Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 19

The bright moon hung high, its clear light spilling down like water. A gentle night breeze rustled the tree branches, and the shadows swayed.

Lu Sheng followed behind Qi Zhenshu, thinking about what she had just heard in the courtyard.

The matter of Qi Zhenshu going to study at White Crane Academy had been discussed when Lu Huacheng was alive.

White Crane Academy was far away in Qingzhou. Qi Zhenshu would live and board at the academy after going there. Enrollment was in March, and the exam was in August, meaning she would have to stay for five months.

The cost of living in Qingzhou was not comparable to Binhe County. Lu Huacheng had originally calculated that the monthly expenses would be at least three taels, plus the round-trip carriage fare and tuition fees, totaling an expenditure of thirty taels.

For the Lu family at the time, this expenditure was not large, so it was decided that Qi Zhenshu would go to Qingzhou as soon as spring arrived, to adapt to the climate early.

But now, the Lu family had less than ten taels of silver in total.

It was currently the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month, and the latest enrollment was the fifteenth day of the second lunar month, leaving four months’ time.

Lu Sheng thought that she needed to earn the travel expenses for Qi Zhenshu as soon as possible.

Similar to Lu Sheng, Qi Zhenshu was also contemplating this matter at the moment.

She had already decided after Lu Huacheng’s death that she would not go to White Crane Academy because the expenses were too high. She would only go to Qingzhou one month before the exam to acclimate, which meant ten taels should be enough for the round-trip fare and living expenses.

Although she had a plan, White Crane Academy was renowned in Qingzhou and was one of the four great academies in Liang State. Many of the teachers there were from the Hanlin Academy, with vast knowledge. Not being able to study at White Crane Academy still left her with some regret.

After being persuaded by Lu Zheng today, Qi Zhenshu was tempted again, but she was still hesitant.

Because more than the expense, she was worried about Tangtang and Lu Sheng. Although Lu Sheng had indeed changed for the better now, this new Lu Sheng felt more unfamiliar to her, and she could not completely trust her.

The two of them, each lost in their thoughts, walked home in silence.

This time, as Lu Sheng opened the door, she did not see a certain chattering parrot. She searched the kitchen, didn’t find the bird, and thought it had left after its wing healed.

Upon returning to the room and lighting the oil lamp, Lu Sheng found a ball of white fluff squatting in the corner of the window lattice.

Lu Sheng lightly coughed. The crest on the top of the round ball’s head straightened up for a moment, then immediately drooped down again, still squatting there motionless with its back to her.

It looked like it was in a bad mood?

She walked to the bed, reached out to rub the bird’s head, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

The wings twitched slightly, tucking the bird’s head inside, adopting a posture of not wanting to pay attention to Lu Sheng.

“Huh? Is it angry at me?” Lu Sheng understood and asked with a smile.

The bird’s head pulled out from under its wing, held high, looking very proud.

Lu Sheng found it amusing. She pulled out a handful of roasted sunflower seeds from her sleeve. She had grabbed these seeds from the head of the Lu village’s house, thinking that a certain gluttonous bird would surely love them.

She didn’t know that she had rushed out in the afternoon, causing the ‘following bird’ to get hit by the door panel. Naturally, she also didn’t know that this petty parrot had been squatting here sulking all afternoon.

Lu Sheng sat by the table, cracking seeds. “I even remembered to bring treats for a certain bird. Look, these freshly roasted seeds really smell good.”

The yellow crest feathers swayed, the bird’s head remained held high, but its claws unconsciously moved back two steps.

Lu Sheng put down the seeds, clapped her hands, and started to walk out. “It’s a good thing I have time tomorrow. I was thinking of asking you about that cat, but since you don’t want to talk, forget it. I’ll just go wash up and sleep early.”

‘Don’t, don’t, don’t sleep! Get, get the stinky cat!’

Hearing the name of its enemy, the arrogant bird instantly dropped its pretense, flapping its wings and flying onto Lu Sheng’s hand, chirping loudly. It was denouncing Lu Sheng’s evil deeds from the afternoon.

Lu Sheng sat back down, watching it with amusement. “Then you tell me first, why are you suddenly angry for no reason?”

‘It’s all because of Sister.’

At the mention of this, the prideful bird’s temper flared up again. It fluttered its wings, hopping up and down, chirping and loudly accusing Lu Sheng of her wrongdoings from the afternoon.

‘Look!’

‘Look!’

‘My butt.’

‘It must be red and swollen!’

‘It still hurts now!’

Yu Ling stuck out its bare little bird butt, wiggling it in front of Lu Sheng.

The scene was truly hard to look at. Lu Sheng quickly pushed all the sunflower seeds in front of it. “Alright, alright, I was wrong, I was wrong. For the sake of these seeds, can Xiao Yu forgive me this once?”

‘Hmmph!’

Yu Ling satisfiedly lowered its bird butt, turned around, and nodded its round head, chirping: ‘Xiao Yu is a magnanimous bird. Since Sister apologized, Xiao Yu forgives Sister.’

After speaking, it used its little claws to rake the seeds on the table, picked out the plumpest one, grabbed it, and brought it to its beak.

The sky was clear, with leisurely white clouds. The faint mist over the distant mountains merged with the sky, a picturesque and beautiful sight.

After breakfast, Lu Sheng carried a hoe and tucked a sack into her clothes, leaving the courtyard. Yu Ling chirped happily, flying ahead to lead the way.

Last night, Yu Ling had described the cat’s habits. Lu Sheng learned that the cat was a wild cat, extremely fast, so trying to catch it by hand would be too difficult. They could only set a trap to lure and capture it.

Knowing that the wild cat often went to the woods to steal bird eggs, Lu Sheng had Yu Ling lead her to the area the cat frequented.

