Chapter 46
The fragrant, sweet broth wasn’t very appetizing on its own, so as he boiled the noodles, Lu Yang took a handful of pickled vegetables and stir-fried them, added some thinly sliced meat, and seasoned it with spices. Finally, it was edible enough to serve with the noodles, and he brought everything to the table.
Five people, each with a large bowl of noodles, and in each bowl were five or six pieces of radish and two pieces of meat.
To make the soup, the meat was cut thick. With the same amount of meat, if they added some vegetables, they could have made a whole dish of stir-fried vegetables.
Wang Fengnian and Lu Erbao’s hearts tightened as they saw it. The two pieces of meat in their bowls were quickly taken by the children.
Lu Yang took the meat back and placed it into their bowls. “There’s enough for everyone. Don’t worry.”
But they still couldn’t rest easy. They thought that Lu Yang was being so generous because they had arrived. After breakfast, they insisted on not staying any longer.
Lu Yang offered to send them back to the village, but they declined.
“Running back and forth like this is endless.”
Instead of sending them back to the village, he took them to the main road.
The road was long, and the two fathers politely refused.
Once they reached the yard’s edge, they stopped and looked into the house. In a hushed voice, they told Lu Yang, “Things are different in the village than in the county. Life is hard, and not every meal has meat. A little bit of meat every day is enough. Every so often, add a meat dish; that way, you won’t get tired of it, and it’ll save money. Xie Yan still has to study, and you two don’t know how to farm. There will be many places to spend money in the future, so you’ll have to save where you can.”
Lu Yang understood. He had only just married into the family and was lucky to have had good fortune. Luo Dayong had bought half a pig for him, and yesterday he had bought ten pounds of meat. He couldn’t just let the meat go to waste by serving pickled vegetables to his two fathers.
It wouldn’t be like this for long; in the future, meals wouldn’t always include meat.
Seeing that Lu Yang understood, Wang Fengnian was reassured and didn’t say more.
“The wind is strong outside. You should go back in, and your father and I will walk a bit further.”
Lu Yang nodded and told them, “I’ll be back in a few days.”
A newly married young man didn’t usually go back to his parents’ house so soon, but he had just visited, and now he was returning home.
Wang Fengnian wanted him to stay longer but found it hard to say, since he was speaking to Lu Yang, not Lu Liu. He could only nod.
After watching the two fathers leave, Lu Yang turned and entered the courtyard. At the gate, he spotted Xie Yan peeking around.
He couldn’t help but laugh. “Look at you. If you keep this up, your mother will think you’re possessed.”
Xie Yan didn’t care and wanted to invite him to check on his studies.
Lu Yang wasn’t in a hurry, though. He first started counting the money.
“We should settle the accounts first.”
The dishes from breakfast had been cleaned by his mother-in-law, Zhao Peilan. When they were counting the money, all three were present, and once the door was shut, they all counted together.
Yesterday, they made fifty buns. After taking one out for tasting, there were 49 left, each priced at five wen, which totaled 245 wen.
They had two baskets of cabbage, totaling 43 jin. Based on his pricing, if sold individually, it would be five wen per jin, but sold in bulk, it was four wen per jin. They earned a total of 172 wen from selling it.
They also had a basket of radishes, totaling 37 jin. The price was three wen for two jin, and they sold it for 55 wen, rounding it off with a half-wen.
The cabbage and radishes were gifts from villagers, and there was no cost to them. Lu Yang didn’t plan to share the profits with them. This was a form of apology, something his family deserved.
He had gotten better at making buns, and now he had his method. One jin of flour and one jin of meat made twelve large meat buns. The price of the meat was thirteen wen per jin, and the flour cost seven wen per jin. Yesterday’s fifty buns used four and a half jin of ingredients, leaving half a bowl of filling, which he made into pancakes for breakfast.
The cost price was about 58 wen for the meat and 30 wen for the flour. Since the initial ingredients were purchased with Luo Dayong’s help, the first batch of buns was pure profit. He earned 472 wen from the buns and vegetables.
Yesterday, he bought ten jin of meat and ten jin of flour, all from familiar suppliers, at a lower price than the market rate.
The meat cost 12 wen per jin, and he got an extra jin of lard. The flour cost 6.5 wen per jin, a small savings. Together, these purchases cost 185 wen.
