The happy little days of the Ye family

The young couple was busy discussing what to name their child.

In the back room, Ye's father and Ye's mother were counting their income from selling goods in the morning.

The table was covered with copper plates, and there were a few small pieces of silver on the edge of the copper plates.

"Business is good today!"

Looking at the pile of copper plates on the table, Ye Mu quickly counted the money.

"1 article, 2 articles, 3 articles..."

Father Ye opposite him also counted the money on the table with a smile on his face.

There happened to be a few small pieces of silver in front of Father Ye, but they were only twenty or three cents each, and the total amount was only one tael of silver.

"...580 articles, 581 articles, 582 articles."

Mother Ye happily raised her head and looked at Father Ye beside her.

"I have 582 Wen here, sir, how much money do you have there?"

In addition to the copper plates, Father Ye also had a few small pieces of silver in front of him, so he had more money there.

He said in a very good mood:

“我这边一共是1两689文，加上你手里的582文，总共是2两271文。”

"so much?"

Mother Ye was a little surprised. In previous years, business was not very good after the New Year. She thought she didn't have much money.

I was curious when I met Ye's mother, and Ye's father told her about the conditions in the villages where I went to sell goods today.

"The business in Fangjiacun is indeed not very good. We only sold some wooden basins, barrels and other cheap gadgets, but we didn't make much money."

"However, the two villages, Youxia Village and Fujia Village, are relatively wealthy, and there are still a lot of people buying things, and most of them are high-priced things."

When Ye Mu heard about Fujia Village and Youxia Village, she thought it was normal.

"These two villages have a lot of fertile land, and they can fish to support their families. They are rich. Naturally, you won't be lenient when it comes to spending money. You can go to these rich villages more in the future."

Father Ye nodded in agreement, but then said:

"The main reason is that recently there have been a lot of people wanting to see and hire me, so I have sold a lot of rouge, gouache and fabrics."

"And I collect embroidery in the village. Those women have money when they buy the embroidery, and they buy things very generously."

Looking at the pile of copper plates on the table, Mother Ye was very happy and asked again with a smile:

"Then what's the approximate cost of the things you sold today?"

Father Ye was even happier when he found this, and his mouth was almost exhausted to the heel.

"I have just taken stock of the things sold, and the cost is about 1 tael, 780 yuan."

Then Father Ye took out his usual small abacus and fiddled with it with a smile on his face.

"491 words."

Putting the abacus away, Father Ye grinned and said:

"Today's income is pretty good. After deducting the capital, there is a total profit of 491 Wen."

"And in addition to selling goods, I also stopped by the village below and collected a lot of embroidery."

After receiving the embroidery, Father Ye quickly took out a small bundle. After opening it, it was filled with embroidery items collected in the morning.

Ye's father didn't know as much about embroidery as Ye's mother, so he took out the embroidery piece by piece for her to look at.

“这2幅小绣图和3张绣帕，是在方家村的方娘子那里收回来的。小绣图2两8钱一幅，手帕是18文一张。”

Ye Mu picked up the embroidery pattern made by Mrs. Fang and looked at it carefully. The embroidery skills were pretty good, the colors were good, but the materials used were average.

Looking at the small embroidered picture in her hand, Ye Mu's face was filled with regret.

"What a pity. If it had been made with good silk and needlework, the price of this embroidery would have increased by at least half."

Father Ye also had a face full of pity, "I also proposed to Madam Fang years ago, and finally we used better silk and needlework to embroider the pictures."

"But Mrs. Fang said that she usually has to do housework at home, and her hands are not well maintained. They are calloused. Now she can't touch the delicate silk at all."

Mrs. Fang herself knew that if she changed to fine silk and embroidery thread, she would still do the same embroidery, but she would earn a lot more money.

But my hands were rough, so there was really nothing I could do.

Father Ye was somewhat complaining about the Fang family. She was obviously someone who made money doing embroidery, so how could she be allowed to do housework?

But this is a family matter, so just complain in your heart, and it's not easy for him to interfere.

Then Father Ye dug out the embroidery collected in the downstream village.

"I collected 23 handkerchiefs and 12 purses in the downstream village. Most of them are ordinary craftsmanship, but one little girl's embroidery is quite inspiring."

As he spoke, Father Ye quickly found the embroidered handkerchief made by the little girl and showed it to Mother Ye for a closer look.

In fact, she didn't even need Ye's father to search for it. She could tell at a glance which ones were the embroidery made by the little girl whom Ye's father mentioned.

The little girl must be young, and her embroidery skills look a bit immature.

However, the embroidery pattern should be your own idea, which is relatively new and beautiful.

Moreover, the color matching is very good, there is a lot of ingenuity in the embroidery, and the talent is good. She is a good candidate for an embroidery girl.

Mother Ye looked at the exquisite handkerchief in her hand with satisfaction and nodded frequently.

"This little girl is really smart. Although her embroidery skills are still a bit immature, the things she makes are very beautiful."

Then he specifically warned: "Next time you go back to the downstream village, you can come and collect more of this little girl's embroidery."

Father Ye raised his head and said proudly:

"I have inquired about it a long time ago. This little girl's surname is Liang, and her mother was originally an embroiderer in the town. But unfortunately, her eyesight was damaged at a young age, and now she can no longer do embroidery."

"But fortunately, this little girl is still talented, and she can be considered a successor. I made an agreement with the little girl from the Liang family, and asked her to send embroidery to my house next time."

When collecting the embroidery in the morning, Ye's father specially gave her the embroidery at a higher price, hoping to build a good relationship so that we could continue to cooperate in the future.

As for the six small embroidery pictures and one large embroidery picture collected in Fujia Village, Ye Mu simply looked at them and ignored them.

After all, she had collected embroidery from Fujia Village once before, so she had some understanding of these people's embroidery.

Today, Father Ye received a total of 1 large picture, 8 small pictures, 26 handkerchiefs and 12 purses.

大图是25两银子收的，小图是2两3钱到2两8钱之间，手帕和荷包则是13文到18文之间。

These embroideries cost Ye's father a total of 45 taels and 588 yuan.

This was not a small amount of money. Then Father Ye picked up the small abacus again and made a lot of calculations.

After calculating for a long time, the pregnant woman raised her head with a smile on her face and said excitedly to Mother Ye:

"If we sell all these embroideries, we can probably earn about 28 taels of silver."

"So much? The money for embroidery is really good."

But Ye Mu has another worry, "The town is not big. Can we sell so many embroidery products?"

"It's okay. The price I charge for embroidery is based on the county's price. Even if you can't sell it, you won't lose money if you get it to the county's embroidery workshop."

Moreover, the embroidery at the stall sold well a year ago, and Father Ye was full of confidence.

After taking stock of today's income, Father Ye took out half of the profit and handed it over to Mrs. Ye's hands.

Father Ye did not go out again in the afternoon, but stayed at home and sorted out the things accumulated in the cellar during this period.