Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Xia Yu's family didn't touch the five hundred taels of silver; they simply put it away. Days passed by, seemingly no different from before, except for the five extra silver notes in their storage space.

Xia Yu's pond was finally finished, with the bottom and edges completely leveled. The pond was ten meters wide, fifteen meters long, and two meters deep. After completing these tasks, Zhang Youtie bought a large amount of quicklime to disinfect the pond. He had heard from Brother Wu, the fishmonger, that newly dug ponds must be disinfected, otherwise the fish fry would easily die. He followed this advice to his own pond. After the quicklime was added, the bluestone slab blocking the inlet ditch was removed, and the river water slowly flowed into the pond. Once the water level was about right, the bluestone slab was immediately reinserted.

At this moment, Zhang Youtie and the onlookers dared not approach the pond. The quicklime inside was releasing large amounts of hot steam with a pungent odor when it came into contact with water. After a few more days of sun exposure, it could be refilled with water and used normally.

For safety reasons, Zhang Youtie had a dense fence built around the pond to prevent mischievous children from running to the edge of the pond and falling in while the adults weren't looking during the busy summer harvest season.

After the work was finished, Zhang Youtie settled the wages for the ten people who had worked for twenty days. Each person earned twenty-three coins per day, totaling four hundred and sixty coins per person. After settling the wages, Zhang Youtie also prepared a meal at home to treat everyone. Wang and Li from the old house had to go out to sell braised offal every morning, so Liu came to help with her youngest daughter and two granddaughters.

Qinghe has made rapid progress lately, and can now cook a few simple dishes. Regardless of the taste, at least they're cooked properly and edible. In the first few days of learning to cook, she either burned them or left them undercooked. Perhaps because she hadn't done any housework before, this sudden exertion caused her to lose a little weight. This broke Liu's heart; she felt her daughter had suffered a great injustice. One night, she tried to secretly make her a poached egg to help her recover, but before she could even eat it, the old man caught her red-handed. Both mother and daughter were scolded by the old man, and the poached egg was given to Dongyu the next morning. From then on, Liu never dared to secretly cook for her daughter again, because there were always people at home during the day, and at night she was in the same room as the old man, so there was no opportunity.

Today, Zhang Youtie invited the village chief and his son, along with his father, two older brothers, and his nephew Changsheng. A dozen people filled two tables in the courtyard. The meal was very hearty. Liu had pre-ordered two pig stomachs, a pig liver, and a pig intestine from her two sisters-in-law. Xia Yu also bought a pig's head, cleaned it, and braised it along with the offal while the two aunts were braising it. There were four braised cold dishes, plus crisp cabbage, garlic-sliced ​​cucumber, cold garlic sprouts, and spiced peanuts—eight dishes per table. The table was laden with food, making everyone's mouths water.

Xia Yu's hot dishes were simple: a large plate of chicken for each table. She wanted to kill her own chickens, but her mother disagreed, saying they should be kept for eggs. So Xia Yu and her father went to town and bought two large roosters to kill and cook. They also made some dough, let it rest in oil, and after the chicken was eaten, they cooked noodles and soaked them in the chicken broth. The ample meat and noodles left everyone satisfied, burping contentedly. They praised the Third Brother's family as rare honest people in the area. Indeed, Zhang Youtie had now become the "Third Brother" of his generation in Zhangjia Village.

Before they had finished eating, Wang and Li returned, looking like they had just come back from outside. Seeing them enter, Liu quickly invited them to wash their hands and eat. It must be said that these two sisters-in-law had quite the business sense. Their braised offal business in town was doing well, though it was time-consuming. Later, they started selling to restaurants and taverns, and now they have a few regular customers who buy their braised offal daily to make snacks for their customers at their small shop.

"Oh dear, I'm starving." Wang hurriedly washed her hands, picked up the noodles her daughter had just served from the table, and slurped them down.

Liu disapproved of the way she ate and was about to reprimand her, but then thought better of it and remained silent. Li was usually quiet and gentle, and at this moment she was similar to Wang, taking the noodles Chunyu handed her and quickly finishing the bowl.

Once her stomach was no longer empty, Wang wiped her mouth with a handkerchief before speaking to the people eating in the kitchen.

