Wei Wei drafted a simple business plan and took it to Felix, explaining the benefits of this venture.
It's often said that women's and children's money is the easiest to earn. Take Wei Wei herself, for example. She spent two-thirds of her monthly living expenses on skincare and makeup. Women, in their pursuit of beauty, are truly willing to spare no expense.
"Right now is the peak season for many flowers. This year, we can start with small-scale production and then promote these essential oils within noble circles—preferably in the capital. As long as we can prove their effectiveness, I believe those noblewomen will be more than willing to exchange gold coins for beauty."
As the saying goes, "Men die for wealth, birds die for food." In the face of absolute profit, how many people can remain unmoved?
Felix was no exception, which is why he had already sold the insect repellent and fire manure.
When Wei Wei proposed the partnership, Felix was indeed tempted.
After hearing her plan, Felix carefully considered it and ultimately concluded that it was feasible.
As the lord of the castle, Felix was well aware of the transactions between Wei Wei and the noble ladies. The fact that she could successfully promote the essential oils showed just how much women were willing to pursue beauty. Once they confirmed the effectiveness of the oils, those noblewomen who had purchased them would become her loyal customers.
Looking at the pricing Wei Wei proposed—two gold coins for a bottle of essential oil, with each bottle containing only thirty milliliters—Felix raised an eyebrow.
"I heard you sold the oils to those ladies for one gold coin?"
"Yes."
"Then why raise it to two gold coins now?"
Wei Wei shrugged unladylike, her expression innocent. "Those ladies thought my pricing was too low and that I was being foolish. Naturally, I can't let them think I'm a fool. Besides, this is our joint business. Officially, it will be your business. If we stick to the previous price, people will either think you're foolish too or realize they've been tricked. To avoid that, we naturally have to raise the price."
Wei Wei continued, "Currently, I'm using the simplest infusion method. This method produces oils with low concentration and is quite labor-intensive. Once we find an alchemist and use a distillation apparatus to extract the oils, the cost will increase, but so will the purity. At that point, selling the same bottle for ten gold coins will be no problem. Of course, we can also dilute them and sell them at the current price."
"Moreover, we need to consider transportation and labor costs. If we want to grow this business, hiring a few people won't be enough. We'll need to build a proper factory, hire more workers, and carefully plan the transportation."
In these times, even knights could turn into bandits, so security measures were a must.
Felix agreed with this point. He had once been a knight himself. While the king wouldn't let his knights become bandits, encountering enemies during missions was common. Felix had seen his share of blood.
With Wei Wei explaining everything so clearly, Felix had no reason to disagree. He nodded immediately, "Alright, let's do this!"
Wei Wei smiled. "Then let's discuss the partnership terms."
Wei Wei proposed that she would provide the technology and half the capital, while Felix would handle the labor and the other half of the capital, with a 70-30 profit split.
The reason for the 70-30 split wasn't that Wei Wei wanted to give Felix an easy advantage.
If they were to start the essential oil business, it would be manageable in the short term. But as production expanded, they would need many workers. Hiring people from Sardinson County would mean fewer farmers, which would affect grain production.
At the same time, to sell the oils without attracting trouble, they would need Felix's noble status to provide protection. As a former knight who had served in the capital and now a count, Felix was a prominent figure in the capital. His act of returning the fief had also won the king's favor. If he could leverage the king's connections to make the oils a must-have for the royal family, the business would thrive.
Moreover, while helping Felix with his accounts, Wei Wei discovered that the Williams family owned a shop in the capital. Although the shop's business seemed mediocre based on the books, its location was said to be excellent, and Felix had agreed to let them use it.
So, in reality, Wei Wei felt that taking a 30% share might even be too much.
This profit split was quite appropriate, and Felix didn't offer to give her a larger share out of affection for her.
If he had done so, it would have made Wei Wei question her decision. Someone who let emotions dictate business decisions didn't seem like a reliable partner.
Both parties were satisfied with the profit distribution. Before signing the contract, they agreed to each invest five hundred gold coins as the initial capital. However, Wei Wei provided the gold coins, while Felix contributed land instead.
He designated a piece of wasteland within his territory. This land would soon be used to build a factory and cultivate flower fields. Wei Wei had already consulted the gardeners and confirmed that lavender could be planted in Sardinson County in September. Lavender is a perennial, drought-resistant plant and one of the most common essential oil plants. It could withstand the winter in Sardinson County, and the castle's gardeners had plenty of experience growing lavender. They could manage the fields when the time came.
