Chapter 180: Chapter 180: The Qi Family Would Never Do Such a Thing

“Ah? A city entrance fee?”

Ji Hu was dumbfounded: “Yeah, there’s a city entrance fee. I totally forgot about it!”

He said while slapping his forehead.

Qi Ercai looked him up and down, then said: “Firewood can fetch a good price now, but if you have too little, it won’t work. How about this, I’ll have Dalang send over a few carts later, you can load more firewood with them.”

“As for the city entrance fee… First, determine the exact number of people. Tell Dalang when he arrives, then I’ll take you out of the city. I’ll lend you tomorrow’s entrance fee, and you can pay me back after you’ve sold the firewood and made some money.”

Qi Ercai thought it was really good that Zhou Tao wanted Ji Hu and the others to become financially independent.

Regarding the city entrance fee and such, the Qi Family could handle it.

After all, they’ve supported these people for so long, a day’s entrance fee isn’t a big deal.

But this was all he could do; the rest depended on Ji Hu and his group’s own efforts.

When he first entered the city, Qi Ercai felt uncertain about what lay ahead and didn’t know how the path forward would be.

Later, his family had an unexpected fortune. Although they didn’t have to worry about buying land, their daily expenses were still covered by what they earned.

The rest of the silver has other uses and hasn’t been carelessly spent by the family.

Selling vegetables is profitable, but selling firewood can be too.

Whether it’s a lot or a little, it’s still a source of income.

After returning home, Qi Ercai had Qi Dalang bring Qi Erlang and Qi Sanlang to deliver three carts to Ji Hu’s yard.

As for how they share it, that’s their business.

Qi Dalang returned with the news: Ji Hu and his group would exit the city with eight people in total.

“Alright, I got it.”

Qi Ercai acknowledged, then called Qi Quanjin to find Mr. Wang Sr. and explained the situation.

Upon hearing, Qi Zheng nodded: “Yes, that arrangement is fine; it’s not good to always keep them.”

Qi Quanjin said, “Tomorrow I’ll take them around for a day, let them get familiar with the surroundings, after that, I won’t worry about it.”

“Okay, but be mindful of what should and shouldn’t be said,”

Qi Zheng reminded.

Qi Quanjin acknowledged.

After dinner, the wives of the Qi Family cleaned up the tables in the dining room, while Qi Dalang and Qi Erlang went to invite the heads of three other families.

Coming along with the three elders were the eldest sons from each family.

Today was the first day of selling vegetables, so the silver needed to be distributed promptly.

“Sold out? Wonderful, wonderful!”

Mr. Zhou Sr. asked about the vegetable sales as soon as he entered the yard. Upon learning that everything was sold, he clapped his hands in delight.

The other people also wore smiles.

Everyone was happy because all the vegetables were sold, as for how much they sold for, they had no idea.

“Sit down and have some hot tea.”

Qi Zheng’s face was radiant.

He knew better than anyone else how much was earned today, and naturally, he was happier.

Yi Meng entered holding a small wooden box.

Qi Quanjin saw her and raised an eyebrow.

Yi Meng smiled and nodded at him.

The silver from today’s vegetable sales was now in Qi Quanjin’s hands.

As soon as Qi Quanjin returned home, he handed all the money to his wife.

Qi Ercai also understood that now Yi Meng was in charge of the household money, so he didn’t feel there was anything wrong with the fourth doing so.

The restaurant paid in whole ingots of silver; scattered copper coins were few. To distribute money to the other three families, exchanging silver for broken silver and copper coins was necessary, and only Yi Meng could handle that.

When Qi Zheng saw his fourth daughter-in-law come in, he immediately scolded Qi Quanjin: “Old Four, what are you standing there for? Quickly, help your wife!”

“Hey!”

Qi Quanjin swiftly ran to his wife, took the box of Copper Coins from her, and set it on the dining table.

Then they heard Qi Ercai say: “We sold our vegetables to Jianghai Restaurant. Jianghai Restaurant is one of the top places in Concord City, and they agreed that as long as we supply our vegetables to them first, the price is negotiable.”

After speaking, Qi Ercai looked at Qi Quanjin, signaling him to continue.

Qi Quanjin understood and continued: “No matter the type of vegetable, as long as it’s new and not yet available, they will take it, giving us one hundred and twenty Copper Coins per jin.”

“What? One hundred and twenty Copper Coins?”

Zhou Tao first lost his composure: “In the past, we couldn’t even sell our vegetables for a few Copper Coins per jin, and now they can sell for one hundred and twenty Copper Coins per jin?”

This basically voiced what everyone was thinking.

Qi Quanjin laughed and said, “If it were summer or autumn, it really would be like that. But now it’s winter! We nearly took out our sleeping beds to plant these vegetables.”

“Let’s not even mention our hard work, but think about how much more firewood we burned each day. Even if it’s three or five Copper Coins worth of firewood a day, it’d be over a hundred Copper Coins after a month. So this price isn’t expensive.”

This was to enlighten everyone, but Qi Quanjin was almost shocked by the price himself.

One hundred and twenty Copper Coins, wow, it might as well be gilded with gold and silver edges!

Although everyone nodded in agreement, their faces revealed shock and joy.

Qi Ercai pulled a paper from his pocket: “Now let’s settle accounts. Uncle Zhou’s family brought twelve jin of vegetables, totaling one thousand four hundred and forty Copper Coins.”

As Qi Ercai reported the numbers, Qi Quanjin had already opened the wooden box, took out one ounce of silver, four strings of Copper Coins, and counted out forty individual pieces, pushing them toward Mr. Zhou Sr.

“Uncle Sun’s family had thirteen jin of vegetables, totaling one thousand five hundred sixty Copper Coins.”

“Uncle Wang’s family had fifteen jin of vegetables, totaling one thousand eight hundred Copper Coins.”

Qi Ercai reported each family, and Qi Quanjin counted each family’s money.

Though the Zhou Family was the smallest, they had more than one ounce, making both father and son too excited to know what to express.

Mr. Wang Sr. was the first to speak: “This business idea was thought out by your Qi Family, so we’ll only take the whole amounts, and the rest will be for Ercai and Quanjin as a reward for their efforts!”

“Yes, indeed, it should be this way!”

Mr. Sun Sr. and Mr. Zhou Sr. immediately agreed and started pushing all Copper Coins except for the one-ounce silver back out.

Qi Quanjin quickly waved his hands to refuse, but his elder stopped him: “You all take the money back, we’ll settle it this year like this. After all, we still need to buy land and build houses, everywhere needs money.”

“Next year, if you decide not to go into the city for business but want to have my boys run errands, then we’ll discuss the running fees.”

Qi Zheng’s words made Qi Quanjin very supportive.

If it were outsiders, they definitely would ask for some extra compensation.

But these three families were practically kin, and they couldn’t possibly make money off them during tough times.

That would be heartless, something the Qi Family could never do.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep