As for the families he had the magistrate imprison, it was all part of Yun Chang's scheme to scare the people behind the scenes and get them to take action, so that his people in the shadows could find their weaknesses.
Yun Chang and Li Mai initially suspected that Jiang Wenhan was behind the defection of their senior brother, but they had no evidence. Therefore, Yun Chang had set a trap for him this time, waiting for him to slip up.
The dozen or so families that left were mostly groups of cousins, a total of three families. They didn't want to live a hard life in the mountains anymore.
The remaining seven families were unwilling to leave Tianxiang Village; they preferred to stay with the clan chief's family.
Moreover, they are all from a single lineage, meaning they are the only ones in their branch.
After all, they didn't know where else they could go if they left here, and going out alone would make them vulnerable to being bullied.
The clan chief also gave each family fifty taels of silver so that they could improve their lives and send their children out to study if necessary.
Alternatively, they can go back to their ancestral home in the Xu family if they wish; their houses will still belong to their families.
However, none of these families left. They wanted to stay by the side of the clan leader and the main family. They were still the Xu family, a great family with a history of hundreds of years. If they left, they would have to start establishing their family genealogy all over again, and they could not see any light in the future.
Although the clan chief's family had no sons, they felt that the chief was very capable and that she would definitely lead them to a better life.
After these families made their decisions, Xu Changhuan assured them that they could rest assured that their incense shops would reopen once the Xu family's affairs were settled.
Upon hearing this news, Li Mai nodded, "Then let's wait and see what happens with my older brother!"
The following day, Li Mai and Zhou Quan officially entered the dye house to prepare the dyes and began the dyeing process.
Li Mai dyed her first color, which was red, a good start, and she wanted to be particular about it.
The red dye material that Li Mai prepared was sappanwood.
Sumu can be found by the damp stream in sunny places, and Li Mai had prepared a lot of sappanwood in her space early on.
After arriving today, she took out two pieces of wood and asked Zhou Quan to chop them into small pieces to make dye soup.
Zhou Quan told Li Mai not to use her hands, but to use her mouth instead.
So when Zhao and Old Man Zhou arrived with Zhuzhu and Xique, Li Mai was sitting at the table with a book in front of her, studying it and writing down the steps on paper. Zhou Quan was there listening to her instructions and washing the red firewood.
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