The Heir

Тhе thrеe of them wеrе busy working whеn Zhao Shi, Du Shi, аnd оthеrs gаthеrеd around, оnly then realizing they wеrе weаving insulatiоn buсkеts.

"Тhe dау bеfоrе yеsterday, Sistеr-in-Lаw Azhu сame to mу house tо visit and saw this. Shе wаntеd оnе tоо and askеd mе how tо mаkе it, wanting mе to hеlр her makе оne," Du Shi sрoke up аt this moment.

"Sure, sistеr-in-lаw. Тell hеr to bring some strаw, аnd I’ll wеavе оnе fоr hеr. Аlso, аsk hеr to hеlp us sеll these strаw insulatiоn buсkеts. For еvеrу оne sold, asidе from the cost, she’ll gеt twenty pеrcent оf the рrоfit." Zhen Niаng was applying what would later be known as direct selling.

"What do you mean, Zhen Niang? Can this thing make money?" Zhao Shi’s eyes widened like copper bells.

"Of course, if there’s a need, it can make money. But this thing is simple and easy to copy, so we can only earn a bit at the beginning. Still, every little bit counts. Besides the straw, it doesn’t cost much else." Zhen Niang said with a smile.

Hearing this, Zhao Shi immediately got excited. With a wave of her hand, she declared that the whole family should learn. The eldest brother also chuckled and said, "I’ll get the straw. There’s plenty at our oil workshop. I’ll talk to the owner."

Even Grandma Li brought over a small bamboo chair and watched carefully.

"Elder sister, if I sell one, can I get twenty percent of the profit too?" Xi Ge’er, who had been focused on scallion pancakes, now lifted his little face, smudged with soot, to ask.

"Yes, whoever sells it gets twenty percent," Zhen Niang replied, then turned to Yuejuan with a playful grin. "Yuejuan, your family now lives near the Li Family Ink Workshop. The workers there are busy, so this would be perfect for them. Help sell some too. Same deal—twenty percent profit for each one sold."

Sun Yuejuan’s mother was a member of the Li clan, and her father, Sun Dahai, was a minor supervisor at the Li Family Ink Workshop. After moving away from the city gate area, they had settled in the market near the ink workshop.

"Mhm." Yuejuan nodded emphatically. "Recently, the ink workshop has started operations, and everyone is swamped. Some families even take tung oil home for smoke generation and material extraction. They have no time to cook at noon and just eat cold food. My brother ate cold rice yesterday and ended up with diarrhea. This thing is great—you can put hot food in it in the morning to keep it warm, so at least by noon it’s still lukewarm and won’t upset your stomach."

Zhen Niang, however, wasn’t concerned about the issue of cold food and diarrhea. Instead, she asked with a look of pleasant surprise, "Can people take tung oil home from the ink workshop for smoke generation and material extraction?"

"Yes, but there are requirements. For every twenty catties of tung oil, you must produce one catty of high-grade ink smoke material. Otherwise, your wages will be deducted, and you’ll have worked for nothing. If the loss is significant, you might even have to compensate the workshop for the tung oil," Yuejuan explained.

After a pause, she added, "Of course, if your smoke generation skills are good and you can extract more high-grade ink smoke material, the workshop will pay you wages and also buy the excess high-grade smoke material at market price. It’s quite worthwhile. My eldest brother’s skills are decent. The other day, he took on a hundred lamps. He said for every twenty catties of tung oil, he can extract over one catty and two taels of high-grade smoke material. That adds up to quite a bit over a month."

As for smoke generation and material extraction, in her previous life, ink factories had already adopted automated drum extraction. But in this era, it was all done manually. Tung oil was placed in oil lamps and lit, with a porcelain bowl placed upside down above the lamp. The black smoke and soot from the burning oil would adhere to the bottom of the bowl, forming the smoke material, which was collected periodically.Zhen Niang discovered that the Li Family Ink Workshop had capable individuals. This incentive was equivalent to what later generations called performance-based rewards. With such a measure in place, everyone would naturally strive to extract more high-grade soot material from the same amount of tung oil. This way, the Ink Workshop could obtain more high-grade soot material using less tung oil. Although the extra soot material had to be purchased, it was still a worthwhile investment.

After all, high-grade soot material was difficult to produce.

Zhen Niang felt tempted. In her previous life, although the factory was mechanized, her grandfather had a small private Ink Workshop that used this manual method of soot extraction. It was said that before liberation, ink factories also employed this manual method for extracting soot, and a skilled seventh-grade worker could manage two hundred oil lamps at once.

This was far more impressive than Sun Yuejuan’s elder brother.

In her previous life, Li Zhen had helped her grandfather with this task, and she could manage one hundred oil lamps at a time.

Thinking of this, she felt eager and asked Sun Yuejuan, “Yuejuan, could you ask your father if I can take some lamps and tung oil to extract soot?”

As soon as she finished speaking, a sharp slap landed on the back of her head. “What do you know about extracting soot? You’ll probably end up wasting more tung oil than you produce,” Zhao Shi scolded, glaring at her.

“Why wouldn’t I know? Last time at Yuejuan’s house, I helped Uncle Sun extract soot, and he even praised me,” Zhen Niang retorted.

A few days ago, she had visited the Sun family and saw them engaged in smoke generation and soot extraction, though they only had a dozen or so lamps lit. At the time, Sun’s father was busy, and when she noticed the timing was right, she took the initiative to help extract some soot.

