a day, you must be hungry.

Xu Zhangshu also said to Black Bean, "You are not allowed to leave today. Listen to your First Aunt and stay at home for the night. It just so happens that your Little Uncle has found his seniors and brothers for us to discuss some things with them in the afternoon, so you should listen and discuss with them first. "

Black Bean asked while looking at Li Yannian. Seeing the latter nod at him, he finally responded: Alright, I originally wanted to ask about the construction of the house at Little Uncle, so I won't be leaving today.

Zhang Yaomei and Xu Zhangshu were instantly overjoyed, and even a few of their uncles revealed smiles on their faces.

First Uncle saw that Li Yannian was looking at the faces of the women in the house, and immediately called for him: "Eat, eat, eat. The children are all hungry, if there are any issues, we can talk after dinner."

Zhang Yaomei immediately stuffed two chopsticks with tofu and lung slices into Li Yannian's bowl. "I just bought this morning, eat more red beans, don't be as elegant as your brother."

Li Yannian promised as she lowered her head to drink the porridge.

The Zhang Clan also ate rice porridge with coarse grains at noon. In the wok, there was a huge pot of pig intestines and lung slices mixed with a little bit of tofu. Since they had cut quite a number of scallions, it was quite fragrant. The children of the Zhang family were all sent off to learn their skills, while the young ones were still being carried by the adults. Their eyes were already glued to the fragrance of the roasted meat in the wok, waiting for the adults to speak. Once Zhang Bao said this, the children immediately extended their fingers, asking their own mothers to fish for them to eat.

Other than having a lively meal, everyone else's hands had to move quickly as well. With just a few bites, the water in the wok and the tofu in the wok were almost all scooped up. Although Mao Dou was taken care of by Black Bean, he had only eaten two chopsticks worth of food, and there was nothing left in the pot.

Zhang Family was already used to this kind of situation. She scooped up all the food in the pot and even divided the soup between the spoons.

This was not the first time Li Yannian had seen such a scene, but looking back, she still felt somewhat shocked. To put it bluntly, she still relied on the Taobao system, a great killing tool, or her life would not even be half as good as the Zhang Family's.

After lunch, Li Yannian wanted to help First Aunt clean up the table, but her grandmother Zhang Yaomei pulled him away and stuffed him into a brazier, forcing him to bring her to the living room to roast the fire.

Li Yannian could only smile embarrassedly at First Aunt and rest in the living room with the Zhang brothers. The Little Uncle was pulling Black Bean along to talk about building a house, and Li Yannian followed him for a while, thinking that it was meaningless. She coincidentally saw the guilty look the First Uncle was looking at him with, and had an idea.

She pointed to the small hut beside, Zhang Bao's face had a look of hesitation, Li Yannian's gaze drifted towards the kitchen, Zhang Bao was threatened and could only stand up and walk towards the small hut.

Seeing that no one was paying attention, Li Yannian touched it herself. When she entered the room, she saw First Uncle squatting on the ground, looking at her with a helpless look.

Li Yannian also followed his example and squatted, lowering her voice and asked, "Uncle, you lost your job, didn't you tell Grandma and Aunt when you got home?"

Zhang Bao sighed helplessly, "I can't say it, but your grandma asked for this job. She's been doing it for almost 10 years, so there's no point in doing it. If your grandma knew, she'd probably die from anxiety."

It was only now that Zhang Bao finally understood the true reason why he was chased out of the fabric shop by the shopkeeper. He was stunned for a moment before he shook his head at Li Yannian. However, you must promise First Uncle not to tell your grandmother about this. "

Li Yannian asked doubtfully: "But First Uncle, do you still have to go to the Manor to work? If I stay at home every day, my grandmother will be suspicious. "

Zhang Bao's face revealed a hint of worry, "Anyway, I'll keep it a secret for as long as I can. "I'll go to the town tomorrow and ask which families have people."

Even though he knew that with the Du Family's methods, perhaps no cloth shop in the town would dare to hire him.

Li Yannian took the opportunity to say: "Uncle, I do have an idea, and it depends on whether or not you are willing to help me with this favor."

Zhang Bao asked curiously, "What is it? Tell me quickly."

Li Yannian took out a silver note that was worth a hundred silver and handed it over to Zhang Dayong Bao.

Da Bao had not seen what was in his hands at the start, but when he saw that Li Yannian had given him a silver note, which was even a one hundred silver note, he almost jumped up from the ground.

He almost roared it out, but he still remembered to not alarm his family. Zhang Bao lowered his voice with all his might and asked, "Where did you get all this silver from?"

Li Yannian smiled at him, "Don't worry uncle, this money is just and honorable. It is not stolen nor stolen, as for anything else, I can't tell you right away. "Just think of it as someone else giving you the money to do business, and I'm just a middleman helping to make a connection."

Zhang Bao still had a puzzled expression as he refused to accept the one hundred silver taels. Li Yannian continued to speak, "Uncle, look at my small body, do I look like I can steal it? Besides, with the Du Family's influence, who would still dare to take a person that they chased out? It was my fault anyway. I can't just watch you suffer for me, Uncle. So with such a chance to make money, I immediately thought of you. "

continued to persuade him: "Uncle, don't worry, I really didn't trick anyone into buying this money. Otherwise, how would I have the guts to bring a silver note in front of you? Uncle, just help me out. Take a look for me and see if there is anything good in this town. Brother and I have never been in business before, so we really need your help in the shop. "

The more Zhang Bao listened, the more tempted he was. Just as he was hesitating, his wife Xia Taohua's voice suddenly came from the door.

