Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Xia Yu took over the oil rendering work, no longer letting Aunt Ma interfere with the lard rendering. Most of the rendered meat sauce was now secretly hidden in Xia Yu's spatial storage. From then on, the house was no longer filled with lard residue, and Aunt Ma finally stopped her frantic efforts to make steamed buns and dumplings.

One day, Aunt Ma seemed to suddenly discover a problem and asked Xia Yu...

"Miss, we've been rendering a lot of lard lately, so why is there less minced meat than before?"

"Oh, I've been working out too hard lately, I've basically dried out all the fat. I saw that the remaining bits were black and burnt, so I gave them to Sihei to eat."

"Oh, I see. The dried bits look black, but they're actually edible. You can crush them up and mix them into the dough to make pancakes, which are very fragrant." After saying that, she looked at Xia Yu very seriously and said, "Miss, don't give Sihei any more of these. It's too wasteful."

Looking at Aunt Ma's extremely serious expression, Xia Yu felt her head start to ache again.

“Aunt Ma, actually, it’s cold now, so the rendered pork cracklings won’t spoil. My dad is planning to build a house after the New Year. Why don’t we save them all and add them to our cooking? It’ll make the food taste more meaty.”

"Oh dear, how could I have forgotten about that? If I had remembered earlier, we wouldn't have eaten so much; it's such a waste," Aunt Ma said, slapping her forehead with some regret.

Xia Yu didn't care what she thought, as long as she wasn't made to eat dumplings and buns non-stop for another ten days or so.

Zhang Youtie took some time to visit the village chief again and bought the land they had previously discussed. It was about eight or nine mu (approximately 0.33-0.33 acres), which the village chief divided into four plots of land, each costing eight taels of silver, for a total of thirty-two taels. After measuring the land, Zhang Youtie, on a day with decent weather, and Uncle Ma, drove a mule cart with a carriage to Ming'an County to obtain the necessary paperwork. At the government office, Zhang Youtie secretly slipped each of the two clerks handling the matter a hundred copper coins. After paying a little over three taels of silver in taxes, they easily obtained the deed. After leaving the government office, Zhang Youtie took the village chief to Zuixiaolou Restaurant and treated him to the most popular hot pot in the county at the time.

On the way back, Uncle Ma drove the carriage outside, while the village chief and Zhang Youtie chatted inside.

"You said you bought that piece of land to build a house and raise silkworms?" The village chief was somewhat surprised to hear Zhang Youtie's plan about that piece of land.

"Yes, that's right. The child's mother said she wants to bring along a few capable older women from the village to work together, so that everyone can earn a little extra money in addition to farming." Zhang Youtie had been out and about a lot, so he knew how to put things in a more pleasant way.

"Hmm, it's rare that you remember everyone in the village. You're a good kid. It seems you planned all this. Everyone was wondering why you planted so many mulberry trees by the fishpond. But what kind of business are you planning to do with those silkworms? Few people around here do this. Most people weave a bolt or two of silk and sell it to the local cloth shops. No merchants come here to buy silk." The village chief said with some concern, thinking about the situation here.

"I haven't decided yet. We'll see whether to sell raw silk or weave cloth later. Silkworm farming is just a side project. I think the most important thing is raising fish and feeding shrimp."

“You’re right. Raising silkworms is just a matter of putting in some effort, but it doesn’t cost too much.” The village chief listened to Zhang Youtie and didn’t think of anything else. In fact, in his opinion, Zhang Youtie’s family could not raise many silkworms, and the silk production could not be scaled up. It should be a business that Liu Shi thought of on the spur of the moment when she saw that there were too many mulberry trees.

After finishing his story, the village chief inquired about the situation of Zhang the Cripple and his wife. Both of them felt a pang of sadness when the topic turned to them. If Zhang the Cripple's biological parents knew how much their child had suffered, what would they think? Would they regret sending him away?

Upon arriving at Zhangjia Village, they first took the village chief home. When they got out of the car, Zhang Youtie brought a few packets of pastries into the house, saying they were for the village chief's grandson to sweeten his mouth.

