Chapter 27: Please help with the work
Zhao Dong and Sun Mei worked together, pouring the soy milk onto the filtering cloth.
With a gushing sound, the milky-white soy milk flowed through the filter cloth into the large basin below.
Zhao Dong, thinking of something, suddenly said, "Sun Mei, I’ve been thinking. Making three to four hundred pounds of tofu a day is truly exhausting. It’s manageable for a day or two, but no one can keep it up for long. So, I believe it’s time we hired some help."
Sun Mei asked, "Hire help?"
Zhao Dong nodded and elaborated, "Yes. I just did some calculations. If we increase the amount of tofu we sell in the afternoon, we could make one or two silver taels a day. Hiring help won’t cost much, and it would significantly reduce our workload. It’s a very good deal."
Hearing this, Sun Mei nodded approvingly. "That does sound good," she said. "But if we hire help, our tofu recipe might get out, and we wouldn’t be able to make as much profit."
Zhao Dong pondered for a moment. "You’re right," he said. "I had that concern as well. To avoid that, the helper we hire should ideally be one of our own, someone reliable."
"One of our own?"
Sun Mei began to think. Her father-in-law, related by blood, and his new wife’s family were definitely out of the question; it would be a blessing if they didn’t try to steal her tofu recipe. As for Mrs. Wang’s youngest son, Zhao Qiu, although he had always been on good terms with the eldest branch of the family and their second branch (Zhao Dong’s family), if he came to help, Mrs. Wang would undoubtedly force him to hand over the prescription. So, he wasn’t an option either. As for Elder Sister-in-law from the Zhu Clan, absolutely not; she couldn’t be considered under any circumstances. Therefore, after much deliberation, the only ’own people’ left were from her maternal family.
Sun Mei looked at Zhao Dong. "You’re not thinking of asking my family, are you..." she ventured.
"Haha, exactly!" Zhao Dong chuckled. "Sun Mei, you truly understand me."