CHAPTER 270: CHAPTER 261: STANDING SHOULDER TO SHOULDER

Jin Dongsheng continued to openly sell grain at high prices while sending people to inquire about who the inspector coming to Yu State for the investigation was and when they would arrive in Luocheng.

Upon learning that the inspector this time was Fu Ge-lao’s son, Fu Qionglin, Jin Dongsheng dismissed his last bit of worry.

Fu Family — our people.

Fu Qionglin’s legitimate daughter, Fu Zihan, is about to marry into Prince Jin Mansion. As long as the two families join hands, then the north of Huai River will be Prince Jin’s domain — no fear at all.

Another year of the Spring Examination, Yu Xiaolian, entrusted by various academies in Luocheng’s literary circle, started making arithmetic questions for the scholars.

Ever since the first batch of hot pot base sold for considerable Silver, Yu Xiaolian wanted to resign from the academy and focus on her business, because what she made selling the base in ten days was far more than what she earned in a year at the academy.

But after mentioning it to Director Ying, the thought of resigning was talked out by Director Ying.

To say Yu Xiaolian is stubborn, she should not have been easily persuaded by Director Ying.

The thing is, Director Ying said something that made Yu Xiaolian find it very sensible.

No matter how much money merchants earn, what’s the use? The life and death of the whole family depend on a single word from the powerful, but being an academic official is different; the court will give you promotions and raises based on your age and contributions in the future.

Once you have a crucial position, anyone who wants to manipulate you must think twice.

Director Ying said as long as Yu Xiaolian doesn’t turn back from the path of arithmetic, her future achievements and fame would definitely not be inferior to the female general of Great Meng, Cao Chengtong.

South has the female general Cao Chengtong, North has the Civil Servant Yu Xiaolian.

Yu Xiaolian was successfully enchanted by Director Ying and decided to become a heroine as famous as Cao Chengtong.

But could she become a Third-rank general like Cao Chengtong in Great Meng?

Probably unlikely.

After all, the examinations are mainly literary, with arithmetic as a supplement.

Is Yu Xiaolian proficient in literature?

She is!

You must know that medical students have the most books, thick and plentiful.

Not to mention other things, just one book, "Systematic Anatomy", has over three thousand knowledge points, completely impossible to memorize.

There was this joke once: "If your friend suddenly stops contacting you one day, then there are two possibilities. One, it’s the finals. Two, they’re studying medicine. If by chance they are studying medicine, and it’s the finals, you can assume they are drowning in the sea of medicine unable to extricate themselves.

Yu Xiaolian remembered when she first started studying medicine, a female classmate asked the teacher why they didn’t highlight the key points, and the teacher asked them, ’Do patients get sick according to key points?’

When the teacher finally told them the entire book was full of key points, Yu Xiaolian’s genuine thought at that time was that any department was happier than the medical department.

Sigh, it’s hard enough without having to study or strive, yet she is thinking about matching Cao Chengtong — wouldn’t it be nice to live leisurely? She seems to have that serious illness.

Ever since Great Meng had this heroic woman Cao Chengtong, their Emperor, for Cao Chengtong’s sake, revised many unfair regulations for women. Just the point that women can take the imperial examinations alone, Great Liang cannot compare.

Can she really achieve becoming a benchmark, an influential figure like Cao Chengtong who greatly impacts the nation?

Sigh, people should have dreams, without dreams what is the difference from a salted fish?

No, I want to be a salted fish, being a salted fish makes me happy!

Yu Xiaolian continued to struggle internally, biting her pen tip while making arithmetic questions for the scholars.

After finishing the questions on this side, she had to return to Taohua Village to prepare for planting peppers.

Her land was originally barren, not fertile at all. Although before spring, Yu Xiaolian used the most primitive method of manure fermentation to fertilize each plot and nourished it a bit, Yu Xiaolian knew the first year’s pepper yield might not be great.

The pepper seedlings were already prepared inside the house, just needed to be saturated with water and planted in the ground.

But planting peppers is hard work, mostly done bent over.

The ten acres of land are neither too much nor too little; with dozens of people, it was planted in less than ten days.

In the end, some leftover pepper seeds were given by Yu Xiaolian to Sun Fourth Uncle’s family to plant in their vegetable garden for their own consumption.

Sun Fourth Uncle’s ten acres of wasteland, after plowing, planted corn. Yu Xiaolian actually wanted them to plant peppers too, but she didn’t dare let Sun Fourth Uncle’s family take the risk, as the first year of large-scale planting with unfertile soil might not yield the expected results. She wasn’t afraid of losing money, but Sun Fourth Uncle couldn’t afford it, given that the whole family relied on these lands to live!

After finishing the agriculture work, they continued with the hot pot base production; the back courtyard of the Yu Family was filled daily with the rich, spicy aroma that forced Mrs. Sun to take the two little ones and move back to the house on Xiangyang Lane.

They couldn’t stay; the two little ones were too small, the chili was too pungent. Even though the residence and the base workshop weren’t in the same courtyard, the little ones were sensitive enough to cry as soon as the back courtyard started simmering the base, sometimes even coughing a bit. Yu Xiaolian was afraid the two little ones would be harmed by the chili, thus suggested Mrs. Sun to move back to Xiangyang Lane.

Mrs. Sun moved back to Xiangyang Lane, and the children were cared for by Grandma Gao and Gao Qiao, leaving Sun Feixue with nothing to do.

The base workshop was fully staffed with a person at each position, so Yu Xiaolian asked Sun Feixue to help Sun Erji’s wife with the cooking.

"Peel the garlic clean... watch your hair, don’t let it fall into the ingredients..." Yu Xiaolian instructed worriedly as she passed by.

She wandered from the simmering group to the small stone house at the rear, where Qi Dalian held a diary and pencil to record the counts.

Seeing Yu Xiaolian coming over, Qi Dalian quickly pointed at the packaged bases in the stone house saying, "Another five hundred packs, we can sell the second batch."

For the first batch of bases, Yu Xiaolian tested the waters by giving Shopkeeper Zhao a very favorable price, selling each pack for only four hundred wen, totaling two hundred taels of Silver.

Two hundred taels seemed quite a lot, but after deducting the cost of spices and labor, only about one hundred and eighty taels remained. Yu Xiaolian wasn’t very satisfied.

Qi Dalian looked at Yu Xiaolian, saying calmly, "Now we can produce five hundred bases every seven or eight days; it’s not like in the beginning, where some cuts weren’t shaped well and had to be re-simmered. Everyone is quite proficient now."

Yu Xiaolian nodded, "No rush, let’s save a bit more."

Last time Shopkeeper Zhao collected five hundred bases at once, presumably he wouldn’t be short of stock for the time being. As for other restaurants, she hasn’t contacted them yet; she’s been too busy recently.

If someone could go out and negotiate business on her behalf, it would be perfect.

Her father couldn’t do it; his speech wasn’t articulate. Her uncle was even worse, not as good as her father.

Yu Xiaolian cast her gaze on Qi Dalian; ever since she entrusted the accounting work to Qi Dalian, Qi Dalian had never made any mistakes.

Whether it was who couldn’t show up for work today or who only worked half a day, or how many finished pieces made from a pot, Qi Dalian could record it clearly.

Deducting the day’s wages for those absent, giving fifteen wen for half-day, Qi Dalian was always organized without error.

Even reporting work to Yu Xiaolian, Qi Dalian was always businesslike, concise in language, with clear organization.

But, if Qi Dalian were to go out and negotiate business deals, she might not be able to let loose?

Moreover, if Qi Dalian left, there would be no one to take over her tasks — apart from Qi Dalian, most others were illiterate.