"We ordered some more braised food from two restaurants today, and we'll start delivering tomorrow. Hey, Xiaxia, I thought the pig's head you braised yesterday tasted pretty good. Your aunt and I are thinking of braising some to sell together, what do you think?"

“Sure, why not! Auntie, you can also add some thick tofu and thin bean curd sheets. They’ll taste great when braised in that broth.” Xia Yu swallowed the food in her mouth before speaking.

"Hmm, that's a good idea. I'll go to the tofu shop in the back village to buy some in a bit, and I'll braise it tonight. This chicken is really delicious, spicy and satisfying. The noodles soaked in this broth are also great. Sister-in-law, how did you make this?" Wang asked, enjoying the big plate chicken Xia Yu had made, which suited her taste perfectly.

"You'll have to ask Xiaxia about that; she made it," Liu replied with a smile to her sister-in-law.

"Xiaxia, this is really delicious. I think if we opened a restaurant specializing in this dish, it would definitely be a hit." Wang said as she ate, completely unaware of the undisguised disgust on her mother-in-law's face.

Seeing this from the side, Li quietly tugged at her sister-in-law's clothes and gave her a wink.

Seeing the old lady's expression, indicating her patience was about to reach its limit, Wang stopped babbling and immediately shut her mouth to eat quietly. Lately, because of selling braised food, Wang seemed to have unlocked her business potential, constantly thinking about how to make money, and had indeed done much less housework. Now, eating the delicious braised chicken and thinking about whether she could make some money from it, she naturally displeased the old lady.

After the meal, the sisters-in-law cleaned up the kitchen, and Wang and Li rushed back to make braised dishes. Every afternoon, they would braise the ingredients, soak them in jars overnight, reheat them the next morning, take them out, divide them according to the amount others wanted, and then deliver them to the various eateries.

"Sister-in-law, let's settle the accounts tonight and give some to our mother," Wang suggested quietly to Li, who was making braised food in the kitchen.

"Yes, sister-in-law, I was just about to bring that up with you. How much do you think we should give her?" Li Shi could also see that her mother-in-law was starting to have complaints about them running around every day.

"How about 30%? We'll each take 35%, and the official will take 30%."

After thinking for a while, Li said, "Sister-in-law, I think this way of dividing it is acceptable."

"Okay, then you go and do the accounting, and we'll go find our mother in a bit."

After the meat in the pot was braised, Wang put a stone on the lid before she and Li took the divided copper coins to the main room to find Liu.

"Mother," she called out with a smile when she saw Liu sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed) mending clothes.

He lifted his eyelids and saw his two wives enter. "What is it?"

Wang nudged Li, signaling him to speak. Li rolled his eyes at his sister-in-law helplessly before speaking to Liu.

"Mother, look how busy my sister-in-law and I are every day, making you work so hard at home. This is the money we earned this month selling braised food. My sister-in-law and I kept some as capital, and this is to show our respect to you." As she spoke, she handed over a large bag of copper coins. The two of them had earned more than three taels of silver in the past twenty days. Originally, according to the 30% rule, it would be 990 coins, but the two sisters-in-law discussed it and each took five coins from their share, making a total of 1,000 coins for the old lady.

"Why would I give it to you? I don't want your money. You earned it yourselves, so keep it." Liu glanced at the large bag of copper coins in front of her, completely unmoved.

“Mother, this is our way of showing our respect to you. You’ve worked so hard for this family all these years. Lately, my sister-in-law and I have been away for half a day at a time, and you’ve had to take care of the housework. Please take this money; consider it a donation for your grandchildren. Besides, my little sister is growing up and should have some nice clothes made for her.” Li was very eloquent. She didn’t mention it was for the government, only that it was a gift for the old lady. Since the old lady controlled all the money in the house anyway, saying it was for her was essentially the same as government money.

After she finished speaking, Liu still didn't react. Li glanced at her sister-in-law.

"Mother, if there's nothing else, we'll head out now. There's still some offal simmering in the pot; we need to go check on it," Wang Shi said.

Liu hummed in response without even looking up.

After they left, Qinghe, who had been silent all along, came out from the inner room.

"Mother, why don't you want this money? This is what they should give us as a token of their filial piety." As she spoke, she picked up the money bag on the kang table and poured all the money out of it.