As expected, after the meal, Aunt Jinhua spoke to Zhenniang about this matter.
Since Aunt Jinhua had brought it up, and Uncle Jingdong was impatient with such affairs, Zhenniang nodded in agreement.
Li Jincai, having received their consent, happily went to prepare his luggage. He also sent people to arrange the house in the city, but we’ll leave that aside for now.
“Uncle Jingdong, do we still have the mourning clothes at home?” Zhenniang asked Li Jingdong while riding in the carriage back to the city.
“Of course we do. Does your family need them?” Li Jingdong asked.
“Not my family—we have our own. I was thinking that tomorrow when the Tian family comes to collect the pine wood, our entire ink workshop should wear mourning clothes to bid farewell. After all, Ninth Uncle gave his life for that wood. I want everyone to remember tomorrow clearly,” Zhenniang said.
Of course, she had deeper intentions. While she had managed to retain most of the ink workshop’s workers, their morale was inevitably scattered. She wanted to use this occasion to unite their hearts. With mourning soldiers being the most determined fighters, she aimed to inspire the workshop’s fighting spirit.
Only then could the workshop truly become one in purpose.
“Good.” Li Jingdong nodded, impressed by Zhenniang’s quick thinking.
Back at the workshop, they called for Manager Shao to discuss tomorrow’s matter of the Tian family coming to claim the pine wood.
When Zhenniang mentioned demanding ten years’ usage rights to the Luo family’s pine forest in exchange, Manager Shao, who knew something about this, initially thought she was joking. Now hearing her speak of it seriously, he couldn’t help but consider it carefully.
“It won’t work. In normal times, we might have the advantage, but the Tian family would never agree to this demand. Even if they did agree, the Li family might not benefit much. Currently, all pine forests are severely affected by the pine disease—about eight-tenths of every ten parts are wasted. Even if we get the Luo family’s pine forest, it’s hard to say how much usable pine would remain,” Manager Shao shook his head.
“I want the Luo family’s pine forest not for the pine trees, but to plant tung oil trees,” Zhenniang said. With so many people in the workshop, she couldn’t explain the pine resin oil.
Growing tung oil trees was another of Zhenniang’s plans. To control the pine disease, massive cutting was inevitable. She would only extract pine resin oil from the Huangshan pine forests.
But for the lowland pine forests, after cutting down the pines, Zhenniang planned to plant tung oil trees. Firstly, they couldn’t possibly extract pine resin oil themselves—they would need to hire farmers. This way, the pine resin oil business would be exposed too early. But if they collected pine resin oil under the guise of growing tung oil trees, others wouldn’t pay too much attention.
The pine resin oil business could remain secret longer.
Secondly, tung oil itself was a raw material for smoke ink. Moreover, with the opening of Longqing, the shipbuilding industry developed rapidly, and tung oil was an essential shipbuilding material. The price of tung oil would surge directly.
Tung oil trees grew quickly, generally yielding harvest in nine to twelve months, with peak production after three years. After ten years, the situation would be unpredictable.
By then, tung oil alone could bring considerable profit to the Li family.
Of course, others couldn’t see these possibilities.
“It won’t work. Though tung oil prices are high now, they’ll drop soon. It’s not worth planting tung oil trees on such a large scale just for the workshop’s small usage,” Manager Shao argued.
“I agree with her,” Li Jingdong said. Though he didn’t know about Zhenniang’s plan to plant tung oil trees, they had previously agreed about the pine resin oil, so he naturally supported Zhenniang now.
Hearing Li Jingdong’s support, Manager Shao fell silent with a dark expression. Since both Miss Li and Li Jingdong agreed, anything more he said would be useless.
Regarding Manager Shao, Zhenniang could only feel apologetic for now, waiting to explain to him later. This was for business confidentiality—surely Manager Shao would understand.
…
The next day, at Chen hour (7-9 AM).
When Tian Benchang arrived at the Li family ink workshop with his people.
“Congratulations to Miss Li on inheriting the Li family ink workshop,” Tian Benchang immediately cupped his hands in congratulation.
“What is there to congratulate? I was merely forced into this position. Just after taking over, we’re already pushed to such circumstances. I have no face to meet Ninth Uncle, and when the Old Madam wakes up someday, I’ll have no face to face her either,” Zhenniang replied coldly, returning two subtle jabs.
Inwardly, she scoffed—how could he truly have congratulatory intentions? Most likely, he came to watch their misfortune. Otherwise, at such a time, who would speak words of congratulation?
“Miss Li jests,” Tian Benchang said awkwardly, his face unable to maintain composure.
“Let’s skip the idle talk and get straight to the point. If Young Master Tian wants to take that batch of pine wood today, that’s fine—exchange it for ten years’ usage rights to the Luo family’s pine forest,” Li Jingdong said coldly from the side.
His usual style was to get straight to the point.
“Impossible.” Tian Benchang replied. The Luo family’s pine forest was Huizhou’s largest, with an advantageous location on Huangshan Mountain. The pines were the finest Huangshan pines—naturally, Tian Benchang wouldn’t agree.
“Then there’s nothing more to discuss. You can leave. As for the Ink Affairs Bureau, it’s really because your Tian family is unwilling to exchange, not our Li family’s fault. I suppose Master Huang won’t have reason to shut down our ink workshop,” Li Jingdong continued coldly.
With just a few words, he shifted the blame onto the Tian family.
“You’re forcing my hand,” Tian Benchang grew angry. The Li family was being unreasonable.
