Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside-Chapter 155 Dissatisfaction

Cattle are the most important power for farming, and the price of a good cow is between fifteen and twenty taels of silver. It was right for her to compensate for the injury of the cattle belonging to Village Chief He.

Third Grandpa and Gu Dashan were also concerned about the cattle. Seeing the two children talking, they came out from the house. Gu Jinli was told by them, "We’re going with San Lang to return the cattle, you go inside first."

Xiao Yu and San Lang were both teenagers. The matter of returning and compensating for the cattle should still be handled by adults.

Gu Jinli nodded and said, "Alright, you go return the cattle, I will go make food with mother, and wait for you to come back to eat."

Gu Dashan had money on him, so she took the one tael of silver from her hand and put it back into the cloth bag.

During the day when they went to the county town, she and Gu Dashan each carried a cloth bag with most of the family’s silver. There was still some silver left over; in the evening, they needed to count all the stored silver again and re-hide it.

"Okay, you go inside. Third Grandpa and I will be back soon." Gu Dashan took the soy oil lamp from her hand to light the way, walking in front.

Third Grandpa followed behind Gu Dashan, with San Lang leading the cow, and carrying the remaining antiseptic medicine, the three of them left the Gu Family courtyard for Village Chief He’s house.

After the three of them left, the few families that had gathered at Gu Jinli’s house also went back to their homes.

After Mrs. Cui hid the house and land deeds back in the room, she called Gu Jinxiu, and the two went to the kitchen to cook.

Gu Jinli also wanted to follow them, but the two stopped her.

Mrs. Cui said, "It’s just making a meal; your sister and I will be done quickly. You and your brother rest first, you both have been busy all day."

"Okay, then I’ll just sit and wait for the meal." Gu Jinli did not insist and collapsed onto a stool.

Brother Cheng sat next to Gu Jinli, looked up at her, and asked what was there in the county town?

Gu Jinli picked out what she had seen and told him.

Gu Jin’an was practicing calligraphy with a brush and water under the dim light on the table while listening to their conversation, a smile on his face unwittingly curving up.

Third Grandma was afraid that Gu Jinli and Gu Jin’an were hungry, so she went to the kitchen and brought back two bean dregs cakes and two bowls of soy milk for them: "Eat a bit to fill your stomachs first, we’ll eat when your father returns."

"Alright." Gu Jinli and Gu Jin’an took the bean dregs cakes and ate them with soy milk, finishing them in just a few bites.

Before long, Mrs. Cui and Gu Jinxiu finished the cooking and brought the food into the main room on a wooden tray. The family sat around the table, and after about fifteen minutes, Third Grandpa and Gu Dashan came back.

The two stood outside the door, scraping the mud off their shoes before coming in. After sitting down, they said, "We’ve returned the cattle, Village Chief He said it’s fine, accepted our one tael of silver, so this matter is considered over."

Village Chief He was considering his tofu business and initially didn’t want to accept the one tael of silver. It was Third Grandpa who said that each matter should be settled individually, and only after the accounts were made clear did he accept it.

"It’s good that he accepted it, let’s eat quickly, it’s already the first watch of the night." Third Grandma urged everyone, serving sweet potato and old rice porridge.

Nowadays, their family’s life had improved quite a bit, but they still couldn’t bear to eat white rice, as it was expensive.

"Okay, no more talking, let’s eat." Third Grandpa spoke, and the family sat down to eat.

After dinner, several families gathered at Gu Jinli’s house to settle the accounts of the day.

Gu Jin’an reported to them, "The tofu stall in town earned nine taels and one hundred cents today. The tofu we sold at home amounted to nine hundred jin, and we sold nine jin of spices, making a profit of thirteen taels and five hundred cents. The gross profit from both is twenty-two taels and six hundred cents. After subtracting the cost and the two taels reserved for future use, the net profit is eighteen taels and six hundred cents."

