Chapter 104: Cash Cow
Jiang Yihuan hooked the loose hair by her ear and said lazily: “Of course he’s mixing fragrances for us without any regrets and making cosmetics.”
Zhong Lanhua grinned: “That boy is ugly-looking, but his skills are really good. Before, when you wanted to spend five taels of silver to buy him, I wasn’t willing at first, but now it seems my daughter has foresight. Look, today is only the first day, and we’ve already sold three hundred taels of silver.”
“We did sell three hundred taels of silver, but renting this house costs one hundred taels a year, buying that Yang Quan cost five taels, and the other twelve servants cost thirty taels. Plus, there’s the cost of procuring goods? Although the cosmetics are made by Yang Quan and the servants, the cost isn’t high, but the other things are procured from elsewhere. I roughly calculated that the cost for procuring goods these past few days was three hundred taels. Even if we sell thirty percent today, that’s still one hundred taels of silver…”
Zhong Lanhua was already afraid of doing accounts, and counting that silver earlier had given her a headache. Now hearing Jiang Yihuan detail the expenses of the past few days, her brain couldn’t keep up even more.
When Xiao Yanci entered the door, Zhong Lanhua shouted to him loudly as if seeing a savior: “Xiao Ci, come over quickly and calculate the accounts.”
Xiao Yanci felt disgust toward Zhong Lanhua, but when he saw Jiang Yihuan, his gaze softened considerably.
He had been at the academy today and had no time to attend the opening of Fenghua Pavilion. Now it seemed the mother and daughter had prepared quite well, managing it more properly than he had imagined.
He took the abacus and calculated rapidly, saying: “After deducting costs and labor, we probably earned about fifty taels of silver today.”
“Only fifty taels?” Zhong Lanhua pointed at the pile of silver. “We sold three hundred taels!”
“Ready-made clothes, shoes and socks, various personal items—these all have to be procured from other shops. Don’t the servants you bought need three meals a day? Don’t they need new clothes? Even though they are servants, they don’t need much wages, but a small amount of wages still has to be given. At three hundred copper coins per person, twelve people is more than three taels of silver. That Yang Quan is responsible for making all the cosmetics, so to win him over, at least two taels of silver per month, right? Plus, with so many customers today, how many asked for tea, how many damaged things in the shop, and how many wanted to try on makeup? All those losses have to be deducted.”
“Alright, alright, stop talking. I bought those servants; they’re my people. Do I still have to give them wages? Do those big families give wages?”
“If it’s a deed of lifelong servitude, the wages are a bit less. If it’s a deed of temporary servitude, the wages are a bit more. Of course, you can choose not to give any—after all, you bought them, and the deed of sale is in your hands. But generally speaking, to make them work more diligently, this wage still needs to be given. To make a mule grind, you have to feed it well first.”
“Mom, fifty taels is a lot. Think about it: if it was like before, just the two of us doing embroidery work to sell, how much would we have to embroider to earn fifty taels?” Jiang Yihuan comforted Zhong Lanhua. “This is only the first day; there will be more in the future.”
“You’re right. Fifty taels a day is over a thousand taels a month; that’s very good income.” Zhong Lanhua said proudly. “Most importantly, the shop opposite won’t last long. I specially checked today; they didn’t have a single business deal. I want to see how many days they can hold out, haha…”
What Xiao Yanci despised most was Zhong Lanhua’s petty villainous face. If she weren’t Jiang Yihuan’s mother, he wouldn’t deign to say a word to her.
“What is that Yang Quan’s background?” Xiao Yanci asked Jiang Yihuan.
“I heard his family used to run a rouge shop. He learned to make fragrances and ointments from his family since childhood. Later, his family was raided by bandits, and he fled with his younger sister. His younger sister fell seriously ill on the way, so to treat her, he sold himself into servitude. I didn’t see his younger sister; he said she couldn’t hold on and died of illness.” Jiang Yihuan was full of sympathy. “He’s really too pitiful.”
“I’m going to sleep; you all tidy up here.” Zhong Lanhua picked up on Jiang Yihuan’s signal, pretending to be sleepy, actually making space for Jiang Yihuan.
Once Zhong Lanhua left, Jiang Yihuan looked tenderly at Xiao Yanci and placed a bag of silver money in his hand: “Xiao Gege, this is the money I’m returning to you.”
“Why give it to me?” Xiao Yanci helplessly put it back on the table. “Once my money is given to you, it’s yours. The shop just opened, and there are many places needing money. Use this money for running the shop; no need to give it back to me.”
“You put out good tens of taels to open this shop! I estimated in my heart: after paying you back, and paying back part of the other friends’ money, if business is this good every day, we can pay everyone back in half a month.” Jiang Yihuan said embarrassedly. “Speaking of which, I was bold: clearly having not much silver on hand, yet borrowing everywhere to open this shop. This is also my first time opening a shop, no experience, didn’t know a shop needs to stock so much goods.”
“This isn’t boldness; it’s having strategy. Huan’er is clearly a weak woman, yet has a brave and ambitious heart. If you were a man, you would definitely make a name for yourself.”
“How am I as good as you say?” Jiang Yihuan looked at him shyly. “I’m so stupid, know nothing, have to rely on you everywhere.”
“You’re not stupid; you just have such a biased mother, giving everything good to your brother, yet never considering you. By the way, Huan’er, earlier you said to find an accountant. I think it’s better to keep control of the accounts in your own hands rather than letting others manage them. Even if not managing personally, you still need to be able to read the account book. I come back every day anyway; why not let me teach you to read, teach you to keep account books and check account books, so no one can deceive you.”
“Won’t this delay your time too much?”
“No. If I can’t even free up this bit of time, then I shouldn’t bother taking the official examination. It would mean my brain isn’t good, taking so much time just to study.”
Jiang Yihuan nodded lightly: “Okay.”
“Then I’ll teach you to read now.” Xiao Yanci got interested.
Jiang Yihuan: “…”
Who wants to learn to read? Who wants to look at account books?
She only likes counting money!
This man is really interesting—not thinking of sharing the burden for her, not thinking of handling those account books himself, but wanting to push the trouble to her. Look at his expression, as if she should be grateful for him spending time teaching her.
Jiang Yihuan braced herself to keep up with Xiao Yanci.
As soon as the two went out the door, they saw a young man with a red birthmark on his face coming from opposite. When the young man saw Jiang Yihuan, he felt inferior and covered half his face that was full of the red birthmark, facing her with the half without the birthmark.
“Yang Quan, you finally came out. I looked for you several times earlier; your door was closed, so I didn’t want to disturb you. There’s steamed egg custard on the stove, kept warm for you. Go eat something quickly!” Jiang Yihuan said gently. “Xiao Gege, no lesson today. I’ll go make some food for Yang Quan; he’s worked hard all day.”
