The end of the year arrived quickly. Only after Four Seas Grocers shipped away the last batch of soap before the new year did Tan You announce, "In a moment, we'll be distributing year-end bonuses and New Year's benefits. We'll have a seven-day holiday for the Spring Festival, starting tomorrow. Work will resume promptly on the fifth day of the first lunar month."
None of the clansmen objected to this holiday arrangement. Everyone was trying to make money—the sooner they got back to work, the sooner they could earn. Who wouldn't want to save up more Silver?
After Tan You finished her announcement, four able-bodied young men carried two tables and some chairs to the open space in front of the ancestral hall. Piled beside the tables were small mountains of food, bolts of cloth, cotton, and other goods.
Chen Xi smiled gently. "The Mistress has said that regardless of whether you work in the soap workshop or the mosquito coil workshop, everyone's New Year's benefit is the same."
