1274 Fast Worker
They were all rushing over from various locations, so they would arrive in the capital at different times. Xia Zhe asked Luo Yu to arrange for them to stay together in the same courtyard house where Zhou Shuang was staying. He intended to hold a get-together session when everyone was present.

After another three to four days, the three families were all gathered in the courtyard house. They did not bring many things with them, only personal items which were easy to bring around. As for other items, they could always buy them in the capital after they earned money.
Everyone from these three families had nice personalities and good tempers. Furthermore, they were all from the army so they were all good at working cleanly and efficiently. On the day they arrived, Mao Hang and his wife had already cleaned up the entire courtyard and all the common areas. Initially, Zhou Shuang and Sun Juan were a little worried about these new neighbors, but now it seemed they need not have worried.

The guys all knew that Qiao Mei and Xia Zhe just celebrated the one-month milestone for their babies. The three of them could be considered these babies’ uncles so they came to Qiao Mei’s house with two bottles of good wine, four pig trotters, a box of fruits and two jars of imported powdered milk.

“Sister-in-law, the three of us are just rough men and don’t know what the children might need. This is just a small token from us,” Chi Ze said politely.

“Elder Brother Chi, what are you saying? You’re all being very helpful to me by coming here to help us. Come in for a meal. Why aren’t your wives here?” Qiao Mei said warmly.

The three of them had come over on their own today. They thought that bringing their wives along would make it seem like they wanted to take advantage of Xia Zhe’s hospitality. That would not be not very nice, so they asked their wives to wait at home and not come along.

Qiao Mei hurriedly asked Xu Kang to go to that courtyard house to ask everyone to come over. She also invited Zhou Shuang and Sun Juan so that everyone could gather together. From now on, they were “one big family”!

After discussing the job scopes, they immediately started work the next day and went straight to the corn courtyard house to help Zhou Shuang clean up the storeroom. They cleaned up the entire courtyard very thoroughly. Everything was done even before Zhou Shuang and Sun Juan started work.

When Qiao Mei arrived, she was stunned at the sight. They must have started doing all these chores before dawn.

“Qiao Mei! If there’s anything else you need us to do, just let us know!” Chi Ze said excitedly.

“Um… Elder Brother Chi, Sister Zhou and Sister Sun are in charge of these corn. If your wives want to do this job as well, they can come and help too. I’ll pay them the same salary as Sister Zhou and the others. Your job is to fry the seeds and you will work in the backyard,” Qiao Mei said.

Qiao Mei brought them in to clean up the backyard. Every part of the house had its own use. Today, their task was to buy a few big pots and bags to hold the seeds.

Nowadays, they could not just sell seeds at the entrance of the movie theater. They had to sell them at different venues. The most important thing right now was the packaging. It would be too inconvenient to use small cups to hold them. What if someone wanted to buy them to eat at home?

Qiao Mei found that person who was related to Qian’e and asked her to make many packaging bags of various sizes for them to use. Each bag was marked with a price tag. She used the volume of the cup as the default size and the bags were made in different sizes to hold multiples of that default volume. They then priced it accordingly by applying the multiplier. In short, the unit price did not change.

At the moment, she had not decided on the brand name, but she did not let that delay the production process. She intended to keep thinking while they worked. She wanted to first try out and see if the packaged seeds would sell well.

After their discussion, the three men divided up their tasks and went their separate ways. They set up the stoves and pots within the same day. They also bought all the ingredients and were just waiting to learn how to stir-fry the seeds.

“Oh my goodness… You guys move so fast… I thought that it would take a week to complete all the tasks,” Qiao Mei said as she looked at the backyard in shock.

She could not believe that everything was done in one day. Back then, it had taken her one whole day to set up one stove with Li Gui!

“I used to be a cookhouse staff! When we go on missions, we have to build our own stoves. As time passes, we get used to it. No matter what kind of stove you want, I know how to build it!” Mao Hang said confidently.

“We’re all in a hurry to start earning money! When are we going to start learning how to stir-fry the seeds!” Huang Xu said as he looked at Qiao Mei expectantly.

“Let’s do it tomorrow. My mother has the final say in these business matters. Later on, you can just look for my mother. We haven’t started selling anything yet, but I can’t let you work for free. Your salary will be one dollar a day for now. After we start to stir-fry the seeds, we’ll tabulate by the pound. Whoever stir-fries more seeds will earn more. The more you work, the more you earn,” Qiao Mei said with a smile.