Chapter 140: Little Me Can’t Do It!

Disclaimer: 

1. This is an unofficial translation and no permission has been obtained from the author/ official publisher. It may be taken down if the author/official publisher requests. 

2. This is a fan work and the interpretation represents only the translator’s personal views without any input from the author. 

3. No permission has been granted to use, publish, upload and/or copy this translation to any other site except for Second Life Translations.

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Over the New Year, Shi Cheng’s parents returned to Feng Town. Seeing Shi Cheng looking well, and their businesses flourishing, Shi Cheng’s parents were rather satisfied. 

After the New Year, they planned to buy a home in Hanzhong city. Actually, in the past year, they had already planned to buy a property. The only reason they still hadn’t done so was because they had hoped to buy back their previous home. 

The person who had bought over their place was an official, someone who worked in the government office. There had been rumors that he was soon to be promoted away. When Shi Cheng’s father heard that, he had decided to wait patiently for his old home. But it had been a year, and the person’s family was still based there. Shi Cheng’s father didn’t dare to look into the matter too deeply, worried that he would raise suspicions in the family about his motives. 

He came back and discussed the situation with Shi Cheng. Shi Cheng was nonchalant about the matter – after all, he had only stayed there for two years. He didn’t have any recollections or fond memories of the place. It was only his parents who were reluctant. 

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Jiuma had managed to recruit quite a lot of willing workers from their village. There were also some from Taohua Village who had previously missed out on supplying Liu Xu’er coming to ask about the work. 

Liu Xu’er definitely wasn’t about to burn bridges with these people. Taohua Village was her ancestral home. She was happy to accept workers from there. Of course, she would flatly refuse anyone who had gone over to Liu Yun’er. However, those people were self aware enough not to come forward and ask. 

The workshop had a soft opening on the 29th day of the first month. They gave it a trial run for a few days to allow for problems to surface. 

Sure enough, on the very first day, quite a few issues occurred. The reporting time was supposed to be 9am, however, there were those who came late. There were many reasons for that – they were unable to catch a ride,  their families had no form of transport. There were problems surrounding dismissal time as well. Some wanted to leave rather early – they worried they wouldn’t be back in time to prepare the meal, and would get scolded by their in-laws. 

Most of the problems on the first day were concerning those matters. There were relatively few issues about the work itself. 

Liu Xu’er saw what was happening and decided that this wouldn’t do. She discussed the situation with her parents, and Liu Changgeng decisively said, “Then we will provide transport! We will send our donkey cart to the village to pick them up and send them back. This way, we don’t have to worry that anything would happen to them on the way to work.”

Liu Xu’er thought it over, and decided it was workable. The women workers were all located in just two villages after all. So they went out to buy another cart along with two mules.  They didn’t need to worry about who would drive the cart. Most women knew how to do that. 

Her jiuma was in charge of the cart for the Qianzhuang Village. They fixed a time in the morning to meet, and everyone would sit on the cart to work. In the afternoon, everyone would also leave together. Taohua Village made similar arrangements. They made it clear to everyone that the cart would only pick and drop workers off at the village entrance. Family members could make their own arrangements to pick up their women from the entrance at pre-arranged timings. Liu Xu’er and her family were not responsible for anything that happened before or after the trip. They were only responsible for the journey to and from town. 

As insurance, Liu Xu’er insisted that everyone sign on an agreement – if anything were to happen before and after they were on the cart, the workshop would not be liable. After all, why should the workshop be held responsible if a worker were to decide to do something after getting off the cart and got hurt? No one objected to this, so they all put their handprints on the agreement. Whether or not this agreement would hold up was uncertain, but at the very least, it showed proof that the matter had been clearly discussed and agreed upon. The workers would think twice about going to a government official to complain. 

After a few days’ trial, most of the matters had been ironed out. The rest were much smaller issues. By the first day in the second month, the workshop had started production in earnest. 

In business, especially between competitors, there would be no way of hiding one’s hand. There was no way of preventing others from finding out what they had done. 

Now that Liu Xu’er had opened her own workshop, the stores were all re-opened. In the very first month, the effects could be seen. Not only did supply not run out, there was a feeling that business was growing bigger and bigger. Very quickly, it drew the notice of all their competitors. Naturally, Liu Yun’er was among them. 

Similarly, Liu Xu’er had also found out about Liu Yun’er’s store. As she had guessed, her business was lacklustre. 

