“Exactly how much silver was settled last night?”

After listening to the two little ones chattering away, Jiang Ji looked up at Ye Li.

Ye Li didn’t keep him in suspense. Swallowing a mouthful of fragrant, soft steamed noodles, she held up three fingers and waved them: “Two guan and seven hundred wen—rounded up, that’s three guan!”

That was indeed a substantial sum.

Jiang Ji couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow: “That much?”

“That’s right! As for the second batch of preserved eggs, Aunt Lu’s family alone has 2,800, and Uncle Jiang’s family has as many as 3,000. The remaining five households have fewer, but even so, they add up to 13,000. So, the second batch totals 19,000.”

The production of the second batch of preserved eggs coincided precisely with the time when Gong Lisheng came to raise the price and draw up the contract.

Spurred on by Gong Lisheng, the villagers—who had previously been content earning just 1,000 wen a month—threw themselves into the effort, even going so far as to spend most of their life savings to buy eggs. When there weren’t enough eggs in the county town, they went to nearby villages to buy them.

They even went as far as the town to buy them.

As a result, even the household with the fewest preserved eggs in this second batch had around 2,100. The seven households combined had a total of 19,000.

Added to the 3,000 from the first batch, the two batches combined totaled some 23,000. Originally, 1,000 preserved eggs would only yield a little over 800 wen.

Gong Lisheng raised the price by 250 wen, so the profit from 1,000 preserved eggs became about 1,100 wen.

Based on 1,100 wen per thousand, the profit from 23,000 preserved eggs would be 25,300 wen.

Taking a 10% cut, the profit he received yesterday totaled 2,530 wen.

However, this is just a rough estimate; in reality, the silver he received yesterday totaled 2,700 wen. With such a large daily income, how could he not be delighted?

Yesterday, he had only settled accounts with seven households; there were still twelve more to go. The number of preserved eggs from these twelve households was roughly the same as that of the seven. When the time came, wouldn’t his profits nearly double?

Overjoyed, he used the fact that the two little ones had gathered quite a bit of firewood today as an excuse to give Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya a hundred wen as a reward. He also promised that when Jiang Ji returned from the provincial exam, and the four of them went shopping together, the two of them could spend their saved wages however they pleased.

That’s why the two little ones were so excited today. After all, Jiang Ya hadn’t really had much of a concept of money before. The remaining households weren’t cashing in quite as quickly, but they weren’t slow either.

Earlier, Jiang Fuzheng had been carrying a few preserved eggs around looking for buyers. Although the preserved eggs tasted quite good, the owners of those small restaurants were very cautious—unlike Gong Lisheng, who had immediately offered to buy a thousand of them.

These small business owners only promised that once the preserved eggs were ready, they’d buy a few dozen to test the waters.

At the time, to avoid the Gong brothers’ territory, Jiang Fuzheng went to East Third Cross Street in the county town to peddle his wares.

The entire Beiyang County was shaped like the Chinese character for “abundance” (丰). The Gong family’s cold noodle shop was located at the end of the middle cross street on the western side, and the three Gong brothers mainly sold cold-tossed preserved eggs within the area of the three western cross streets.

In this area, preserved eggs were already booming and had gained considerable fame. However, on the three east cross streets, they were virtually unknown.

The owners of those small restaurants lacked confidence in the preserved eggs. In response, Jiang Fuzheng suggested they go to the three western cross streets to check out the preserved eggs’ reputation. Of course, the most important thing was to go to the Gong Family Cold Noodle Shop and see the long lines that formed there every day.

Some of these small business owners were content to stick to their own little restaurants and had little desire to expand.

But most of them took Jiang Fuzheng’s advice and made time to visit the Gong Family Cold Noodles Shop for a firsthand look.

Mainly because the figures Jiang Fuzheng cited were simply too tempting.

Selling hundreds of servings a day—wouldn’t that mean earning one or two silver coins just from this one dish? Unbelievable!

When they arrived at the shop and saw the line of customers, these small business owners had to admit it was indeed booming.

