Chapter 62.1 - Development
The next morning.
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After eating breakfast together, the two split up.
An Zi Ran had to go to the rice shop and the fields to deal with some follow-up matters from yesterday"s incident. Fu Wu Tian was going to implement the plan he wrote yesterday. The process was complicated and troublesome, and there was no manpower around him, so this time he wanted to go out in person.
Fu Wu Tian walked his w.a.n.g fei to the door and then went back into the house. When he pa.s.sed by the dining hall he heard the sound of a table and chairs being dragged.
"Gu ye*?"
[*T/N: 姑爷 gu ye: son-in-law (used by wife"s family)]
Standing not too far away was a maid dressed in a pink dress. In her hands was a platter of food. Her cheeks were red and her expression was slightly ill at ease. She did not expect to meet the An family"s son-in-law here. But gu ye really was very good looking. She had never seen such a handsome man. Every time she laid eyes on him, her cheeks couldn"t help but flush red.
Fu Wu Tian noticed the congee and salted vegetables in her hands. "Who is eating inside?"
The maid hurriedly replied, "It"s Concubine Fang and Eldest Miss." Afraid that gu yu might have doubts, she also explained, "They woke up early this morning and said that they wanted to eat in the dining hall, telling the kitchen to cook something for them, so Chef w.a.n.g had me bring this congee and salted vegetables to them."
The young mastered had pa.s.sed an order saying that the second and third concubine could only have congee and salted vegetables for their meals this month. There was still two more days to the month. So if they didn"t buy food from outside, they could only eat this stuff. They must"ve used up their savings, so they could no longer purchase food from outside.
"Go give it to them."
Hearing his command-like words, the maid took a moment to react. Then she gave an affirmative sound and immediately turned to deliver the food to the dining hall.
After a while, subdued eating sounds came from inside the dining hall.
Fu Wu Tian turned and left.
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Jade Water Courtyard, the courtyard where Zheng Bi lived.
After hearing that Fang Jun Ping and her daughter were eating congee and salted vegetables in the dining hall, Zheng Bi smiled coldly and placed a stuffed dumpling into An Ke Xin"s bowl. "Ke Xin ah, eat some more, mother"s money will not be eaten up in these couple of days. Unlike some people who can"t even hold out for the last two days, and letting that little brat have the last laugh."
[T/N: She calls An Zi Ran "brat" or "b.a.s.t.a.r.d"]
Although these days they carried the same notion of going up against An Zi Ran, that did not mean that they were very harmonious under private circ.u.mstances. In actuality, Zheng Bi earnestly wished for Fang Jun Ping and her daughter to have bad luck.
An Ke Xin ate the dumpling with satisfaction, and then revealed a mocking smile with her mother.
As for yesterday"s business, she has long forgotten everything.
As long as she didn"t want to marry, she didn"t think that An Zi Ran would really dare to force her!
At the An family rice shop, a crowd of people were craning their necks outside the door. These were the people who all registered yesterday. They were farmers who came ready to work today. Some of them have farmland, but they still coveted the three times monthly salary that the An family was offering. So they had the women of the house take care of the fields while they rushed over here to work for the An family.
Inside the rice shop, Manager Feng brought over the papers that he wrote up the night before and showed them to An Zi Ran. The papers contained some unimaginable content.
"Young Landlord, the things that you told me yesterday, I have written them all down. Take a look and tell me if anything else needs to be added."
An Zi Ran took a look at the carefully and neatly done work. Words were written neatly on the large piece of paper, just like a bulletin announcement. The words were written in a clear and concise manner. Anyone with basic literary skills should be able to understand.
"For this group of workers, change the clock in time to eight in the morning…"
Translations by Vanilla Muse
After listening to the revisions, Manager Feng couldn"t help but be amazed. According to these times, the working hours were four hours in the morning, and four hours in the afternoon, for a total of eight hours everyday. In the middle there was even a one-hour break. Compared to other places that had a workday of ten to twelve hours, their workday was shorter by two to four hours. Not to mention the monthly salary was one hundred coins.
"Young Landlord, wouldn"t this be too…"
Manager Feng finally showed some hesitation.
An Zi Ran interrupted him. "It"s fine, just do as I say."
Manager Feng saw that An Zi Ran was set in his decision and that there was nothing he could do to change his mind, so he ordered some people to announce the news.
This time there were a lot of workers recruited. Some time ago, many families followed Zhou Laohan"s example*, and the An family ended up taking back a number of fields. These fields needed people to look after them, and An Zi Ran was preparing to expand the production of certain precious varieties of rice such as gong mi*, black rice, and purple rice. In this aspect, it was also necessary to recruit skilled workers.
[*T/N: Refer to chapter 55.]
Furthermore, there was also the matter of constructing a warehouse for storing rice.
The An family"s original and current warehouse was already quite old. Some places have been damaged and there was even rain leakage in certain areas. An Zi Ran wanted to expand the warehouse, so he was preparing to build a new one. The original warehouse needed to be knocked down. It was a relatively large project so many workers were recruited.
The group of workers that he changed the clock in time for would be the ones to take on this job. This type of work required a lot of physical exertion, so those with greater physical strength were more preferential.
Of course, the treatment for the other workers would not be much worse.
Thus, when Manager Feng put up the announcement outside it instigated an immediate uproar. The illiterate hurriedly asked what was written, and then the news spread all at once. Some people could not believe that such a good thing would happen to them.
Standing apart from the crowd, several people looked upon the scene with cold eyes.