Chapter 222 The Soap Workshop Opens
Autumn is growing stronger.
The autumn planting season in Dahe Village is gradually coming to an end.
After the autumn planting season ends, the busiest time of the year is over. The next month or so is spent preparing for winter. In addition to repairing farm tools, they also need to repair roofs, chop more firewood, weave baskets, store dried vegetables, and mend winter clothes. Some men will take this opportunity to find manual labor jobs in town to earn more money.
Cheng Wanwan's family is also busy making winter clothes.
Wu Huiniang assigned this task, with Cao Yingying assisting from the side. Afu, being meticulous, also helped cut the fabric. With so many people in the family, it would take at least a month to complete all the winter clothes, with each person making one.
Zhao Dashan and Zhao Sanniu were responsible for chopping firewood every day. The firewood needed to be used for cooking and heating the earthen kang (a heated brick bed) throughout the entire winter, so the more firewood the better. The two of them were always busy on the mountain.
Cheng Wanwan called Zhao Ergou over: "Go to the village now and ask if anyone has any extra adobe bricks, and buy them all."
After they finished building their house last time, they had about a thousand adobe bricks left, but that was far from enough.
Zhao Ergou asked, "Mother, what are we going to do with the adobe bricks?"
Cheng Wanwan asked, "How was the soap I gave you a few days ago?"
"It works great!" Zhao Ergou nodded vigorously. "It cleans hands, body, and hair exceptionally well. Mom, what is this...?"
He seemed to have guessed what his mother was going to do.
Cheng Wanwan took out a sand table and started drawing on it with a stick.
“This is our home. To the right is the mountain, and to the left is the land your older brother bought, about three or four acres in total. We plan to grow some vegetables that we usually eat. I'm thinking of building a soap-making workshop right in the middle of this vegetable patch.” She smiled. “Because we need to burn firewood all day to make this, we'll also build a greenhouse outside to grow vegetables that are only available in spring and summer…”
With this greenhouse, we can eat other fresh vegetables in winter.
Of course, that's not the main point. The main point is to build the soap workshop as soon as possible, which is the most crucial thing right now.
“We’ll build about four soap workshops. One will be used to render lard, another to filter wood ash, another to mix and blend, and another to solidify and shape the soap… Four workshops are still too few.” Cheng Wanwan pondered, resting her chin on her hand. “In the future, we’ll add various fragrances, and it would be best to engrave words on the soaps to give them unique markings… So let’s build eight workshops. You can calculate how many adobe bricks we need, and then each household can buy them.”
The villagers have a habit of saving adobe bricks. If they don't build houses now, they won't be able to start construction again this year, so it's a good opportunity for them to use the bricks.
"After buying the adobe bricks, ask which men in the village are free and ask them to come and help build the house. Just like before, they'll pay thirty coins a day," Cheng Wanwan said with a smile. "Find thirty people, and it would be best if the house could be finished in five or six days."
Suppressing his excitement, Zhao Ergou stood up and went out to run errands.
Cheng Wanwan pulled out a rough piece of paper, picked up a brush and started drawing on it. This time she was drawing a mold, the kind of square soap that would be most common in later generations, with a slight indentation in the center so that it wouldn't slip when held.
After drawing the model blueprints, she began to think about the logo.
Every modern product bears the unique brand mark of its manufacturer. Since she wants to open a workshop and do big business, she must establish brand awareness.
She wrote four characters on the paper: "Zhao Family of the Great River".
Two lines were drawn under this line of text, which can be taken as the river in Dahe Village.
She was very satisfied with the brand name and called out, "Zhao'er, come here for a moment."
When he wasn't in class, Cheng Zhao would read in his room. When he heard his aunt calling him, he would put down his book and come out.
He saw the four words on the rough paper and silently looked away.
My aunt is good in every way, except that her calligraphy is not good, even worse than Zhao San Niu's... But the fact that my aunt can write without ever going to school is already much better than many women in the village.
Cheng Wanwan was also quite helpless. She was used to writing with a pen, and the brush was too soft and limp, especially since it was traditional Chinese characters. It was already very difficult for her to write them.
She shoved the brush into Cheng Zhao's hand: "Just these four characters, rewrite them, and add these two lines that represent the river."
Cheng Zhao always takes his aunt's instructions very seriously.
He spread out the paper, picked up the brush, but hesitated to put pen to paper.
Cheng Wanwan didn't urge him. This nephew could write and draw, and he would definitely not disappoint her.
After pondering for a while, Cheng Zhao picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and began to write on the paper. He did not write horizontally, but rather two characters each on the top, bottom, left, and right sides. The two lines representing the river passed through the middle of the four characters and meandered upwards to the northeast. They were just two simple black lines, but with his casual strokes and curves, they inexplicably became majestic and had a kind of positive and uplifting beauty.
"Zhao'er, you are amazing!"
Cheng Wanwan's eyes lit up. Zhao'er had perfectly captured the feeling she wanted. Those words were just too perfect.
She took two blueprints and hurried off to Old Zhao's house.
Old Zhao was weaving a bamboo basket in the yard. Bamboo was everywhere in the mountains, and after weaving it into bamboo utensils, he could take it to town to sell and earn some copper coins.
"Dad!" Cheng Wanwan rushed in and placed two blueprints in front of the old man. "Can you make these two things?"
Old Zhao picked up the two pieces of paper and examined them carefully: "This square thing can be made, it's not difficult, but how do I make these words?"
“Just like making a seal, the words and the image have to be reversed,” Cheng Wanwan said. “We can try making one with a radish first. If that doesn’t work, I’ll go to town and find someone to make one.”
“Okay, of course!” Old Zhao agreed. “Give me two days, and I’ll definitely figure it out for you.”
Cheng Wanwan knew that the old man was getting on in years and loved to study, so she smiled and said, "No need to rush, let's make a prototype in three days."
Old Zhao didn't ask her what she was going to do. Anyway, this daughter-in-law was always reliable and could succeed at whatever she did... Of course, he had already forgotten what his eldest daughter-in-law had been like.
When Cheng Wanwan returned home, many villagers came to deliver adobe bricks. She asked Chunhua to help count them, while she counted and settled the accounts on the spot.
The adobe bricks bought by each household in the village amounted to about 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, and were all stacked on the open ground next door.
The next morning, Zhao Ergou gathered thirty men to start the work. These men were all people who had not found work in town. They didn't have many normal jobs all day long. Being able to find a job in their own village that paid thirty coins a day was like a windfall. They didn't ask why Cheng Wanwan's family needed to build another house. They rolled up their sleeves, lowered their heads, and started working in silence.
This house is different from the previous ones. The adobe walls are laid at an angle to leave many ventilation openings. Because soap making requires high-temperature work, if there are no vents, people will easily have health problems if they stay in the house for too long...
In addition to building walls, a large stove for lighting fires also needs to be built, placed right in the center of the room, according to the size of the pots.
Cheng Wanwan bought these steel pots at the mall. Steel products were available in this dynasty, but she didn't know where to buy them for the time being, so she went to Zuixianlou to pay and brought back four large steel pots. No one in the village said anything... After all, she could afford a carriage, but a few pots didn't have the same impact as a carriage.
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