Chapter 769: The Prototype of the Small Workshop

Ye Yaodong's reputation in the village now is not something an ordinary person can compare to; even the village head and village cadres can't compare to him.

Money is the courage of the poor. If you have money, you can speak louder. People also take what rich people say very seriously. As soon as he finished speaking, the crowd spontaneously cleared a path for him to pass.

Some nosy people even followed behind him, wanting to ask a few more questions, but he climbed directly onto the boat and started moving things back and forth.

Seeing them busy, the villagers spontaneously reached out to help receive the goods, taking the opportunity to ask a few more questions.

"No time right now, let's talk later..."

But when he pushed the flatbed cart to the collection point, he found several people queuing there waiting to be weighed, and the empty space on the side was full of baskets of squid. From this, it could be seen that everyone's harvest was quite good.

People were busy inside and out. If he went over to ask someone to help weigh at this time, it would be a bit tactless.

After Ye Yaodong stretched his neck and took a peek, he left the flatbed cart in the empty space, let the villagers help watch it, and then returned to the shore to tell his father.

"There are quite a lot of people queuing there to be weighed. Shall we transport them directly home and use our own wooden pole scale? Eldest Brother and Ye Erge haven't returned yet. Their flatbed carts are still parked at the pier. We'll push them over too, and push two carts home together first."

"That works too. If people are busy there, don't bother them. We'll push them home, weighing them ourselves is the same."

Originally, there was no money to be made for others. It was fine to help weigh when they were free, but forget it when they were busy. Ye Fu thought the same.

They piled both flatbed carts full, sent one trip home first, and then transported back and forth three more times before they transported all 24 baskets of squid from the two boats home. In addition, there was a sack of squid picked up by Lin Guangyuan and two sacks of shelled ones.

Ye Yaodong planned to calculate what he picked up separately and calculate it for his brother-in-law later.

"Is all the cargo caught today here?" Ye Mu said after counting.

"Yes, it's all here. It will be a little more than yesterday's. I'll weigh it in a moment to see how many jin there are before you slaughter them."

It had to be weighed before being taken to dry, so that he could calculate how many jin it took to produce one jin later.

"I know, we specifically didn't touch it, just waiting for you to weigh it first. The more than 2,000 jin of fish pulled back from the market at noon, we also slaughtered until just now. There are still six or seven baskets that haven't been dried yet, just pickled, washed, and waiting to be dried."

"We're too busy to keep up, and there's no place to dry them. Yesterday, 2,000 jin of squid were dried. The entrance to your eldest and second brother's place, as well as your courtyard, are all full. At noon, more than 2,000 jin of dried fish were pickled here, and they have already been dried in the empty space over there."

"It's a good thing you bought that empty space over there. Your brothers-in-law are also very quick. Early in the morning, as soon as the sky was bright, they went to cut bamboo. After measuring the land, they started weeding and planting bamboo in the afternoon. By mid-afternoon, they could already pull ropes over there to dry them first. It's just missing the net to enclose the outside..."

"Your aunts are still drying them over there right now. There are still several baskets here that haven't been moved over. All of a sudden, we have to dry several thousand jin of squid and several thousand jin of dried fish. Where would we get so much space?"

"If you want to dry dried fish, why didn't you do it a few days earlier? You just happened to rush them all together. I see that the empty space of more than an acre can at most hang what you brought back today."

"If you dry another batch of dried fish tomorrow, I guess the squid tomorrow night won't have a place to hang either. These are all hung to dry, and the bamboo mats on the ground are also full. I borrowed them everywhere today, I've borrowed from the whole village..."

"Everything is fine, but they are all squeezed together... Either don't dry them, or dry them all together, and you don't say to take it slow... The ones slaughtering fish today are so busy they can't keep up, they haven't even had a sip of water all day..."

"With such a large quantity, aren't you afraid of being stolen at night? It's a good thing you invited your two brothers-in-law over. They can take turns watching at night. Otherwise, who knows who might see that others are doing well, get jealous, and do something bad, like splashing feces or something disgusting..."

Ye Mu rattled off a long string of words as if she had opened a chatterbox.

She had wanted to say it since he came back, but seeing him moving things back and forth, she only found the opportunity to say it now.

"Isn't this because the boss wants it, and it just happened to rush together? Slaughter and dry today's first. I'll call my father-in-law in a moment and tell him not to transport them tomorrow morning, and to send a trip every other day from now on."

"This way, there should be a place to dry the squid tomorrow night, and then have him transport a cart back the day after tomorrow morning. One was dried last night, so there should be enough space cleared up the day after tomorrow, just in time to fill the gap."

When he came over just now, he also passed by the empty space on the side and saw his eldest aunt, second aunt, and Aqing's eldest sister-in-law and second sister-in-law all drying them over there.

The empty space was full of bamboo poles, hanging small pieces of broken fishing nets, covered with dried fish, and the two brothers-in-law were still busy over there.

"Also, the broken fishing nets are not enough. The ones left in your house, your eldest and second brother's house, and the ones left in our relatives' houses, I have all searched for them, washed them this afternoon, and used them to dry the dried fish."

