In the evening, Zhenniang was discussing the reprocessed ink matter with the family elder.
With pine materials now scarce, but the Li family warehouse having much waste ink, if they could develop reprocessed ink, it would both save materials and be a highlight—perhaps even helping the ink workshop escape its predicament.
It was fortunate that she had been researching reprocessed ink recently, which could now be put to good use.
The elders strongly approved of this.
“Yes, you need to focus on this next, developing this could help relieve some pressure on the ink workshop,” Elder Li finally said.
“I understand,” Zhenniang nodded.
Just then, someone knocked on the door. Xier rushed to open it—it was neighbor Sister Huaide.
“Oh, Sister Huaide, come sit!” Madam Zhao was just coming out of the kitchen and warmly welcomed her upon seeing her.
“I’ve come to borrow a saw and chopping knife if you’re not using them?” Sister Huaide said.
“We’re not using them, take them!” Madam Zhao quickly replied.
“Then I won’t stand on ceremony—just borrowing them for two days,” Sister Huaide said gratefully.
“What ceremony between us?” Madam Zhao said straightforwardly while asking Madam Du to fetch the saw and knife. Then she asked curiously: “What are you planning to do? Cut trees on the mountain?”
“No, the Tian family is recruiting workers near our city gate area to cut pine in the forest. They’re not even waiting until tomorrow—they’re heading to Huangshan tonight. The woodcutters need to bring their tools. Both my Huaimin and Huaihan are going, but we don’t have enough saws and knives, so I came to borrow from you,” Sister Huaide explained as she took the tools from Madam Du.
“Huangshan’s pine forest? Isn’t that the Luo family’s? The Tian family has already signed an agreement with the Li family ink workshop—the usage rights for that pine forest belong to our Li family for the next ten years. What right do they have to cut there?” Madam Zhao burst out.
“We don’t know about all that. Everyone’s gathering outside the city gate now,” Sister Huaide said.
“I’m going to have words with the Tian family,” Madam Zhao said angrily.
Truth be told, Madam Zhao had never cared much about the Li family ink workshop. Even regarding Zhenniang taking over the workshop, she had more complaints than approval. In her view, for a young woman, making some ink to earn dowry money would be best. Now taking over the Li family workshop and dealing with the Li family’s seventh branch’s large household—however you looked at it, it seemed impractical.
With this mindset, normally even if the workshop suffered some losses, Madam Zhao wouldn’t be this angry. However, when it involved the Tian family, things were different. The Li family’s eighth branch had been at odds with the Tian family ever since the broken engagement.
Now with the Tian family taking such advantage, how could Madam Zhao let it go?
“Mother, let it be. The handover hasn’t happened yet—the exchange only starts after the handover is complete,” Zhenniang stopped her mother. They were supposed to complete the handover today, but the Tian family’s manager kept finding problems here and there, constantly delaying.
Zhenniang understood their intentions clearly—wasn’t it all for this pine-cutting operation?
Honestly, she didn’t care about those pines. Firstly, these pines were all more or less diseased. The smoke from such diseased pines produced poor-quality ink. To make good ink from such smoke would require several times more work on the glue, actually increasing the ink’s cost—not necessarily worth it. Therefore, the workshop masters had fierce debates about handling diseased pines, with most masters believing they shouldn’t be used and should be discarded. Now the Tian family’s move, saved Zhenniang the time and cost of cutting trees.
“Then I’ll be going,” Sister Huaide said.
“Take care, Aunt,” Zhenniang smiled as she saw her out. Then she advised Madam Zhao: “Mother, getting angry is punishing yourself for others’ mistakes.”
“What nonsense?” Madam Zhao waved dismissively, “If you don’t care, why should I?” She turned and went back to gossip with Madam Zheng.
“The Tian family has no regard for proper conduct,” Old Shopkeeper Li said with a dark face.
“Walk in the night too often, and you’ll eventually meet ghosts. Perhaps one day, the Tian family will shoot themselves in the foot with these diseased pines,” Zhenniang said.
“That’s possible,” Old Shopkeeper Li nodded.
Thus, they didn’t bother with the Tian family’s schemes.
Two days later, the handover between the Tian and Li families was complete, and the Luo family pine forest’s usage rights for the next ten years belonged to the Li family.
Taking advantage of the Tian family having just cut the pines, and it being late spring, the Li family bought a batch of tung oil tree seedlings and hired villagers near the pine forest to start planting tung oil trees. They also sent Second Cousin Li Zhengyan from the ninth branch, along with several workshop workers, specifically to collect pine resin oil dug up from the ground.
The villagers didn’t understand and didn’t know the Li family’s deeper intentions, thinking it was just something done in passing. Therefore, outside rumors only spoke of the Li family planting tung oil trees.
“Ah, after all, it’s a woman’s perspective—no view of the bigger picture. Just for that bit of tung oil, was it worth planting so many tung oil trees?” Third Master Cheng sighed.
Since the Cheng family lost their tribute ink rights last time, Third Master Cheng had fallen ill, and only after resting these days had he somewhat recovered. He was now chatting with his nephew.
“The lips die from the cold teeth, Third Uncle. Should we ally with the Li family? I’m afraid after the Tian family targets them first, our family might be next,” Cheng Dayue said with a dark face.
“The Tian family won’t dare for now. The Li family’s ‘mourning send-off for the pine materials’ move was well played. Now everyone in the county is discussing this behind closed doors. I heard even the officials at the Ink Affairs Bureau and Ink Supervision Bureau seem to have opinions about this. They called in Tian Benchang for a warning. The Tian family has managed to displease everyone—they should quiet down for a while,” Third Master Cheng said in a low voice.
