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墨書 Inktalez
"Well, tonight I'll let you go wild just this once, Husband..."
Three days later, Xia Muxin returned to Daimiao Village and arranged for the tasks to be completed. She instructed her family to expedite the production of Cartoon Cake and Wine-Pickled Fish, while also taking stock of her belongings. With this month's income totaling less than thirty thousand taels of silver, it was still a tricky situation for her.
Dayao Village was already organized; Shen Muhan had stationed a few people there to guard the seedlings. Xia Muxin gathered the villagers and informed them that they would begin Planting Sweet Potato at the beginning of next month. She explained the planting methods in detail and even advanced half of their wages. The villagers seemed to have never received such favorable treatment before and were immensely grateful to her.
"Here, take this for now. If it's not enough, just let me know."
After lunch, everyone returned to their rooms to rest. However, Shen Muhan slipped a bundle of banknotes into Xia Muxin's palm and affectionately pulled her onto a nearby lounge chair.
Xia Muxin was momentarily stunned before counting the banknotes in her hand—there were as many as two hundred thousand taels! Her mouth dropped open in astonishment as she exclaimed:
"Husband, did you rob a merchant last night?"
Given his annual salary of less than ten thousand taels and his less than ten years in service, he should have saved no more than fifty thousand taels after expenses. This was because he was notoriously frugal and had little concept of money. She knew that most of his rewards from victories were distributed among the soldiers under his command, and he was particularly generous in comforting the families of the injured and deceased, ensuring they had no worries.
Moreover, she was aware that he had a Little Gold reserve, which contained everything he prepared for the soldiers. Not only would he not touch it himself, but he wouldn't even consider using it for personal gain.
Because those were earned with the lives of brave warriors.
Shen Muhan sighed helplessly and gave Xia Muxin a playful knock on the head, looking somewhat aggrieved as he said:
"Don't think so poorly of your Husband. This is just the tip of the iceberg."
What... just the tip of the iceberg? Xia Muxin was furious; how could he still be hiding things from her?
“Shh... It is said that business and politics should not mix. This is part of the investment return from Fortune and Longevity Restaurant, along with some in the Qinan region. Aside from the Ouyang Family's other businesses, everything else is under my name.”
At that moment, Xia Muxin felt like cursing. It turned out she had married not just a second-generation official but also a shrewd businessman. He had hidden it so well that she hadn’t suspected a thing. If it weren't for her supermarket facing a financial crisis, would he have planned to keep this from her for a lifetime?
No wonder his subordinates were so loyal to him; money could indeed buy loyalty.
Poor Uncle Shen, in order to solve Xia Muxin's urgent problem, had inadvertently turned his little wife into a dark version of herself. If he knew what Xia Muxin was thinking at that moment, he would probably make sure she couldn't get out of bed for three days.
“I only made an investment in advance; I don’t interfere with anything else. They manage everything, and how much they ultimately contribute depends on their sincerity.”
Xia Muxin looked at him with sharp scrutiny, while Shen Muhan awkwardly rubbed his nose and explained brightly.
But he was speaking the truth. Qinan was the wealthiest city in the Tianli Kingdom and the only place that produced silk abundantly, known as Silk City. Yet no one knew that it was his territory; even the Ouyang Family couldn't intrude.
“So what area did you invest in?”
Xia Muxin's eyes lit up as she suddenly leaned closer to him, asking with calculated curiosity.
Shen Muhan shot her an unhappy glance. Wasn’t everything he had hers? After a pause, he replied:
“Silk!”
“Bingo, Husband! I love you so much!”
As soon as those words left Shen Muhan’s mouth, Xia Muxin's mood brightened instantly. She snapped her fingers, barely containing her excitement.
Next, she had Shen Muhan bring over a large batch of silk from there while she personally scouted for skilled embroiderers in various places. She organized an embroidery competition in Town, where the winner would receive one hundred taels of silver. The promotion was so effective that it spread throughout half of the Tianli Kingdom. Many people from outside the city rushed over for that prize, making the inns in Zhushan County crowded during this time.
