You are unlucky and I am tough

Chapter 170 Making Soap

On the day of completion, Cheng Shuang settled the bill with the craftsmen and the suppliers of wood, bricks and tiles. The craftsmen's wages were four taels and fifty wen, and the total cost of various materials added up to seventy-five taels. After the final calculation, he had one thousand nine hundred and twelve taels left.

The land next to the peach blossom forest is occupied by the Peng and Song families, as well as two women and two maids who are responsible for cooking and doing odd jobs. Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang also allocated one acre of land to them so that they can grow vegetables for their own consumption.

The other twenty-five men lived in the other three places and ate together. In addition to the kitchen, there were three large warehouses for storing things in the future.

After all the workers were settled, Cheng Shuang arranged for them to start working. Half of them started from the end near the peach blossom forest and cleared the land to grow vegetables, while the other half went to open up new fields to grow rice.

The Wei family still has five acres of land in the middle of the village. Xinchengjia Village is flat, and almost everyone in the village has fields on both sides of the village.

As a modern man, Cheng Shuang naturally doesn't want to farm, but now he has both manpower and land. These five acres of land are empty anyway. When he plants and harvests them, they can provide food for the workers for a while. With so many workers to support, of course he can save as much as he can.

That morning, Cheng Shuang was checking the growth of the pepper seedlings in the vegetable garden behind the house when Aunt Peng walked in and said, "Madam, we're out of soapberries for washing clothes. Can you tell me who to go buy some?"

They used wood ash to wash their own clothes, but the master's clothes had always been made of soapberry, so she didn't dare to use wood ash to wash them.

Cheng Shuang stood up upon hearing this, and remembered that she had never made the soap she had planned to make before.

She took out three taels of silver and a few copper coins and gave them to Aunt Peng. "Aunt, go to the river to make a raft and buy some in the county town."

Aunt Peng was surprised that Cheng Shuang actually gave her money. Flattered, she extended her hand and said, "I'll go right away. Thank you for your trust, madam."

Cheng Shuang smiled but said nothing. Giving Aunt Peng money to buy things was also a test for her. The indentures of all the members of the Peng family were in her hands. As long as their character was acceptable, she would have more trustworthy helpers when there were more things to do in the future.

After Aunt Peng left, Cheng Shuang returned to the yard, where Wei Qinglang was pruning a rose tree with three children. If properly cared for, the flower can bloom for up to eight months, making it a very good landscape tree. It was wild before and no one pruned it, so it grew a little messy. Wei Qinglang was standing on a stool and pruning the branches with a pair of scissors.

"Come down, I have something to tell you." Cheng Shuang went over and tugged at his clothes.

"What's wrong?" Wei Qinglang, still holding the scissors in his hand, jumped off the stool and looked at her in confusion.

Cheng Shuang grabbed him and went to the room, turning back to say to the three children, "You guys go play, we'll trim the tree another day."

After entering the room and closing the door, her eyes sparkled, "Wei Qinglang, let's make soap."

Wei Qinglang still had the scissors in his hand and nodded, "Oh, let's do it. Haven't you always complained that bath beans and soapberries are too expensive?"

"Not only for our own use, I mean, should we try to start a soap business?"

Wei Qinglang laughed. "Don't you say that food is the most important thing for people? We have exclusive ingredients, secret recipes, and cookbooks. We can make money without doing anything. Don't we need to diversify our business?"

Seeing that he started to use what she said to confront her again, Cheng Shuang glanced at him.

Then he tutted his words and began to analyze, "Look, we want to grow some food that isn't available here so we can find a partner to open a restaurant. But it takes time for vegetables to grow, and raising crayfish takes time too. We haven't even dug the pond yet. Making soap is easy and quick, so let's make some money first. Once the vegetables grow, if we find a suitable partner, we'll have the money to invest."

Wei Qinglang thought about it and nodded, "That makes sense, then let's make soap."

"Then hurry up and go in to your place to find out how to make soap." Cheng Shuang took the initiative to grab his hand.

Wei Qinglang glanced at the hand that was holding his, and thought to himself, "I wish you could be so proactive in your daily life." Then he threw the scissors to the ground, locked the door, and the two disappeared from the room.

After looking up the method of making soap, the two drove to the county town and bought a few pounds of lard, two ceramic pots for making alkaline water, and a lot of gauze for filtering.

The traditional recipes for making soap are all similar. They chose the alcohol and shell powder they needed, and bought both of them directly from the mall, so there is no need to worry about the formula being leaked and others learning it.

After returning home from shopping, Cheng Guqiu looked at the lard he had bought and asked curiously, "We still have a lot of lard at home. Why did you buy so much lard?"

Cheng Shuang smiled mysteriously, "I was studying the medical book my master gave me a few days ago, and I came up with something good. I want to try to make it."

"What medicine is it?"

"No, wait until I make it, and you'll know." Cheng Shuang kept it a secret. "Aunt, please ask Xiang Sui to go outside and get some hay and burn some clean ash. I'll cut the lard first."

