Speaking of how the money was made, Wang Youbao immediately became excited and said, "In Hecheng County and the towns within it, there are a total of forty rice shops. I had people urgently make forty-one grain rice mills, one of which Daming delivered to you, and the other forty were sold to those rice shops, three hundred taels each."
Three hundred taels each...
An Jing looked skyward: "So expensive, would those rice shops actually buy them?"
Wang Youbao honestly replied, "At first, they weren’t willing, but I told them a grain rice mill could last ten or twenty years. Compared to hiring lots of workers to mill rice, it actually comes out cheaper each year. Then, the owners of those rice shops all bought one."
An Jing: "..." It’s a good thing that it was sold to the rice shops—if they were sold to farmers’ sons, absolutely no one could afford them!
Even at one tael of silver each, she was worried that not every farmer’s son would be willing to buy one, let alone three hundred taels...
Fortunately, Shi Xiaolan and the others had d the grain rice mill to the village; if they had known it could sell for so much, they definitely wouldn’t have accepted it and would have sent it back to her instead.
"The structure of the Stepping Dehusking Machine is simple," Wang Youbao continued, "Just one look and the owners of the rice shops knew how to make it, but those owners didn’t want to bother making them themselves, so they also bought the machines, half a tael each. For a shop, owning one machine isn’t really useful, so those owners each bought at least three or more. And the money made from selling the machines was just enough to cover the cost of making the grain rice mills, which allowed me to share a full six thousand taels with you."
An Jing said nothing and silently put away the silver note.
But Wang Youbao still went on: "Originally, I had plans to make some more grain rice mills to sell, even to other counties or outside the prefecture, but I never left Hecheng County since I was young and felt a bit timid, so I dropped the idea." As he said this, Wang Youbao sighed.
An Jing said, "Not going out of the county is quite good, too; everything outside is too unfamiliar, at least you know everything in the county well."
Gazing into the distance with a sense of loss, Wang Youbao said, "Actually, I really do want to go out and see. How can a real man be confined to just this one place? I had planned to join the military three years ago. Going to war and fighting enemies has always been my dream, but my father wouldn’t let me. He even made me put on weight, and now, even if I wanted to join the military, I guess the military camp wouldn’t take me."
An Jing and Xiao Changyi exchanged a look, somewhat understanding why Wang Youbao revered Xiao Changyi as an idol.
An Jing sighed: "Going to battle is very dangerous."
Wang Youbao immediately asserted with determination, "I’m not afraid!"
An Jing held back, but couldn’t help bursting his bubble: "Even if you were to join the military successfully now, there are no wars to fight."
Two years ago, the surrounding countries signed a peace treaty with Xiyun, agreeing never to invade the territory of Xiyun Kingdom again.
Wang Youbao immediately hung his head in dejection.
Plus, with Wang Youbao still being chubby, his current state really looked particularly comical.
An Jing couldn’t help but find it amusing.
Xiao Changyi hesitated for a moment, but still raised his hand and patted Wang Youbao’s shoulder, as if to comfort him.
Wang Youbao immediately looked up at Xiao Changyi with sparkling eyes: "Changyi..." My idol, I really also want to go to the battlefield like you to fight enemies for our country...
Xiao Changyi immediately turned his eyes away in disgust, refusing to meet Wang Youbao’s gaze.
An Jing struggled to suppress a laugh.
At noon, Wang Youbao stayed for lunch. Considering that he was still observing mourning and couldn’t eat meat or drink wine, An Jing didn’t prepare those but made several simple vegetarian dishes instead.