Transmigrated into a Blacksmith’s Husband

Advertisement

Xu Xiuhua was shocked beyond belief. She saw that the newcomer was dressed luxuriously, clearly no ordinary person. She put on a smile and asked, “How may I help you, distinguished guest?”

Xiao Fengxian stepped down from her sedan chair with the help of her bearers, then rushed over to Xu Xiuhua and knelt before her. “Sister, I beg you to allow Qiao Lang to take me in.”

Her words caused a commotion among the onlookers, who started to whisper. She called her “sister” and mentioned “Qiao Lang”, could she be referring to Qiao Guangzhi?

It was hard to believe. He was already so old, with children of his own, and yet he was still able to get into this kind of trouble.

Xu Xiuhua felt as if she had been struck by a heavy blow and asked in a daze, “Who…who are you talking about?”

“Sister, of course, it’s Brother Zhi!” Xiao Fengxian pleaded from where she knelt at Xu Xiuhua’s feet, crying, “I have been with Qiao Lang for five years already. Sister, please let me join the household, even if only as a concubine. I swear to serve you and Brother Qiao faithfully. I beg you, grant me this wish!”

Xu Xiuhua’s anger rushed straight to her head, and she pointed at Xiao Fengxian without speaking for a long time. In the end, she fainted directly, causing chaos among the Qiao family.

Now that it was the slack season for farming, this matter quickly became a topic of discussion after meals in Xianhe Village. Naturally, it also reached Qiao Yuan’s ears. He heard that Xu Xiuhua didn’t eat or drink anything after waking up, probably because she was too shocked.

He guessed that there would be more trouble when Qiao Guangzhi came back.

Qiao Yuan planned to add more fuel to the fire, but he had to wait until Madam Lu’s birthday banquet was over. Then he could act like a fox borrowing the tiger’s might1“狐假虎威” is a Chinese idiom that means to act like a tiger with the power of a fox, or to bully people by relying on the power of others..

Right now, he had to urgently train more workers. Chu Li also came over to join in the fun, saying he wanted to help him collect money!

Fine, just consider it as the young master coming down from his noble estate to gain life experience.

Advertisement

Qiao Yuan didn’t know where Chu Li had found these helpers, but each of them was skilled and resourceful. With just a little guidance, they could do the work very well and were also adaptable to the situation. Qiao Yuan felt inferior in comparison.

With enough helpers, production at the shop had sharply increased over the past few days, and they were even able to sell out everything.

Chu Li had been rushing around in a frenzy all morning. Now he was slumped exhausted on the table.

“What’s wrong?” Qiao Yuan asked.

Chu Li complained resentfully, “I think you should pay me wages for my work.”

He really worked too hard; he didn’t stop for a moment in the morning!

Qiao Yuan said with amusement, “Alright, we’ll go by the city’s standard rate – how about five hundred wen a month?”

“Five hundred wen?” Chu Li looked up in disbelief.

Advertisement

Qiao Yuan said, “Of course, you also need to start work in the early morning and finish in the evening. For someone like you who only works less than two hours a day, I guess I have to cut it in half.”

Chu Li felt dejected again, and slumped back onto the table, “It’s really not easy for the common people to make a living.”

Ming Xu heard this and laughed from the side, “Young Master Chu, even this kind of work is hard to find! You need to have connections and also know how to read and write.”

Now that he was well-fed and clothed here, Ming Xu felt that his previous days of hunger and cold were like a past life. “For farmers like us, we spend our whole lives working on the land. When the weather is good, we have enough to eat. But when there is drought or flood, we have to tighten our belts and live one day at a time.”

Chu Li blinked thoughtfully.

Qiao Yuan didn’t disturb him, instead, he prepared to go rent a courtyard house.

Currently, Ming Xu and Ming Chen were staying at Yu Qiao Ji, and Xing Wu and Zheng Xin were living at the iron shop. The Yu family would have some inconvenience when they occasionally stayed overnight in the county town, so Qiao Yuan discussed renting a courtyard in the county town with Yu Dameng.

One reason was to make it convenient for the family to have a temporary place to stay. Another reason was to have a place for Yu Shanwen and Yu Shanwu to rest at noon when they went to school next year.

“If it weren’t for our insufficient savings, I really want to buy a house.”

Compared to the county town, Qiao Yuan still preferred living in a village with mountains and rivers where he could grow vegetables. But thinking of the convenience for when his and Yu Dameng’s children went to school in the future, as well as the continuously rising housing prices, Qiao Yuan still planned to buy a house in the county town when he had enough money. It would also be good as an investment.

Advertisement

Qiao Yuan calculated that after the Lu family’s birthday banquet was over and he received the final payment, plus selling the stoves from the iron shop over the winter, he should be able to afford it.

The iron shop and Yu Qiao Ji were located in the bustling marketplace, while the martial arts school was in a relatively secluded area. After considering everything, Qiao Yuan rented a courtyard near the martial arts school – it would be quieter to live in, and also convenient for the two students in the family.

The courtyard had two rooms, and the monthly rent was five taels. It was just right for the family to stay temporarily.

Old Man Yu also wanted to contribute funds, but Qiao Yuan declined. Now the shop’s daily profits alone covered the rent, plus Yu Shanwen, Yu Shanwu and Liu Ge’er were still young. Qiao Yuan wanted Old Man Yu and Lin Cuifen to save more money.

In the blink of an eye, it was the day of Madam Lu’s birthday banquet, and Yu Qiao Ji was extremely busy. This was because the Lu family not only ordered flower buns, but also ordered various pastries from the shop to make dessert platters.

