106 Apprenticeship
This time, the two major matters at home began to progress slowly.
The wheat they planted in the alternate space had been harvested. Now, Zhou Yu has begun to plant sweet potatoes in the field.
In her free time, Zhou Xiaoli would often go to the alternate space to take a look.
She realized that ever since the back mountain opened up, the subsequent changes had been a little slow.
The wheat had been collected and yet, the tea orchard at the back of the mountain had yet to be fully revealed.
It was like leveling up in a game. The further one went, the higher the experience required to level up, and the harder it was to level up.
However, the two acres of wheat in the alternate space produced a very good harvest. There were 1000 kilograms of wheat!
More importantly, there was no need to pay farm tax on it. The full 1000 kilograms were their own. It was enough for their family of five to eat for more than a year.
Now, no one in the family needs to worry about starving.
Now that food and shelter were no longer a problem, the family felt much more relaxed. They were just waiting for Zhou Junjun to go through with the apprentice ceremony and start school tomorrow.
In the afternoon, the three families made sugar together as usual.
They were all very familiar with the process now. Moreover, Zhou Xiaoli had thought of a way for them to squeeze the beet juice with a board that helped them to squeeze all of the juices from the pulp while using lesser strength.
Now, there was no need for two people from each family. One person from each family was enough.
It was just that the village chief’s family was large so his wife often brought her eldest daughter-in-law to work.
Therefore, they only needed Zhang Lan as representative of their family to help make sugar.
Zhou Yu pulled himself out and went to work in the field.
The next day, the three helpers that Zhou Yu had sourced arrived early in the morning.
As it was their first day of work, they came to their house to look for Zhou Yu.
After hearing the knock on the door, Zhou Yu hurriedly walked over to open it. When he saw that it was the three helpers he had sourced, he smiled and said, “You’re here. Then let’s go straight to the field.”
As their salary was calculated according to the workload, they too wanted to finish it early so that they had more time to do other work.
When they heard Zhou Yu say that they would go straight to the field, they were extremely happy.
Lin Xiujuan and Liu Yan noticed the situation at the door.
After Zhou Yu and the others left, the two of them asked Zhang Lan in confusion, “Workers? Why did you hire workers?”
Seeing their nervous expressions, Zhang Lan smiled and said, “Don’t worry, these workers are not here to help us make sugar.”
Lin Xiujuan heaved a sigh of relief. “Haha, I knew it. How can we allow outsiders to help us make sugar? It’s not safe.”
Then, she became even more puzzled. “Why are you looking for workers then? And three of them at once.”
Zhang Lan smiled and explained, “It’s like this. Didn’t my Li’er look for the Mayor and ask for the southern slope of Qingyuan Mountain? My family is busy making sugar, so those lands have been desolate and remain as forest land so far.”
“As soon as we discussed it, we decided to hire three workers to help us. We thought that the earlier we clear the vegetation, the earlier we could plant fruit trees on the land.”
Hearing this reason, the two of them were even more surprised.
Liu Yan was so shocked that she stopped washing the vegetables. “No, what are you guys thinking? Are you stupid? It’s not worth it to buy forest land in the first place. You have to pay taxes on it too. Not only will you not be able to earn money, but you will also lose money.”
“Now, you’re hiring workers and even have to pay them. This isn’t how money should be spent!”
Lin Xiujuan, who was obsessed with money, couldn’t understand it the most. At this moment, she nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes, Sister Ping is right. It wasn’t easy for us to make sugar and earn some money. You should save it well. Moreover, your Brother Jun has just entered school. He would need to spend money in the future.”
Zhang Lan knew that the two of them were thinking for their family. However, she had already been “brainwashed” by Zhou Xiaoli and felt that her Li’er was right.
Spend small money to earn big money.
The fruits in their alternate space were so good. The sooner they planted them, the sooner they could earn money from it.
Lin Xiujuan and Liu Yan didn’t understand the situation and hence, their thought process was normal.
However, Zhang Lan could not explain, so she only said, “If we clear the forest land earlier, we can plant things earlier to earn money. We won’t lose out.”
Seeing that their persuasion was futile, Liu Yan and Lin Xiujuan stopped trying to persuade her.
At this time, Zhou Xiaoli had returned home from running on the mountain. Seeing that Zhou Yu was not at home, she asked Zhang Lan about it.