Chapter 241: Staff Benefit Meals
Currently, the manor faced no other major issues; it was already considered one of the higher-tier establishments among agritainment farmstays.
The only issue was that there simply weren’t enough restrooms.
While the guest rooms on the second floor had plenty of private bathrooms, there were still thirty to forty visitors a day aside from the ten-plus overnight guests.
Even spread out over time, the ground-floor restroom wasn’t enough to handle the volume.
This was especially true for those camping down by the creek. Although the creek wasn’t terribly far from the old house, no one wanted to trudge a whole kilometer just to use the bathroom.
Jian Xingxia had thought about hiring a modern construction crew to build them, which would probably cost less than ten thousand yuan per restroom.
But when she considered all the extra factors involved—foundations, structural construction, interior finishing, water, electricity, plumbing, odor control, safety, and privacy—she decided it was still better to select them from the manor mall.
She hadn’t even bought anything from the manor mall yet!
At ten thousand yuan a unit, it functioned just like a simulator game: she could place it wherever she wanted without having to worry about any of the underlying technical problems.
Jian Xingxia ran the math. Tomorrow was Sunday, so there would likely still be quite a few guests.
Plus, with four sets of Hanfu to be delivered, that should bring in another two or three thousand yuan. Combined with the cash she currently held, it would be just enough to redeem one restroom unit.
Jian Xingxia patted her little coin pouch—the one Tao Ya and Xing Ya had made for her.
It was just a pity that since the makers were so little, the pouch was little too, and the money inside always seemed to stay small in amount. Before she could even warm it up in her hands, she had to pull it out and spend it.
“Oh well, whatever is inside the manor belongs to me anyway. The money hasn’t truly left; it’s just staying by my side in a different form…”
With that thought, Jian Xingxia drifted off to sleep.
In her dream, the old peach tree in the backyard burst into bloom. Every single flower had shimmering, golden petals, and the branches hung heavy with massive, solid-gold peaches.
Jian Xingxia drooled in her sleep: Hehehe…
The Great Liang Dynasty.
Carrying her “staff meals” and her advanced wages—ten catties of white rice—Lin Sanniang emerged from the cave behind the Mountain Goddess Temple and entered the city.
Instead of heading home, she went straight to Lin Daniang’s house.
She had run back this morning to deliver the fabrics, needles, and thread to assemble a workforce, and she wanted to see how the clothing production was coming along.
Night had already fallen, and there were few people on the streets. The entrance to Lin Daniang’s house was completely dark, without a single lantern lit.
Lin Sanniang jogged all the way over. Her little niece came to open the door, and upon seeing her, called out in a sweet, milky voice, “Third Auntie.”
Lin Sanniang picked up her niece, gave her a kiss, shut the door tight, and walked into the main room.
Inside, the space was brilliantly lit.
Six or seven lamps were lit in a single bedroom, and the two lanterns that usually hung by the front gate had been brought inside and suspended from the roof beams.
Inside the room, several sisters occupied different pockets of lamplight, working frantically to stitch the garments together.
Lin Daniang had recovered and no longer needed to be bedridden. She hurriedly stood up from her stool.
“You’re finally back. We just finished one set, but we aren’t sure if it’s the exact style required. Come and take a look quickly.”
Hehua, Yuxiang, and the others also hurried over, terrified that something might be amiss with the garment.
Lin Sanniang took the outfit and inspected it with meticulous care, pinching the cuffs and collar piece by piece to see if the stitching lay smooth and flat.
Only after confirming the entire garment was flawless did Lin Sanniang let out a sigh of relief. “Excellent. This is exactly it.”
The other women in the room let out a collective sigh of relief as well. The intense, frantic pressure of the entire day finally eased by half.
Just then, an audible rumble from someone’s stomach broke the tense silence.
“Oh my, I’m starving.”
Lin Daniang couldn’t help but laugh. “So you finally notice you’re hungry now?”
She complained to Lin Sanniang, “I managed to force them to take a break at noon, so they each ate a bite to line their stomachs.”
“But when evening came and I said I would cook another meal, they absolutely refused. They insisted on waiting until you finished your shift and checked the clothes first.”
Escort Guard Mu had cooked a meal with the children and reheated it two or three times, but in the end, they had to eat by themselves first.
Lin Sanniang felt a mix of exasperation, amusement, and deep emotion.
She understood exactly what these sisters were thinking—when times were this hard and you finally managed to grasp an opportunity, you would naturally risk everything to do a perfect job.
