Farmer girl swaps husbands: buys a sickly villain and pampers him

Chapter 104 Money Tree

Jiang Yihuan hooked the hair by her ear and said lazily, "Of course, she made perfume and makeup for us without any regrets."

Zhong Lanhua grinned broadly. "That boy is ugly, but his craftsmanship is really good. I was not happy when you asked me to buy him for five taels of silver. But now it seems my daughter is far-sighted. Look, today is only the first day, and we have already sold him for three hundred taels of silver."

"We sold it for three hundred taels of silver, but renting this house costs one hundred taels a year, hiring Yang Quan cost five taels, and the twelve servants cost thirty taels. And what about the cost of purchasing the goods? Although the rouge and powder were made by Yang Quan and his servants, so the cost isn't high, everything else is imported from other places. I roughly calculated that the cost of purchasing the goods these days is three hundred taels. Even if we sell 30% today, that's still one hundred taels of silver..."

Zhong Lanhua was afraid of settling accounts to begin with. She had a headache counting the silver just now, and now listening to Jiang Yihan counting the expenses of the past few days, her mind was even more confused.

When Xiao Yanci walked in, Zhong Lanhua was like seeing a savior, and she called out to him, "Xiao Ci, come over here and settle the account."

Xiao Yanci disliked Zhong Lanhua, but when he saw Jiang Yihuan, his eyes softened a lot.

He was at the academy today and didn't have time to attend the opening of Fenghua Pavilion. It seemed the mother and daughter had done a great job, managing it even better than he had imagined.

He calculated with his abacus for a while and said, "After deducting costs and labor, I made about fifty taels of silver today."

"Only fifty taels?" Zhong Lanhua pointed at the pile of silver, "We sold it for three hundred taels!"

"Ready-made clothes, shoes, socks, and various personal items all need to be purchased from other shops. Do the servants you hired need to eat three meals a day? Do you need to buy them new clothes? Although they are servants, they don't need to be paid too much, but a small amount of wages still needs to be paid. If we pay each person 300 wen, that's more than 3 taels of silver for 12 people. Yang Quan is in charge of making all the dressing supplies. In order to win him over, you should pay him at least 2 taels of silver every month, right? In addition, with so many customers coming in today, how many of them asked for tea, how many of them broke things in the store, and how many of them asked to try on makeup? All those losses need to be deducted."

"Alright, alright, stop talking. I bought those slaves, they're my people, and I have to pay them? Do all those wealthy families pay them?"

"If it's a life contract, the wages will be less. If it's a living contract, the wages will be more. Of course, you don't have to pay, since you bought it anyway and the contract is in your hands. But generally speaking, in order to make them work harder, you still have to pay them. If you want a mule to grind the mill, you have to give it enough food and water."

"Mom, fifty taels is not a small amount. Think about it, if the two of us were to embroider and sell our work like before, how many pieces would we have to embroider to earn fifty taels?" Jiang Yihan comforted Zhong Lanhua, "This is only the first day, there will be more in the future."

"That's right. Fifty taels a day, that's over a thousand taels a month, which is a pretty good income," Zhong Lanhua said proudly. "The most important thing is that the other side will soon be closed down. I checked today, and there's not a single business there. I wonder how long they can hold out, haha..."

What Xiao Yanci despised most was Zhong Lanhua's mean-spirited demeanor. If she weren't Jiang Yihuan's mother, he wouldn't even bother to say a word to her.

"What is the origin of Yang Quan?" Xiao Yanci asked Jiang Yihan.

"I heard his family used to run a rouge shop, and he'd been making perfume and ointments with them since he was a kid. Later, their home was ransacked by bandits, and he fled with his sister. His sister fell seriously ill on the way, and he sold himself into slavery to pay for her medical treatment. I didn't see his sister, but he said she couldn't make it and died of her illness." Jiang Yihuan's face was filled with sympathy. "It's truly so pitiful."

"I'm going to sleep. You guys clean up here." Zhong Lanhua received Jiang Yihuan's signal and pretended to doze off, but in fact, she was making room for Jiang Yihuan. As soon as Zhong Lanhua left, Jiang Yihuan looked at Xiao Yanci gently and put a bag of silver in Xiao Yanci's hand: "Brother Xiao, this is the money back to you."

"Why give it to me?" Xiao Yanci put it back on the table helplessly. "I gave you my money, so it's yours. The store has just opened, and there are many things we need to spend money on. You can use this money to run the store, and don't give it to me."

"You contributed dozens of taels to open this shop! I calculated in my mind that if I pay you back and then repay some of my friends' money, if business continues to be this good every day, I can pay everyone back in half a month." Jiang Yihuan said embarrassedly, "I was quite bold. I didn't have much money, but I borrowed money from everywhere to open this shop. This was my first time opening a shop, so I had no experience and didn't know I would need so much inventory to open a shop."

"This isn't daring; it's strategic. Huan'er is clearly a weak woman, but she has a brave and ambitious heart. If you were a man, you would surely make a name for yourself."

"How can I be as good as you say?" Jiang Yihuan looked at him shyly. "I'm so stupid, I don't know anything, I have to rely on you for everything."

"You're not stupid. You just met a biased mother who gives your brother everything but never considers you. By the way, Huan'er, you just mentioned finding an accountant. I think it's best to keep the accounts yourself instead of letting others do it. Even if you don't do it yourself, you still need to be able to read and understand the account books. I come back every day now, so why not let me teach you how to read, keep a ledger, and check the accounts? That way, no one can hide anything from you."

"Will this take up too much of your time?"

"No. If I can't spare this little time, then I won't take the imperial examination. It means I'm not smart enough to spend so much time studying."

Jiang Yihuan nodded gently: "Okay."

"Then I will teach you how to read now." Xiao Yanci became interested.

Jiang Yihuan: “…”

Who wants to learn to read? Who wants to read account books?

She just likes counting money!
This man was really interesting. He didn't want to share her burden, didn't want to deal with all those accounts, but wanted to push the trouble to her. Looking at his expression, it seemed as if she should be grateful for him taking the time to teach her.

Jiang Yihuan gritted his teeth and followed Xiao Yanci.

As the two of them left the house, they saw a young man with a red birthmark on his face coming out from the opposite direction. When the young man saw Jiang Yihuan, he covered half of his face covered with the red birthmark out of shame and faced her with the other half without the birthmark.

"Yang Quan, you're finally out. I've been looking for you a few times, but your door is closed, so I didn't want to disturb you. There's some egg custard on the stove, warmed up for you. Go eat something!" Jiang Yihuan said gently, "Brother Xiao, don't study today. I'll go get Yang Quan something to eat. He's been busy all day and must have worked hard."

(End of this chapter)