By the time they reached Land Officer Yang’s house, Land Officer Yang was busy at home, not with his own housework, but with carpentry work on behalf of Yang Dayong. Fugui and others were also working hard there.
"Xiaxia, you’re here." Yang Dayong greeted her quickly and then immediately returned to working on the wooden box in his hand.
Yang Chuxia, seeing all of them so busy, thought to herself that Brother An was right about needing to hire more people.
"Grandfather, do you have a moment? I want to discuss something with you."
"Sure, you and Brother An go inside the house first. I’ll wash my hands and be right with you."
Upon hearing this, Yang Chuxia and Ye Zi’an entered the house first, and after a few moments, Land Officer Yang came in.
"Is Grandmother not at home today?"
"She’s not. She went to your Uncle Dayong’s aunt’s house." Land Officer Yang, just like Old Yang, enjoyed smoking dry tobacco. As soon as he stopped working, he picked up his dry tobacco again and took two or three puffs before asking, "What can I do for you?"
Yang Chuxia placed the pine nuts on the table. "Grandfather, take a look at these."
"These are pine cones?" Land Officer Yang pinched one and sniffed it. "How come it smells like sautéed vegetables, and even has the scent of spices?"
"Grandfather, these were indeed cooked in a pot!" Yang Chuxia laughed, peeled a few, and handed them to Land Officer Yang. "Please, try them."
"Delicious, crispy, and flavorful."
Yang Chuxia became more confident as everyone who had tried the nuts said they were good.
"Grandfather, I’m not here to discuss anything else. It’s about these pine nuts. I want to open a store to sell them. I need a lot of pine nuts, so I thought of asking the villagers to help me pick them. They can peel them and sell them to me for the same price as rice in the town. However much a catty of rice costs, I will pay that much per catty for the pine nuts."
Having said these words, Yang Chuxia was already surprising Land Officer Yang, but she immediately continued, "I’ll also need your help to find two or three hardworking people with honesty and loyalty in the village to learn carpentry work with Uncle Dayong. We have too many orders and not enough people."
Finally having listened to all her requests, Land Officer Yang muttered, "You’re really something, aren’t you? You opened one store, and now you want to open another. Everyone in our village is going to benefit from your success!" Taking another puff of his tobacco, he continued, "The villagers will definitely be happy. There isn’t much farm work to do at this time, so everyone’s pretty idle. I’ll go tell them right away."
"Alright, I’m sorry to trouble you again, Grandfather."
"What trouble? We’re all family here. Who’s counting?"
Land Officer Yang was right; Yang Dayong and Dachuan were close relatives, brothers within the five degrees of mourning.
After discussing everything with Land Officer Yang, the next day, Yang Chuxia and Zi’an went to the town. As for Land Officer Yang, he gathered the villagers by ringing a copper gong at the village entrance early in the morning.
The villagers were eager at the chance to earn extra money. Some even wanted to earn more so they headed to the mountains with their families and bamboo baskets right after Land Officer Yang’s announcement. Yang Jinshui’s family, including Yang Jinxiu and Yang Jinling, were among those who went.
Meanwhile, Yang Chuxia and Ye Zi’an first visited their own store, informing Uncle Niu to accept fewer orders recently, and if they had to take any, only accept small ones. Larger orders would have to wait until after May.
After that, they prepared to go to the pawnshop, but unexpectedly, they ran into Constable Hong as soon as they stepped out of the store’s door.
"Uncle Hong, are you here to see me?" Yang Chuxia asked.
Constable Hong laughed and said, "Indeed, I came to find you. I originally planned to have one of your shop assistants send you a message, but I didn’t expect to run into you ."