Lord Yan warned the Tian family because he still owed the Li family a favor.
As for Master Huang of the Ink Affairs Bureau, he belonged to the clean stream faction and was particularly wary of such matters, so his warning to the Tian family was not unwarranted.
Taking a sip of tea, Third Master Cheng continued: “Let’s not concern ourselves with the Li and Tian families for now. During this time, everyone calmed down and properly summarized the lessons from our failure in the tribute ink competition. Learn from shame and gather strength—the Li family will eventually settle this score with the Tian family.”
As for whether the Cheng family should ally with the Li family, although Third Master Cheng greatly admired Zhenniang’s ink-making skills, business was business. In his view, although the Tian family was currently aggressive, their foundation was hollow and floating. Therefore, while their momentum was fierce now, it was fine if nothing happened, but once something did occur, that momentum would surely collapse.
As for the Li family, although they were currently facing difficulties, their foundation remained intact, without serious damage to their core strength. Therefore, Third Master Cheng wanted to watch and wait—when the crane and clam fight, the fisherman benefits.
“Yes,” Cheng Dayue nodded.
…
At the Li family ink workshop.
“Jingdong, Miss Zhenniang, look at this smoke… it’s truly excellent smoke, definitely the quality of century-old Huangshan pine smoke,” Manager Shao hurriedly came in from outside with a tube of smoke.
This smoke was made from the pine resin oil that Li Zhengyan had brought back from the Luo family pine forest.
“Let me see,” Li Jingdong rubbed a bit of smoke between his fingers to examine it—lustrous, deep black, and moreover, delicate, with a rare touch of softness, indicating the smoke had reached a certain level of fineness.
“Good, good!” At this point, Li Jingdong could finally put his mind completely at ease.
“Well, now our Li family ink workshop can be considered temporarily free from raw material troubles,” Zhenniang also said with a smile.
Manager Shao and Li Jingdong both nodded.
Manager Shao had to admit he was impressed with Zhenniang. Initially, when Li Zhenniang insisted on having the Luo family pine forest and wanted to plant tung oil trees, he was quite unhappy and somewhat discouraged. Only when this pine resin oil was brought back did he understand Miss Zhenniang’s underlying intentions?
She had even apologized to him for not explaining earlier, saying it was because they hadn’t secured the pine forest yet, and she feared the Tian family might change their minds if word got out.
Now with such excellent smoke obtained, any remaining displeasure in Manager Shao’s heart had completely dissipated.
“Uncle Shao, Uncle Jingdong, next we need to focus on producing smoke. Since Master Ma, who was in charge of smoke production, has left, I want to take over that responsibility. After all, I’ve only made ink at home before and am not familiar with the workshop’s processes. This is a good chance to learn from the beginning,” Zhenniang said at this point.
This was something Zhenniang had thought about for a long time. She had just taken over the workshop, and her previous hands-on approach was due to emergency circumstances. Now that they had raw materials and the workshop was returning to normal production, with Manager Shao and Li Jingdong managing things, it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to continue micromanaging everything. Moreover, although she knew how to make ink and had managed her family’s small ink workshop in modern times, it couldn’t compare to a large workshop like the Li family’s. So she couldn’t slack off on learning what she needed to know.
Hearing Zhenniang’s words, Manager Shao and Li Jingdong exchanged glances.
If Manager Shao had been impressed before, now he truly had to look at her differently. She had intelligence, handled matters calmly, and now showed such a humble and practical learning attitude—the Old Madam’s judgment had indeed been exceptional.
However…
Manager Shao thought for a moment and said: “Miss Zhenniang, the smoke production area is full of rough men. For a young lady like yourself…”
The implication needed no further explanation.
Zhenniang smiled and replied: “Now that I’ve entered the ink trade, we can’t worry too much about such concerns. Besides, I mainly need to manage the overall progress of the smoke production area, just dealing with the section chiefs. I want to bring over Sister Ma—with her carrying messages when needed, there won’t be too many taboos to worry about.”
Sister Ma was the aunt who used to buy ink daily from Zhenniang’s small stall. Her husband was a master pounder in the workshop, and she had often run errands for the Old Madam before, so Zhenniang wanted to bring her over to make things more convenient.
“Mm, alright, let her work with her,” Li Jingdong nodded from the side.
With this arrangement, Manager Shao had no objections either. Speaking of which, Miss Zhenniang’s smoke production technique was excellent. Thinking of those young men in the smoke production area who acted arrogantly toward him, Manager Shao, relying on their smoke production skills, he now wanted to see how they would fare under Miss Zhenniang’s leadership.
Thinking of this, Manager Shao nodded and went to call Sister Ma.
Then Zhenniang discussed her plans for developing reprocessed ink with Manager Shao and Uncle Jingdong, saying the ink mixing workshop and glue workshop needed to prepare for this.
“Are you confident?” Hearing about reprocessed ink, both Li Jingdong and Manager Shao’s eyes widened. What ink workshop didn’t want to make reprocessed ink? But all along, while small-scale trial production of reprocessed ink was possible, attempts at large-scale production always ran into various problems, and the quality couldn’t be maintained, ultimately forcing them to give up.
“At least I’ve thoroughly understood this ink,” Zhenniang took out the piece of reprocessed ink that Third Master Cheng had given her last time.
Li Jingdong took it and examined it with Manager Shao. Afterward, both looked excited: “Good, then I’ll instruct the ink mixing workshop and glue workshop to prepare. Zhenniang, during this time, besides smoke production matters, focus your attention on reprocessed ink. Let’s make another push for it.”
“Yes,” Zhenniang nodded.