The number of participants in the competition had already exceeded ten thousand, with all materials prepared by Xia Muxin. On the day of the event, the entire Zhushan County was packed to the brim. The embroiderers stood there, each holding a piece of white cloth the size of a handkerchief, in front of them lay an intricate ink painting. The painting was filled with flowers, grasses, birds, and beasts, all in various colors. The complexity of this artwork was astounding, featuring no less than sixty different hues. Yet, Xia Muxin only asked each embroiderer to choose their strongest embroidery technique.
Whether it was a flower, a bird, a blade of grass, or even a single leaf...
Xia Muxin firmly believed that true masters existed among the people.
The onlookers couldn't help but scoff; they thought this was no competition at all—merely foolishness. Creating such a grand painting only to focus on a single blade of grass or leaf seemed absurd. Even children who had just started learning embroidery could manage that; it was laughable.
Of course, there were some embroiderers who questioned this approach. Some chose to focus on their best skill—flower embroidery—but found themselves limited to just one type. Others followed Xia Muxin's instructions and embroidered only one element, while some even attempted to replicate the entire painting. However, the white cloth was too small, and its quality was poor; if the stitches were too tight, it would crumple into a mess. Some embroiderers with lesser skills ended up turning their cloth into a wrinkled rag and ultimately discarded it.
But this was where Xia Muxin's brilliance lay; she provided these embroiderers with scrap fabric. If one could create a complete and exquisite design on such waste material—even if it was just a leaf—they would be considered true masters. Moreover, the colors of the flowers and grasses were not limited to one or two shades; there were at least six colors involved, making thread changes cumbersome.
What no one realized was that this painting had been created by Shen Muhan. He spent three whole days putting everything he could think of onto the canvas, bringing it to life in a way that garnered admiration from all, despite its complexity rendering it difficult to comprehend.
While the embroidery competition took place on one side, there was also a dyeing competition happening simultaneously—another spontaneous idea from Xia Muxin. She aimed to create uniquely designed clothing that required distinctive threads. The embroidery threads available in ancient times were monotonous; although there were many colors, they lacked refinement. She envisioned using silk threads that were not only brighter than ordinary cotton threads but also tighter and more three-dimensional. If patterns were embroidered onto clothing using silk threads, they would visually surpass other garments by far—not to mention their styles.
This grand competition lasted three full days. In the end, out of nearly fifteen thousand embroiderers, only fifty passed the test and were hired by Xia Muxin. Among these fifty, forty came from impoverished mountain villages. It was precisely because of their difficult circumstances that they honed their exceptional embroidery skills; even the worst fabric quality needed careful mending. After passing this initial stage, Xia Muxin led them into an art studio filled with various patterns and instructed them to not only master embroidery but also to create exquisite designs within a month. Being skilled in embroidery alone wasn’t enough; they also needed to be adept at pattern creation. Their future would depend on their own abilities.
On the dyeing side of things, success came swiftly for Xia Muxin. Her first task was to produce silk threads in bulk and select a reliable person to oversee the process while she checked on their progress daily.
Next, she began designing clothing styles and had some of the embroiderers create ten pieces as samples. To everyone's surprise—even those few embroiderers who had seen much of the world praised her work. Initially drawn by the promise of one hundred taels of silver and feeling challenged by Xia Muxin's use of scrap fabric, they intended to enter the studio merely out of curiosity about her methods. However, upon seeing the diverse patterns within the studio, they were utterly astonished. Once those ten garments were completed, none felt inclined to leave.
In truth, their pride had caused discord with their previous employer; they believed their skills were rare in this world but soon realized that there were always higher peaks to climb.
"Not bad!"
Xia Muxin smiled with satisfaction as she looked at the ten samples before handing each embroiderer a contract and asking them to read it thoroughly without missing a word. In the end, they all chose to stay. Finally, after days of hard work, Xia Muxin revealed her first genuine smile of relief.