"Let me do it, you can take a rest." Wu Junniang came in from outside wearing an apron and took the knife from Cheng Shuang's hand.

"Okay then." Cheng Shuang remembered that there was one thing she hadn't prepared yet and instructed her, "Cut it into small pieces and boil it into lard. Don't use too high a heat to avoid burning it."

After giving instructions to Cheng Shuang, he went out and called Wei Qinglang to come with him. He took a hatchet and went to find a bamboo container to make soap.

There was almost no bamboo nearby, so the two of them went for a walk in the mountains and met villagers who went up the mountain to chop firewood. Only then did they find some bamboo and cut two pieces to bring back.

When they returned, the wood ash had been burned and the lard had been boiled. The whole yard was filled with the aroma of oil, which attracted the whole family to come out to see what they were going to do.

Wei Qinglang took a saw and cut bamboo tubes in the yard, while Cheng Shuang sifted out the impurities in the wood ash, then boiled alkali with boiling water. With the help of Cheng Guqiu and others, she filtered it repeatedly to obtain alkaline water, then added shell powder bought from the mall, stirred it thoroughly, and filtered it again.

When adding the shell powder, Cheng Chen opened his eyes wide and asked curiously, "Sister, what did you just put in?"

Facing the academic master's questioning, Cheng Shuang started to make up a story, "This is a powder I made using many different kinds of medicinal herbs. It's an exclusive formula and I won't share it with anyone else."

"Oh..." Cheng Chen scratched his head and didn't ask any more questions.

The filtered alkaline water needs to be left to stand for a while. Cheng Shuang continued only after the family had lunch. She put the room temperature pork in the pot into a basin, added the alkaline water that had been left to stand, poured in alcohol and salt water in proportion, and then began to stir.

Stirring is a strenuous job and was given to Wei Qinglang. He held the mallet and stirred continuously in one direction. His hands were sore from tired, and then Wei Nanxing took over.

The two of them took turns stirring for a long time until the fat in the basin turned into a sticky paste.

The whole family gathered around and stared at the pot of sticky stuff in amazement.

"How did a large bowl of lard become like this?" Cheng Guqiu was surprised.

Wei Xinyi stood on tiptoe. "What is this? It's so strange."

Cheng Pan tilted his head. "Is this something edible? It looks like batter with too much water in it."

Wei Nanxing shook his head, "It shouldn't be edible after adding wood ash."

"It's not for eating, it's for washing clothes." Cheng Shuang was in a good mood looking at the successful result at one try, and was already thinking about whether she could add something else into it.

For example, milk, honey, flower petals, etc. can be made into different scents and used to wash your face and take a bath.

No one could believe that something made from lard could be used to wash clothes. Cheng Shuang smiled and said that they would know tomorrow, and then she put the paste in the basin into the prepared bamboo tube and let it sit to form.

When they heard that they would have to wait until tomorrow to see the results, everyone dispersed and went about their own business.

Wei Xinyi ran to the back of the house, grabbed a rabbit, and walked out. She stroked the rabbit's head and muttered, "Little rabbit, little rabbit, you have to grow up quickly. I'll take you to find the freshest grass to eat."

But after she took a few steps out of the door, the rabbit struggled and jumped out of her arms and ran away.

The snow-white rabbit hopped forward and Wei Xinyi chased it all the way. Suddenly, a child jumped out in front and pounced directly at the rabbit.

"What a fat rabbit! We'll have meat to eat tonight." Wei Jincai was drooling as he held the rabbit in his hand.

Wei Xinyi ran over and said, "Wei Jincai, this rabbit is mine."

Wei Jincai is Wei Dakai's eldest son, a few months older than his aunt Wei Xinyi.

He held his head high and said, "This clearly came down from the mountains, how did it become yours?"

Although he had seen Wei Xinyi coming and watched the rabbit escape from her hands with his own eyes, it didn't matter. If he caught it, it would be his.

The family hasn't had meat for several days. All they have is dried vegetables and soybeans. He wants to eat meat.

Wei Xinyi was anxious. "This is mine. We're the only family in the village that raises rabbits. I just caught this rabbit from home."

"You money-loser, do you have any evidence? This is a wild rabbit that ran down from the mountain. If I catch it, it's mine. I'll roast it and eat it tonight."

"Lululu..." Wei Jincai made a face at her while holding the rabbit, then turned around and ran away with the rabbit in his arms.

Wei Xinyi immediately gave chase. The two of them chased each other all the way, attracting the attention of other children in the village. Curious, they ran over to see what was going on and saw that the two had already started to fight.

Although Wei Xinyi was a girl and not very strong, she did not show any weakness. She grabbed Wei Jincai's clothes tightly and tried to snatch the rabbit from his hand.

As the two were pulling each other, the rabbit broke free, jumped to the ground and ran away in a blink of an eye.