Seeing Yun Ling's determination, Yun Ruoxia said nothing more, nor could she say anything more. She even lent a hand to Yun Ling while she was counting the coins.

After receiving the thousand copper coins, the father-in-law returned the finished product and blueprints to Yunling without saying a word.

Yun Lingxin had already flown home after getting the things, but unfortunately, it was already dark when Yun Shenghua got home from work. Winter days are short and the cold comes quickly. Even the warmest heart was defeated by the hot rice porridge and the cozy quilt, so they had to discuss it again tomorrow.

The first one to wake up the next day was Yun Ruoxia. She had heard some steps on making beeswax from Yun Ling, so she got up early to light the firewood and start the stove. She mixed the honeycomb with water and boiled it together. Afraid that it would burn and stick to the pot, she kept a close eye on it and stirred it with a spatula from time to time.

When it was almost time, she quickly ran into the house, pulled Yunling off the bed, draped a thick cotton-padded coat over her, and then dragged her to the kitchen.

Yunling yawned heavily, her nose and mouth instantly filled with the aroma of honey. Looking at the thick, dark yellow liquid in the pot, she realized it had been boiling for a while, but she only saw two or three small bees circling around it.

This further solidified Yunling's resolve to start beekeeping only after the winter has passed. The current shortage of bees likely indicates they are overwintering, and the lack of pollen in winter makes the process quite challenging.

"So, did Auntie do it correctly?"

"Auntie is clever and quick to understand."

Yunling stood on a small stool, stirred the mixture with a spatula, and when she saw that it was almost done, she asked Yun Ruoxia to turn off the stove. Then she used a slotted spoon to scoop out all the residue and put it in a wooden basin. She then used a rolling pin to press it down hard to extract the honey from the residue and poured it back into the pot.

"Auntie, watch me do it once. Then we can divide the work and do it faster."

"good."

Yunling first prepared a large basin of cold water, then picked up the specially made wooden board that had been soaked in water. Holding the two small nails beside it, she slowly put the board into the large pot. After a while, she lifted it up, and the unformed beeswax dripped down the edge. Yunling shook it vigorously twice, and when the dripping wax stopped, she quickly put it into the cold water to cool it down.

Yunling quickly stepped off the small stool, took the wooden board out of the cold water, and used a knife to scrape off the beeswax on the other three sides, easily removing the two semi-finished foundation stones.

Yun Ruoxia was stunned, but she didn't dare to be negligent. After taking the wooden board from Yun Ling, she began to put it into the large pot.

The two worked together more and more seamlessly, finishing before Zhang came in to prepare breakfast. Because of the pot, the bottom part of the pot couldn't be soaked into the wooden board, so Yunling let it cool down so she could use it to attract bees.

The semi-finished product was done. Yunling took out the honeycomb grid and pressed it down one by one. Although it was a bit of a struggle, she finally made the foundation.

Since she didn't need it for the time being, Yunling simply put it away.

**

Time slipped away until the day of departure, and the air was filled with the aroma of dumplings. However, the bowl that Yunling was eating was filled with the smell of gold and silver paper money. Without even looking at it, one could imagine how hard Yunling's mother had put into the ancestral worship this year.

Yunling wanted to change her bowl, but her mother scolded her, saying that the dumplings should be eaten in batches and some left over. She could eat the remaining batch on the Winter Solstice tomorrow. Then, there were two more dumplings in her bowl.

Yunling had no choice but to eat it all, unable to bear the loving look in her mother's eyes.

Three days after the winter solstice, all kinds of shops opened their doors to welcome customers. Zhang and Grandma Yun took them to the county town to shop, just like last year. Although the winter solstice is more important than the Spring Festival, most people make the most of the winter solstice and then have a tight budget for the Spring Festival.

But for Yunling's family, as long as they have some money left in their pockets and no plans to save money, they won't mistreat themselves. They eat and drink as they please, and it's common for them to gain two or three pounds during the New Year.

More importantly, having severed ties with the main branch of the family and no longer needing to participate in ancestral worship, they naturally indulged in lavish shopping and extravagant feasting.

After buying new clothes at the clothing store, the group split into two groups. Zhang and Granny Yun went to buy New Year pictures, peach wood charms, couplets, fat chicken, sturgeon, Buddha flowers, walnuts, mint, mutton, leek sprouts, various seasonings, two bolts of silk, three jars of old wine, cherry fritters, black plums, fried ginkgo nuts, candy, melon seeds, persimmons, oranges, and so on.

Yunling, Yun Chu, and Yun Ruoxia were led by Yun Ruochun. Their first choice was the peddler who went from street to street. Unfortunately, this year's firecrackers were almost the same as last year's. While everyone chatted, Yun Ruochun only picked the fun ones that could jump high.

However, this year's hair ties and silk flowers have new styles, with butterflies and moths. Yunling and Yunchu both found it a bit difficult to choose. Yunling had spent all her money on that beehive tool, so she didn't have any spare money to buy this.

Yun Chu needed to buy paper to practice calligraphy. Although Yun Ling was going to teach her to recognize medicinal herbs, she hadn't tried picking and selling them yet, so she didn't have much money on hand.

Seeing the two of them like this, Yun Ruoxia picked out four more, saying, "You two, I'll buy these butterflies and moths for you."

"Thank you, Auntie!"

Yunling and Yunchu smiled at each other, seeing a glimmer of light in each other's eyes.

After making their purchase, the four headed to Yunxiang Bookstore, which was not far away. This was Yun Ruochun's first time there. Seeing how exquisite and elegant the bookstore was, she quickly gathered up her sleeves, afraid that she might bump into something while being careless, and that she wouldn't be able to afford to pay for it even if she sold the trousers.

Upon seeing the three familiar people, and given that it was nearing the end of the year, the shopkeeper Chen greeted them with a smile, "Young lady, are you here to buy paper?"

"Sister, I think you could buy a calligraphy practice book."

Yun Chu also had this idea. Sometimes her father and grandfather would ask her what characters she wanted to learn. She clearly wanted to learn many, many characters, but she couldn't say exactly what they were. If there were a calligraphy book, she could just follow along and learn whatever characters were in it.

"The calligraphy practice books are great! This way, this way! It's almost Chinese New Year, so I'll give you a discount. Fifty coins a book."

Yun Chu opened one or two of the books and felt that the characters inside were too profound, some too messy, and some too difficult. She knew she could never learn them all.

"Shopkeeper, do you have anything simpler, or perhaps a medical book?"

"You've only learned a few characters, and you're already looking at medical books?"

Yun Chu also felt that her idea was a bit too absurd, like trying to run before you've even learned to walk, which would inevitably surprise others.

“I only know a few characters, but aren’t medical books written down character by character? I can learn slowly.”

A burst of laughter suddenly erupted from inside the shop.

"Listen, senior brother, there's a young lady who can't read who wants to buy a medical book. Could it be to help her sleep?"