Chapter 162: New Demand for Labor
The third day of the trial run also passed smoothly. Because it was a weekday, the crowd was much smaller. Aside from the overnight guests, fewer than twenty visitors came.
Early in the morning, Auntie Lu and Auntie Chunhui came up the mountain together.
Auntie Lu brought fresh chickens and ducks. “They were all collected yesterday and slaughtered at the fifth watch before dawn today. They are incredibly fresh!”
The moment Auntie Chunhui arrived, she set straight to work. The Berry and Blossom Pathway, the wild mountain tracks, and the riverside needed to be cleared of the trash accumulated yesterday. Auntie Chunhui sorted out the items that could be sold for money—like plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and cardboard box pieces—separately.
The sifted fruit peels, fruit pits, and kitchen waste underneath could all be used for composting. The remaining bit of plastic wrapping wasn’t much; a single trash bin could hold it all, which could be used as kindling or carried down to the village to be thrown away. The village had large sanitation dumpsters, and the sanitation company came to collect them once a day.
Auntie Lu helped Jian Xingxia prepare breakfast. Today, since there were few people, Jian Xingxia also had time to make a more elaborate meal, so she stir-fried a topping. If the guests preferred, they could have braised meat noodles.
After delivering the items, Auntie Lu headed back down the mountain.
Once the sky brightened, a steady trickle of guests arrived, but they were few in number. Jian Xingxia summoned Lin Sanniang, and the two of them bustled about together to handle the tasks. When it was time to prepare the midday meal, she summoned the plump auntie as well.
Since there weren’t many guests today, Jian Xingxia didn’t call A-Feng. Because of this, she suddenly had two extra temporary worker quotas left over.
For a moment, Jian Xingxia felt a bit dazed—what was with this feeling of having a surplus of labor? The happiness felt so vast it seemed surreal.
Jian Xingxia pondered for a bit. There weren’t many guests at the guesthouse today, so maybe she could let Da Hei come over? The past few days during the grand opening had been too crowded, so she hadn’t found any free time to summon Da Hei. She was also afraid his distinctive physical appearance might frighten the guests. Three or four days had flown by in a flash; she didn’t know how much time had passed on Da Hei’s end.
Mulling it over, Jian Xingxia simply issued two recruitment notices and headed down to the foot of the mountain to receive the workers herself, to avoid the temporary workers suddenly appearing out of nowhere and startling both sides.
[Recruitment Demand: One temporary worker. Job Description: Farming. Working Hours: 10 hours.]
[Recruitment Demand: One temporary worker. Job Description: House Building. Working Hours: 3 hours.]
The 10-hour temporary worker demand was successfully issued, which meant Da Hei could undoubtedly accept the job. The other construction temporary worker was set to a fixed duration of three hours, counting as an interview on Jian Xingxia’s part. After all, there were still guests at the manor, and Jian Xingxia didn’t have that much time to stand guard over a new temporary worker, so she limited it to three hours. If they weren’t a good fit, she could send them away as early as possible.
Right now, the formal workers at the manor consisted of the plump auntie and Lin Sanniang, supplemented by two temporary workers every day. As the headcount increased and working hours grew longer, the employees also needed a place to rest.
Modern employees were easy to manage—whether it was Auntie Lu who helped procure ingredients and supplies, Auntie Chunhui who came to do the cleaning, or Little Hu Liu who delivered the goods, they were all local villagers. The manor was only two or three kilometers away from Lu’an Village; even without a car, it wasn’t far to walk. Furthermore, they had tricycles, so riding back took barely ten minutes or so, allowing them to return home and get some rest.
But the ancient employees didn’t even have a place to sit down and rest inside the manor. Right now, every single room in the old house—aside from the single room that couldn’t be opened—was completely utilized for guesthouse rooms or storehouses. These past few days had been so frantic with the opening that Lin Sanniang and the others hadn’t found the time to rest, so no one had brought up this matter.