As for the factory, there was no rush. At this stage, raw materials were still scarce, and the distillation equipment—Wei Wei had already told Felix that if they couldn't find a suitable alchemist, they could buy the equipment and figure it out themselves—wasn't ready yet. They weren't at the point where they needed a factory.
Of course, the main reason was that it was currently harvest season. Everyone was busy gathering the crops, and there was no extra manpower to spare for other tasks.
At this time, grain was the most important thing. Everything else, including potentially lucrative business ventures, had to take a backseat to the harvest.
The count's territory wasn't solely planted with wheat. Besides wheat, there were also rye, barley, and oats. Wheat was the primary crop, followed by barley and rye, with oats being the least planted.
Unlike the spring wheat Wei Wei had planted in her garden, the wheat and rye in this era were winter varieties, planted in autumn and harvested in July or August the following year, yielding only one crop per year.
Barley and oats, on the other hand, were spring crops with a growth period of just three months. Oats, in particular, could grow in any soil. In theory, they should have been the most popular grain, but in reality, oats were the least planted. Not only did they yield less than the other crops, but they were also difficult to thresh and grind. Bread made from oats didn't rise well, so only those who raised livestock planted oats as winter fodder for their animals.
Thus, July and August were the busiest months for the serfs. They had to harvest four types of grain within these two months, and they had to harvest the lord's fields before their own. If the weather turned bad, the losses could be significant. So, during this time, everyone worked from dawn to dusk, toiling in the fields.
This year, thanks to the use of fire manure, the wheat and rye had unexpectedly matured about half a month earlier than usual, giving them more time to harvest.
Moreover, experienced serfs could tell just by looking at the heavy ears of wheat bending the stalks that this year's harvest would be better than ever.
So, despite the exhausting work, the joy on everyone's faces was unmistakable.
After June, the daytime temperature in Sardinson County rose to around 30 degrees Celsius, becoming quite hot. Working under the scorching sun made people prone to heatstroke. Wei Wei taught the maids to brew herbal tea to cool down and shared the recipe. Now, many serfs working in the fields no longer drank beer to quench their thirst but opted for the cooled herbal tea brewed by the women. Although the taste was a bit strange, some of the herbs had a sweet flavor, which the serfs, who rarely had the chance to taste sweetness, quickly accepted.
After drinking the herbal tea, people indeed felt more comfortable while working.
Wei Wei also went to check on her fields. Her serfs were busy working with their families. Since Wei Wei had provided them with sickles, they worked much faster than others, becoming the envy of other serfs. After all, many serfs couldn't afford iron tools like sickles. When they needed to use one, they had to apply to the field overseer, pay a usage fee, and often wait in line for their turn.
Unlike Wei Wei's four serf families, each of whom owned a sickle. The men worked in the fields, the women carried the cut wheat stalks to the edge of the field, older children helped out, and younger ones followed their fathers with bags, picking up any fallen grains.
Wei Wei went to check on the first day of the harvest and specifically asked about how they planned to thresh the grains. Then she went to find the carpenter.
The carpenter who had made furniture for Wei Wei was already quite busy. Because Wei Wei kept giving him new and unusual tasks, his original work kept piling up. Now, faced with even more work, he had to reluctantly tell Wei Wei that he simply couldn't handle it all.
Wei Wei: "It's fine. Just make me a sample. It won't take much time."
Wei Wei wanted him to make a flail and a rake. These were simple tools made of a few pieces of wood, so it wouldn't take much time. The carpenter took a look and saw that the flail consisted of a long handle and a set of flat wooden slats, fixed together with wooden strips so that the slats could rotate 360 degrees to thresh the grain. It was indeed simple to make. He found some scrap wood and quickly put it together.
Wei Wei also wanted to make tools to speed up the harvest, like a scythe and a foot-operated threshing machine. She had even drawn the blueprints, but the former required bamboo strips to weave a specific-sized blade, while the latter needed a lot of iron and precise craftsmanship, requiring collaboration between the carpenter and the blacksmith. Since she currently had neither bamboo nor iron, she would have to wait for the future.
Unlike the flail, which was truly simple. Given the materials, Wei Wei could have made it herself.
Wei Wei handed the finished flail to the overseer, George, explained how to use it, and asked him to take it to the fields.
