CHAPTER 293: CHAPTER 282: BEESWAX

Yu Xiaolian was a bit confused, "Do you mean... you want me to step forward and ask for the person?"

Zhao Erya nodded, "The original owner of Madam Gao said, no matter how much money is offered, they won’t sell Gao Yishui. If you want to redeem Gao Yishui, you have to negotiate with him yourself."

Yu Xiaolian frowned. From the sound of it, this means that Madam Gao’s original owner knew her.

But Zhao Erya isn’t someone who likes to meddle. Why is she telling her? Why don’t Madam Gao and her daughter come themselves?

Zhao Erya saw Yu Xiaolian’s confusion and quickly explained, "Madam Gao said that at first, the other party agreed to let her redeem her son for fifteen taels of silver. But during a casual chat, the other party learned she worked at Yu Xueguan’s residence and changed their mind, refusing to sell. They said if she wants to redeem him, you must go yourself.

Madam Gao is afraid you wouldn’t be willing to go redeem her son and might get angry and sell them. She doesn’t dare come to ask you."

Yu Xiaolian raised her eyebrow. She was quite curious about who this original owner of Madam Gao was.

Yu Xiaolian asked, "What’s the last name of Madam Gao’s original owner?"

Zhao Erya thought for a moment and replied, "It seems to be Feng. Their family also came from the Northern Land, from... Ping City."

Ping City? Last name Feng?

Yu Xiaolian was sure she didn’t know any family with the surname Feng.

"Go back and tell Madam Gao that I’ll find some time to go to the Feng Mansion with her," Yu Xiaolian said, lowering her head to continue grading assignments.

Zhao Erya said, "There’s no Feng Mansion. The Feng family came from the Northern Land to rely on relatives, and now they’re staying at their relative’s place, which is Lv Mansion. I heard they live in Yintai Lane in the west of the city."

Yintai Lane in the west of the city?

That’s an area where powerful and wealthy families live. I heard the brother of Imperial Concubine Min used to live in Yintai Lane. When Yu Xiaolian bought properties in Xiangyang Lane and Heqing Lane, Zhao Zhijie also introduced her to a house in Yintai Lane, which was more expensive than the two combined, so Yu Xiaolian didn’t even bother to look.

"Then tell Madam Gao that the day after tomorrow, I’ll make time to go with her to Lv Mansion in Yintai Lane.

By the way, has the honeycomb arrived yet?"

"It has, two large honeycombs. I forgot to tell you, the person who collected them said he’d bring more in a few days." Zhao Erya stood up, ready to leave.

Yu Xiaolian nodded, "Once I finish grading the assignments, let’s refine the beeswax tonight. You go ahead and prepare."

Zhao Erya acknowledged and turned to leave.

Yu Xiaolian began grading assignments swiftly. At that time, Teachers could not use red pens to grade assignments. The color red was reserved for the Emperor, hence the saying of imperial red corrections.

If someone from the common folk dared to write in red, the lightest punishment would result in immediate execution, and the most severe could implicate their entire family. It was not a joking matter.

Yu Xiaolian used a black signature pen, the bold type, which wasn’t much different from writing with a fine brush.

After grading, Yu Xiaolian walked outside and saw Little Tiger, playing the game "eagle catches chicks" with several grandsons from Sun Fifth Master’s family in the yard. The kids were having so much fun they seemed to be flying.

Yu Xiaolian turned back to the house and brought out two large bags of opened pine nuts and pistachios for them, "Here... eat!"

"Thank you, Sister Xiaolian!" the little guys said in unison.

"Don’t forget to memorize the multiplication tables after eating, don’t just play," Yu Xiaolian advised while stepping away.

"I’ve already memorized the multiplication tables," Sun Manzhi said proudly.

"I’ve memorized them too. Brother, you haven’t memorized them yet, have you?" asked ten-year-old Sun Manfeng to eleven-year-old Sun Mandun.

Sun Mandun hurriedly replied, "I have memorized them too, I’m just not very familiar with them. You guys play, I’ll pass for now, I’m going back to review."

Sun Mandun grabbed a handful of pine nuts and ran off in a hurry.

Sun Manzhi showed an expression of seeing right through Sun Mandun, "Hey, Brother Mandun wasn’t unfamiliar with it; he just can’t complete it at all."

Sun Manzhi turned to look at six-year-old Sun Manyuan, "Manyuan, haven’t you memorized it either?"

Sun Manyuan had just put a pistachio kernel in his mouth when he heard his name. He looked up innocently and mumbled, "Sister Xiaolian said I’m still young, so I can memorize it slowly."

Sun Manzhi enviously shook his head, "Ah, it’s great to be young!"

Sun Hu was speechless, "You’re only eight, why are you pretending to be mature?"

When Yu Xiaolian arrived at the backyard of Taotao Residence, Zhao Erya had already put the honeycombs into the pot to cook, just waiting to filter them.

Yu Xiaolian took out a filter from her space, placed a layer of gauze over it, and after filtering, if left overnight, the water and wax would separate, and the surface wax could be removed, discarding the water.

The next day before going to the academy, Yu Xiaolian instructed Zhao Erya to filter the beeswax again using yesterday’s method, but this time to replace it with a denser gauze, as the filter holes from last night’s were a bit large, and some impurities hadn’t been filtered out thoroughly.

Upon leaving the academy, Yu Xiaolian went straight to Zhao Zhijie’s broker, purchasing the bookstore owned by Shopkeeper Li next door to her home for nine hundred taels.

Zhao Zhijie said when Shopkeeper Li was leaving Luocheng, he offered a price a hundred taels higher than the market to make connections with Shopkeeper Li.

The shop being small, it was acquired for nine hundred taels and sold to Yu Xiaolian for the same price, not for any other reason than hoping she could offer some guidance to the Zhao family scholars when they participate in the autumn examinations in the future.

Yu Xiaolian didn’t want to owe the Zhao family a favor over this, but Zhao Zhijie insisted, leaving Yu Xiaolian no choice but to accept.

After collecting the new deed from the broker, Yu Xiaolian had Sun Mancang drive the carriage to Taohua Village to pick up Sun Manying’s eldest daughter, Sun Feixue, as well as the two daughters from Sun Sillin’s family, Sun Manxi, and Sun Manxia.

After Sun Mancang drove off, Yu Xiaolian hurried to the backyard to check on the progress of the beeswax filtering.

Upon seeing the beeswax filtered three times, it was now free of impurities, forming sleek yellow blocks.

The beeswax extraction was successful, and Yu Xiaolian quickly moved on to extracting plant pigments.

"I’ve washed and dried these flower petals just as you instructed," Zhao Erya said, pointing to the warehouse filled with dried red petals.

"And these were gathered today, they haven’t been dried yet."

Yu Xiaolian casually picked up a fresh red and blue flower, giving it a sniff, "These don’t need to be dried. Today, we’ll make all these fresh red and blue flowers into rouge.

How many lip balm and rouge cases did the porcelain kiln manage to produce from the custom order?"

Zhao Erya replied, "They’ve delivered a batch already; it should be enough for some time."

Looking at the courtyard full of fresh and dried flowers, Yu Xiaolian said, "Apart from the carmine and beeswax, pause the collection of other items, take down the notice outside the shop, and I’ll write a new one later."

It’s too much, in just a few days, so many petals have been collected, which truly exceeded her expectations.

On her usual trips between Luocheng and Taohua Village, she’d never seen so many flowers along the roadside.

She hadn’t expected to collect so many of these things in just a few days.