However, it was highly obvious from the plump auntie’s behavior. During non-working hours, she felt ill at ease staying here. Even though the peak lunch rush didn’t conclude until one-thirty or two in the afternoon, and she had to begin preparing dinner before four o’clock, the auntie would still insist on heading home in between. For one thing, she indeed had chores waiting at home. For another, there was no place within this manor where she could sit back and rest. The kitchen was somewhere she could stay, but there was no way to get proper rest.
Jian Xingxia now presided over four ancient employees, and since she wasn’t a stingy employer either, she had to find a way to secure a resting place for the ancients as well.
Speaking of building houses, hiring a modern professional construction team would undoubtedly yield a sturdier and more efficient structure. But then again…
Jian Xingxia touched her pocket—her money wasn’t exactly flush! And there was an exceptionally serious problem—building structures deep in the mountains required submitting plans for approval, and this paperwork wasn’t easy to get cleared.
Thinking back and forth, it was far better to hire an ancient construction worker to build a few “unauthorized structures,” which suited her current circumstances much better.
Jian Xingxia: As expected, no merchant is completely free of guile! Now that she was running a business, she had certainly developed a whole abundance of calculation.
As Jian Xingxia walked toward the foot of the mountain, she calculated how to interview the ancient construction worker in a bit. Three hours wasn’t a long time, so building a house would likely be somewhat difficult.
It just so happened that over these past two days, some guests gave feedback that the silly white goose at the old house honked “honk honk honk” every single day, starting early in the morning, keeping time even more punctually than a rooster. Jian Xingxia pondered whether she should first build a pen to coop up the chickens, ducks, and geese.
These past two days, the farmhouse restaurant consumed quite a lot of chicken, duck, fish, and pork daily. With such heavy consumption, Jian Xingxia faced immense pressure. The manor was so remote; in order to attract guests to visit, Jian Xingxia’s pricing was kept relatively affordable. It couldn’t be counted as low-margin, high-volume sales, but the profit margins weren’t that high either. If she couldn’t control the cost of food and beverages, she might well end up losing money.
She owned several massive mountain peaks; using them merely to open a single guesthouse would be a terrible waste. It was far better to put all the land deep in the mountains to use—farming where farming was due, and raising livestock where livestock belonged.
Wearing her sun hat, long-sleeved shirt, and long trousers, Jian Xingxia walked toward the foot of the mountain. The moment she arrived, she caught sight of a massive “black tower mountain.”
“…Da Hei?”
Jian Xingxia barely dared to recognize him. Da Hei’s current look matched the appearance A-Feng had when he arrived burdened with bamboo baskets, bamboo trays, and bamboo chairs.
He carried radishes and cabbages stacked high on his back, and each of his hands gripped a hemp rope end. The hemp ropes connected to two large mesh sacks that were nearly the size of fishing nets, packed to the brim with all colors of fruits and vegetables. Around Da Hei’s waist hung several plump rabbits and wild pheasants.
Jian Xingxia was completely dazed by the sight.
Da Hei, however, let out a response full of pure excitement and grievance: “Master! It’s Da Hei!”
Only then did Jian Xingxia snap out of it. “Heavens… what are you hauling here? Where on earth did you get so many vegetables?”
Da Hei’s eyes widened. “Master gave the seeds, Da Hei grew them.”
“You’re amazing!” While Jian Xingxia offered her praise, she also felt a bit self-conscious. “Da Hei, during the time we haven’t seen each other, how long has passed on your end in the Great Yu Dynasty?”
Da Hei remembered this with absolute precision. “A full forty-six sunrises!” Speaking of this, Da Hei felt a bit aggrieved. “Why didn’t Master let Da Hei come?”
Jian Xingxia scratched her head. How should she explain this?
“The guesthouse opened for business these past two days and it was too crowded. I needed to find people who could cook, run errands to receive guests, wash dishes, and wash clothes… there were no slots left.”
Da Hei seriously thought through each of these tasks one by one.
“I don’t know how to cook, I only know how to eat.” “I can’t receive guests; guests beat Kunlun slaves.” “Washing clothes… I’ll tear them apart.” “Washing dishes… the dishes will break too.”
Thinking about it this way, Da Hei felt he was indeed entirely unsuited to come. With so many chores, there wasn’t a single one he could perform!
