Chapter 375 White lies

Qiao Ran said cheerfully: "Okay! Then it's 930 taels. How long will it take for you to bake so many bricks?"

"For green bricks, we can produce about 5 bricks in one kiln. It takes half a month to produce one kiln. Our workshop has five kilns. If we produce 187 million green bricks, it will take about four months."

Qiao Ran nodded and said: "What I like is the quality of the green bricks here. It is indeed better than the other bricks. But when I place such a big order for you, you can't fool me. I want every kiln and every brick." The bricks are all of the same quality as what I see now.”

"Of course, don't worry, girl! Our reputation, Mr. Liu, has never been bad. With this deal from you, we won't have to take on other jobs for at least half of this year. We won't have to worry about suddenly having no work to do and no money to make." , you all will definitely make up your mind and carefully bake these green bricks for you."

Manager Liu promised.

Qiao Ran thought about it, it would definitely take several months to build so many houses in the village.

Calculating the time, the weather has just warmed up five months later, and living in a tent is still barely bearable.

She nodded: "It is clearly written in the contract that one batch of 25 yuan will be delivered every half month, and two batches of 50 yuan will be delivered in one month. The delivery will be completed within four months, and no more than five months. If it is not delivered in time, , you have to pay liquidated damages."

"Of course, it will be clearly stated in the contract, don't worry, girl."

Qiao Ran readily signed the contract with Manager Liu and paid a deposit of 200 taels. With Manager Liu's attentive farewell, she got on the carriage and went to two more tile kilns.

Qiao Ran ordered 66 pieces of blue tiles, spending a total of 198 taels of silver. She paid a deposit of 50 taels in advance and signed a contract that the supply would be completed within 4 months.

Two orders were placed in this day, worth thousands of taels of silver. Even Butler Zheng, a great butler who has seen a lot of money, couldn't help but sigh.

Looking at Miss Ciao's calm and composed appearance, is there any hint of the cowardice and timidity of a farm girl who has never seen the world?

Sure enough, she is worthy of being half of the blood of their general's family, and she can withstand things better than the average young girl!

Qiao Ran couldn't help but laugh when she noticed the pleased and proud look Butler Zheng gave her.

If Uncle Zheng knew that there were more than ten thousand taels of silver in her space, as well as a mountain of gold, and many jewelry and jades of immeasurable value, would he be so shocked that his eyes would pop out?

Guarding a mountain of gold and silver, let alone a mere thousand taels, she didn't feel bad even if she spent thousands of taels.

Of course, it is impossible to throw money around, and if you want to throw it, you must throw it at someone who is worthy of her.

Thinking of this, she suddenly had an idea in her mind and said to Butler Zheng:

"Uncle Zheng, can I ask you something?"

Butler Zheng said quickly: "Oh, Miss Cousin, let alone one thing, ten or eight, hundreds or thousands of things. As long as you can use Uncle Zheng's, just say it! Uncle Zheng will definitely try his best to help. You!"

"Thank you, Uncle Zheng!"

Qiao Ran said: "I would like to ask you to help me hide one thing from the villagers, which is the money for buying bricks and tiles. I want to increase the price to half, that is, I bought 465 taels for green bricks and 99 taels for green tiles." 564 taels, a total of 550 taels of silver. Then I asked the manager to give me a discount, and the total cost was taels of silver. If no one asks you, you don’t have to tell me. If anyone asks, just show me kindness. Lie!"

Qiao Ran blinked and looked at Butler Zheng flickeringly.

Butler Zheng saw her like this and smiled: "Hey, what do I think it is? It's nothing, just a word, I remembered it, a total of 550 taels of silver."

Seeing his cousin smiling happily, he couldn't help but asked curiously: "Why do you tell such a lie? Do you want to pay for half of the money yourself?"

Qiao Ran smiled and nodded: "Well, Uncle Zheng, I'm not stupid, I just want to help the villagers. Everyone has fled thousands of miles to come here, and they don't have much money with them. The cost of building a house is too high, and I'm afraid they won't be able to afford it." And I decided to buy all the blue bricks and tiles on my own, just because I wanted the houses in the village to be built with the same color to look better. Therefore, I wanted to pay half of the money myself to reduce the burden on the villagers. Anyway, I have money. I've earned several thousand taels just by treating Mr. Mo, and now that I'm working with Shopkeeper Chen, he's also paying me dividends every month, so I'm not short of money!"

Speaking of money, Butler Zheng patted his forehead and secretly regretted it: "Oh! Look at my brain! I forgot to remind the master and madam. My cousin's mother is the eldest lady in the house, and I haven't enjoyed it in so many years. It’s finally come to terms with how the young lady of the General’s Mansion was treated, and I should give the young lady the compensation she deserves!”

However, the general has already rushed back to the military camp, and his wife is busy cleaning the courtyard where the old general and the old lady live, buying things, and preparing to welcome the old general and the old lady back to Beijing. I am afraid that I will not have time to think about it for a while.

Fortunately, my cousin is rich and there is no shortage of money for the time being. Otherwise, this negligence would be really bad for the eldest lady!

Think about it, Qingzhou should have received the letter, and the old lady can't wait to come back to see the eldest lady, right?

As long as the old lady comes back, there will definitely be no shortage of anything that should be compensated to the eldest lady.

As for what I can do now, just help them as much as I can! Not to mention telling a white lie, it's okay even if it's ten or eight!

Thinking of this, Butler Zheng patted his chest and promised: "Okay, don't worry, Miss Cousin, I will keep this secret and won't tell anyone. Miss Cousin, you are so kind!"

A few hundred taels of silver, he paid it as soon as he asked, and one person paid half of the money for a village. Not even ordinary men can compare to the cousin's mind and courage!

After returning from Huangshan County, Qiao Ran followed Butler Zheng's carriage into the city and went to two blacksmith shops to ask them to make a batch of tools for plasterers.

The last time he made farm tools, Butler Zhou helped him make them in Mr. Mo's blacksmith shop, so Qiao Ran went to other blacksmith shops to make tools without anyone asking anything.

The tools used by these plasterers were not as sharp as knives, which did not arouse any suspicion.

Qiao Ran created this batch of tools because first of all, the tools used by Cao Dashan and others were old. Some of them were broken, had their blades curled, and were almost unusable.

Since they have to work in Devil's Valley for several months, buying them a batch of handy tools may shorten the construction period, save labor money, and allow the villagers to live in new houses earlier!

This batch of iron tools cost Qiao Ran more than ten taels of silver.

But these are small amounts, and they are nothing compared to the more than one thousand taels of silver needed to build a house.