"This method was developed by Xu Huaiqian. They only need to give some eggs and pastries to permanently gain a way to earn my."
"Thinking about it this way, what benefit does our family get?"
It wasn't that Wang Wanwan was mercenary; it was mainly that many of them had secretly spoken ill of Xu Huaiqian, which made her uncomfortable.
Hearing this, Xu Huaiqian understood and asked her: "Wanwan, do you want to make my?"
"Yes!" Wang Wanwan nodded. Who would mind having more my?
Especially since Chen Xiaomei could earn five taels a month, while she was still making only a few hundred coins.
If she earned enough to cover Xu Huaiqian's medicine, help her elder brother, and support A-Hu, then A-Hu wouldn't have to go out on hard escort missions.
"How about you approach silk shops yourself to take on bulk hand-knotted lacework? Then you can set the prices for the village women's work." Being your own contractor and outsourcing the work was better than teaching the villagers and having them approach silk shops sporadically.
"Eh?" Wang Wanwan's eyes lit up, instantly expanding her perspective. "This way, I can not only teach them to make knots but also design new patterns myself and negotiate prices with the silk shops."
Xu Huaiqian smiled supportively at her: "You're very smart; I believe you can succeed."
"I—I'll go ask at the silk shops tomorrow!" Encouraged by Xu Huaiqian, Wang Wanwan, who wasn't usually thick-skinned, thought that if she succeeded, all the village women learning from her would be earning my for her. Suddenly, it didn't seem so hard—just visiting more silk shops and talking to the managers. What was the big deal?
After solving the two girls' worries, Xu Huaiqian looked at Chen Liejiu: "A-Jiu, what about you?"
"What about me?" Chen Liejiu was puzzled.
"Don't you need your husband's help with anything?" Xu Huaiqian's loving eyes gazed at him tenderly.
"Yes, I do." Chen Liejiu's ears warmed, and his voice softened. "Will you help me in the bedroom?"
When Xu Huaiqian was away, he had tried using red silk and his brush himself, but it didn't feel like much.
Now that his little husband was back, he could finally truly feast to his heart's content!
Xu Huaiqian blushed at his husband's unabashedly suggestive t: "Not that—something else. Isn't there anything else I can help with?"
Chen Liejiu thought for a moment: "No."
Everything else he could handle himself; only this thing didn't work without Xu Huaiqian's help—he only felt it when Xu Huaiqian did it.
Xu Huaiqian was full of plans for his husband's career, but his husband was full of thoughts about getting intimate. Xu Huaiqian's face burned again, and he had no choice but to hand Song Yunfan's letter to Chen Liejiu: "I meant this!"
"What is this?!" Chen Liejiu took the letter, opened it, and his eyes lit up. "A handwritten letter from the Suzhou Prefecture official?"
With this letter, he wouldn't have to worry about encountering obstacles in Suzhou Prefecture.
"I knew you were going to Suzhou soon," Xu Huaiqian tugged his sleeve. "Is your husband awesome or not?"
"Extremely awesome!" Chen Liejiu kissed his cheek and didn't forget to praise him: "Awesome in every way!"
!Rogue!
Xu Huaiqian was teased until he was flushed red. His husband was really a walking flirtation demon!
That night, after Xu Huaiqian helped Chen Liejiu, they lay together sweating, talking.
Mainly, Chen Liejiu was speaking: "Do you need help with your ginger? Changnan's medical clinics might not be able to take so much!"
Chen Liejiu estimated for Xu Huaiqian: with 300 catties of ginger seeds per mu, their yield might be over a thousand catties per mu. Five mu plus Meng Fangxun's mu would total six thousand catties of ginger—and that was a conservative estimate. Changnan, administration commissir, couldn't handle that much ginger.
Since Chen Liejiu was going to Suzhou Prefecture soon, he thought he might as well take some ginger to Suzhou and ask around?
"Don't worry, it's all arranged." Xu Huaiqian was really tired. He didn't know how his husband had so much energy—at a time like this, he still had the mood to care about such things. "Just wait and see. Let's sleep, okay?"
"Not really sleepy." Chen Liejiu nestled in Xu Huaiqian's arms, looked up to kiss his lips, and suggested: "How about another round?"
Xu Huaiqian's legs went weak.
They had just d it for a full two hours! That was really long. Another round would make it impossible for him to get up tomorrow.
"Hahahaha," Chen Liejiu laughed heartily, watching Xu Huaiqian's trembling eyelashes and terrified eyes, laughing until he shook. "Just kidding. Let's sleep."
Ah, his little husband was too adorable.
Only then did Xu Huaiqian close his eyes and sleep peacefully. Next time—next time, when his health was better, he'd try for two hours!