Although the Gong family’s daily sales of several hundred portions were achieved by combining the street stalls run by the three brothers with the shop’s sales, even if we set aside the stalls and consider only the shop’s sales of over two hundred portions, that still amounts to four or five hundred wen a day.

Half a guan! Half a guan!

Seeing is believing.

So these small business owners were tempted.

Purchase orders surged significantly; the smallest order was for a hundred, while the largest exceeded a thousand.

Once the first batch of preserved eggs was ready at the remaining households, Jiang Fuzheng led the group to deliver them door-to-door. After these small eateries began selling cold preserved egg salad, their business was quite good, thanks to the eggs’ exceptional flavor.

It was summer, after all—everyone loves something refreshing to go with their drinks, so the preserved eggs arrived at just the right time. Thanks to these small business owners, the remaining households sold their preserved eggs quite quickly as well. But some chose to set up stalls in the county town to sell cold preserved eggs themselves.

Take the Zhang Shi family, for example.

However, after just three days, he gave up on the idea. The work was simply too exhausting!

In the middle of summer, under the scorching sun, pushing a heavy cart through the streets wasn’t easy—and sales weren’t great to begin with. The three brothers from the Gong family had cornered the market on West Third Cross Street.

On the eastern Third Cross Street, many small restaurants were also selling preserved eggs.

The fixed stalls on the main street were all taken, and mobile vendors were easily chased away by the constables.

At that time, it wasn’t so much a matter of affecting the city’s appearance, but rather that too many carts on the main street caused traffic jams.

Beiyang County was a small county town where the main street could only accommodate four carts side by side; the slightest carelessness would cause a traffic jam. Therefore, after three days of hard work, Zhang Shi gave up on the idea.

Rather than wasting his energy on this, he’d be better off buying more eggs to make more preserved eggs. If he sold them in bulk, he could easily recoup the profit margin that Gong Lisheng had taken.

In short, preserved eggs are booming right now; as long as they’re made, there’s no worry about not selling them. The outlook is extremely promising.

While Ye Li was explaining, Jiang Ji kept his head down and ate in silence.

Today, Ye Li had brought steamed noodles with green beans and pork for lunch. There was plenty of pork, and the noodles were fragrant and tender. What’s more, Ye Li had also prepared a drink—iced watermelon jasmine tea.

Ye Li had brought four bamboo cups. The family turned a bamboo basket upside down to use as a table and ate happily, taking turns.

However, Ye Li had been doing all the talking until just now. Seeing him pause, Jiang Ji picked up a bamboo cup and handed it to him: “Have a sip.” Ye Li took the cup and drank it all in one gulp.

The watermelon jasmine tea had lost its chill, but its sweet flavor was enough to quench his thirst. After finishing, he smiled and said, “I haven’t finished yet—there’s still Big Brother to talk about.” 

“Yu-ger went to town to sell cold-dressed preserved eggs. Business was decent—it was about fifty-fifty compared to those who bought the preserved eggs directly.”

“There’s a three-wen difference there, and most people really can’t bring themselves to spend that extra.”

Actually, at first, Ye Liang had no intention of continuing to sell preserved eggs. He planned to sell only cold, preserved egg salad.

But doing so would have upset his regular customers. No one likes to be pressured into buying something, especially when the markup is over three wen.

While preserved eggs are highly profitable, the tofu puff business is just as important. It’s rare for a caravan to buy out the entire stock; half of the tofu puff sales rely on regular customers in town.

Regular customers who can afford stuffed pancakes can certainly afford preserved eggs, and a large portion of them actually love them. If he were to now only sell them cold, preserved eggs, who would feel comfortable with that?

They might keep buying them out of habit, but they certainly can’t force them to buy—otherwise, our reputation will be ruined. How could anyone running a long-term business act this way?

Furthermore, if some customers were to get angry and stop buying the stuffed pancakes altogether, the loss would be significant. Therefore, after much discussion, the Ye family ultimately decided to continue selling preserved eggs.

