The prince only allowed me to have a baby, so the pressure is a bit high!

Chapter 87: Zhen Huan Makes Money

It was said that ever since all the masters, both great and small, had gone to Changchun Garden, the capital had truly quieted down, and the Fourth Prince's residence had been no different. Furthermore, this time, the Fourth Prince's wife had learned her lesson and tricked them, preventing the Fourth Prince from bringing any concubines with him.

This has affected the interests of all the women in the backyard. Although their current favor is not as great as before, don't forget that they were all favored before or had prominent family backgrounds. They don't even take a Hadanara seriously.

This time, no matter what, I must find a way to teach Hadanara a lesson so that she knows that the Fourth Master's mansion is not her world alone.

It just so happened that the Nianhulu Mansion, which they had previously focused on, had recently made a new discovery. It was heard that the eldest princess in their mansion was doing some kind of milk tea business and had made quite a lot of money recently.

The sudden commotion at the previously quiet Niuhulu Mansion made Shi and Dong'e think of themselves. Could it be that Niuhulu had also had an opportunity like theirs? But in my past life, I'd never heard of milk tea. And on this hot day, people were actually buying the milk tea Niuhulu was selling? What on earth was going on?

In the Niuhulu Mansion in the capital, Zhenhuan has been living a pretty good life recently. Her half-sister was scolded and put in solitary confinement by her father without any effort. She has also started her own small business recently, which is doing quite well.

She was also grateful for the little bits of knowledge she'd gained online. While Zhen Huan hadn't memorized the other tips, she knew the ice-making method perfectly well, having even tried it before she'd traveled through time. This was also the reason she was able to convince Nian Hulu Lingzhu.

Time goes back to the second day after Zhenhuan came to this world. Zhenhuan had almost recovered by then. She took the initiative to find Ling Zhu in the study. The father and daughter chatted for about an hour, and then the layout of the Niuhulu Mansion changed.

The favored concubine was sent to a country house, and the concubine's younger sister was placed in solitary confinement, awaiting the appointment of a nanny. Ling Zhu then gave Zhen Huan five thousand taels of silver as start-up capital and a shop. After a simple renovation, Zhen Huan's milk tea shop was up and running in just two days.

Initially, the shop was open, but due to its remote location and the proximity to bookstores and silk shops, her milk tea business wasn't very successful. However, Zhen Huan was a marketing savvy. She had someone find a large wooden box and started promoting her products on the street, handing out flyers.

On such a hot day, being able to drink a glass of cold and delicious drink is something that even gods would not trade for. In addition, Zhenhuan launched a buy-one-get-one-free promotion for the first three days, and the business of this small shop suddenly became booming.

The ingredients are solid, and if you take it away you get some free ice to keep it warm. Buy one, get one free—who wouldn't want to take advantage of such a good deal? So Zhenhuan's initial investment quickly paid off, and they even made a good profit. After all, the most expensive ice here is made by Zhenhuan themselves, at no cost.

Zhenhuan's success also made Ling Zhu believe his daughter's previous words. Not only did he not take back the favorite concubine, but even the concubine's daughter, whom he loved very much, was now locked up in a small courtyard and raised by a nanny. Her future marriage would also be decided by Peng's word.

During this period, Zhenhuan also dealt with a spy around her. Because she was convinced that she was Zhen Huan (at this time she didn't know the specific two characters of her name), she paid special attention to the servants around her. Ling'er was definitely not a character in the plot, and even in the entire mansion, there were no characters like Liuzhu and Huanbi.

This was actually because she was always thinking about those palace fighting dramas, so when she wrote the milk tea recipe, she kept a trick and placed a hair on the small box where the recipe was placed. And during those two days, she happened to have arranged for the wet nurse to do other things, so it was only her and the maid Ling'er in the courtyard.

From then on, she became cautious and no longer thought that it was destiny that determined her. She used some tricks to transfer the original wet nurse away, and Ling'er was taken away directly by Ling Zhu's men.

As for the recipe, it was actually just a small recipe for making milk tea. It didn't matter if it was leaked. She still had many other secret recipes in her mind anyway. The key point was that her method of making ice was not exposed.

