While Li Jincai was setting his trap, Li Zhen Niang was digging her own.

Everything was in place, waiting only for the right moment.

Over the next few days, goods were delivered smoothly, everyone performed their duties, and everything seemed extraordinarily peaceful.

Zhen Niang lived her days with perfect composure, rising early each morning, eating breakfast before work, first visiting Seventh Grandmother, then chatting with the aunts of the Seventh Branch.

Afterward, she would stay in the ink room, occasionally resting in the small pavilion, living quite leisurely.

During her most idle times, Zhen Niang would simply stay at home, chatting with Grandmother, Mother, Aunt Jingkui, and Sister-in-law, playing with Xiaoguan’er, who was now almost three years old and at his most delightful age.

Most often, though, she discussed ink-making with Grandfather.

As Luo Wenqian had written in his letter, to develop the ink business, they couldn’t remain limited to Huizhou’s time and place.

“Grandfather, Uncle Jingdong says you were quite a figure in Nanjing back then. I heard you were even vice-chairman of the Hui Merchants’ Business Association?” Zhen Niang asked with a smile as she helped her grandfather take an evening walk in the courtyard before dinner.

“It wasn’t like what your Uncle Jingdong says. Our ink business counts for something here in Huizhou, but Nanjing is a place of wealth and status. Just among our Hui merchant group, the salt, tea, silk, timber, and pawnbroking businesses are all nationally renowned. Compared to them, our ink business is nothing. How could I, your grandfather, a mere small merchant and common citizen, be considered anyone of note? I just helped make ink for some officials, and with Li Ink obtaining tribute ink rights, I was honored with one term as vice-chairman. Unfortunately, when the tribute ink issue arose, the Li family faced pressure from several Nanjing ink merchants and had to withdraw from the Nanjing market. Now in Nanjing, the Li Ink brand is nothing but a distant memory.”

At this point, Old Master Li couldn’t help but sigh with regret.

“Don’t worry, Grandfather. Li Ink won’t remain confined to Huizhou,” Zhen Niang said with a smile.

“You’ve got big ambitions, girl.” Old Master Li smiled. He was quite pleased with this granddaughter, though she was still young. Moreover, their Eighth Branch had no voice in clan matters and couldn’t help her much. With her limited resources, it would be difficult to take Li Ink far.

Of course, he wouldn’t discourage her now. Some things—whether to do them is one matter, whether they succeed is another. Having tried means having no regrets—that’s life.

This was Old Master Li’s lifetime of wisdom.

As they were talking, they heard a commotion of crying and shouting from outside.

“What’s happening?” Zhen Niang muttered, helping her grandfather to a seat before opening the door to look outside.

She saw a crowd of people—men and women, young and old—coming from the city gate area, pushing two wooden carts. On the carts sat an elderly couple and two children about three or four years old.

The people on the carts had flushed faces and were groaning. One child’s exposed leg appeared swollen.

Two men attended to them while a woman wiped her tears.

The crowd was agitated, everyone looking furious.

“Let’s find them! The Du family must answer for this today, or we won’t let this go,” shouted a leading man.

“Yes, we won’t let this go!” the crowd echoed.

“What happened?” Sister Huaide from across the street poked her head out to ask.

“Sister, have you bought oil from the Du family oil press? Let me tell you, their oil isn’t fit for consumption. These people on the carts were poisoned by their oil. We’re going to demand an explanation,” the man called to Sister Huaide.

“What? Is this true? I just bought oil from Du’s oil press recently. I haven’t even opened the jar yet because there was still some old oil left,” Sister Huaide jumped up in alarm.

“Whether it’s true or not, take the oil to the medicine hall for testing and you’ll know,” the man replied.

He then waved his hand, leading the crowd toward the Du family oil press.

Zhen Niang was startled and was about to turn back inside when she nearly collided with her sister-in-law. Madam Du also looked shocked: “Sister, is this true?”

Since the oil press was run by Madam Du’s brothers, and the city gate area residents were poor, they often went through Madam Du to buy oil at a discount. Recently, several households had asked Madam Du to help them buy oil.

“I don’t know, it can’t be, right? Our family has always used their oil press’s oil, and we’ve been fine,” Madam Du said, looking confused and worried.

“Did we buy any oil recently?” Zhen Niang took a deep breath and asked Madam Du.

“Yes, yes, we did, but haven’t started using it yet,” Madam Du quickly replied.

“Sister, please bring a spoonful of the recently purchased oil,” Zhen Niang instructed. From the symptoms of the people on the cart, it looked like tung oil poisoning. Considering the oil press had been pressing tung oil recently, they might have mixed the two.

They needed to test if the oil was mixed with tung oil. If so, they needed to quickly notify other buyers that the oil couldn’t be consumed.

Zhen Niang then asked Grandmother Wu, “Grandmother, where is Cousin Zhengsheng’s alchemy equipment stored?”

“It’s piled in a corner of the small ink workshop. What do you need it for?” Madam Wu asked.

“I want to check if there’s tung oil in the cooking oil,” Zhen Niang replied.

Testing for tung oil in cooking oil was simple—drop some cooking oil on the stone, add some sulfuric acid, and if it contains tung oil, the oil would quickly turn deep red and solidify.