"If anyone asks, explain how to use it and let them make their own."
George nodded in agreement. After working for Wei Wei for a while, they all knew she was a kind-hearted lady who often shared generously. Her attitude toward the lower classes was also unusually gentle for a noble. Thanks to her, the serfs' lives had improved significantly this year, earning her great respect among the people of Sardinson Castle. Everyone was willing to follow her instructions.
Sure enough, soon almost every serf family in the territory had a flail, and this simple threshing tool proved to be very effective. Previously, serfs either had to wait in line to use oxen to pull stone rollers for threshing or do it by hand. With the flail, not only did threshing become faster, but it was also less labor-intensive. It was truly a great tool.
But Wei Wei wasn't satisfied with this. She drew many agricultural tool designs she had found and gave them to Felix, asking him to test which ones were suitable for use in Sardinson County.
"After testing, promote the ones that work well. We'll need a lot of manpower in the future, so we must free the serfs from heavy labor."
Felix, who had been busy clearing the surrounding forests of wild beasts, looked at the stack of parchment and felt that Wei Wei was more like a qualified lord than he was.
At the same time, he secretly rejoiced, thinking that since Wei Wei was helping him so much, did that mean she had fully accepted him in her heart?
Could he consider proposing?
Wei Wei had no idea what Felix was imagining. She handed all the drawings to Felix, confirmed that he would have them tested, and then became a hands-off manager, throwing herself into the garden.
The corn was almost ripe. In fact, not just the corn, but many other plants were also ready for harvest and seed collection.
However, before the other crops matured, the alfalfa planted in the cornfield was ready for its first harvest. Alfalfa is a perennial herb, and after being cut, it grows back. With proper care, it can be harvested at least seven or eight times a year.
The first harvest also yielded seeds, which could be dried and used to cultivate new alfalfa fields.
The first batch of alfalfa wasn't much, so Wei Wei fed it all to her horse. Since her white horse and Felix's black horse shared a stable, the latter also got a treat.
After harvesting the alfalfa, the fenced field truly entered the harvest season.
Among the staple crops, only corn and potatoes were ready, and among the fruits, only strawberries. But there were many types of vegetables ready to be picked: cowpeas, eggplants, chili peppers, green peppers, loofahs, cabbages, water spinach, and more.
Of course, not all the planted crops grew well. Some plants simply couldn't adapt to Sardinson's climate. They grew tall but didn't flower or bear fruit. If this continued, they would eventually have to be discarded. Fortunately, such cases were rare, likely because the system knew her destination was the early stages of the Little Ice Age, so it had transformed seeds that could adapt to such temperatures.
"I can help you pick strawberries too!"
The strawberries Wei Wei planted also attracted the children of the gardeners who worked for her. However, they were well-behaved and didn't steal any strawberries. Instead, during their free time, they weeded, removed pests, and chased away birds trying to steal the strawberries. Every ripe strawberry was promptly picked and brought to Wei Wei.
In return, Wei Wei gave them some strawberries to taste when there were enough and even gave them a few strawberry plants.
Strawberries reproduce through runners, so Wei Wei didn't need to save seeds. Over the past few months, she had multiplied the number of strawberry plants several times using runners. The children had watched her work hard all along, so they happily planted the strawberry plants in small pots, hoping they would bear fruit soon.
When the strawberries in the field ripened in large quantities and everyone else was busy harvesting in the fields, Wei Wei naturally turned to the children for help picking strawberries.
The children were thrilled because after picking, each of them would receive some strawberries as a reward. Just thinking about the taste made their mouths water.
When Dolores heard about this, she even put aside her doll clothes and eagerly offered to help.
Dolores had fallen in love with the bright red fruit after Wei Wei gave her some strawberries. Since then, she has made a habit of visiting the strawberry field during her daily walks. Now that the strawberries were ready to be picked, she naturally wanted to join in.
Wei Wei thought it was good for children to be active, so she agreed. She had the maid find a small apron for Dolores, put on arm covers and a straw hat and gave her a small basket. Then she let her join the other gardener children in the strawberry field.
Suddenly having to work alongside their young mistress, the gardener's children were initially nervous. But Dolores, accustomed to Wei Wei's attitude toward them, didn't mind their presence. Gradually, they all relaxed. When Wei Wei, who was picking vegetables on the other side, came over to check on them, she found Dolores chatting and laughing with two other girls.
