Chunxiao didn't expect her mother's logic to be so precise. "You can't just follow the instructions in the book to burn it. There are many tricks involved. It took me many attempts before I slowly figured out some tricks and finally succeeded."
Zhou was overjoyed. "Chunxiao, you've hit upon a golden nugget. This charcoal is 60 coins a pound. I heard it last time. You're even better than that scholar."
"Mom, come with me." Chunxiao took her to the bedroom again. She poured out the remaining money from today and the money in the jar and counted them. "Mom, here are 7 taels and 9 qian. They are all the money I earned from selling charcoal recently. You can take them. Return 2 taels to my brothers and 2 taels to Uncle Yan Wu. The rest is all yours."
Zhou looked at the silver, her heart already blossoming with joy and excitement. She had never thought her daughter could earn so much money all of a sudden, not to mention the cloth and cotton she had bought today. "Did you go to town to sell charcoal today?"
"Yes, it has been raining for several days. I am afraid that if the weather gets worse, I won't be able to sell the charcoal. I just don't have enough clothes, and burning charcoal in this cold weather will make me very cold. So I went to buy some cotton and cloth to make some clothes."
"You kid, you didn't ask your family for help with such a big thing. Are you afraid that your eldest brother and second brother will take away your business or something?"
"Mom, what are you talking about? I just tried it not long ago. And if I tell others about this, what will I say to them if they ask me who I learned how to make charcoal from? If I really tell them that I read it in a book, then they will ask me, just like you, if it is in the book and there are so many poor scholars, why don't they make charcoal to sell? The experimental process is so complicated that I can't tell them either. If I really tell them, then the charcoal-making technology will no longer be a secret.
"Who told you to tell others? If you tell us, will we not help you?"
"I'm just worried that you might ask me and I won't be able to explain. Okay, Mom, let's not talk about what happened before. I'll tell you what happened next. Today I went to deliver charcoal to a customer in town. I used to deliver over 40 kilograms in a basket, but they told me today that the weather was bad and there were fewer charcoal sellers. They asked me to find a way to deliver 200 kilograms of charcoal to them in the next two days. I said if the rain was light and I could go, I would deliver it, but if the weather was bad, forget it."
"Forget it, how can I do that? 200 jins costs more than ten taels of silver." She remembered clearly that the old man sold it for more than ten taels of silver last time.
"I also felt it would be a shame not to earn this money, and was just about to ask my brothers for help when you came."
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