He also bought two jin of garlic for 16 wen and two bunches of scallions for 6 wen.
Additionally, he bought 100 jin of coal for 121 wen, and three steamer baskets cost 21 wen.
After accounting for the expenses, there was still 123 wen left.
Earning over 100 wen a day seemed like a lot, but when you held the money in your hand, it barely added up to two bundles tied together with hemp rope.
Xie Yan, being a scholar and not having been involved in business before, could do the math.
Based on Lu Yang’s prices, how many buns could be made from one jin of meat, and so on, he had a rough idea.
Making buns was profitable. With the costs of oil, salt, seasoning, firewood, and other miscellaneous items, the cost of 100 wen could be sold for more than 200 wen, with nearly half of that being profit.
But earning this small amount of money every day meant that, at most, they would make three taels of silver in a month.
Their family had a shop and didn’t need to pay rent, which saved some money. But living in the county meant paying for water, the toilet, and other basic necessities. There were also food and drink expenses.
Lu Yang, having grown up in the county, understood the family’s expenses well.
For rice, flour, oil, vegetables, meat, and firewood, they had to buy everything. Two taels of silver a month would cover the basic living costs.
Lu Yang said, “The private school will start on the 16th of the first month, and during the rest of the year, the shop will be closed. We won’t be able to make any money, so we’ll only have one month to save. The family still has to prepare for the New Year, buy winter supplies, and food, which all require silver.”
“Xie Yan’s school fees are five to six taels, plus books and stationery. The stationery can be delayed, but in this month, he needs to save about seven taels. Our family also has to live, so we need to save about eight or nine taels to start the new year.”
Using the profit from fifty buns as a basis, they would need to sell 150 buns a day to meet their goal.
Lu Yang added, “I’ll also collect vegetables from the village to sell. The money will be shared. If you trust me, I’ll sell it, otherwise, it’s fine.”
Selling vegetables was a small side hustle. There were so many people in the county who needed food, so someone would buy them.
But vegetables took longer to prepare and had a short harvest season, so he couldn’t carry too much at once, meaning he wouldn’t make a lot of money.
Xie Yan wanted to help make the buns, but his mother, Zhao Peilan, spoke first, “I’ll help. Xie Yan still has to study, so he shouldn’t be doing manual labor.”
Xie Yan: “……”
He looked eagerly at Lu Yang.
Lu Yang ignored him, not needing his mother’s help.
When Lu Yang made and sold buns, he would neglect the housework. There were chores both inside and outside that needed to be done.
He said, “I’ll go find Brother Lin and see if he’s willing to help. I’ll pay him a wage.”
For the time being, with just the buns, he’d only need half a day of work, and the wages wouldn’t be much—about eight to ten wen, which was just like losing two meat buns per day.
Once Lin got the hang of it, Lu Yang would raise the price, possibly doubling it.
Zhao Peilan was also good at managing money. After a moment’s thought, she nodded in agreement.
Lu Yang stood up to leave, but Xie Yan stopped him and pulled him back inside, seriously asking him to check his homework.
Lu Yang laughed, “What do you mean by seriously checking? Am I going to eat you up?”
He had just had a free meal the night before and had already forgotten about it, confidently speaking. Xie Yan froze for a moment, then changed the subject, pulling out his completed homework from a pile of papers.
The homework was not only a personal assignment but also a “debt” solution.
This matter had troubled Xie Yan for many years. Countless nights, he had tossed and turned, searching through books to find a way to solve it.
He had seen many methods, but none he could apply. He felt like a live fish on a cutting board, no matter how many ideas he had or how hard he struggled, he couldn’t escape the deadlock.
Now, he saw a way out.
His family had no debts, but the villagers insisted that they did. In the past, Xie Yan had tried to clarify and explain, repeatedly arguing, proving himself, and asking others to testify. Over time, he had become numb to it.
Last time, Lu Yang had guided his thinking, and he had changed his mindset. Ideas suddenly opened up.
Paying off debts was the right thing to do.
He couldn’t make those people believe that he owed no debts, so he would repay them.
Others could make baseless claims, so why couldn’t he make an equally baseless claim that he had already paid back the debt? Throwing out a piece of fat meat would naturally lead to dogs fighting over it.
With this in mind, Xie Yan made his initial plan.
