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Chapter 472: Chapter 462: Dividing the Money
After dinner, the children went off to play again, while all the adults sat around the dining table without moving. The main event of today was about to begin—the distribution of money.
It was Shen Yunfang who proposed this. She said that one should strike while the iron is hot, and now that business had just concluded, dividing the money would allow everyone to have a good New Year. Of course, everyone sitting agreed.
This major undertaking was still presided over by Shen Yunfang, after all, she was familiar with both parties and it was easier for her to speak on matters.
"I’ll report the accounts to everyone. In this past half month, we earned a total of 10,188 yuan and 20 cents. Among those, we wholesale eight times in total, Mao Xiaoqiang wholesaled six times for a total of 5,500 yuan, Zhao Xiangjun wholesaled three times for a total of 1,500 yuan. Adding it up, just from wholesaling we had an income of 7,000 yuan. We retailed for twenty-one days, the first day earning 4 yuan and 60 cents, the second day... Although today wasn’t the highest, we still sold for 236 yuan and 80 cents, together our own retail earned us 3,188 yuan and 20 cents."
Though they knew they had made money and counted it every day, when all these figures were put together, everyone still gasped, thinking to themselves that they really had made so much.
"We, we earned that much?" After hearing this, Li Xianglian felt it was unbelievable. Just like that, they had become ten-thousand-yuan households. Why did she feel a bit lightheaded?
"That’s right, the money’s all here, how could it be fake!" Shen Yunfang patted the several military rucksacks beside her. Usually, everyone put the earned money into military rucksacks. Once one bag was full, they started using another. In these past twenty-something days, the earned money had already filled five rucksacks.
"I just can’t believe it. I’ve never even seen three hundred yuan before, and now all of a sudden I can see so much money. My heart can’t take it," Li Xianglian said, clutching her chest as if fearing her heart would jump out from the excitement.
"No guts," Liu Jianjun teased his wife, though in truth, he too had never seen more than three hundred yuan.
"We earned that much from wholesaling, even more than what we made from selling ourselves," Mu Huazhen also said, somewhat in disbelief.
"That’s right. Wholesale is about volume. Although we earn less per piece, when the volume goes up, it’s still more profitable than retail," Shen Yunfang said assuredly.
"That’s the total income. We need to subtract the capital to find out the actual profit we’ve made," Ma Liguo said, seemingly unfazed, at least on the outside. In reality, his heart was also beating joyously.
"Right, I’ve roughly calculated our costs—commission fees, paying people for writing, plate making, printing, and so on—the total won’t exceed 1,200 yuan. I didn’t calculate precisely, let’s just say 1,188 yuan and 20 cents. That way, our profit is exactly 9,000 yuan. It rounds out nicely, making it easier to divide the money. What do you all think?" Shen Yunfang still asked everyone for their opinion.
"That’s fine. It’s not much of a difference, we’re all family here, nobody should nitpick over a few yuans. You say so too, right, big sister?" Mu Huazhen then turned to ask Li Xianglian.
Li Xianglian was completely dumbstruck by now, hurriedly nodding in confusion when suddenly asked. Her and her husband had an advantage in this situation. Had it not been for her sister-in-law wanting to help them out, no matter how much money was made this time, it wouldn’t have involved them at all. Now they were getting money for nothing; how could they possibly quibble over such amounts?
Seeing that there were no objections, Shen Yunfang continued, "Since everyone agrees, let’s calculate it like this. Our net profit is 9,000 yuan."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"The three families should have split it evenly, each family taking 3,000 yuan..." Shen Yunfang had not finished speaking when Li Xianglian quickly voiced her opposition.
"Yunfang, we can’t split it evenly. My husband and I didn’t contribute a single penny of capital. You were the ones running around busy with work, we couldn’t offer any help, how could we split it evenly with you? That’s absolutely not acceptable," Li Xianglian insisted, waving her hands in firm refusal at the thought that her family was about to get 3,000 yuan just like that.
She had thought that it would be amazing if she and her husband could get a hundred or so in the end, so at first, although she felt it wasn’t right, she still shamelessly agreed, but now to suddenly divide up three thousand yuan, she couldn’t agree even if her face was as thick as it could get. If she really took that money, what would that make her?
She and Liu Jianjun had always thought that they really hadn’t contributed much effort.
Following her words, Mu Huazhen also quickly added, "That’s right, Yunfang, my husband Liguo and I also didn’t contribute much, and all these days, you guys went out to endure the cold and get tired, our couple didn’t give anything, we can’t take this much." Although she liked money a lot, she had her principles; she couldn’t take what she shouldn’t, not even a cent.
Shen Yunfang laughed, not expecting that the money would be difficult to distribute, not because everyone was fighting to have it, but because no one wanted it; this was a dilemma.
"Sister-in-law, elder sister, the division of profits from our cooperation can’t be calculated in the way you guys are suggesting. In this collaboration, we all had our roles and made our efforts, it was just that the nature of the contributions was different," Shen Yunfang didn’t know if they would understand what she said.
"What’s this bit of effort worth? We work harder every single day back in our hometown, just over twenty days, at most we’re talking about over twenty cubic decimeters, right? At the end of the year, if we really count it, one cubic decimeter is worth at most one yuan each, then over these twenty days, fifty yuan would be enough for both of us," Liu Jianjun also spoke up.
"And us too, it’s just a matter of speaking up, if anything, it was just Liguo running errands for a few days, there’s no need to take so much. To be honest, I even feel a bit guilty for taking so much money," Mu Huazhen shook her head.
Shen Yunfang was speechless, "If that’s the case, I didn’t do much either, just arranged for some couplets to be written, and then went out to sell them for a few days. By that logic, I wouldn’t get much of the money either. So what to do with the rest of the money? Just throw it away?" After speaking, Shen Yunfang looked towards Ma Liguo, hoping he would step in and not just be a spectator.
"Heh, I think you guys should stop fighting over this, just listen to me. It wouldn’t be right for the three of us to split the money evenly. This was Yunfang’s idea, and she did most of the behind-the-scenes work. Arguably, she put in the most effort and should get the most. Then there’s me going out and running errands, and elder sister, your couple spent so many days purchasing the goods. I think our success this time depended on all of our families, and none could be spared," Ma Liguo said with a jovial tone.
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement after hearing this.
"So, let’s not be too modest. Yunfang did the most work, so she should get a bit more, and our two families can take a little less, and that’ll be that," Ma Liguo spoke casually.
"Yeah, that’s fine. We don’t need much, just give us two hundred," said Mu Huazhen.
They made nine thousand yuan, and she was just asking for two hundred, that was a very modest proportion indeed.
After some bargaining, a final decision on the distribution was reached. Shen Yunfang got fifty percent, Ma Liguo and his wife got thirty-five percent, and Li Xianglian and her husband got fifteen percent.
"Alright, let’s distribute it that way. A total of nine thousand yuan, I’ll take four thousand five hundred, Liguo will take three thousand one hundred and fifty, elder sister will take one thousand three hundred and fifty," Shen Yunfang said as she took out stacks of neatly counted money from a canvas bag, mostly consisting of ten and five yuan RMB bills, with quite a bit of small change as well.
The stacks, all bound with white paper straps and labeled with the amounts, looked as if they had been processed through a bank.
Shen Yunfang handed the money to Mu Huazhen, asking her to help distribute it.
In the end, a large stack of money sat in front of each family.
