Chapter 126: Exerting All Out Efforts
This time, the plump auntie arrived with a clear objective. She pushed through the weeds and clambered over the dirt slopes all the way, heading straight for the old house.
Inside the old house, Jian Xingxia and Lin Sanniang were putting the final touches on the decor. “Are the pillow inserts all stuffed properly? Sanniang, look, this is the price list. Doing business on our end requires clearly marked prices. If I’m not around, you just quote the prices according to this list.”
Jian Xingxia explained thoughtfully, “I used the characters from our place, as well as regular Chinese characters, and marked everything with these few types of flowers, plants, and trees…”
A small tree stood for a hundred yuan, a small yellow flower was ten yuan, a small red flower was fifty yuan, dark green grass was five yuan, and light green grass was one yuan.
Sanniang didn’t recognize many characters; she could barely write her name and just managed to recognize the character for “three” among the Chinese characters.
However, since the specific hidden patterns next to each item and price had been thoughtfully annotated, Lin Sanniang felt both immense admiration and gratitude in her heart. With her qualifications, she shouldn’t have been able to serve as a manager lady. At the very least, she was illiterate, yet the young mistress was willing to put in the effort to train her. She had even made arrangements in advance for the matter Sanniang worried about most.
Lin Sanniang looked them over one by one. She remembered the red can illustration represented a beverage named “Cola”—oh, right, the young mistress was accustomed to calling it a drink.
With a brief look, Lin Sanniang mastered it quickly. “Miss, a can of this Cola is three yuan, is that correct?”
“Correct! Sanniang, you’re awesome!”
Jian Xingxia was overjoyed. It hadn’t been a waste of her time to sit in the old house every evening after the temporary laborers left, racking her brains to help them adapt to the upcoming daily operations of the manor. Since she had chosen to let ancient temporary laborers run the manor, she had to anticipate various scenarios in advance and prepare contingency plans for them.
She didn’t want Lin Sanniang and the others to work at the manor with hearts full of fear and unease. She wanted them to know and be familiar with the manor’s affairs, developing a sense of security and belonging here.
Lin Sanniang read through the list one by one. “Vegetarian buns include vegetable, tofu, and egg fillings, priced at three yuan each. Meat buns include beef, pork, and sp-spicy chicken buns, priced at five yuan each. They’re about the size of a fist, correct?”
The illustrations above the buns featured vegetables, tofu, eggs, along with little cows, little pigs, and little chickens, so Lin Sanniang knew exactly what was being sold at a single glance.
“The small room can house one to two people, at one hundred and fifty a room.”
“The large room can house three people, or two adults and one child, at two hundred and twenty a room.”
“For picking in the greenhouse, the price of the fruit is…”
As Lin Sanniang read through them one by one, Jian Xingxia offered continuous encouragement, stepping in occasionally to correct her.
The plump auntie waited outside for a long time without seeing anyone, so she had no choice but to raise her voice. “Young Lady Owner! I am Yue Achang, the one who came for a trial shift yesterday! Is anyone there? Were you satisfied with my work?”
The auntie’s booming voice echoed through the backyard, and Jian Xingxia and Lin Sanniang hurriedly stepped out to meet her.
Sanniang was hit by a wave of surprise and joy. “Miss, is this the cook you hired?”
Jian Xingxia was also delighted. “Auntie! I was highly satisfied with yesterday’s meal! Our manager lady tried it too and felt the flavors were unique, possessing quite a fine rustic farmhouse flair!”
The auntie didn’t quite understand whether this “rustic farmhouse flair” was a compliment or not. After all, back in her town, very few people considered it a compliment to go to a restaurant to eat simple, old-fashioned peasant food.
But the auntie could see that both the young lady owner and the manager lady she spoke of carried warm smiles on their faces.
Thus, the auntie asked happily, “Then Young Lady Owner, can I work as an assistant cook at the manor? Do you need people? For how many days?”
Helping out as a cook in the countryside usually involved weddings or funerals, where people were hired to help out for a few days. The auntie only hoped the manor would have endless joyous events, preferably just like the wealthiest landowner in town, hosting a rolling banquet for ten days straight so she could work for ten days.
Amidst the conversation, Jian Xingxia had already walked over to the backyard gate and unlocked it.
Looking at the auntie, she asked with a smile, “If I need an assistant cook here every single day, would you be able to come?”
The auntie felt a surge of joy first, but then she hesitated slightly. “Come every single day? What exactly does your place do?”
“It’s a guesthouse, Auntie. I am the manager lady of the manor, surnamed Lin. You can just call me Sanniang. Come, let me explain the details to you thoroughly.”
Lin Sanniang seized the final half-hour before checking out to give the auntie an overview of the manor and the guesthouse.
This time, the auntie was truly hit by a wave of surprise and joy. “A guesthouse is opening here? Then won’t a cook be needed every single day?”
“Am I officially chosen? Does that mean I am a long-term laborer at the manor now? You won’t turn me away tomorrow, right?”
Jian Xingxia smiled and said, “We do need you, but my guesthouse is quite remote, so people might not come every single day. If no one comes, I won’t call you… uh, it’s also possible there won’t be any work for a dozen days straight.”
“But I can guarantee one thing: for every day you work at the manor, I will give you a day’s wages and absolutely won’t let you suffer a loss. What do you say?”
Currently, this sentence was what the auntie loved to hear most—these were the words her late mother had spoken, and it was only because her mother was looking out for her that she had found this place.
The auntie agreed immediately, “That sounds wonderful. I do want to work every single day, but my daughter has only just given birth, and I worry about her. I’ll need to go visit her every few days.”
“So that’s how it is,” Jian Xingxia thought for a moment. “We can arrange that. If it’s inconvenient for you to come, just let me know in advance. Prepare some buns and dumplings, and I’ll just offer simpler meals when the time comes.”
Both she and Lin Sanniang knew how to cook a bit. They couldn’t compare to the auntie, but with the excellent quality of the ingredients used, it would still make for perfectly fine farmhouse dishes.
The auntie nodded. “Then that is excellent.”
After Lin Sanniang left, the auntie followed Jian Xingxia’s instructions and spent the entire afternoon wrapping buns.
The freezer, which had been left completely empty after the roasted chestnuts were sold out, was once again packed to the brim with buns.
By the time the auntie checked out and Jian Xingxia finished replying to the calls and WeChat messages, the night had already grown deep.
Jian Xingxia opened the system interface. Since no revenue had been generated yet, the mission progress remained firmly at zero, and the remaining mission time lasted only until ten o’clock tomorrow morning.
However, Jian Xingxia didn’t feel nearly as tense as she had during the day. With the grand opening happening tomorrow, she had done everything she could and should do.
Having exerted all her efforts with a clear conscience, she would have no regrets even if the mission failed.
But then again, effort was one thing, and metaphysics was another.
Cradling Da Hua in her arms, Jian Xingxia didn’t forget to bow fervently toward the moon outside the window:
“Bring people, bring people! Bring crowds of people! Bring wealth, bring wealth! Bring piles of wealth!”
