Chapter 146: All Set and Ready
Old Man Wen nodded. That made sense.
The father and son sat for a while, but they didn’t want to delay Carpenter Zhang’s work, so they wandered back home. They followed the path that just happened to be the route Wen Xiuyi had planned for the irrigation channel.
Looking back from the location of their pond to the river, Old Man Wen realized there was about half a man’s height difference in elevation. If they could draw water over without digging a deep channel, that would be much more convenient.
Over the next few days, Old Man Wen would walk this route a few times daily. Meanwhile, Old Madam Luo and Little Madam Luo had been busy for half a month and finally got their soybean paste workshop up and running.
Whenever Old Man Wen came home now, he’d be greeted by the pungent smell of fermented paste. For a day or two, it was tolerable, but every day? It was driving him crazy.
He’d watch his grandsons and granddaughters living in Wen Xiuyi’s new house with envy—it really itched in his heart. He wanted to live in his new house too!
But just as that thought came up, Old Madam Luo’s forced-smile expression popped into his mind. Old Man Wen quickly shook the idea away.
“Oh, Brother-in-law, you’re back,” Little Madam Luo greeted him as she came out of the workshop.
Hearing her voice, Old Madam Luo came out too. One glance at his scrunched-up face, and she knew exactly what her old man was thinking. Hmph. He was just whining again about the smell of soybean paste.
“How did it go?” Old Madam Luo asked about the waterwheel’s test run. She knew the eldest had been working on it, but hadn’t seen the result herself—she’d been far too busy. After all, Qiu Rongrong had sent a message with Da Tou asking her to prepare five hundred catties of soybean paste. That was ten taels of silver. No time to worry about waterwheels.
Old Man Wen thought of the contraption his son had built—who’d have thought it actually worked? They found a spot with gentle flow in the river, dug a small channel, installed the waterwheel, and the flowing water spun the wheel, lifting water from one side and dumping it into another channel on the other side.
There had been quite a few helpers present, and everyone was praising Wen Xiuyi’s ingenuity.
Old Man Wen relayed the scene to Old Madam Luo and Little Madam Luo. Both women felt a bit regretful that they hadn’t seen the waterwheel turn with their own eyes.
But waterwheels could be seen anytime—money, on the other hand, had to be earned when the opportunity came.
“Carpenter Zhang is still rushing to finish them. Eldest said we’ll need at least three waterwheels between the river and the pond,” Old Man Wen said.
Old Madam Luo asked, “Will the irrigation channel pass through the fields? That’ll make watering the crops easier, right?”
“Mm.” Old Man Wen nodded. Much easier, in fact. He hadn’t expected his eldest to have such ideas in his head.
Old Madam Luo didn’t press further and said instead, “If you’ve got nothing to do, head to the village and ask around who has soybeans to sell. Tell them we’re buying. If any of our relatives have some to sell, they can bring them over too.”
Old Man Wen blinked. “We still need more soybeans?” Can’t a man get some peace?
Old Madam Luo shoved him. “Just go already! Stop whining. Don’t forget—we’ve got nothing left for our coffins. We’re counting on those soybeans to earn that money back.”
At the mention of funeral expenses, Old Man Wen obediently set out to buy soybeans.
Once he left, Little Madam Luo asked curiously, “Elder Sister, didn’t we already collect enough soybeans?”
Old Madam Luo glanced outside, saw that Old Man Wen had walked off and even spotted some villagers greeting him, then said, “Your brother-in-law can’t stand the smell of the paste. I’m just sending him out to air out the house a bit.”
After so many years together, Old Madam Luo knew Old Man Wen far too well.
Little Madam Luo shot her a teasing look. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, she shamelessly joked, “Sister, after all these years, you and Brother-in-law are still so close.”
Even at her age, Old Madam Luo was caught off guard and blushed. She glared at her sister playfully and scolded, “Less talking, more working. Seal up all the jars we made today. Tonight, let the second and third bring them to the cellar. After a month of fermentation, they’ll be ready. Qiu Boss is still waiting on them.”
There was no choice—the paste needed at least a month to be ready. When Qiu Rongrong came asking for five hundred catties, they had to pool all their existing stock, including Little Madam Luo’s supply, just to scrape together three hundred catties.
Qiu Rongrong had repeatedly emphasized that demand would increase, and they’d need to produce more. Old Madam Luo remembered that clearly, and the workload lately had worn her out.
Now, she and Little Madam Luo made a batch every ten days, five hundred catties each time. That way, by the time one batch was running low, the next would be ready to take its place.
Since the workshop opened, the two of them had already made a thousand catties of soybean paste, all stored in the cellar.
By the time Old Man Wen came home, the smell had largely dispersed, making things bearable again.
Wen Xiuzhu and Wen Xiuqing spent half the day hauling jars into the cellar. Afterward, Wen Xiuzhu hitched the ox cart and took Little Madam Luo and Jiang Yueniang back to the Cui house.
After half a month of preparation, Qiu Rongrong’s roast duck shop had also completed its renovation and was getting ready to open.
During this period, Wen Yao had practically been running to town every day. At Yunwu Roast Duck, she’d handled everything—from the renovations, to training the kitchen staff, to hiring servers, and even training the carvers who’d slice the duck tableside—all of it was handled by her personally.
After a full twenty days of preparation, they were finally ready to open.
Xie Yushan only learned that this shop belonged to his wife right before Yunwu Roast Duck’s opening. Furious, he stormed over to demand an explanation from Qiu Rongrong. How could she open a business without telling him? As his wife, the shop should be registered under the Xie family’s name.
Back in the day, Qiu Rongrong might’ve bowed her head and listened, but now she couldn’t even be bothered to deal with him.
She shut him down with one sentence: “I used the Qiu family’s money to open a Qiu family shop. What does it have to do with the Xie family?”
When Qiu Rongrong recounted this to Wen Yao, the two of them were upstairs in Yunwu Roast Duck’s private room, laughing so hard they nearly rolled off their chairs.
“You should’ve seen the look on his face. Absolutely disgusting,” Qiu Rongrong said, now filled with disgust every time Xie Yushan came up.
He still dared to covet her business? Dream on. What she wanted now was for Yunwu Roast Duck to become a smash hit—she couldn’t wait to see the look on Xie Yushan’s face when it did.
Honestly, she was starting to look forward to it.
