Chapter 349: Orderly Progress

Chapter 349: Chapter 349: Orderly Progress

Widow Xie voted against calling Hu Liang back.

"Liangzi made a huge mistake before. If it weren’t for that whole mess with him and the Cao Family, the hot and spicy soup stall wouldn’t have... Even if you’re willing to use him, he’s too ashamed to come back."

"Brother Liangzi was indeed at fault, but he knows it and has admitted his mistake. He’s suffered quite a bit these past few months at the brick kiln. Even if you consider it labor reform, his term should be up. Besides, people are always breaking their arms or legs at that kiln. Are you really not worried?"

How could Widow Xie not be worried? But she was afraid Hu Liang would just drag Ji Huan down again.

Ji Huan waved her hand. "You learn from your mistakes. Aunt Xie, haven’t you noticed? Brother Liangzi is much more mature now. Trust him. After the lesson he’s learned, he won’t make the same mistake again."

Widow Xie was torn for a moment, then finally gritted her teeth. "If he does something stupid again this time, I’ll definitely break his legs!"

Ji Huan put on a look of solidarity with her.

"You tell Brother Liangzi, other employees get three strikes, but he only gets this one last chance. If he messes up, he’ll never be hired again!"

Hu Liang had only been back at the brick kiln for a few days before he was called back again.

Ji Huan said that after they were done with the dehydrated vegetables, she had other tasks for him. Hu Liang thought Baiwei Square needed help, so he quit his job as she suggested.

Just like last year, the first step was to go to the town market and shout out an offer: they would buy any and all end-of-season vegetables, bring them all to the Hu Family’s home in Dafeng Village, and pay on the spot.

Ji Liansong and Shi Yong joined in as well. The two of them were responsible for going to the surrounding villages to spread the word about buying vegetables.

And then there was their own village.

Ever since the end-of-season harvest began, every household in the village had been making their own little calculations. After clearing out their fields, they set aside enough vegetables for their own pickling and daily use, and piled the rest up in their courtyards or stored them in their cellars.

Everyone had seen with their own eyes how life had changed for Ji Huan and the Hu Family after they did business with the army last year.

Who wouldn’t want to get a piece of the action? If they couldn’t get a slice of the meat, even a sip of the broth would be fine!

But of course, they couldn’t just give away the skills that put food on their table.

They could try to secretly learn the methods, but leaving aside whether they could even succeed, it wasn’t something that could be mastered in just a couple of days.

People could wait, but the vegetables couldn’t.

Rather than let them spoil for nothing or haul them out to be sold for cheap, it was better to sell them to the Hu Family and make some money first.

And in the course of the transaction, maybe they could even glean some information.

Who knew that after watching and waiting, there was still no movement from the Hu Family or Ji Huan.

They took the initiative to go ask Widow Xie, but she would just shake her head or wave her hand, and no one knew what she meant by it.

Just as some of their vegetables were on the verge of rotting from being stored too long, and they were at their wits’ end, they saw cart after cart of vegetables being pulled into the village.

The same thing had happened last year, so they knew what was going on without even having to ask.

Who could possibly sit still now?

One by one, they all sprinted home, loaded all the vegetables from their courtyards and cellars onto their carts, and headed for the Hu Family’s home too. ℴ

The road to the Hu Family’s home was already lined with a long queue. The line was two rows deep, jostling and crowded, and the entrance to the Hu home was completely impassable.

Someone grew impatient, left their flatbed cart, and squeezed all the way to the entrance to talk to the busy Hu Liang.

"Liangzi! Liangzi! Over here, it’s me, your Third Great-Uncle! You kid, why didn’t you say sooner you wanted to buy vegetables? I’ve been saving everything from my garden for you! You can’t just buy from outsiders and not from your own village, right?"

Hu Liang said cheerfully, "Of course we’re buying! Why wouldn’t we? As long as the vegetables are good, we’ll take them all!"

The man who called himself Third Great-Uncle was relieved, then added, "We’re from the same village. You can’t favor outsiders. How can you let people from other villages get in line ahead of us? You should buy from your fellow villagers first..."

As soon as he said this, the people waiting in line next to him were not happy.

"You’re being unreasonable! Don’t you know what ’first come, first served’ means?"

"Exactly! Since when does business depend on how close you are to someone? Have you ever even done business before?"

The man stuck his neck out. "So what if I haven’t? Hu Liang and I are from the same village. In terms of seniority, he has to call me Third Great-Uncle!"

Hu Liang quickly pulled him aside.