"Since your niece wants your help, you should hurry up and do it. It was always better to have something to do than nothing. You can hide it for a day or two. All other things aside, where are you going to find the money you have to pay at the end of the month? We never had a word on hand for the night. I wanted to ask you last night, but I thought better of it. Waiting for you to tell me yourself. You, ah! "

The two people in the room were shocked by Xia Taohua's sudden appearance. Zhang Bao stammered, his face flushed red: "My wife, you know about it?"

Xia Taohua walked in and rolled her eyes: "I've been married to your family for more than a decade, and I still can't figure out what you're thinking."

Li Yannian did not know what to say. On the contrary, she took their words and asked: "Hong Dou, do you have any ideas on what shop you want to open?"

Li Yannian said hesitantly: "I think it's best to do the food business. They were small in capital and didn't need to be sold. They were all things that could be sold on a single day. "Let's start with a few days of figuring out how much we can sell in a day, then we can start to figure it out later."

"Make food?"

Zhang Bao and his wife were both very surprised by this answer, and they shouted out at the same time.

Li Yannian shushed them before continuing: "Un, that was my initial plan. However, First Uncle, if you have any other thoughts, you can do it your way first. In any case, you should be the main customer in the shop.

Zhang Bao shook his head and said with a wry smile, "I will spend most of my life buying and selling cloth, but I don't know anything else. If he were to continue doing the old business, he would be snatching food from the mouth of the Du Family. Within a few days of opening the restaurant, he would have to rest. Since you've already decided that you want to cook, then I'll listen to you. I don't have any other abilities, so it's fine for me to call in customers. You still have to find someone else to handle this. "

Li Yannian nodded: "We'll talk about this later. Uncle, then let's make this deal. In the next few days, you can go to the town and take a look. There are shops that you can rent, but you can decide for yourself. There's no need to look for a good shop location. I remember my brother saying that there's a shallow water dock in the town, and those are all menial labourers carrying large bags, right? "Uncle, if the shop can be located near the dock, try to look for it."

Xia Taohua was afraid that she would not understand, and continued to speak: "That pier is specially used by the Du and Gu Families, a few years ago, the two families worked together to dig a shallow beach, so other families cannot unload their goods there. Your uncle knows that there is no one there, so he has the most coolies. A laborer who only earns twenty or so coins a day would never be able to bear to eat in the restaurant. "

Li Yannian smiled at the two of them, "First Uncle, First Aunt, don't worry, I am clear about this matter. You can just find me the store. I know what's going on, and I've already planned it all out. Don't worry about it. "

Li Yannian saw that the two still did not believe him, and could only coax them: "Let's do this business then and there. It's fine if we lose money, but the person who gave me the money said that he wanted me to use it for other purposes. Uncle, Aunt, I'll tell you guys the truth. I only plan to sell my food in the shop since the Three Coins s will be full and I can still earn a lot from selling them at this price. "

The Three Coins is full? How could he still make money? Zhang Bao and Xia Taohua looked at each other in dismay. How was this possible?

Li Yannian smiled mysteriously at them: "In short, as long as you find a shop to negotiate the contract, it would be best if the place was larger and the lease duration longer. Leave the rest to me. Uncle, I will give you twice the price of cloth every month. Uncle, Auntie, please believe me this time. You'll know when the shop opens. "

Zhang Bao looked at his wife helplessly. His niece had already eaten a heavy burden and had hardened her heart to ask for a hundred taels of silver. This was a note worth 100 taels of silver, he had never seen so much money in his life! But his precious niece said that she would open a shop, and the Three Coins even made those laborers eat their fill! Those people could eat more than the average man in the crop. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they were a rice bucket. At this rate, not to mention a hundred silver taels, even the mountains of gold and silver would shine sooner or later.

Xia Taohua nodded his head at him and said softly: "Since it is someone else's money, then we will follow Hong Dou's instructions. You better hurry up and arrange it for her. "If the business in the store isn't good, there's still time for us to switch to another business."

Zhang Bao thought to himself, it's really an amateur watching a show. For example, a restaurant had to have a good location in a bustling area with a large number of people. Moreover, the fact that the restaurant had a good location meant that the restaurant had a solid foundation, and that its owners could afford to spend such a large amount of money. However, a normal restaurant was different. The location could be a bit smaller, but it couldn't be too far from the street. People would stop by and would always come in to rest. You are a restaurant in a remote and desolate place. Who did you cook for?

For example, Red Bean's shop that was closer to the dock, basically had no other passersby apart from the laborers. If it was bustling, there would be no bustle. If it was crowded, there would be no area at all. Even if he changed his business, he probably wouldn't be able to sell one or two things every month.

But he had already said what he needed to say, and his niece refused to listen. The money was his, but the work was his. After some thought, he could only nod his head in agreement. He thought that if the store lost the money, he could just save the extra monthly allowance and return it to his niece to make up for the loss.