That evening, Zhao Minggeng ate a "cream box" and a piece of cake given to him by his daughter.

Why didn't I get to eat a birthday cake?

Mrs. Huang said, "What difference does it make what men eat? Birthday cakes are just cakes with cream on them, aren't they?"

He can wipe it off himself. He was so excited about eating such beautiful things that he couldn't sleep at night.

What could Zhao Qingyan say? Her grandmother was just reluctant to part with her, and as her granddaughter, she could only spoil her.

As for when I'll secretly give it to my father, I'll have to wait and see.

Zhao Qingyan never expected that Huang would be so possessive of her birthday cake.

The next day, the sky was clear, and Huang, Zhao Qingyan, Zhao Minggeng, and village chief Zhao Jinfeng went to the county town together.

Upon arriving in the county town, they split into two groups.

Zhao Minggeng went to the county government office with the village chief. According to the rules, one should kowtow and pay respects to the county magistrate.

Although the bluestone slabs inside the county government office were clean enough, after kneeling and kowtowing, dust was clearly visible on the knees.

Zhao Minggeng felt very sorry for these pants, for no other reason than that they were made by his own mother.

I felt a little uncomfortable. Because I had been paying close attention to my trousers, the magistrate interpreted it differently.

"He really is a farmer. Look at his timid nature. Besides his strength, he probably isn't very bright."

At this point, Qiu Daqian also lost his desire to recruit Zhao Minggeng into the county government.

But the words have already been spoken, and since they've come back to reply today, it's only natural that we should ask them a token inquiry, right?

"You must be Zhao Minggeng. I've heard you have superhuman strength and played a significant role in repelling the refugees."

Zhao Minggeng quickly clasped his hands in greeting and said:

"It is indeed I, a commoner. I am not some born with divine power."

He's just been hunting in the mountains with his mother since he was little, so he's been running around a lot, which makes him a bit more robust than the average person.

Upon hearing this, Qiu Daqian realized that the rumors were indeed false.

"Oh, since you often go hunting in the mountains, you must be quite skilled."

The county government is short of constables; I wonder if you'd be interested.

Zhao Minggeng clasped his hands in a fist salute once more.

"I am deeply grateful for your kindness, sir. However, I wish to send my youngest son to school."

I still need to pick you up and drop you off every day, which is very time-consuming. So I can only apologize to you.

If you need recommendations, I do have someone in mind.

This man is Zhao Jinzhou, the second son of our village chief. We grew up together and often went hunting in the mountains together.

He was better at tracking than ordinary people, and he was also literate.

The village chief had always groomed him to be the next village chief.

Qiu Daqian became interested. "Oh, really? You didn't deliberately decline the position to give it up, did you?"

The implication is that you were coerced by the village chief.

Zhao Minggeng immediately clasped his hands in greeting.

"My lord, my mother has always said that I am simple-minded. How could I possibly understand such complicated matters?"

If Your Excellency trusts this humble subject, why not summon him here? Your Excellency can then test him and see for yourself.

The village chief was dumbfounded, his eyes reddening, and he tried to stop him, "How could Sanwazi..."

Zhao Minggeng patted the village chief's hand and said,

“My family does need to send the children to school, and my mother said she would only feel at ease if I took care of picking them up and dropping them off.”

Besides, Brother Jinzhou is better than me in archery, hunting, and studying, so the village chief need not worry about it.

After calming the village chief down, he clasped his hands in a fist salute to the county magistrate.

"My lord, may I bring Zhao Mingzhou here so that we may meet?"

Qiu Daqian stroked his three-inch goatee.

"What we lack are constables and yamen runners. A capable and literate one is better than a brute."

Why not just call them over to take a look? It won't take much time.

After thinking it over, the magistrate nodded in agreement.

Upon seeing the magistrate's approval, Zhao Minggeng's face broke into a wide smile.

"My lord, I will go back to the village now to fetch help."

After leaving the county government office, we settled the village chief at the agreed meeting point in a teahouse, paid for the tea, and then boarded a mule cart to head towards Zhao Family Village.

The Huang family, grandfather and grandson, found a pottery workshop and were discussing with them what size and style of jar to order.

After some bargaining, we ordered 100 10-jin (5 catties) jars, 50 20-jin (10 catties) jars, and 1,000 1-jin (500 catties) small wine pots.

The wine pot is custom-made in the shape of a pear, with a narrow and slender opening at the top and a large belly at the bottom, which adds a touch of beauty to the overall appearance.

All the wine jars must be engraved with the three characters "Zhao's Wine". The font was designed by Zhao Qingyan, and the letters ZS were added to the font design.

Unless you are very observant, you won't notice these two letters.

The reason for doing this is to prevent counterfeiting and avoid potential unnecessary trouble.

After all, there isn't much of a trademark law or patent law right now.

It was still a feudal dynasty with all sorts of pitfalls, so we had to think things through carefully.

The jars were priced at 40, 50, and 30 coins respectively, totaling 36 taels and 5 mace of silver.

A deposit of 10 taels was given, with the remaining balance to be paid upon delivery.

After leaving the ceramics workshop, Huang felt a pang of heartache.

"My dear girl, why is that wine jug so expensive? It's almost as expensive as a large jar. They're really ripping you off."

"Making milk, especially small ones, requires less material and the other processes are also very time-consuming."

Moreover, the smaller ones we ordered were fine porcelain.

It's not comparable to the coarse porcelain of large jars, so the higher price is understandable.

"Think about what we'll use that wine jug to hold in the future, and then you won't feel that 30 copper coins are expensive anymore, right?"

Huang thought about it and realized it made sense.

That wine was so highly praised by the officials and nobles in the capital that it was priceless. They weren't greedy; they figured they could sell it for 100 taels of silver a bottle.

That's what Huang thought.

Fortunately, the old lady didn't tell Zhao Qingyan her thoughts, otherwise she would definitely despise Huang Shi.

"If you're not greedy, then a pot of wine costing 100 taels isn't considered greedy. So what is greed?"

Fortunately, they had made a lot of money selling medicinal herbs before, otherwise Huang would not have been as generous as she is today.

With the wine jar issue resolved, the sugar problem still needs to be solved.

When they arrived at the candy shop, the price of the candy almost scared Zhao Qingyan.

Maltose costs 200 wen per jin, brown sugar costs as much as 300 wen per jin, and white sugar and rock sugar are not available.

Seeing the exorbitant price of sugar, Zhao Qingyan felt her wallet was too empty.

He pulled Huang out of the grocery store.

"Milk, sugar is too expensive, I can't afford it. I have some sugar, why don't you just use mine?"

Huang was displeased upon hearing this.

"My dear, all your things are top-notch. You should save them for yourself to use later. Don't touch them casually."

This candy is expensive, but I'll just buy less of it.

You, too, insisted before that the result would be considered a public offering. Now look what happened! You provided the recipe, and you provided the ingredients. Don't you think you lost out?

Zhao Qingyan smiled faintly.

"Grandma, I have quite a lot of stuff there."

Why don't I pay for the candy first, and then deduct the cost of the candy from my payment when we settle the bill later?

I was thinking, why don't we buy some sugarcane and sugar beet seeds, and then grow our own and make our own sugar? That would significantly reduce costs."