If anyone else had said that the plaque was not worthy of the words to be engraved, Old Li would have chastised her, but Song Wan Yue was different, her maternal great-grandfather was an old gentleman, a great scholar of the present day who even the emperor gave deference to.
After a slight pause, Old Li said, “There is another one, left over from my grandfather’s time, the price is a bit high.”
“Let me take a look.”
“Wait a moment, girl.”
Old Li went to the house and in a short while carried out a plaque, wrapped in a cloth, which he put down on the floor and lifted off, a neat piece of rosewood that should be some years old, the plaque glowing vaguely in the sunlight.
“I’ll take this one.”
Song Wangyue immediately made up her mind and didn’t ask for the price, she took out the words written by the old man and unfolded them, the words “Xiao Yue Lou” clearly jumped into the eyes of the old Li and Zhang.
“Good name.”
Zhang praised.
Old Li head also nodded in agreement, and after thinking for a moment suggested, “When this word is engraved, it would be better to put gold leaf on it to show more class.
“As you wish.”
Song Wangyue rolled up the paper with the words on it and gave it to him, “How long will it take?”
Old Li took it carefully with a blossoming heart, “About twenty days.”
Song Wangyue didn’t ask how much it would cost, and gave him two hundred taels of silver, “This is the deposit, the rest will be settled when you finish engraving.”
Old Li took it with shaking hands and repeatedly promised that it would be done properly.
When she came out of the carving shop, Song Wangyue asked the head constable Zhang to take her to another batch of custom-made baking pots, which were actually pans.
After this, she sent Sheriff Zhang back to the place where the restaurant had been built, she gave a message to Song Lin, went to the northern city to pick up Lu Xing and took him to the place where the workshop had been built.
The foundation was full of people, all working feverishly. Several village chiefs were gathered together talking about something, and when they saw Song Wangyue coming down from the carriage, they all got up.
They were overjoyed to learn from Song Shen this morning that they would also be recruiting workers in their four villages, for a workshop of this size would certainly require a lot of people, even if it was only 20% or 30%.
Lu Xing sat on the front half of the carriage and was shocked by the scene before he even approached.
On the way, Song Wangyue told him that the family was building a workshop, and he thought that only two or three rooms had been built, but he didn’t expect it to be a whole lot, a lot more than he could count.
When he heard that he had come to learn accounting from him, Song Shen gave Song Wan Yue a strange look, but then realised that his little sister did not want anyone to know that she could do accounting.
“Okay, you come with me.”
Song Shen set up a table under another big tree, on which were pens, ink, paper and inkstones, and he would register the people who came to work every day so that he could finally pay them.
He led the men over and sat Lu Xing down, he picked up a pen and paper and began to teach him.
“Miss Song, come and sit down.”
Village Chief Gu greeted with a pile of smiles, Song Er Gongzi said that he would also recruit 30% of the people from their village, this was a great honour to give.
Song Wangyue smiled and went over, early on a village chief from Li’s village went to bring a bowl over, and Zhang’s village chief personally poured a bowl of tea for her.
Song Wan Yue didn’t squirm, and graciously picked it up and drank a few sips. Several people looked at it and became more and more happy, saying, “Don’t worry, we will definitely pick the most capable person in the village.”
Not to mention the 15-year death contract, even people in the village would be willing to sign it for 20 years, as long as they signed it, they would be part of the workshop and could work in the workshop forever.
“Thank you all for your help.”
They didn’t dare to take her word for it and waved their hands.
A carriage drove by from a distance, and as it came closer, Elder Song saw that it was Song Ming sitting at the front of the carriage, and his heart fluttered.
The carriage stopped and Song Ming jumped down, the curtain was opened and Zheng Wen got out of the carriage, then turned back to help Song Qin down.
The moment Zheng Wen came out, Elder Song had already stood up, and Song Wan Yue, seeing this, followed suit.
“Big brother.”
Song Qin raised her voice with a smile and shouted.
Elder Song was also full of smiles as he took three steps over, “How come you’re free to come back?”
“You’re still talking, you didn’t even send someone to tell me about all the things that happened at home.”
If she hadn’t heard from others, she wouldn’t have known that Song Si had won the Scholarship, let alone that her elder brother’s family was running such a lucrative business.
Elder Song laughed.
Song Qin’s gaze fell on Song Wangyue beside him, people everywhere were now rumouring about Song Wangyue, the rumour was so divine that when she first heard it she didn’t even associate it with this little girl from her own mother’s family.
“Auntie.”
Song Wan Yue shouted good-naturedly.
Song Qin happily answered, raising her hand to pet her head, thinking of those rumours, the hand she had just raised fell back, opening the door, “Wen’er is over to talk business with you, I just happened to follow to see my family.”
“Great-Uncle.”
Zheng Wen took the opportunity to salute Elder Song, who smilingly responded, “There are many people here, let’s go home and talk about what we have to say.”
After saying that, he sent someone to call for Grandma Song to come over.
When she saw her sister-in-law, Grandma Song happily took her hand and urged Master Song to go and catch the carriage.
Song Wan Yue also raised her voice and called out for Song Shen to come over, saying, “Nowadays, second brother is in charge of the family’s business, so cousin uncle should talk to second brother.”
Zheng Wen was surprised, he had thought that Song Wangyue was in charge of the Song family now.
Looking at his surprise in his eyes, Song Wangyue smiled.
A nine-year-old girl who dared to go to the capital alone to sue the imperial court, bring down the third prince, donate a million taels, and make several money-making deals without moving a muscle, had no idea how deep her heart was.
Master Song hurried the carriage over, Grandma Song pulled Song Qin’s hand up, Song Shen followed, Zheng Wen also returned to the carriage, Song Ming was just about to go up, when Song Wan Yue shouted, “There is still a shortage of a few people to work over there, you stay.”
Work!
As soon as he heard these two words, Song Ming wanted to disappear immediately in front of Song Wan Yue, he hadn’t worked for years, how could he remember how to use a shovel and how to use his strength?
Gathering his courage, “I, I ……”
He wanted to say that he had a headache, but then he thought that Song Wangyue could do medicine and his lie would be exposed in a second, so he hurriedly changed his words, “I, my arm hurts.”
“Yeah?”
Song Wangyue asked with a wry smile.
Seeing her expression, Song Ming panicked and hated to turn around and flee immediately, he should never have come.
“Chu Si!”
A guard came over in response, tall and tiger-backed, the moment he walked this way, Song Ming’s legs and stomach began to shiver.
Song Wan Yue raised her chin towards Song Ming, “Watch him go to work, if he dares to be lazy, clean him up fiercely!”
Chu Si had been with Song Wan Yue for so many days and had never seen her target anyone. Seeing the man in front of him with his thieving eyes, he did not look like a good person and reached out to lift his collar, “Go!”