50 miles... Bai Yu was extremely thankful that she had decided to buy bicycles and solar bikes. Moreover, with the lack of cameras in this era and the unpopularity of this road, she had no worries of being discovered.
Still, to avoid any accidents, she walked for almost 10 minutes, and finding no-one, she took out the solar bike she had charged before.
"Woohoo!" Bai Yu wanted to cheer loudly as she reached near the town without having to walk for hours on end. Putting the bike back inside the space, she entered the town.
Looking at the noisy streets filled with hawkers and people from all walks of life, she finally felt alive. The inn was still too gloomy for her; she had to bring some changes immediately for a happy life.
First of all, Bai Yu decided to check the various prices in the town; and the results made her extremely happy: 25kg of rice were sold for only 50 Wen. Which meant, her 10 taels of silver were simply: ALOT OF MONEY.
She was simply bursting with happiness; she did nothing and got 10 taels of silver. It felt exactly like winning 5 Million in lottery.
She inquired from 2 to 3 shops and got similar results: the best mason in town was a man named Master Wang. Since her inn was too far away, she would have to provide accommodation and food to all the workers who would go there, which she obviously could not do alone. Not to mention anything else, with only a 15 year old beautiful girl in a deserted inn, it was not hard for atleast one of the workers to have bad thoughts; there needed to atleast be one elder present.
Thus, Bai Yu had a new mission: Find a housekeeper. And this mission did not prove to be particularly hard; since she soon found her target.
"Old woman, go away from our restaurant! Don't disturb our customers. We don't have place for an old woman with a burden of a son who will need a doctor every two days!" In front of a restaurant, a person who seemed like the manager was trying to send away a sallow-faced woman of almost 40 years.
"I can be a horse and cow for you, please let me stay.. I can do any kind of work without rest, I just need a place to stay and something to eat.. My son will die if he does not eat anything!" The woman stubbornly tried to convince the manager without crying; but to no avail.
Bai Yu mixed in the crowd and from the gossip of some melon eaters, she got to know that the woman was a widow who had been kicked out of her house by her wicked mother-in-law after her husband's death. Her son could not bear his grandmother's behaviour and tried to reason with her; but was kicked out along with his mother since his grandmother did not lack grandsons.
They were from some village quite far away from the town, and with nothing to support themselves, they somehow survived till they reached this town; but that woman's 19 year old son, who would rather give all his food to his mother, fell ill from hunger as soon as they reached the town.
That woman had tried every means to get some work or something to eat but to no avail. In this era of poverty, no-one wanted her to bring her burden of a son and mooch off themselves. All this resulted in the current predicament.
As the woman finally got disappointed and went towards a corner where a boy was lying semi-conscious, Bai Yu finally decided upon her as the first candidate for her housekeeper.
Any businessman would consider profits and losses before taking any kind of steps; Bai Yu did the same. From a practical point of view, since this woman had been kicked and came to this town, she probably had no other relatives. If she helped her at this time, the woman would be extremely grateful to her; and with gratefulness comes loyalty. Moreover, she would get an additional employee in the form of her son.
If that boy's condition becomes better, he could be a potential security guard for her inn. She would also have less things to worry about with two additional people in the inn. Perfect!
Bai Yu first went to a store and got a tael of silver converted into 100 Wen. Then she went to a breakfast stall and bought 2 steamed buns and a bamboo tube filled with water.
Approaching that old woman, Bai Yu addressed her sweetly,
"Aunty, is this big brother alright?" Employees need to be treated with kindness if you want their loyalty.
"Ah? Ah no, my Gu'er has fainted from hunger, I am such an unpromising mother, I can't even afford a doctor for my son.." Hot tears fell from the woman's eyes who had not cried even when the manager humiliated her. She felt extremely regretful; if she had not agreed to taking her son with her, he would not have fallen ill from starvation.
"Aunty, you should try to feed these buns to big brother. Oh, and, also this water, human life is more important than money; please don't refuse." Bai Yu deeply realised the helplessness of poor people, she would not be a human if she still did not sympathise with this pair of mother and son. With a space full of food, she could not ignore these people even if she did not need employees.
"Thankyou.. Thankyou! You have given a great favour to us mother and son! We will pay you in any way you want; just that I do not currently have any money or food to pay you back..." The woman felt that Bai Yu was just like a fairy who came specially to help her!
"By the way, auntie, what can i call you?" Bai Yu asked.
"Girl, you can call me Aunt Li, and my son is called Zhao Gu. If you ever need any kind of help from us, please don't hesitate to find us!" Aunt Li said excitedly as she fed the bun and water to her son.
After she had finished feeding her son, she paid attention to the girl who was kind enough to save her son's life.
"I am called Bai Yu, you can call me girl Yu, and in fact, Aunt Li, I do need your help for something... I actually own an inn 50 miles away from this town, and am currently looking for a helper; I don't know if you will be willing to work for me?" Bai Yu probed her as she noticed that quite some time had passed, she also needed to return to the inn.
"Of course! Girl Yu, I don't care how far away is the inn, if I can get a place to live with my son, I don't care how much work I will have to do.. I am extremely willing; we can depart as soon as my son wakes up!" Aunt Li said ecstatically as she really felt like the girl was a fairy specially sent to her. At the same time, she decided to loyally serve girl Yu to repay her gratefulness.
"No hurries, Aunt, I still have something to do, you can take your son and come with me to settle down in an inn for the night, we will depart tomorrow morning." Bai Yu wanted to get another thing done before going back.
After booking two rooms in an inn and settling down Aunt Li and her son, Bai Yu made her next stop at Master Wang's shop. She negotiated with him and eventually it was decided that a worker from Master Wang's shop would go with them early tomorrow and examine the inn to determine the materials and amount of work needed to repair it.
She could finally go to sleep with peace of mind.
******
A/N: Pheww! Quite a lengthy chapter...
Just to make it clear, I am extremely bad at maths, thus I decided to make the currency system simple:
1 Gold = 100 Silver
1 Silver = 100 Wen (copper coins)
1 Wen = 100 Cents
And that's it for today!
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Guide To Becoming A Business Tycoon In Ancient Times
Historical Fiction[CURRENTLY BEING EDITED] [ORIGINAL STORY] Guide To Becoming A Business Tycoon In Ancient times: Step 1: Have a powerful mysterious space Step 2: Transmigrate to ancient times ___________________________________________ If you suddenly find yourself...