Reassured, Wei Wei went back to picking vegetables.
It wasn't that she didn't want to harvest the corn and potatoes first, but Felix, after learning about the corn's yield, was very eager to see the harvest. He repeatedly reminded her to wait until he was present before harvesting. Unfortunately, Felix had gone out with some men the day before, so they had to wait for his return before touching the cornfield.
With nothing else to do, Wei Wei passed the time in the vegetable garden with a basket. She planned to send the first batch of vegetables, except for the chili peppers, to the kitchen for everyone to try. Saving seeds could wait until later.
The amount of vegetables Wei Wei and the maids picked was enough for everyone in the castle to have a taste. Although everyone preferred meat, the novelty of the vegetables sparked curiosity, and their flavors didn't disappoint.
Even everyone got a strawberry—the ones the children had picked that day.
Fresh strawberries couldn't be stored for long, and making strawberry jam that could last required a lot of sugar, which was too extravagant. Not wanting to waste them, Wei Wei decided to distribute the strawberries. Of course, she didn't forget to save some for Felix. From her observations, the count seemed to have a sweet tooth.
But then again, in an era where even nobles rarely tasted sugar, perhaps everyone had a sweet tooth.
Speaking of which, the barley had also been harvested recently. There was a patch of barley in her field... Wei Wei licked her lips. She was craving malt candy. Once the harvested barley was sufficiently dried, she would try making some.
The next day, when Felix returned and learned what Wei Wei had done the previous day, he gave her a reproachful look, silently accusing her of not waiting for him to try the new vegetables.
"You don't even like vegetables. Why wait for you?" Wei Wei placed a small bowl of washed strawberries in front of him. "I saved these strawberries for you from yesterday's picking."
Felix ate the strawberries while solemnly stating, "Although I don't usually like vegetables, maybe among the ones you planted, there's something I'd enjoy."
"Alright, I'll pick some more for you today, okay?" Wei Wei didn't dwell on the issue and instead asked him, "Are you free today?"
Felix replied, "If you're inviting me, I'm always free."
"Then come with me to harvest the corn and potatoes. I've been wanting to do it for a while."
Hearing that they were going to harvest the corn, Felix immediately agreed. He had been looking forward to this day.
As for what potatoes were, Felix had completely forgotten.
Originally, Wei Wei thought they would need a few more helpers. Although she hadn't planted much corn and potatoes, harvesting was still exhausting. At most, she could handle picking the corn cobs, but cutting the corn stalks and digging up the potatoes, which required bending over and using a hoe, were tasks she wasn't sure she could manage well.
What if she accidentally damaged the potatoes with the hoe?
But after the previous incident, Wei Wei, thinking about the potatoes still hidden underground and unsure how they were growing, didn't dare to rashly add more helpers. At most, she could have the two maids help.
Sometimes she felt a bit sorry for Qin and Penny. If they weren't serving her, they wouldn't have to dig in the dirt after working so hard to become high-ranking personal maids.
But apparently, Qin and Penny didn't see it that way. They believed that since Wei Wei and the count were personally working in the fields, it was only natural for them, as servants, to join in.
Moreover, they were being trusted to help harvest the corn, which made them feel honored.
Butler Barton also felt a sense of pride.
Perhaps Felix didn't expect Wei Wei to do any heavy lifting. Not only did he come to help, but he also brought Butler Barton along. Compared to the others, the butler, who had served the Williams family for a lifetime, was more trusted by Felix.
With five people working on two plots of land, the manpower was more than sufficient, shortening the harvesting time.
The cornfield was left to the two maids, who were instructed to dress fully to protect themselves from the sharp corn leaves, which could cut their skin, and the corn silk, which could cause itching.
Wei Wei took the two men to the potato field to dig up the potatoes. Felix thought that using a hoe wasn't suitable for a lady and that a lady shouldn't be digging in the dirt at all. But Wei Wei disagreed. After some debate, it was decided that Felix and Butler Barton would handle the hoeing, while Wei Wei would pick up the potatoes.
At first, everyone was dismissive of the potato field, which was just a patch of green leaves. They thought the crop beneath the greenery would be like carrots—small and only suitable as a vegetable.
But when Felix took his first swing with the hoe and unearthed a large clump of soil along with the oval tubers mixed within, his casual demeanor vanished entirely.