"Big Brother, have you just finished building these?" Lu Taobao asked, looking at a row of houses that had suddenly appeared in the herb garden.
"Mm, we just moved in today. I didn't expect you to come so soon."
"I'm here to pick up the goods, and also to bring you the money from before," Lu Taobao said, pointing to the wooden box Wu Yong was carrying behind him.
Upon hearing this, Zheng Wei walked towards the main house with Lu Taobao.
Entering the main house, a gust of cool air immediately greeted them, dispelling a large part of their summer heat.
"This room is really cool," Lu Taobao exclaimed.
On such a hot day, he wouldn't have been willing to make this trip if it weren't for something important.
Just as the two sat down, Shen Xiaoyan, who had heard the commotion from the east wing room, came out. Seeing them sitting there with a wooden box by Lu Taobao's hand, she knew this was about delivering money.
"Is this about the money, then?" Shen Xiaoyan teased.
"Yes, sister-in-law. I'm here to deliver money. Shouldn't I get a good meal for it?" Lu Taobao asked with a smile.
"If you don't want your share, you can leave it here and I'll cook for you. I guarantee you'll have a meal whenever you come."
"That would be wonderful." Lu Taobao was even happier to hear this. If the circumstances allowed, he would really want to stay here and not leave.
After a few more jokes, the three got down to business.
Lu Taobao opened the wooden box, revealing several thin pieces of paper inside.
Shen Xiaoyan laughed when she saw them, "You always used to have people bring cash. Why is it like this this time? Are you being lazy and finding it too heavy, so you changed it to this?"
"Sister-in-law, I'm being wronged!" Lu Taobao immediately cried out in protest, then looked at Zheng Wei, "Big Brother, you tell her."
"The first delivery was 200 boxes, the second was 1000 boxes, and the last one was 11,000 boxes. In total, that's 12,200 boxes. The price per box is 50 wen, so that's a total of 610 taels of silver. According to our prior agreement, I take 15 li per box sold. Therefore, the final amount to be distributed to you is 427 taels."
As Lu Taobao spoke, he took out a small abacus from his sleeve and began calculating.
Shen Xiaoyan had also done the calculations in her mind, so she understood the figures Lu Taobao mentioned.
It seemed like she earned much more than Lu Taobao, but she still had to deduct the cost of the wooden boxes and the medicinal herbs.
The wooden boxes cost 3 li each. For 12,200 boxes, that was a total of 36 taels and 6 qian. The cost of the medicinal herbs was less than 200 taels in total. By this calculation, she had only earned about 200 taels of silver.
Both parties also had to pay wages to the workers, so the profit was less than 200 taels.
This 200 taels seemed small, especially when it was represented by a few pieces of paper.
However, one must remember that this was achieved in about half a month. In about half a month, both parties earned 200 taels each, which was quite a lot.
An ordinary peasant family might not earn 30 taels in a year.
Furthermore, there were still two to three months of peak summer, and even after summer passed, the autumn Flower-Spotted Tiger was very potent, indicating good sales potential.
Shen Xiaoyan was very satisfied with these results, as it was much more profitable than growing any kind of watermelon.
Taking the wooden box Lu Taobao handed over, Shen Xiaoyan smiled and said, "Not bad. For this much money, I'll treat you to something good today."
"What is it?" Lu Taobao's eyes lit up at the mention of food, and his mouth began to water.
"Wait a moment." Shen Xiaoyan said and walked into the east wing room.
A short while later, Shen Xiaoyan came out of the east wing room again, holding a wooden tray. On the tray were three peaches.
"Peaches!" Lu Taobao exclaimed in surprise, looking at the peaches in Shen Xiaoyan's hand.
As soon as Shen Xiaoyan placed the wooden tray on the table, Lu Taobao had already reached out, picked up a peach, and taken a bite.
"Mmm... delicious." Lu Taobao's cheeks were bulging, but this did not hinder his praise for the delicious peaches.
After finishing one, he quickly picked up the next.
Only when all three peaches were in his stomach did he finally reluctantly wipe his mouth.
"These are so delicious, sister-in-law. Why didn't you bring them out earlier? Are there any more?" Lu Taobao said, glancing towards the east wing room as if he really wanted to see if there were any more peaches.
"Yes." Shen Xiaoyan nodded.
"Where? Hurry and get them." Lu Taobao urged.
"They're in the book."
Shen Xiaoyan smiled after saying this. Lu Taobao could no longer be called a foodie; he was truly a glutton.
"Even if you hadn't come today, I was planning to send someone to invite you," Zheng Wei said at this moment.
"Is something wrong, Big Brother?"
Seeing Zheng Wei's serious tone, Lu Taobao thought it was something important, so he sat up straight and waited for Zheng Wei to speak.
"The peaches are ripe. I wanted to ask when you'll come to take them away and sell them." Zheng Wei said.
"Sell what? I'll take them all. No one can compete with me. I'll sell them all and eat them myself when I take them back," Lu Taobao said, about to get up and pick peaches.
"Why are you in such a hurry? The peaches are in the book; they won't run away." Shen Xiaoyan felt helpless about his eagerness. Even if he was in a hurry, he didn't need to be this impatient.
But Lu Taobao couldn't wait. Before Shen Xiaoyan finished speaking, his figure had already disappeared through the curtain.
Shen Xiaoyan and Zheng Wei exchanged a helpless glance and said in unison, "Foodie."
Although they had known Lu Taobao was a foodie for more than a day, he still managed to surprise them with his capacity every time.
San Shengzi had just fallen asleep, so Shen Xiaoyan was quite idle at the moment. She walked out with Zheng Wei and headed towards the orchard.
There were many more peach trees than cherry trees, a whole large peach orchard with over 200 peach trees.
This was not solely because Shen Xiaoyan liked peaches more, but also because she loved the scene of peach blossoms in full bloom. Even before entering the peach orchard, they could see Lu Taobao running around and shouting, "You stop!"
What was going on?
Shen Xiaoyan and Zheng Wei exchanged a curious glance and walked forward quickly.
When they reached Lu Taobao, they discovered he was chasing after Luoluo and Baibai.
"What are you doing?"
Shen Xiaoyan looked at Luoluo and Baibai perched on the branches, then at Lu Taobao, who was panting from exhaustion, and found it very strange.
It was fine if he came empty-handed, as they had asked the servants to bring baskets when they arrived.
But instead of picking peaches, he was chasing two cats around. This was what Shen Xiaoyan couldn't understand.
"They..." Lu Taobao gasped for breath and couldn't even finish his sentence for a moment.
Shen Xiaoyan and Zheng Wei waited patiently without urging him.
After Lu Taobao finally caught his breath, he pointed at Luoluo and said, "As soon as I arrived, I saw it using its claws to knock peaches down. It's such a waste for them to fall on the ground and get ruined. I'm going to teach them a good lesson today to make them remember."
As Lu Taobao spoke, he rolled up his sleeves, strode towards the peach tree where Luoluo was, and raised his leg as if to climb the tree.
"Hey... don't." Shen Xiaoyan called out to stop him.
"Sister-in-law, don't stop me. I know you like these two cats, but you can't always spoil them. You have to teach them a good lesson, otherwise, they'll have no idea what's what." Lu Taobao interrupted Shen Xiaoyan.
"I just wanted to say that you're too heavy, and this tree can't bear your weight. If you climb up, you'll break it."
Finally, Lu Taobao stopped talking, and Shen Xiaoyan quickly stated what she intended to say.
"What?" Lu Taobao was a bit confused. What was his sister-in-law trying to tell him?