12dz Chapter 673 Observations (1)
Chapter 673 Observations (1)
"That's right, Chenjia Village is a really great place!"
Lu Dahe said with a smile, "I used to work in a restaurant in the county town. I worked myself to the bone and couldn't earn much money in a month. It was hard enough to feed my family. Life has been much better since I came to Chenjia Village."
Li Mingyuan nodded in agreement, took out a chicken foot from the oil paper bag and tasted it, and of course, he didn't forget to give one to Li Qiao next to him.
It must be said that Lu Dahe's cooking skills are quite good. The chicken feet are braised until they are very tender. Even Li Mingyuan, who has bad teeth, can eat them without any effort. He can even just lick his tongue and the meat on the chicken feet will fall off.
The chicken feet, after being simmered for a long time, were very flavorful, with a rich salty and savory taste, which made Li Mingyuan very satisfied.
"Boss, your chicken feet taste pretty good!"
Li Mingyuan smiled and praised, saying that this was the first time he had ever eaten braised chicken feet, but the taste was surprisingly good.
"hey-hey!"
Lu Dahe chuckled, not without pride, and said, "This is a secret recipe that I spent a long time researching, so the taste is naturally excellent!"
Li Mingyuan nodded and asked, "Boss, your business is so good, your income must be quite high, right?"
"It's alright, it's alright."
Lu Dahe spread his ten fingers and replied, "When business is good, I can earn about this much a month."
"Ten taels of silver?"
"Yes."
Li Mingyuan was surprised to see Lu Dahe nod. An income of ten taels of silver a month was, without exaggeration, higher than the income of many officials.
It should be noted that a county magistrate of the seventh rank only earns about 20 taels of silver a month. As for officials below the seventh rank, some earn less than 10 taels of silver a month.
Therefore, Lu Dahe's monthly income of ten taels of silver is already considered high income in Xia Kingdom, while this... is just the income level of a small vendor in Chenjia Village!
The wealth of Chenjia Village is truly astonishing!
"Boss, your income is quite good."
"It's alright, it's alright."
"..."
Li Mingyuan continued chatting with Lu Dahe, learning more about Chenjia Village from him.
Meanwhile, many more customers came in and bought the remaining braised food from Lu Dahe's stall.
Before long, Lu Dahe's braised food stall was sold out.
"Old man, I'm packing up now. Let's chat again sometime."
"it is good."
Lu Dahe quickly packed up his stall.
After saying goodbye to Lu Dahe, Li Mingyuan led Li Qiao into the fabric shop behind Lu Dahe.
There were only a few scattered customers browsing fabrics in the shop. When the shopkeeper saw Li Mingyuan and his companion enter, he simply nodded to them, said "Just browsing," and then went on to attend to the other customers.
Li Mingyuan and his companion had no objections to this and began to look around the store.
This fabric shop isn't very big, but it has a wide variety of fabrics on the shelves, from linen to silk.
Li Mingyuan glanced at it briefly, then found a seat and sat down, intending to chat with the shopkeeper after he finished his work.
A short while later, the innkeeper, having seen off several guests, turned around and said to Li Mingyuan with a smile, "Old man, is there something you need?"
"I just came in to take a look and rest for a while. I hope the shopkeeper won't kick me out."
Li Mingyuan said with a smile.
"of course not!"
The shopkeeper not only did not drive Li Mingyuan away, but sat down next to him and poured a cup of tea for Li Mingyuan and Li Qiao.
After pouring himself a cup of tea, the shopkeeper sipped his tea to quench his thirst and said with a smile, "How can a business owner turn away customers? I'm more than happy to welcome you to the shop, sir."
After saying that, the shopkeeper asked curiously, "Sir, you're not from Chenjia Village, are you?"
"how do you know?"
You can tell just by their accents.
The shopkeeper replied that although the language is the same throughout the nine provinces of Xia Kingdom, there are subtle differences in accents in different places. Li Mingyuan and Li Qiao's accents were obviously different from those of the people in Chenjia Village, which is why the shopkeeper guessed that they were outsiders.
"I see."
Li Mingyuan nodded slightly; this was something he hadn't noticed.
After taking a sip of tea, Li Mingyuan asked, "Shopkeeper, your shop is doing quite well, isn't it?"
"It's alright, it's alright."
The shopkeeper replied modestly, "The weather has gotten cooler recently, and the villagers of Chenjia Village have a greater demand for cloth, so business has been pretty good lately."
Li Mingyuan nodded. It was indeed quite cold in Qingzhou in August, and people's demand for warm clothing was increasing, so the cloth shop's business would naturally improve.
"May I ask your name, sir?"
"My name is Wu Chengdong. How should I address you, sir?"
“Li Mingyuan, this is my nephew, Li Qiao.”
After introducing themselves, Li Mingyuan continued, "Manager Wu, are you comfortable doing business in Chenjia Village?"
"It's very comforting."
Shopkeeper Wu laughed and said, "To be honest, I used to run a cloth shop in the county town. Although there was some profit in running a cloth shop in the county town, I had to deal with those people who came to the door to demand bribes every day. It was extremely annoying. In addition, I also had to deal with those hooligans who would come to the door to extort money from time to time. At least half of the profit that the shop earned each month was spent on dealing with these people."
Upon hearing this, Li Mingyuan couldn't help but nod. This was a common situation in Xia Kingdom. Small shops without power or influence, and without any backing, were easy prey for officials and gangsters. They would frequently demand money from these shops, and if they refused...
Those shops are about to have their good days; these officials and gangsters can make your shop go out of business in no time.
Therefore, in order to keep operating, most shops would choose to pay money to avoid trouble, spending some money to get rid of these officials and gangsters, which could be considered a "protection fee".
"According to the shopkeeper, these things don't happen in Chenjia Village?"
Li Mingyuan asked.
"of course not!"
Shopkeeper Wu shook his head and said, "I've been running this shop in Chenjia Village for several months now, and I've never seen any local thugs dare to cause trouble here. As for government officials, there are none in Chenjia Village, so extortion is out of the question. However..."
Shopkeeper Wu paused for a moment, then continued, "Although there are no officials robbing us, there are still some extra expenses to incur if we want to open a shop in Chenjia Village, such as the sanitation fee that we were just notified about a while ago."
"Sanitation fee?"
Li Mingyuan looked puzzled.
Shopkeeper Wu explained, "Sir, you must have seen those sanitation workers cleaning up the garbage on the street just now, right? Their wages are paid by the sanitation fees paid by us merchants."