Chapter 314: The Wen Household Doesn’t Hide It, Everyone Can Press Oil
These soybeans truly yielded oil; fortunately, they had weighed everything in advance, and one hundred catties of soybeans pressed out exactly fourteen catties of oil.
Old Madam Luo was instantly energized, instructing the two brothers who had been replaced to hurriedly fetch another three hundred catties of soybeans from the storeroom to press for oil.
With so many people in the family, how much oil was consumed every single day?
Wen Yao didn’t stop them either. Now both Lady Li and Lady Cai knew the steps, so each followed her own husband to get busy.
Wrapping her arm around the old lady’s, Wen Yao said with a face full of claiming credit, “Grandma, am I very amazing?”
Grouting with emotion for a moment, Old Madam Luo almost blurted out her tears. Suppressing the sourness at the tip of her nose, she gave Wen Yao’s nose a light tap, her eye rims still red as she said with feigned annoyance, “Amazing, amazing! You’re the most amazing one in our family.”
Wen Yao tilted her head up with pride. Hehehe, I got praised!
Qiu Zhi was truly filled with absolute admiration for Wen Yao and Wen Xiuyi now, yet he still asked out of curiosity, “Yao Yao, how did you think of this method?”
Regarding this, Wen Yao had prepared her explanation long ago, speaking up:
“I also happened to discover by chance that there might be oil inside beans, so I wanted to give it a try all along. Once, when I took Datou and the others to school early, I happened to see the city guards opening the city gates, and I often see Uncle Qin’s winemaking process at the winery, so I wondered if I could combine them and give it a test. I didn’t expect it to actually succeed.”
Wen Xiuyi hurriedly chimed in, showing off with pride: “See? I told you this child has a sharp mind—she can think of even this.”
Having seen Datou’s intelligence, Qiu Zhi naturally didn’t find it strange that Wen Yao was so smart as well, nodding in deep agreement: “It seems our Yao Yao not only cooks delicious food, but has a sharp mind as well.”
“Aiya, ya, ya, you’re praising me so much I’m getting embarrassed!” Wen Yao pretended to be shy, leaning against Old Madam Luo with giggles and laughs.
With a face full of doting love, Old Madam Luo smiled and poked her cheek: “Be well-behaved in front of your Master.”
Only then did Wen Yao stick out her tongue and stand obediently.
Old Madam Luo spoke up at this moment: “With this in the future, everyone won’t have to worry about having oil to eat. I mean it—it really won’t do for people not to eat oil and meat; it’s bad for the body too. With the oil press from now on, everyone will be able to eat oil. Beans aren’t something valuable to each household—you can plant several hundred catties on any random patch of land. Saving a bit every year, press-extracting enough oil for the family to eat won’t be a problem. Used sparingly, basically every day can see a bit of oil and meat.”
Wen Yao knew the old lady was kind-hearted, so she added, “That’s why I specifically picked this room! Look, right next to it is our courtyard wall. Later, I’ll have my eldest cousin-uncle come open a doorway here. In the future, whoever wants to press oil can bring their beans over, and our family will just charge a small processing fee—how convenient is that?”
Only now did Old Madam Luo realize: “I was wondering why you picked this exact room out of so many! After all that, you had planned it out long ago.”
“Hehehe.” Wen Yao chuckled, holding the old lady’s arm as she said, “If Grandma hadn’t relented and said to let everyone eat oil, I wouldn’t have dared bring up opening the doorway either!”
Old Madam Luo shot her a glare, scolding her gently with a “stinky girl.”
Carpenter Zhang, who had been admiring another masterpiece of his off to the side the entire time, heard their conversation and spoke up hastily: “Auntie, I’ll bring people tomorrow to open this door for you!”
Truth be told, Carpenter Zhang had admired the Wen family in the past, but he admired them even more now. Setting everything else aside, if the Wen family had kept such a wonderful item hidden and merely sold the pressed oil, they would surely make a massive fortune. Yet the first thought on Auntie Wen’s mind wasn’t making money, but figuring out how to let everyone have oil to eat.