But Qiao Yuan was not as tired as he was before when he went to Laike House. His previous training was effective, and now he could see the results.

Before noon, the Lu family opened their doors to welcome guests. Walking straight through the main entrance led to the Longevity Hall. On the tables on both sides of the red carpet, there were various kinds of shaped breads for wishing longevity. Upon closer inspection, each one was actually unique!

Some were in the shape of gigantic gourds, with flowers and branches climbing on it and small gourds hanging on it. The characters for longevity or fortune on it were not written with paint, but were also sculpted. Some were sculptures of Ma Gu2麻姑 (má gū) – Ma Gu: a Chinese goddess associated with longevity and fertility offering longevity, vivid and lifelike, as if it came out of a painting. And there are those resembling potted plants, with miniature peach trees bearing ripe longevity peaches, which were very pleasing to the eyes.

Walking to the main hall, the towering and impressive giant longevity peach sculptures, which are two meters high and layered on top of each other, were even more astonishing. The layers were adorned with various peach-shaped longevity symbols, including gold ingots, lucky bags, gourds, and characters for good fortune, prosperity, longevity, and happiness. At the very top, the goddess Ma Gu, standing on clouds and holding a peach, was truly wonderful.

Every guest who came to pay their respects had to exclaim in wonder, leaving the elderly Madam Lu seated in the center hall beaming delightedly, so happy that she couldn’t close her mouth.

Word spread that day that anyone who went to the Lu house gates and offered a few auspicious blessings could receive a flower bun. For a time, the area outside the Lu gates was exceptionally lively.

Yu Qiao Ji also became famous, and in the next two days, they received several orders from noble guests. Thus, Yu Qiao Ji’s flower bun business finally got on track.

As a result, Qiao Yuan had a large sum of money in his hands and became financially comfortable. The first thing he did was to buy the shop of Yu Qiao Ji, totaling two hundred taels.

The house agent looked at him with nothing but admiration – for a young ger to earn so much silver in such a short time!

Given time, he would be even more amazing. It wouldn’t be surprising if another wealthy lord emerged in Yunshui County in the future!

Advertisement

At present, Qiao Yuan finally had some free time, so he turned his efforts to deal with the matter of making honeycomb coal. When he lived with his grandparents in the countryside, they made honeycomb coal themselves when it was cold. It was made by mixing coal powder, yellow mud, wood chips, and water.

These materials were easy to obtain. After mixing with coal ash, they would use the honeycomb coal press made by Yu Dameng to compress the mixture over the ash pile. Once set, they could remove the pressed bricks.

Lin Cuifen exclaimed, “Why are there still so many holes?”

“Mom, there have to be holes for it to burn fully. Otherwise, it’s like coal, only burning a layer outside, and the core is still untouched.” Qiao Yuan explained, “But we can’t burn it now, it’s still wet. We have to dry it under the sun first.”

Yu Shanwen and Yu Shanwu were eager to try it out themselves and really wanted to experience it firsthand. It seemed like a lot of fun.

Qiao Yuan lazily handed the honeycomb coal press to the two brothers to tinker with, and explained, “Using ten jin of coal powder, we can make about thirty honeycomb coal bricks. Although materials like mud and wood chips don’t cost much, but if we want to make honeycomb coal on a large scale, we have to hire villagers to dig mud and buy a lot of wood chips from the carpenter. These are all costs.”

Currently, the price of coal was one tael and three qian per hundred jin. Adding other costs, the average cost of each honeycomb coal was about five fen31 fen = 10 wen. Qiao Yuan planned to sell them for eight fen each, and if someone buys a large quantity at once, he will give some extra as a gift, so that more households can afford it.

“While we still have some sun, and the soil is easy to dig, let’s make some more.” One household would burn about eight pieces a day, and the consumption would also be considerable over the winter.

If he wanted to expand this business, he had to do it in the village. One reason was that it was convenient to get mud in the village. Another reason was that there was more space to spread out.

Qiao Yuan thought that he might as well buy the neighboring homesteads now. Anyway, he had to build a new house next year. He could buy them now and build a simple shed first, which would be convenient for the honeycomb coal business.

Old Man Yu and Lin Cuifen had no objections. They were used to following Qiao Yuan’s words. As for Yu Dameng, he obeyed Qiao Yuan’s orders even more.

After dinner, Qiao Yuan carried a few bags of snacks and went to the village chief’s house with Yu Dameng.

The homesteads were very cheap, only one tael of silver each. Qiao Yuan directly took three of them, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about expanding later.

The village chief was stunned for a moment, wondering how big of a house they were planning to build!

The Yu family didn’t have any farmland yet either, so Qiao Yuan also inquired about that while he was there.

The village chief said, “I’ve been keeping an eye out for you all this time, but peaceful years mean few are desperate enough to sell land.”

After discussing briefly with Yu Dameng, Qiao Yuan decided that if they still couldn’t find suitable land by next spring, they would just buy some wasteland and reclaim it themselves. That way, the land would be connected and easier to manage.

The moonlight was growing stronger, and the night was cold, so there were few people left on the streets.

The two held hands and chatted, slowly making their way home, when suddenly someone blocked their path.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you want to show your support, you can buy me a coffee. It would make my day! For every five coffees I get, I will release a bonus chapter.

1“狐假虎威” is a Chinese idiom that means to act like a tiger with the power of a fox, or to bully people by relying on the power of others.2麻姑 (má gū) – Ma Gu: a Chinese goddess associated with longevity and fertility31 fen = 10 wen