Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside-Chapter 192: Ning Family

Clang, clang, clang!

The sound of hammering echoed from the kitchen, startling everyone in the courtyard and effectively breaking the circle around the three generations of the Qin family.

During the skills competition held by Qin San Lang and the others, Gu Jinli had already stir-fried the broken soybeans, packed them into small cloth bags, shaped them into cake molds, and began hammering them with an iron hammer.

Jiang Jiao said, "Miss Gu from the Gu Family, hand me the iron hammer and let me do the hammering."

"Sure, here you go." Gu Jinli passed the iron hammer to Jiang Jiao, who hammered fiercely. After a while, the squeezed cake mold slowly began to ooze oil.

Seeing this, Jiang Jiao called out to Ah Ji, "Ah Ji, the oil is coming out."

Ah Ji withdrew his gaze from the courtyard and, looking at the soy oil dripping into the wooden box, nodded in satisfaction. The technique was simple, yet no one had thought of it before — Gu Jinli indeed had a clever trick up her sleeve.

Gu Jinli pointed to the wooden frame covering the iron cake and said, "This could also be considered a press, but it’s vertical. I drew for Uncle Ah Ji a horizontal one, but the principle is the same. Whether horizontal or vertical, it works."

Ah Ji nodded, indicating he understood.

"We can make this." After giving a firm reply to both Gu Jinli and Jiang Jiao, Ah Ji packed away the recipe and the drawings.

Jiang Jiao was delighted, "That’s exactly what I was waiting to hear. If you couldn’t make it, we would definitely be unable to."

According to his father, Ah Ji’s family surnamed Ning had a bit of a reputation; they made their fortune from a senior family member working in the military as an arms manufacturer, and Ah Ji, having been exposed to this from a young age, found making a small wooden oil press to be a piece of cake.

Jiang Jiao didn’t have as much strength as Qin San Lang, and it would take a lot of effort to extract oil from all twenty catties of soybeans.

Not wanting to waste time, Ah Ji shouted outside, "Kunzi, Ah Chuan, come in and hammer out the oil."

"Coming!" Kunzi and Ah Chuan ran into the kitchen, took turns wielding the hammers, and quickly extracted a good amount of oil.

Seeing that there was nothing left for her to do, Gu Jinli left the kitchen with Third Grandma, and while walking, she said to Third Grandma, "Third Grandma, since County Captain Jiang and the others have finally come, let’s quickly ask if they have any news about Aunt Fuya and Aunt Daya."

They had been searching for Fuyan and Daya without any news. Now that County Captain Jiang had returned from the prefecture city, it was an opportunity they couldn’t miss to ask.

"Exactly, let’s hurry and ask County Captain Jiang," said Third Grandma, who also had her heart set on this matter. Arriving in the courtyard, she signaled with her eyes to Third Grandpa and silently mouthed the word ’Fuyan.’

Third Grandpa had always been preoccupied with this matter, but he was also worried, fearing that the inquiry might reveal unsettling news, so he had been hesitant to ask.

Scholar Shang was talking with Doctor Wu and Doctor Du. Seeing Third Grandma signaling to Third Grandpa, he knew they wanted to inquire about Gu Fuya and Gu Daya, and so he asked County Captain Jiang, "My father-in-law, do you have any news about the two Misses from the Gu Family in the prefecture city?"

County Captain Jiang looked towards Third Grandpa and Gu Dashan and shook his head, "I’ve checked the records of the newly divided disaster victims for you, and there’s no record of Xie Pingzi’s family, Gu Fuya’s family, Qi Panzi, or Gu Daya’s family."

"However, it’s possible that both of their families arrived in He’an Prefecture before you did. Before I returned, I had asked the clerks in the prefecture city to look into the old archives. Due to the vast number of disaster victims from the past year, it will take some time to search through the old archives. Rest assured and wait. If there is any news, the clerks from the prefecture city will send someone to deliver it."

County Captain Jiang, an experienced official, added, "I instructed the clerks to copy the village registration records from Changping Town of Xie Family Plain and the villagers of Daaozi Village in Huaizi Town of Mingshan County when they look through the old archives. Once we have the records, we can find these people and ask them. Surely we will find out some news about their families."

