In all of the towns of Z Province, the harvest season had passed at panibagong panahon na naman ng taniman ang pinaghahandaan nila.
Veira and her family had also been staying in Barangay Rojo for almost eight months now. During those times, a lot of things had happened.
First, they kicked out the traitorous butcher who originally was delivering the internal organs they used for their food then contracted a few of their rivals just to spite them. This time, Veira had turned wiser though and put the contract into writing so if these people decided otherwise in the future they will have now security.
Second, their business was still booming. Although madaming nag-aattempt na gumaya sa roaming food cart nila, but they didn't back down to competition this time. With Aling Wanda's family situation right now as precedence, they knew these people wouldn't be as stupid.
The competition didn't stir anything this time though, unlike noong kanila Aling Wanda. They realized that Veira was definitely right. Business was just like this. Copycats were inevitable. So kailangan lang nilang magtiwala sa lasa ng mga niluluto ni Veira and implement some small promotion events from time to time to keep their customers happy and loyal.
Tutal ay nabanggit na rin lang naman...
While Tan family was flourishing, Aling Wanda and her family were struggling these past few months. Kapag makakasalubong nila ang pamilya nila Veira, they could only snort at them and then run away quickly. For their family, Veira and the others were like bringers of plague.
The youngest son was still in jail. Their store was greatly affected dahil halos walang gustong bumili sa kanila. They were also very famous in the whole town dahil sa parade of shame na ginawa nila. When people from other barangays saw and recognized them, they would point and gossip about them.
What comes around really goes around, eh?
Aling Wanda used to be the one to point and gossip towards others but this time, it was her time to be the center of humiliation.
And as if things weren't terrible for their family yet...
During the harvest season this time... When it was time to change their grains to money, instead of being happy, their faces were dark and muttering curses under their breaths. They truly felt the impact of the consequence of their willfulness back then.
Why?
Because they had no choice but to give half of their salary to the Tan family.
The average sized family of farmers usually received 223 silver and 2 copper coins after harvesting their crops. But Aling Wanda's family had five men in their family. It means they had more capability to cultivate more plots, plant more crops and still harvest them on time. So they received more money than the average family when this time of the year comes.
Now you can imagine their heartaches when they had to hand half of that money to Veira themselves. They had no choice though. The punishment came from Law Enforcers so not unless they wanted to be arrested, they had to give them half of their spoils. To their dread, their salary for next harvest would have the same fate as today too.
That's the same thing for Aling Isang and Aling Alice's family.
Hayyyy... There is really no medicine for regret. If they had known, hindi na sana sila nagpahikayat noon kay Aling Wanda at hayaan ang kanilang mga anak na lalaki na harangin at takutin sila Veira upang tigilan na ang business nila.
What taking over of food cart business?
What receiving 25 percent of profits?
Pah! It was all wishful thinking! Now, they did not just lost half of their incomes but their sons were still in jail instead of helping to till the land for the upcoming planting season!
This led to fallout between the three families then.
Of course, kung anong kamalasan sa iba, siya namang swerte nila Veira.
She, herself, didn't expect the amount she would received this time.
Their family had nothing to harvest this season but Nanay Onang went to exchange center to receive half of the salary from those three families. Imagine her surprise having a pocketful of silver and coins to bring home afterwards.
Who told those three families to not belong to the average family of farmers? Who told them to harvest more than the usual and received more money than the others?
Veira felt she really hit a jackpot this time.
Since the food cart business became stable, she had been thinking to get into bigger scale of food industry. She was thinking of buying a property at the port's market and building her own restaurant. But she lacked budget for the mean time so was thinking to earn and save money for now.
Unexpectedly, a pot of gold landed directly on her palm.
They received more or less 500 silver coins!
When she checked last time, the price of that shop she was eyeing was 300 silver coins. After buying the property, she still had enough money for decoration, buying furnitures and stocking the pantry.
Veira's eyes shined as she calculated when would she go to the port's market to buy the shop.
Another thing that happened in their fanily was the enrollment of Lulu into an afternoon school. They originally wanted Lili to go too but she refused as she wanted to focus with her physical training under Veira instead. Also, she reasoned that one of them had to drive the food cart everyday and that fell on her shoulder since Lulu had to go to school.
Since that's the case, Veira decided to hire another person for the food cart business. She decided it would be Fernan.
As of now, he was earning 15 copper coins per person for sending people from their barangays to the market. Sa isang byahe niya, the cart can carry 6 people so that's 90 copper coins. In a day, he could more or less travel up to four times. Two in the morning and two in the afternoon. In total, he was earning 360 copper coins or 2 silver and 60 copper coins a day.
(A/N: Again, I am following this conversion.
150 copper coins = 1 silver coin
90 silver coins = 1 gold coin
25 gold coins = 1 banknote)
Veira offered him a salary of 5 silver coins a day. He would drive the food cart for Lulu in the morning and Lili in the afternoon. At the same time, he would guard their safety while doing so.
But of course, she had to talk about this to Aling Freida. The older lady told her to discuss it with their family and the next morning, Veira received their agreement.
5 silver coins will be a big help for their family. Most especially, Fernan and Donna would be in marrying age soon. They needed to save for their dowry and betrothal gifts.
But of course, there still had to be someone na magpapatuloy ng horse cart transportation. Otherwise, baka madumog sila ng mga kababayan nila na magttyagang maglakad mula sa kanilang mga barangay hanggang sa market.
The other son of Aling Freida refused to do this dahil bukod sa pagffarm ay tumutulong din sila sa blacksmith shop ng kanilang ama. When Aling Carmen heard this, she quickly asked Aling Freida to have her son to rent their horse cart at ito na ang magpapatuloy na magbyahe nito sa araw araw.
Agreements were finally made within their three families and their lives resumed as usual.
***