While they were discussing ginger, the Meng family was also talking about it. They originally thought mu could yield at most three to five hundred catties of ginger, but over the past six months, they watched the ginger multiply until the field was full of it.
"How can we sell so much ginger!" Old Man Meng squatted on the ground, deeply worried. That day, he carried some ginger to the county medical clinics to ask, but they would only take about ten catties at most—no more.
Now, mu had at least a thousand catties of ginger. They couldn't just let it rot in the field. If only grain had such high yield!
"Dad, don't worry; there will be a way." Meng Fangxun thought about it—his family only had mu of ginger, while Xu Huaiqian had five mu. If he wasn't worried, why should they be?
Besides, weren't the medical clinics buying?
"One clinic buys little, but if we visit more clinics, they'll buy more." Meng Fangxun calculated: "Yong'an Prefecture has twelve counties. There are twenty to thirty medical clinics large and small combined. If each clinic buys a few or ten catties, we can sell four to five hundred catties."
"Five hundred catties at the price of old ginger would be fifty taels of silver. After deducting the thirty taels for ginger seeds, we'd still have twenty taels left."
Meng Fangxun, who had recently studied a lot of current affairs, was no longer the dull and inexperienced Meng Fangxun of the past—he calculated my matters very nimbly.
"Really?" Hearing Meng Fangxun's calculation, Old Man Meng's hands trembled.
For mu of crops, the maximum yield was three dan of grain. At the most expensive price, dan was only six hundred coins, usually around five hundred coins. Earning and a half taels per mu was already the absolute limit.
But with ginger, selling just half a mu could yield twenty taels—far more profitable than growing crops!
"Really!" Meng Fangxun nodded. Of course, this was the most ideal calculation; the reality was different.
They grew ginger, but so did others—they just grew more, while others grew less.
Some grew it in vegetable gardens, harvesting a few catties a year to sell at county medical clinics for small change. The clinics were used to working with these familiar suppliers; why would they buy from newcomers like them?
So sales were still a problem. They couldn't rely solely on Yong'an Prefecture; they had to look beyond.
If only medical clinics from outside Yong'an—from Changnan or even other administration commissirs—would buy their ginger!
Then the ginger from his and Xu Huaiqian's families wouldn't be enough to meet demand.
But he had never left Yong'an Prefecture in his life; how could he know people outside?
Meng Fangxun frowned, not daring to tell his parents the truth, or they would worry so much they couldn't sleep, just like now.
While he was anxious at home, Pei Wangshu was equally anxious in the examination hall.
Last year, out of their group of five, he was the only who failed. If he failed again this year, he would have no face to see Xu Huaiqian and the others.
Over the past year, no matter how busy or hardworking they were, they always found time to check his studies, highlight key points, and teach him essay writing.
Especially Xu Huaiqian—despite his poor health, he shared the food his family brought him to nourish Pei Wangshu.
If he failed again, how could he ever face them?!
The academy exam still tested poetry and songs. Pei Wangshu answered each question carefully and meticulously.
Following Xu Huaiqian's method—if he really felt sleepy, he would tap his temples with a cold bun.
These exam hall cold buns were really hard—they made his temples ache terribly.
He didn't know that last year, when Xu Huaiqian used cold buns to stifle his coughs, it was even harder!
In September, Chen Liejiu contacted Zhang Bingwen's father, who worked in river transport, and secretly rented a boat to ship charcoal to Suzhou Prefecture.
Knowing the prefect of Yong'an was a major corrupt official, Chen Liejiu didn't dare openly transport imitation silver charcoal into Yong'an. Instead, he used a dock in Taoyuan County, right next to Yong'an. Since it wasn't the prefectural city, it was less crowded.
Chen Liejiu directly asked Magistrates Wu and Sheng to plead his case and bribed the magistrate of Taoyuan County with my.
After all, it was just using his dock without reporting to higher-ups—no loss for him. The Taoyuan magistrate agreed without hesitation.
"I really don't want you to go." Finally on a long break to spend time with his husband, only for his husband to leave on a long trip—Xu Huaiqian was the most reluctant. Every night, he held Chen Liejiu's waist and nagged him.
"I don't really want to go either." Chen Liejiu hugged Xu Huaiqian back, kissing his face to coax him. "But I have to earn my for my little husband."
Xu Huaiqian pursed his lips: "I don't spend much." Aside from medicine, he didn't spend recklessly.
"Don't you want nice clothes?" Chen Liejiu coaxed him. "I heard Suzhou Prefecture's silks are beautiful. When I earn my, I'll buy some to make garments for you."
"My little husband is so handsome—who knows how stunning he'll look in silk?" Chen Liejiu continued coaxing. "Definitely the kind of handsome that would mesmerize me!"