"Um... Third Great-Uncle, it’s really not that I’m favoring outsiders. These people came from far away and have been waiting in line for half the day. It’s finally their turn, and you just cut in out of nowhere... It’s not right. Won’t they go around saying that we people from Dafeng Village are unreasonable?"

"Business has its own rules. I can’t break the rules for one person. How would I continue to do business then? Uncle Niu, Aunt Qi, and Aunt Ba who came earlier, they understood my difficulties and are waiting patiently in line. If you don’t believe me, look."

The man followed Hu Liang’s gesture and indeed saw many people from their own village waiting in line further back.

His old face flushed, and he immediately gave up the idea of cutting in line.

Although Hu Liang’s words were gentle, his stance was firm. If the man continued to make a scene, he wouldn’t get his way, he’d just be disliked, and he might not even be able to sell his vegetables.

This wasn’t the only such incident, and Hu Liang resolved them one by one.

When he became so busy he couldn’t get away, some of the villagers who had been waiting in line earlier even took the initiative to help persuade others, saving him a lot of trouble and preventing any major conflicts.

Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion amidst the chaos.

Hu Liang coordinated everything inside and out, Ji Liansong and Shi Yong were in charge of weighing, and Ji Mingfang handled the accounting and payments.

After brewing for a few days, word spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and the vegetable-selling craze from last year reappeared.

More and more carts came to Dafeng Village to sell vegetables, and they became severely short-handed. Hu Liang called over all the young men he was friendly with and formed a proper procurement team.

Hu Dacheng’s enthusiasm for studying had already worn off. Seeing the bustling scene at home, he clamored to take a leave of absence and come back to help.

In the end, Widow Xie chased him with a broom and gave him a good switching, and he went back to school in tears.

The procurement team was incredibly busy, but Ji Huan and the others weren’t idle either.

However, she had handed over all the interviewing and training to Ji Xuelan, with Widow Xie assisting. She was only responsible for supervision.

Widow Xie had no objections to this. She knew her own capabilities; she was fine with doing odd jobs, but she wasn’t cut out to be the "little leader" Ji Huan spoke of.

At first, Ji Xuelan refused no matter what.

So Ji Huan told her that if her dear cousin couldn’t learn to stand on her own two feet soon, she wouldn’t be able to split her focus and work on the spices.

Ji Xuelan had no choice but to take on a task she was unprepared for.

Needless to say, she was flustered and clumsy at first, but fortunately, with Ji Huan guiding her from the side and the experienced veteran employee Widow Xie there, she quickly stabilized the situation.

Once the news about hiring was out, people came in an endless stream to sign up.

Of those who had worked for them last year, everyone except Aunt Wang and Second Sister-in-law Xu, who were selling hot and spicy soup in town, and Aunt Lu, who was close to Tian Jiao, was hired without an interview.

For the rest, Ji Xuelan and Widow Xie strictly followed the standards Ji Huan had given them: the greedy and lazy, the sloppy and slovenly, the troublemakers, and those with a bad reputation were all rejected.

People like Ma Liugun and Gou Sheng’s wife shouldn’t have even shown their faces if they had any self-awareness.

The truth was, not only did they shamelessly show up, but they also tried to haggle over the wages.

Unfortunately for them, Ji Xuelan was no longer the soft pushover she once was. When pleasantries failed to get through to them, she simply rejected them with a blunt "You don’t meet the standards" and showed them the door.

Ma Liugun and the others, furious and humiliated, wanted to throw a tantrum at the gate.

They had just gotten into formation when they were surrounded by the young men and strong laborers of the procurement team.

They didn’t dare make a scene after that. They tucked their tails between their legs and fled, each one faster than the last.

Once they had escaped to a safe distance, they started screaming and stamping their feet, cursing and fabricating all sorts of slander.

It was a pity, though, that no one was willing to join them in their idle gossip this time.

More than half the families in the village either had vegetables they were hoping to sell to the Hu Family or had family members who wanted to work for them. Who had the time to go and offend the God of Wealth?

Besides, what were they even fabricating? It was obviously all lies, just a case of sour grapes! Everyone could see things clearly.

At first, Ji Xuelan was still worried that being too harsh with her rejections would earn her resentment and lead to them slinging mud at her.

After observing for the next two days, her anxious heart was finally put at ease.

She agreed more and more with what Ji Huan had said: the best way to stamp out rumors is to keep everyone busy.

And that other saying—when you give everyone a bowl of rice to hold, all you’ll see are smiling faces.

It was real, cruel, and yet, also endearing.