First time receiving salary

  Something came up tonight, updated in advance, is there anyone watching? Make a sound and let your brother know you exist. ——————————————————————————————— Wei Chi Jing De would check the sales records every few days, and he found that since Zhen Ming Ku became the shop assistant, the total sales in just a few days had already exceeded the previous month's total sales. Although the profit per product did not meet expectations due to frequent returns and exchanges, the overall total was quite impressive, truly achieving thin profits and many sales. Even many products that were previously unsold were sold out.

  As for the issue of returns and exchanges, Wei Zhi De didn't think there was anything wrong with this practice. The sale of iron products had this advantage: even if they were damaged, as long as they were slightly repaired, they could be as good as new, without any loss in quality. And these small tasks, Zhen Ming Su never bothered the craftsmen at the blacksmith shop; as long as he was given a small iron furnace, he could repair them himself, without exerting much effort, and his work wasn't inferior to that of those craftsmen.

  And this point seems to have been taken into consideration by Zhenming long ago.

  With this return and exchange commitment, customers have nothing but praise for the after-sales service of Yuchi Iron Forge, its reputation spreading far and wide, with many people willing to come from small towns tens of kilometers outside Luoyang City to make a purchase.

  As long as Zhenming is in the store, the store will become exceptionally lively, and every customer's face will be filled with a satisfied smile.

  Watching Zhenming bitterly smile every day to greet people, enthusiastically welcoming guests, without any sign of slacking off despite being docked wages.

  Wei Chi Jingde had secretly asked the store's accountant to calculate an account, and if he followed Zhen Mingshu's commission method, giving him one percent of the sales amount as a commission for each iron product sold, then in these short ten or so days, Zhen Mingshu had already received more than five taels in commissions.

  Sitting at the counter inside the accounting room, looking through the cashier's window at Zhen Ming's busy figure, Wei Chi Jing De's eyebrows furrowed deeply.

  His emotions were very conflicted at this time, after seeing Zhen Mingsu's excellent sales ability, he actually wanted to keep him in the blacksmith shop and let him work for the blacksmith shop, but he also knew that this person was not someone who could be retained simply with money. From his observations of Zhen Mingsu over the past dozen or so days, Zhen Mingsu only temporarily lacked money and would work here, without any intention of staying in the blacksmith shop long-term.

  The blacksmith's shop had no intention of being honest with him from the start, promising to give five taels of wages but ultimately deducting left and right, reducing his wages to one tael, how could he not have complaints?

  But Zhenming looked bitter, not a single complaint, as if he didn't care about money at all, with a smiling face to greet everyone. Wei Chi Jing De couldn't help but worry, there are two kinds of people who can't be bought with money, one is that this person is already dying soon, and money has no temptation for him, the other is that this person has something more precious than money in his heart.

  This Zhēn Mìng is obviously not a person who will die soon.

  On this day, Zhen Ming bitterly sent out the last customer from the store, turned around and walked into the accounting room, putting today's sales proceeds on the cash register.

  There were as many as twenty taels in total.

  "Boss, today we bought a total of ten high-carbon steel knives, twenty hoes, three thick-back boning knives, twelve shovels, and six iron rakes. The silver is all here, please count it."

  "What's wrong, can't you trust me?... Zhen brothers, this is your salary for this month, as agreed before, five taels of silver, not a single cent less."

  "Thanks for your help, master. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave." Zhen Ming smiled wryly, picked up the outer garment placed on a nearby wooden rack and put it on, then turned around and walked towards the door.

  Wei Chi Jing De called out to him: "Zhen brothers, when you have time, let's go have a few drinks together?"

  "Enough with the drinking, your body isn't fully recovered yet. Now I've switched to soy milk, how about we go drink a bowl of soy milk together? I guarantee it'll refresh you and sweep away all fatigue."

  Wei Chi Jing De lost his voice and laughed: "A man should drink wine in big bowls and eat meat in large chunks, but he ran to drink soy milk, isn't he afraid of being ridiculed?"

  Zhen Ming sighed and shrugged his shoulders, smiling: "I still prefer drinking soy milk from a big bowl, I'll go first."

  As soon as he came out of the account room, Zhu and several strong men were already waiting at the door. When he walked over, Zhu rushed forward and bumped into him, causing him to stumble and almost hit his head on the door frame. The few taels of silver he had just received also fell to the ground.

  This pillar has been holding a grudge against him for stealing the show at the blacksmith's door last time, and he can't stand the sight of Zhēn Mìng Sù's misfortunes. Whenever he gets the chance, he makes things difficult for him, but unfortunately, Zhēn Mìng Sù never fights back. Every time the pillar intentionally makes things hard for him, he just laughs it off and avoids his sharp tongue, not getting angry at all, just like a wooden puppet.

  Zhen Ming was bitter and only glanced at him, didn't say anything, bent down to pick up the silver, turned around and walked out of the ironwork shop.

