After chasing Shen Qing away, Meng Zhao returned to the table, staring blankly ahead, her fingers unconsciously pinching and gently rubbing the sleeve that had just been damp.
For some reason, she felt that Shen Qinghe's actions tonight were somewhat deliberate, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong with them. After all, based on their interactions over the past few years and the descriptions in the original book, he didn't seem like the kind of person who would use someone else's face to get things done.
The more I thought about it, the more annoyed I became. I couldn't concentrate on reading the booklet in front of me, so I simply pushed it forward, washed up, and went to bed.
At the same time, Shen Qinghe came out of the Meng family's house, straightened his somewhat loose robes, and walked towards his own home.
Afu had been waiting at the alley entrance for a long time. When he saw Shen Qinghe come out, he hurriedly went up to him and said, "My lord, the Dali Temple has sent coroners to examine the bodies. The identities of the deceased are being verified. We have learned that Imperial Censor Qin has already written his memorial, which should be presented to the Emperor no later than the day after tomorrow."
Shen Qinghe nodded, then paused slightly, as if remembering something, and turned to ask, "Did you find what I asked you to find?"
A Fu looked slightly embarrassed, thinking that his master's tastes were really unique. He scratched his head and replied in a low voice, "Everything is ready and is in your study."
Shen Qinghe was satisfied and quickened his pace, heading towards the Shen family residence.
The next morning, Meng Zhao got up and washed up. As soon as she sat down at the table, Huang Cui exclaimed in surprise, "Oh dear, shopkeeper, how come you have such a big blister on the corner of your mouth!"
Meng Zhao looked closely at the bronze mirror and saw that it was true. Not only did he have a blister on the corner of his mouth, but he also had some dark circles under his eyes. He couldn't help but want to rub his forehead and smile bitterly. Could it be that he had been celibate for too long and had pent up his temper?
She sighed helplessly and asked Huang Cui to fetch some ointment for her to apply, hoping to reduce the swelling as soon as possible. After all, the Treasure Pavilion was about to open, and her image was very important to the business.
These past few days, she has been spending one or two hours each day working on that arithmetic book. She has solved most of the problems so far, but she has left a few blank because there are some parts of the problems that she doesn't quite understand.
She originally wanted to ask Shen Qinghe, but whenever the thought crossed her mind, she would recall his slender fingers, his slightly open collar, and the faint fragrance emanating from him that night, which made her mouth dry, so she never went.
By the end of September, more than half a month had passed since the Double Ninth Festival. Meng Zhao no longer needed to worry and went out of the city to the workshops outside the city.
When she left the city last time, she found that if she was traveling in her own family's carriage, the guards at the city gate would question her, but if she was traveling in the Shen family's carriage, it would be much smoother to enter and leave the city. To save trouble, Meng Zhao asked Huang Cui to borrow a carriage from the Shen family before she left.
When they arrived at the villa, Meng Zhao had just gotten out of the car when someone ran over quickly, their face beaming with undisguised excitement: "Sister Meng, you've finally arrived! I was so worried when I heard you were sick. I wanted to come see you, but Sister Yin Chun wouldn't allow it."
The speaker was Xiao Chuan. When she first met him, he was an eight or nine-year-old child. Now, several years later, he had grown into a young man. She couldn't touch his head like before, so she smiled and patted his shoulder. "Didn't I tell you? I just caught a slight cold. It's nothing serious. But you, how are you feeling here? Are you adjusting well?"
Xiao Chuan nodded repeatedly, his eyes full of smiles. "Of course, Sister Meng's courtyard is not only beautiful with clear water and green mountains, but also spacious. Sister Yin Chun also prepared bedding and toiletries for us. It's so comfortable to stay here."
At this moment, Yin Chun also heard the commotion and came out from the courtyard. She spotted Xiao Chuan at a glance and couldn't help but laugh, "I was wondering why I couldn't find you all of a sudden. Turns out you've run off outside. I should have known better than to tell you that the manager was coming today."
Meng Zhao glanced at Xiao Chuan teasingly. Xiao Chuan scratched his head sheepishly, his tone slightly coquettish: "Oh, I can't wait! We haven't seen each other for a year since Sister Meng left Quyang."
Hearing this, Meng Zhao felt a warmth in her heart and smiled, "Alright, I know you've been thinking about me. Let's go, take me inside to see your work."
Xiao Chuan nodded happily and led Meng Zhao into the villa. Along the way, he explained how they arranged the production process. Every worker who came to work in the villa would sign a confidentiality agreement. If they leaked the workshop's affairs, they would face a large sum of compensation.
At the same time, the workshop also tries to avoid one person participating in the production of products from beginning to end. For example, the work of the grinding department is to grind the purchased medicinal materials into powder. Each person is only responsible for a few kinds of medicinal materials. After grinding, they put them into the jar with the corresponding code of the medicinal material.
The formulas held by the dispensing department are not based on the quantity of a certain medicinal herb, but rather on the required quantity of a certain code. When dispensing, they do not know which medicinal herb corresponds to the code. The mixed powder is then sent to the decoction department for further processing.
In this case, even if someone wanted to bribe workers to obtain the secret formula, they would need to bribe all the employees on the entire production line at once, which would increase both costs and risks.
However, this method requires workers to be extremely careful in their work to avoid making mistakes, so Meng Zhao's workshop has relatively more lenient requirements regarding speed.
Yin Chun introduced the items on the shelf: "Shopkeeper, these are the first batch of soaps that have been made. They will be ready to be opened in ten days. The four scents that have been made the most are mint morning dew, green bamboo and flowing water, elegant jasmine, and ancient wood and sandalwood. As for the other scents, they have also been made, but in smaller quantities."
Meng Zhao nodded, picked up a few dried soap tubes and examined them carefully. After confirming that there were no problems, he put them back and went to the next place.
"These are some new gift box designs that we created based on popular styles in Beijing. Please take a look and see which ones suit you."
"This is a hand-cranked mill that we ordered from the workshop. Stone mortars are too slow, and stone mills for grinding grains are too big and produce too coarse powder. So we ordered some of these hand-cranked mills that are about half an arm's length in size. One person can grind the grains, and the powder produced is also fine."
"These earthenware jars are filled with osmanthus essential oil. It's currently the flowering season, so we made a lot more."
Book categories, authors, and full-length book rankings
Homepage Click Ranking Recommended Ranking Favorites Ranking Temporary Bookshelf
PC version of all novels, latest updates, site map, member bookshelf
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
