Chapter 240: Opening Income
In the evening, everyone returned home. Lin Sanniang and Auntie Chunhui stayed behind to finish up the cleaning. Seeing this, Auntie Lu said she would stay as well to wait for Auntie Chunhui so they could walk back together.
Zhao Meihua followed their lead, gritting her teeth as she called Lu Xiangshui to pick up the children so she could stay and help too.
With four people helping, even though today was the first day of official business, everything was cleaned and arranged flawlessly.
The guests in the six guest rooms had retired to their rooms early.
Brother Zhang and Sister Yu were permanent lodgers; they weren’t around during the day and only came to sleep at night.
The sleep group now consistently booked two rooms, taking turns sleeping day and night.
The remaining three rooms were fully booked for these few days.
The guests were highly accommodating of the agritainment manor. After watching the performance and confidently singing karaoke in the evening, they had taken fruit and snacks upstairs, requiring very little night service.
Jian Xingxia could handle everything on her own.
First, she settled Auntie Chunhui’s wages, paying her one hundred yuan.
Auntie Lu was now her long-term agent in the village, and her wages were settled monthly. Since she had come to help today without asking for money, Jian Xingxia planned to add a bonus to Auntie Lu’s monthly salary later.
Finally, only Zhao Meihua was left. Jian Xingxia was unsure how much to pay for the clothing production.
The outfit had sold for 588 yuan, and it was made based on a sample pattern that Lin Sanniang had already designed.
Deducting the cost of the fabrics and accessories, if she paid too much for labor, Jian Xingxia would lose money. After some thought, her ideal psychological price point was between 100 and 150 yuan.
However, worried that Zhao Meihua might be dissatisfied, Jian Xingxia asked Auntie Lu to quietly test the waters: “If Sister-in-law Meihua feels it’s inappropriate, just tell me, Auntie, and I’ll add a bit more. After all, she came to help on short notice, so extra money should be given for emergencies.”
Auntie Lu herself felt that since they were from the same village, what did a little help matter? Usually, whenever a household in the village had trouble, everyone helped each other out.
But Jian Xingxia had already made it clear before—business was business. She was running a commercial venture, not managing a household affair.
Therefore, Auntie Lu went to gauge Zhao Meihua’s feelings.
Before long, she returned to report to Jian Xingxia.
Jian Xingxia asked, “Well? Does Sister-in-law Meihua think it’s appropriate?”
“She said it’s not appropriate,” Auntie Lu said truthfully.
“Oh, that’s fine. How much does Sister-in-law Meihua think is appropriate?” Jian Xingxia prepared to raise her budget a bit.
Auntie Lu couldn’t help but laugh. “You should ask her yourself!”
“Huh?”
As they spoke, Zhao Meihua walked in from the doorway, stating frankly, “It really is inappropriate!”
Jian Xingxia felt a little embarrassed. “Our clothes don’t sell for a high price. If 150 yuan isn’t appropriate, I can add a little more…”
Zhao Meihua hurriedly interrupted her, “Add more for what! Xiaoxia, I know my own skill level. I was just responsible for stitching the fabric and adding a bit of trim and a waistband—it barely took any effort.”
Zhao Meihua smiled and said, “I even managed to get a free meal out of you, and the auntie you hired cooks so deliciously. Plus, I watched a performance. It was well worth it!”
Zhao Meihua said with total sincerity, “I only contributed labor for this outfit, and I’m not even a master tailor. The design was already completed by someone else, so I’d feel truly embarrassed to take the money.”
Zhao Meihua confessed honestly, “To tell you the truth, Xiaoxia, I’m not aiming for the wages from this single shift. I just want you to keep me in mind. In the future, if there’s any work and you need a hand, just look for me.”
Lu Xiangshui had leased fish ponds in the village, making Zhao Meihua one of the few young people who remained behind.
Lu Xiangshui spent his entire day at the fish ponds. If she didn’t stay at home and went to work elsewhere instead, there would be no one to look after the children or manage the housework, and life would fall into chaos.
It was inconvenient for her to go to the town, and she really couldn’t earn much money in the village.
Zhao Meihua knew that speaking this way was a bit like using a favor to demand a return, but she had no choice and could only be thick-skinned: “Xiaoxia, I won’t play polite games with you. I work nimbly, and my only goal is to find a job in the village to earn some money. If you ever have a need, just think of me.”
Jian Xingxia understood perfectly.
