Chapter 379: I Made a Fortune!

The shop assistant laughed. “It’s very different from giving it away for free. In our Gaojia Village, if you work as a road construction laborer with no skills at all, it’s pure physical effort, and you only earn three jin of flour a day. But here, one jin of flour is worth just seven coins. Do the math yourself—isn’t that giving it away?”

Liu You calculated quickly and got a jolt. That meant, money earned from a whole day’s work was only twenty-one coins? Working for a whole month earned only six hundred coins, which was six qian of silver.

This showed… doing dumb physical labor here earned hardly any money at all!

Next, he thought about Heyang County’s current situation. After Heyang County got help from Gaojia Village, road construction workers earned wages that covered their food, plus three jin of flour daily as pay.

But before, he had used Heyang County’s grain price for his calculations, so he thought the road construction wages were very high. Using Gaojia Village’s grain price, though, they were shockingly low.

Liu You couldn’t help but ask more. “What job here earns the most money?”

The shop assistant smiled. “Becoming a craftsman! A skilled craftsman can’t avoid earning monthly wages of three taels of silver.”

Liu You was startled. “Three taels!”

This truly shocked him.

The shop assistant rocked back on his heels with a laugh. “Here, having a skill means you can strike it rich.”

Liu You thought to himself: I have the skill for making Fresh Water Hele, so that should count as a skill, right? Never mind, he needed to rush back and open shop.

While walking back to his shop, he was pondering how much to charge for a bowl of Fresh Water Hele.

Back in Heyang County, he sold it for ten coins a bowl, but Heyang flour was expensive, so the cost of one bowl of Fresh Water Hele was almost all flour, leaving very small profits. Selling a bowl didn’t even earn him one coin; at best, it made half a coin profit.

That half coin was basically his hard-earned fee.

But here, flour was so cheap at seven coins per jin, one bowl of Fresh Water Hele required at most two liang of flour, costing just a little over one coin. Adding a bit for coal and seasoning costs, selling one bowl of Fresh Water Hele for three coins alone meant one coin profit.

Thinking this far gave him a fright.

After returning to his shop, while kneading dough, his mind was still mulling this over, distracted and unsettled.

Zhao Sheng grinned and asked, “Shopkeeper, what will you charge per bowl for Fresh Water Hele? Made up your mind yet?”

Liu You replied blankly. “Haven’t decided yet… What do you think I should charge?”

Zhao Sheng said, “Maybe sell it for five coins? That should work.”

Zhang Laowu nodded. “Five coins are around right.”

Several other officers from the Discipline Committee laughed too. “Mm-hm, reasonable.”

Liu You got a jolt, thinking to himself: Five coins? So for each bowl I sell, I could make three coins profit? Wasn’t this about to make me rich?

He asked cautiously, “Won’t five coins be too expensive?”

Zhao Sheng chuckled. “On this street, there’s a shop selling southern rice noodles by Gao Laba, and he charges five coins a bowl. Yours is also a distinctive cuisine, not worse than noodles, right? So go ahead and sell for five coins a bowl, to compete head-to-head with Gao Laba, steal his business, and make him furious, ha-ha-ha.”

Liu You replied hesitantly. “I’m an outsider… so openly taking business from locals? What if they call in eighty or so fellow townsmen to smash up my shop?”

Zhao Sheng laughed again. “That’s overthinking it! Here in Gaojia Village, who’d dare commit such market bullying? Do they want to go to labor reform or not?”

Everyone else joined in laughter. “Ha-ha-ha, no one wants that.”

Liu You asked, “So I’ll fix it at five coins?”

Zhao Sheng replied, “Be bolder and shout out ‘five coins’. Well, I’ll shout it for you.”

He ran to the shop entrance, hollering at the flowing crowd outside, “New Heyang snack shop open! Fresh Water Hele, five coins a bowl, five coins a bowl now!”

After this shout, an old man on the street immediately looked over first.

This old man was the Old Village Chief of Gaojia Village, wealthy but with nowhere to spend money, a sudden-rich type. Upon hearing about a new snack, regardless of what it was, he first grabbed a spot.

The Old Village Chief walked into the shop and plopped down into a seat: “Shopkeeper, give me a bowl.”

From the distant shop, Gao Laba’s head popped out: “Wow, Village Chief, did you abandon my shop today?”

The Old Village Chief laughed: “Eating your rice noodles every day, wouldn’t I get tired of it?”

Gao Laba: “Huh? Yeah, I’m tired of it too. Fine, I’ll close shop today and go try the new snack.”

This fellow closed up just like that: with a clang, he shut the Laba Rice Noodles place, and followed into the Fresh Water Hele shop. He plopped down beside the Old Village Chief, banged the table: “I want a bowl too.”

This startled Liu You: “Hey, hey, hey? What’s going on?”

“What’s wrong?” Gao Laba: “Don’t you do business with competitors?”

Liu You’s sweat poured down: “It’s not that I won’t, I just… felt… a bit panicked inside…”

No wonder he was panicking. As the Laba Rice Noodles shop closed, those wanting noodles couldn’t find a place to eat. The braised duck next door was too costly, and the Fish and Shrimp shop opened by people from Bai Family Fortress wasn’t cheap—not something for everyday. So a group turned their eyes and aimed for the newly opened Fresh Water Hele shop.

People kept entering the shop one after another, and kept taking seats.

Luckily, it was converted from a brothel, much larger inside than regular shops, fitting many. The ground floor filled up, and soon the private rooms upstairs were packed too.

Just for a snack, and they sat in private rooms like a big restaurant—it was a bit awkward.

Up and down, people on both floors waited for Liu You to cook Hele.

Liu You was super panicked, kneading dough frantically, boiling frantically, and scooping frantically…

This really wore him out hard.

He was running around busy top to bottom nonstop, until sunset finished. Lights turned on in Gaojia Business Circle, nightlife started, main diners were full, rubbed their bellies satisfied and left, and shop customers finally thinned a bit.

Liu You finally wrapped up, heaved a big sigh, sat behind the counter, massaging his aching waist: “I’m wiped out, almost broke my old back from bustle.”

By the shop door, a shadow flickered; Gao Yiye and the two women Qiu and Dong walked in. Seeing Liu You, Gao Yiye showed a gentle smile: “Proprietor, I heard you really opened a shop in Gaojia Village, so I came specially to visit you.”

Liu You stood fast and bowed: “Thanks to your pointer, miss.”

Gao Yiye: “So, how was business today?”

Liu You: “Huh? Just now I was swamped and didn’t count. Let me see how it went.”

He pulled open the counter drawer, looked inside: instantly drew a sharp breath. It was packed with copper coins, stuffed full.

All in one day! One single day!

Liu You shouted out loud: “I struck it rich, I’m rich! Hah, I’ll take the nickname Rich and Wealthy from now on.”