Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside

County Magistrate Jiang originally had little respect for Village Chief He, thinking him too weak, which led the Lu Family to act lawlessly in the village. Now, seeing him so perceptive, his dissatisfaction somewhat diminished.

Even upon returning home, Village Chief He and his grandsons were still in a daze.

As soon as Village Chief He got home, he collapsed onto the Taishi Chair.

He Dacang even sat down directly on the ground, exclaiming: "God, the Qin, Gu, and Luotian families have really made it."

Over a thousand taels of silver, how much money is that?

"Shut your mouth." Village Chief He quickly scolded him and instructed He Dacang and He Jinseng, "Everything you saw today at the Gu Family, keep it to yourselves. Don’t utter a word about it, understood?"

He Dacang, aware of the magnitude of the matter, quickly reassured, "Dad, worry not, we’ll take this secret to the grave."

He Jinseng added, "Grandpa, rest assured, I won’t speak of this matter to anyone."

He Jinseng was only briefly shocked by the large deals that Gu’s Workshop secured. After the shock, it didn’t bother him much. He just regretted that he didn’t get the chance to learn more from Scholar Shang today.

If he could have received some guidance from Scholar Shang, his knowledge would surely have improved greatly.

...

At Gu Jinli’s house, after recovering from the initial shock, everyone was delighted that the workshop managed to sign such a big deal on its opening day.

After discussing the spices deal, County Magistrate Jiang brought up the soybean oil: "The business of soybean oil will be handled by both Jiang and Shang families, but we need to include Old Five as well."

County Magistrate Jiang explained, "Old Five has a trading fleet. With them included, the soybean oil can be sold to farther places."

He added, "Don’t worry about the profits, your family will still get thirty percent."

Gu Jinli naturally had no objections: "Alright, Elder Jiang, as you say, I’ll follow your lead."

County Magistrate Jiang liked her straightforwardness: "Good, then our four families shall sign the contract."

With that, he slapped onto the table four contracts that had been prepared in advance. Gu Jinli and Elder Lei Wu wrote down their names and pressed their handprints.

As for the Shang and Jiang families, they used the private seals of Ms. Jiang and Mrs. Jiang.

Since County Magistrate Jiang was an official, it was inappropriate for him to conduct business in his own name; the family’s business had always been done under the name of Mrs. Jiang’s dowry, just as with Scholar Shang’s Family.

What surprised Gu Jinli was that Elder Lei Wu’s side ended up getting thirty percent of the profits, with the remaining forty percent being split between the Jiang and Shang families.

Jiang Jiao, attentive to detail, saw the surprise on Gu Jinli’s face and explained, "Uncle Five has many brothers, all of whom know my father, so he decided to give an extra ten percent of the profits to Uncle Five as a gesture towards his old friends."

"Elder Jiang is truly honorable." Gu Jinli grew to like County Magistrate Jiang even more; not only was he generous and free of cliquish bias, but in an era where the distinction between officials and commoners was clear, he was indeed a rare exception.

Only then did the families realize that Gu Jinli intended to do business with the soybean oil she was producing, and she indeed succeeded.

Even though the soybean oil business did not involve them, the families harbored no jealousy or resentment. The soybean oil was originally produced by Gu Jinli herself, and having just made a substantial profit from the spices deal, they would be inhuman to harbor ill will.

Once the contract was signed, each of the four families took a copy.

County Magistrate Jiang put away the contract and said to Gu Jinli: "The capital for the soybean oil business will be deducted from your dividends."

Although Gu Jinli invested in the soybean oil business using the recipe, there was no reason not to invest capital and only take dividends; the capital still had to be invested. However, County Magistrate Jiang knew that her family had just started out and there were many other expenses, so he facilitated this by letting her offset the capital with her dividends.

"Alright, as you say, sir." The soybean oil business was an unexpected blessing for Gu Jinli; she didn’t want to be involved in the management and preferred to be a hands-off shopkeeper.

