Chapter 440: Chapter 229 Property Dispute_1
In the deep of night, please bring the pink powder.
**...***
"The price remains the same," Lian Manman thought for a moment before saying. Anyone willing to spend money on laundry services likely wouldn’t fret over a small fee. However, their laundry service needed a unique offering to attract customers. "Give us the clothes to wash, and we’ll iron them for free."
Even if the burly men up in the mountains could wash their own clothes, they certainly wouldn’t press them. Ironing required special equipment and skill. At this time, without electric irons, all clothing was ironed with heated irons, and it was all too easy to damage the garments if not careful.
"Manman is right. We’ll add ironing to the offer... they work on the mountains, and over time, clothes inevitably start to unravel or tear. So, let’s settle on that price," Lady Zhang said.
"If it needs a large patch, we should charge extra," Lian Zhizhi remarked. Attaching a large patch often meant adding new fabric, which justified the additional cost. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"If we use starch or something similar, that should also be an extra charge," Lady Zhao interjected. Working in the breakfast shop for a while had made Lady Zhao more outgoing, and she now felt comfortable speaking up in front of others.
After discussing back and forth, they decided to set the price at one wen for washing a garment, including free ironing. Starching a garment was also priced at one wen, as the garments that usually needed starching were harder to clean and the starching process was labor-intensive. They would negotiate the cost for patching as needed.
Wu Lang then wrote the advertisement, crafting three copies; one was hung at the entrance of the breakfast shop, while the other two were posted up in the mountains.
"We have the breakfast shop, and in a few days, Wu Lang and Xiao Qi will start going to school," Lady Zhang said, "With spring arriving soon, there’s household and fieldwork to get done, and we might be too busy to handle it all."
"Mother, for the laundry business, once we collect the clothes, why don’t we just distribute them to the village people to wash?" Lian Manman shared her idea, "To make it easy to manage, we could have them wash together while we supervise. They can bring their own basins and fetch water, and we’ll provide the soap. The earnings could be split: half for us and half for the laundry workers."
After a family discussion, they agreed to proceed as Lian Manman suggested.
They had posted the advertisements before dinner, and Lady Zhang went out to connect with two familiar daughters-in-law. Tenant farmers often lacked cash, so even one wen was significant to them. Being able to earn money by just washing and mending clothes was something the daughters-in-law were willing to do.
The next day, when the breakfast shop opened, Lian Shouxin announced the new service to the customers who came for meals. With Lian Shouli talking about it in the mountains while working, by noon, people were already bringing clothes during their meal breaks.
Lian Manman had already prepared a ledger to record names and keep track of accounts.
"Sister Manman," Lady Zhao approached Lian Manman after seeing a few garments being collected, and began to discuss, "Could you distribute a few items for me to wash first?"
"Sister Manman, my mother and I will join in. I can wash clothes too, and I’ll wash them very clean," Lian Yeye chimed in as she stood beside Lady Zhao.
"I was thinking, we could just wash them here, and mend them here. The money earned..." Lady Zhao hesitated, seemingly embarrassed to continue, "The money earned would be Yeye’s. I’m thinking of..."
Before she could finish, Lian Manman already understood her intention.
"There’s nothing wrong with that." Lian Manman agreed immediately. She trusted Lady Zhao and Lian Yeye to do the work reliably, and besides, who the money was earned for made no difference. Besides, she wanted to help Lady Zhao and Lian Yeye. "Regardless of how little or how much is earned, there’s no need to report it to the Upper Room. It could even help Yeye save some pocket money."
"That’s exactly what I meant," Lady Zhao said with a smile.
From that day on, the shop regularly received clothes in need of laundering, mending, or starching, which Lian Manman prioritized for Lady Zhao and Lian Yeye to manage. With a well at the temple, the daughters-in-law brought by Lady Zhang to wash the clothes did so in the shop, later laying them out to dry on the open ground behind the shop.
Once the clothes were dry, they were brought inside to be mended, starched, and ironed. As time passed, Lady Zhang even allowed the more experienced daughters-in-law to take the clothes home for mending and ironing.
While this modest business might not seem like much, it brought in a few coins each day. On good days, they could earn upwards of a dozen wen. After a family discussion, the money, instead of going into the common account, became the private savings of Lian Manman and Lian Zhizhi.
Feeling the gradually swelling purse of private savings made Lian Manman smile even in her sleep.
Furthermore, Lian Yeye also started accumulating her own savings. Watching her, Lian Manman guessed that Yeye too must be smiling in her dreams.
