NOVPUB
Chapter 830: Chapter 833 Earning Wages by Providing Food
Rather than idly waiting for the Tan Family to pay their wages, it would be better to go home, take a warm bath, and get some good sleep.
Then have a thorough discussion with the family about whether to become permanent workers for the Tan Family.
In their hearts, they all knew that becoming permanent workers for the Tan Family would be a good thing; the key issue was whether they would be esteemed enough for such employment.
In the afternoon, Er Ya brought some food for Duo’er again.
"Fourth Auntie, this is a fried eggplant pocket my mom made with the freshly harvested wheat, you should try it!"
Er Ya opened the food box to reveal the golden-fried eggplant pockets, which were the best food her mother could make.
Today, unusually, Qiao Duo’er was not preoccupied with food but spoke excitedly, "You’ve arrived just in time. Go call Da Ya and both the puppies over. I have work for you. There’ll be wages and a meal covered."
Because in front of her lay a large pile of scattered copper coins earned over time.
Aside from the braised meat shop and renting out the threshing machine, as it was the busy farming season, they had just been accumulating, piling up like little hills for days.
Just thinking about it gave her a headache.
Counting the copper coins alone was going to be an enormous task.
"Alright!" Er Ya nodded without hesitation.
Before long, two girls from the Tan Family and two puppies from the Huang Family arrived at Tan Zhenghong’s house.
"Eat the eggplant pockets first while they’re hot, that’s when they’re tastiest," Qiao Duo’er generously suggested, knowing eggplant pockets were quite an expensive food since they used oil and were filled with minced meat.
The kids were all hesitant because they knew these were prepared for their Fourth Aunt.
Seeing the kids’ inaction, Qiao Duo’er urged, "Let’s eat together. Hurry up. Once you’ve eaten, there’s work to be done!"
Hearing her say this, each child took one and even after just one bite, their little faces beamed with joy.
After polishing off a plate of eggplant pockets, Qiao Duo’er then spoke about the day’s task.
With four reliable children and Almond’s help, the copper coins could definitely be counted by the afternoon.
Qiao Duo’er split them into two groups, with three people each. One person would count first, and two others would double-check, which should nearly eliminate any errors.
Afterwards, the only occasional sounds in the room were those of copper coins clinking against one another.
Two hours later, all the copper coins were strung together with red string, and following the list calculated by Qiao Duo’er, the wages were placed into money pouches.
In the end, there were over ninety copper coins left. Qiao Duo’er added a few more and gave twenty wen to Almond and each of the children.
"Madam, you should just distribute it," Er Ya suggested.
As a maid of the Tan Family, she was already being paid a wage, so she felt no entitlement to these coins.
Qiao Duo’er pushed the copper coins into Almond’s hands: "If I’m telling you to take it, then it’s what you deserve. No bargaining allowed."
These days, apart from working in the fields, Almond had also taken on kitchen duties. She felt too embarrassed to even offer this small amount of copper coins.
However, with several children present, she needed to treat everyone fairly.
The four children didn’t know what to do with twenty copper coins each. If it had been two or three, they would have accepted, but this felt like too much.
All they did was count coins for a while.
"Do you think it’s too much?" Qiao Duo’er raised an eyebrow.
The little ones all nodded, knowing that bringing home so many coins would definitely lead to a scolding from their families.
"Today’s work wasn’t heavy, but it required finesse, and you all counted very carefully, with hardly any mistakes. This is your reward. But don’t spend it recklessly; use it where it needs to be used, understand?"
Qiao Duo’er gazed at them; for such young children to have this kind of patience was already quite remarkable.
How could she not reward them?