Fortunately, she didn't want others to know this method before, so she made ice in a small room in Lingzhu's front yard. She never brought anyone with her, and even the ice-making materials she bought were mixed together. This prevented Ling'er from finding the secret recipe in a short time.

Ling'er was actually brought into the mansion by Dong E, hoping she would subtly influence Niuhulu Zhenhuan's character. The original owner had indeed succeeded; Zhenhuan had been raised to be overly docile, even a bit submissive. If this continued, she would definitely have no chance of winning next year's election.

But everything changes. No one expected that Zhenhuan's personality would change so drastically after falling into the water. Not only did she become more confident and cheerful, but she was also smarter than before.

The Niuhulu family had few servants, and no new ones had been replaced in years. This was when the original idle move came in handy. However, an idle move was still an idle move, and with Dong E no longer in favor, her control over Ling'er had declined, making it impossible for Ling'er to obey Dong E's orders wholeheartedly.

In addition, Ling'er saw with her own eyes how much money her master made in such a short period of time, and she became greedy for a moment, so she thought of stealing Zhenhuan's secret recipe to exchange for money.

One wrong step leads to another. Zhenhuan has no feelings for Ling'er at all. Once he finds out, Ling Zhu, the head of the family, knows it immediately.

The bad guy stole her money and betrayed her. When Zhenhuan saw Ling Zhu the next day, she already knew who was behind it. As for Ling'er, this person also disappeared completely.

It was then that Zhen Huan began to pay attention to the Fourth Master's residence. Other secrets could not be found out from outsiders, but it was easy to know the surnames of the concubines in the Fourth Prince's residence.

Zhenhuan was not surprised to hear the name Li. This Li Gege should be the Concubine Qi in history. Although she gave birth to many children, not many of them survived. And the one who was left behind was just a guy with height but no brains, so he was not to be feared.

But when did Shi and Dong'e appear in the Fourth Master's backyard? I'd never heard of Shi, so I guess she was just an ordinary concubine. But how could Dong'e, a prominent Manchu family, appear in the Fourth Master's backyard at this time? And what about Song and Qi? Why did they say the Fourth Prince had no concubines?

Zhenhuan felt a little surprised, and then she inquired about all the princes' wives. The eldest wife was still the original Irgen Jueluo. This was correct, and it seemed that this was the person in her memory.

But how did the Crown Princess become Ulanara? She remembered that the Crown Princess seemed to be from the Guarjia clan, and the man who would report her for having an affair with Gua Liu in the future seemed to be from the Crown Princess's family.

Next is the Third Concubine Dong E, but this one was skipped. Zhenhuan focused on the Fourth Concubine. When she heard that the Fourth Concubine was from the Nara clan, Zhenhuan was stunned. This is true. It was also said in previous TV shows that the Fourth Concubine was from the Nara clan.

From this point of view, the ones who have changed the most are the Crown Princess and Dong E in the Fourth Master's backyard, but Zhenhuan's attention is only on Dong E at this time.

Firstly, anyone who has read history or watched TV dramas knows that the ultimate winner of the Nine Dragons' struggle for the throne was the Fourth Prince Yinzhen. Given that, it's no wonder that she took the initiative to marry the Crown Prince. Even if twins were born, so what? The Crown Prince's failure wasn't due to the lack of a legitimate son or historical tyranny, but rather the fact that Kangxi lived too long.

How can I allow others to snore beside my bed? Kangxi's desire for control over power can be said to be fully demonstrated in every TV series Zhenhuan has watched.

In this case, the Crown Princess Ulanara was probably just an ordinary noble lady of the Qing Dynasty.

Next, let's talk about why he suspected Dong E. First, from Ling'er's confession, she met with an old nanny every month to report her every move. After Ling Zhu's investigation, he found out that the other party was actually Dong E's wet nurse, the same Dong E who lived in the Fourth Master's residence.

Secondly, Zhenhuan clearly remembered all the plots in "The Legend of Zhen Huan". Although she didn't know why her age in this life was different from that in the TV series, it was better to do it earlier than later. She should seize the opportunity in advance to gain the trust of the Fourth Master. With her ability, no woman in the Fourth Master's backyard would be her opponent. Moreover, if she let Hongli come out of her belly, wouldn't her position as the empress dowager be more stable?

