After Xu Laosan’s daughter-in-law had left, Song Wangyue went to the old gentleman’s house and had just sat down when the boy watching the door came to report, “Miss Sun, a man called Zhang San has come to see you.”
“Let him in!”
Zhang San was led in and when he saw the old gentleman, he was so nervous that he didn’t know where to put his hands and feet, “Old, old gentleman …… Song, Miss Song.”
Song Wangyue nodded and gestured for him to sit down, “Have you finished the drawings?
Zhang San did not dare to sit down, placing the paper he was holding on the table and carefully unfolding it. After he left the magistrate’s office yesterday, he didn’t even return home, following the master to some people who frequented the restaurant to ask around. While the master listened, the division helped him draw drawings, not even leaving out the inconspicuous areas. When he returned home, he didn’t sleep a wink, calling a few of the people he usually worked with to estimate how much silver would be needed.
“We’ve done the math, if we use the same bricks and wood, we’ll need about 20,000 taels of silver.”
Song Wangyue looked over it carefully and said, “Not only the restaurant, but even the backyard needs to be exactly the same.”
The backyard had to be the same too?
Zhang San scratched his head in embarrassment, there were many people who had been to the restaurant, but almost no one had been to the backyard of the restaurant.
“I can draw it down for you.”
After saying that, Song Wangyue got up and walked over to the desk, picked up a pen and dipped it into the ink, and quickly drew a diagram of the backyard out.
Zhang San received it in his hand, looked at it, and after accounting for the bricks, tiles and wood for the restaurant, another two thousand taels should be able to be added.
Song Wan Yue nodded, “Do you know where to sell this brickwork and wood?”
“Yes.”
Song Wan Yue asked Xu Liang to call for Song Lin to come over and ask him to follow Zhang San to see, “The ruins over here are good to clear, so you can have them sent over today when you see them.”
Song Lin followed Zhang San to the place to have a good look, paid the deposit and had them send it over in the afternoon.
Zhang San also quickly found a number of people to clear the ruins.
The people passing by saw that the ruins, which had been deserted for many days, were being cleaned up, so they gathered around to see them and heard that an identical restaurant was to be built again, and there was much talk about it.
……
Five days later.
The cover workshop disperses and it gets dark.
On the hill, Song and the others look up the road to the top while they struggle to clear the last of the roots of the trees.
For five days they worked almost non-stop, day and night, before clearing the top of the mountain within the days set by Song Wangyue.
Song San was so tired that he didn’t even have the strength to speak. When the last roots were thrown out and tossed aside, he threw the shovel in his hand and lay down on the ground.
The others were also lying or sitting down, panting with exhaustion, but none of them dared to complain.
The sound of footsteps came.
The twelve men immediately rose to their feet and looked in unison at the place where they had come up.
Song Wangyue came up, followed by Song Shen and several villagers with baskets in both hands.
Seeing that the hilltop had been cleared, Song Wangyue nodded in satisfaction and gestured for the villagers to put the baskets down.
The basket was covered with a cloth and a fragrance wafted out.
The people had been working all afternoon and were already hungry, so they gulped at the smell.
As the villagers went down, Song Shen carried the basket in his hand to a flat place and set it down, lifting the cloth and bringing out the dishes inside, “This is what my little sister personally made for you.”
Braised pork!
The twelve people almost pounced together.
The lunches and dinners of the past few days had been sumptuous, but they were nothing compared to the roast pork.
The guards brought the rest of the basket over and brought out the meal inside.
The twelve men’s eyes went wide, they had never even seen these dishes before.
Song Wangyue walked over and sat down on the spot, greeting them as she took her chopsticks, “Come and sit down!”
Song and the others didn’t dare to move.
The six guards went over and sat down opposite Song Wangyue.
Song Wangyue looked over.
Song San gritted his teeth and was the first to lift his foot, followed by those behind him, sitting down next to the guards, far away from Song Wangyue.
Song Shen sat down next to Song Wan Yue and took two pairs of chopsticks, one pair for her and one pair to keep in his hand.
Song Wan Yue took them, looked at the crowd who hated to be eight feet away from her, slowly took a piece of braised pork and put it into her mouth, nodding, “Delicious.”
Song Shen also stretched out his chopsticks and took a piece, followed by the six guards.
Song Yi and the others looked at me, I looked at you, swallowed at the same time, quietly reached out for their chopsticks and quickly took a piece of meat and filled their mouths.
The fragrant flavour immediately filled their mouths and the meat melted in their mouths, it was simply delicious.
“Is it good?”
Song Wangyue asked.
The crowd nodded their heads in unison.
“I’ve never been stingy with my family, so if you guys behave well in the future, you can eat my cooking more often.”
“Family?”
The twelve were surprised by the word.
They were all fatherless and orphaned, having grown up wandering and never knowing what family was.
“Once you have entered the Song family and changed your family name, you are Song family members, and you will share the Song family’s glory and humiliation in the future. If the Song family is glorious, you will be glorious; if the Song family is defeated, you will not end up well either. Therefore, from now on, you must guard the gateway of the Song Family and keep all the evil spirits and snakes out!”
There was silence at the top of the mountain.
It was as if Song Wangyue’s words had caused an echo in the mountain, echoing over and over again in the minds of the people.
Especially the twelve, they had grown up in the eyes of the white man, and after becoming beggars, they were even more disliked by everyone, no one had ever looked at them with a straight face, only Song Wangyue, not only treated them as human beings, but also as family, family that shared honour and disgrace.
After a long time, Song San put down his chopsticks, got up and took a step back, knelt down towards Song Wan Yue and gave her a kowtow.
Seeing this, the remaining eleven people also got up and stepped back, kneeling down and kowtowing.
……
“Song Gui.”
The village headman Song drove his carriage slowly.
The old man Song, sitting on the wagon board, answered the voice.
He returned every evening in the village headman’s ox cart to talk to him.
The village headman raised his whip, “Has the Moon girl told you about the recruitment?”
The foundations would be laid soon, and in less than half a month, all these workshops and houses would be built, and it was time for the Song family to recruit people.
Master Song said honestly, “No.”
The village chief believed him and hesitated for a moment, “I see that Miss Yue is here today, so you should find out from her tonight, and if you recruit people, you should use people from our village first.”
As long as you enter the workshop, you will earn twenty yuan a day, six hundred yuan a month, that’s more than seven taels of silver a year, plus the things given out during the New Year and festivals, almost ten taels, one person can cover the whole family’s harvest for a year. If a family in the village were to enter one, in less than two years, their livelihood would double.
“Yes, I’ll ask tonight.”
When the ox cart entered the village and reached the corner, Master Song wanted to get off the cart, but was stopped by the village headman, who took him directly to the door of his house and instructed him, “Don’t forget to ask, and send me a letter no matter how late you ask.”