Chapter 5: Profitable, all the hard work wasn't in vain - Jiang Dahe's little scheme
Jiang Dahe readily agreed after hearing Ye Li's suggestion.
He followed Ye Li into the mill, chatted casually with Jiang Fuzheng about crops, and when the wooden bucket was full of soy milk, he picked it up and left.
He carried the bucket of soy milk back to the Jiang family home, and then went to Jiang Fuzheng's house.
Now that his nephew-in-law has a business that can be passed down through generations, his uncle will definitely lend a hand.
With Jiang Dahe's help, Ye Li had an extremely easy time.
Ten pounds of soybeans were ground into two large buckets of soy milk. Jiang Dahe carried the second bucket of soy milk home and found a burlap sack to filter out the soybean residue from the soy milk.
This job is easy, and in order to make tofu faster, Ye Li said to Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya, "Xiaomai, Ya-ge, you two go wash your hands and filter the soybean dregs too."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Mai was about to pull Jiang Ya away from the kitchen when Jiang Dahe said, "Hey, Li-ge'er, Ya-ge'er will get married sooner or later. What if he learns it and teaches it to his husband's family in the future?"
Jiang Mai lowered her raised foot and looked at Ye Li with her dark eyes.
"Second Uncle, we just want to make tofu as soon as possible. Besides, it's just filtering soybean pulp. Even if Ya-ge learns how, it won't make any difference."
As Ye Li explained, she looked at Jiang Ya, worried that Jiang Ya would feel upset after hearing this.
But Jiang Ya seemed not to hear, her eyes shining as she stared at the white soy milk in the bucket.
"Oh, that's good."
Jiang Dahe was relieved, then sighed, "It's better to have a son. Look how capable the husbands you marry are. Unlike daughters and sons, you raise them for over ten years, and in the end they all become someone else's family."
"...Second Uncle, as the saying goes, once a man has a wife, his husband forgets his parents. Some husbands are so ruthless that they won't even take care of their father-in-law in his old age. Once the father-in-law can no longer work, they will kick him out of the house and not even give him a meal."
Ye Li continued to smile.
"Hey, you're talking about a minority. Xiao Ji wouldn't do something like that."
"..."
never mind.
Communication is currently unavailable.
Moreover, the people who actually benefited from Jiang Dahe's ideas were Jiang Ji and Jiang Mai.
Otherwise, Jiang Ji would have dropped out of school long ago; how could he continue his studies?
Jiang Mai didn't suffer any grievances at Jiang Dahe's house.
Only Ya Ge'er gets to hear these unpleasant words every day.
Fortunately, Ya Ge'er is still young, and as it stands, he doesn't seem to have taken Jiang Dahe's words to heart.
But he had to take this situation seriously. He would talk to Jiang Ya after he finished selling the tofu.
He told Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya to wash their hands.
Jiang Mai pulled Jiang Ya away, feeling a little strange. This good-for-nothing often called Ya-ge'er a jinx, but now he was actually speaking up for Ya-ge'er.
Ye Li and the other two little ones came out of the kitchen and said to Jiang Dahe with a smile, "Of course, my husband is a good man."
These words made Jiang Dahe happy.
That's right. The reason he treats Jiang Ji and Jiang Mai so well is that he wants his nephews to take care of him in his old age.
However, since both of his nephews were young, he kept this thought to himself and was too embarrassed to say it aloud.
But judging from Ye Li's words, this matter seems very promising.
Feeling pleased, he couldn't help but praise Jiang Ji, echoing Ye Li's words.
“Your mother-in-law fled from the south. She was originally from a well-off family and knew many characters. She taught Xiao Ji to read. Xiao Ji could recite poems when he was three years old and could help calculate the taxes in the fields when he was five.”
"Later, he entered a private school and was always praised by the teacher."
"When he passed the county examination, all the people in the town who worked with your father-in-law wanted to marry their daughters and sons to him."
"If it weren't for you..."
At this point, he abruptly stopped talking, and somewhat guiltily raised his eyelids to look at Ye Li.
Given his nephew-in-law's original temperament, he was hardly worthy of his nephew.
But now that his nephew-in-law has changed his ways and shown some real skill, if he says those words again, he's just asking for trouble.
Seeing that Ye Li's expression was normal, he chuckled twice and said, "Xiao Ji is a good person. You'll see in the future."
Just then, Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya entered the kitchen, and he quickly changed the subject, beginning to teach them how to filter the soybean residue.
Ye Li pretended not to understand Jiang Dahe's underlying meaning. Since the original owner was no longer around, he was too lazy to make any judgments.
The four of them worked together and quickly filtered out the soybean pulp.
Next, it's time to start cooking.
This involves the core of making tofu. Jiang Dahe asked Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya to go to the river to cut pig feed, and he also prepared to go home.
However, he had just heard Jiang Mai say that the ten catties of beans today were borrowed from Jiang Fuzheng, and Ye Li had no money on hand.
So he went home and carried a sack of soybeans over.
Soybeans are a great thing. Soybean stalks can be used to feed sheep, soybeans can be exchanged for tofu or pressed for oil, and the soybean meal left over after pressing oil can be made into soybean cakes or used to feed sheep.
His family grows some soybeans every year.
Moreover, he couldn't keep going to the village head's house to grind soybeans. He planned to go to Shifang in the county town to buy a stone mill and find a carpenter to make some tofu molds.
A steamed bun basket is only for emergencies; to do serious business, you definitely need to prepare professional tools.