  "Hey, when did our blacksmith shop hire a timid and yielding shrimp? He dares to take such high wages, isn't he afraid of losing sleep at night? Unlike us masters who rely on real skills to make a living, no matter how high the wages are, we can still sleep soundly at night. Do you guys remember when I followed Brother Yu to establish this blacksmith shop ten years ago, and we only slept for two hours every day just to refine the fine iron?"

  Others chimed in, "How could we forget? Think back to when Brother Zhuo topped the reward list, he went without sleep or food for countless days and nights, fighting hard to refine the fine iron for the blacksmith's shop. And what did he get in return? A meager 100 taels of silver! Unlike some people who reap the benefits without lifting a finger, selling others' crafted goods at such low prices, making us work day and night, wasting our sweat and blood, just to earn credit for themselves. It's laughable that they still have the nerve to ask Brother Wei for a commission, if it were us, we'd be ashamed to take even one tael of silver!"

  "Yes, I don't know what Eldest Brother sees in him either. He's always chatting with customers and making them happy with our hard work, if I had known that being a shop assistant could earn such a high salary, I would have become one too."

  "This kind of speculation makes me do things I wouldn't normally do, just like Hanzi's, it's like a pillar, taking the lead in refining the reward list, if he really refines some good alloys, even if he takes a thousand taels of silver, we'll only applaud and praise..."

  "You're kidding, right? If refining gold was that easy to get, I'd have made it big long ago! All these years, only Zhuzi Ge has ever gotten a 100-tael refined iron reward, this kind of job isn't something those weak and incompetent people can do."

  From start to finish, Zhenming didn't stop walking, as if his ears were deaf and he couldn't hear the discussions of Zhuzi and others. He walked out the door without looking back, leaving behind Zhuzi and a group of people talking to themselves.

  Although he had the upper hand, Zhu Zi couldn't help but feel unhappy. Zhen Ming's attitude of being beaten by three sticks without making a sound made him feel like he had a lot of energy but nowhere to vent it.

  ……

  ……

  Out of the ironwork shop's gate, Zhen Ming bitterly raised his head and took a look at the sky. The sun had already set behind the mountains.

  Every day at this time, he would go to Zhang's Tofu Stall to drink two bowls of soy milk and a few pieces of pan-fried tofu, which had become his habit.

  He put the silver into his pocket and turned to walk towards Zhang's tofu stall by the Luo River.

  On the street, a group of people are rushing towards a crowd in front.

  "All I could hear was someone in the crowd shouting loudly: 'You thieving medicine thief, you've finally been caught! No wonder my ginseng and lingzhi would disappear every day. It turns out it was you who stole them! These ginseng were bought at a high price from Changbai Mountain, each one worth tens of taels of silver. Today, if you don't compensate me with silver for the three stolen ginseng, I'll have no choice but to take you to the authorities and have you sentenced to military exile!"

  The crowd surrounding the entrance of a pharmacy was so dense that it was impossible to see what was happening inside, and all one could hear were the angry shouts of the shop owner, who had caught someone stealing ginseng worth a fortune and was taking them to be punished.

  Zhenming was bitter and didn't stay long, just turned his head to take a glance, then walked past the crowd and into a jade ornament shop next door.

  ……

  By the Luo River, the customers at Zhang's tofu stall had dispersed one after another.

  A slender and elegant woman is busy collecting her stall, preparing to close up and head home.

  "Boss lady, a bowl of soy milk, a plate of fried tofu. Here's the money for this month's soy milk, no need to give me change. If there's any extra, just keep it and save yourself the trouble of giving me change every time."

  As usual, Zhen Ming arrived at the tofu stall and ordered a few things.

  Tofu Western looked at him and didn't say much, took the silver, pointed to a bowl of soy milk that was still steaming on the tofu stall table behind her, and a plate of pan-fried tofu, saying softly: "I'm going to close up and go back, you can eat and put it there."

  Zhen Ming was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing: "I received my salary for the first time today and I was thinking of having a big feast, wanting to try some delicious food. I didn't expect you to have already prepared everything for me."

  "That's all we have left today." Tofu Westerner said with his head down, somewhat embarrassed.

  "How's business today?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "Didn't your husband come today?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "Today I received my salary for the first time, bought a small gift, to thank you, boss's wife, for your lifesaving kindness, not enough to show respect, hope you can accept it with a smile."

  Zhenming bitterly said, took out a beautifully wrapped gift box from his bosom and handed it to her. Inside was the jade comb he had carefully selected for her at the jade store, something worth several taels of silver, an expensive gift that he could hardly afford.

  Zhang's face flashed a hint of panic, and she secretly glanced around. Fortunately, all the guests had already gone home for dinner at this time, and there was no one else on the stall except for him and her. She didn't even stretch out her hand to receive it, nor did she take a glance at what he held in his hand. Hurriedly, she said: "I don't want your things, you eat here, I'll go back first."

  After finishing speaking, she no longer spoke to him, pulled the little donkey and turned around to leave hastily, as if saying a few more words to him would be an unforgivable sin.