After Zhang Youtie left, the village chief's wife opened the pastry package and gave a piece to everyone in the family. This was a precious treat; although their family was relatively well-off, they rarely bought it. When she offered it to the village chief, he waved his hand and refused, saying, "I ate meat for lunch, I'm full now, you guys eat."

Hearing this, the village chief's wife put the pastries back into the paper package, licked the crumbs off her hands, wrapped the remaining pastries again, and put them in the cupboard, intending to serve them to guests during the New Year. Seeing that she was reluctant to eat them, the two other women felt a little hungry and offered her their pastries.

"Mother, you eat it, I don't like sweets," the eldest daughter-in-law said.

"Mom, have some of this. I ate a lot for lunch, so I'm not hungry yet," the second daughter-in-law said.

"Eat, eat. I don't want to eat now. Just open the cupboard and eat whenever you feel like it." The village chief's wife refused the pastries offered by the two wives.

Seeing that their mother-in-law was really unwilling to accept the pastries from their hands, the two of them each broke off half of their pastries and placed them on the table next to her, and then took their children back to their respective rooms.

The village chief's wife looked at the two half-eaten pastries on the table, feeling a pang of regret for the crumbs that had fallen out when she broke them apart, but also pleased with her two daughters-in-law's filial piety.

The village chief looked at the others in the house and said, "Go back to your rooms, everyone. I need to talk to your mother about something."

Upon hearing the village chief's words, his two sons, Dayong and Eryong, left the main room and returned to their own rooms.

"Mom, have some of mine, I haven't had any yet..." Zhang Dayong said to his wife as he returned to the house. But then he noticed two half-eaten pastries on the kang table and looked at the mother and her two children with some confusion, asking...

"This is?"

"Dad, my brother and I broke our pastries in half and gave them to Mom," Zhang Dayong's eldest son, Xibao, explained to his father.

After listening to his son's words, Zhang Dayong looked at his wife and saw her smiling gently and nodding at him.

"Xibao, Lebao, these are the pastries you broke for your mother! Good children, you are truly your parents' good kids." Zhang Dayong rubbed his two sons' heads and praised them in an exaggerated tone.

Xi Bao and Le Bao were embarrassed by their father's praise, their faces turning slightly red. "Dad, Mom also gave milk, why don't you praise Mom?"

Hearing their son's innocent words, Zhang Dayong and his wife couldn't help but burst into laughter.

When Zhang Eryong returned to the house, he saw his wife holding their son, feeding him a pastry. Smiling, he placed the pastry on the kang table and said to his wife...

"I don't like sweets, you can have this piece."

“I still have some, don’t I? You can have some. I just took a bite, and it’s sweet and not greasy. You should like it.” His wife glanced at the pastries on the table, and hearing him say this, her ears suddenly felt hot. She didn’t dare to lift her head as she spoke to Zhang Eryong.

"Look at you, we've even had a child, and you're still so shy in front of me." Zhang Eryong couldn't help but tease his wife when he saw the blush on her face.

"Tch, the child's getting bigger and bigger, and you still keep talking nonsense. Be careful the child thinks you're shameless." Er Yong's wife had always been easily embarrassed and blushed since she was a child. After marrying Zhang Er Yong, he discovered this trait and enjoyed teasing her even more.

“I’m in the prime of my life, how can I be shameless because I’m old! Besides, don’t you know whether I’m old or not?” Zhang Eryong said with a knowing smile as he looked at his wife.

"You...you...you bastard." His wife was so embarrassed by his increasingly indecent behavior that she could barely speak coherently. She looked around, wanting to find something to throw at him.

Seeing his wife's face flushed crimson, Zhang Eryong knew that teasing her any longer would only provoke her, so he stopped joking and said seriously.

"Shouldn't we get down to business?"

Seeing that he was suddenly so serious, his wife thought he had something important to say and hurriedly asked, "What's the important thing?"

"Ahem, our little Bao is almost a year old, shouldn't we have a little brother or sister for him..." He didn't finish his sentence because his wife found his words inappropriate. She put the baby down on the bed, covered his mouth with one hand, and pinched his waist hard with the other. Zhang Eryong's unfinished words were replaced by his own cry of pain.

Outside the window, the snow began to fall again. Under the heavy snow, some families rejoiced while others grieved.