Chapter 289 - 289: Handing Over The Business

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Wang Xiaomei had followed Mrs. Song to the Song family and had gained a lot of knowledge and learned a lot.

She knew that absolute control was much more reliable than relative trust.

Although she had no intention of betraying the Song family, she was afraid that she would waver as time passed.

As for Mrs. Song, even if she trusted her now, as time passed, she would definitely be worried too.

Rather than let that happen, it was better to do something that could make both parties feel at ease.

After all, when the crisis was over and Mrs. Song returned, she would return Wang Xiaomei her freedom.

To Wang Xiaomei, it was only a matter of time.

Qin Xiaoyao looked at Wang Xiaomei for a while before finally nodding.

“Alright. If you insist,” she replied.

At the same time, her trust in Wang Xiaomei increased, and she thought even more highly of her.

This girl really knew how to be grateful and was way smarter than she had thought.

Wang Xiaomei’s face lit up.

“Thank you, Mrs. Song!” she immediately said.

“Alright. Get up quickly!” Qin Xiaoyao smiled as she personally helped Wang Xiaomei to her feet.

Then, she asked Song Yun to go to the kitchen and prepare some tea.

“Sure! I’ll go now!” Song Yun quickly responded and ran off.

The group didn’t have to wait long before Song Yun brought them the tea.

Following that, Qin Xiaoyao got Wang Xiaomei to serve tea to Madam Liu.

Wang Xiaomei agreed excitedly.

She took a cup of tea, walked respectfully to Madam Liu, and knelt down.

“Godmother, please have some tea!” she said loud and clear.

Madam Liu smiled.

“Sure!” she responded before accepting the teacup.

Then, she took a big gulp.

Then, as Xiaomei Wang smiled brightly, Madam Liu put down the teacup and helped her goddaughter up.

“Get up quickly. The floor is still cold,” she told her with concern.

“My pants are thick, so I won’t feel cold!” Wang Xiaomei replied with a smile. With Madam Liu’s help, she got up from the floor.

“Sister Xiaomei, you’re my older godsistcr from now on!” Song Yun said quickly. She tugged happily on Wang Xiaomei’s arm.

“And me too. I also have an older godsister!” Song Ye chimed in.

The smile on Wang Xiaomei’s face widened.

“I also have a younger godsister and younger godbrother now!” With that, Wang Xiaomei looked at Madam Liu again.

“And I have a godmother to dote on me!” she said in a coquettish manner.

This made Madam Liu smile again.

As Qin Xiaoyao watched them from the side, the sadness in her heart faded quite a bit. She couldn’t help but smile.

After a while, when everyone had calmed down, Qin Xiaoyao continued to discuss matters with Wang Xiaomei.

Qin Xiaoyao returned to her room and brought a small box over.

“This is the property deed for the house, and these are the sale deeds for the shops.

“Your Big Brother and I bought a total of eight shops. We’re currently using two for ourselves and have rented out four. You can go on to rent out the remaining two shops after some time.

“You have to pay attention to the rental due dates and go and collect rent regularly in the future,” Qin Xiaoyao instructed her.

Wang Xiaomei was astounded.

She took the house’s property deed, the shops’ sale deeds, and the stack of receipts and looked through them.

When she realized that these were indeed the items Qin Xiaoyao just mentioned, she was extremely shocked.

When did Mrs. Song and Big Brother buy so many properties?

These shops were all in good locations, and their combined value was astonishing.

Notwithstanding the value of these shops, just the rent they brought in was astounding.

With so many shops, they could earn more than 30 taels in a month.

Even if they didn’t do anything, the whole family could live well just by collecting rent.

It wasn’t only Wang Xiaomei who was shocked. Madam Liu and the rest were also very surprised.

Although they didn’t know where the shops were or how much they cost, they knew that the prices of the shops were generally high.

With eight shops, even if each shop cost only 500 taels, it would still cost more than 4000 taels of silver to buy all of them.

Although their family had been making money very quickly this year, they could not believe that they had earned more than 4000 taels of silver in a year.

Qin Xiaoyao knew that everyone was puzzled, so she explained, “When the bandits captured Song Que, I extorted 10,000 taels of silver from them when I went to save him.

“After that, when the Second Prince found out, he didn’t take back 10,000 taels of silver. He even rewarded me with an additional 1000 taels.

“My husband and I bought these shops together after that.”

Everyone was shocked upon hearing that.

When they heard the phrase “10,000 taels,” they almost stopped breathing.

Qin Xiaoyao didn’t pay much attention to their reactions and continued, “Other than these shops, my husband also spent some money to invest in the Liang family’s grain transportation business.

“Although we don’t own many shares, our profits are not low.

“The Liang family will send us the account books once a month in the future, along with the dividends.”

Qin Xiaoyao looked at Wang Xiaomei as she spoke.

“Since your big brother and I are not here, I’ll leave this business to you as well.”

Wang Xiaomei’s expression changed slightly.

Upon seeing this, Qin Xiaoyao reached out and patted Wang Xiaomei’s shoulder.

“For this business, my family only contributed some money and didn’t get involved personally in the running of the business.

“When the time comes, the Liang family will send the account books. You can just take a look. There’s no need to delve deeper.

“We were able to invest in this business because Young Master Liang thought highly of your big brother.

“After this, when your big brother and I are not around, this relationship is not so stable anymore.

“If the Liang family deliberately tries to deceive you, you can pretend you are not aware. You can just accept whatever dividends they send. There is no need to be calculative or argue with them. We’ll talk about it when your big brother and I return.”

Xiaomei Wang was relieved and nodded obediently.

Only then did Qin Xiaoyao pass the collaboration contract with the Liang family to Wang Xiaomei.

Now that she had instructed Wang Xiaomei on the most important things, she then gave the account book of the porridge shops to Wang Xiaomei.

Thus, Qin Xiaoyao had effectively completed the handover of all the family businesses.

“I’ll teach you and Yun’er how to prepare the mud paste to make the century eggs later.

“The century egg business at Fortune Mansion can still be continued. Also, our two porridge shops have to rely on the century egg porridge to keep the business going.”

As she spoke, Qin Xiaoyao looked at the two girls.

“In the future, the century egg business will be handed over to you two. Remember, you must not leak the recipe to outsiders.”

“Mm-hmm!” The two of them quickly nodded.

Qin Xiaoyao felt more at ease.

After that, she began to take stock of the gold and silver ingots and silver notes in the box.

After she finished counting, she only took out a note worth 50 taels of silver and 10 taels worth of silver coins before giving the rest of the items to Wang Xiaomei.

“This is the remaining money at home. It’s more than a thousand taels in total. I’ll leave it to you to manage.

“In the future, if the family has more spare money, you can also decide if you want to invest in a property.

“But I have a request, and that is to set aside at least 1000 taels of spare money. Do not use all of it for investment in property. This is to ensure that our family’s livelihood won’t be affected and to guard against any risks.”

Wang Xiaomei nodded.

“Yes!” she quickly answered.

Qin Xiaoyao was quite pleased.

Following that, she gave some more instructions to Wang Xiaomei.

After that, she asked Madam Liu to go to the kitchen to help prepare dry food, while she coached Wang Xiaomei and Song Yun on how to make the mud paste for the century egg.

The two girls were extremely diligent when they were learning, and it didn’t take long for them to grasp the trick and produce the qualified mud paste.

As for making the actual century eggs, the two girls had helped Qin Xiaoyao for a while in the past, so that step wasn’t a problem for them..