The first watch, seeking pink.
****......****
Lian Manman was silently calculating in her heart: her family consisted of six mbers, two adults and four children. Together, they owned over two hundred acres of land, a breakfast shop, a pickled vegetable workshop, and a grape wine workshop. Just by this count, her family should have already stepped into the threshold of being landlords.
Scholars, peasants, artisans, and rchants.
With the Emperor himself bestowing honors and comndation with an imperial archway, even without anyone in her family holding an official post, they already possessed an extraordinary status, even surpassing that of the average scholar.
Looking at it this way, her family was not only landlords, but also the most respectable landlords.
However, from another perspective, her family only had several shop assistants, a single ox cart at ho, and though they employed temporary workers during the harvest, they did not yet have any long-term workers.
They had the status of landlords, what was lacking were the necessary accoutrents, and once fully equipped, they would truly be a complete landlord family.
"Dad, Mom, we should consider hiring so help," Lian Manman suggested.
"Haven’t we already discussed this with Jiaxing, letting them help us look around? Next spring when it’s ti to work the fields, we’ll hire people," Lian Shouxin replied with a smile. "We’ll definitely need to hire temporary workers, and if there are any good long-term workers, we’ll hire two or three of them as well."
"We also need mules and a big cart, and since we’re not in a hurry to use them, let Grandpa take his ti to find us a good deal," Lady Zhang added.
"Don’t worry, your dad has this in mind, and he’ll make sure everything is properly taken care of," Lady Li reassured.
"Mom, I think we should hire soone now," Lian Manman pondered and then spoke up.
"Hire soone now? For what?" Lady Zhang asked.
"Soone to do odd jobs around the courtyard," Lian Manman said.
Lian Manman had no plans to hire anyone for the back courtyard for the ti being. It being the inner quarters, she didn’t feel completely at ease using soone who wasn’t bought outright. But there were many things to be done in the front courtyard, she considered, and hiring soone should reduce the burden on her own family mbers.
As the weather gradually got colder, many rooms required heating. For instance, the two indoor flushing toilets, Mr. Loo’s bedroom, Wu Lang and Xiao Qi’s study room, the front hall – they all needed to be ward every day and required manpower.
"... It’s just hiring soone for fire-tending, especially early in the morning and in the evening, to ensure that when we wake up, the house is warm, and that it stays warm through the night. Even the toilets, they need to be warm throughout the day, not to ntion heating water for bathing," Lian Manman shared her thoughts.
"It’s not just these chores; there’s also cleaning the front courtyard. And we must feed the chickens and ducks... Oh right, our pigs are still at the old house, where Aunt He is feeding them. Next year, once we sell those pigs, we’ll buy a few more and raise them here. If we hire soone, they can also take care of feeding the pigs."
The person hired would work in the front courtyard. They wouldn’t need to stay all day, just co on ti, complete the work that should be done, and that’s fine.
"Then let’s hire a woman from the village," Lady Zhang suggested after so thought.
The next day, Lady Zhang let it be known that they were looking to hire help, and imdiately, there were people coming to apply for the job.
"My great-niece," a tall and thin woman entered, smiling at Lian Manman with her big yellow teeth in a warm greeting.
Lian Manman was surprised, she did not recognize the woman, and was even more puzzled by the appellation of ’great-niece’.
Still, Lian Manman courteously invited the woman to sit on the kang (a heated brick bed).
"Great-niece, you don’t recognize , right? I held you when you were just born," the woman said smilingly. "Do you rember? I am Brother Erlang’s aunt."
It turned out to be He Laoliu’s wife. Having held her when she was born, even if she were the original Lian Manman, it’s unlikely she would have rembered.
"Aunt He, what brings you here today?" Lian Manman managed to respond with a smile, "A few days ago, when Brother Jizu ca back, he ntioned that Liulang’s uncle in Taicang has gotten himself into so business, living quite well. I thought you might have gone to Taicang with him already."
"Oh, don’t even ntion that ruthless man," upon hearing Lian Manman bring up He Laoliu, his wife imdiately slapped her thigh, her face showing a mix of resentnt and bitterness. "... He’s unreliable, never stays at ho, claims he’s making money but my children and I have never seen a penny of it. He got himself into trouble with the law, fled, and left us won to face the grievances at ho. When he returned, without hardly speaking to us, he drove us out of the house, sold those three worn-down rooms, and made us live in a shack. He pocketed the money and left on his own."
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