Not just people from ancient times, but modern people were the same—every generation faced its own plight.
She said with a smile, “Since that’s the case, I won’t stand on ceremony either. We previously agreed in the village that the hourly wage for manual labor is 15 yuan. Today you helped make clothes at the manor for over seven hours, which counts as eight hours. I’ll calculate it at 120 yuan for you, is that alright?”
Zhao Meihua was also a straightforward person. Seeing that Jian Xingxia wasn’t just being polite, she stopped hesitating or pushing back.
“That sounds great. One hundred and twenty yuan is enough to buy two more of my mini sewing machines, haha.”
Zhao Meihua joked as she accepted the money.
Watching from the side, Auntie Lu felt both happy and proud. Xiaoxia was doing so well, and Meihua was capable and direct. As long as everyone pulled together in the same direction, their lives wouldn’t stay poor!
Auntie Lu, Auntie Chunhui, and Zhao Meihua received their wages, carried some of the unsold food, and headed down the mountain together.
Lin Sanniang returned to her world as well. “I’ll go to my eldest sister’s house to take a look and see how the clothing production is coming along.”
In the evening, inside her grandmother’s bedroom, Jian Xingxia pulled out her little notebook again and began calculating the accounts.
Today was the first day of official business. Over sixty people had come in total; Jian Xingxia hadn’t charged admission for children under ten.
A total of fifty-eight admission tickets were sold at 50 yuan each, bringing in 2,900 yuan from tickets alone.
For breakfast, she sold 12 portions of the 10-yuan meal and 8 portions of the 5-yuan meal, bringing in 160 yuan.
For lunch, she sold 47 portions, and for dinner, 36 portions, all priced at 35 yuan per portion, bringing in 2,905 yuan.
In addition, there were unique custom orders, side dishes, and take-out, which didn’t amount to a huge business but still brought in five or six hundred yuan.
Retail sales of drinks, snacks, and camping services brought in roughly a little over a thousand yuan.
Calculating lodging by actual cash-in-hand income, the six rooms brought in 1,140 yuan today.
There was also the money from selling clothes. This area actually yielded a decent income; if all five sets of clothing were sold, it would be three or four thousand yuan.
However, since only one set had been delivered today, Jian Xingxia only counted the 588 yuan of revenue.
The picking service remained lucrative, but Jian Xingxia used that portion to offset the costs of ingredients and materials purchased from the village and online, making it almost a one-to-one swap with no real surplus.
Only with such substantial profits could the basic expenses of the manor be covered. Jian Xingxia now had a brand-new perspective on operating an agritainment manor and a bed-and-breakfast—it truly wasn’t something you could just open on a whim just because you possessed a few rooms, a bit of land, a pond, a hill, and some farmland.
When you ran a business, the moment the doors opened, it cost money.
Jian Xingxia first repaid her online shopping debts, then transferred the money owed to the village to Qi Shan and Auntie Lu. After making another round of purchases online, she set aside the wages for both her ancient and modern employees for this month.
Finally, hitting the calculator, the remaining balance was 5,880 yuan.
“Not bad. At least I’m not in debt now. There’s still a batch of goods in the warehouse and on the way from online orders, and Auntie Lu, Qi Shan, and Little Hu Liu each have an advance payment settled.”
This 5,880 yuan was her true remaining balance, cash-in-hand income.
Cradling her phone, Jian Xingxia basked in happiness for a good long while.
And then—
It was time to start spending money again.
Regarding the public toilets, Jian Xingxia had submitted the application alongside the Manor Academy, and she had even applied for a few additional commercial structures.
This would make it convenient for her to build extensions later on.
It just so happened that reviewing the tourist feedback extracted by the system today showed that visitors were constantly urging her, so Jian Xingxia called Hu Da to inquire about the approval progress.
Lu’an Village had gone to great lengths to seize this opportunity, and Hu Da wanted nothing more than to follow the poverty alleviation team around every single day, chasing them down one by one to get their stamps.
“It’s approved, it’s approved! The stamps were applied this morning, and the courier sent it out this afternoon. It should arrive tomorrow.”
Knowing it had passed, Jian Xingxia didn’t delay any further, formally placing the work order for the “Manor Academy” reward she had obtained a couple of days ago.
Then she opened the system mall, which she usually stared at every day but couldn’t afford.
Rummaging through, she finally found what she wanted—the Manor Restroom.
A single restroom unit cost 1 Management Point.
