Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

After breakfast, Xia Yu started cooking the hot pot base to be sold to the restaurant the next day. Aunt Ma, Liu Shi, and Chang Yun all came over to help her. The group chatted and laughed in the kitchen, making it quite lively.

Around noon, Wang came over, carrying a jar in her arms.

"Sister-in-law, why did you come over at this time when the weather is so bad?" Liu stepped forward and took the earthenware pot from Wang's hand; it was quite heavy.

Aunt

"Auntie" Changyun and Xia Yu greeted Wang at the same time.

"Hey, Xiaxia, what are you doing? I can smell the delicious aroma from far away." Wang asked with a smile, seeing Xia Yu's apron and the spatula in her hand, knowing she was preparing food.

"I've come up with a seasoning recipe, I'll give it a try. Auntie, you two chat, I'll go in first, the oil is still on the stove, it'll burn in a bit."

"Okay, you go ahead and do your work. I just want to talk to your mother."

After Xia Yu entered the house, Wang smiled and said to Liu.

"We went to town to deliver some goods. Knowing that the school was closed today, we brought over some braised food. We'll have Changyun take some with us tomorrow. We can eat it with some flatbread if we get hungry tonight," Wang said with a smile.

"Auntie, I was just thinking about your braised food, and you just happened to bring it over." Changyun, standing next to Liu, quickly spoke up when he heard that his aunt had come to deliver braised food.

Hearing Changyun say this, Wang was pleased and said, "If you like it, eat more. Our family doesn't lack this now. From now on, I will send braised food to your school every three days. I will bring you a jar of it separately."

“Auntie, this is absolutely not allowed. As the ancients said, ‘A fine sword is forged through tempering, and the fragrance of plum blossoms comes from bitter cold.’ Since this is a school, life must not be too extravagant.” Changyun recited a line of poetry he had just learned, pretending to be serious, and refused his aunt’s kindness.

Hearing that Changyun could now speak as if reciting poetry, Wang said with a hint of envy, "Changyun is really different from Changsheng. Listen to what he's saying; he sounds like a scholar." Then she leaned closer to Liu and whispered...

"Sister-in-law, what did Changyun mean just now?"

When Liu heard her ask that, she chuckled and whispered to Wang, "Actually, I didn't understand either, but sister-in-law, this braised food is for business, you can't just give it away like this. You brought so much today, all the work you've done these past few days has been for nothing."

"Hey, it's homemade, how can we go hungry for our own kids?"

"..."

Knowing she couldn't dissuade her, Liu stopped talking and only thought about making up for the deficit for her sister-in-law in other ways later.

"Look, I've been so busy talking here. Let's go inside, it's warm inside."

As she spoke, she carried the jar and followed Wang into the house. The two had barely sat down when Aunt Ma brought in a charcoal brazier. It was clearly freshly shoveled from the stove. After setting the brazier down, she poured two cups of brown sugar ginger water from a kettle, first offering one to Wang with both hands, softly saying…

"Madam, it's cold. Drink some ginger water to warm yourself up."

"Oh, thank you, Aunt Ma." Wang took the brown sugar ginger water that Aunt Ma poured and took a big gulp with relish.

After Aunt Ma left, she whispered to Madam Liu and teased, "Thanks to my sister-in-law, I'm now being addressed as Madam Ma. I remember Aunt Ma was blind, wasn't she? When did she get better?"

Wang hadn't been here for a while. The last time she came, Aunt Ma wasn't around. Just now, when she suddenly saw Aunt Ma carrying a charcoal brazier, she was quite startled. Fortunately, although she was quite easygoing, she knew that Aunt Ma had gone through hardships, so she didn't ask her on the spot. She only asked Liu quietly after Aunt Ma left.

"It was quite a coincidence. That day, the child's father went to the county town..." Liu slowly told Wang about the origin of the eye drops.

After hearing what Liu said, Wang was also amazed that the most precious thing in the world is "coincidence".

"Back then, it was because you and your third brother were kind-hearted that you were willing to buy Aunt Ma back, even in her condition. Heaven saw your kindness and sent you a traveling doctor who happened to have medicine to treat eye diseases. Isn't that just like you getting a capable servant?"

Not wanting to discuss Aunt Ma's matter further, Liu changed the subject and asked...

