Wei Lanxiang pursed her lips at the mention of more grandchildren, feeling her second son's words made sense.
For Shen Yaoqing, hard work wasn’t a big deal. He was young and strong, the eldest son of the family. Doing more labor was his duty.
But after hearing Shen Xuanqing’s suggestion today, he considered it. Their family had few men. Wei Lanxiang and Shen Yan were one old, one young. Ji Qiuyue and Lu Gu had to care for the children. If they hired a farmhand, the twenty-one acres would have someone to help tend them, sparing him from struggling alone. With freed-up time, he could also gather grass to feed the livestock. Between selling grain and livestock, they could definitely afford two taels a year.
After some calculation, he nodded and said, "Then who should we hire? Do you have anyone in mind?"
"Find someone without land. Uncle Chunsheng is old, and you said his son-in-law only has one mu of land, I wonder if he’d be willing." Shen Xuanqing had only thought of this a quarter-hour ago, and the first person that came to mind was Ge Chunsheng.
Those with land had to tend their own fields and mostly worked short-term jobs. Since long-term hires paid yearly wages, it was best to find someone without land, preferably a young man. It wasn’t that he looked down on Ge Chunsheng, but everyone struggled to earn money. If there were young candidates, they should be prioritized.
Thinking of Li Laiqing’s honest and simple nature, Shen Yaoqing nodded. "Alright , since we’re free now, I’ll go ask. But how should we settle the wages? Let’s decide first so I can explain it to him."
Shen Xuanqing took a sip of water and said after a moment, "The long-term laborers in Wangli Village get two thousand copper coins a year, but they eat and live with the employer. We don’t need that, we don’t have extra rooms. We can give some grain and a bit of extra money. Linhe Village isn’t far, he can walk the distance."
Unlike the long-term laborers employed by landlords and rich families who lived on-site and worked all day, families like theirs with only twenty or thirty mu weren’t considered wealthy landowners. Hired hands usually didn’t live in, and one meal a day was enough. If they didn’t want to provide food, they could give grain instead. Li Laiqing was poor, with a wife and children. Giving him rice and flour would mean his whole family could eat.
After hearing this, Shen Yaoqing pondered and said, "How about a hundred catties each of rice and flour a year, plus an extra hundred coins?"
They were hiring Li Laiqing, so they only needed to cover his personal food. If he was frugal, the extra two taels would be enough for his family to get by in the countryside, maybe even help his father-in-law, Ge Chunsheng.
"That’d be two thousand one hundred coins. Eldest Brother, we’ll split it half and half?" Shen Xuanqing asked, though he already knew the answer.
Shen Yaoqing smiled and nodded. "Of course."
The brothers hadn’t divided the family assets yet, and grain income had always been split evenly. As for the rabbit sales being split 60-40, Shen Yaoqing had always been clear-headed, the big house was built with Shen Xuanqing’s money. Without that space, they couldn’t have raised so many rabbits for profit.
Sure enough, Shen Xuanqing nodded too. "Good."
"I’ll go ask Li Laiqing now." Shen Yaoqing stood up. As he walked out, Zhao’er tossed aside his rattle-drum and called, "Dad! Dad!"
Since his son wanted to follow, he picked him up with a laugh.
Li Laiqing’s family was so poor they only had a single mu of land , barely enough to keep the four of them alive. If not for Ge Chunsheng’s family also being poor, he wouldn’t even have a wife. Taking a long-term job meant neglecting his own land, but hearing the offer of two thousand one hundred copper coins and two hundred catties of grain a year, how could he refuse?
His parents had passed away the last couple of years, and he had no siblings, just a few cousins he wasn’t close to. His wife, Ge Qiao’er, suggested she could manage their one mu, or at least ask her father for help, so he shouldn’t worry.
Li Laiqing wanted the wages - two taels of silver and grain, so he nodded in agreement.
Ge Qiao’er had her own motives. Her father, Ge Chunsheng, had no land to farm. The old man wanted to be a long-term laborer, but no one would hire him. During busy seasons, he could earn a few copper coins, but otherwise, he had to scrounge for odd jobs, gather firewood, or dig bamboo shoots to sell in town. If he helped Li Laiqing tend their land, she could slip her parents some food, and Li Laiqing couldn’t complain.
Once the other party agreed and confirmed that being a long-term laborer meant regularly managing their fields, Shen Yaoqing returned and discussed it with Shen Xuanqing. The brothers drafted a contract detailing wages and grain, then went to Linhe Village. Li Laiqing couldn’t read, so they had a literate villager review it before he pressed his fingerprint to seal the deal.
Lu Gu hadn’t expected things to move so fast, in less than two hours, their family had hired a long-term laborer.
Little Lingjun woke up, so he went to carry him.
Shen Xuanqing followed him inside and opened a chest, saying, "I left the contract with Eldest Brother. For the one thousand fifty copper coins, I’ve counted them out to give to him. At the end of each month, he’ll pay Li Laiqing. His family is struggling, so we won’t make him wait half a year or a year for payment."
"That’s good too." Lu Gu felt little Lingjun's diaper, it was wet, so he laid the child on the bed to change him. Then he asked, "So we’ll go see the house tomorrow?"
Shen Xuanqing pulled out a large coin pouch from the chest and took out a string of a thousand coins. His face immediately lit up with joy, his star-bright eyes crinkling as he turned his head, clearly delighted. "Yes, tomorrow."
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