Chapter 112 - 112 101 Want to Expand

Words : 1475 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

112: Chapter 101: Want to Expand 112: Chapter 101: Want to Expand Zhou Erlang left two portions of food and soup for the two officials and had Zhou Wulang deliver them, softly instructing him, “Say something nice to them.” Zhou Wulang agreed. As soon as Zhou Wulang left, Zhou Erlang poured the remaining dishes into Manbao’s bowl and sat her down beside Third to eat. Manbao called Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang over to join. After playing for half the day, Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang were hungry too. They ran over and exclaimed, “There’s meat in our food box too!” Zhou Erlang then warmed up their meals with a smile, and the three children huddled together to eat. Zhou Erlang fished out four large bones from the cauldron, the ones with plenty of meat on them, giving one to each child and another to Third. Zhou Erlang carefully avoided others and whispered to Third, “There are a few more pieces of meat inside. For dinner, we won’t cook vegetables, just eat the bone meat with water and dry food.” Zhou Sanlang agreed and asked, “Will you be coming tomorrow?” “Yes, if I don’t come, Five and the others will,” Zhou Two said softly. “I originally thought that everyone was not doing too well at home, and this business would be difficult, but it turns out to be not bad.” Zhou Sanlang whispered, “These past two days the work’s been heavy, and everyone’s stomachs are empty. With the higher-ups pushing hard, not just them, but even I would buy some food if I had some copper coins in hand.” Zhou Erlang nodded and whispered to Zhou Sanlang, “That’s why I’m saying, it shouldn’t just be your location that can make money. I’m thinking of discussing with Father and Mother when I get back. Tomorrow I’ll take your Second Sister-in-law and try other labor groups. We’ll leave this side to Five and the others. There are still more than fifty days until the end of the service. If we can earn two hundred wen a day, that’s four hundred wen for two groups, which means four thousand wen after ten days, and in fifty days that’s...” Zhou Erlang was struggling with the calculation when Bai Shanbao interjected quickly, “Twenty thousand wen.” Manbao was a step slower but also exclaimed with a “wow”, “Our family is going to be rich.” Zhou Erlang couldn’t help but smile with squinted eyes, “Let’s hope the business is this good every day.” Hope ignited in Zhou Sanlang as well, “Then don’t stay here this afternoon; you’d better hurry back and discuss.” “No need, we’ve already promised to do this for others. We must do it well; otherwise, who’d buy your soup or eat your dishes next time?” Zhou Erlang just ate a piece of dry food with hot soup, without having any meat. He scooped out all the meaty bones and placed them in a small cauldron, saving them for Zhou Sanlang’s evening meal, while also adding water to the large cauldron to simmer slowly. When it was time for the evening meal, he gave everyone a bowl of hot water with a hint of oil, then packed up and went home. He didn’t do the accounts, but he knew he had earned more than the day before. He reminded Zhou Wulang, “We can’t make too much of this dish; just prepare this amount in the future. Not all laborers can afford to eat vegetables every day.” “Besides those for Third Brother and the officials, we’ve only sold about twenty portions. Out of more than a hundred people, how is this little amount of food enough?” Zhou Erlang insisted, “It’s enough, trust me, anything in excess loses its value.” Manbao nodded in agreement, “Meat and vegetables are too expensive. Just now, an older brother said it was so difficult for his family to save money.” “So you gave him the meat to eat?” Zhou Wulang was angry at the thought, “I didn’t even get any.” “I didn’t give him meat, just radish,” Manbao retorted, turning to look at Liulang accusingly. “The meat, meat was eaten by Sixth Brother.” Zhou Erlang then patted Sixth on the head, “You even took your youngest sister’s meat.” Zhou Liulang grumbled, “She gave it to me; I didn’t steal it.” “With you drooling over her bowl, how could she not give it to you?” Manbao sucked in her saliva and said, “Second Brother, let’s go back from the market, and on the way buy some meat to take home and eat.” “Buy what meat? Didn’t you eat some today? If you want more, go with Fifth Brother tomorrow, and he’ll give you some,” Zhou Erlang answered. “But Mother doesn’t have any, neither does Father, nor do the sisters-in-law and the nephews and nieces. We should buy some to eat together at home,” Manbao insisted, “Mother needs it to regain her strength.” With a bit of craving himself, Zhou Wulang suggested, “How about it, Second Brother, let’s still buy some to take home?” Zhou Erlang looked at him, “Are you paying?” Reluctant to part with his money, Zhou Wulang argued, “Didn’t we earn money today?” “We need to take it back for Mother to keep the accounts. You’ve earned so much money, and you can’t even afford a meal’s cost of meat?” Zhou Wulang was indeed stingy, for aside from the money he had stored with Manbao, all the money he had kept on him had been confiscated by their father. The same was true for Zhou Liulang. Manbao fumbled in her pocket, in fact taking out her own money from Keke, and announced cheerily, “I’ll pay!” Zhou Erlang felt that the girl was too naive and advised her, “Manbao, in the future, if you meet someone outside asking you for money, they must be a bad person, and you mustn’t give your money away foolishly, understand?” “So is Second Brother a bad person?” Zhou Erlang, “Of course, Second Brother isn’t a bad person.” “Then Second Brother, you pay!” Manbao promptly put her money away again. Zhou Erlang choked up a bit, but he still nodded, taking a detour to the market to buy some meat on the way home. Not pork, but mutton. Manbao was overjoyed, thinking mutton was tastier than pork. Zhou Erlang realized his little sister was growing up and becoming more astute every day. He couldn’t fool her with just any words anymore. Given her current pampered state, it seemed he would have to earn even more to support her. So when they got home, Ms. Qian saw the meat and before she could say anything, Zhou Erlang said, “Mother, I plan to split from Five tomorrow and take Erya’s mother to find another group of laborers to do this business with.” Ms. Qian furrowed her brow, “Why, can’t you work with Five?” “No, Mother, today we sold all the soup and dishes we cooked. I thought, if we can sell here, there’s no reason we can’t sell elsewhere. If we work separately, won’t we earn twice as much?” After thinking for a moment, Ms. Qian understood and frowned, “Did you check out the place properly?” “I did. I asked the officials in charge of Third. They said there’s another place ten miles past their section, with about the same number of people as here, even further from White Horse Pass town and not close to the county seat either. Just like Third and the others, they eat cold flatbread and drink cold water. Throughout the entire area, these two groups suffer the most.” Ms. Qian nodded, “If you have checked it out thoroughly, then give it a try. But we only have so many cauldrons at home, how will you divide them? And since only the village head has a cart, how will you go there?” Zhou Erlang hadn’t thought about this and was troubled for a moment. Manbao chimed in from the side, “We can just buy another large cauldron and a cart, right?” Ms. Qian glanced at her daughter, “The business hasn’t even started, and you want to spend so much money...” Manbao assured her, “It’s not much, not much. Sharpening the axe won’t delay the work of chopping wood. Second Brother has done the calculations, we can earn twenty thousand wen.” Ms. Qian couldn’t help but smile, “Silly child, the future is not something you can see. What if something goes wrong in the meantime? What if the business goes bad? How can you calculate future earnings based on today’s income?”

Chapter 112 - 112 101 Want to Expand

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