Chapter 20: Chapter 19 Yang Family’s Mini Classroom Chapter 20: Chapter 19 Yang Family’s Mini Classroom Actually, he shouldn’t have entered the western chamber, because it wasn’t Yang Yunyan’s own room, and Yang Yunxue and Wang Daya were living inside.
Men and women must keep their distance. If a brother-in-law runs into his sister-in-law’s room and this gets out, who knows how much gossip there will be.
Yang Zhenshan naturally wouldn’t care about these things, but he couldn’t ignore the potential damage to Yang Yunxue’s reputation.
“Don’t stay in the room too long; after a while, help your brother clear the snow.”
A son-in-law is like half a child; there’s no reason not to use this free labor. Since he’s here, he can’t be left idle.
It’s fine to visit your daughter-in-law, but chores need to be done too.
Hmph, this is the benefit of being a father-in-law.
“Understood, Dad!” Jiang He responded without turning his head.
This guy probably couldn’t wait to see his wife so much that he rushed into the room without thinking; fortunately, Yang Yunxue and the others already knew he was coming and had opened the door before he even entered.
“Brother-in-law, big sister is inside. Go ahead and talk,”
Yang Yunxue said with a smile, bending her eyebrows. At the same time, she also brought Wang Daya out, giving the young couple space to talk.
Jiang He and Yang Yunyan, the young couple, talked inside the room, while Yang Yunxue and Wang Daya went to the eastern chamber of the main house.
On the warm kang bed, two little ones lay on thick quilts, babbling in baby talk.
Ms. Wang and the Li family were already busy cooking in the kitchen, preparing meals for over a dozen people was not an easy task, and the two sisters-in-law poured a lot of heart into the food and clothing of this family every day.
However, they didn’t feel even a trace of complaint in their hearts; in fact, they found joy in it.
With full bellies and warm clothes, having meat with every meal — they could only dream of such days before, but now that it’s a reality, they are extremely content.
The two prepared a table full of dishes. Jiang He stayed for lunch and went to the Jiang family village with Yang Zhenshan in the afternoon.
The two clerks left by the county government were specifically handling the land affairs of the Jiang family village. They had heard of Yang Zhenshan, so they treated him with polite respect, not showing the slightest bit of arrogance.
Upon learning that Yang Zhenshan wanted to buy a hundred mu of land, their attitude towards him became even warmer.
In the cold of winter, who wouldn’t want to go home and hold their wife?
They had been longing to return to the county seat, but as the land in the Jiang family village hadn’t sold, they couldn’t leave.
Yang Zhenshan’s purchase of a hundred mu of land was akin to fulfilling half of their duty for them; naturally, they were even more enthusiastic.
The process of buying the land went smoothly. Yang Zhenshan acquired a large tract of land close to Yang Family Village, forty mu of paddy fields and sixty mu of dry land, totaling four hundred and forty taels.
He got the deeds the same day, and by the time he returned to Yang Family Village, he was already the largest landlord in the village.
Upon learning that Yang Zhenshan had bought a hundred mu of land, the Yang family naturally celebrated.
To ordinary folks, land is everything, as having the land means having grain, and having grain signifies their ability to survive.
Although the Yang family was starting to prosper, Yang Mingcheng and the others still hadn’t changed their mindset and still considered themselves ordinary farmers.
Regarding this, Yang Zhenshan felt it was time for the Yang family’s little classroom to begin.
Regardless of the age, everyone must come to learn.
Practicing martial arts in the morning, attending classes to study in the afternoon.
Yang Zhenshan taught personally, from Yang Mingcheng and Ms. Wang to Lin Zhan and Wang Daya, and even little Yang Chengye was caught by Yang Zhenshan to join the class.
Of course, Yang Zhenshan wasn’t teaching the Four Books and Five Classics, the Confucian classics. He wouldn’t be able to teach those even if he wanted to, and wouldn’t know how to explain them even if he tried.
He was teaching arithmetic.
As a college student majoring in engineering cost, it was quite easy for him to teach some simple arithmetic.
Besides arithmetic, Yang Zhenshan also taught some other practical subjects, such as bookkeeping, economics, management, and so forth.
However, to avoid appearing too unconventional, he would selectively teach certain subjects and sometimes spoke in a rather veiled manner.
There was no complete curriculum; he would teach whatever came to mind.
Sometimes he even took Yang Mingcheng and the others to observe and study the county town, from taverns to teahouses, cloth shops, grain stores, and even roadside stalls, affluent households, the county government, and more—he left no stone unturned.
Observing others’ clothing, food, shelter, and transportation, he studied the business dealings of various shops.
Yang Zhenshan even borrowed some unimportant archival records from the county government through Lu Zhaoqi for Yang Mingcheng and the others to read and study.
This process was not just a learning experience for Yang Mingcheng and the others but also for Yang Zhenshan himself.
The pace of learning among Yang Mingcheng and his group was diverse; for instance, the three Yang brothers were literate and could directly learn some basic knowledge, while Ms. Wang and the Li family sisters-in-law had to start from recognizing characters.
Those mainly joining Yang Zhenshan on trips to study the county town were the three Yang brothers and Lin Zhan.
Initially, Yang Zhenshan led the observations and studies personally, but after a few times, he let them go on their own.
After a month, all four had made significant progress.
One day, on the way back to Yang Family Village from the county town, Yang Zhenshan sat on an ox cart, looking at the three brothers and Lin Zhan beside him.
“Come on, tell me about your insights from today!”
“You go first, big brother!”
Yang Mingcheng, who was sitting at the front driving the cart, quickly said, “Dad, I’ve found that running a cloth shop is the best business to be in!”
“Why is that?” asked Yang Zhenshan.
“I’ve observed other stores before, like taverns. There are two taverns in the county town, but there aren’t many customers on regular days, maybe due to the cold weather. In short, there are pitifully few customers.”
“The grain stores have more customers, but grain prices are quite stable, meaning the profit margins are low.”
“The profit margin of pharmacies and medical clinics is very high, and there have been particularly many patients during this period, but the business of a pharmacy and medical clinic greatly depends on the medical skill of the resident doctors, which is not suitable for our management.”
“Finally, there’s the cloth shop. The colder it gets, the better the business for cloth shops becomes since people need cotton clothes and thus have to buy cotton fabric and cotton from cloth shops.”
Yang Mingcheng spoke slowly about his observations and conclusions, frequently glancing back at Yang Zhenshan’s expression.
Yang Zhenshan nodded in approval and said, “Your observation is correct, but you’ve overlooked one aspect—that is, Anning County doesn’t produce cotton, and the fabrics and cotton sold in cloth shops are all transported from other places. The complexity of the business involved is not something the ordinary folk can engage in.”
Doing business in Anning County is not an easy task.
Despite Anning County’s poverty, those shops all have significant backing.
Especially industries like cloth shops, which are not owned by local people from Anning County.
“For our family, a cloth shop is not the right choice. In contrast, a grain store, despite its lower profits, is more stable and thus the best choice for us.”
“However, those grain stores are all supported by landlords and big clans behind the scenes, and it is very difficult for our family alone to open a grain store!”
Yang Zhenshan said.
He had considered all these factors, otherwise, he wouldn’t have bought land.
As a modern man, how could he not know that doing business is the fastest way to make money? Yet, without a solid foundation or backing, starting a business was nothing more than wishful thinking.