Before leaving, Yu Ling had specifically called the little sparrow to ask about the cat’s whereabouts. After learning it wasn’t in the woods, it immediately clamored for Lu Sheng to head out.

After arriving at the woods, Lu Sheng found a patch of loose soil and dug a hole over two meters deep. Then, she threaded a rope through the opening of the sack.

She placed the sack into the hole, with the open mouth of the sack spread flat over the hole’s entrance. She tied a slipknot with the rope around the sack’s mouth and secured the other end to a nearby tree, finally covering the hole’s entrance with a layer of dry grass to set the trap.

When the cat appeared in the woods, the little sparrows would lure it toward the trap. As soon as the cat fell into the trap, the sack would drop due to gravity, and the rope at the opening would automatically tighten because one end was tied to the tree.

Everything was ready, just waiting for the wild cat to take the bait.

As for what to do with the cat, Lu Sheng had already figured out a ‘home’ for it.

The wild cat’s movements were unpredictable, so Lu Sheng didn’t wait in the woods. She left the little sparrows, who were all actively and enthusiastically discussing how to take turns standing guard.

After coming down the mountain, Lu Zheng came to call Lu Sheng.

It turned out that Lu Guangzhi was just as eager as Yu Ling and had already invited the elders to finalize the division of the brewery property early.

Before signing, Village Head Lu asked him once more if he had thought it through. Lu Guangzhi picked up the brush and wrote his name without hesitation.

Village Head Lu sighed helplessly and took out his private savings to gather the Second Branch’s share of the silver, settling the accounts with them directly.

Although they knew the brewery would have to pay a compensation of over a thousand taels to Boss Liao, the Second Branch did not hesitate when taking the silver. After Lu Huaying verified the brewery’s accounts three times to ensure there were no errors, they received every single copper coin.

After the Second Branch left, Lu Hualin worriedly said to Village Head Lu, “Mother, why, why did you give all, all the money to the Second Branch? In a few, few days we, we still have to pay, pay the grain store one, one hundred taels. What, what should we do?”

“It has to be given sooner or later. I want some peace, so I don’t want them to come asking for it again.” Village Head Lu was heartbroken and didn’t want to see the Second Branch people again.

“I have fifty taels of savings at home. I’ll take it out later for the brewery to use first,” Lu Zheng said after thinking for a moment.

“Then, then we are still short, fifty taels.”

“We won’t need Zheng’er’s silver,” Village Head Lu shook her head. “My gold and silver jewelry, I’ll go to the county tomorrow and pawn it. That should be enough.”

“Mother!” Lu Hualin was anxious when he heard this.

Village Head Lu’s gold and silver jewelry was the dowry her mother had left her. The old lady usually cherished it and was unwilling to wear it, yet now she was going to pawn it.

“First Uncle, hasn’t that batch of sour wine been made into shaojiu (distilled spirit)? If you sell that batch, you should have an income of about a hundred taels,” Lu Sheng asked, somewhat confused.

Hearing this, Lu Hualin sighed heavily. “I, I asked several, several restaurants about that wine, and they all said this wine, wine is too strong, and they are afraid no one will, will like to drink it.”

When they first made the shaojiu, Lu Hualin had thought they had salvaged the loss. However, they forgot that they, who constantly worked in the brewery, were already used to the strong aroma of liquor and were more accepting of strong spirits.

But others, who were used to light mijiu (rice wine), found the intense spirit a bit too pungent and spicy when they first smelled it, and they didn’t particularly like it.

“Moreover, normally mijiu costs twenty, twenty copper coins per jin (unit of weight), but we make shaojiu to sell, sell at forty copper coins, coins per jin. The restaurants think, think it’s a bit expensive,” Lu Hualin said helplessly.

The entire batch of distilled shaojiu was stacked in the brewery, not a single jar had been sold.

Hearing him say this, Lu Sheng suddenly remembered her grandfather had also told her that in their history, when shaojiu first appeared, it was not favored by scholars and the wealthy because of its strong nature.

If that was the case, the most suitable place to sell this shaojiu was not in restaurants.

After a moment of contemplation, Lu Sheng had an idea.

“First Uncle, I’ve thought of a good place to sell the wine.”

“Which, which restaurant?” Lu Hualin quickly asked.

“It’s not a restaurant; it’s the pier in Binjiang County.”

“The pier?”

Lu Hualin couldn’t understand how they could sell wine at a pier.

“We can set up a stall at the pier, specifically selling wine to the porters who start work early and the travelers passing by.”

“And we’ll sell this wine for thirty copper coins per jin.”

“Thirty copper coins? Then, then won’t we be selling at a loss?” Lu Hualin asked, puzzled.

Since the people of Liang State were not used to strong spirits, she would lower the alcohol content by adding distilled water to the shaojiu. This would both reduce the alcohol content and lower the price of the wine.

The shaojiu the brewery made now was around fifty-something proof. Lu Sheng planned to adjust the alcohol content to around thirty proof. This way, the porters at the pier would feel a warming sensation after drinking it, but it wouldn’t be too pungent for them to dislike. Drinking two liang (unit of weight) wouldn’t get them drunk.

After hearing Lu Sheng’s method, Lu Hualin was surprised but still hesitant. The brewery had only ever supplied wine to restaurants and traveling merchants; they had never set up a stall to sell directly. He couldn’t immediately find a suitable person to do this.

“I, I don’t know if this, this method will work,” Lu Hualin pondered and thought of his apprentice. “Then, then tomorrow I, I’ll have Qi Nan go.”

“We’ll know if it works by trying it,” Lu Sheng said with a smile. “Tomorrow, I’ll go to the street to take a look first. The day after tomorrow, I’ll go set up the stall with Qi Nan.”

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