Chapter 163

Brother Cen eventually stopped going to school. At a very young age, he followed his sister Ranran to work, but not on a construction site.

Children are no longer accepted on construction sites.

However, Lu Yuan opened various manors here.

For example, to make soy sauce, because the north city is close to the sea and has abundant salt, salt merchants need permission from the court. This is different for soy sauce, which does not require it.

Soy sauce can be used instead of salt.

There are also various sauces.

These estates are quite similar to the factories Liu Ping once mentioned.

People are very receptive and they quickly accepted the concept of working.

Working does not mean selling oneself, and the household registration remains unchanged, similar to being a long-term worker for a landlord.

Although they are working and have to obey their employers' orders, they are not selling themselves. They are free and can stop working at any time.

Especially those farming estates, where you can learn how to farm and how to make pickles.

Time passed quickly, and in just a month, the vegetables had grown.

The vegetables served in the cafeteria are now all grown on the farm, and no longer have to be shipped in from other places at high prices.

Basically, Lu Yuan doesn’t have to lose too much money now.

At the same time, Lu Yuan was also buying pearls at a high price.

Lu Yuan still started to collect pearls, but Lu Yuan did not force these fishermen to collect pearls.

It's just one pearl worth ten taels of silver. Ten taels of silver, even if these people worked for Lu Yuan for a year, they would not get that much.

Money is a great motivator, and this was the case after the first group of sea dwellers received so much silver.

These people went pearl diving like crazy.

However, Lu Yuan did not want the small pearl. He gave each of these people a small stone and asked everyone to compare them to find the pearl.

Although Lu Yuan has opened many stores, not everyone can work there.

The earliest batch will definitely be able to work with Lu Yuan all the time, but there are still many people in the entire North City.

So there must be people who cannot go to work and have to find something to do on their own.

Pearl collecting is a very good thing. Even some people in the village don't want to work and want to go pearl collecting.

There is no other reason, it's mainly because pearl diving is too profitable, and the money is too easy to make.

Moreover, the things in Lu Yuan’s store are not expensive and the prices are very fair, which is much better than those unscrupulous shops of the Wang family.

There has been no pearl hunting in the North City for many years now, and the pearls in the sea have all grown in the clam shells.

After a while, everyone had finished mining and there was no more money to be made.

With ten taels of silver, you can eat as much meat as you want until you vomit, and you won’t have to worry about food for a whole year.

Lu Yuan also bought those small pearls, but the price he offered was very low, by the kilogram.

Everyone thinks that this little pearl may still grow bigger in the sea water, so it is usually put back into the clam shell and allowed to grow slowly in the sea water.

Plus, the price I sold it to Lu Yuan was not high, so it wasn’t cost-effective.

Only a month has passed now.

The entire North City became full of vitality.

Lu Yuan also successfully dug out water from the pond. After Lu Yuan dug out the water, the river in the north city also had water.

Everything is getting better.

The children all did some light work on the manor and were paid.

After all, most families nowadays don't even have enough food to eat, so how can they go to school? It's better to work in Lu Yuan's manor, planting and washing vegetables, which is simple and not so tiring.

The key is to eat well.

Cen'er's family was not short of money. His father was a powerful warrior and also owned a shop in the government office. He had enough money to go to school.

But he didn't like going to school, and those who were good at playing went to work.

Brother Cen also wants to make money.

Moreover, he heard that the food at Lu Yuan's place was delicious.

Originally, when his mother was on break, she took out her wages to buy a piece of meat and made him a bowl of delicious braised pork.

Ranran only ate a piece of meat that her mother gave her and didn't eat any more.

He could see that Ranran really didn't think it was very tasty.

Moreover, when her father put some meat on her plate, she refused to eat it. She said that she was tired of eating braised pork every day and didn't want to eat it anymore.

Brother Cen could see that Ranran really didn't want to eat anymore.

He didn't feel that he was doing a good job.

Since then, he felt that he had a particularly good time doing his job.

These people followed the county magistrate's wife to grow vegetables and some medicinal herbs, and learned how to prepare the herbs, which is also a skill. After learning, they could even work in the pharmacy.

Moreover, the county magistrate's wife could teach him a few words and read.

Many people wanted to send their children here. Later, the county magistrate issued an order that only those who worked in the government office or in the barracks could send their children here.

The reason why Brother Cen was able to come in was because his father was the head of the police force in the yamen.

His good friends were lucky as they had done a lot of work on the construction site before, so they were able to come in as well.

But those who came later were not so lucky.

Brother Cen likes this place very much. He is strong and can carry a lot of water in a day. As long as he works hard, he can basically earn a few copper coins a day.

He didn't feel any love for his sister before, but now, he also feels a little embarrassed because all the delicious food at home was eaten by him.

He felt a little sorry for Ranran, so whenever Cen Ge'er went home, he would buy two strings of candied haws, one for him and one for Ranran. As for the remaining copper coins, they would save them as the family was not short of money.

Money is a good thing. He didn't understand what was sinning and what was atonement. He only knew that his family couldn't even get enough food, and he didn't want to donate the money to those temples.

If those golden statues really have souls.

Why was there no water in the North City until the county magistrate came and spent money to let everyone dig water, and now there is water.

Until now, Brother Cen is reluctant to waste even a drop of water.

I didn't want to take a shower for several days because I felt it was a waste of water.

He was in the habit of collecting bath water, not knowing what it was for, and ended up using it to clean the table.

Although Ranran is young, she is unwilling to give the money to her mother.

The two siblings had a tacit understanding and neither of them told their mother about the salary.

I just told my father.

My father said that the family was not short of money and that I could buy whatever I wanted to eat.

In the past, my father also secretly gave them a lot of money to buy food, but my mother was unhappy every time she found out. She felt that they spent money in dirty ways and would get punished in the future, and she would nag about it for a long time every time.

Brother Cen didn't ask about the money now, but he felt that it must be clean money, all earned by his hard work.

They live nearby and have many children with them, so they can go home after work every day.

There are also some children whose homes are far away and who don’t have many children to live with, so they can only live together in the village unless their parents come to pick them up.

Everyone has the same rest time, once every five days. Generally, the adults who have finished work will come to pick them up and take them home on their days off, and then bring them back together in the morning after they have rested.