Chapter 89

89. Chapter 89: Recruiting People to Work

Jiang Xiaoxiao and the sisters Chunmiao were busy in the courtyard. Chunmiao was responsible for boiling snow cakes, and Jiang Xiaoxiao and Chunya were responsible for beating eggs and whipping cream, orderly.

About the time of Si (9-11 am), Qiulian Niang brought several farm women to the gate.

Jiang Xiaoxiao looked at them one by one. These aunts had kind faces and looked like the type who were silent.

She had strolled around the village a few times before and had a certain understanding of the people in the village. These aunts were not the type who chewed tongues or gossiped behind their backs.

However, for the final candidate for helping, she had to wait for her mother to come back to make a decision.

"Aunts, my mother hasn't come back yet. You sit in the courtyard and wait for a while." Jiang Xiaoxiao pulled Chunya to the room to move a few small stools out.

Qiulian Niang also followed to greet everyone to sit down and said: "Xiaoxiao's mom went to town and will be back around noon. You wait for a while."

Saying this, she let Xiaoxiao look after these aunts, while she walked into the kitchen, rolled up her sleeves, and started to burn the fire to boil today's snow cakes and ice cream.

Several women in the courtyard saw the snow cakes boiled by Chunmiao and looked curious and fresh.

"This must have poured in a lot of eggs, no wonder this snow cake sells for a high price."

"This work looks easy, just keep stirring in the pot..."

"However, this thing is sticky when boiled. How will it become delicious, cold, and cool snow cake?"

Several women gathered around the stove in the courtyard to discuss.

Chunya saw this, pulled Jiang Xiaoxiao quietly to the side, and lowered her voice: "Sister Xiaoxiao, is this really okay? If they know the recipe for snow cake..."

"It's okay, don't worry." Jiang Xiaoxiao shrugged indifferently.

Even if the people in the village know the steps, without ice cubes, snow cakes cannot take shape. Whether making ice cream or snow cakes, the core place lies in ice cubes. In this hot weather, people in this era cannot create ice cubes out of thin air.

Even if they have ice cubes in winter, the snow cakes they make won't sell.

And on the other side, Jiang Wei had finished delivering the goods in town and was rushing home on an ox cart.

Arriving at the head of the village and getting off the ox cart, she didn't go straight home, but went to the Lizheng's house halfway.

"Uncle Liu, are you at home?"

It was already noon, and Lizheng had just returned from the field, and Lizheng's wife was burning the stove in the courtyard to cook.

Lizheng saw Jiang Wei and couldn't stop being happy: "Xiaoxiao's mom, let me tell you, the method you thought of to dig ditches is too useful. I went around the ridge this morning, and the grains on the rice ears have started to be full. They were all shriveled before. Everyone is saying that this year's rice is better than previous years. When the autumn harvest comes, the villagers will definitely be able to spend a fat year... Everyone is grateful to you!"

Jiang Wei smiled: "Uncle Liu, I came to you today for something. Help me ask if the few people who came to my house to dig wells last time are free. I want to ask them to come to my house to dig a cellar."

"Dig a cellar?" Lizheng froze for a moment, then reacted, "By the way, you live there now, and there is no cellar at home. It is time to find someone to dig a cellar."

Cellars are almost in every household in the village. It is not for anything else, but to store the grain harvested every autumn. Otherwise, the grain will be put outside, either spoiled or stolen by mice.

Although Jiang Wei's family doesn't have farmland now, and there will be no grain in the autumn harvest this year, it doesn't hinder the family from digging a cellar early to prepare.

It happened that Liu Dagang came back from the outside carrying a hoe, so Lizheng greeted his youngest son: "Dagang, you find a few people tomorrow to help Xiaoxiao's mom dig a cellar."

"Okay!" Liu Dagang agreed readily.

Jiang Wei added on the side: "My cellar is used to store the goods I sell, and it is very urgent. Dagang, you find a few more people, and I can pay you wages."

"What wages, it's just a matter of helping." Liu Dagang scratched his head embarrassedly, "Auntie Jiang, you don't need to give money, just provide us with a meal."

He was always thinking about the food at Jiang Xiaoxiao's house.

"Wages still have to be given." Jiang Wei shook her head, "Recently it is busy farming, digging this cellar will delay quite a few days. How can it be done without wages?"

Liu Dagang thought so too. The crops in the field also need people to take care of them. If it were changed to the slack season before, there would definitely be people willing to come, but now it is hard to say, so he nodded: "That's fine, I will go call people today and go to your house tomorrow."

Jiang Wei said goodbye to Lizheng's house and walked toward her own house.

From afar, she saw that there were already quite a few people in her courtyard. Everyone was gathered in front of the new stove built in the courtyard. Some were helping to burn the fire, some were helping to beat eggs, some were constantly stirring the sticky snow cake in the pot with a long wooden spoon, and some were digging soil with Chunmiao in the backyard, preparing to build a few new stoves.

It was the first time she saw her courtyard so lively.

Jiang Wei strode into the courtyard. When the women saw her, they stopped their work one after another and stood obediently.

They knew in their hearts that whether they could stay to work in the end still depended on Jiang Wei's meaning.

Qiulian Niang, who was busy in the kitchen, saw Jiang Wei return and also came out of the kitchen, saying: "Xiaoxiao's mom, these are the people I helped you find. Do you think they are suitable?"

Jiang Wei's gaze slowly swept over them. Some of them were from Yuhe Village, and some were from neighboring villages. Although some faces were unfamiliar, they all looked honest.

After this observation, these women were also diligent. She nodded with satisfaction: "Very suitable, everyone stay."

Qiulian Niang did things reliably, and she trusted Qiulian Niang's vision.

Jiang Wei added: "You come to my house to help work every noon in the future, and leave before dusk. No meals provided, twenty copper coins per person per day."

As the words fell, several women showed incredible expressions.

Only working for half a day and getting twenty wen?!

This is too good!

You know, men carrying large bags at the wharf in town only get twenty-five wen a day, and that work is tiring, very tiring.

This work of making snow cakes is easy and has no difficulty, simply like giving it away.

Several women were very happy, fearing that such good work would be gone, and they worked very hard. The stoves in the courtyard were not enough, so Jiang Xiaoxiao led several people to the backyard to dig soil and move stones to build stoves.

Finally, seven or eight stoves of various sizes were built in the courtyard.

The pots at home were not enough, so Qiulian Niang ran home again, and let her son Zhao Tiezhu help move two pots over.

Taking advantage of this time, Jiang Wei instructed everyone on the precautions for boiling snow cakes and ice cream again.

Several farmers nodded repeatedly and remembered them carefully.

Finally, Qiulian Niang moved the pots from her home, lined them up neatly in the courtyard, almost one pot per person. Everyone started the fire and began to boil snow cakes and ice cream.

Looking from afar, it quite looked like a small workshop.