Third Grandpa, Third Grandma, and Gu Dashan had all but lost hope, but these words rekindled their anticipation.

With moistened eyes, all three of them became emotional. Third Grandma wiped away her tears and said, "Lord County Captain has gone to great lengths, this old woman thanks you."

As she spoke, she was about to kneel to County Captain Jiang.

County Captain Jiang quickly said, "Old sister-in-law, please don’t do this. If you act like this again, I really won’t help you find people."

Hearing this, Third Grandma hurriedly stood up straight, fearing that County Captain Jiang would truly not help them in their search.

Third Grandpa, concerned that Gu Fuya and Gu Daya’s families might encounter military disasters, asked about the ongoing unrest: "Brother Jiang, is there still chaos in the east and northwest?"

Elder Lei Wu knew about this matter: "The chaos won’t last much longer. His Majesty has dispatched Duke Xing, one of the founding Dukes, to suppress the rebellion. The Xing Family Army is formidable; they fought their way from the Capital to Yongtai Prefecture, then split forces there. One large force was led by General Xu to the northeast and another by Old Duke Xing to the northwest."

"The Northwest is Duke Wei’s territory. After the extermination of Duke Wei’s three clans, the Northwest Border Army has been causing much disturbance. However, Old Duke Xing is one of the six founding Dukes and is sworn brothers with Old Duke Wei. With Old Duke Xing’s mediation, he will surely be able to pacify the Northwest Border Army and have them serve Great Chu again."

Qin Er Lang had not yet departed. Hearing this, his fists clenched tight, he could not help but want to interject, but Qin San Lang spoke up before him: "It seems that we’ll soon be able to live in peace and stability."

Qin Er Lang, distracted by what Qin San Lang said, finally calmed down and fell silent.

Elder Lei Wu continued, "Indeed, it will be good when things stabilize. Otherwise, our merchant caravan always worries about trouble on the road."

After finishing these words, seemingly not wanting to dwell on the matters of Duke Xing and Duke Wei’s family, he turned to Third Grandpa, "Our caravan travels far and wide, meeting many people. We will help you inquire around. If there’s any news of your daughters or nieces, we will make sure to deliver the message to you."

Upon hearing this, Third Grandpa and Gu Dashan once again expressed their gratitude.

In the kitchen, Kunzi and Ah Chuan had already squeezed the dough until no more oil could come out.

Ah Ji instructed them to stop pressing for oil and had Kunzi fetch a balance scale from the mule cart to weigh the oil.

Kunzi quickly brought the iron scale and weighed the soybean oil: "A total of four pounds and three taels."

"Twenty pounds of soybeans produced four pounds and three taels of oil, not bad at all, this business is feasible," said Jiang Jiao with delight, as it was even one tael more than what Wenyuan had told them.

Ah Ji nodded, left the soybean oil in the Gu Family kitchen, and returned to the courtyard with his people to report to Master Wu: "Uncle Wu, the soybean oil is doable."

"If it’s doable, that’s good," said Master Wu. Having stayed at the Gu Family for four hours, and it now being late afternoon, all necessary discussions had concluded, and he stood up to take his leave.

Doctor Wu, Doctor Du, and the three grandchildren also took their leave with County Captain Jiang and his party.

Doctor Wu was very pleased; their trip to Gu’s Workshop today was not for naught. Elder Lei Wu and Gu’s Workshop had ordered over two thousand pounds of seasoning spices, and all the medicinal herbs needed for these spices were to be bought from their Xuanhu Fang. While in the yard, Elder Gu had already communicated this to him, and their Xuanhu Fang would be delivering a large batch of medicinal herbs the next day.

Third Grandpa and the others knew these were all busy individuals, and today’s visit was done favoring County Captain Jiang, as well as for the spices and soybean oil’s sake, so they did not detain them any further. Together with several families, they escorted County Captain Jiang and his party.

The Qin family’s three generations also joined the group in seeing off County Captain Jiang and his companions. That Ah Ji, before leaving, glanced back at the three generations of the Qin family, smiled at them, and then followed County Captain Jiang and others mounting their horses and departing.