"How is Second Sister-in-law now? Is she still unable to eat?"

Hearing Liu ask about Li's situation, Wang also looked worried and said...

“She’s been a bit better lately, and can barely eat anything. The other night, she suddenly wanted to eat poached eggs, so your second brother went to knock on Mom’s door. As soon as she heard she wanted to eat, she didn’t say a word and immediately brought out more than a dozen eggs.” He lowered his voice a little as he said this, “I think Mom is scared this time. Now, if your second sister-in-law says she wants to eat something, I think she’d be willing to kill an old hen.”

Thinking of Li's frail figure, Liu wondered how she could not be afraid. What if something bad happened...? With that thought, Liu quickly muttered a few curses in her mind and offered a couple of prayers to suppress her unease. However, she resolved to remind her daughter to prepare the ginseng in advance; she couldn't very well bring a fresh ginseng when the time came.

After talking for a while, Wang changed the subject to the baby in Li's belly.

"I think your second sister-in-law is most likely having a boy this time. You see, she didn't suffer like this when she was pregnant with Qiuyu and Dongyu."

"I think so too, and it'll be a mischievous boy." Liu agreed with a smile. It wasn't that she didn't like daughters; Li already had two girls, and if this pregnancy were to result in a boy, everyone would be overjoyed.

"I noticed the weather wasn't good, so I came over to discuss something with you. Should we prepare a gift for your second sister-in-law's child in advance? What should we prepare?" Wang said. She came to deliver some braised food and to ask about this matter.

"It's time to prepare. What do you want to buy, sister-in-law?" Liu thought about the red silk she had prepared. She had originally planned to add fifty eggs and a pound of brown sugar. With her sister-in-law standing there, even if she had plenty of money, she still had to consider the other person. But since her sister-in-law had come specifically to ask her, the two of them should discuss it.

“I saved some money from selling braised food this year. This was originally a business for the two of us, but after your second sister-in-law got pregnant, she refused to accept any more money from the braised offal, saying that she was resting at home every day and hadn’t done any work. In the beginning, this business was able to start because of Xiaxia’s recipe, and she put in a lot of effort. Now she won’t accept a single penny, and I feel really bad about it. So I was thinking of taking this opportunity to get a pair of silver bracelets for the baby and buy a few yards of cotton cloth. What do you think?”

Wang felt embarrassed saying these things to Liu. Because this meant Liu would have to give a more generous gift; it couldn't be the same as hers, but it couldn't be too different, otherwise it would look bad. She knew Liu wasn't short of money, but whether she needed it or not was a different matter.

Seeing that the usually carefree Wang was now speaking with such difficulty, and even looking at herself with some caution, Liu quickly understood Wang's concerns and smiled.

"Sister-in-law, I never thought we'd think the same thing." He continued, looking at Wang's delighted face.

“In the past, we didn’t have much money, so the amount of money given as a gift was naturally less. But it’s the thought that counts. This year, my family has saved some money from selling shrimp. I was thinking of getting a silver locket made for the child. You just said you wanted to get a bracelet made for the child. Wouldn’t that make us a complete set? When your wife’s family comes, it will look impressive!”

Upon hearing Liu say this, Wang was naturally overjoyed.

"Third sister-in-law, you're right. This way we can have a complete set, and it will look good to Second sister-in-law's family."

"But..." Liu said again, somewhat hesitantly.

"Sister-in-law, is there something troubling you?"

"Oh, sister-in-law. I was buying cotton cloth for my family a while ago, and I happened to find a piece of red floral fabric left over at the cloth shop. It was about three feet long, and since there wasn't much left, it was hard to sell. I saw that the price was cheap, so I bought it along with the cotton cloth I had at home. I was originally planning to send it to my second sister-in-law's child, but now..." What Liu Shi didn't finish was implying that since you bought cotton cloth and I bought silk, wouldn't it look bad?

"Hey, it's nothing. I'll just get a couple more feet of cotton cloth. You just take yours. It'll be more lively when we have people taking silk and cotton cloth." Wang understood what Liu meant and said nonchalantly with a wave of her hand.

So the two sisters-in-law agreed to go to town the next day to take care of some things in advance so they wouldn't have to worry about it all the time.