Even in a sack, Xu Huaiqian's striking looks could make Chen Liejiu weak in the knees. Dressed properly in silk, he would be incredibly noble and handsome.
Alright, Xu Huaiqian was a little tempted. He just couldn't bear to part with his husband and didn't really want to stop him from going.
"I heard Suzhou also produces a kind of ointment," Chen Liejiu knew Xu Huaiqian wouldn't stop him, but he loved coaxing his little husband like this. "Applied daily, it makes skin like curdled cream and necks like grub-white. I'll buy it for you, okay?"
"I'm already pale enough; no need for that." Raised on ginseng and bird's nest, not working in the fields, plus a bit of sickly pallor—Xu Huaiqian felt he didn't need to be any whiter.
"I know." Chen Liejiu whispered in his ear: "But this ointment isn't just for the body—it can also—"
Xu Huaiqian's Adam's apple bobbed: "Really?"
"They say it works even better with heat flush," Chen Liejiu also smiled eagerly. " Coincidentally, when I return, it'll be heat flush season. Shall we try it then?"
"Won't it be dangerous for your health?" Xu Huaiqian was about to look forward to it, but thinking of Chen Liejiu's health, he hesitated.
"So many people use it," Chen Liejiu wasn't afraid. "We'll just try it; not use it daily. What's there to fear?"
That made sense. He could test it for lead or mercury first—he'd heard ancient cosmetics often had those.
As if persuaded, Xu Huaiqian said reluctantly: "Then you have to come back quickly."
It was always him leaving his husband; this was the first time his husband was leaving him.
Chen Liejiu smiled. He knew his little husband also enjoyed such intimacies—see, he wasn't stopping him now. He promised: "I'll return as soon as the charcoal is sold!"
Yong'an Prefecture was a small, insignificant prefectural city with no large ships—a 500-load boat was already impressive.
For his first trip, and to avoid the prefect, Chen Liejiu didn't dare be too conspicuous. He settled for a 200-load boat that could carry 120 cartloads of charcoal.
This amount was just a drop in the bucket compared to the charcoal they'd accumulated over a year.
But if he could open up sales, their charcoal would have no problem selling later. He set off with full confidence.
However, the entire Chen clan wasn't so relaxed. To save up imitation silver charcoal, they hadn't been paid their wages for the past year. They needed all the charcoal sold to get my.
The place was remote and lawless, and Chen Liejiu was in unfamiliar territory. Could he really sell the charcoal?
The clan elders knew the Chen clan could throw its weight around in Mishan County, but outside it, they were nothing.
They couldn't offer Chen Liejiu any guarantees, only pray for his safety and smooth return.
What the Chen clan elders thought wasn't clear to Xu Huaiqian. After seeing his husband off, he was sad for two days, then pulled himself together and got busy.
In mid-September, Pei Wangshu's results were posted. After a year of hard work and tutoring from top student Meng Fangxun, he lived up to expectations and passed as a last-place Xiucai.
His mother was so overjoyed she had a heart attack on the spot. Fortunately, Xu Huaiqian, Duan Youyan, and the others had been keeping an eye on the news and went to congratulate him that day.
Seeing his mother's heart attack, Duan Youyan and Sheng Yunjin, who had been studying both medicine and literature recently, always carried silver needles with them and administered acupuncture.
"Your mother has long had a heart condition. Avoid extreme joy or sorrow—don't let a happy event turn tragic." Duan Youyan revived Pei Wangshu's mother and advised.
"I understand." Du Yuerong had been too excited and didn't expect her heart condition to act up. Now, coming to her senses, she calmed down.
"Mom, why didn't you tell me?" When Pei Wangshu heard Duan Youyan say his mother had a long-term heart condition, his legs went weak with fear. Now that she was awake, he was both guilty and regretful.
He blamed himself for not noticing earlier and regretted being so immature and often making his mother angry.
"It's congenital," Du Yuerong waved it off. "Telling you wouldn't help; it's incurable."
"It can be managed." Duan Youyan thought of the medical books Sheng Yunjin had some fetch from the capital. "I heard the Imperial Medical Institute has a calming pill that can treat heart conditions. But the ingredients are too rare, so it's not available among the people."
"Really?" Pei Wangshu seemed to see hope instantly.
"Really!" It was mentid repeatedly in the medical texts; it should be reliable.
"Study hard for the exams." Xu Huaiqian gave him direction. "When you pass the Jinshi exam, you can ask the Emperor for the medicine."
Operas often depicted this—usually, the Emperor would be moved by a Jinshi's filial piety and grant the medicine.
"I'll take the exams!" Pei Wangshu agreed without hesitation. His mother had worked hard for him all her life—what was taking the exams and asking for medicine?
"We'll all help you." Xu Huaiqian didn't know how to comfort him but could only pat his shoulder and encourage him.