Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 420: Making Money in a Good Way, Food Is Rising

Shen Yu had no choice but to pull her to the car, showed her the few strings of money and the account book left over from purchasing ingredients, and then called Liushun and Qixi to talk to them.

Li finally believed it and said with a smile, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? I'll keep these chicken bones for you in the future."

"If we can really catch more fish, your meals will be better, and you can eat more too. You've lost weight these days."

After saying this, he felt relieved and let Shen Yu and Qi Xi leave.

Shen Yu and the other two returned to the construction site and began to prepare lunch.

Today's lunch is still cabbage stewed with tofu, but it is no longer filled with only lard. Instead, everyone can get a thick piece of tender pork belly.

When Shen Yu was cooking, he deliberately cut the meat into thick slices of even size, so that when serving the dish to each person, each person would have a larger piece.

This also avoids unnecessary conflicts due to some people having more meat in their bowls and others having less meat in their bowls.

At noon when lunch was served, Shen Yu told everyone the money he had earned from selling the three fish that day. After hearing this, everyone cheered.

Yu Sanlang had just finished his meal when everyone urged him to make more bait and throw the trap into the river again. They also discussed gathering some reeds and making two more traps.

On the second day, Shen Yu indeed saw two newly-made traps in front of the guardhouse.

In this way, Shen Yu was busy every day.

Not only does he have to lead Liushun and 7Up to cook three meals a day on the construction site.

They also had to deliver the newly caught fish to the restaurant, carry firewood to the food store, buy the daily food, and record the money earned and expenses.

With so many things to do, there was not much free time every day, and I could hardly pay attention to the construction of the inn in the backyard alley.

I could tell the status of the inn from what Li and her friends said during dinner every evening.

It was dark at night and difficult to go over and see, so Shen Yu, the owner, had no idea what the newly built inn looked like.

It is now the end of November and the canal repair work has entered the final stage.

It is estimated that the project will be completed in two or three days, which is ten days ahead of the original schedule.

These days, although the four traps set by the laborers by the river did not catch fish every day, they would catch fish every now and then.

Although they are not big in size, the profit earned is much more than the daily sale of firewood.

The north wind has been blowing hard these past two days and the weather has suddenly become much colder. As thin ice began to form on the riverside, no fish have been caught for two consecutive days.

Yu Sanlang said that when the water surface is completely frozen, the river fish will hide in the deep water in the middle of the river and will not come out, and it will be difficult to catch fish in the shallow riverside.

But even so, everyone is very satisfied.

Since the start of fishing, the food prices on the construction site have also risen along with the increased profits.

Eggs and tofu are available every day. Although there is not meat for every meal, there is basically a meat dish every one or two days.

Each person's bowl is served with a thick piece of well-seasoned stewed pork belly, which tastes soft, glutinous and smooth, and is very filling.

Even for the afternoon snack, Shen Yu would give each person an extra pancake for them to take home.

Everyone said that they had never been so willing to serve in the army, and they all hoped that the service period would be longer so that they could continue like this.

But finally the day of finishing work arrived.

Because tomorrow is the last day of the canal maintenance work, Shen Yu took some time out after distributing the meals in the afternoon to sort out the accounts of the past few days.

After deducting the food expenses for tomorrow, although the food expenses have increased a lot in recent days, there are still six taels of silver left in the account.

Just after he finished settling the accounts, Lu Lang, who came to inspect, walked in. Shen Yu happily showed the accounts to Lu Lang and asked him if he could divide the six taels of silver among everyone.

Lu Lang was also surprised when he saw it.

The canal is on the outskirts of the city, and you have to walk a distance after leaving the city gate. It is quite far from the restaurant.

Shen Yu and Qi Xi had to take a car every day to catch the train, but since there were few cars soliciting passengers on the streets in winter, it was very inconvenient for Shen Yu and Qi Xi to travel.

After Lu Lang found out, although he did not come to the construction site for inspection every day, he would ask Liu Shun to drive to pick up Shen Yu and Qi Xi every morning.

If they were too busy to come in the afternoon, he also instructed the car team to take time to send Shen Yu and Qi Xi to the city gate, so that they would not arrive too late and be unable to hire a car to return to the restaurant.

Do the servants catch any fish every day and how is the food?

Lu Lang would ask Liu Shun from time to time.

So he knew that the food on the construction site had been good in recent days and everyone was very motivated.

But what was unexpected was that under such circumstances, Shen Yu actually earned another six taels of silver.

He nodded approvingly and said, "Miss Shen is indeed a good person who knows how to make money. Father has appointed you to be the one to prepare the meals. This is a blessing for the servants."

He paused and continued, "This money is the money you earned from selling firewood and river fish. It does not belong to the government. How you want to distribute it is up to you to decide."

Shen Yu felt relieved after hearing this. She said to Lu Lang cheerfully, "Thank you, Mr. Lu. I was worried that it would be confiscated by the government."

"After all, these are what the servants do every day when they go to work."

"But can we have more food allowance for future construction work?"

"I don't ask for it to be as good as it is now, but at least the food we give out can feed the workers."

"Not every cook who prepares meals is willing to work like me and try to find ways to supplement their meals."

Shen Yu didn't want to take the words too seriously, and finally made a half-joking joke before looking at Lu Lang with some anticipation.

Lu Lang felt a little embarrassed after hearing this, and said helplessly: "I can only say that I will try again."

"I'm worried that the food this time is too good, and next time it's bad, the servants will complain."

Lu Lang added another sentence, half seriously and half jokingly.

Shen Yu was stunned when he heard this, so he had to put away his smile and explained seriously: "I didn't think so much when I did this."

"It's so cold, and we're working by the river. How can we survive without eating well?"

"I heard from some conscripts that in previous years, during the canal repair work, there were always a few who could not stand the cold and fell ill."

"There was another one who caught a cold while serving in the army and died before the New Year."

"I...I'm just afraid of this kind of situation."

"Besides, I didn't eat all the silver and money. I just let them eat until they were full and had some resistance."

Seeing Shen Yu's serious expression, Lu Lang knew that she was afraid of being blamed by the government for doing this, so he hurriedly said, "Don't worry, Miss Shen, you didn't do anything wrong."

"In fact, if the people above deduct less, the little left over will be enough for food. Why bother the girl to work so hard and think of ways to make money to supplement it?"