Grandma Qin and Qin Junyao chatted in the room like two friends of the same age, their laughter occasionally echoing.
Qin Xiaoyu and Fuzi eavesdropped from the door, one on each side.
Qin Xiaoyu nudged Fuzi and whispered, "Did you hear clearly?"
Fuzi shook his head. He had seen his sister-in-law sneak into Grandma Qin's room and thought something big had happened. Besides hearing a few laughs, they hadn't heard anything else.
"Is my sister really being sneaky?" Qin Xiaoyu moved closer to Fuzi and asked.
"Don't talk, my sister-in-law has good ears. Don't let her..."
"I heard already," Qin Junyao's voice came from inside the room, scaring the two youngsters into fleeing.
They couldn't escape the consequences. Fuzi was punished to squat in a horse stance for half an hour, and Qin Xiaoyu practiced standing, sitting, walking, and lying down for half an hour.
That night, Qin Junyao still didn't sleep well, plagued by one bizarre dream after another.
The next day, she went to find Dengzi Tui to ask for the latest news from the Northwest City, but Dengzi Tui had no information.
The village was busy with the summer harvest, and Qin Junyao, unable to sit still, took a carriage with Liu Yu to the dye workshop.
What was called a dye workshop was actually just a large shed for storing fabrics, lime, and providing a resting place for the workers.
The well near the dye workshop was the furthest water vein that the Qin family had explored by a well-drilling team last year.
Qin Junyao had sown a large amount of grass seeds here. The livestock's health and growth depended on good feed.
Uncle Qin bought some sheep, which were currently being raised semi-pen-raised and semi-grazed. To expand the scale of breeding, more fodder was needed.
Besides that, Qin Junyao also wanted to raise horses. Grain, warhorses, weapons, medicine, salt, and other supplies were strategic materials that Zhao Liangcai needed.
"Madam? Please slow down," Liu Rong said as she was counting fabrics inside the shed. Seeing Qin Junyao approaching, she hurried to help.
Qin Junyao stood in front of a row of dark blue cloth and asked Liu Rong, "Are we short of indigo leaves?"
"Yes, Madam. We still have enough dye to color one batch of cloth. Madam, the villagers want to buy cloth. Should we sell it?"
"Don't sell the dyed fabric. We can sell a small amount of white cloth, but be careful not to let anyone resell it."
After inspecting the dyed cloth in the shed, Qin Junyao turned to look at the wastewater disposal area.
Dyeing with indigo was simple. A large pit was dug in the ground and filled with water. Fresh indigo leaves were soaked in the water for one to three days.
After soaking, the rotten leaves were removed from the pit. An appropriate amount of lime was added to the water pit and stirred. The sediment at the bottom of the pit was the indigo dye.
Indigo dye was added to clear water, and this water could be used to dye white cloth directly.
The wastewater produced during dyeing contained a large amount of lime, which could make the soil compact and hinder crop growth.
Qin Junyao knew that the wastewater from the dye workshop was not good, so she designated the drainage area. She would pour water from the spatial well into it periodically, and the effect seemed good.
As Qin Junyao was finishing her tour and preparing to leave, Suozi, whom she hadn't seen in a month, suddenly came to find her.
"Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, hahahaha, it's done, sister-in-law, it's done!"
Suozi, with his short beard and crumpled clothes, ran while gesturing wildly, as if he had suffered a fatal shock.
"Deputy Commander Zhou, can you play the suona?" was Qin Junyao's first thought.
Suozi's desire to learn a musical instrument was not a whim. Qin Junyao had recommended several instruments to him, but either he wasn't interested or there was no good teacher.
Finally, Suozi remembered a young man at the salt lake who played the suona well and asked Qin Junyao for her opinion on the suona.
Qin Junyao didn't call the suona a "musical hooligan" but rather the "king of instruments," which strengthened Suozi's determination to learn the suona.
However, he lacked the means.
Suozi's excitedly waving hands slowly lowered, and he muttered in a low voice, "Don't bring up what's inconvenient."
Qin Junyao pretended not to hear and waited for Suozi's reply.
Suozi walked up to Qin Junyao and stood respectfully. He suddenly raised his hand and bowed deeply, "Sister-in-law, salt production is successful."
"Absolutely not, please get up quickly," Qin Junyao, startled for a moment upon hearing that salt production was successful, immediately stepped forward to help Suozi up.
Zhou Suozi was not like others. Zhao Liangcai truly regarded him as a brother, and Qin Junyao did not want to accept his bow.
"Sister-in-law, please accept this bow. I am doing this on behalf of all the soldiers and salt workers at the salt lake. You have solved a great problem. If this were to be converted into military merit, being conferred a general would not be excessive. If not in the army, then one would be ennobled as a marquis or prime minister."
Qin Junyao listened quietly to Suozi's grand pronouncements. She was a woman, so how could she have military merit? Even if there were merit, it would be attributed to Zhao Liangcai.
As Suozi spoke, he glanced at the cloth in the shed and walked over to examine it closely. "Oh, there's so much cloth here! Sister-in-law, I'll trade salt for it."
"No deal," Qin Junyao refused without hesitation.
"Tsk, then give me a few bolts. I need to take some salt to the Northwest City."
Qin Junyao anxiously asked, "Has Zhao Liangcai sent news?"
"No. The plan was for me to take a batch of salt there once salt production was successful. I am Hammer's deputy commander. How can he be without me by his side?" Suozi, in good spirits, teased Qin Junyao.
Qin Junyao, feeling a little down without news from Zhao Liangcai, retorted without restraint, "Sister Man Shuang said that after moving in, we would share the same table for meals and the same bed for sleeping. Oh, you're going to the Northwest City to accompany Zhao Liangcai, huh?"
Suozi's eyes widened. "I want twenty bolts of cloth."
Twenty bolts of cloth was, of course, a joke. Suozi's convoy of carts was primarily transporting salt.
He came to find Qin Junyao, first to inform her of the good news of successful salt production, and second, to give her and the Qin family time to prepare the items to be sent to Zhao Liangcai and Qin Er Niu.
Qin Junyao, under the guise of preparing medicinal herbs for Zhao Liangcai, took a lot of red dates, black fungus, yam, and astragalus from her spatial storage for nourishing the body and gave them to Grandma Qin to make for Grandpa Hou.
Of course, Qin Junyao also gave Grandma Qin a ginseng.
Suozi set off three days later. He rode his horse and passed Ling Manshuang's carriage.
Recognizing Ling's family carriage, Suozi stopped his horse on the roadside and only chased after the team ahead after the carriage was out of sight.
"Sister Man Shuang, try the ginger milk curd made by Liu Yu. It's best eaten in winter."
Qin Junyao fell asleep last night with her hair not fully dry, and woke up this morning with a stuffy nose. Liu Yu made her ginger milk curd to ward off the cold.
"Isn't this a southern dish? I've never seen it before. I must try it properly."
"Sister Junyao, is the summer harvest almost over?" Ling Manshuang scooped a spoonful of ginger milk curd and chatted casually with Qin Junyao.
"Almost. The grain from the smaller fields has already been stored."
"After the summer harvest, I need to collect a batch of grain. My granary isn't built yet, and I'd like to borrow yours for a while."
Qin Junyao swallowed the ginger milk curd in her mouth and looked at Ling Manshuang. "Of course, it's all empty."
Ling Manshuang nodded. "Once the granary is filled with grain, we need to build this wall first for security."
Due to the transportation of building materials like stone and wood for constructing houses, the Zhao family, Ling family, and others had not yet built walls.
Qin Junyao felt a bit strange. She discussed with Ling Manshuang, "Will it be inconvenient?"