“I really can’t.”
Master Song put the tea box on the table and, seeing that the village headman was about to get anxious again, he busily said, “Listen to me first, Master Gu’s restaurant has introduced a new kind of hot pot for eating, and the main thing in it is the base ingredient. This is a secret recipe that the restaurant’s chef has spent many days working out. Master Gu wanted to expand the business of the base, and originally wanted to recruit people in the Gu family village, but I begged with all my might. If you don’t think it’s a good idea, I’ll go and tell Master Gu that he should recruit in Gu’s village.”
These words were said by Gu Yi, who had just come to their house and asked him to meet the village chief.
With the Gu family as a lure, I’m sure the village people would be less discontented with the Song family.
“The Gu family’s business, huh?”
“Of course, originally the Gu family was going to let people sign for ten years, it was me who thought it was too long and only then persuaded the Gu family to change it to five years. It’s actually nothing, think about it, if the secret recipe is not leaked out, this sale deed is the same whether it is signed or not.”
The village chief frowned, “How much do you pay for a day’s work?”
“Twenty wens.”
The village headman held out his hand.
Elder Song was unsure.
The village headman glared at him, “A cigarette holder.”
“Oh, good.”
Elder Song hurriedly went back and took out the tobacco pouch, put in the tobacco leaves, gave it to the village chief, and personally lit it for him.
The village chief took one puff after another, and within a short while, the hall was filled with smoke.
When the bag of cigarettes was finished, the village headman knocked his pipe on his shoe and banged the bag on the table, “How many people do you want, men and women?”
“Ten women with good hands and feet, for now.”
“Where to work?”
“That’s what I was going to tell you. We need to build a workshop, three rooms in size. Anyone from the village who wants to come and work will be paid 20 yuan a day.”
The village chief got up, “Tell your old man to keep his mouth shut and not to shout about it, I’ll write you back tonight.”
……
Song Sanxiao’s legs were numb from standing, just about to squat, when he saw the village headman coming, he hurriedly shouted, “Uncle ……”
“Roll out.”
Song Sanxiao took a step out of the circle, not daring to come up to the village chief again, hiding to the side of the road. The village headman ignored it and walked straight past him.
When he was three steps away, Song Sanxiao slowly took one small step back, and after exiting more than ten steps, he turned his head and ran towards home.
The village chief returned home and sat down on a stool inside the house.
The village chief’s daughter-in-law was working on the soles of her shoes, and when she saw how he was doing, she stopped her work, “I think the Song family has gone too far this time, they are all members of the same village, and they still let them sign the deed of sale.
“It’s not the Song family, it’s the Gu family that wants to recruit people.”
“Huh?”
The village chief told her what Elder Song had said.
“So that’s how it is, I told you the Song family are honest, how could they want someone to sign a sell-out contract? What are you going to do then?”
“Help me think of a woman in the village who can do it, and call all their family members here.”
……
Half an hour later, the courtyard of the village chief’s house was filled with a black mass of people standing around, whispering to each other and asking what the village chief had called them to do.
The village headman came out of the house and cleared his throat, “The Song family will be recruiting people for work in a few days and needs ten handy women ……”
When he said this, the people in the courtyard boiled up at once. The women, in particular, were at home to serve their in-laws, teach their children, and serve the family’s food, drink, and food, and they also had to work in the fields during the farming season, and they were busy from morning to night, without a moment of leisure.
If they were in a good family, they would say good things about them; if they were not, they would say they were idle workers.
If they could work for the Song family to earn money, they would be able to stand up for themselves at home.
“I’ll go!”
“I’ll go too!”
“I’m going too!”
There was a scramble to sign up in the courtyard.
The village chief coughed loudly twice.
The boisterous courtyard fell silent and the people looked at him expectantly.
“Of course you can go, but on one condition, that you sign a five-year contract of sale.”
“What?”
At his words, the courtyard once again boiled over. Not to mention the fact that in these good years, everyone had enough to eat, and this year there was no need to pay taxes, so every household had food in stock.
“The Song family has gone too far!”
“That’s right, we’re not going, we can’t starve to death anyway.”
“Yes, don’t go, let his Song family do it themselves.”
……
“Shut up all of you!”
The village chief yelled, and the noisy people quieted down once again.
“I’m going to say this once, you can go if you like, but if you don’t, forget it. But from now on, no one will come to me again and beg me to go to the Song family to put in a good word in front of Master Gu.”
There was not a sound in the large courtyard.
“This time it was Master Gu who wanted to recruit workers, originally he wanted to recruit people in Gu’s village, it was Song Gui who gave up his old face to beg for this opportunity to make something with a secret recipe. It was Song Gui who begged for the opportunity to work on the secret recipe. Master Gu was afraid that the workers would leak out and wanted them to sign a 10-year contract, but it was only through Song Gui’s persuasion that the contract was reduced to five years. It’s not the kind of sell-out contract you think it is, it’s just to prevent anyone from leaking the secret recipe, and on weekdays you do your work when you should, and go home when you should, no different from normal.”
“That’s not …… either.”
The village chief looked over and the man who spoke shrank and backed up behind his own family.
“This is voluntary, and you all go home to discuss, whether it works or not before the evening to give me a message, remember, the opportunity is only this once, after this village there is no longer this shop, Master Gu gave the labor money is not low, twenty Wen a day.”
……
There was a vacant lot to the west of the Song family’s house, originally reserved for Song Sanxiao to build a house when he married his daughter-in-law, but now it was just right for that purpose.
After Song Lin and Song Shu measured it out, they estimated how many bricks and timber they would need and drove an ox cart to buy them.
Song Sanxiao was lying on his bed, wiggling his legs, thinking about how he was going to tell Qi Ying that he was going to become a “rich” young master when he went to deliver the spicy hotpot again tomorrow and met her.
Song Ming’s daughter-in-law was struggling to carry a bundle of firewood into the village and was about to turn in the direction of the Song family when Song Ming ran up to her in anger and pulled the firewood off her, “You fool, you still have the heart to cut firewood, there is a recruitment drive over there, twenty coins a day, go and beg them to let you do it.”
Song Ming’s daughter-in-law stumbled backwards as he yanked her body sideways and fell onto the bundle of firewood.
“Why are you still dawdling?”
Song Ming pulled her up in anger and pushed her hard, “Hurry up and go, if they don’t accept you over there, see how I’ll fix you up!”
