Qin Shuying’s words were both swift and sharp. Xu Shi was defeated once again, immediately struck speechless. She discovered that gaining the upper hand over Qin Shuying in verbal exchanges was truly too difficult!

She stole a glance at Old Madam, only to find that Old Madam seemed quite approving of Qin Shuying’s words. This made her even angrier, and she opened her mouth to retort—

At this moment, Xiangqin came in and said, “Old Madam, Master has returned and sent word that he will come immediately to pay his respects to Old Madam.”

Xu Shi’s eyes suddenly blazed with delight. With Qin Yongtao present, let’s see how this wretched girl tries to argue her way out. She was overjoyed, forgetting that since Qin Yongtao was a man, Zou Shi would naturally have to withdraw, and Qin Shuying would naturally follow suit.

In no time, the room was completely empty. Xu Shi clenched her handkerchief so tightly that her knuckles turned white without her noticing.

After Qin Yongtao entered and paid his respects to Old Madam, he walked out of Xuan Hall together with Xu Shi.

“Master…” Xu Shi had just opened her mouth to say something when Qin Yongtao cut her off.

“Don’t say anything. I already know everything.”

Xu Shi was very surprised. Qin Yongtao glanced at her, feeling irritated. What had gotten into Xu Shi lately? She was becoming increasingly foolish. When he had entered earlier, he had encountered the departing young ladies. Qin Shuying’s expression was calm, and Qin Yongtao understood immediately upon seeing it.

To think that Qin Shuying actually had some black sugar recipe in her possession – this utterly astonished him. Especially after over a month of operation, black sugar was not only enthusiastically received but its price kept rising, making him extremely envious.

Yilan Garden

Looking at the red sand sugar before her, Qin Shuying’s thoughts wandered far and wide.

The Lu family had built their fortune on black sugar. After marrying into the family, Qin Yaoyao began selling black sugar in her spare time. Starting from carrying baskets for street sales, she gradually developed to renting a pole-width small stall on the street, then it became a shop, then a large shop. Later, Qin Yaoyao began buying warehouses to stockpile black sugar for her own shop’s sales. After arriving in the capital, the black sugar shops grew larger and larger, and she even opened three of them. Therefore, Qin Shuying established a warehouse in the suburbs of the capital to stockpile black sugar.

Last summer, the capital encountered a once-in-a-century windstorm. The sugar warehouse filled with “black sugar” was toppled by the fierce wind. After the wind disaster, Qin Shuying went to clean up the warehouse with an immensely regretful heart, hoping desperately to salvage some losses.

After moving away the scattered felt canopies and wooden pillars, Qin Shuying found that the black sugar had completely vanished, all covered by mud. Though she had been mentally prepared, she still felt chilled from head to toe. This was the foundation of the Lu family – Qin Shuying was devastated.

Unwilling to accept this, Qin Shuying couldn’t help but thrust her hands deep into the mud. After a long while, she finally pulled her hands back out. In a daze, she saw that her hands held half mud and half black sugar. Out of habit, she put her fingers in her mouth to taste, then held her hands up to her eyes to look. Suddenly her eyes lit up – she discovered that the black sugar hadn’t completely dissolved, and had changed from black to grayish-white, with a more refreshingly cool and sweet taste.

A merchant’s shrewdness made a light flash in Qin Shuying’s mind. She quickly handed over the post-disaster cleanup work to Miluo, casually found a basin, and dug up several handfuls of this “half-sugar, half-soil” mixture. She then conducted research at the estate where the warehouse was located. A merchant’s keen instincts and caution led her to choose secrecy – she didn’t reveal this to anyone, not even Miluo knew.

After careful consideration, she realized it must have been the layer of mud that the storm had blown over the black sugar, combined with the soaking from wind and rain, that had produced this miraculous effect. Through repeated experiments, Qin Shuying completely removed moisture from the prepared black sugar, placed it in baskets woven from bamboo strips, used a special “sugar knife” to cut deep “wounds” in the compacted black sugar, then collected good soil from clear mud ponds and water holes. She used bamboo sieves to filter out impurities from the soil, then completely covered the “wounds” on the black sugar with about an inch-thick dense mud, which slowly absorbed the “black pigment” from the black sugar.

