Zhang Cuilan had never dreamed that she would one day live with the most famous slut in all the nearby villages and serve the same master with her. She really didn’t know what to say at first.
Of course, Yu Caihe was aware of her own terrible reputation, so she wasn’t angry or surprised to see Zhang Cuilan’s reaction. She just calmly related her recent experiences and finished with: “Thanks to the kindness of the young miss, I was purchased despite my reputation. You don’t have to worry, I will certainly work hard for the young miss in the future. Sister Lan, if you have any work that needs to be done, don’t hesitate to tell me and I will definitely do it.”
And wasn’t Zhang Cuilan also a woman? She had also been bullied by the men in her own life before, so she felt a lot of sympathy when she heard what Yu Caihe had been though. Plus, just by looking at Yu Caihe’s hands, she could tell the woman wasn’t someone afraid of work.
Of course, she had heard the rumors that Mrs. Hu from the Hu family was a flirtatious woman who was always picking up men and, to be honest, looking at Yu Caihe’s face it seemed like she really might have that capability. Therefore, at the very least, there was no reason for a woman who looked like Yu Caihe to sell herself as a maidservant, because there would undoubtedly be who knew how many men willing to take her in as a concubine.
So just the fact that she was willing to follow Su Tang lent some credence to her words. In the end, Zhang Cuilan concluded it was the scum men who were truly bad, and Yu Caihe was only another pitiful woman caught up in the machinations of such men.
She and Yu Caihe both had their own experience with scum men, and with that as a common topic, they quickly became familiar with one another.
Su Tang had mainly bought Yu Caihe because she was the only suitable worker for sale. Of course, the problem was that Yu Caihe had a bad reputation that was well-known to people living both close and far, which meant that although she was very pretty, Su Tang couldn’t really put her somewhere where people would see her. After all, people were stupid animals that definitely wouldn’t be able to see through the fact that the rumors were false. With that in mind, Su Tang could only arrange for Yu Caihe to follow Zhang Cuilan and make soap, because that way she wouldn’t have to go out much and it would save everyone a lot of trouble.
But by doing things this way, it meant that she hadn’t found anyone who could run the shop. She herself had to go to her lessons with her master every day, so she couldn’t handle the task by herself, but for now there was nothing she could do about the situation. Since she hadn’t been able to buy anyone suitable, she could only do the job herself.
Meanwhile, because Carpenter Wang had received so many orders from her all at once, he told her that it would take some time before he could finish everything. But Su Tang felt that her business shouldn’t be delayed, so she had asked him to prioritize the work for the shop and to try to get it done within half a month. As for the furniture for the living space, it was less urgent, but she wanted to have it before the end of the year.
There was only one more month before the Spring Festival began and Su Tang still wanted to take advantage of the holiday to sell a wave of desserts, so it was important to get the shop up and running quickly.
Of course, Carpenter Wang also wanted to have everything finished before the new year, because that would mean he could be fully paid before the new year and have an extravagant new years celebration with his family.
Thus he went and found his brother, who was also a carpenter, and gave some of the work to him. From there, the two brothers began to work together feverishly in order to fulfill the order on time.
As this was going on, Chen Shuisheng had managed to prepare all the materials he needed for the job and went to Su Tang’s yard the very next day. So that very morning Su Tang watched on as he began building the oven she requested.
Chen Shuisheng had never made such a strange stove before, but fortunately, it wasn’t actually all that difficult to make. In the end, he managed to finish it in less than two days, and all that was left was drying the oven and firing the stone. However, Su Tang told him that he had done enough at that point and directly paid him to send him off.
At first, Chen Shuisheng had thought Su Tang was just a little girl and that she was playing around for fun, but when he saw the shop that Su Tang owned he began to suspect that the thing he had built for her should be useful somehow. However, because the shop wasn’t open yet, and because Su Tang wouldn’t say how the thing was used, he could only leave while secretly feeling curious.
After that, Su Tang had Zhang Cuilan and Baohe watch over the oven for the next few days in order to properly dry and fire the stone of the oven.
Thus, Su Tang was very busy for these few days. In addition to studying with Song Yi every afternoon, she also was running around doing various things like picking out cutlery and dishes for the shop, and other small things like that.
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tl begging corner:
Thank you!