Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Seeing her sister-in-law's gaze drifting in one direction and her voice growing softer, Liu found it somewhat amusing.

"Sister-in-law, you've misunderstood me. I didn't mean that. Oh dear, don't overthink it. Anyway, we were in the wrong. Tell me quickly, what happened to Mother? What's wrong with the watermelon?" Liu couldn't help but want to know why Liu had fainted. She felt it couldn't be because her family was making money and the old lady couldn't stand it, that she fainted. Although she was biased, she was still her own mother, and there was no reason for her to be unhappy about her family's wealth. But she really couldn't figure out why.

Seeing that she was anxious, Wang stopped joking with her.

"Today, Mother went to the fields and saw so many weeds in your wheat field. She was furious and pulled up a huge bunch of weeds to teach you a lesson, you lazy old woman. But when she got there, no one was home. So she came back with the bunch of weeds. When Father saw them, he realized they weren't weeds at all; they were clearly watermelon seedlings. Mother must have pulled up more than a dozen. Then Father told Mother that each watermelon seedling could produce more than ten watermelons, and each watermelon weighed more than twenty catties. This year, you'll sell them for fifty copper coins a catty, so each watermelon is worth one tael of silver. When Mother looked at those dozen or so watermelon seedlings and did the math in her head, she fainted." Wang Shi recounted the story vividly, as if she had witnessed it herself.

Hearing her words, Liu was startled and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. She hadn't expected that watermelon seedlings had actually sprouted in the ground, and that they had grown so quickly after only a few days of planting? Lost in thought, Liu remained silent for a long time. Seeing her expression, Wang was terrified. How could she forget that her mother-in-law was so concerned about the money? Didn't her sister-in-law care? After all, she was the one who had grown them.

He rushed forward and grabbed Liu's arm, calling out, "Third sister-in-law, what's wrong? Don't scare me! Someone, someone come quick! Third sister-in-law is about to faint!" Holding Liu's arm, he turned and called for help from the front yard.

Because she was preoccupied with other things, she didn't react immediately when Wang called for help.

Zhang Youtie, who was comforting the old lady on the upper floor, fainted when he heard his sister-in-law calling for his wife. She pushed away the hand holding his arm, stood up, and ran outside. Liu, who had just been pouring out her heart to her son, stopped crying when she heard her eldest daughter-in-law's call and followed the others to the backyard.

Zhang Youtie arrived first, and seeing his wife standing there safely, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief before walking over.

"Mom, what's wrong? Our sister-in-law said you fainted."

"I'm fine, I'm fine, it was our sister-in-law who made a mistake." Liu's face flushed when she saw the large group of people rushing over behind Zhang Youtie.

At this moment, Madam Wang realized she had made a blunder. Seeing the group of people she had attracted with her shout, she felt somewhat embarrassed.

“I made a mistake. I was just telling my sister-in-law why our mother fainted. I saw that my sister-in-law wasn’t moving, so I thought she was also worried about the money…” She couldn’t finish her sentence when she saw her mother-in-law glaring at her in the crowd.

"Alright, it's all right, that's good. Let's go back inside, let's go back inside." Standing next to Liu, Zhang Youyin noticed the tense exchange between his sister-in-law and his mother and quickly spoke up to break the somewhat awkward atmosphere.

"Mom, didn't you say you were going to teach Auntie and Second Auntie how to make pig intestines today? Let's go, or it'll get too late." Xia Yu saw her grandmother glaring at her auntie and mother, and quickly spoke up.

"Oh, right, let's go now." Liu noticed her sister-in-law's unease and quickly followed her daughter's lead, pulling Wang along.

Seeing that everything was alright, the others dispersed. Zhang Youtie and his brothers followed their parents back to the main room to talk.

The children ran out to play together. Because of Liu's earlier commotion, Old Master Zhang was worried that his third son would become estranged from him, so he wanted to win him back. He insisted that the whole family stay at the old house for dinner.

Zhang Youtie didn't agree immediately. Instead, he made an excuse to leave the main room and went to the kitchen to ask Liu Shi's opinion. With his two sisters-in-law in front of him, Liu Shi naturally had no objections. She simply told Zhang Youtie to eat, but if the old man wanted to drink, he must dissuade him, as there were important matters to attend to at home tomorrow, and he shouldn't drink too much and cause delays.

"Okay, I understand. Don't worry."

"Pah, what are you saying? This is your house, what could I possibly worry about?" Liu spat at Zhang Youtie, embarrassed by the teasing looks from her two sisters-in-law.

