Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

The next morning, when Zhang Youtie returned from the county town, the people he had asked for help the day before had already arrived and were steaming buns and washing vegetables in the yard. When they saw Zhang Youtie returning with a cart full of goods, they all gathered around to help unload them.

Zhang Youtie lifted the felt cloth covering the carriage, and everyone gasped in amazement at what they saw underneath.

Half a pig, a sheep's trotter, four live chickens, five carp weighing two or three pounds each, and ten jars of wine.

"Wow, Third Brother, you've prepared so much stuff! This is even more lavish than when someone else is getting married!" Tian Guihua, who was helping to move the things, couldn't help but say.

“The brothers come to work at dawn every day and don’t go back until dark. They’ve really worked hard these past few months. Today, I’ll take this opportunity to treat everyone to something nice.” After saying that, he looked at the dozen or so people in the yard and said, “Brothers, you can’t stop us from drinking later. You must make sure the brothers drink to their hearts’ content today.”

"Don't stop him, let him drink," one of the women said.

"That's right, that's right, he's in a good mood today, let him have a drink this once."

"..." A dozen women chattered in the yard. Zhang Youtie unloaded all the things, led the mule to the shed to feed it hay, and then went to the old house.

Xia Yu was about to ask him where he got the lamb, since she had been here for several months and this was the first time she had ever seen lamb. But seeing that her father had left in a hurry, she decided to ask him later that evening when she had some free time.

There were quite a few people in the courtyard. Chunyu and Qiuyu also came to help. Everyone was very open-minded. Some were killing chickens, some were killing fish, some were butchering pork, and some were butchering sheep. In short, everyone was chatting and working together in a lively atmosphere.

The men arrived early as well, but they all gathered over on the wasteland, looking at the pond they had dug, the road they had paved, and the house they had built. Then they sat under the mulberry trees, enjoying the cool shade and chatting, waiting for the midday feast.

The women were cooking with great enthusiasm, showing off their culinary skills. When the men were called to the table, there were five tables, each with eight cold dishes: garlic-flavored pork belly, salted shrimp, braised pork belly, braised pork liver, fried peanuts, smashed cucumber, garlic-dressed eggplant, and cold seaweed salad—four meat dishes and four vegetable dishes. The seaweed salad was something Xia Yu had found at a general store in Ming'an County; there were only five or six pounds of dried seaweed, which cost Xia Yu almost an ounce of silver.

"This food is delicious! I can smell the aroma from far away," Zhang Tianliang said, looking at the dishes on the table.

"Indeed, this minced garlic and sesame oil smell wonderful," said a man next to Zhang Tianliang, slurping up saliva.

"It's delicious, but my wife won't let me kiss you after I eat it," another man whispered slyly.

"Haha, everyone knows you're afraid of your wife, and you still say it out loud," said someone next to him.

"You're not afraid of your wife? So what if you are? I just love my wife dearly," the man retorted defiantly.

"I'm not afraid of my wife! I'm not bragging, but I'm the boss in my own home," the man boasted to the people at the table, giving them a thumbs-up. Little did he know, a woman behind him was about to move a wine jar to his table and overheard his boasting.

The people opposite him saw the woman behind him, but pretended not to see her and continued to try to persuade him, saying, "We don't believe it. Everyone in our village knows that your wife is the head of the household."

"She's in charge? I could ask her to chase a dog and she wouldn't even dare to chase a chicken. In the few months she's been working, she brings me water to soak my feet every night and hands me my meals. She even insists on massaging my shoulders at night, but I can't be bothered with her. Her big hands are as hard as rocks. If she massages my shoulders, she could crush my bones." She finished with a disdainful snort.

"oh---"

Before the man could react, he turned to look at the two jars of wine on the table next to him and said curiously, "Why haven't we moved our wine over yet? I'll go check." He stood up and was about to head into the yard. But as soon as he turned around, he saw his wife behind him, looking at him with a half-smile.

"Ah---, Mom, what are you doing standing behind me?" The person was so frightened that they sat back down on the stool.

"Hmph, I brought you some wine. It's delicious!" With that, she shoved the wine jar into the man's arms and left.

The man placed the wine jar on the table, looked at the group opposite him, and said angrily, "Are you guys any less capable than me?"

Just as the two people opposite were about to speak, Zhang Youtie, who was standing on a stool, spoke.

"Uncles, gentlemen, brothers, let's all fill our glasses. I won't bother with formalities. Let's eat and drink our fill today, and drink until we're drunk. I'll drink first as a sign of respect." With that, he finished the bowl of wine in his hand in one gulp.

