Lin Gangzi's face darkened: "You actually dare to threaten me?! You yourself said I have a wife, how can I take responsibility for you? My wife is pregnant, I can't divorce her."

Moreover, Liu Hong'er is much better than Liu Xiuhong, that uncouth country girl. Besides, she's a jinx to husbands, so who would dare marry her?

He didn't want to push Liu Xiuhong too far, knowing she was capable of anything, so he humbled himself and coaxed her:

“Xiuhong, it’s not that I’m not taking responsibility for you, but no family can have two wives. You’re a smart woman. You should ask your parents to find you an old widower with no children. Once you’re there, you can give birth to a big, healthy son for him. Then you’ll be in control of the whole family, and life will still be good. Why are you hanging yourself on me?”

Lin Gangzi had no doubt that the child was not his.

Seeing that Lin Gangzi's attitude had softened, Liu Xiuhong tearfully said again, "Actually, Brother Gangzi, I only decided on you because I like you. I know you have a wife and are afraid of my reputation for bringing bad luck to husbands. I don't expect to be your wife. I'm willing to be your concubine as long as I'm with you."

"Brother Gangzi, I truly love you. If it weren't for Aunt Lin's brother being a scholar, why would I want to marry him? You're a million times better than Song Tongsheng, otherwise I wouldn't be with you, right? You can feel my heart if you don't believe me."

As she spoke, she placed Lin Gangzi's hand on her chest. The moment Lin Gangzi touched that soft touch, he was immediately overcome with lust. He didn't care anymore; he just wanted to have sex first.

After a while, heavy breathing came from the bushes again. After finishing his business, he said, "Xiuhong, you have a good eye. I am indeed much better than that Song Tongsheng. He was just lucky to pass the Tongsheng exam. I am also a scholar and no worse than him."

"It's settled then, I can only take you as a concubine." Lin Gangzi thought that since she had offered herself up, he might as well take her. Being a concubine wouldn't affect him, it was just that Liu Hong'er would be a bit more troublesome.

Liu Xiuhong nodded shyly in his arms.

She had already made up her mind that since Lin Gangzi had now climbed the social ladder outside, she could be brought to the city to enjoy a life of luxury once he became successful. Who would know about her affair in the village then?

There was another woman in her family, Liu Hong'er, who was also pregnant. But it didn't matter. Her mother said that judging from her reaction, she was probably having a boy, while Liu Hong'er was probably having a girl. Once she gave birth to a boy, she would kick out the ambiguous Liu Hong'er, and then she would be the rightful wife.

After finishing their meal at Song Anxin's house, she and Lin Fengnian set up a large steamer in the yard and put the sorghum they had washed that morning inside to steam at high temperature. After steaming, they spread it out on a bamboo tray to cool, and then sprinkled it with yeast and stirred it evenly.

That's right, Song Anxin is trying to brew her own liquor. She wants to make a high-purity liquor that is different from the ones here, and she has chosen sorghum as her liquor.

Sorghum is a crop grown in the north, but wheat is the staple food in the north, so sorghum, a coarse grain, is not expensive and doesn't attract much attention.

However, brewing wine ultimately requires a large amount of grain. In addition, the wine industry has always been a high-profit industry. It's fine to brew wine for personal consumption, but the government will not allow private merchants to brew and sell wine. Instead, they need to purchase a sales license from the government. Not only is the price extremely high, but the wine tax is also high. Even so, merchants who brew and sell wine can make a fortune.

But having enough money is absolutely not enough to buy this license. There are many twists and turns involved in this process, and you can't even dream of it without currying favor with a few powerful people.

Her distillation technique was unparalleled in this era. If she successfully produced a highly pure distilled spirit, this was no small matter compared to the trivialities of making duck eggs; it could very well bring about the extermination of her entire family...

Just as Song An was pondering, Old Man Bai and Ah Si came over with a wooden bucket. Old Man Bai said:

“Fengnian’s mother, I’ve prepared everything for you. In all my years, I’ve never seen anyone brew wine like you.”

Song Anxin smiled and said, "Uncle Bai, don't worry, I'll make sure you get to taste it first when it's brewed."

She asked Uncle Bai to make a wine still, which was a hollow round wooden barrel with a movable wine hopper in the middle, similar to a rectangular beam placed in the middle, except that the top was concave. The spout was connected to the wine hopper and was outside the barrel, from which the wine would flow out. Of course, the spout could also be extended by attaching a long bamboo spout.

Old Bai thought she was just drinking her own homemade wine, and he laughed and said, "Haha, good, Fengnian's wife, then I'll be waiting for your wine."

After mixing the sorghum with the yeast, put it into a large vat, add an appropriate amount of cooled boiled water, stir it again until it is evenly mixed, then cover the mouth of the vat with a layer of cloth and tie the cloth and the vat together with hemp rope.

"Mother, my brother and I have finished preparing it. When can we brew wine with this stuff?" Lin Fengshou asked.

Song Anxin replied, "It will take more than a month to ferment. You can put it in the corner of Fenghe's room, since that room is empty."

Lin Fengnian and Lin Fengshou agreed and did as their mother said. They no longer asked their mother why she knew these things, and they assumed in their hearts that their mother must have learned them from books.

Song Anxin knew exactly what those boys were thinking. Before Lin Fenghe left for the academy, she went to his room and asked him a question:

"Fenghe, I know you've been reading a lot lately. So, let me ask you, do you think everything in those books is true?"

Lin Fenghe replied, "What the book says must be right. Don't you think so, Mother?"

Song Anxin shook her head: "Fenghe, I know you are smart and learn quickly, but I want to tell you that it is better to have no books than to believe everything in them. Books are written by people, and since they are written by people, they are not necessarily always the truth." Lin Fenghe's beautiful eyes showed a hint of doubt, and she was about to speak.

Then Song Anxin continued, "Knowledge and learning are actually people's general understanding and unified thinking about the world. As people's understanding of the world deepens and their thinking becomes more open, previous understandings will be overturned."

For example, we currently believe the sky is round and the earth is square, but who knows, perhaps in the future when people fly into the sky, they will discover that the earth is actually round too.

Lin Fenghe was immediately shocked and stood there for a long time, not knowing what to say. His mother was talking about a theory he had never heard of before, a theory that contradicted all the books he had read.

Song Anbang, who was listening from the side, was also extremely amazed. In fact, after reading so many books over the years, he had some understanding of these things, but he couldn't express it as accurately as his older sister. His older sister's summary was very good, and even more profound than his own.

Seeing Lin Fenghe's attitude, Song Anxin wasn't in a hurry for him to accept her theories anytime soon. Among her four sons, the third one was exceptionally gifted in reading, but he was still at a crucial stage in the formation of his worldview and values. He also had a natural admiration and absolute trust in reading, which inevitably led to his thinking becoming rigid and his talent being gradually worn away. If he could understand what she was saying, his future would be limitless.

The day after Song Anxin and Sister-in-law Lin talked, Lin Fengshou brought news from Heyang County.

“Mother, I’ve found out. That woman’s full name is Luo Cuicui. It’s said that she’s quite pretty and has a fiery temper. She’s reached marriageable age but hasn’t taken a liking to anyone, and has become an old maid.”

Wu Youcai, relying on his education at the academy and his status as a student, tricked her into marrying him, promising to marry her as an official's wife once he passed the imperial examinations. Luo Cuicui was devoted to him and even paid for his studies.