In fine weather, within a week, the mud that had “eaten its fill” of “black pigment” would solidify into blocks. At this point, one only needed to break open the mud blocks and remove them, clear away sand particles and mud debris from the sugar, and the refreshingly cool and sweet red sand sugar would be completed. Its quality was clearly superior to other cane sugars.

After two months of repeated experiments, Qin Shuying was finally certain that she could mass-produce red sand sugar! She was overjoyed and prepared to tell Lu Changxuan about this discovery. With the Lu family possessing this secret recipe, they could almost monopolize the capital’s black sugar business and become major black sugar merchants. This was every merchant’s dream! The Lu family would never again have to worry about gold and silver. However, fate played tricks – before she could tell Lu Changxuan, she was “caught in adultery” in bed.

Nevertheless, Heaven was ultimately fair. Knowing she was wronged, it gave her a chance to turn the tables.

Now, red sand sugar had become an obstacle to the Lu family’s business.

After Miluo returned to her side, Qin Shuying gave the recipe to Miluo, having her and her husband secretly produce red sand sugar. When Miluo first saw the red sand sugar, she was also extremely amazed. A merchant’s keen instincts made her more cautious amid her joy. Through three months of time, she completed the heavy work of building warehouses and other tasks, finally managing to get the goods ready for sale by year’s end. Even so, the red sand sugar sold out completely in the capital after only half a month. When the second batch came out, it was sold out again within days. Now, Miluo was intensively producing the third batch.

The next day, Qin Feifei came back to her maiden home.

Qin Shuying saw her again at Old Madam Qin’s place.

During New Year’s, Qin Feifei had naturally returned as well. At that time, Sixth Prince, Qin Yongluo, Qin Kaile, and Qin Kaiyu had all been unable to return to the capital, so they had sent people with New Year gifts.

Her belly was already high and round. Seeing Qin Shuying enter, a flash of vicious malice quickly passed through her eyes, which she soon replaced with an affectionate smile. “Great-grandmother, are you really willing to watch me be bullied by Seventh Sister? Seventh Sister, come quickly and tell us how you’ve been bullying your sister. Now your business has suppressed the Lu family’s business so much that not even sparrows visit their doors. This sister of yours won’t stand for it.”

Qin Shuying smiled as she paid her respects to Old Madam, then sat at Old Madam’s right side. While massaging Old Madam’s shoulders, she said, “Third Sister, you’re with child and should be resting properly. These business matters should be Third Brother-in-law’s responsibility to handle. How can he send his sister back to seek help? This isn’t good for Third Brother-in-law’s official reputation. Moreover, Third Brother-in-law is too inconsiderate of Third Sister. Since Third Sister is with child, he should be more considerate and let Third Sister rest more. These trivial matters should be Third Brother-in-law’s burden to bear.”

Qin Feifei was nearly driven to fury by Qin Shuying’s words, but she kept remembering her purpose for coming and didn’t directly confront Qin Shuying. Instead, she turned to Old Madam and said, “Great-grandmother, Seventh Sister’s sharp tongue really needs to be corrected. I, as her older sister, can’t even out-argue her. I thought this would just be a matter of her lifting a finger, but instead she’s blaming me. The Lu family depends entirely on this black sugar shop for their livelihood. Now with expenses exceeding income, how can they survive? Sister is cutting off the livelihood of dozens of people in the Lu household! What a cruel heart sister has! If outsiders knew, what would they think of us daughters of the Qin family?”

Old Madam’s expression changed.

Her heart grew even colder.

Was Xu Shi so determined not to let Qin Shuying live? How was she teaching her daughter? With one opening of her mouth, Qin Feifei painted Qin Shuying in such a light. If Qin Shuying didn’t have her protection, wouldn’t she be devoured completely, bones and all?

One Qin Yaoyao had already died under mysterious circumstances – must Qin Shuying be sacrificed as well?

Old Madam’s hand struck the table heavily.

Observing Old Madam’s expression, Qin Feifei felt triumphant inside. Old Madam had been angered by her words, hadn’t she? She didn’t know what her mother had been doing or saying, but Old Madam valued family reputation and conduct above all else. As long as she firmly grasped this point, she needn’t fear that Old Madam wouldn’t be angry with Qin Shuying. How could her mother fail to handle even such a small matter?