However, they would impose a purchase limit: only two per person per day.

It was a necessary measure. Based on past experience, if they didn’t impose a limit, those 1,000 preserved eggs would sell out in two or three days—and if they happened to run into out-of-town merchants, the entire stock could be snapped up in a single transaction.

Therefore, if they were to sell them individually, they had to impose a purchase limit.

This reasoning was both reasonable and factual; everyone had seen just how well preserved eggs had sold in the past. Furthermore, when Ye Liang, Liu Yi, and Tang Yu set up their stalls, they patiently explained the situation to their regular customers. As a result, the regulars didn’t harbor any resentment over the change.

If you really had a craving and wanted to eat your fill, you could bring a few family members along and still buy quite a lot in one go.

However, the cold-served preserved eggs he prepared were truly delicious, so diners whose budgets allowed it preferred to buy those instead.

A crowd of people stood in front of the stall holding bowls to buy the cold-tossed preserved eggs, and even passersby who weren’t originally interested were drawn in, stepping forward to see what exactly was being sold.

As a result, business at the stall becomes even more brisk.

Of course, there were still discerning out-of-town merchants looking to buy preserved eggs in bulk.

“There was a merchant from out of town who wanted to buy the entire stock and tried to drive the price down. Big Brother naturally refused to sell. Later, the merchant raised his offer—the profit margin was about the same as selling retail—so Big Brother sold him a batch of preserved eggs.”

“Judging by how things have been going these past few days, it’s still more profitable than selling directly to Sheng.” 

“That’s good,” Jiang Ji nodded.

It turned out that Ye Liang’s initial refusal to sell the preserved eggs to Gong Lisheng was the right call—retail sales were indeed more profitable.

“That’s right. He originally thought he’d make two hundred wen a day, but his earnings exceeded expectations—three or four hundred wen, or even five hundred wen a day. By the time autumn comes, and he buys livestock, he’ll definitely be buying an oxcart.”

Ye Li was quite pleased.

“A oxcart is good—it can haul a lot of cargo.”

As Jiang Ji spoke, he poured Ye Li another cup of watermelon jasmine tea.

Ye Li picked it up, took a couple of sips, then picked up his chopsticks and began eating the noodles from the jar.

After all that talking, he was hungry.

Seeing him eat heartily, Jiang Ji couldn’t help but pick up a few bites himself.

But since Jiang Ji had already eaten quite a bit earlier, he soon put down his chopsticks and picked up his glass of watermelon jasmine tea to drink. The two little ones were full too, and were now holding their glasses of watermelon jasmine tea, sipping it in small sips.

Jiang Ji looked at their chubby cheeks and couldn’t resist reaching out to pinch them. “You’ve gotten chubby. Have you been helping your older brother with the chores at home?” Upon hearing this, Jiang Ya’s big eyes widened slightly. “I work every day. I’ve gotten chubby because I eat a lot.”

He eats so much every day!

Li-ge’s meals and snacks are just too delicious.

“They haven’t been slacking off at all—the firewood pile at home is stacked sky-high now.”

Ye Li swallowed the noodles in his mouth and cleared the air for the two of them.

“Exactly,” Jiang Ya nodded his little head. “Li-ge doesn’t have to spend money on firewood anymore. He praised us for saving him a lot of money.”

Jiang Mai nodded too—he certainly wasn’t slacking off. With Big Brother away, he had to work extra hard.

Jiang Ji was pleased. He ruffled their little heads. “Good boys.”

Just then, Ye Li added, “Also, there are corn cobs in that other basket—they’re really tender. You can eat them tonight. But by the time you come home next time, the corn will be past its prime. How about I have Big Brother bring you a few cobs in the next couple of days?”

Jiang Ji shook his head. “No need to have Big Brother make a special trip—it’s so heavy. It won’t be long before I go home to pack my bags. I’ll just rely on my teeth then.”

He’s got a strong set of teeth.

He could handle it.

Hearing this, Ye Li didn’t press the matter.

