A Blessed Daughter - Chapter 349

A Blessed Daughter
Chapter 349 – Encountering Wei Jinyi by chance (1)

Translator : Virichime
Editor : Chu
This translation made by Virichime.
Please read my translation only at Moonlight Teatime. 
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“You’ve made your selection? Then I’ll call them over for you to take a look, Young Master.”

“Alright.”

Steward Yu brought the ten people he had chosen over to stand before Wei Ruo.

Steward Yu introduced them, “These four over here are long-term laborers who have already been working on our estate. The other six were selected from the recently admitted newcomers. One among them has experience as an apprentice in a medicine shop.”

This was something Wei Ruo had requested—if anyone had experience as a medicine shop apprentice, they were to be given priority.

Wei Ruo looked at them one by one. They were all young men, full of strength and energy, willing to endure hardship, and of upright character. These were the selection standards Wei Ruo had instructed Steward Yu to follow. The last quality couldn’t be judged for now, but the first three seemed to be met by all.

Wei Ruo said a few words to them, “Since you’ve been selected to work here, your wages will increase by ten wen per month, plus one dou of rice.”

“Thank you, Master!”

The group quickly expressed their thanks.

In these years of poor harvest, many families couldn’t even get enough to eat. In many places, wages were being cut, so an extra ten wen and one dou of rice per month was an enormous blessing for poor families.

“But at the same time, I will hold you to higher standards than the others. I believe Steward Yu has already spoken to you. Working in the workshop requires you to follow the rules, know proper behavior, and maintain confidentiality. Everything in the workshop must be kept secret and not discussed outside—not even with your families.”

“If you are found to have broken the rules, you will be dismissed immediately and not rehired.”

Wei Ruo said the last sentence very sternly.

The group all nodded repeatedly and assured that they would never betray their employer.

In times like this, it was hard to find a place to fill one’s stomach. Especially for those few who had just been accepted from among the displaced—formerly living in hunger and cold, with no fixed home and a bleak future—now they not only had food to eat, but also a place to live and wages to earn. Unless they had been kicked in the head by a donkey*, they would surely treasure such an opportunity.

*Only someone who is extremely foolish or has lost their senses would act otherwise.

After that, Wei Ruo assigned work to the ten of them.

There were five rooms. The first room was mainly for grinding work—grinding the transported materials into powder. These powders were the ingredients used to make five-spice powder. In addition to five-spice ingredients, Wei Ruo also had them grind some medicinal herbs.

-five spice powders

-medicinal herbs

This was both because Wei Ruo needed these medicinal herbs and also to confuse outsiders.

Wei Ruo assigned three people to this room, only doing grinding work. The subsequent mixing work was still to be done personally by Xu Zhushan, because the formula and proportions were still held only by trusted individuals.

The second room was mainly for handling oysters—removing the shells and cleaning the fresh oysters that had been bought. Wei Ruo assigned two people to this room.

-oysters

The third room was for boiling—used to boil the processed oysters into oyster sauce. The stove and large boiler that had been prepared in advance were for this purpose. Wei Ruo also assigned two people to this room.

The fourth and fifth rooms were reserved by Wei Ruo for making soy sauce. In front of the fifth room, a large open space had been left—that was for sun-drying the soy sauce.

However, the soy sauce production cycle was relatively long. Therefore, when negotiating with Fan Chengxu, Wei Ruo did not promise to provide soy sauce—only five-spice powder and oyster sauce.

Wei Ruo temporarily assigned three people to these two rooms. Once everything was running stably, she would then consider adding more staff.

Wei Ruo preferred to proceed step by step, not wanting to move too fast and bring unnecessary risks upon herself.

She explained each person’s job to them. Just as she finished, the first batch of raw materials arrived. 

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