Chapter 514: A New Year
Chapter 514: A New Year
Even though he didn’t have much luck in the game of blackjack, he had better luck in his businesses.
When the end of the month came, he received the biggest payment he had ever gotten.
He was seated in the main hall with men that came in with wooden chests that were filled with taels of gold.
They cupped their hands and said, "These are the payment for my master."
It was from Hun Xiong Kun and now with the increase of the rice supply daily with his three hundred and sixty people in his Clan, Lin Xuan Qi was able to get up to two hundred taels of gold as profit.
And that was not all.
After Hun Xiong Kun’s men left, income for the soap business from the retail stores in Hong Feng and Bian Jing cities also arrived.
There was a total of around one hundred and fifty taels of gold.
Finally, there was also the income from the franchise with the franchisees making orders for the ingredients.
And it amounted to only one hundred taels of gold for now.
So in total, with what he had earlier at five hundred and forty taels of gold, he had nine hundred and ninety taels of gold with him.
It could have been more if there was the supply of kelp for his Lin Clan Taste Transcendent Essence business, but there wasn’t much that he could do until the farming of the kelp succeeded next year.
Lin Xuan Qi couldn’t complain much.
He had never felt so rich before and he was in a great mood.
And so for the next few days, he started to seek out the properties for the shops to be allocated to young master Chew and his friends.
But it went slowly as many of the property owners were either away back to their ancestral village for the spring festival, or they weren’t in the mood to talk to him about selling.
Business had started to pick up for them with everyone buying the necessary items for the Spring Festival.
He did what he could but he was only able to secure fifteen shops for young master Chew and his friends, with the shops costing about ten taels of gold each.
Young master Chew and his friends discussed among themselves on who should get the shops first and luckily it went smoothly without much disagreement.
Most of his friends were in a holiday mood and they were happy to be getting some profits from the food carts so far.
The operations of the food carts were more or less hands off for them, with the workers trained and ingredients taken care of, and they were satisfied with it.
After all of this was done, Lin Xuan Qi decided to end his year and focused on spending time with his family for the Spring Festival.
"Yue Jie, use twenty taels of gold for the Spring Festival with the priority of it going to the workers as a year end bonus.
"Give everyone three months’ worth of their allowance.
"And whatever that is left of it, use it for the cloths, food and items you would need.
"Buy anything that you and the others like if you want.
"Discuss it with Xue Cong if it’s necessary." Lin Xuan Qi said and Yue Jie’s abacus clacked as she moved the beads on the abacus.
She nodded her head and said, "I shall get it done."
Although Lin Xuan Qi had been spending his money in terms of taels of gold, a tael of gold was still worth a lot.
It was equivalent to a hundred taels of silver.
Which was more than enough to gift a hundred copper coins to each of the workers.
Yue Jie had never had an easier time doing the budget, and with the amount that she had to work with, it was effortless in comparison.
She finally had the feeling that the Lin Clan would be a huge clan in Hong Feng City in the years to come.
When Xue Cong heard the news, she was also happy with it.
The servants in the mansion had been hardworking and hadn’t caused her too much of a trouble so far.
She was especially glad for Xiu too as Xiu had helped her a lot with all the hard work of managing all the other servants.
Yue Xin was glad to be able to shop around for a new set of cloths which was something that she had enjoyed when she was still a young mistress in the Liu Household.
Liu Shi Shi wanted to spend the bonus on brushes, paper and ink, hoping that it would be ready when Lin Xuan Qi was in the mood to write more poems to her.
Everyone was in a joyous mood for the Spring Festival and before they knew it, the day for the Spring Festival arrived.
Lin Xuan Qi celebrated according to the custom from where he came from and everyone was surprised when he gave them little red packets.
"Thank you, Master Lin. Hope you have a prosperous year ahead."
"Master Lin would be healthy and lead a long life."
"I don’t know much, but I wish Master Lin a great year ahead."
The servants sent him well wishes when they received the red packets from him and when they opened up the red packets, they were overjoyed to see some copper coins inside them.
Being able to work under Lin Xuan Qi was one of the most fortunate things for them.
Lin Xuan Qi also organized for a so-called reunion dinner in the night with Lee He Song, Zhi Yong and everyone in the family gathered around the hotpot for dinner.
It was sumptuous with beef, chicken, duck and even some seafood that was from the fishmongers in Bai Shao. They had gifted him some as a token for their business with the kelp.
Everyone enjoyed the hotpot and it was a deserving end of the year for them.
"Have more of the food and here’s a toast for the new year ahead." Lin Xuan Qi said and picked up his wine cup.
Lee He Song chuckled and picked up his wine gourd while the others, except for Xue Cong and Yue Xin, picked up their wine cup for the toast.
They downed the wine in a mouthful washing down all the bad and unfortunate things in the past year with it.