"For the original plan of enclosing a circle of fishing nets outside that empty space, you have to see if anyone in the village has any leftover broken fishing nets, and just spend a few coins to buy them, then it will be enough to enclose."

"It's also fortunate that it's only an acre of land. If it were any bigger, I don't know what you would do? The money hasn't even been earned yet, and it has already been spent. It's fortunate that the walls weren't built immediately. Otherwise, how much money would it take..."

"The stall is getting bigger and bigger. I see that the money you earned has all been spent by you. You don't say to take it slow, save more money in your hands. You just bought a boat, then bought land, and then you're going to build walls..."

"What kind of small workshop are you setting up? I don't know how much money can be left, and how much money has to be spent. Just hiring people to build bricks for such a large piece of empty land, it must be more expensive than building a house, right?"

Speaking of this, Ye Mu slapped her thigh suddenly, and realized it in an instant. Before, she was only focused on being happy.

"Yes, this is more expensive than building a house. This won't do, we can't occupy such a large piece of land... The area is too large, and if it all has to be enclosed by walls, how much money will it cost?"

"The food, drink, and wages are all money, and the land also costs money... You earn money with your front foot, and spend it with your back foot. What kind of money are you earning? There's no money left in your hands at all?"

Ye Yaodong felt his head grow big listening to his mother nagging there. Why were there so many words?

"What do you know? Stop nagging, just do your work."

"That's not it, we can't build such a large area. For the houses of you three brothers, my labor and material costs already went to 3,000 yuan."

"Not to mention that you said yesterday to measure an acre or so of land. This morning, they measured it according to what you said, and it's already an acre and a half. The area is even larger. If this is enclosed, what will happen? Inside, you still have to build a warehouse, a house, and a workshop? This won't do, you can't do it like this..."

"This workshop is built to earn more money. Otherwise, where will you dry things in the future? Just throw them on the empty ground and let people mess with them? We didn't build it immediately. Isn't this just using broken fishing nets to enclose it first, and earning money first? Earn a little and then build a little. The main thing is to enclose the outer wall first. Whether to build a house inside can wait until next year."

Ye Fu nodded. "What Dongzi said is right. You can't let things have no place to dry. He needs so much quantity all at once. Anyway, just buy the land and enclose it so there's a place to dry. It's not like we don't have a place to live. What's the hurry to build a house inside?"

"I'm just worried that all the money will be spent and there will be no money in hand. Wouldn't that be earning for nothing?"

The old lady also spoke up. "How can that be called earning for nothing? The land is all ours. The money has been spent, we have land, boats, shops, and workshops. Isn't this all earned?"

"These things, once earned, won't disappear. Boats can generate money, shops can generate money, workshops can generate money, and the land will be ours for generations to come, and can be passed down from generation to generation."

Ye Mu couldn't win an argument against the whole family for a while. Mainly, she also felt that what they said made quite a lot of sense.

It was just that spending so much money all at once made her feel like the family had been hollowed out, and she felt a bit reluctant, feeling like the money had been earned for nothing and she hadn't seen it.

Ye Yaodong took the rope and wooden pole scale out of the courtyard, put the rope on the bamboo basket, and said, "Don't worry about it blindly. The land for the small workshop has already been bought anyway. Just use fishing nets to enclose it first and make do, hire someone to watch it for a month or two, and earn the squid money first."

"After this busy period, save some inventory. I guess it won't be so busy by then. We'll enclose the outer wall first to prevent some bad-hearted people from making trouble. We'll leave the inside empty for drying first, and then improve it step by step."

Ye Fu also waved his hand at Ye Mu, signaling her to step aside. "Don't get in the way. Let's weigh first. After weighing, we can slaughter and dry them early. Aqing, record the numbers."

Lin Xiuqing nodded.

As a daughter-in-law, it wasn't good for her to talk back or snap at her, so she just watched from the side.

Actually, she also felt that what Ye Mu was worried about made quite a lot of sense, but taking it slow was also fine.

"Record the numbers, this basket is 55 jin..."

"Hey..."

Aqing withdrew her attention and hurriedly recorded it.

Seeing them finish weighing a basket, Ye Mu didn't nag anymore and directly pulled the weighed one to the side to separate it.

Because the courtyard was full, and the entrances to the eldest and second brother's houses were also full, they piled all the goods brought back today at the entrance of the courtyard. It was full, not to mention that there was no place to step in the courtyard, and they couldn't even get in at the entrance.

She hurriedly moved the baskets of fish that had been pickled and cleaned, waiting to be dried, onto the flatbed cart and pushed them to the empty space over there first, to save space.

She started nagging again, "So many. When your eldest and second brother come back later, I guess there will be another twenty or so baskets. It's fortunate that this side is a bit empty. If it were at the old house, look where you could pile them?"

"Later, I have to call two more people to slaughter. Yesterday, 2,000 jin were slaughtered until midnight. Today, there are a few hundred jin more. I see we'll have to slaughter until dawn tomorrow, and we won't have to sleep..."

"Then you go call two more people, go right now."

Work has to be done, and words have to be spoken...

Ye Yaodong didn't say the last sentence out loud. Otherwise, his mother would probably have more to nag about. He hurriedly gave her something to do and sent her away. ===== CHAPTER 770 =====