Also, history clearly records that, apart from his wife, the only concubine in the Fourth Master's backyard was herself, a concubine from a prominent Manchu family. Now that a sudden appearance of Dong E had occurred, wouldn't she have immediately attracted all of Zhenhuan's attention?

Although she suspected Dong E, Zhen Huan had no good way to verify her suspicions. Firstly, Dong E was in the Fourth Master's inner court, and someone of her status couldn't approach her. Secondly, Dong E was the prince's concubine, and it wouldn't be worth it for her, the daughter of a fifth-rank official, to confront her now.

This is also why Ling'er was directly dealt with by Ling Zhu instead of being sent back to Dong'e Mansion. The Niuhulu Mansion is still too weak.

Thinking of this, Zhenhuan stepped up her pace to make money. Not only did she not have the strength, she didn't even have much money. The first thing she had to do now was to raise Ling Zhu's position.

Zhenhuan thought of making glass again, but this method was opposed by Ling Zhu as soon as it was mentioned. Now there are many glass products on the market, especially the Ministry of Households sells a large amount of glass. It can be said that glass is no longer a very expensive thing. The reason why the Niuhulu family did not have it was because the head of the household, Ling Zhu, preferred porcelain.

Besides, if he got involved in this, he would definitely be investigated by the royal family, because this technology is currently exclusive to the royal family. He didn't want to offend the royal family, and Niuhulu couldn't afford to offend them either.

The glassmaking plan was shelved, and Zhen Huan thought of salt-making technology. The salt we eat now is still coarse salt, and refined salt is something only the nobility can afford. If this refined salt is controlled by the Niuhulu Mansion, then a huge amount of wealth will flow in.

Ling Zhu is very supportive of this recipe, but the current problem is very big. First of all, his family has no salt mine, so even if he knows how to make salt, he has no way to produce salt.

After Ling Zhu started talking about it, Zhen Huan realized that her family was just an ordinary fifth-rank official's family in Beijing, and it was impossible for them to have an industry like a salt mine.

This is indeed a difficult problem that cannot be solved in a short time. Zhenhuan has no choice but to think of other solutions.

The next day, Zhenhuan thought of making soap. The best soap on the market now is pancreas, which is basically made from pig pancreas. It is expensive and time-consuming, and it also has a smell.

She had watched many short videos before traveling through time, and all she needed was quicklime, caustic soda and grease to succeed.

This time, Zhenhuan did not find Ling Zhu directly, but asked the servants to go out and purchase what she needed. Oh, by the way, because Zhenhuan's original maid was disposed of, Ling Zhu added two more maids for Zhenhuan from the matchmaker the next day. Zhenhuan named them Liu Zhu and Huanbi.

The servants acted quickly and Zhenhuan started the experiment in the courtyard that day. She had learned her lesson this time and did not let the maid get close to her from beginning to end. She even memorized the recipe directly in her mind instead of writing it down on paper.

Quicklime and water react, and after a short wait, limewater is produced. Next comes caustic soda. This stuff is not easy to find on the market, and the servants had to buy it at the pharmacy. It is quite expensive. However, a small amount can last a long time, so Zhenhuan did not hesitate. She poured the limewater into the caustic soda and let them react. The calcium carbonate formed will sink to the bottom, and the remaining solution is the sodium bicarbonate solution. This is also her small goal this time.

After obtaining a large jar, Zhen Huan no longer needed to hide. She went straight to the cook and obtained a large jar of lard from her. She added the sodium bicarbonate solution to the lard and heated it, stirring constantly. Once the pot boiled, she continued to heat it over low heat to fully saponify the fat, stirring constantly.

After most of the water in the pot evaporated and the liquid in the pot was completely saponified, Zhenhuan divided them into three parts. One part was directly poured into a wooden box that had been prepared long ago to cool and shape. For the remaining two parts, one was added with the rose in the courtyard and the other with the autumn osmanthus. After stirring evenly, they were cooled and formed.

It took Zhenhuan most of the day to make this thing, but the final effect was very good. At least Ling Zhu's eyes lit up when he saw the finished product, and he approved of his daughter's new way of making money.