His family has a forty percent stake, which means they could take seven taels three hundred sixty cents. The remaining six families can each share one tael eight hundred seventy cents, almost two taels of silver, which is double what they used to earn by just selling tofu at the stalls.

Mrs. Chen clasped her hands together in joy and bowed at the doorway, "Thank you, God, for your continued blessings. When we earn large money, we will burn incense and make offerings to you on the first and the fifteenth."

After thanking God, she praised Gu Jinli, "Xiao Yu’s method is truly effective. If we did not sell tofu wholesale to Liang Zhuzi and others for them to carry and sell, we could not have earned so much silver in a single day."

Now, just selling tofu and spices wholesale to Liang Zhuzi and He Dacang, they earned more than setting up stalls in the town.

Gu Jinli said, "This is the power of having more hands. Our manpower is limited, and if we only rely on selling tofu ourselves, no matter how hard we try, we couldn’t make this much money. Only by distributing tofu and letting others help us sell can we make more money."

The adults from several families nodded in agreement, "We were ignorant before, but after going through the accounts day by day, we’ve come to understand."

They were initially concerned when Xiao Yu suggested wholesaling the tofu to Liang Zhuzi and the others, worrying that it would take away their businesses. Now it appears that Liang Zhuzi and He Dacang are simply working for them, and these families were the ones who truly benefited.

Gu Jinli continued, "Today is the 24th, and in five more days, it will be the end of the month. We should do a complete accounting for this month. Daily accounting, monthly tally, and by the end of the year a yearly calculation. We must keep our accounts clear and precise."

Mrs. Chen commented, "That sounds exceedingly troublesome, wouldn’t daily accounts suffice?"

Elder Qin shook his head, "When I was in Longshan Prefecture, I did bookkeeping for someone. The shops in the city would do accounting daily, monthly, and annually. We started doing tofu business since the Lantern Festival, and it’s been over a month now. We only do daily accounts and haven’t done a monthly tally. Technically, we should have settled the monthly accounts on the fifteenth of February."

"I thought about bringing it up at the time, but considering it was mid-February, it wasn’t suitable for accounting. So, I planned to discuss it with you at the end of the month. Now that Xiao Yu has suggested it, we should definitely do it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t know how much money we’ve made from tofu over a month."

Third Grandpa agreed, "Elder Qin and Xiao Yu are right. We must do the monthly accounting. From now on, we have to calculate monthly accounts on the last day of every month. We must not be lazy, or the books will become a mess."

Gu Jin’an patted the account book and smiled, "Uncles, aunts, don’t worry, I’ll handle the accounting. At the end of the month, you just need to take two hours to listen to the accounts I report."

Upon hearing this, the families breathed a sigh of relief. Mrs. Chen said, "With Good Brother An’s word, we are reassured."

Although Mrs. Chen liked money, she could not deal with accounts, and those numbers gave her a headache. With Gu Jin’an’s assurance, she wholeheartedly agreed with the monthly accounts. After all, it was not her who would be doing the sums, and the families would know exactly how much money they made in a month, which was to their benefit.

Mrs. Chen was pleased, but Gu Dexing, who was sitting behind her, looked uneasy. After hesitating for a long time, he ultimately didn’t voice his thoughts.

After settling the accounts and distributing the money, everyone went back to their homes.

Gu Dexing walked home with his head down, following behind Gu Dafu and the others.

Gu Jin’an noticed Gu Dexing’s expression and shook his head. The teacher was right; Brother Dexing still wasn’t open-hearted enough. Clearly dissatisfied with him doing the accounts alone, wanting to do the accounts together, yet he wouldn’t speak up.

Some things don’t need to be suppressed; it’s better to express them.

Gu Jinli also noticed Gu Dexing’s discontent, but she didn’t care much for Gu Dexing and only reminded Gu Jin’an, "Brother, be careful with him in the future. If he can’t come to terms with it or doesn’t change his temper, don’t mingle with him."

Gu Jin’an smiled and replied, "Okay, big brother will remember that."