Sun Yuejuan quickly nodded in agreement. “Yes, Auntie, my father said Zhen Niang truly lives up to being Manager Li’s granddaughter. She has a perfect grasp of the timing for smoke generation. Even my elder brother isn’t always that precise.”

“Your father is exaggerating. If she didn’t mess it up, that’s already a blessing,” Zhao Shi replied. A mother knows her daughter best—Zhen Niang was a lazy glutton who would slack off whenever possible. That was why Zhao Shi forced her to work every day; this girl wouldn’t lift a finger unless pushed.

Of course, Zhao Shi had also noticed that Zhen Niang had changed a lot recently. She had become more diligent in her work, but mastering soot extraction wasn’t something that could be achieved overnight. Naturally, she didn’t know that while Zhen Niang’s appearance remained the same, her inner self had been replaced.

“Then tell me, how can one extract more high-grade soot material?”

At some point, Grandfather Li had emerged, leaning on a cane and sitting against the wall to bask in the sun. Now, he turned to Zhen Niang and asked.

“Well, generally speaking, timing is the most crucial aspect. The smoke must not be burned too long, as overly aged smoke becomes coarse and dry, making it difficult to mix into ink. As for what exactly counts as ‘too long’ or ‘just right,’ it all depends on personal intuition. There’s no detailed theory to explain it,” Zhen Niang replied, knowing that her grandfather was testing her, and she stood up as she spoke.

Li Jinshui listened and nodded slightly, feeling somewhat puzzled. He knew his son’s capabilities well—in the Ink Workshop, he was in charge of Ink Mixing and knew nothing about smoke generation.

“You said ‘generally.’ Is there something special beyond that?” Li Jinshui coughed and asked again.

“Yes, besides timing, the flame itself deserves even more attention. The size, temperature, and stability of the flame are all crucial. The flame must be steady, without flickering or sparking. If all these factors are well-controlled, not only high-grade soot material but even superior-grade soot material can be produced,” Zhen Niang continued…

Not bad, this girl has a clear understanding.

“Where did you learn all this?” Li Jinshui asked, perplexed."Grandfather, have you forgotten? These are the notes you wrote, aren't they? I read them whenever I had free time and memorized them." Zhen Niang turned and went back into the house, returning shortly with several notebooks.

These notebooks were ones she had found yesterday while tidying the woodshed. They contained various knowledge and insights about ink-making.

Now they served as the perfect explanation. Otherwise, she really wouldn’t have been able to justify it.

Heaven’s will, Li Jinshui squinted as he looked at the notebooks.

His ink-making technique had been taught to him by his eldest uncle from the main branch of the family. Naturally, the first person he intended to pass it on to was Jingsheng from the main branch. As for Jingfu’s side, he had written down all his insights on ink-making in these notebooks. If Jingfu could study them diligently, his skill wouldn’t be inferior to Jingsheng’s.

But Jingfu was stubborn. If Li Jinshui didn’t teach him in person, he refused to learn. As a result, the notebooks left for him were all tossed into the woodshed. Who would have thought they would end up benefiting this second granddaughter in the end?

"What makes good ink?"

"Light in weight, light in glue, black in color, clear in sound, hard as jade, fine as silk."

...

"What is a moon cake?"

"Xu Xuan’s ink, named Moon Cake, is worth thirty thousand."

...

Old Master Li asked several questions in a row, and Zhen Niang answered each one without hesitation.

"Go inside and fetch the household oil lamp, a porcelain bowl, some vegetable oil, and three chopsticks," said Old Master Li.

"I’ll go." Xi Ge'er loved joining in on the excitement. As soon as he finished speaking, he scampered off to the kitchen. Zhen Niang naturally followed, as Xi Ge'er couldn’t carry all those things in one trip.

Soon, everything was brought out.

Only Zhao Shi and Du Shi stood to the side, their lips twitching. They usually couldn’t bear to use even a little extra vegetable oil, and now it was being used for burning. What a waste.

Now it was up to Zhen Niang. She poured the vegetable oil, lit the lamp, and Old Master Li stood three chopsticks upright. The porcelain bowl was placed over the lamp, resting on the three chopsticks, and surprisingly, it stayed perfectly steady.

Zhen Niang kept her eyes on the flame and placed a wooden board beside the lamp to block the wind. After all, they were in the courtyard, and a smoke generation workshop was usually kept draft-free.

After a while, Zhen Niang lightly tapped the soot on the rim of the bowl, estimating that it was about time. She then removed the bowl. Sure enough, the bottom was covered with a thick layer. Just as she was about to fetch a bamboo strip to scrape off the soot, Old Master Li picked up a chopstick and, using the end he was holding, scraped clockwise along the rim of the bowl. To her surprise, he managed to scrape all the soot cleanly from the sides, gathering a pile of soot material at the bottom of the bowl.

Zhen Niang watched in awe. It was truly a miraculous skill. If she had tried with a chopstick, it wouldn’t have worked—she would have needed a bamboo strip or knife.

"Good, you can handle this work." Old Master Li pinched the soot material and nodded, his voice filled with a sense of satisfaction that there was someone to carry on his legacy.

With the family’s elder nodding in approval, Zhao Shi had nothing more to say. Her earlier objection was only out of fear that they would waste money instead of earning it. Now that she saw the old master’s approval, she felt even more pleased.

"Zhen Niang, why don’t you come back with me to ask my father? If it works out, you can go with him to collect it right away." Sun Yuejuan said excitedly.

"Alright." Zhen Niang nodded. The two of them then made their way out of the city gate.