It's hard for my elder sister. I rely on the mountains to farm and pay off my debts.

"How much pork suet do you need? I'll prepare it."

Song Zhi calculated in her mind, "It must be at least 300 pounds!"

Qian Zixu waved his hand and said, "I thought it would be much, but only 300 kilograms of lard, it's not that difficult..."

Before he could finish his words, Zhou Yu said, "You can prepare the lard yourself, but you must not bid maliciously and disrupt the trading order in the county."

Qian Zixu heard Zhou Yu's concerns and said straightforwardly, "That's easy to do. If it doesn't work out, I'll just buy a pig and kill it myself. I won't drive up the price of suet!"

Buying thirty pigs would cost at most a hundred taels of silver, but if these mugwort soaps could be brought back to the capital, it would be possible to make several thousand taels of silver by reselling them.

This business will not lose money no matter how you look at it.

Qian Zixu's idea is good, but reality is often contrary to one's wishes.

Song Zhi said, "My energy is limited. If you can provide me with lard, I can try my best to make 5,000 pieces of mugwort soap for you. However, the government-run shop will no longer be able to supply you."

The reason why Song Zhi makes mugwort soap is not to make money. Her main purpose is to open up the market through mugwort soap and let more customers know her.

Moreover, lard is an important daily necessity, and some poor families may not be able to afford it. If the price of lard is driven too high because of mugwort soap, this is something Song Zhi does not want to see.

As soon as these words came out, Qian Zixu subconsciously looked at Zhou Yu eagerly.

Zhou Yu considered that he had indeed invited the person and that the other party had helped him a lot, so he said, "I can give you half of the amount when you leave."

As soon as these words came out, Qian Zixu's heart instantly fell to the ground, and he agreed repeatedly: "Okay, okay, half and half!"

After saying that, he turned to Song Zhi and said, "Young Miss Song, please wait a moment. I will prepare the lard in the next two days. I just don't know where to give it to you."

"My family lives in Xiaohezi Village. If you have the materials ready, you can send them directly to my home."

"There's just one thing I want to remind you of. The weather is so hot right now, and we obviously can't make over 300 kilograms of suet in one go. To ensure the freshness of the ingredients, please send it in as many batches as possible."

Qian Zixu nodded repeatedly after hearing this: "Don't worry, Miss Song, I will definitely prepare everything according to your instructions."

After Zhou Yu and the other two had reached an agreement, he spoke up, "We still have some things to discuss. If Brother Qian has nothing else to do, please go back."

This is like giving yourself an order to leave.

Qian Zixu was not ignorant of the ways of the world. When he heard this, he realized that the following conversation was not something he could listen to.

So he tactfully said goodbye and left.

After everyone left, Zhou Yu led Song Zhi into the reception room.

He asked Song Zhi to sit down first, and then ordered Liang Tian to go back to the county government office and get the wooden box from the bookshelf in his public housing.

After Liang Tian left, Zhou Yu finally spoke, "Don't be nervous. I called you in to discuss the dividends from the Forsythia tea."

"Now that most of the Forsythia tea in the county government office has been sold, according to the original agreement, I must give you 10% of the profits. Taking this opportunity, I will give you 70% first!"

"As for the remaining 30%, I'll give it to you once all the Forsythia tea leaves are sold out. Is this a good arrangement?"

Song Zhi was stunned. She had forgotten there was another one. Just as she was about to speak, Liangtian hurried over holding a wooden box.

"Young master, are you talking about this wooden box?" Liangtian asked while holding the wooden box.

Zhou Yu nodded slightly and signaled Liangtian to put down the wooden box.

Then he slowly opened the wooden box, and saw an account book and a stack of banknotes neatly placed inside.

Zhou Yu directly took out the account book and the banknotes and pushed them in front of Song Zhi. "Here is the account book. It clearly records how much Forsythia tea was roasted, how many kilograms were sold, at what price, and how much is left."

"Also, here's a 700 tael silver note. It's the profit from the previous sale of Forsythia tea! Could you please check the amount carefully first? Is it correct?"

Song Zhi was not very surprised that she could get so much money. After all, she was present when the village heads of each village were called to a meeting to count the money.

But what surprised her was that Zhou Yu sold most of the Forsythia tea so quickly.

Song Zhi was very satisfied to be able to get the huge sum of 700 taels, and she was not a person who was ignorant of the ways of the world.

The other party was several times more powerful than her, yet he actually took the initiative to mention giving her dividends. It was even more impossible for her to look through the account books in front of him.

She happily accepted the money and pushed the account book over. "I am very confident in your work, sir. There is really no need to look at this account book again!"

Song Zhi's look of complete trust really pleased Zhou Yu.

Seeing that Song Zhi didn't look at the account book, Zhou Yu thought she didn't understand it, so he kindly opened the account book and told Song Zhi about the sales situation and the remaining amount.

"If you sell all this tea, you should still be able to get more than 300 taels." Zhou Yu said to Song Zhi.

Hearing this, Song Zhi did not show much joy. She thought for a moment and said, "Sir, I don't want the remaining dividends. I just have a request."

Zhou Yu suddenly sat up straight and nodded, saying, "Go ahead!"

"Didn't the Lord intend to use our village as a pilot village for the kang (fired bed)? I'm confident that this kang can be widely promoted in Qishui County."

"But I thought that in the future there would definitely be people who couldn't afford to hire someone to build a kang, so I'd donate this money to help poor families in the county build a kang!"

"With this kang, the long winter won't be so hard to endure!"

In fact, in Song Zhi's opinion, if a family cannot even afford to build a kang, it may be difficult for them to survive the winter smoothly.

She lives in this world now, and she doesn't want to see the "frozen corpses on the road" that she used to only see in books.

Zhou Yu really didn't expect Song Zhi to say such a thing.

He twisted the smile from the corner of his mouth and said to Song Zhi very seriously: "Then let me thank you first on behalf of the poor people in the county!"

Song Zhi didn't want to make herself out to be unique. She scratched her head in a feigned embarrassment and said in a somewhat silly tone, "If I have to thank anyone, I should thank all the people in the county who helped pick forsythia leaves."

"Without their hard work, how could I have earned so much money?"

Zhou Yu nodded in agreement. "This year, the people have been sacrificed, but the sales of Forsythia tea have been opened up. Next year, there will definitely be many merchants coming to the county to purchase."

"Whether they make their own tea, sell it, or help with the harvest, they'll definitely make more money than this year!"

Seeing that he really agreed with her words, Song Zhi immediately flattered him, "Your Excellency is truly a good official who cares about the people and serves them wholeheartedly! It is a blessing for the people of Qishui County to have such a good official like you who cares about the people!"

Zhou Yu looked at Song Zhi deeply, then shook his head and laughed helplessly.

Although he had heard a lot of flattery, after hearing the obviously flattering words from the person in front of him, he felt happy for some reason.