Chapter 558: Chapter 545: Accepting Favor Makes One Obliged

“In life, other than food, the only joy is in accumulating wealth some day. I will have to gradually enlighten the Prince about this.”

“This time, now that the Prince remembered me, I must push my skills to the limit, to the full extent of what I have learned, and show the Prince what I, Zhong Yingcai, am capable of!”

Yingcai, Yingcai, the name suggesting an exceptional talent. I must prove to the Prince that I did not get this name for nothing, and that it genuinely reflects me!”

“That’s enough, no more talking.”

Zhong Yingcai quickly stood up, “Hurry up, pack up, we’ll leave now.”

“Leave now?” Qi Er was shocked again.

Zhong Yingcai’s impulsive persona seemed to be growing more and more severe.

“That’s right, we’re leaving right now.” Zhong Yingcai said, “Time waits for no one, and even less for money. Opportunity slips away the moment you hesitate. If you hurry though, the opportunity is still there. But if you delay, it may be gone forever. We absolutely can’t afford that.”

“Also, don’t pack too much random stuff. Just bring some clothes for changing and your banknotes. If you bring too much, it’ll slow us down.”

“Yes, take a few more people if possible. Although that means we’ll have to pay more wages, these are the people we’re used to working with. If we look for new people there, we might waste time, energy, and money adjusting. In short… hurry up and inform those reliable people. We’ll set off in the afternoon.”

“Move quickly, we’ll take care of the rest on the road and save some time…”

Time is money, every moment we delay might be a loss to our earnings. The thought of this is just too terrible!

“Yes, I’ll leave right away.”

Qi Er hastily agreed and ran off to the other room to pack for Zhong Yingcai, while also informing the others. He was extremely busy at that moment, with his feet barely touching the ground.

But at this moment, he finally understood why, when the letter arrived, it was instructed that no matter what, the letter could only be delivered to Zhong Yingcai today.

It was precisely because they understood Zhong Yingcai’s impatient character!

—-

After the Lantern Festival, the New Year atmosphere gradually faded away.

The laziness of winter gradually disappeared, and everyone began to get busy with things for the new year.

This year’s start of spring came early and so did the warm weather. In these few days, the wind was not as bitterly cold as in winter, but carried a hint of spring warmth.

Wheat shoots were turning green, little plants were sprouting, and wild vegetables in the fields were growing competitively. It attracted many children to dig up wild vegetables with a little spade and a bamboo basket, so their parents could steam them with buns and steamed cornbread.

Zhuang Qingning’s workshop had also started to get busy, the business was as normal as in past years, and even seemed to be booming compared to the past.

Take the tofu skin workshop as an example. The number of people working there was almost double the original number when it first started, and the number of people working on century eggs had also increased by half.

It’s not that the sales of century eggs were not as good as tofu skin, but because the tools for making century eggs had been improved recently. It greatly sped up the process of applying mud to the eggs, thus not requiring as many people.

This meant that the cost of labor in the century egg workshop was effectively reduced, and the output increased, earning much more silver.

In terms of technology, the tofu skin workshop couldn’t progress any further, so Zhou Daya could only manage the people more effectively, making the process smoother and more efficient, which increased the output.

“Sister Zhou is really impressive.” Zhuang Qingning exclaimed every time she saw Zhou Daya.

She was young, but managed such a large tofu skin workshop so well that she was indeed quite the shop manager. She was very talented and willing to work hard, so the workshop could be fully entrusted to her in the future.

Seeing Zhuang Qingning like this, Mrs. Wen pursed her lips, “I’m afraid you’re not the only one who thinks this way.”

Zhuang Qingning understood immediately what Mrs. Wen meant, and couldn’t help but laugh, “Isn’t it good to feel this way? But honestly, Brother Sifu is not bad either.”

He was honest and kind, and seemingly dedicated to Zhou Daya, without any ulterior motives.

“Look at you, I never said that Zhuang Sifu wasn’t a good choice.”

Mrs. Wen squinted her eyes and cracked open the peanut shell in her hand, dropping the peanut into the bowl.

At this time, vegetables were scarce, and eating spinach every day had become tasteless. Mrs. Wen didn’t like the wild vegetables outside, so she was going to cook some spiced peanuts.

“Yes, yes, Auntie is the most considerate person.” Zhuang Qingning teased, “But I wonder what Sister Zhou and Mrs. Han think about this?”

“What can they think? From what Mrs. Han said, they have already started to check horoscopes and choose a good date. Looking at their determination, I guess the latest will be the end of this year.”

Mrs. Wen said, looking down, “The well-behaved girl was abducted just like that. The saying ‘He who receives a gift sells his liberty; he who receives a kindness sells his freedom’ is really accurate.”

“I’ve also eaten plenty of the fish and meat they sent over in the past, and now, even if I want to say something, I feel embarrassed. We should be more careful in the future.”

“Auntie is embarrassed to say something?” Zhuang Qingning teased.

“This just means that when people get old, their skin gets thinner. It’s not a good thing.”

Mrs. Wen said unhappily, “After all, it’s your fault, Zhuang Qingning. If you hadn’t rented my tofu workshop, I wouldn’t have had so many things to deal with.”

You wouldn’t see me being so nice.

“Yes, yes, it’s all my fault.” Zhuang Qingning chuckled and continued to peel peanuts with Mrs. Wen. After they finished peeling, she washed the rest of the wild vegetables brought back by Zhuang Minghao and others, preparing to mince them with some pork into dumpling filling for lunch.

Zhuang Qingning was preparing the dumpling filling here, and Mrs. He was also preparing dumpling filling there.

The reason for this was, firstly, Zhuang Minghao and the others had brought back a lot of wild vegetables.

In the past, when they were poor, they used to mix these wild vegetables with cornmeal and a small amount of flour to make vegetable dumplings for meals, which could help to fill their bellies to some extent.

Now that life was better, they didn’t need to eat the wild vegetables in the crude way they did in the past.

Mixed with pork tenderloin to make dumpling fillings, a hot bowl of dumplings for lunch satisfied not just their tastebuds but also made use of the wild vegetables without wasting them. It was the best of both worlds.

The second reason was that Mrs. He had gone back to her parents’ home in the morning.

Sometime before, someone had given Zhuang Yonghe a few wild rabbits. Their bodies were large, so stewing them was the best way to cook them. Zhuang Yonghe gave one to Zhuang Qingning, kept one for himself, and let Mrs. He take the remaining one to her parents’ home.

However, when Mrs. He went home, she heard of an incident from her sister-in-law.