Song Ning said apologetically, "Dr. Tang, I'm so sorry. I'll send it to you as soon as I've finished making it."

Tang Xinghuai forced a smile, as gentle and warm as ever: "It's alright, your health is the most important thing."

Tang Xinghuai left in a hurry, and Song Ning didn't ask, but there was a distinct smell of blood on him just now.

He was injured.

Song Ning wanted to ask about yesterday's events, but he was afraid of bringing disaster upon himself.

As a citizen of the Jin Dynasty, she should tell Xie Linzhou what happened, but as a friend, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

She's just an ordinary person; it's best not to meddle in other people's business.

She dared not give away the spring water again. If she gave it to bad people, she would be an accomplice, wouldn't she be aiding and abetting evil?

She shook her head, trying not to think about these random things; she still had to work hard to make money.

As soon as the craftsman Li and his team arrived, Song Ning was too busy to think about anything else.

Her family now has eight rooms, including the livestock shed, and two more are temporary structures. Her yard is big enough that they could build two more rooms.

Song Ning showed the pre-drawn blueprints to Craftsman Li and shared his ideas. Craftsman Li's eyes lit up.

"Miss Song, that's a really good idea."

"The size of the house will remain the same; we only need to modify the walls and floor. As for the materials, I plan to use blue bricks for the living rooms, and the rest can be built as adobe houses. I'll leave these things to you. If you need anything else, just let me know."

Song Ning knew nothing about building houses, so he left everything to the Li family.

She wasn't worried, but the Li family, having learned from their previous experience, were afraid something might happen, so they had Song Rui accompany them when buying materials.

The Song family's house was to be demolished and rebuilt, so the tools for making braised food were moved to Aunt Zhao's place and Song Xiu'e's house.

When no one was around at noon, Aunt Zhao sighed to Li Daniu and her son, "Oh my, Er Ya is really capable. Look, she's started repairing the house again."

Li Daniu carried the washed meat into the kitchen and said with a smile, "Once Er Ya is done, we can all get better too."

“Yes, Mother, we’re all working hard to earn money now. Once we’ve earned enough, we’ll build a house too,” Li Xingwang said as he moved things around.

Aunt Zhao gets angry whenever she hears her son speak: "You're so heartless! I told you to talk to Er Ya more and be nicer to her, but you just wouldn't listen. Instead, you're getting close to that girl from the Luo family."

"Mother, Er Ya and I see each other every day, isn't that good enough?"

"What's so great about it? You're such a naive person. These days, which of us with kids doesn't fawn over Er Ya?"

Li Daniu knew what his wife was thinking, so he didn't say much, because he also wanted Er Ya to be his daughter-in-law.

“Mother, I know what I'm doing, so don't worry about me. Now that you're in charge, you have a lot of responsibility, so please don't make any mistakes.”

Aunt Zhao grinned happily whenever this was mentioned.

Song Ning's braised food business is growing bigger and bigger, with a large daily output, and more and more people needing it.

There are now nearly ten people working at Aunt Zhao's house.

To make things easier, Song Ning appointed Aunt Zhao as the manager, and since she also occupied her family's kitchen, her monthly wages were quite substantial.

Because of this incident, Aunt Zhao became much more assertive at home; she was no longer the woman who only cooked and washed clothes.

Song Ning's family is building a house, so she doesn't have much time to work. These days, the braised food business has been handed over to Aunt Zhao, Song Xiu'e, and her mother.

With many hands making light work, Song Ning brought all the people in the Li family who could build houses. She and the craftsman Li were in charge of supervising the construction, and in just half a month, her house was already half-built.

What Song Ning started half a month ago is finally almost finished.

The thick paste had now solidified. Song Ning poured it out, cut it into pieces, and then smoothed out the edges slightly. A bar of soap was ready.

It looks like it's done, but I don't know how effective it will be.

Using the water in the yard, Song Ning tried washing her hands, and foam immediately appeared.

It's done!

Song Ning quickly took out her notebook and started doing the accounting.

The cost of lard in her household is basically included in the purchase of pork, and it's also factored into the cost of braised dishes. Salt is a bit expensive, but she doesn't need that much to make soap, so let's say it's five coins.

Wood ash costs almost nothing, and now the raw materials are readily available everywhere in Tianxiang County.

The most expensive raw material was lime. In the Jin Dynasty, there were already places that specialized in burning lime, and most of it was used for building houses. On the market, a pound of lime cost one tael of silver.

She has cut out more than twenty bars of soap so far, and there will be more once the molds are finished.

Currently, the most commonly used cleaning products on the market are soap pods and bath beans.

Soap pods are relatively cheap, but their cleaning power is poor. Bath beans are better, but they are expensive, with even the cheapest costing several hundred coins.

If it's supplied to the upper class, herbs and spices will be added, doubling the price. There are even bath powders made specifically for nobles, which are even more expensive.

Her soap is far superior to bath beans; it should be easy for her to sell it for half a tael of silver.

Based on this calculation, the deal is feasible.

Speaking of the importance of reading, when she lived with her grandfather, he would always teach her all sorts of random things. At the time, she thought learning these things was useless, but now she really appreciates her grandfather.

Song Ning found some carpenters in the Li family who could do woodworking and asked them to help make some molds, preferably the kind with carved patterns inside.

The soap-making method worked, and she now had another way to make money.

That evening, after everyone put down their work, before dinner, Song Ning handed a bar of soap to Liu Yuelan: "Mother, from now on we'll use this to wash our hands."

Liu Yuelan held it in her hand and examined it closely. It was smooth and had a strange smell, but it wasn't unpleasant. "Er Ya, what is this?"

"This is something I made for washing my face, hair, and body. I named it soap."

She couldn't think of any other good name, so she decided to leave it as is.

"Try it and see if it works."

Song Ning scooped a ladle of water for her mother, squatted down beside her, and washed her hands. Liu Yuelan looked on with surprise.

"Er Ya, this thing seems to work quite well."

Previously, we would just wash our hands with water. But after we started the food business, we started using rice water and sometimes wood ash.

But this soap leaves my hands feeling very clean and refreshed after use, yet also slippery.

When Song Ning first arrived, there was a water shortage, so he didn't take showers or wash his face much.

Later, after settling down in Tianxiang County, sometimes after cooking meat dishes, the grease on my hands was impossible to wash off.

Song Ning always went into the space to wash quietly.

During the meal, Song Ning called on everyone to line up to wash their hair and faces after eating.

Especially Xu Feng.

Since her family started renovating their house, the busiest person hasn't been her, but Xu Feng.

This kid seems to have suddenly found his interest. He followed the Li family around, helping to move bricks, dig soil, pour water and mix mud. He worked hard without complaint, and every day he was covered in dust and dirt. He no longer looked like a young master at all. Even Song Ning was disgusted by his filth.

After dinner, Song Ning moved a stool to the yard and boiled a large pot of water. She couldn't help but think of how her grandfather used to boil water and remove the hair when he slaughtered pigs.