CHAPTER 84: CHAPTER 83: TWENTY-EIGHTY SPLIT, NOT A PENNY MORE

Yu Xiaolian arranged the daily goods on the counter and took out the little notebook from the Women’s Virtue Academy people who had reservations yesterday.

"The goods are limited. Those who made reservations yesterday have priority to purchase. Spend over thirty taels of silver and get a free eyebrow pencil. Step up when I call your name!"

Yu Xiaolian opened the little notebook, "Zhao Wanrou..."

"Zhao Wanrou is my miss’s name!"

A maid quickly stepped forward, handing the paper she held to Yu Xiaolian.

Yu Xiaolian took it and retrieved the goods for the maid based on what was written there.

"One box of air freshener, one can of shampoo, one bottle of body wash, one bottle of conditioner, two bars of soap, one can of toothpaste, one box of lip balm."

This is a big client!

Yu Xiaolian looked over the list and asked the maid, "What scent of air freshener does she want? There are two types of soap: regular soap and essential oil soap, which one do you need?"

The maid was only there to deliver the list and thought she just needed to hand it over, not knowing these things also came in different scents, feeling momentarily troubled.

If she bought a scent her miss didn’t like, she’d certainly get scolded later.

"Well... our miss didn’t specify a scent!"

Seeing the maid’s anxious face, afraid she might mess up the task, Yu Xiaolian decisively said, "I’ll choose for you then, ensuring your miss will be satisfied."

"Alright, thank you very much."

There was no choice but to let Yu Xiaolian help pick, as the miss was waiting for the supplies at the academy, and if they couldn’t purchase them today, she might get angry.

There were five scents of solid air fresheners; Yu Xiaolian had relabeled them yesterday by sticking white strips of paper over the lids, which she had written the scents on.

Osmanthus, rose, lemon, jasmine, lavender—the scents her mom usually stocked, which were all popular and pleasant.

Yu Xiaolian chose a rose-scented solid air freshener for Zhao Wanrou and also picked a rose essential oil soap.

Yu Xiaolian reported the price to the maid to ensure there wouldn’t be any discrepancies with the miss later.

"Air freshener, one tael; shampoo, ten taels; body wash, ten taels; conditioner, five taels; regular soap, three taels each; essential oil soap, five taels; toothpaste, three taels; lip balm, ten taels; totaling forty-seven taels of silver."

The maid was not surprised at all upon hearing Yu Xiaolian’s quote and calmly handed over a silver note worth a hundred taels to Yu Xiaolian.

Yu Xiaolian was prepared to give change but only had broken silver.

She couldn’t break a hundred taels on her own, and with all the eyes on her, she couldn’t openly take silver out of her space.

Miscalculated!

Inexperienced, Yu Xiaolian felt very annoyed.

With no other choice, she had to ask Shopkeeper Hai for help, who happily helped provide the change.

The maid took the change, packed the goods in her basket, and was about to leave.

Yu Xiaolian quickly called after her, handing over an eyebrow pencil, "Spend over thirty taels, and you get a free eyebrow pencil."

The maid took the eyebrow pencil and was about to leave when Yu Xiaolian stopped her again, explaining how to use each product, like using shampoo first and then conditioner, only letting the maid leave once everything was clearly explained.

Making some money is not easy. After working all morning, Yu Xiaolian’s mouth was dry from talking.

Fortunately, she had limited goods, and everything had sold out before noon.

"Those who couldn’t buy, please come back in three days’ time in the morning!"

Yu Xiaolian didn’t want to overwork herself and Sun. Sun also had to make cotton clothes for the three of them these days, with plenty to do.

Selling goods every day left Yu Xiaolian exhausted with a dry mouth, so it was better to sell once every three days.

Shopkeeper Hai sat on the other side of the counter, his abacus clicking away, quickly calculating the total for the daily goods.

"A total of seven hundred and eighty taels. With a 50-50 split, Yu should get three hundred and ninety taels."

Yu Xiaolian was speechless, "The product cost is mine, and I’m the one talking myself dry to sell them, why a 50-50 split with him?"

Nice try, Yu Xiaolian put her hands on her hips, but since she hadn’t brought enough change earlier, and borrowed Shopkeeper Hai’s silver for change, not giving Zheng Yuanfeng a penny didn’t seem right. So she asserted, "Twenty-eight split. He gets two, I get eight. No more than that."

Shopkeeper Hai looked helpless. He couldn’t possibly fight over this money with Yu Xiaolian and risk making the girl cry, or the boss would reprimand him later anyway.

"Twenty-eight it is," Shopkeeper Hai continued calculating with the abacus, "With a twenty-eight split, you get six hundred and twenty-four taels, while I get one hundred and fifty-six taels."

One hundred and fifty-six taels, just given away like that, Yu Xiaolian felt a bit of a sting.

After sharing the earnings from the daily goods, Shopkeeper Hai took out the prepared silver notes from the counter and handed them to Yu Xiaolian, "This is your month’s bonus, a total of six hundred and fourteen taels."

Shopkeeper Hai handed Yu Xiaolian six one-hundred taels silver notes, one fifty-tael note, and the rest as broken silver.

Yu Xiaolian, who was feeling the pinch over the hundred and fifty-six taels earlier, immediately beamed with joy.

Taking the silver, she tucked it into her chest and said, "Today, I brought you some new snacks."

Saying this, she led Shopkeeper Hai to the back kitchen, pointing to the items she brought, "This is jujube cake, this is egg yolk pie, and this is pineapple bun."

Shopkeeper Hai remembered the names of the snacks mentally, and then asked, "Have you discussed the pricing of these new products with the boss?"

Yu Xiaolian shook her head, "Not yet. You’re in Mingxiang Pavilion every day, you know the customer demands best, so you set the price, I have no opinions."

Shopkeeper Hai smiled and nodded in agreement.

Before Yu Xiaolian left, Shopkeeper Hai repeatedly reminded her that carrying so much money was unsafe, urging her to go home quickly and not wander around the streets.

Yu Xiaolian nodded, "I won’t push the cart back; don’t forget to have someone pick up the goods from my house tomorrow."

...

Once she stepped out of Mingxiang Pavilion, Yu Xiaolian put the silver notes in the supermarket.

Passing through the market, she also chatted with Aunt Ge at her stall for a while before heading home.

When she got home, Sun and Yu Changhe were replacing the window paper with new rattan paper. This rattan paper wasn’t ordinary; it was made from rattan skin, strong and durable.

Generally, it’s not easy to poke through, but with long-term exposure to wind and rain, the lifespan of the rattan paper shortens, leading some to coat it in tung oil.

Paper soaked in tung oil is waterproof on rainy days and moisture-absorbent on regular days, feeling slightly rough but not reflective, with good light transmission.

However, replacing the window with rattan paper is a tedious task; it could take at least two days to complete all the windows.

Yu Xiaolian herself had a lot to do, so the task of replacing the rattan paper was left to Sun and Yu Changhe.

She took out a wallpaper cutter and white paper pad, starting to cut equally sized white labels.

After cutting two entire pads of white paper, Yu Xiaolian began writing product names on the labels.

Since these were meant for sale, Yu Xiaolian ensured her writing was neat and attractive.

Though she wrote with a black pen, neatly stroke by stroke, she couldn’t help but criticize her traditional script handwriting for looking really ugly.

Those that didn’t look good, she’d crumpled into a ball and tossed on the ground to rewrite.