Mrs. Yang laughed. "Huai Zi really has a way with words. If you had been the one to speak up and offered sixty cents a jin, just like we agreed at home, he definitely wouldn’t have added another twenty cents." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Juhua couldn’t help but praise him. "Brother Huai Zi is right. This pork really is more tender than usual. I hadn’t even thought of that."

Qingmu said excitedly, "That’s it! Juhua, let’s go to the market tomorrow, buy some meat, and make some sausage. Then we can compare it to our own and see if ours tastes better. If it does, we’ll have no trouble selling this pork in the future."

Juhua nodded. She tried to smile, but her face felt uncomfortably tight. That’s when she remembered she had to wash off her face mask—she’d completely forgotten how much time had passed.

As she got up to get water and wash her face, she said to Qingmu, "Let’s give it a try then. The sausage made from that meat definitely won’t taste as good as ours. Our Qingshan Sausage is going to be famous."

Mrs. Yang and Zheng Changhe thought about the three piglets they had just brought back from Zhao San’s place and grinned from ear to ear.

Mrs. Yang said regretfully, "We wanted to get a few more, but there weren’t any left. Piglets are hard to come by."

After washing her face, Juhua said to her, "Mom, we’re already raising five pigs right now. The two we got at the beginning of the year will be ready for market by year’s end, so we can just get more then. It’s not good to raise too many at once. Raising them one batch after another is a good pace. Once we’ve planted more acorn trees and have more experience raising pigs, handling ten or so at a time will be easy."

Zheng Changhe smiled. "No need to rush. You can’t get fat in one bite. Compared to the other villagers, our family is already way ahead. And this winter, the spicy cabbage can also bring in some money, can’t it?"

Hearing this, Qingmu quickly added, "We need to get the spicy cabbage ready. Manager Mao is coming to pick up the order tomorrow. And the sausages, too."

And so, the family got busy again, packing the spicy cabbage into jars and placing the sausages into bamboo baskets. Juhua had specifically asked Zheng Changhe to weave the baskets, thinking they would be breathable.

Only after everything was ready did they go to bed.

The next morning, Manager Mao arrived as expected with two carts. He bought all of the Zheng Family’s sausage and cured meat at the agreed-upon price, and took a large amount of spicy cabbage as well.

For the steamed pork with rice flour recipe, Manager Mao paid Juhua fifty taels of silver.

He chuckled and said to Mrs. Yang, "I’ll be honest with you, this price is still too low. Our owner said that the recipes we bought from you last time are selling extremely well at our restaurant. If we were to just give you more money for them now, it would seem petty. But he won’t forget your family. We have a long road of business ahead of us, so just you wait!"

Mrs. Yang quickly replied, "The fact that they’re selling well is because your owner is a good businessman. In the hands of someone who doesn’t know how to do business, even the best recipes would be useless."

’She wasn’t greedy; the money from selling those first recipes bought them land and was a huge help to the family.’

Manager Mao silently praised her. ’She really knows what to say.’

As he was leaving, he said to Zheng Changhe, "Brother Zheng, your family should make more sausage. If it sells well in Qinghui County, I might be back to buy more any day now. If you don’t have enough prepared, won’t I have made a wasted trip? And if a customer at the restaurant likes the sausage and comes back for more, only for me to say we’re out, wouldn’t that be a slap in the face for me?"

Zheng Changhe nodded repeatedly, reassuring him that they would definitely make more and guaranteeing he wouldn’t leave empty-handed the next time he came to stock up.

After Manager Mao left with his men and the carts, Juhua came out of her room and asked with a smile, "Is everything settled?"

Mrs. Yang said happily, "All settled. One hundred fifty jin of sausage—I kept the extra bit for us—for a total of twelve taels of silver; eighty jin of cured meat, for four taels and eight-tenths of a tael of silver; he gave us fifty taels of silver for the steamed pork recipe; the spicy cabbage... oh dear, I’ve lost track. Changhe, how much was the spicy cabbage?"

Zheng Changhe thought for a moment and said, "I think it was over two hundred jin, sold for a little over one tael of silver."

Juhua had actually heard everything from her room, ready to step in and correct them if their math was off. She smiled and said, "The spicy cabbage was 224 jin, which came to one tael of silver plus 792 cents. So today’s grand total is sixty-eight taels of silver, plus 592 cents."

Mrs. Yang counted the money and found it was indeed correct. She praised her daughter for being so quick with numbers.

Seeing her mother cradle the silver like a precious treasure as she went to put it away, Juhua was overjoyed. She turned to Zheng Changhe with a wide smile and said, "Dad, we’re saving up money fast, aren’t we?"

Zheng Changhe rubbed his hands together and laughed. "Fast! But this is all because you’re so clever and thought of making and selling sausage. If we just sold the pork, we wouldn’t have made this much money. Your old dad’s brain is slow; all I know is how to raise pigs."