Just for this grand righteousness, Carpenter Zhang felt he hadn’t chosen the wrong people to follow in his lifetime.
“Auntie, rest assured, leave this matter to me! There’s no need to trouble Jiao Jian—I’ll handle it for you and build a brand-new door for you as well. It’s just… Auntie, could you sell me two hundred catties of beans? I want to take some oil home too, hehehe,” Carpenter Zhang chuckled.
Old Madam Luo wouldn’t stand on ceremony with him. Nowadays, the relationships among the Zhang, Wen, and Jiao families were all great, so there was no need for empty formalities.
“You’ve been busy until now—what talk of selling? Second Son, go fetch another two hundred catties of beans for your Brother Zhang to press oil and take home!” Old Madam Luo issued the order directly.
Wen Xiuzhu trotted off cheerfully, and Carpenter Zhang didn’t decline either: “Then thank you, Auntie!”
Old Madam Luo then recalled that this oil press was built by Carpenter Zhang, her face showing hesitation as if she had something to say.
Catching her drift, Carpenter Zhang spoke first, pulling the blueprint from his bosom and returning it to Wen Yao: “Yao Yao, this is the blueprint you gave me—here you go.”
Carpenter Zhang truly wouldn’t covet this, nor had he ever thought of secretly building this oil press to sell. Wouldn’t that be ungrateful and treacherous?
Wen Yao knew Carpenter Zhang’s character as well, but she took the blueprint back nonetheless—not out of distrust toward Carpenter Zhang, but because this blueprint might be useful later on.
“Oh right, Uncle Zhang, unless you get permission from our family, you can’t make this oil press for others for the time being,” Wen Yao said to him after tucking the blueprint away.
Carpenter Zhang smiled: “Can you still not trust your uncle? Rest assured, even if someone comes asking me, no matter how much money they offer, Uncle won’t build it. I’ll have them come find you first. At that time, whether you want to sell it or do whatever, Uncle will listen to you.”
There’s no need to go that far either.
“That’s not how it works either. If the other party offers truly too much, then silver is still sweeter! Making it won’t hurt anyway—this thing will be promoted sooner or later regardless.”
Wen Yao’s words brought a burst of laughter from everyone, and the atmosphere in the room turned light and joyful.
Looking at the oil trickling from the bean cakes, everyone felt in an even better mood.
That day, the Wen family pressed over fifty catties of soybean oil for themselves, and pressed another two hundred catties of beans for Carpenter Zhang to carry away. That evening, Wen Yao used this newly pressed soybean oil to cook a meal for everyone.
Truth be told, dishes cooked with this soybean oil were not inferior to those made with lard in the slightest. Furthermore, unlike lard, it wouldn’t freeze solid the moment the dish cooled when the weather turned slightly colder.
Early the next morning, Old Madam Luo had someone call the village chief over, leading him to inspect the oil press and showing him the pressed soybean oil.
A middle-aged man of considerable age burst into tears right there in the Wen household, crying with snot and tears everywhere, making Old Madam Luo thoroughly disgusted with him, until she finally brought out her ultimate weapon.
“If you wail one more time, I’ll take back what I just said!”
Sure enough, the village chief stopped immediately, nodding repeatedly: “No more wailing, no more wailing! Auntie, when can the villagers start coming to press oil then?”
Old Madam Luo rolled her eyes with disdain: “When? You tell me when!
“Who has beans right now? Whoever had beans at home sold them all to me! Am I supposed to return the beans to them?
“The beans in my workshop are meant for major uses. Eldest Son returned yesterday and checked the fields, saying everyone’s beans in the fields are ready for harvest. Wait until the beans are harvested before coming! Over these next few days, I still need to fix up the doorway here. Not just anyone can enter my workshop—a small doorway facing outward needs to be opened.”
The village chief nodded repeatedly: “Yes, yes, yes! We’ll listen to you in everything, listen to you in everything!”
In an instant, news that the Wen family had created an oil press that could extract oil from soybeans exploded across Gutong Village.
