These words came from inside the workshop. Yunling looked up and saw a plump woman dusting off her apron as she came out.

Just by his size, it seemed like he could grab Old Lady Lin with one hand, like an eagle grabbing a chick. Where did Old Lady Lin get the aura to dare to confront this person?

Old Lady Lin didn't mean to confront this person; she was just making a few sarcastic remarks as usual. Who knew that it would be Old Wang's wicked wife who was doing the work today? If she had known, she definitely wouldn't have dared to provoke this notorious tigress in the village.

Old Wang's wife knew that Old Lady Lin wasn't an easy person to deal with, but she wasn't afraid of trouble, nor was she worried about the woman spreading rumors. So she vented all the resentment she had been holding in.

"What we do in our tofu workshop is something we can be proud of. When you come to grind soybeans, we don't charge you any copper coins. We even help you grind the soybeans and add the brine. In the end, we only charge you 20%. It's a loss-making business. Let whoever wants to do it do it. Otherwise, people will say that the Wang family is asking for an exorbitant price."

Old Lady Lin was so angry at these words that two more strands of white hair sprouted. She herself was perfectly justified; she couldn't even get one person to start the grinding process—she insisted on having both families involved.

That would have been bad enough, but they insisted on taking 20% ​​from each of the two vendors, and even took the best-looking pieces. They claimed it wasn't an exorbitant demand, but in reality, their mouths were agape, agape like oxen.

Isn't it just because he's the youngest son of the aunt of the village chief's wife's maternal cousin that he was able to get such a large piece of land?

What are you so smug about?

Although Yunling didn't know the ins and outs of the business, if it really was a losing proposition as this person said, it probably wouldn't last long. Moreover, being able to run a tofu workshop here meant she must have some kind of kinship with the village chief, so it shouldn't be as frustrating as this person described.

But ultimately it has little to do with her. She only buys it once or twice now and then, so there's no need to investigate it. Yunling thought so, and so did her mother. Seeing that no one was saying anything, Lin's mother also didn't dare to speak up. At most, she would just complain when she got back.

Seeing that no one objected, Old Wang's wife, slippers on, walked over to Old Lady Lin and Aunt Shang, effortlessly lifted the two baskets of soybeans with both hands, and went to the stone mill.

He scooped out a small half-spoonful of soybeans from the sieve and put them on the stone mill, adding water from time to time. He held the millstone handle with both hands and shook it, making a creaking sound.

The sunlight gradually intensified, burning hot against their skin. Yunling quickly pulled her mother-in-law to the eaves to cool off. They had barely blinked when they saw milky white, thick yogurt-like soy milk flowing down the stone mill wall, a sight that looked incredibly comforting.

Old Wang's wife was working hard at the millstone, and her mouth wasn't idle either. Seeing that Old Lady Lin had nothing to say, she started rambling on to herself.

“Back in our village, when the tofu workshop was working, the whole village could smell the aroma of the tofu they were grinding. We kids were so greedy back then, we would all huddle up to the workshop window, and we drooled so much that we didn’t even know how much we could drink.”

"But the year I got married, the owner of the tofu workshop passed away. Everyone said he worked too hard and ruined himself. Once when I went back to my parents' home, I went to the tofu workshop. The aroma of tofu still filled the air, but I could no longer hear the sound of grinding the millstone."

"Back then, I told Lao Wang, 'If we can do it, we should do it; if we can't, we should rest. Otherwise, we'll be gone before we've spent all our money, and even crying to the King of Hell won't help.'"

“Alright,” Granny Yun said, pulling out a ladle and scraping the soy milk off the stone mill wall layer by layer. “Don’t you dare spill horse urine in it while we’re talking. If the soy milk turns out salty, our whole family will have to go cry to the King of Hell.”

Seeing this, Old Lady Lin followed Old Lady Yun's example and picked up the soup spoon to scrape the other side.

“Chun’s mother is right. Just grind the millstone. Why all the fuss about it being crooked? You don’t even know how much drool is leaking into it.”

Aunt Shang wasn't going to stand still either. She picked up the wooden bucket, basin, colander, and gauze bag and went to wash them.

Yunling also wanted to find something to do, but after looking around and thinking, she still didn't know what to do. So she touched her nose, shrank into a corner, and tried to minimize her presence as much as possible.

The two baskets of soybeans were ground up in no time. With the help of Granny Yun and Granny Lin, the soybean milk on the stone mill wall was scraped clean, and then the filtering process could begin.

Aunt Shang shook out the water from the washed gauze bag, placed it in a wooden basin, prepared a strainer, and started catching the soy milk at the opening of the bag.

Old Wang's wife took out a wooden basin full of soy milk from the bottom of the stone mill, picked up a ladle and scooped the soy milk into a gauze bag one spoonful at a time, filtering out soy milk as smooth as silk. She repeated this action three times until she got the smoothest soy milk.

After filtering the soy milk, it was time to cook it. Old Wang's wife gathered a few twigs and some dry grass, struck a flint, and started a fire.

Once the pot is hot, pour the soy milk into it and stir it with a stick to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. After it is cooked, first scoop out two buckets to make tofu. Use one of the remaining two pots to make soy milk and the other to make tofu skin.

Yunling peeked inside and saw Old Wang's wife first scooping out brine from a jar and putting it into the two buckets of soy milk. She stirred it with a stick, waited a while, and then poured it into a wooden box to press and shape it. This way, it would eventually become tofu.

Old Wang's wife wasn't idle either. After finishing this, she went back to the pot, pulled out two bamboo poles, quickly picked up a piece of dried bean curd skin from the pot, and placed it on the bamboo poles to cool. After the surface of the pot formed a skin again, she picked it up again, repeating this process until the soy milk in the pot had boiled away and only a small portion remained before she stopped.

"Here, have some soy milk and milk skin."

Old Lady Lin was the first to take out a bowl from somewhere, and scooped out two large spoonfuls, filling her own bowl to the brim. Old Lady Yun followed closely behind, taking out two bowls and filling each with a small half spoonful.

When the bowl was handed to Yunling, her first instinct was to refuse, but the aroma was just too enticing, like a seductive fox spirit gently tantalizing her nose and stomach. It turned out that her sore throat from smelling the beans earlier was just an illusion.

"Hurry up, you little brat, if you don't eat soon, that Lin family's mother monkey will pounce on you and eat you up, bowl and all."

A female monkey from the Lin family?

Yunling nearly died laughing at the way she was called "Old Lady Yun." She glanced sideways and saw Old Lady Lin sneakily drinking soy milk...