Firstly, Liu Yun’er’s store was new, and would require some time to build up a customer base. It was only when that happened, that one could start to really analyze if the business was growing well. 

But Liu Yun’er clearly knew nothing about business. In her competitiveness, she had insisted on opening a grander store than Liu Xu’er. To that end, she had spent large sums of money on decorating the store lavishly, but the items sold were rather cheap trinkets. Customers of such items might not even dare to enter a store like hers!

“Over the New Year, I asked the workers from Taohua Village to casually ask a few of the suppliers how many times they had sent goods over. Then I gave the answers to dage to calculate their estimated revenue. Guess what? Her business has been open for over half a year, but she’s only requested for new stock twice! These few months, she must have had to make payments of at least 20, 30 taels of silver, not inclusive of her rental and renovation fees. I found out that rent in her area should be at least 11, 12 taels of silver per month, and the renovation should have cost her at least 10 taels of silver. All told, she should have lost about 40, 50 taels of silver.”

Liu Xu’er was counting everything on her fingers, a small gleeful smile on her lips. She was currently at Shi Cheng’s home, seated on a bench atop a pavilion on their family’s lotus pond. Her head was resting on Shi Cheng’s thigh, and in her hand, she was gently waving a stalk of chinese sweetshrub. 

In the pavilion was a stone table piled with some grapes, other snacks, a cup of papaya milk and another cup of plum wine. Shi Cheng was painstakingly peeling the grapes – his attempts left a mere half grape when he was done – and feeding them to Liu Xu’er. 

“I’ve said this before, Liu Yun’er is not a business person! That’s right, I’ve heard that Fang Jicheng himself has never done business. Before this, he was always with your sanshu, and probably made some money working with him. This store is the only store under his name. I suspect he got jealous seeing how much money we made, so when Liu Yun’er proposed opening a similar store, he was moved… I just don’t know how much money they will lose, and how long they can keep this up for.”

Liu Xu’er chewed on a grape and smiled, “Do you know, in these past two months, quite a few people in Taohua Village have grown to really regret their decision. They’ve probably heard my workshop workers say that they earn quite a bit of money per month. After doing some calculations, they probably realised they were earning less than my workers. And since Liu Yun’er can’t sell their goods, she naturally won’t buy any more. So now, they really regret their decision, and are trying all ways and means to come back. Some have even gone to my nai.”

Shi Cheng smiled, “To be expected! But you really can’t use those sorts of people. Don’t forget, they have no loyalty. They will go where the money is good.” He quickly said, then he popped a peeled grape into his own mouth. After chewing it, he lowered his head and saw Liu Xu’er’s red, red lips. He paused for a moment and a meaningful look quickly flashed in his eyes. 

Liu Xu’er was still waving her stalk. Clearly happy, she said, “I definitely won’t use them. I’m not dumb.”

Shi Cheng lowered his head and continued to look at her. He didn’t say anything, but his lips had quirked up. 

Liu Xu’er smiled and looked at him, “What are you staring at?” Lying down as she was, her eyelashes looked particularly long from Shi Cheng’s angle. Fluttering, they juxtaposed her youthful, white and soft cheeks. Her lips were faintly curved upwards, alluringly. 

Liu Xu’er had been his wife for a lifetime – how could she not understand him? The only reason she didn’t cotton on immediately was because they had been children for so many years. How could she be expected to know he would suddenly have such intentions toward her. When she finally realised what was happening and started to move off his lap, it was too late. Shi Cheng held on fast to her body and lowered his head….

It was quiet around them, with only a gentle breeze blowing. In the fourth month, the flowers had started to bloom, and everywhere, there were signs that spring was here. 

Suddenly, there was movement from the pavilion. Startled, Liu Xu’er had given Shi Cheng an unexpected shove and sat back up. Moving a safe distance away, she glared at him, “What do you think you’re doing?!”

Shi Cheng licked his lips and smiled, “Nothing much… just kissing!”

“Do you need to stick…. Your tongue when kissing?!”

“Stick my…. What about it? If I don’t use my tongue, can that still be considered kissing?” Shi Cheng smiled mischievously and closed in on her. Then he said, “Xu’er, you are being too hard on me. Do you expect me, a person who has done it all, to really restrict myself to brushing lips with you? Little me can’t do it!”

“Peh.” Liu Xu’er’s face had turned tomato red. She lifted her leg threateningly at his face. “I will kick you if you try again! If you can’t restrain yourself, then don’t try…. Annoying!”