Then, she designed men's and children's versions, marking different patterns on the design sketches. For instance, the same style of clothing could feature various embroidered designs, and the garments were available in small, medium, and large sizes for buyers to choose from.
Additionally, she stocked up on some coarse cloth and medium fabric to create standard styles. Ordinary folks often sewed their own clothes, but some middle-class individuals or slightly wealthier farmers would also purchase ready-made garments, which she prepared for them.
This was quite a grand project, and Xia Muxin couldn't help but smile broadly every day.
Shen Muhan watched her with a mix of annoyance and desire. Seeing her so pleased made him grit his teeth. If it weren't for the fact that he knew she was working tirelessly from dawn till dusk, he wouldn't want to return to his miserable monk life. At this moment, he was eagerly hoping for these three months to pass quickly; only then would the supermarket open smoothly, and his benefits would return.
In this world, the most important things were food, clothing, shelter, and transportation.
As for housing, Xia Muxin had not yet started considering it, but the other three aspects were closely tied to the supermarket's operations.
For those traveling long distances, they needed to stock up on food. In this era, there were only steamed buns and tasteless dry rations. Her first thought was to provide bread and dried goods.
Thus, her next goal shifted in that direction.
"Hey, Shen Er Ye, Yan Zhouwan, I'm leaving this to you two."
At the same time, she assigned this task to Yan Zhouwan and Shen Muqing. They had been together for quite some time now but seemed to have made little progress; she felt anxious watching them.
With modern equipment and technology, they could only bake bread and make items like pancakes and sesame cakes. She prepared all the necessary tools and taught Yan Zhouwan step by step. Of course, her capable aunt Xia Jihua was also involved. Once she saw their finished products, she felt reassured enough to delegate everything else.
Next came the roasted snacks and Orchid Bean; among them, her main focus was on making fish skin peanuts. This process was relatively complex with several steps: selecting peanut kernels, pouring batter, sprinkling flour, baking, adding flavoring syrup, and finally producing the finished product.
It was a bit troublesome, but since they were producing in bulk this time around, as long as the ingredients were sufficient, everything else would be manageable.
Once everything was set up, they could prepare some small snacks like salt ginger, Perilla Leaf ginger, red dates, and so on.
There was also a section for fresh fruits and vegetables.
Finally, there were oil, rice, and salt.
She didn't stock much of these, as for now, she only needed Rapeseed Oil, and the rice was just ordinary. Next year, she planned to plant high-quality rice, which would bring in profits.
At the same time, she had temporarily opened a blacksmith shop. The blacksmith had to create items according to the blueprints she provided. He was an experienced craftsman but had lost a leg due to an accident and could no longer find work elsewhere. Xia Muxin focused solely on his skills and, upon hearing about him, invited him over directly.
The blacksmith was thirty-seven this year, with elderly parents and young children to support. When he was able-bodied, he could provide for his family, but now they were impoverished due to the expenses of treating his leg. Xia Muxin's actions were like a timely gift in their time of need. He brought his family to help at the shop, working through the night to fulfill orders. Xia Muxin was generous as well, offering an advance on their wages, allowing the family to finally have enough food.
His eldest son was in his teens. Due to their family's poverty, he hadn't received an education or learned any skills. With the blacksmith unable to move easily, he took on all the errands. After some time, he had become something of a junior craftsman himself.
In addition, Xia Muxin introduced a new contract stating that employees working under her would receive a pension as they aged. This delighted those working for her, and soon many were eager to join her team. However, Xia Muxin had high standards for hiring.
Candidates had to possess integrity, conduct, and virtue. Long-term contracts could only be signed three months after the supermarket opened.
Thus, even if someone had already joined her team, they were not yet officially under her employment.
She was on her way to becoming one of the wealthiest merchants.
- End of Chapter -
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