She handed over the already prepared soybean oil recipe to County Magistrate Jiang: "Grandpa Jiang, please take this."

This recipe not only explained the method of making soybean oil but also the principle behind the oil pressing, and even included a sketch of a wooden oil press.

County Magistrate Jiang, who couldn’t understand the sketch, handed the recipe and sketch to Ah Ji: "Ah Ji, you know about these things, take a look. While you are still in Tianfu County, hurry up and make the thing in the drawing."

Ah Ji took the recipe and the sketch, his eyes immediately drawn to the objects drawn on the sketch. He studied it carefully for a full quarter of an hour before he understood.

"First make the cake base, then put the base into two hemispherical wooden pressing chambers, insert wooden wedges, with one end of the wedge pressing against the cake base inside the chamber, then use human force to propel the strike hammer, use the hammer’s gravity to strike the wooden wedge, forcing the wedge to press the cake base inside the chamber, extracting the oil." Ah Ji looked at Gu Jinli and asked, "Gu Family’s daughter, is this what is written and drawn here?"

Gu Jinli was astonished. Ah Ji had merely looked at the soybean oil recipe and the sketch of the wooden oil press, yet he knew how to produce oil from it.

Gu Jinli never underestimated the ancients, but Ah Ji, this particular ancient, was impressive in a surprising way.

She nodded: "Uncle Ah Ji is right, that’s exactly it. The principle of this wooden oil press is simple—it’s essentially a cover over the cake base, stuffed with several wooden rods, and using a strike hammer to hit the rods to press the base and extract the oil."

Such a wooden oil press not only saves on costs but also saves on labor. More importantly, it can extract the maximum amount of oil from the beans.

Ah Ji nodded vigorously: "Gu Family’s daughter, since it’s still early, let’s make some soybean oil."

"Alright, let’s go to the kitchen and make the soybean oil," Gu Jinli said.

County Magistrate Jiang laughed heartily: "Haha, you girl, you’re so straightforward."

He then looked at Jiang Jiao and said, "Ah Jiao, you will be in charge of the Soybean Oil Workshop in the future, and you should also go and make the soybean oil."

County Magistrate Jiang, considering that Gu Jinli was a young girl, although not yet fully mature, insisted on having a woman accompany her and said to Third Grandma: "Old sister-in-law, please go with them to the kitchen and help make this soybean oil."

"Eh, sure," Third Grandma agreed, and she was the first to head to the kitchen to wash the pots and start the fire, preparing to fry the broken soybeans for Gu Jinli.

Ah Ji and Jiang Jiao followed Third Grandma into the kitchen.

Gu Jinli ran back to her house, grabbed the iron cake, iron hammer, broken soybeans, a small cloth bag for forming the soybean base, and a wooden rack for stabilization, moving these five items one by one to the kitchen.

Qin San Lang wanted to help, but with Ah Ji present, he refrained from doing so.

Jiang Qi also didn’t give him a chance to enter the kitchen, grabbing him and saying, "Kid Qin, come and spar with your Uncle Jiang."

With that, without giving Qin San Lang a chance to refuse, he launched a returning wind punch at Qin San Lang.

Qin San Lang had no choice but to spar with Jiang Qi for more than thirty moves, eventually being defeated by Jiang Qi.

"Refreshing, refreshing, I haven’t had such a good fight in many years." Jiang Qi loved martial arts, but ever since he left the military camp and returned to Tianfu County, he hadn’t had the opportunity to fight so freely and intensely. The constables in the county government, all were for show rather than for function. Even Squad Leader Yang could only manage about twenty moves with him and never past thirty. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

Ah Ji initially was in the kitchen watching Gu Jinli fry the broken soybeans, but hearing the fighting noises in the yard, he stood at the kitchen door for a moment and realized Qin San Lang wasn’t using his full strength; otherwise, Jiang Qi wouldn’t have been able to win.