Empress of Fortune: A Farm Girl's Rise

"What I said wasn't wrong. It was all due to the negligence of mother. If she hadn't pressed those two stupid girls so hard, why would I have to cook?" Zhuang Qinghe continued to sob: "These past few days, I've been cooking and working non-stop. Look at my hands; they're filled with blisters..."

Mrs. Song glanced at Zhuang Qinghe's palm, noticing visible signs of soreness. Compassion welled up in her heart.

Under normal circumstances, these tasks would have been done by the two troublesome girls. Her daughter should never have been burdened this way. Now that the pair had abruptly usurped their duties and established a separate household, all the chores had fallen onto her daughter. How could this even make sense?

After all, the blame rests squarely on those two preposterous girls!

If they hadn't been so reckless and gone off to establish a separate household, things at home would have remained peaceful. How did it come to this predicament, with her becoming so despised by Zhuang Ruman?

Mrs. Song looked into the house with growing concern. The steamed cornbread in her hand was getting unpalatable by the minute.

After pacifying Zhuang Qinghe and Zhuang Yuanzhong for dinner, Mrs. Song tidied up and brought cornmeal paste along with the cornbread into the house. She put on a brave face and said, "My dear, you worked hard all day. You need to eat something to keep your strength up..."

"I fried peanuts for you, eat with that, have some."

Zhuang Ruman returned in a huff not so long ago, and by now, his stomach was demanding food. Ignoring Mrs. Song, he took the food and started eating.

Seeing this, Mrs. Song's apprehension eased, she sat down by the bed and began to cautiously lower her voice, "Dear, Qinghe is still young and ignorant, don't be too hard on her. As for this situation, I know that it's my fault."

"In the past, I treated them the same way and they never dared to complain. They didn't dare to mutter a word, who would have imagined that these two would gather the courage to petition the village chief in favor of establishing a female household..."

Zhuang Ruman felt the peanuts in his mouth lose their flavor. He gave Mrs. Song an annoyed look.

Who would have known that you could be so foolish?

Life has become unbearable. They kept quiet until now because they still thought they could tolerate it. What were they supposed to do when they couldn't handle it anymore?

Who could have guessed? It seems that even a pig could figure it out; but, not you!

As she noticed Zhuang Ruman's darkening face, Mrs. Song was too scared to continue her rambling. Instead, she quickly changed the subject, "Dear, I'm not saying that I remain entirely blameless, but what those girls did was wrong too..."

"But in any case, we must figure out a way, dear. We can't just let it end this way, right?"

"What else can we do?" Zhuang Ruman sulkily shot back at Mrs. Song: "Didn't I tell you what Zhuang Jingye, that old bastard, said when I came back this morning?"

"Didn't he say that since those two imbeciles have established their own household, from that point on, they wouldn't have any relation with our family? That we should close our doors and live our lives peacefully, and if there is any dispute among neighbors, he, the village chief, will not refrain from mediating."

"Isn't this just a warning that we should stop bothering those two stupid girls?"

"His words were completely flawed; so what if they've established a separate household? They are still of the Zhuang family, our own nieces. Blood is thicker than water!"

Mrs. Song was disgruntled, "As elders, don't we even have the right to scold them?"

"Of course, you do, and that old bastard also stated that if we cause any troubles for those two reckless girls and stir up a commotion, he will not intervene but go directly to Master Kuhanzhai!"

Zhuang Ruman said, grinning wryly.

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Song's face turned pale.

Kuhanzhai is a school in the town.

The school was donated by a generous person surnamed Cao, and was specifically for gifted students.

The teachers here are all scholars, and the tuition fees are half that of other schools.

Kuhanzhai School does not discriminate based on age or economic status. It only looks at whether the student is academically capable, intelligent, studious, and whether there are endorsements from the village chief or local gentry, and whether their conduct and family traditions are appropriate.

Zhuang Ruman and Mrs. Song's eldest son, Zhuang Yuanren, is quite intelligent and eager to learn. He was recommended by Zhuang Jingye to study at Kuhanzhai, and this year, he passed the county examination and is preparing for the prefecture-level examination.

If that old devil Zhuang Jingye stirs up unnecessary trouble by going to Master Kuhanzhai, uttering all sorts of nonsense, then Zhuang Yuanren will definitely not be allowed to study at Kuhanzhai anymore, effectively derailing his future prospects.

The one thing that Zhuang Ruman and Mrs. Song do not joke about is Zhuang Yuanren's studies.

"For such a trifling matter, the village chief sure likes to stir up trouble." Mrs. Song sneered scornfully, but her earlier bravado had significantly diminished.

"Just thinking about letting the matter drop unsettles me. We ended up giving those two worthless girls a free pass!"

"A free pass? Since when has anything in this world been free?"

Zhuang Ruman snorted, "Just wait and watch, it won't be long before those two nuisances crawl right back!"

Crawl back?

Mrs. Song was taken aback for a moment.

"Just look at you, you have no idea about the inner workings of this issue!" Zhuang Ruman dispiritedly commented, "Is it so easy to establish a female household? Is life that easy? Those two reckless girls, with no house or property, scarce a pound of meat on their bones, who would want to hire them for labor? What will they have for their living in the future?"

Mrs. Song suddenly saw the light, "That's right, in the future they won't earn any money, they won't be able to eat, and when they grow hungry, they'll realize life was better with us."

"Then all we can do is wait for them to come crawling back."

And when those two do return, each and every old and new score will be settled. If she doesn't flay them, she is not Mrs. Song!

----

Meanwhile, Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Qingsui were still busy grinding beans.

They made a thick soy milk by grinding the beans, added water to dilute it, sieved it to remove the residue, then thoroughly boiled the remaining soy milk in a big pot. Afterwards, they let the soy milk cool. When the temperature was right, it was time to make tofu.

This is the most crucial step in making tofu.

Whether the tofu pudding is made well will determine the quality of the tofu, as well as its texture.

Generally, there are two methods to make tofu pudding. One involves the use of gypsum, producing a tofu that is soft and has high water content. The other one uses brine, creating a tougher tofu texture.

The area here is in the north, where the primary method of making tofu is the latter one, using brine.

However, the method Mrs. Wen used to make tofu was similar to the brine method, but she utilized a different technique called Physalis tofu production.

By using Physalis, the clear ginger water produced during tofu-making ferments, similar to the fermentation process of yeast used for steaming buns. The process involves using some leftovers from the previous bun baking process to ferment, playing the role of a starter for the next production cycle.