He wasn't angry; he just chuckled a few times and went back to the main room to chat with the others.

After he left, Wang and Li couldn't help but tease them again, until Liu's cheeks turned red.

Because I needed to teach my two aunts how to make braised pig intestines, the task of cooking in the kitchen tonight was left to Liu Shi, along with Chunyu and Qiuyu. Actually, there wasn't much to do; my sisters-in-law had already cooked the porridge and heated up the cornbread, so all that was left was to stir-fry the vegetables. Looking at the large basket of clean bok choy in the kitchen, I knew that this must be the food prepared for the old house tonight.

She asked Qiuyu to help her peel some garlic cloves, thinking that Xiayu had cooked some delicious garlic bok choy a couple of days ago, and she planned to cook that at the old house today as well. But Qiuyu only peeled two cloves and then stopped.

"Qiuyu, these two cloves of garlic aren't enough. Help your aunt peel all of this garlic."

"Third Aunt, my grandma doesn't allow us to use so much. She says that one clove of garlic is enough for one stir-fry." Qiu Yu's voice was rather soft, and she always spoke in a gentle tone, making people reluctant to raise their voices at her, for fear of startling her.

"Alright then." Liu had no choice but to follow Liu's rules in the old house.

I scooped a spoonful of oil from the lard jar into the large pot, then looked at the vegetables in the basket and felt there wasn't enough oil in the pot, so I was about to scoop out another spoonful.

"Third Aunt, Third Aunt, there's too much. Stop digging. Scoop some of the stuff from the pot back into the jar." Qiu Yu, who was standing next to her, saw her actions and hurriedly reminded her.

Chunyu sat in front of the stove, tending the fire, and couldn't see how much lard Liu had scooped out. Hearing Qiuyu's words, she said to Liu somewhat embarrassedly, "Third Aunt, my grandmother checks the oil jar after every meal. If she sees that too much has been used, she will scold my mother and Second Aunt."

Hearing Chunyu's explanation, Liu Shi, knowing her mother-in-law's personality, shoveled some more oil back into the pan. Seeing Qiuyu nod, she added the sliced ​​garlic to the pan and sautéed it until fragrant. Then, she quickly poured the basket of bok choy into the large pan and laboriously stirred it with a spatula. She had to be quick; otherwise, the oil in the pan would burn out.

At this moment, in the courtyard, Xia Yu was directing her two aunts on how to clean the pig offal. At first, they used wood ash and Wang and Li didn't react much. But when they saw that they were going to use corn flour and salt, their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"This is such a waste of food! Washing a whole set of pig offal will waste a lot of cornmeal!" Wang felt heartbroken as she watched Xia Yu grab a handful of flour and some salt and put them into a large basin to scrub.

Li nodded vigorously beside her; she hadn't expected that washing pig offal would require cornmeal and salt.

"Auntie, Second Auntie, would you like us to use ten coins' worth of cornmeal and salt to wash a set of undercooked clothes?" Xia Yu asked them.

"That's definitely not enough, but I do have seven coins!" Li said after calculating in her mind.

"Last time I only brought more than half of the pig intestines and a pig stomach. Now, how much do you think this whole set of pig offal could sell for if it's braised? Just calculate the price you're thinking of."

The two looked at the large basin filled with a pile of things, including large intestines, small intestines, pig heart, and pig lungs, which must have weighed eleven or twelve pounds.

"I think it should be sold for eighty copper coins, shouldn't it?" Wang replied first.

"Sister-in-law, I think it's about that amount, it shouldn't be less than eighty coins," Li continued.

"Aunties, I bought this set of pig offal for less than fifteen coins. Adding the seven coins for cleaning, and the cost of seasonings and firewood, it's no more than five coins. Can you calculate how much all these costs add up?"

"Twenty-seven coins, leaving a profit of fifty-three coins." Li calculated quickly, finishing the calculation in no time.

"Sister-in-law, don't worry about the cornmeal. As long as we do this well, we won't have to worry about selling it, and the profit will be quite good," Li said to Wang, who was still doing the accounts beside her.

“Yes, second sister-in-law, you and Xiaxia are right, we can do this job. Xiaxia, move aside, I'll wash it. You watch from the side, and tell us if there's anything that's not clean enough.” Wang, who had just been feeling sorry for the cornmeal and salt, pulled Xiayu aside and squatted down to start scrubbing the pig offal in the basin.