172 Chapter 172: Preparing To Sell Water
Although being able to harvest more than 400 catties of bean sprouts every day was a very gratifying result, it took a lot of effort and kept her daughter-in-law very busy.
Qin Xiaoyao was involved in filtering out the seeds to soaking the bean seeds and then watering the seedlings.
She had to look after the four sheds in turns, and a lot of whatever precious free time she had left was taken up by these tasks.
“I know, Mother. I know what to do.” Qin Xiaoyao answered her with a smile.
!!
Indeed, she did not intend to do everything by herself.
The supply of straw sandals was quite sufficient for the time being, and Yun’er and Xiaomei could help her grow bean sprouts.
There was strength in numbers. When the work was divided up, each person actually didn’t have to spend so much effort.
“Go back to your room and rest. We’ll wash the dishes.” Madam Liu then looked at Qin Xiaoyao.
Qin Xiaoyao knew her mother-in-law was worried about her, so she didn’t reject her kindness.
“Alright! I’ll have to trouble you guys then!” She said in response and left without hesitation.
As the group of people watched Qin Xiaoyao’s departing back profile, they all had smiles on their faces.
Back in the room, Qin Xiaoyao went to Song Que’s side.
Song Que took the opportunity to pull her to his side and sit down.
“You did a good job with the bean sprouts!” He smiled and praised Qin Xiaoyao.
The corners of Qin Xiaoyao’s lips curled up in a smile. “Of course. Didn’t you know who was running the operation?” she replied proudly.
Song Que also smiled.
“Wife, you are a gifted genius. As your husband, I am proud of you.”
The woman tilted her head and was immediately bewitched by the man’s good looks.
“Hehe! Hubby, you have such a sweet tongue. You should be rewarded…”
“Smooch…”
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was the end of July, and autumn was about to arrive.
While the Song family kept themselves busy with a fruitful, peaceful life, the drought in the world outside was getting worse.
In the villages around Mountain Spring Town, more than half of the farm crops had dried up. Only a few fields that normally did not face water shortage in the past years had not completely dried up.
At the same time, the water shortage in the villages and towns became more and more serious.
A few households in the alley had already approached the Song family and offered to buy water from them.
“I’ve already discussed this with Hubby. We can sell the water at home for three copper coins per bucket.”
Qin Xiaoyao said to Madam Liu and the others.
“We’ll measure it using the bucket we have at home.”
“In addition, each household can only buy four buckets a day. If they want more than that, we won’t sell.”
“There are also four different time sessions when they can collect water. They are 5 to 7 am, 11 am to 1 pm, 5 to 7 pm and 9 to 11 pm, respectively. There are 40 queue slots for 5 to 7 am, 30 for 11 am to 1 pm and 5 to 7 pm, respectively, and 25 for 9 to 11 pm. Apart from these sessions, our family does not sell water to outsiders.”
This was also to make better use of the spring water in the well.
After all, no matter how much water came out of their well, the spring’s water source wouldn’t be able to keep up with people constantly drawing water from the well. She had to give the well time to accumulate water again.
“When the neighbors come to line up, you take note of the number of people, Hubby. Once the quota has been reached, you have to remind the people who come later to come back at the next session.” Qin Xiaoyao looked at Madam Liu as she spoke.
That was right. She intended to let Song Que assist Madam Liu in managing the family’s water-selling business.
Selling water was very simple. They only needed to place two buckets by the well.
At the appointed time, they could just get the people who came to buy water to use those two buckets to fetch water and pour it into their own buckets. They would then be charged according to the number of buckets.
All the mother and son needed to do was to make sure that the number of people did not exceed the quota and to collect money.
It was still not convenient for her husband to walk around. Therefore, he could sit at the stone table and help to register the number of people.
As for her mother-in-law, she could just stay by the well and collect the money.
Sigh! This was actually something that couldn’t be helped.
After all, there was a limited number of people at home, so she could only ask her husband to help.
“Alright,” Song Que agreed.