Before the work was finished, let alone eating, they wouldn’t even allow themselves to sleep.
“The clothes must be made, but you must eat too,” Lin Sanniang said. As she spoke, she produced the two large lotus-leaf bundles she was carrying. “It just so happens that I brought some leftovers back from the manor. If you don’t mind, let’s eat together.”
Most of the women here had worked as hired hands before, and knowing that Lin Sanniang was now a stewardess at the manor, they understood exactly what kind of “leftovers” these would be.
“We don’t mind, we don’t mind at all,” Hehua said, setting down her needlework and patting her stomach. “It’s not that we didn’t want to eat; we just couldn’t clear our minds for a meal while the work was still unfinished.”
“Yes, we were so busy working on the piping just now that we didn’t feel hungry at all. Only now that you’re back, Sanniang, do we actually feel famished.”
When they were busy, even their stomachs had to yield.
Master Mu volunteered to go to the kitchen to reheat the dishes.
A few moments later, the food from the two lotus-leaf bundles was brought over, divided into several large bowls.
The eight tailors and embroiderers gathered around a cleared square table. Looking at the food spread before them, their eyes widened in total shock.
Hehua swallowed hard. “Sanniang, this… did you make a mistake?”
Yuxiang stared blankly. “Did you accidentally bring back the meal meant for the masters?”
The other embroiderers were seeing such a spread for the first time in their lives, and they felt a bit frightened. “Heavens, there’s chicken, duck, fish, and pork… this food…”
How could this possibly be considered leftovers!
They looked at Lin Sanniang in terror, worried that she had taken the wrong items by mistake.
If she had, the precious work they had just secured would be completely gone.
Lin Sanniang looked over the table, and it was true—
Auntie Pang had braised some fish at noon. This batch consisted of crucian carp weighing around eight taels each, prepared in a savory brown sauce with a rich, aromatic glaze and tender meat.
However, the tourists had complained about the many bones, so only half of them had sold, leaving seven or eight fish behind.
Jian Xingxia had given three to Auntie Chunhui, Auntie Lu, and Zhao Meihua to take home, leaving four behind—two each for Auntie Pang and Lin Sanniang.
As for the chicken, it was the meat left over from the stewed chicken soup.
Lin Sanniang didn’t even know who to say it to—these tourists were truly peculiar. When it came to soup stewed with old hens and dried wild mushrooms, they only drank the broth and picked out the mushrooms to eat.
Out of a pot made with three old hens, the guests had only consumed the meat of a single chicken.
Of the remaining two chickens, the manor staff had eaten one, while Auntie Pang and Lin Sanniang split the last one evenly.
It was the same story with the duck; half a braised duck was left over. Since Auntie Pang didn’t want it, Lin Sanniang had brought it back.
As for the pork, there was even more—pork stir-fried with green beans, pork stir-fried with chili peppers, sliced pork with celtuce, braised pork chops… In any case, whatever went unsold, Jian Xingxia prioritized letting the manor staff eat, and the rest was free for them to take.
However, because taking these dishes would count against a temporary worker’s wages and affect their ability to exchange for other supplies, the temporary workers didn’t take much.
Only Lin Sanniang and Auntie Pang were regular employees. If they worked within six hours a day, they were entitled to one staff meal, and by advancing two yuan from their wages, they could bring home an additional staff benefit meal.
If they exceeded six hours, they were entitled to two staff meals—and similarly, they could bring home an additional benefit meal for each.
Lin Sanniang had been busy from morning till night today, exceeding nine hours, so she was entitled to three staff benefit meals.
What she had brought home today were precisely those three staff benefit meals.
In total, it had only cost her six yuan.
Her monthly wage was six hundred yuan. Even if she brought home three staff benefit meals every single day, it would only cost her one hundred and eighty yuan a month.
To her, it was an incredibly inexpensive and practical benefit.
But Lin Sanniang understood the hearts of Hehua and Yuxiang better than anyone—wasn’t this exactly how she had felt when she first went to the manor?
She knew exactly how to set their minds at ease so they would eat.
She smiled and said, “The Manor Owner hosted guests today and urgently needed a few sets of garments. The noble guests disliked ready-made clothes and insisted on having their measurements taken for custom tailoring, which is why I called you all to help.”
“Once the Manor Owner learned of this, she commanded me to bring these things back as a token of her gratitude to everyone.”
Lin Sanniang’s gaze was tender. “Eat with peace of mind. The Manor Owner knows all about it.”
