Chapter 240

"The capital?"

Cao Wanzhi paused, then shook her head. "How could I have ever been to a big place like the capital?"

"But..." A look of longing appeared on her face. "If there were a chance, I would also like to go and see the world, to see just how prosperous and wealthy that legendary capital is."

The capital was the economic and political center of the country, a prosperous metropolis under the feet of the Emperor. As a pancake vendor in a remote small town, seeing the splendor of the capital with their own eyes was the dream of every one of them.

Jiang Xiaoxiao bit into the tofu skin bun without speaking.

The original work did not detail how Cao Wanzhi was found by the royal family, but it was just that same old trope anyway.

Cao Wanzhi carried royal blood, so her appearance naturally resembled the royal family to some extent. If she were to run into the Emperor on an incognito visit one day and be recognized at a glance, it would be normal for her to be brought back to the palace.

She had seen the shock on Xie Cheng's face when he saw Cao Wanzhi's appearance just now.

Xie Cheng, a fourth-rank imperial official, had seen the true face of the Emperor and naturally understood what this overly similar face meant.

Ever since returning to the village, Jiang Xiaoxiao and her mother had not been to town for several days, and the task of delivering goods to the soap shop had fallen to Liu Dagang.

In the entire Yong'an County, theirs was the only soap shop, so even though the shop had been open for a long time, the soap remained hot and popular, in short supply.

Liu Dagang drove the Jiang family's horse carriage to town to deliver goods every two days, and after returning from the delivery, he continued to be responsible for the work of purchasing firewood.

The soap workshop needed to burn a large amount of plant ash and boil lard every day, so the more firewood needed, the better.

The Jiang family purchased firewood in unlimited quantities for the long term, so the villagers naturally seized the opportunity to earn money. After all, two jin of firewood could be sold for one wen, and carrying two bundles of firewood down the mountain every day meant twenty wen. Where else could one find such a great bargain?

Since the autumn planting and busy farming season ended, many people had been coming in and out of the soap workshop every day to deliver firewood. They would leave immediately after delivering it and wouldn't take an extra look into the soap workshop, except for a few people with ulterior motives, but their view was blocked by the solid cement walls.

Sometimes when there was too much firewood to store, Jiang Wei would find people to build several thatched sheds next to the soap workshop, specifically for temporary storage of firewood.

Besides going to town to deliver goods, Liu Dagang spent the rest of his time guarding the thatched sheds, responsible for weighing the firewood and calculating the money for the villagers. When he had free time, he would also check around the thatched sheds from time to time to prevent any sparks from igniting.

The thatched sheds and firewood were flammable materials; if they accidentally caught fire, the consequences would be grave.

Watching the earnest and responsible Liu Dagang, Jiang Xiaoxiao nodded with satisfaction.

Previously, when she asked Big Brother Dagang to be responsible for this job, her mother offered him a monthly wage of eight hundred wen, but he kept declining, saying it wasn't appropriate to receive such a high wage without doing any work. It wasn't until she asked him to help deliver goods to town every two days that he accepted the wage.

After more than half a year of living together, Jiang Xiaoxiao could feel that most of the villagers were honest and simple, warm-hearted, and worked earnestly and responsibly. Except for a few who loved to be greedy for small gains and make sour remarks, the rest were all very good.

Jiang Xiaoxiao took a look around the soap workshop; everything was in a thriving state, and she prepared to return to her room to practice calligraphy.

Just as she stepped through the gate, she saw Qiulian Niang walking toward her house carrying a bamboo basket.

Jiang Xiaoxiao stood still at the entrance with a smile on her face: "Auntie Qiulian, why are you here?"

Recently, many villagers had earned money because of their soap workshop and took advantage of their free time to go to town to buy cloth, preparing to make several sets of autumn clothes for their families. The ready-made clothes sold in the town shops were too expensive, far less cheap than buying cloth.

The villagers were used to living hard lives and basically bought cloth to make clothes themselves, but there were also women who were not skilled at needlework, so they asked Qiulian Niang to help make autumn clothes.

A few days ago, when Zhao Tiezhu carried two bundles of firewood, he was still saying that his mother was rushing to make clothes for the villagers day and night, and Old Madam Zhao complained all day that she was wasting the family's lamp oil.

They were all fellow villagers, so Qiulian Niang was too embarrassed to charge the villagers money, helping others make clothes almost for free, which naturally made Old Madam Zhao very angry.

Regarding this, Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't say anything. When her family asked Qiulian Niang to make clothes, they would secretly tuck some broken silver into the cloth.

In this era, there were no sewing machines or anything like that; making clothes was genuine manual labor that was time-consuming, eye-straining, and laborious. Even though her family had a good relationship with Qiulian Niang, they were too embarrassed to take advantage of her.

At first, Qiulian Niang would return the silver, but her family wouldn't accept it at all.

Since then, Qiulian Niang gave up and became even more dedicated to making clothes for her family.

At this moment, Qiulian Niang had come to deliver clothes to her family.

In the Jiang family courtyard.

Qiulian Niang lifted the cloth on the bamboo basket and took out several sets of new clothes, some big and some small, including autumn shirts and winter clothes. The large ones were for Jiang Wei, and the small ones were for Jiang Xiaoxiao.

Jiang Xiaoxiao's gaze immediately fixed on a lotus-colored narrow-sleeved small Ruqun.

It had to be said that Qiulian Niang's embroidery skills were truly excellent. This small Ruqun fit her figure perfectly, with exquisite embroidery at the collar and cuffs, and a white fur collar inlaid on top. The fur was fluffy and white—it was rabbit fur.

Her family would slaughter some rabbits every so often, and after the remaining rabbit fur was cleaned, it would be sent to Qiulian Niang for her to use freely. She didn't expect that her clever hands could embroider the rabbit fur onto the collar; it was truly beautiful.

Jiang Xiaoxiao happily held the narrow-sleeved small Ruqun in her arms. The material was satin, and it felt very soft to the touch; wearing it on her body wouldn't chafe her skin like coarse cloth.

If it weren't for the fact that the current weather wasn't suitable, Jiang Xiaoxiao would really want to put it on and try it out immediately.

Besides the new clothes, Qiulian Niang also fished out a small rabbit fur hat from the bamboo basket.

Two round eyeballs were embedded in the front of the hat, a circle of rabbit fur was sewn along the brim, and a small rabbit tail was embroidered with rabbit fur on the back, looking exceptionally cute and lifelike.

Jiang Xiaoxiao played with the small rabbit fur hat, unable to put it down.

This craftsmanship, this texture—if placed in the modern era, it would be a high-end, custom-made handicraft.

"Auntie Qiulian, with your embroidery skills, if you open an embroidery workshop in the future, you'll definitely snatch all the business in the surrounding area!"

Qiulian Niang listened to Jiang Xiaoxiao's unsparing praise and smiled happily: "Look at what your little mouth is saying. If I have the ability to open an embroidery workshop, I'll take care of all your family's new clothes in the future."

"You said it yourself, okay?" Jiang Xiaoxiao blinked playfully. "When I have money in the future, I'll go to town and buy an embroidery workshop, and specifically hire you to be the boss lady of the embroidery workshop!"

Qiulian Niang just took it as her joking to make her happy and smiled in response: "Fine, as long as you have an embroidery workshop, even if you don't pay me a wage, I'll go and be the boss lady for you."