Chen Xiaobei brought an assistant today, Chen Xiaobo, to prepare for the possibility that he might be unable to deliver the vegetables himself and someone else would need to step in. It wouldn't do to rely solely on himself and Li Dong for everything.
Seeing Chen Xiaobei arrive, Feng Xiaoyue's face lit up with a smile. She beckoned towards the house, "Brother Xiaobei is here, Xiao Mu, you can come out."
As the two approached, Chen Xiaobei quickly reined in the donkey cart.
"Brother Xiaobei, I was afraid you'd get confused, so I asked Xiao Mu to accompany you for deliveries today to help you out."
What a kind girl, Chen Xiaobei thought, deeply touched.
Chen Xiaobei didn't refuse. Having someone familiar with the situation was always a good thing.
Feng Xiaoyue, representing Sihai Restaurant, ordered thirty catties. Chen Xiaobei and Chen Xiaobo, making trip after trip, helped move the green vegetables into the restaurant. Feng Xiaoyue, in turn, took thirty copper coins from the counter and handed them to Chen Xiaobei.
Witnessing this, Chen Xiaobei was inwardly surprised. Feng Xiaoyue had only been in Xiaojia Town for a month at most, and she was already managing the money. Her authority was considerable.
Xiao Mu was a little reserved at first, but being a child with no malicious intent, he became quite lively after a few deliveries and started chatting. Chen Xiaobei seized the opportunity to ask, "Xiao Mu, your sister Xiaoyue is doing quite well at Sihai Restaurant, isn't she? She's managing the accounts now."
Xiao Mu appeared very proud. "Of course. My sister Xiaoyue writes well, calculates quickly, and is very good at receiving guests. She's now the second manager of Sihai Restaurant."
Indeed, capable people shine wherever they go. People thrive when they move, and trees die when they are moved. Leaving Qingniu County and coming to Xiaojia Town, Feng Xiaoyue had found a new life.
Perhaps it was Feng Xiaoyue's status and background that had earned her everyone's respect yesterday.
Soon, the vegetables for Xiaojia Town were all delivered.
Because he planned to build a blackboard, Chen Xiaobei went to buy a lot of ink sticks.
At this time, to write, one first had to grind the ink stick with water in an inkstone to get ink.
According to Chen Xiaobei's plan, he wanted to paint the wall black to make it look like a blackboard and then write on it with chalk made from lime.
Therefore, to make chalk, he needed another ingredient: glutinous rice. He would boil some glutinous rice to make a thick liquid, which he would use to bind the lime. It was a bit crude, but it would suffice.
After buying the most important items, Chen Xiaobei went to purchase a scale.
For the past two days, he had been borrowing Sanqiu's scale, and it wasn't right to keep using someone else's, especially since Sanqiu's family didn't grow vegetables.
On his way back, Chen Xiaobei smiled at Chen Xiaobo, "Brother Xiaobo, you understand the vegetable delivery process now, right? It's quite simple, just knowing who to give how much to."
Chen Xiaobo clearly hadn't fully grasped Chen Xiaobei's intention yet. He smiled and said, "Yes, yes, selling vegetables isn't as difficult as I imagined."
This was exactly what Chen Xiaobei wanted. "Then from now on, you'll be delivering the vegetables. And you won't be working for free; you'll get five coins per delivery."
Receiving the same pay as a laborer for a day's work just for delivering vegetables, Chen Xiaobo was naturally happy.
As for how this money would be accounted for, Chen Xiaobei had also thought about it. Currently, there were over a dozen households growing vegetables. Each household would contribute one copper coin per day, which equated to one catty of vegetables.
Besides paying the delivery personnel, there was also the cost of feeding the donkey and other miscellaneous expenses. This was a reasonably fair price.
By the time Chen Xiaobei returned to Hetou Village, it was already noon.
The village guards saw Chen Xiaobei return and quickly reported that a few craftsmen he had found in the city had arrived to help build the cable bridge.
Chen Xiaobei understood that these were people sent by Liu Ce.
He went to the big locust tree, where a few people were looking at the tiger with great interest.
Looking at these people, Chen Xiaobei smiled. He recognized one of them: Ma Xiaoyi.
Of course, knowing him only extended to recognizing his name. He had encountered Ma Xiaoyi on guard duty several times when visiting Liu Ce's residence, but that was all.
Ma Xiaoyi stepped forward with great enthusiasm, "Village Chief Chen, we've been waiting for you for a long time."
Seeing the hammers, chisels, and other tools beside them, Chen Xiaobei inwardly marveled at how difficult it must be to be an actor these days; they had to be skilled in everything.
"Alright, you can rest here tonight, and we'll head into the mountains first thing tomorrow morning."
After lunch, Chen Xiaobei found Li Dong again, and they carefully discussed the plan for tomorrow. They couldn't just transport iron chains; food and water had to be guaranteed. More importantly, they needed to find a suitable place to stay. The villagers didn't have tents, so they had to find a dense forest nearby.
Additionally, to defend themselves, they would need to bring a few repeating crossbows.
After finalizing the plans for tomorrow, Chen Xiaobei returned home to attend to his own matters.
He called a few village guards to help him move the creaky old wooden bed from his house out to the open space behind the house.
There wasn't even space to put it in the courtyard, so it had to be placed there temporarily.
The longer wooden planks could be dismantled to make fishing nets, while the smaller, unusable pieces would have to be burned.
Indeed, the new bed made by Carpenter Zhang was quite sturdy. The material looked solid, and looking at the bed, Chen Xiaobei couldn't help but imagine practicing Tai Chi on it without any problem.
Two beds were to be placed, one in the east room and one in the west room, with a small reception area in between.
At that time, the villagers' houses, although having separate rooms for reception and bedrooms, lacked doors, only having doorways.
This was a stark contrast to the homes of wealthy families.
Thinking that he would be moving soon, Chen Xiaobei was too lazy to tidy up. When the new house was built, he would definitely install doors inside.
The beds were new, and the bedding was part of Cui Hongyu's dowry when she got married.
Now, everything looked much more coordinated.
After dinner, Chen Xiaobei was still busy making fishing nets. This was the last one. Once it was finished today, he would have this task off his mind and could happily lead the people to set up the cable bridge tomorrow.
While he was busy with this, he heard a commotion from the neighbor's house again.
He strained his ears and realized it was Da Chun.
Chen Xiaobei quickly put down what he was doing and rushed over.
Because the connecting wall had already been sealed by someone, Chen Xiaobei had to exit his own courtyard gate and then go around to Da Chun's courtyard gate.
As he ran out, he bumped into Da Chun.
Da Chun, holding something in his arms, was rushing out of the courtyard like the wind.
Seeing Chen Xiaobei, he instinctively stopped.
Chen Xiaobei asked, "Brother Da Chun, where are you going?"
Before he could finish his sentence, Xiu Mei, crying hysterically, rushed out of the house and grabbed Da Chun's arm. "Da Chun, this is Cui Hua's dowry. Are you really going to gamble away the entire household before you stop?"
Xiu Mei's wailing caused Chen Xiaobei's dog to bark incessantly, and the two wolf cubs were also startled, letting out a few whimpers.
The commotion immediately drew the attention of the village guards, who rushed over.
Da Yong was on duty tonight.
Chen Xiaobei pointed at Chen Da Chun and said, "Tie him up."