She's skilled in medicine, martial arts, and even understands animal language—the abandoned dau

After hearing Geng Qingsong's words, Shen Man understood a bit. It seemed unlikely that she could learn any useful skills from them.

However, having come all this way, she didn't want to return empty-handed, so she continued, "Then thank you very much, Mr. Geng. However, we still hope to learn the entire process from silkworm rearing to silk production."

Upon hearing this, Geng Qingsong smiled and replied, "Little sisters, it's not that I don't want to help you, but the family rules cannot be broken. Please forgive me!"

Although he had a smile on his face, his eyes revealed a hint of wariness and distance.

Shen Man frowned slightly, and after thinking for a moment, she spoke again to Geng Qingsong: "In that case, we will not disturb you any longer, Master Geng. We shall take our leave now!"

"Oh, you're leaving already? You're not going to learn the silkworm rearing techniques?"

Geng Qingsong was surprised to find that the youngest member of the group was in charge, and that she spoke with conviction and kept her word.

"No need, thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Geng. Farewell!"

After leaving the Geng family, Shen Man and her group all seemed a little downcast.

Lanxiang looked at her daughter with worry and said, "Man'er, the villagers are waiting for us to learn the skills and come back. If we leave like this, how are we going to explain it to them?"

She knew that the purpose of her trip was to obtain silkworm eggs and related technologies, and the villagers would definitely be disappointed if she returned empty-handed.

"The Geng family clearly doesn't want to teach us their silkworm rearing techniques. Even if we stay, we won't learn anything useful, so why waste our time? The world is vast, and the Geng family isn't the only one that knows how to raise silkworms and reel silk. I'll go ask Steward Liu again later; maybe we can find another way."

"Man'er, are we still going to buy the silkworm eggs?" the village head asked.

“Grandpa Village Head, I suddenly remembered reading about the habits of silkworms in a book. After silkworms spin cocoons, they become moths, fly out of the cocoons, and look for suitable places to lay their eggs. I bet there are silkworm eggs left behind on Wild Boar Ridge.”

"Silkworm eggs? But it was so cold around the Lunar New Year, and there was such heavy snow. Wouldn't all those silkworm eggs have frozen to death?"

"No, silkworm eggs hibernate in winter, just like snakes. They hatch into silkworms when spring arrives and the weather warms up."

"So, does that mean we don't need to buy silkworm eggs at all?" Upon hearing this, the village head shook off his previous gloom and asked excitedly.

"If what the book says is true, then it shouldn't be necessary. But it's already mid-February, and the weather is gradually getting warmer. Maybe by the time we go up the mountain again, the silkworms will have already hatched."

"If that's the case, then all the better. Let's go, let's head home!"

The group followed the village head to the rental shop, rented a horse-drawn carriage, and returned to Qiufeng Town.

When they returned to Qiufeng Town, Lanxiang took Shen Man to the Zhu Family Trading Company to ask Manager Liu if he knew any other silkworm farmers.

The shop assistants told her that Manager Liu had gone to the prefectural city with Master Zhu to deliver goods and would not be back for two days.

With no vehicles available to take them back from Qiufeng Town, the group had no choice but to walk. By the time they returned to Xiaoyao Village, it was completely dark. However, even so, a group of people were still gathered under the large camphor tree at the village entrance, chatting idly.

When they saw the village head and others return, they immediately swarmed around them.

"Weren't you going to Linxian to learn silkworm farming? Why are you back so soon?" someone asked curiously.

“Yeah, do you think raising silkworms is that easy? You can learn it in a day?” another person chimed in.

"Where are the silkworm eggs you bought? Let us see them!" Some people couldn't wait to see what the silkworm eggs looked like.

The crowd chattered, bombarding the group of people who had just returned from Lin County with questions.

Shen Man sighed and said helplessly, "Oh, don't even mention it. The Geng family has no intention of teaching us silkworm breeding techniques!"

Everyone was surprised to hear this.

"What? You have a letter of recommendation from the Zhu family steward, so why isn't it working?" someone asked.

Shen Man nodded and said with a wry smile, "Yes, they must be worried that if we raise silkworms, we will steal their business, so they claim that the silk reeling and dyeing techniques are family heirlooms and cannot be passed on to outsiders."

"The Geng family is really stingy!" someone cursed indignantly.

"That's right, it's a good thing that the Zhu family steward recommended them to us, but we didn't expect them to be so heartless!" another person complained.

Everyone condemned the Geng family's actions, feeling that they were too selfish and self-serving.

"It's only human nature. If you had a way to make money, would you be willing to share it with others?" Shen Man said with a smile.

The villagers were taken aback and embarrassed. It seemed that no one except Lanxiang and her daughter was willing to do such a thing.

"The good news is that we might not need to buy silkworm eggs anymore!" Shen Man continued.

"No need to buy silkworm eggs? What's going on?" the villagers asked curiously.

Shen Man told everyone that there might be ready-made silkworm eggs on Wild Boar Ridge, and the villagers were all surprised and then started discussing it.

"This is great! It saves us a lot of money!"

"Yes, let's go to Wild Boar Ridge again tomorrow and see if any silkworms have sprouted!" everyone agreed.

“But Man’er, we can’t turn silkworm cocoons into silk. Even if we raise silkworms, we still won’t be able to sell them for money,” a villager said worriedly.

“I will continue to inquire about this matter with Manager Liu, but he has gone out these past two days and is not in town…” Shen Man answered patiently.

"Alright, alright, it's getting late, everyone should disperse. We can talk about it tomorrow." Only after the village head gave the order did the villagers make way for him.

Back home, Li Mufeng and Tingxian's room was pitch black, and it was unclear whether they had already gone to bed or were out and had not yet returned.

Lanxiang led Shen Man into the house and let her play inside for a while, while she quickly went to the kitchen to prepare food.

To save money today, the group hasn't eaten anything since leaving the Geng family's house, and after walking such a long distance, their stomachs are now completely empty.

Lanxiang quickly took out a bag of coarse flour, scooped out a bowl, added some water and salt, stirred it well, and then skillfully fried out several fragrant pancakes. This was their simple yet warm dinner tonight.

"Mother, I originally thought that since we came back empty-handed today, the villagers would clamor for us to withdraw our shares, but to my surprise, not a single person mentioned it!"

Shen Man finished eating a pancake and said to Lanxiang with satisfaction, "I've thought it all out. If anyone causes trouble, I won't take him with me next time I do anything!"

"Yes, I was worried the whole way." Lanxiang still felt a little scared when she recalled the first time she sold herbs.