Chapter 581 - 568: Joyous Color

Chapter 581: Chapter 568: Joyous Color

Zhuang Qingning pursed her lips, not bothering to dwell on whether Aunt Dong was telling the truth or merely flattery. She took one look at Xiangqiao and said, “If your name is indeed Xiangqiao and it sounds decent, there is no need to change it in the future. You’ll remain as Xiangqiao.”

Usually, when someone buys a maid, the maid is given a new name to signify a complete break from the past.

Once bought, the maid fully belongs to her new master. Retaining her old name could be seen as a form of gratitude towards her birth parents.

“Thank you, miss,” expressed Xiangqiao in a deep bow to Zhuang Qingning.

Zhuang Qingning chuckled and helped Xiangqiao up. She then followed the clerk to pay off the silver, collected the receipt of Xiangqiao’s life sale, and left the broker’s office.

The clerk warmly waved Zhuang Qingning out the door. “New girls might come in the next few days. If you didn’t find what you looking for this time, feel free to come back for another look,” he offered.

“If there are any good ones, I can save them for you.”

“Much appreciated,” Zhuang Qingning thanked him as she led Xiangqiao home.

“I am Zhuang Qingning,” she began. “Just call me ‘miss’ from now on. I had a younger sister at home, but she’s gone to study at the academy, and I live alone now. I have a business to run and there are many matters I can’t handle alone, so I thought of buying a maid to help me with the chores.”

Zhuang Qingning generally described her situation and said, “I don’t have any specific demands. As long as you are honest and diligent and run the household chores properly.”

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“Yes, miss,” Xiangqiao responded.

“Who else is in your family?” Zhuang Qingning asked. “Do you know where they are now?”

This reminder shadowed Xiangqiao’s eyes, “We originally had both my parents, two younger brothers and a sister. But our home was stricken by a drought, and while fleeing the famine, my youngest brother got sick. We didn’t have money for medicine. We tried home remedies, but he didn’t make it…”

“My parents’ health worsened, unable to find work. We siblings were going hungry every day, so I suggested to my parents to sell me. With the received silver, we could find a place to settle down, buy some land and live a good life.”

“Initially, my parents refused, so I ran to the broker myself. Left without an option, they accepted. They took my siblings and left to find a new home.”

“But don’t worry, miss. My parents know the rules. They won’t frequently come looking for me. The silver should be enough to start anew in a village.”

This girl Xiangqiao is indeed very outstanding.

Zhuang Qingning pursed her lips and nodded slightly. “I understand.”

She made only one stop in the county town to buy daily necessities before returning home with Xiangqiao.

There was a vacant room in addition to her and Zhuang Qingsui’s; She had Xiangqiao clean it to make it her own. Then she handed her a piece of common fine cloth, “Cut this cloth into clothes for yourself and make a pair of shoes. This way I will also learn about your needlework skills.”

“Thank you, miss,” Xiangqiao gratefully accepted the material to her room. Then she swept the fallen petals in the courtyard, fetched water, selected vegetables, and prepared lunch.

For lunch, Xiangqiao made dumplings with sour cabbage and pork filling. She did everything, from making the dough to preparing the filling to wrapping the dumplings.

Zhuang Qingning tasted them. While not breathtaking, they were quite decent.

After the meal, Xiangqiao cleaned the dishes and cookware thoroughly. Seeing some excess ash in the stove, she took some out.

By the afternoon, she had cleaned the house inside out, and had taken Zhuang Qingning’s clothes for washing.

For dinner, she cooked rice and date porridge with sweet potatoes from Miao Village. She also made spicy cabbage and stir-fried meat slices.

The spicy cabbage tasted good, although the meat slices were a bit undercooked. Given Xiangqiao’s past living conditions, this must be the limit of her culinary skills.

On the whole, after two days of understanding, Zhuang Qingning felt that Xiangqiao was not bad.

The noodle factory, after some grinding since the grand opening, is now running very smoothly. The dried noodles are being constantly supplied and sold to the public. One of the shops selling these noodles is Zhuang’s Tofu Shop, and the other is Cheng’s in the county town.

Not many shops in town sell these noodles given that they are pricey and could be easily made at home. However, Cheng’s in the county town does pretty good business with them.

The first to order noodles from Cheng’s was Manager Lu, because of the cavalry he kept. They were delivering goods day in day out, on the road for twenty-nine days a month. If they were lucky enough to find a town or county, that would be good. However, if they didn’t, they would have to rough it out in the wild.

Pioneering is hard, especially when you are making do in the wild and can only eat dry cakes and sip hot water. With these dried noodles, they could easily boil up a hot bowl of soup and noodles with added salt in case they couldn’t find a town or county. Its experience, to say the least, is very different from dry caked and water.

Hence, these transportable, long-lasting noodles were quickly snapped up by Manager Lu, who liked them so much he made sure every deliveryman carried a supply.

The second to book from Cheng’s was none other than the owner of Hanfeng Tower.

Now when a customer wanted a bowl of noodles, it was readily available and no need to make a rush to make noodles. By doing so, they’re saving money on a chef who would otherwise only roll out noodles. Hang noodles all have a consistent thickness, unlike those made by ordinary chefs, which could be too hard, too soft, too thick, or too thin, and which customers are most likely to nitpick.

Moreover, these hanged noodles are smooth and distinct. Ordinary chefs could not make noodles of this caliber.

Once Hanfeng Tower started ordering from here, word quickly spread about these noodles. People were curious to try the noodles even Hanfeng Tower was buying to see how good they tasted.

In no time, these noodles became the best-selling item in Cheng’s, rivaling even century eggs in popularity.

Cheng Ruize wore a constant smile.

Both Zhuang Yutian and Mrs. Meng had happy faces these days.

Since Cao Mengde’s consecutive defeats and his realization that Zhuang Yutian and Zhong Yingcai shared an employer and seemed to have powerful backers, he dared not provoke them any further.

Sans the nuisance of Cao Mengde, the preparations for the weaving workshop progressed smoothly. The looms were quickly assembled, and after finding a reliable and honest worker, they started weaving.

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