“Later, I will write a notice and paste it on the door. In addition, you and Mother can go look for Aunt Sun. We’ll ask her to help us spread the news of us selling water to every family,” he said.
Aunt Sun came to their house to get two to three buckets of water every day, and they didn’t charge her a single coin.
It was naturally not a problem to ask her for help on such a small matter.
“Mm-hmm!” Qin Xiaoyao answered.
After that, she discussed with her family again before settling the matter.
After lunch, everyone split up to get on with their tasks.
Song Que returned to his room to write the notice while Qin Xiaoyao followed Madam Liu to go next door.
Aunt Sun was a little surprised to see Madam Liu and Qin Xiaoyao. She instructed Sun Xiaoyue to brew some tea quickly.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law did not stand on ceremony and quickly conveyed the purpose of their visit.
“This is great news! No problem! Just leave this matter to me. I’ll go to every house to inform them later!” Aunt Sun agreed to help them readily.
Some people saw that Aunt Sun had a good relationship with the Song family, and many people had approached her to ask whether the Song family was selling water.
Now that the Song family was offering to sell water, and the price was only three copper coins per bucket, this was good news indeed.
...
More importantly, she was helping because the Song family didn’t charge her for the water she took.
Her family used three buckets of water a day. If she followed the Song family’s pricing, it would be nine copper coins.
Saving nine copper coins every day was not a small amount!
“Then I have to thank Aunt Sun!” Qin Xiaoyao hurriedly thanked her.
“What’s there to thank? You’re too polite, girl!” Aunt Sun replied with a smile.
She had a good relationship with the Song family, so she naturally knew that her good sister Madam Liu’s daughter-in-law was the head of the Song household.
Previously, she felt it was a little unfair to Madam Liu and thought she should not have given the authority to head the family to her daughter-in-law.
However, the more she got to know the Song family, the more she understood and admired Madam Liu.
Not only did this old sister of hers have good foresight, but she also had great wisdom though she pretended to be stupid.
It was a pity that Aunt Sun didn’t have a son. Otherwise, she would also want to look for a daughter-in-law like Qin Xiaoyao!
As the few of them chatted, Big Girl Li and Liu Xiaomei also arrived.
...
After finding out why Qin Xiaoyao and Madam Liu had come to visit, the two of them straightaway suggested that they could go to the Song family’s house in the morning to help harvest the bean sprouts.
Ever since they moved to town, they had received a lot of care from the Song family.
They had so much business dealing, and there was also the matter of water.
Both of them went to the Song family’s house to get water every day, and the Song family didn’t charge them any money.
It was not just in the village. Even the water supply in the town was also very tight.
The water wagon that was used to sell water had already raised its price to five copper coins per bucket, and the bucket used was not very big. Now, water was extremely precious.
“Big Girl, you don’t have to come. But if Xiaomei is free, she can come over and help tidy up. It’s just nice since I can also sort out the vegetables you guys want first,” Qin Xiaoyao said.
“Alright!” Liu Xiaomei quickly agreed.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law chatted with the few people there for a while more before they went home.
In the end, except for Aunt Sun, the rest of the people followed them back to the Song family’s house.
This had already turned into a common practice.
Sun Xiaoyue was used to following her mother to the Song family to do embroidery with Madam Liu.
After lunch, Big Girl Li and Liu Xiaomei would go to the Song family’s place every day to weave straw sandals.
The reason was that the little alley in the Song family’s house was cooler, and the Song family’s house was more lively.
When they got home, Qin Xiaoyao went to her room to look for Song Que.
Song Que had already finished writing the notice. When he saw Qin Xiaoyao had returned, he called her over to take a look.
After Qin Xiaoyao read it, she was once again amazed by her husband’s handwriting.
“The characters are really as beautiful as the author. If Hubby’s calligraphy were to be passed down in the future, it would be admired after by tens of thousands of people.”
Song Que looked at Qin Xiaoyao with a smile.
“There is no need for tens of thousands of people to admire it. As long as my wife likes it, it’s good enough.”