Chapter 33: Work Begins

Jian Qingqing arranged for people to go to the brick factory to collect bricks. She planned to build a house with ten rooms, which would require a lot of bricks, and it might cost sixty taels of silver, including labor.

She explained the requirements to Aunt Liang. Aunt Liang was indeed a professional. She quickly calculated the approximate amount of bricks and then discussed it with the owner of the brick factory.

With Ma Jiacai and Aunt Liang here, Jian Qingqing was relieved. She then went to buy the food for the workers today.

She planned to make a meal with two vegetables and one meat, so she went off to buy some chicken. The vegetable dishes would be the same wild vegetables that the villagers bought. Adding eggs into the soup would be quite delicious. She would also add a pickled vegetable, which could also be bought from the villagers.

She had not expected it at first. She thought of buying all of them in the county in one go, but it was Old Man Jian who reminded her.

Now that she had earned money, she still had to build a house. Now, there was the problem with the pickled vegetables. Every household had these pickled vegetables, and if she spend money to buy them, even the kindest villagers would be jealous. These workers might even be separated from the villagers.

They still had to live in the village. It would not be good if they were isolated.

Today was the first day of construction. Jian Qingqing had to keep watch.

The newly built house was next to the old house. Jian Qingqing planned to build it like a courtyard house, with a courtyard in the middle.

She explained the plan to the workers, and they began to build the foundation.

Jian Qingqing invited two aunties from the same village to cook. They could not come until tomorrow, so she was the only one to cook today.

She had already had the chicken killed in the county town, so she washed them, chopped them, and threw them into the pot to cook the soup. This was very easy and did not require much effort.

The things that required much effort were the pig offal. Yes, her big plan to set up the stall was about to begin.

This morning, not only did she buy the chicken, but she also bought 20 catties of pig offal and meat. She was a regular customer of the pork stall. Seeing that she wanted so many pig offal, the boss even gave her a much cheaper price.

The pig offal needed to be rinsed several times and cut into pieces. It also needed to be marinated with ginger and salt to remove the fishiness. She could not bear to use her fine salt, so she went to buy some private salt.

There were so many coarse salt impurities, so she guessed that the salt was from drying saltwater, without any treatment.

Jian Qingqing dissolved and filtered it, and it was much better. However, it still had a bit of a bitter taste.

For the meat, there was no need to go through so much trouble. She just needed to cut it into one catty cubes and marinate it directly.

The food for the 20 workers and her family of seven still took a long time to cook. It took her almost two hours to finish cooking. Jian Qingqing put all the food into the wooden basin and barrel and began to cook her marinated dishes.

The iron pot could marinate 20 catties of meat in one go, which saved a lot of time.

When the braised soup was ready, it was already noon. The Jian Family members had also returned. Jian Qingqing put the meat in and went to call the workers to eat.

When the workers saw the Jian Family members, they were very cautious. Ma Jiacai stammered, “Master, Madam, Old Master.”

Old Man Jian was shocked and waved his hands repeatedly. “No, no, no! Don’t call me ‘Old Master’, that’s too much, right?!”

Ma Jiacai was also shocked by Old Man Jian’s reaction and quickly apologized, “Yes, yes, yes! Old Uncle, I’m sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Old Man Jian recovered from his shock, he shook his head and said, “It’s okay, just call me Old Uncle like this. Don’t call me Old Master anymore. I’m a farmer, so how can I bear this title? Also, don’t call us Master or Madam, just call me big brother and big aunt.”

Father Jian nodded as well. “That’s right. You can call me Big Brother too. We’re all farmers. There’s no need to be so particular about it!”

Ma Jiacai nodded repeatedly. “Yes, we won’t do it again in the future. Your family members are all honest people. Miss Qingqing also won’t let us call her ‘My Lady’.”

“That’s right. We’re not fortunate enough to be nobles! Come, come, come, eat, eat!”