True, if they had to come all the way from the city gate, it would be quite a walk.

Ultimately, it was because he didn’t have a car.

If they had a car, he’d bring meals to Jiang Ji every day.

The family of four chatted for a while. Jiang Tong’s new house was now half-built. By the time Jiang Ji returned home, the main structure would be complete.

In addition to the five main rooms, the kitchen and storage room were also built with blue bricks, making the house almost as grand as Jiang Fuzheng’s. These days, it wasn’t just Ye Li who checked on the progress daily; other families in the village couldn’t resist dropping by to take a look.

In the past, no one would have dared to dream of such a house, but now that they had the “preserved eggs,” everyone dared to dream and make plans. As long as the “preserved egg” business went smoothly, by this time next year, every household would likely have a new house.

With new houses comes the need for new furniture.

Jiang Tong is a carpenter himself, so he plans to build large cabinets and chests on his own. Since they’re for his own use, he figures he might as well use them as practice.

To make such large pieces, he’d need to buy lumber—freshly cut wood is too damp to use for furniture.

Earlier, when he was making wind chimes, he’d specifically collected some wood. But wind chimes are so small—they don’t require much precision. At the time, he’d just bought whatever wood was cheap, without worrying about length or size.

So now he had to buy more lumber. But he didn’t have time to go out to the countryside.

So he came up with a good idea: the old carpenters in the county town certainly had no shortage of quality lumber at home, and he was willing to pay a bit extra to buy it from them.

He had come into town today specifically for this purpose, so Ye Li took the two little ones along for the ride. As for the return trip, Ye Liang would come over to meet up with them.

But today, Ye Liang had come by mule cart.

The villagers’ enthusiasm for buying eggs hadn’t waned, and Ye Li couldn’t keep up—he didn’t have the time, nor did he have a vehicle. He could only ask Ye Liang to buy some in town and bring them to him.

After hearing this, Jiang Ji said, “Why go to all that trouble? Just wait for your cut from now on.”

“It’s no trouble. Big Brother brings over the eggs, sawdust, and lime. He’ll fry the tofu puffs, and I’ll make the preserved eggs. We’ll have it all ready by this afternoon.”

Ye Li wasn’t about to pass up this profit.

If he made a thousand of them, he could earn eleven hundred wen. All it would cost him was an afternoon’s time.

He was currently planning to build a warm pavilion; 1,100 wen would buy quite a few bricks. Of course, he couldn’t mention this to Jiang Ji just yet.

Jiang Ji was currently spending money without earning any, and Ye Li felt guilty about it. If Jiang Ji couldn’t help with something as big as building a house, who knows how much internal conflict that would cause him?

With the provincial exam approaching, he couldn’t let Jiang Ji’s mind wander.

Actually, the reason Jiang Ji had spoken that way earlier was mostly that he didn’t want to trouble Ye Liang. With that time, Ye Liang could easily make the preserved eggs himself.

But since Ye Li, his own younger brother, was so adamant, he said no more.

Just then, the clatter of hooves sounded. The group glanced toward the corner of the private school and saw Ye Liang approaching in a mule cart. Ye Li quickly cleared the tableware and soon climbed into the cart with Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya.

He glanced at Jiang Ji but said nothing more, merely waving a hand in his direction. In just eight more days, his beloved husband would be back.

Soon!

Jiang Ji held a large bundle of boiled corn. Only after the mule cart had disappeared from sight did he take a deep breath, suppress the longing in his heart, and turn back toward the private school.

Focus!

There were only a few days left when he could study in peace at the private school.

The mule cart soon turned onto the main street, passed through the county town, and followed a small path into Yezaopo.

At this time of year, the jujube trees throughout the village were heavy with fruit; the green jujubes hung from the branches, a sight that brought joy just to look at. But they were still quite a long way from ripening.

Opening the front door, Ye Liang unloaded the eggs, sawdust, and lime from the mule cart. Ye Li rushed straight to the backyard.

