“Sister-in-law, help me write a letter,” Hua’er said listlessly as she walked into Zhen Niang’s room after dinner.
“You want to tell your elder brother about the Ge family’s situation?” Zhen Niang asked, pulling her to sit down.
“Yes, I’ve thought it through. Although my brother and Sister Ge Qiu are divorced, he should still know about such a major event,” Hua’er nodded.
Zhen Niang considered this and nodded in agreement. Elder Brother Zheng Ping should indeed know about this. She turned around – she had been drawing ink line diagrams earlier. While she had figured out the Guyu Mi ink formula, it would still take some time to produce it. The most crucial step was carving the blocks, and to do that, she needed to first complete the ink line diagrams.
Using the already-ground ink, she took out a piece of paper and began writing the letter, detailing everything that had happened with the Ge family lately. Afterward, she read it aloud to Hua’er.
Hua’er nodded after listening: “Yes, this is good.” She carefully put away the letter, planning to have it delivered to Huizhou through the postal service tomorrow.
In the following days, there wasn’t much news about the Ge family. Ge Dana was in jail with no updates, while Sister Ge Qiu had reportedly gone to stay with relatives and hadn’t been heard from since.
However, Yellow Wolf had surprisingly replaced Ge Dana as the patrol officer for this area. The merchants along Official Street shook their heads – they had driven away a tiger only to welcome a wolf.
Nevertheless, Yellow Wolf, aware of how his actions against the Ge family had been criticized, maintained a friendly demeanor after taking over the patrol position. Apart from the usual levies, he didn’t impose additional taxes. Compared to Patrol Officer Ge, he was quite reasonable. People tend to be forgetful, and since Yellow Wolf was now the patrol officer, various merchants inevitably had to curry favor with him. Within a few days, quite a few voices were praising him.
The Li Family Ink Shop continued its routine peacefully, paying taxes on time and avoiding getting involved with others’ affairs. Zhen Niang wasn’t afraid of Yellow Wolf targeting their family – after what happened during their opening, he wouldn’t dare move against them without absolute certainty.
At the Tian family, Tian Benxiang was so busy he was barely seen, while Tian Ronghua managed the ink shop’s affairs, handling returns and merchandise exchanges smoothly. The impact of the Tian family’s ink incident was gradually fading. As for Second Young Master Tian, he was reportedly confined at home and would return to Huizhou in a few days, effectively ending his assignment in Nanjing.
The Cheng family, after taking over the Zhu Family Ink Shop, had taken advantage of the Tian family’s recent chaos to attract a significant number of customers, managing to gain a solid foothold. This proved that experience truly counts.
As for Yihou Banking House, Luo Jiu has been busy lately. Besides running the bank in Nanjing, he was also receiving goods, mainly Songjiang cloth, and grain, reportedly purchasing military supplies for the Qi family army. He had been so busy that he was rarely seen, no longer appearing unexpectedly to startle people as he used to do.
As for Sun Yuejuan, she seldom went out, though she would occasionally stop by the Li Family Ink Shop to greet Zhen Niang when passing by. However, she never discussed ink-related matters. Things had become quite natural.
Indeed, while Sun Yuejuan had lost some of her former straightforwardness, she had gained a certain sophistication – the essence of life experience.
She had truly grown.
In the evening, Zhen Niang was returning to the wooden building in the back courtyard from the ink shop.
“Ah, you don’t know, there’s no profit in silk farming this year. The officials took everyone’s cocoons as tax payment, which would have been fine if that was all, but these corrupt officials are rotten to the core. They classified good first-grade cocoons as inferior quality, worth less than two coins instead of three. In the end, some families even had to pay extra money to cover the remaining tax. Isn’t this extortion? Mark my words, no one will raise silkworms next year, not even for this year’s final batch.”
Madam Zhao and Madam Huang were chatting inside, with Madam Zhao discussing the situation of Huizhou’s silk farmers.
“Ah, the court has become increasingly unreasonable these years. The Tartars are causing havoc in the north, and bandits are appearing everywhere. If this continues, not only will common people suffer, but we merchants will have a hard time too,” Madam Huang said.
“Indeed,” Madam Zhao responded bitterly. Mentioning the Tartars reminded her of Li Jingfu’s death at their hands, and she wished she could tear those bandits apart.
Zhen Niang was coming to show her Second Aunt the ink line diagrams when she saw her mother’s expression. Knowing her mother was thinking about her father’s death again, which was always a sensitive topic, she changed the subject: “What has elder brother been doing these days? He’s hardly ever around.”
“Oh, he’s still running around about that tung oil business. Someone introduced him to a major tung oil merchant, and he’s been trying to meet with them, but he’s been turned away several times. Your brother is stubborn – if people won’t see him, he just keeps going back day after day,” Madam Zhao said, waving her hand.
“Yes, Zhengliang is quite persistent in his work,” Madam Huang added from the side.
“What persistence? I’d call it foolishness, being so stubborn. If one place doesn’t work out, why not try another? Are we to believe there’s only one tung oil merchant in all of Nanjing?” Madam Zhao said irritably.
