Liang Fugui waved his hand dismissively, "Don't worry, wife, Erdanzi isn't stupid. He knows what to say and what not to say. If he really wants to die, we'll turn the tables on him and take him to the county government. Even if he has a mouth full of mouths, he won't be able to explain himself. He'll be skinned alive if he doesn't die."
"You're right."
Hearing this, Madam Liang nodded repeatedly, finally feeling relieved. She glanced at Liang Fugui, who was grinning foolishly, and then pretended to be angry and gave him a sidelong glare.
"I'm telling you, you're not allowed to mention this incident again. If you dare to cause trouble, I'm not going to live with you anymore."
"You're a great contributor to our family, how could I dare to make you angry? When we make a lot of money in the future, I'll buy you a big gold bracelet to wear."
"You said it yourself, don't forget it."
"Oh, my good wife, don't worry. Now that we've learned how to make sugar, we can make you a gold hat, let alone a gold bracelet."
Upon hearing Liang Fugui's words, Madam Liang immediately stopped smiling and frowned.
"Fugui, although we know that white sugar is made by boiling rice water, we don't know exactly what kind of rice water it is!"
Liang Fugui raised his hand and gently stroked Liang's nose, laughing, "You really are my silly wife. This is easy. We'll try them one by one, and I don't believe we can't make white sugar."
"You're so smart." Liang gave him a playful glare. "Are you hungry? I'll go get you something to eat."
"Alright, let's drink until we drop tonight." Liang Fugui was overjoyed, no longer having any of his previous worries. As long as he could make the sugar, he could make a fortune.
At the same time, Da Bao hurriedly returned to the sugar shop.
Chen Qingqing had long ago warned him to be wary of Liang Fugui and his wife.
For the past few days, the two of them have been sneaking around the entrance of the sugar shop every day.
To prevent any accidents, Da Bao would hide and observe from the shadows every night after work.
He thought they wanted to sneak into the sugar shop to steal the secret recipe, but to his surprise, the two of them set their sights on Erdanzi.
Seeing Liang drag Erdanzi into the house, and then Liang Fugui tiptoe into the yard from the fields, he squatted by the window but did not go inside.
Da Bao didn't dare to look closely, turned around and went back to the sugar shop, where he told Chen Qingqing what had happened.
"Sister Qingqing, Erdanzi was indeed dragged to Liang's house, but wasn't it too hasty of them to target Erdanzi?"
"It was not hasty at all; it was a decision they made after careful consideration."
Chen Qingqing smiled faintly.
"The Liang family's brown sugar couldn't be sold, so the couple was desperate and desperate to know how to make white sugar. Knowing that Erdanzi was in charge of transporting the sugar syrup, the Liang family was definitely going to work on him."
"No wonder you put Erdanzi in charge of transporting the syrup; you were already prepared for this!"
After Da Bao finished speaking, he felt a little guilty.
"Erdanzi doesn't know anything. If he gets beaten up, wouldn't we be harming him?"
"Don't worry, don't let Erdanzi's dull appearance fool you, he's actually quite cunning and won't suffer any major losses."
Chen Qingqing knew why Liang targeted Erdanzi—because Erdanzi was unmarried and easy to seduce. However, Liang Fugui and his wife underestimated themselves.
She was prepared and deliberately let Erdanzi see her adding something to the syrup, all to ruin the Liang family and make them back down.
Da Bao frowned and asked, "Sister Qingqing, what do we do next?"
"If I'm not mistaken, they'll use this to blackmail Erdanzi into finding out the recipe. Another possibility is that they'll steal it. We have to be wary of both of these."
"Erdanzi will never know what the secret recipe is. As for stealing it, that's even less likely. The locked room in the sugar shop is just a decoy. Nobody knows that the secret recipe is hidden in my uncle's room."
"It's better to be safe than sorry. As the saying goes, it's easy to get along with a gentleman, but hard to guard against a petty person. It's always better to be cautious."
"Okay, I've got it." Da Bao nodded solemnly.
******
These days, Liang Fugui and his wife haven't been idle. They dug a cellar in their yard, which, although not large, can store several thousand kilograms of sugar beets.
To prevent the other beets from rotting, they also built a pergola in the yard.
The day finally arrived for Zheng Xi to deliver the beets.
After paying thirty taels of silver, the two did not carefully check the quality of the beets before placing them directly into the cellar.
After finishing these tasks, the couple began to try boiling white sugar.
Liang Fugui first cooked a pot of millet porridge, then poured it into the beet juice.
Liang began stirring incessantly, waiting for a miracle to happen...
But by the end, not only white sugar, but even brown sugar had changed.
It's black and hard, and every bite is bitter.
Undeterred, the two tried using rice, sorghum, and even wheat flour soup, but still failed.
Looking at the burnt sugar syrup in front of her, Liang Shi lost her former joy and slumped to the ground dejectedly, muttering to herself.
"What's going on? Why can't I make any sugar?"
Liang Fugui, like a wilted eggplant, drooped his head and lost his spirit.
Seeing that he remained silent with his head down, Madam Liang became even more furious. "Say something! What are we going to do now?"
"What else can we do? Let's try again!" Liang Fugui frowned, and it took him a long time to finally utter a sentence.
Liang rolled her eyes at him, annoyed. "Alright, if you ask me, white sugar isn't made by boiling rice water at all. Let's not waste our time."
"You mean we were fooled by Erdanzi?"
“I didn’t approve of your bad idea back then. Now look what happened. You tried to steal a chicken but lost the rice instead. You didn’t even make the sugar, and you wasted several hundred pounds of beets.”
"Stop talking nonsense!" Liang Fugui was annoyed. "You idiot, not only did you take advantage of my wife, but you also made up all sorts of lies, making me suffer like a fool. This matter cannot be left like this."
He grew angrier the more he thought about it, and couldn't help but grit his teeth. "I'm going to find that idiot. If he doesn't tell the truth, I'll beat the crap out of him today."
Seeing him storming off, Liang worried he might do something foolish, so she quickly got up and pulled him back. "Come back right now. If you make a big scene, what will the villagers think of me?"
"Are we just going to swallow this insult and let it go like this?" Liang Fugui gritted his teeth; he couldn't bear to swallow this humiliation...
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