He asked Jiang Liu to help feed the pigs and chickens while he checked to see if the two piglets and the chickens had eaten their fill. In the backyard, there was still some grass mixed with tofu pulp left in the pig trough—Jiang Liu had overfed them. The chicken trough, however, was spotless, with no leftover feed.

It was hot, so the roosters and hens were all huddled in the shade. He returned to the front yard, drew some water, and carried it to the backyard.

After pouring water into the pig trough and the chicken trough, he called out a few times. Seeing the two piglets and the roosters and hens all heading toward their feeders, he felt reassured and carried the wooden bucket back to the front yard.

In the front yard, the two little ones were holding ropes, ready to head out to gather firewood.

They had just told Jiang Ji they hadn’t been slacking off, and both were fired up—today, they were determined to gather plenty of firewood! Once the two little ones had left, Ye Liang went into the kitchen to slice tofu, preparing to fry tofu puffs and large skewers.

Ye Li, meanwhile, was making preserved eggs.

After Ye Liang finished cutting the tofu, he took a frying pan out of the cupboard, stepped out of the kitchen, and got ready to start frying.

There were two sheds in the Jiang family’s courtyard. One was built over the well to shield it from rain and dust.

The other was next to the well, with a stove built beneath it. Once summer arrived, Ye Li would always fry the tofu puffs on this stove. Right now, Ye Li was sitting by the well, making preserved eggs.

Ye Liang stood before the stove, pouring soybean oil into the large iron pot while glancing at Ye Li. A flicker of hesitation crossed his face. But this was something he simply had to say.

So he set the empty oil basin on the stove and said to Ye Li, “Li-ger, your brother Yei’s maternal uncle, Liu Fan, came to him and said he’d like to learn how to make preserved eggs too. Liu Fan is willing to give you a cut of the profits and has sworn not to tell anyone else.”

“Liu Fan insisted on asking you, so your brother sent me to broach the subject with you.”

Seeing Ye Li look up at him, he quickly added, “They just asked me to ask you. If you don’t agree, he won’t be upset. He already knew you wouldn’t agree.”

Ye Li set down the egg tray in his hands and said patiently, “Big Brother, this isn’t about a cut or no cut. The key point is that when the villagers first learned how to make preserved eggs, they made a solemn promise never to reveal the secret. If the recipe were to be leaked, they would be banished from the village.”

“It was Uncle Jiang who said we’d be driven out of the village. That carries a lot of weight; the villagers wouldn’t dare make that mistake lightly.”

“But Uncle Jiang can’t control Yi-ger’s in-laws. If the secret really gets out, it’ll be the whole village’s interests that suffer.”

“Don’t be fooled by how popular preserved eggs are right now. Come winter, sales will drop. If there are too many preserved eggs, the villagers might not be able to sell theirs.”

“And what if the husbands and wives of Yi-ger’s maternal relatives also want to teach their own brothers and sisters? If this spreads, it’ll be never-ending.”

“That makes perfect sense,” Ye Liang nodded. “I know that, and your brother Yi feels the same way, but Liu Fan just won’t give up. He had no choice but to ask me to bring this up with you.”

“Since you’re firmly against it, he’ll just drop the matter. Let’s pretend it never came up.”

Hearing this, Ye Li smiled and said, “Alright, I have a terrible memory anyway, so I’ll just pretend I never heard it.”

Seeing this, Ye Liang smiled as well, secretly relieved that Yi-ger was a reasonable man who wouldn’t favor his in-laws over his own family. In fact, thanks to the tofu puffs, the Liu family’s pancake stall had seen its business multiply several times over compared to before.

Now his in-laws were in town, both selling and making cakes, while Liu Fan and his wife were making cakes at the Liu household and delivering them to town once they were ready.

However, the preserved eggs were simply too eye-catching—they were profitable and required little effort—so Liu Fan began to take an interest. But Jiang Fuzheng really couldn’t keep Liu Fan in line, and there was nothing to be done about it.

He pondered the matter, wondering if there was any other way to pull Liu Fan back.