“Who’s forcing whom? Young Master Tian should understand clearly. Don’t forget it’s pine disease season—you know well how much usable pine remains in the Luo family’s forest. You should know whether it’s worth the exchange. In any case, these are our Li family’s terms. If Young Master Tian wants to use his tribute ink rights to force us, then the Li family can only make a desperate last stand,” Zhenniang also responded coldly, turning her face toward the distant east warehouse.
“Young Master, look over there,” the manager who came with Tian Benchang hurried in from outside, pointing toward the Li family ink workshop’s east warehouse.
Tian Benchang turned to look. Around that batch of pine wood stood a group of people, each wearing mourning clothes, faces filled with grief, silently guarding the pine materials.
Tian Benchang’s face darkened. What was the Li family planning?
“Let us discuss this,” Tian Benchang had to concede.
“Young Master Tian, please take your time,” Zhenniang said, then left with Uncle Jingdong and Manager Shao, leaving the Tian family people to discuss in the side hall.
“Young Master, we should resolve this quickly to avoid unnecessary trouble. Our family focuses on smoke ink, pine wood isn’t crucial. Besides, with the current pine disease, there isn’t much usable pine left in the Luo family’s forest, and the century-old pines were long ago exhausted. Why not just make the exchange? At worst, we can cut down the remaining pines before the handover, leaving them a bare mountain. Even if the Li family plants new pine seedlings now, ten years of growth won’t meet Li ink’s requirements—it would be completely useless to them,” the manager advised.
Tian Benchang remained silent. The manager’s analysis made sense, but while Li Zhenniang might not see through this, would Manager Shao and Li Jingdong also miss it?
He felt there must be something else going on. But he couldn’t figure out what.
“Uncle Fang, did you learn anything while you were outside earlier?” Tian Benchang asked the manager beside him in a low voice.
“I learned some things. This demand was Miss Li’s idea—Manager Shao didn’t agree. His view was the same as what I just said, believing such an exchange wouldn’t benefit the Li family at all, and it would be better to exchange for money and seek pine wood elsewhere. However, Miss Li was very insistent. Then…” At this point, the accountant gave a low laugh, “I heard Miss Li plans to plant tung oil trees in the pine forest.”
“Really?” Tian Benchang looked at the manager.
“Yes, yesterday the Li family’s old shopkeeper went to find Li Jingdong. Now that Miss Li has Li Jingdong’s support, Manager Shao can’t fight alone,” the manager Fang said.
“Such a wild fantasy. With the Li family’s small tung oil usage, why would they need to plant an entire mountain of tung oil trees? And from what I know, tung oil prices are about to drop,” Tian Benchang laughed. Women will be women.
In Tian Benchang’s view, Zhenniang’s decision fit a woman’s way of doing things—wanting eggs meant raising chickens yourself, and wanting pork meant finding ways to raise pigs yourself. After this pine disease incident, the Li family would inevitably focus on developing smoke ink, so Miss Li thought of planting tung oil trees.
“Haha, who knows, maybe tung oil prices will soar in a couple of years. We should agree to her terms—we might end up buying tung oil from the Li family in the future,” Tian Benchang joked.
The manager Fang laughed along.
“Very well, we agree,” After their discussion, Tian Benchang came out with Manager Fang and announced to Li Jingdong, Zhenniang, and others.
Then both parties sat down to sign an agreement, had it stamped by the yamen’s clerk, and the matter was settled—neither side could back out.
Then Tian Benchang gathered people to transport the pine materials.
Cart after cart of pine materials left the Li family ink workshop.
“We can’t let them take it! This cost Ninth Master his life! This is Ninth Master’s life!” At this point, some old workers from the Li family workshop burst into loud wails.
“There’s no choice, no choice!” Other elderly workers also wept freely.
“Fellow workers, let’s all go to the gate to send Ninth Master off one last time,” At this moment, Master Qin waved his hand, and immediately, workers wearing mourning clothes filed out of the workshop one after another, standing silently on both sides of the workshop. Everyone’s eyes were bright red.
Originally, the Tian family claimed the pine materials had nothing to do with everyone, and many people naturally stayed uninvolved.
But at this moment, as they stood by the road watching the Tian family people laughing and joking while loading the pine materials onto carts, thinking about how this was exchanged for Li Ninth Master’s life.
At this moment, Li’s family members, especially workers who had stayed for over ten years, all clenched their fists and gritted their teeth. Everyone harbored a burning anger—this moment must be remembered, this debt must be repaid.
It was at this moment that the scattered hearts of the Li family ink workshop came together again.
The surrounding onlookers could feel the Li family’s determination.
“Ah, the Tian family is too much! Li Ninth Master’s body isn’t even cold yet, and they do such things,” onlookers whispered.
“Indeed, the Tian family are no good people. We must be extremely careful when dealing with them in the future,” others responded.
Tian Benchang’s face was now dark as ink, never expecting the Li family would pull this move at the end.
Mourning soldiers, mourning soldiers—originally after Li Ninth Master’s death, plus the Old Madam’s incident, the Li family workshop was already scattered sand, but unexpectedly, his one move had allowed the Li family to gather their hearts back together.
The Li family’s tactics were skillful—he wondered whether this idea came from Li Jingdong, Manager Shao, or Li Zhenniang.
Tian Benchang suddenly felt he had been too hasty in this matter.
“Manager Fang, go back and gather people, go to the pine forest, cut down all usable pine materials, and transport them back to the workshop. Don’t leave the Li family even a thread of advantage,” Tian Benchang said with an ugly expression.
Since they were already at odds, they might as well go all the way.
“Yes, I’ll go gather people right away,” Manager Fang nodded.