"Good, good!" Everyone applauded and cheered.

After finishing his speech, Zhang Youtie toasted everyone at each table again, and then sat down with Old Master Zhang, the village chief, and several other elderly people in the village, drinking and talking with them.

Zhang Youtie originally wanted Uncle Ma to come and sit at the table to eat as well, but he insisted on refusing, saying it was against the rules. He and Aunt Ma had been here for several months, and Zhang Youtie knew his temperament. Seeing that he really refused to come, he asked Liu to set aside some items from each menu and send them to him and Aunt Ma.

After the cold dishes were almost finished, the women brought out the hot dishes: braised chicken, braised fish, mutton with radish, stir-fried pork slices with bell peppers, braised prawns, and stir-fried cucumber. Each dish was generously portioned, and finally, they served steamed buns made from a mixture of wheat and water and hot and sour egg drop soup. The oldest person at the dinner was eighty-year-old Grandpa Wang, who said that in his eighty years, he had never seen such a good meal. Thus, the best feast in Zhangjia Village in eighty years lasted until after three in the afternoon before slowly dispersing. The women had already eaten and sat together chatting, waiting for the men to finish their meal and help clean up.

The meal was quite large, and many tables were left uneaten. Liu and her daughters-in-law folded all the food into a large basin. After cleaning up the plates and bowls and returning the tables and chairs, Liu had the helpers divide the basin of food, giving each of them two bowls to take home.

After dinner, the family sat around the table in the main room to settle their accounts. Everyone was in a good mood, and many of the men were drunk. Zhang Youtie was worried that the wages he was giving them might be lost by the most intoxicated among them, so he arranged for them to come and collect their wages after breakfast the next day.

"There are thirty-one people in total, and each person earns twenty-eight coins. There were five days of work stoppage due to rain, so if we exclude those days, there were a total of eighty-four days of work. That means each person earns two thousand three hundred and fifty-two coins, and the total for the thirty-one people is seventy-two taels of silver and nine hundred and twelve coins." Xia Yu scribbled on the yellow straw paper with a charcoal pencil while explaining to his parents.

"That's quite a lot, over seventy taels of silver. If this were in the past, I wouldn't have believed it if you said our family spent over seventy taels of silver to hire someone to do the work." Madam Liu was astonished when she heard her daughter's calculations.

"Mother, this is the men's wages. Aunts Li Xiaomiao and Tian Guihua haven't been paid yet," Xia Yu reminded her.

"Then hurry up and calculate it, don't let anyone miss it."

"The two aunties arrived on the fifth day and worked for a total of eighty days. They were paid five coins a day, so each of them was paid four hundred coins." Xia Yu casually wrote a few strokes on the paper and calculated the wages for the two women for eighty days.

"Actually, our family has quite a bit of spending on food. In the past three months, including today, we've consumed a total of 375 catties of pork, 32 chickens, and 14 catties of lamb today. Let's not even count the fish. We've consumed 1,800 catties of wheat flour and 1,700 catties of cornmeal. Of course, this includes the consumption of our family and Uncle Ma and Aunt Ma. According to the current market price, this is about 20 taels of silver. That's about 100 taels of silver."

"So many!" Zhang Youtie exclaimed.

"Dad, why do you insist on feeding everyone? If we pay thirty coins a day, it will only amount to eighty taels of silver. It would save us a lot of trouble," Xia Yu asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Hey, you’re too young to understand the situation in the village. Our family got rich too quickly this year. If we don’t spend more money, there’s no guarantee that something like what happened with the watermelon won’t happen again. Last time it was just one family targeting us, but what if everyone in the village rejects us? How can we live peacefully in the village then? These past few months, our family has spent more money to make sure the workers are well-fed. This is partly to win them over, and partly to show the other villagers that getting along well with our family brings benefits.” Zhang Youtie couldn’t come up with any grand principles, but he basically felt that if you’re rich and don’t share the benefits with others, you’re likely to attract trouble.

"Daughter, calculate it again, how much money have we made selling shrimp in these three months?" Zhang Youtie said excitedly. For the past few months, he had been going out to deliver goods before dawn every day, and sometimes he would go to the county town again in the afternoon.

"Okay, I remember everything. Let me calculate." With that, Xia Yu picked up a pen and began calculating stroke by stroke on the paper. After calculating once, Xia Yu found it unbelievable. She calculated it again, and only after looking at the numbers on the paper did she speak, under the expectant gazes of Zhang Youtie and Liu Shi.

"I earned a total of 338 taels of silver and 400 coins from selling prawns over these three months."