Traveling to Daliang Kingdom starts from falling into the water

Chapter 490 Return to the Village

Zhou Banxia was pregnant and the weather was cold, so she was not allowed to get off the carriage halfway. Gu Wenxuan even repeatedly told her not to lift the curtain.

She, Ma Shan, Xiao Baoya, the two little ones and others could stay in the carriage with peace of mind, but Gu Erzhu and his wife and Gu Wenxuan could not.

Someone shouted loudly, "Is it Mr. Gu Erye?" or "Our Little Sanyuan is back?" The father and son, including Liu, had to respond to the greetings.

Even though Zhou Banxia was unable to see the market with her own eyes, she could imagine from what she had heard that the market was becoming more and more prosperous and lively, and her family's popularity index was soaring.

"...Nowadays, the market here is no longer like the big market on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month in town. On weekdays, there are many peddlers and vendors setting up stalls here.

In addition, since the weather turned cold, more mutton offal shops appeared. People from the surrounding villages would buy a big bowl of mutton offal for three or five cents and take it home to stew with some radishes or something.

I heard that you can order more soup, which has a lot of oil and water. Isn't this more cost-effective than buying mutton offal at home? So more and more people come here.

Your father, my second uncle's shop, is very easy to rent out. My father said that at present, based on a rough calculation, the annual rent is at least fifty taels of silver."

Zhou Banxia nodded with a smile, "Yes, there are so many. But my father also invested a lot in the beginning. Just building two rows of shops cost hundreds of taels of silver.

Including the land, which was the most expensive piece of land at the time, the total cost was about 400 to 500 taels, which was considered to be a complete drain on the family fortune.”

Ma Shan glanced at her speechlessly and rolled her eyes twice, which made Gu Baoya, who was lying on the couch protecting her little nephew, laugh first and burst into giggles.

"Listen, even Baoya is laughing at you." Ma Shan patted Zhou Banxia's leg in amusement. "The carriage is moving, are you still worried that outsiders will hear it?"

"I do not."

"Listen, my sister has denied it." Zhou Banxia immediately took over the conversation from her sister-in-law, "In fact, my uncle has underestimated the rent for the workshop."

The rent of the oil paper processing workshop? "That's just how much." Ma Shan laughed and shook her head, "Your father can't raise the rent. But for these shops, if there are people scrambling to rent them, then he can raise the price."

"No, they are all from the same village. Unless the rent of the shops in the village increases, my father will increase the rent accordingly. Otherwise, it would be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Only when the rent is lower and more shops open, this place will become more and more popular. In time, it is not impossible to attract customers from the town here. "

"And bring them to our place?" Ma Shan recalled what she had seen and heard when she visited the market before entering the city. "It's already lively enough now.

You know that even my eldest aunt rented your father's shop a few days ago, right? Now my eldest uncle has opened a butcher shop here to steal my father's business."

Of course, this is a joke. The pork and mutton produced by the Ma family's farm are in short supply, so they are not thinking about the small profit from retailing one or two pigs and mutton.

After all, if the Ma family sets up a stall here to sell goods, not only will they take up manpower, but they will basically sell most of the goods, and the rest will be half-sold or half-given away to several relatives every now and then.

Like her family’s tofu shop’s stall at the market.

It's almost the same.

When the weather was hot before, tofu was easy to spoil. Although there was still a lot of leftover that could be used in our own workshop and canteen, there were times when we had to sell it halfway or give it away.

There were even times when, like the old lady and her eldest sister and mother-in-law, they would go to the tofu stall at the market and not buy much, so she would simply tell them not to charge them.

Overall, if it weren't for the considerable profits from yuba, the tofu shop she runs wouldn't be making much money by selling it retail in the market.

Therefore, even if she tries her best to boost the traffic to the market, she will never put the edible oil produced by the oil press for retail sale.

Cooking oil was really too expensive. Even if she sold soybean oil, the cheapest one among them, at a fair price, and didn't charge for one or two taels, her father would not forgive her. After all, the soybean oil supplied to Yunke was only 80 wen per catty, which was 60 wen more expensive than the worst lard boiled outside. It would be strange if her father agreed.

One pound weighs sixteen taels, and one tael of soybean oil costs five cents.

Here, her father was so eager to dry and store up the tofu dregs that he would not allow her to spend five or ten cents worth of soybean oil to be given away.

Her father made some harsh remarks.

If she dares to disregard the soybean oil again, he will cut off the thigh meat and let her, the prodigal daughter, take a good look at how much oil can be produced!

scared to death.

Zhou Banxia now understood that Ma Shan was not intentionally implying that her mother's family, the Ma family, had suffered a great loss, but was using this to illustrate that the market at the intersection of the official road was already quite prosperous and bustling.

But that's not enough. There's no need to go in the direction of the county town, just head towards the town. It would be spectacular if it could be connected to the town's east market in the future.

Where have we arrived yet?

Only Lijia Village in the south and the two small villages in front of the official road are catching up, which is still far from what we imagined. This end can be prosperous and lively, but it is not easy to be used as a target.

I just don't know when this county magistrate was promoted and transferred, nor do I know who the new county magistrate her uncle hinted that she might know is.

Zhou Banxia thought about it and realized that there seemed to be only a few people she knew who were Jinshi (Jinshi) and were transferred by the Ministry of Personnel to Qingyang County to serve as magistrates.

First of all, putting aside the rule that officials cannot serve as county officials in their hometowns, there is no doubt that it would be impossible for the relatives of the Gao and Zhou families whose starting point was above the rank of Juren.

As for the retainers of the Gao and Zhou mansions? Her uncle must have had retainers who had taken refuge with him, but her uncle would have been crazy to intervene in the transfer of personnel from the Ministry of Personnel and send retainers to Qingyang County to protect her.

Her uncle, who had reported even her to the two members of the Gao family in a secret memorial, must have been extremely cautious. How could he have acted recklessly for fear of being caught?

In this case, even the retainers of Gao Mansion, my uncle probably wouldn't want her to be too closely involved with them, especially considering the limited connections she and her husband have now?

I think the only ones left are Madam Qian's maiden family, the Wang family, or someone from the families of those uncles and senior brothers whose ancestral homes are not in the province.

The problem is that she knows the people, so the Wang family doesn't need to consider it. Both her and Xuanzi have received a lot of study materials, but the Wang family has never seen them.

Then there are only a few uncles and senior brothers whose ancestral homes are not in this province. She has only met these few so far, and she thinks it should be one of those two.

"Will Uncle Zheng, who ranks before Uncle Qi, be in mourning until February or March next year? Was his eldest son originally an eighth-rank county magistrate?"

The carriage stopped and entered the west wing. Before Gu Wenxuan had time to wash his hands, he heard Zhou Banxia throw two questions to him without any context.

"Yes, it must be. Even if my wife says it's not, it has to be."

"Be serious."

"What's wrong with me?" Gu Wenxuan leaned forward and pecked him. "It's not even considered improper. We have a marriage certificate and even a baby."

"Pinch yours."

"Take care of yourself, your parents are here."