CHAPTER 247: CHAPTER 242: WILL KILL YOU

"Right," Zhao Hanzhang said, "I’ve decided that in the future, any industry that cooperates with the Zhao Family will be under your name."

Fu Tinghan nodded, indicating he understood.

Zhao Hanzhang retracted the contract and tilted her head, asking him, "Aren’t you going to ask me why?"

Fu Tinghan said, "I know you bear the surname Zhao, whereas I’m an outsider. If any disputes arise in the industry, my identity is more suitable for negotiations with the Zhao Family."

Zhao Hanzhang smiled slightly, "That’s exactly the reason."

Fu Tinghan: "Aren’t you afraid I might betray you in the future?"

Zhao Hanzhang stared at him, "Will you?"

Fu Tinghan shook his head, "I won’t, but do you really trust me so much?"

Zhao Hanzhang dried the ink on the contract and folded it, "You are trustworthy. Besides, it’s just a small industry; even my entire wealth is worth entrusting to you."

Fu Tinghan didn’t seem particularly happy, instead he asked, "Is it just like how you would entrust all your assets to Mr. Ji?"

Zhao Hanzhang looked at him steadily for a moment, then suddenly leaned over the table closer to him. Fu Tinghan instinctively leaned back, resting against his chair.

Zhao Hanzhang looked into his eyes, "Of course it’s different. I regard Mr. Ji as a strategist. If he is loyal to me, I will treat him as a national guest in the future. If he betrays me, I can let go peacefully, wishing him a smooth career path; but you,"

Zhao Hanzhang leaned closer, looking at his tense face, and softly said, "Fu Tinghan, if you betray me, I might kill you."

Fu Tinghan didn’t feel sad at all. Instead, his eyes grew moist as he looked at her and nodded lightly, "Alright."

Zhao Hanzhang got his promise, she couldn’t help but smile brightly, quickly pecked him on the lips, and stood up under his wide-eyed stare, "I’m going to find Uncle Ming. We’ll be going to the paper mill later, tidy up."

Zhao Hanzhang rushed out of the study, and Fu Tinghan held his breath, watching her leave. He touched his lips and hurriedly got up.

He anxiously began folding the drawings on the table. Halfway through, he realized he had folded in the wasted drawings and hurriedly searched them out again.

Zhao Ming, unused to the chairs at their home, stood by the window staring out at the snow. Seeing Zhao Hanzhang enter in a hurry, he sized her up and down, "Why are you in such a rush? Did Ting Han not agree?"

Zhao Qing was curious, "Wouldn’t he agree to having the industry in his name?"

"No," Zhao Hanzhang said with a serious expression, "Uncle Qing, this paper-making technique was devised by Ting Han; this paper mill should be his."

Zhao Qing quickly asked, "Was he dissatisfied with you giving forty percent to the clan?"

"...No, he just thinks a sixty-forty split isn’t good; he believes it should be fifty-fifty."

Zhao Qing sighed in relief and laughed, "This way it’s easier to manage in the future. If it’s fifty-fifty, when big decisions cannot be made, who do we listen to, him or us? With this difference, we’ll know whose opinion to follow when disagreements arise."

Zhao Ming remained silent, standing by the window as he watched her solemnly talk nonsense. His eyes swept over her reddened ear tips, interrupting their conversation, "Get ready to go to the paper mill."

Zhao Hanzhang obediently agreed, "Oh."

Ting He went to prepare the carriage as instructed.

When Fu Tinghan came out with the blueprints, their expressions had returned to normal. Zhao Ming’s gaze swept over them, leading the way, "Let’s go, quickly there and back."

Zhao Qing gave a simple, honest smile to Fu Tinghan, explaining on Zhao Ming’s behalf, "He’s like that, seems unreasoning, but he’s really warm-hearted."

Fu Tinghan knew, otherwise Zhao Hanzhang wouldn’t keep trapping him.

Upon reaching the paper mill, Zhao Ming looked displeased, "This is too small."

In Xiping, there was little that could be hidden from Zhao Ming, so he knew as soon as Zhao Hanzhang had a paper mill built near the estate.

But he didn’t expect the paper mill to be so crude. After looking at the water pits used for soaking materials inside, he shook his head, "These pits are small and disorderly, your manager is not capable."

Zhao Hanzhang said, "This manager was originally the estate’s manager. The estate isn’t big, and precisely because he’s not good at managing, I requested uncle."

If he were capable, would she need to ask Zhao Ming?

Wouldn’t it be better to have sole control over the paper mill?

The people from the school won’t be usable until they study for two or three years, and that time is extremely important in these turbulent times.

Everything now needs paper, and she no longer wants to send people to neighboring counties every few days to buy some because of a paper shortage.

Zhao Qing wandered inside, beginning to ask how paper was made.

Fu Tinghan took out the drawings he’d made last night and this morning and said, "I want to build two large pools..."

With the blueprints, Fu Tinghan led them to observe the current pulp processing methods, explaining to them the process of making a sheet of paper.

Zhao Qing listened attentively. He didn’t have to master paper-making, but he needed to understand the process to better arrange manpower.

"In the future, the mold screen can be placed here, and this area will be for drying the paper. Over there, we’ll need a row of houses to serve as storage," Fu Tinghan said, "If it rains, the paper needs to be moved back inside."

Listening for a while, Zhao Ming, bored, prodded the materials in the reaction pit with a stick. As he poked around, he noticed something amiss. He pulled out the materials from the pit to examine, then went to look at the neighboring pit’s contents.

Zhao Ming frowned, waved Zhao Hanzhang over, "What’s going on? The contents of these pits are all different."

Zhao Hanzhang glanced, then said, "Oh, these are different formulas. We want to test what kind of paper different mixtures produce."

Zhao Ming: "...I saw straw inside."

"Yes, there’s also wheat straw, all soaked after threshing at no cost," Zhao Hanzhang said, "Ting Han and I have torn various materials, compared them, and found that paper made from hemp and mulberry bark seems best. Next time, we could try increasing the proportion of these two to see the results."

These are matters needing research as well.

Zhao Qing, having overheard, asked, "In that case, is one reaction pool and one pulp pool enough?"

Fu Tinghan replied, "It’s enough, for experiments we can use these small pits. Based on the quality of paper produced in these experimental pits, we’ll choose which type to produce. Then, we’ll prepare the pulp according to the production plan, and the reaction pool can be partitioned for use."

He explained, "Once the pulp is used up, the pit bottoms need cleaning too."

Zhao Qing understood, nodded, and then looked around, his mind already making plans. He pointed at a plot of land nearby, "Give me this piece of land, I’ll build houses to enclose it, and the paper production will be in the center."

Zhao Hanzhang glanced over. Seeing no wheat fields, she agreed, but, "I don’t have enough manpower right now."

Zhao Qing calmly said, "I’ll arrange for manpower."

Then Zhao Hanzhang smiled sweetly, "Then Uncle Qing, please help a bit more. I’ll allocate that area to you too. Can you help me build the book bureau there?"

Zhao Ming smacked her on the head, "The book bureau mustn’t be outside the city; it needs to be in the city."