“Mother, elder brother must have his reasons for being so persistent,” Zhen Niang defended her brother.
“You always protect your elder brother,” Madam Zhao lightly tapped Zhen Niang’s forehead in mock annoyance.
Zhen Niang rubbed her forehead: “Of course I do. When I used to make ink at home, my elder brother saw how hard I worked and would specifically go hunting in the mountains to bring back game meat to nourish me.”
Back when the family was struggling, Zhen Niang had focused on earning money by making ink sticks, becoming quite thin and dark during that period. Li Dalang had specially gone hunting to bring her nutritious game meat. Thinking about it now still filled her heart with warmth.
“Silly girl, at least you know what’s good,” Madam Zhao scolded with a smile, her eyes full of satisfaction.
Zhen Niang rolled her eyes in response – as if she was someone who didn’t know to be grateful.
Just then, the front courtyard gate creaked open, and they heard elder brother Li Zhengliang greeting the gatekeeper.
Li Dalang had returned.
“I’ll go see elder brother,” Zhen Niang clapped her hands and took her leave, heading to the front courtyard. There she found her elder brother leaning against a corridor pillar, scratching his head with a troubled expression.
“What’s wrong, elder brother? Still haven’t met with them?” Zhen Niang asked as she approached.
“I met them today, but…” Li Zhengliang said, frowning troubledly. When he went to find the tung oil merchant today, he unexpectedly encountered the manager of the Bai family at the door. The manager of the Bai family’s tung oil workshop had been quite rude, and upon learning he was there to sell tung oil, had mocked him at the entrance. He called him a countryside rich man who didn’t know his place, coming to Nanjing to “show off his treasures.”
This “showing off treasures” was a local expression meaning to make a fool of oneself.
In short, he had been ridiculed until his face turned red, and he had retorted that the Bai family’s tung oil contained impurities and wasn’t as good as his family’s.
He had specifically studied the Yunnan Bai family’s tung oil these past few days. Its color and clarity were excellent, with the clarity even slightly better than his family’s oil. However, sometimes things that look good aren’t necessarily truly good. Having worked with oils for years, he had keen eyes and a sensitive nose, and he could sense that the Bai family’s tung oil had been mixed with something to achieve that clarity.
So, in his anger, he had said as much.
But the problem was that he wasn’t eloquent and couldn’t explain it clearly, which ultimately left Manager Xi with the impression that he was just being unreasonable.
It had truly left him feeling quite dejected.
Her elder brother was an honest person, and Zhen Niang quickly got the story of what happened today out of him with just a few questions. Hearing his account, she understood.
Such practices were common in her previous life. For instance, with wolfberries, some unscrupulous merchants would fumigate them with sulfur for better preservation. This not only made them easier to store but also made their color more vibrant and attractive, though it was harmful to people.
Thus, judging something purely by its appearance was useless.
However, speaking of testing tung oil quality, Zhen Niang had researched this in her previous life, as tung oil was used for burning lamp smoke, so she needed to know about it. There was a simple method for testing tung oil quality.
“Elder brother, wait a moment,” Zhen Niang said, then ran back to her room and brought out a piece of white paper. She then had her brother bring out both their family’s tung oil and the Bai family’s tung oil.
She cut the white paper in half, coating both sides of one piece with their family’s tung oil and the other with the Bai family’s oil.
“Sister, what are you doing?” Li Dalang asked curiously.
“You’ll know in a moment,” Zhen Niang replied.
Tung oil dried very quickly, almost as soon as it was applied. After a while, Zhen Niang picked up both pieces of paper. First, she took the paper coated with their family’s tung oil, gripping it at both ends and pulling. It showed great elasticity, almost like rubber, with no damage to the paper.
Then she took the paper coated with the Bai family’s oil, pulled it in the same way, and it made a brittle sound, breaking in several places.
“This… this…” Li Dalang was stunned.
Truthfully, their master had taught them to rely solely on their eyes to judge quality, and he had never known there was such a simple testing method.
Li Dalang understood oils, and watching Zhen Niang’s demonstration, he naturally understood the principle. This tung oil was pressed from cooked tung seeds, classified as cooked tung oil, mainly used for waterproofing and preserving furniture, and boat planks, and adding luster. One of its most important properties was penetration – the oil would seep through the wood surface into the interior. Better elasticity and flexibility meant longer effectiveness and shelf life, and in this aspect, pure cooked tung oil was the best, while oil mixed with impurities was inferior.
This was why the paper coated with the Bai family’s adulterated oil became brittle – the impurities reduced the oil’s elasticity and flexibility.
“I’m going to see Manager Xi again!” Li Zhengliang jumped up excitedly.
“Don’t rush, elder brother. It’s almost dark now, go tomorrow instead. I’ll come with you to see,” Zhen Niang said. From her brother’s attitude today, she could tell he had been badly mocked, and tomorrow she wanted to see what the Bai family manager would have to say.
“Ah, right,” Li Zhengliang patted his head – he could be single-minded sometimes.
Thus, the night passed quietly.
The next morning, after breakfast, Li Zhengliang called his sister to come along, making sure to bring all the necessary testing materials.