He also gave Ye Li fifty coins. His nephew-in-law was about to do something big, and how could he do it without money?
"Use this first, and ask me for more if you need more." He smiled and placed fifty coins on the stove.
"That's enough, thank you, Second Uncle. As for the stone mill and the mold, I'll trouble you to make the trip. I'll pay you back as soon as I earn the money."
Ye Li said sincerely.
A timely help!
“What do you mean by not paying it back? You don’t need to pay it back. Just use it. We’re all family,” Jiang Dahe immediately said.
"It has to be paid back." Ye Li insisted, and said with a smile, "You and your second aunt still have to save up dowries for Xiao Liu and Yu Ge'er."
"A token amount will suffice. She's already a money-losing daughter, so why should we prepare a large dowry?"
"Alright, alright, you go ahead with your work, I'm heading into town now."
Jiang Dahe was about to leave, but of course he didn't forget to remind Ye Li that the method of making tofu must never be taught to Jiang Ya.
Ye Li: "..."
Forget it, I'll talk to Jiang Dahe properly once he's built up his bean product business.
Today he still makes cold water soy milk, and if the tofu isn't sold out, he frys it into tofu puffs.
Before boiling the soy milk, he scooped out a small bowl of it.
Jiang Ya has been craving soy milk for two days, so we have to make him drink it today.
After finishing making the tofu, he placed the earthenware pot filled with water on top of the steamed bun basket, glanced at the sky, and prepared to make lunch first.
Yesterday, Jiang Fuzheng was promoting that he could make the tofu by noon, and that villagers would definitely come to buy tofu later, so lunch had to be prepared a little earlier.
We've finished the cornbread; we need to steam some more.
He mixed soybean pulp into the cornbread yesterday, and he did the same today.
There was a lot of soybean residue today, so he added half a bowl of wheat flour to the dough to increase its elasticity and improve the texture.
As for vegetables, tofu is the obvious choice.
Scallions mixed with soft tofu is a light and delicious dish.
He had just finished preparing lunch when Jiangmai and Jiangya, the two little ones, returned carrying pig feed.
The family of three is having dinner.
As they were eating, the first person to buy tofu arrived: Jiang Fuzheng.
As the clan leader, he set an example by actively supporting Yeli.
Ye Li was very touched, but the tofu wasn't ready yet, so she could only buy soft tofu for now.
Jiang Fuzheng didn't mind. Tofu was tofu; it was tender and perfect for his seventy-year-old mother who had almost no teeth.
Jiang Fuzheng bought three catties of soft tofu.
Ye Li weighed out another ten catties of beans and told him to take them back.
Upon learning that Jiang Dahe had delivered the beans, Jiang Fuzheng accepted the ten jin of beans.
Not long after Jiang Fuzheng left, someone else came to the door.
The visitor was Aunt Qiumei, who lived to the east of the Jiang family's house.
Aunt Qiumei was on good terms with Jiang's mother back then, and now that Ye Li has started a small business, she is actively coming to support him.
Aunt Qiumei hadn't left yet when another guest arrived:
Jiang Dahe's wife, Liang Erxiang, Ye Li's second aunt, arrived.
Liang Erxiang came to help, but Ye Li cut her a piece of tofu and persuaded her to go back.
For such a small business, there's no need for Liang Erxiang to make the trip.
After Liang Erxiang left, Jiang's father's cousin, Jiang Dachuan, arrived...
...
Yezaopo has a total of 22 households. It's a small village, so any commotion is known throughout the village.
The villagers already knew what kind of person he was after he had been married for twenty days.
Yesterday, Jiang Fu was leading Ye Li around advertising, and the wicked fool had suddenly mastered the tofu recipe, which aroused the curiosity of the villagers.
Driven by curiosity and a desire to save face for Jiang Fu, the villagers arrived early today, eager to see if he could truly make tofu.
In the time it took to eat a meal, more than ten households came.
When they actually saw the tofu in the willow basket, everyone was amazed and exclaimed, "Wow, they really know how to make it!"
Ye Li greeted everyone with a smile. He had planned to hold a grand opening sale, and since the tofu he made today wasn't pressed firmly enough and had too much water, he gave each person an extra two ounces. The villagers were delighted and kept praising him for being generous and capable.
He readily accepted everyone's praise and skillfully dealt with each villager, calling them "uncle," "aunt," "grandpa," and "grandma" incessantly, much to Jiang Mai's astonishment.
After this busy period, only a small piece of tofu, less than half a pound, was left.
Now we don't need to fry tofu puffs anymore.
He picked up the small winnowing basket used to hold copper coins, rummaged through it, and found a total of twenty-nine copper coins inside.
There were also more than seven pounds of soybeans in the sack under the cutting board.
Some villagers who grew soybeans at home were reluctant to spend their copper coins to buy tofu, so they brought their soybeans to exchange for tofu.
One pound of soybeans can be exchanged for one and a half pounds of tofu.
Today's cost is only ten catties of soybeans and brine. One catty of soybeans costs three coins, and brine costs five coins, for a total of thirty-five coins.
Now we're taking back fifty coins.
I earned a total of fifteen coins.
It's alright, not a complete waste of time.
Jiang Mai and Jiang Ya, the two little ones, had fed the pigs and chickens and were about to go out to collect firewood.
Ye Li came out of the kitchen and called them over: "Come here, I'm going to pay you both your wages."
"?"
Jiang Mai stopped in her tracks, wondering if she had misheard.
This person is going to pay him and Ya Ge'er their wages?
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