In this era, sulfuric acid was called green vitriol oil, essential for Daoist alchemists. She had seen it among her cousin’s equipment pile earlier.

She rushed into the family’s small ink workshop and found the pile of equipment in the corner, quickly locating the green vitriol oil.

“The oil’s here, the oil’s here!” Madam Du called from the courtyard, holding a spoon of oil.

Zhen Niang came out with the green vitriol oil, first having Madam Du drop some oil on the bluestone, then adding a drop of green vitriol oil. Sure enough, shortly after, the oil turned deep red and solidified.

Zhen Niang was furious.

“Zhen Niang, quickly notify the neighbors. Have everyone who bought oil through your sister-in-law bring it to our house. We’ll refund their money. Let’s settle our side of things first. Those Du brothers are truly worthless,” Old Master Li said with a darkened face.

Although others had asked Madam Du to help them buy oil, regardless of the circumstances, Madam Du and the Du brothers were siblings, and the oil came through her hands. Now that this had happened, leaving aside others, those who bought oil through Madam Du would naturally blame the Li family.

“Yes, I’ll go right away,” Zhen Niang nodded, then ran out.

“Zhen Niang, what’s going on?” Sister Huaide from across the street brought out her oil jar.

“Aunt Huaide, the oil press mixed tung oil with cooking oil. Please bring your oil to our house, my sister-in-law will refund your money,” Zhen Niang said.

“Oh, good, good,” Sister Huaide was relieved to hear about the refund, having suffered no loss, though she remained somewhat frightened. She would never buy oil from the Du family oil press again.

Then Zhen Niang went to notify other households, carrying the green vitriol oil with her, mainly in case anyone had consumed the oil, so they could seek medical attention promptly.

Fortunately, not every household’s oil contained tung oil. Of the seven or eight families who had bought oil through her sister-in-law, only three had oil containing tung oil. However, regardless of whether it contained tung oil or not, no one dared to use the Du family’s oil anymore, and everyone brought their oil to the Li family.

Madam Du refunded the money while repeatedly apologizing.

After handling this matter, Madam Du stood there pale-faced and dazed.

“What are you standing there for? Go back inside. Don’t say I didn’t warn you—stay out of this Du family mess. Since your brothers did such a thing, they must bear the consequences themselves. Don’t let them drag our family into it,” Madam Zhao said angrily to Madam Du.

Thinking of how she had just put on a pleasant face for everyone, she felt quite unhappy.

Madam Du remained dazed, then suddenly fell to her knees, trembling as she said, “Mother-in-law, it may be difficult to avoid involvement…”

“What do you mean?” Madam Zhao raised her eyebrows.

Zhen Niang’s heart also trembled.

“When my Mother-in-law had me lend money to my brothers, later my mother said that since we’re family, I should invest under my name. She said the oil press’s dividends would be mine, giving me some pocket money to spend. I agreed, so I have a share in the oil press,” Madam Du sobbed.

“It’s over…” Hearing this, Madam Zhao collapsed onto a bench, then grabbed a teacup from the table and threw it at Madam Du: “If you needed money, why didn’t you tell me or tell Dalang? You’re killing me… I’m going to divorce you…”

Madam Du just kept kneeling and crying.

“What nonsense are you talking about? Since Du Shi came to our family, she’s shared our hardships. Xiaoguan is so big now, and she and Dalang have fulfilled their marital duties. How can you talk about divorce so easily?” Madam Wu scolded Madam Zhao. Then she sighed—this matter was very troublesome.

“What’s all this shouting about? Everyone be quiet. What’s the use of questioning the past now? We need to figure out how to get through this crisis,” Old Master Li finally spoke up.

The room finally quieted down.

“Zhen Niang, tell us, how should our family handle this?” Old Master Li asked Zhen Niang.

Madam Wu, Madam Zhao, Madam Zheng, and Madam Du all looked at Zhen Niang. With Li Dalang still away in Wuyuan, it seemed Zhen Niang had become the family’s pillar.

“Although Sister-in-law has a share in the oil press, it’s only a small portion. The main ownership still belongs to the Du brothers. This matter ultimately falls on their heads. At most, we’ll have to share the losses proportionally—that’s the bottom line, and the Du brothers can’t avoid it even if they try. So I think, as long as no one dies, our family can bear this small share of the losses. Problems that can be solved with money aren’t big,” Zhen Niang said.

Old Master Li nodded, while Madam Zhao and the others breathed sighs of relief. Hearing Zhen Niang’s analysis, although it was troublesome, it didn’t seem like a world-ending crisis.

“However, the urgent priority now is to maintain control and prevent any deaths,” Zhen Niang continued, then turned to Madam Du: “Sister-in-law, you need to go home quickly and tell your two brothers to first issue an announcement recalling all sold oil, preventing any further consumption. Second, have your brothers arrange with the medicine hall to cover all medical expenses for anyone poisoned by Du family oil press oil. We can’t let poor families miss treatment due to lack of money. That would become a major issue.”

Hearing Zhen Niang’s words, Old Master Li was very satisfied—her handling of the situation was quite appropriate.

“Yes, yes, I’ll go right away.” Zhen Niang’s words were like a lifeline to Madam Du. She knew that if this matter wasn’t handled well, her future life in this family would become very difficult.