When the two of them were some distance away from their house, Xiao Hanzheng woke Shi Qingluo up.

She got down from his back and felt much more energetic.

Looking at the sweat on Xiao Hanzheng’s forehead, she felt a little guilty and took out her handkerchief and wiped his sweat. “Thank you for your hard work, my husband.”

Her little husband seemed to have carried her for almost an hour.

Needless to say, he was quite fit.

Xiao Hanzheng’s eyes were filled with a smile as he allowed her to wipe his sweat. “Of course. Who asked me to be your husband?”

A husband carrying his wife was a man’s way.

Shi Qingluo chuckled. “I’m proud to have a husband like you.”

Xiao Hanzheng couldn’t help but laugh. “Then I’ll thank you, my wife!”

The two of them chatted and laughed as they returned home.

Seeing the two of them return, Mother Xiao and her two other children heaved a sigh of relief.

Mother Xiao asked worriedly, “Are you alright?”

She had initially wanted to follow them to the county town, but her daughter-in-law said that she would be fine and didn’t need her to come along.

Xiao Hanzheng said, “I’m fine, you don’t need to worry, mother.”

Mother Xiao was relieved. “It’s good that you’re fine. Go wash your faces, we’ll prepare the dishes.”

“Alright!” Xiao Hanzheng nodded.

He and Shi Qingluo washed their faces and returned to their rooms to rest for a while.

After dinner, the two of them held hands and went out for a walk to digest their food.

Seeing the two of them leaving with a goose, a smile appeared on Mother Xiao’s face.

Xiao Baili looked at the backs of the two of them and the goose and felt a sense of warmth. “Brother and sister-in-law have such a good relationship.”

Mother Xiao nodded. “That’s true. Your sister-in-law is a good person and your brother cherishes his blessings.”

She added, “Our family will get better and better.”

Ever since her daughter-in-law married into the family and her son woke up, she didn’t have to worry about her family anymore.

Other mothers-in-law might not be pleased about it, but she enjoyed relying on her son and daughter-in-law.

Xiao Baili’s eyes were filled with joy. “Yes, the days we are enjoying now are things I didn’t dare to imagine in the past. With my big brother and sister-in-law around, our family is getting better.”

When they were in the old residence, they wouldn’t dare to imagine the life they had now.

Recently, she and Xiao Erlang had been visiting their new home every day. The more they looked at it, the more they liked and looked forward to it.

They were finally going to have a real home of their own.

It wasn’t that they didn’t like this dilapidated courtyard, but the memories they had left behind weren’t that good.

After two days, Xiao Hanzheng had a discussion with the chief and their assistants of the nearby village and they came to a consensus.

The saltpetre mine on the mountain shall be mined by people from several villages.

They would take turns to dig it, then transport it down the mountain and wait for people in the county to buy it.

The profit earned would be divided proportionally based on the efforts they put in.

Each household could also receive saltpetre. If they didn’t want to sell it, they could also use them to make their own ice.

The villagers were very excited when they heard about it.

It hadn’t been long since the end of the war and everyone could settle down.

They didn’t have much money, and were living on very tight financial expenses.

With earnings that were like a pie falling from the sky, everyone seemed to be in the Chinese New Year mood and were very happy.

Of course, while they worshipped the old immortal, they also valued and respected his disciple, Shi Qingluo, more.

She could often hear people in the village praising her together.

Every time this happened, the Shi family’s troublemakers would be so angry that their hearts would ache.

Old Lady Shi clutched her chest as her heart ached, “That wretched girl is really too generous. She actually trusts people from a few villages to mine together. They could make a lot of silver from it!”

If she only told her maternal family who would secretly dig up saltpetre to sell, they would at least earn a few hundred taels of silver, right?

Mdm Niu’s heart ached terribly. “That wretched girl is a traitor. Back then, when I gave birth to her, why didn’t I throw her into the river and drown her?”

The others could not help but curse as well.

Fourth Son Shi’s expression was extremely ugly. “That wretched girl is really sick. She doesn’t earn the money when she could and insists on generously letting everyone share the profits together.”

He really could not understand what Shi Qingluo and his husband were thinking.

This also meant that he would not be able to marry an illegitimate daughter of the Wu family. This made his heart ache terribly.

His whole family could not understand either. None of the families would send money out, but that wretched girl wanted to.

So was Xiao Hanzheng. He was also an elementary scholar, yet he was so brainless and went along with that wretched girl’s unreasonable request.

The whole family was cursing in the courtyard.

Suddenly, Third Son Shi slammed the table. “Enough, that girl is also doing a good deed. Stop cursing.”

The Shi family members all quietened down. They were completely shocked by Third Son Shi…

What was wrong with him?

Ever since he returned from the Xiao family, he kept saying that he wanted to do more good deeds, so much that they were concerned that there might be something wrong with his brain.

Old Lady Shi frowned and asked, “My third son, are you possessed by some evil spirits?”

Third Son Shi uttered under his breath, doing good deeds means running into evil. When will he be able to accumulate merit and have a son! These people were his burden.

He said, “Mother, you’re thinking too much.”

Fourth Son Shi continued, “Third brother didn’t run into evil. He was tricked and crippled by that wretched girl.”

His third brother really believed what that wretched girl said. He was speechless.

Yet, that wretched girl’s mouth was really too eloquent.

Old Lady Shi spat at Third Son Shi. “Don’t be stupid. That wretched girl lied to you.”

Then, she couldn’t help but curse again.

They didn’t benefit from the tofu workshop and now the land distribution for mining was like cutting her flesh.

The others had similar thoughts and started cursing again.

Third Son Shi was speechless. “Mother, don’t curse anymore.

“That girl said that if anyone has any objections, they can forget about following her to mine for minerals.

“Right now, the few chiefs are regarding her highly. If they know that we have objections, we won’t receive even the slightest benefits.”

Not to mention that Third Son Shi, who suddenly wanted to be a good person, had become the most rational person in his family.

The people from the old Shi family, who were cursing, suddenly stopped and wondered, what kind of sin had they committed?

How could they have raised such a vicious and merciless scoundrel!

However, they did not dare to scold her anymore. They were afraid that if word got out, the wretched girl would not allow them to join in and mine.

That wretched girl was definitely capable of doing such a thing. That was why they cried.

Shi Qingluo did not know that the troublemakers of the Shi family already had a psychological trauma towards her.

She was in the courtyard, teaching 20 over women who had been selected from a few villages how to make some iced drinks.

For example, icy green bean soup, sour plum soup, herbal tea, and so on.

She also got the carpenter to make some popsicle boxes.

She juiced the wild fruits picked from the mountains, added sugar and water, and made popsicles.

The handmade popsicles were well received by everyone.

Therefore, some villagers carried two big buckets to the county town to sell popsicles every day.

There were popsicle boxes filled with fruit juice and other chilled products in the bigger buckets.

In between the two wooden buckets were water and saltpetre.

When they went to the county town to sell them, the popsicles would be mostly ready.

The people in the county town also liked to buy this new type of food.

A popsicle cost 3 wen each. It wasn’t too expensive. After all, it was sweetened, delicious, and cool.

Many wealthier families were willing to buy a few popsicles every day.

Shi Qingluo built the sugar workshop first and hired the villagers to collect beets from the mountains.

After bringing them back to make sugar, they also bought sugar from the sugar workshop to make popsicles and sell them.

There were also others from the county town or other places who came to buy saltpetre.

After seeing popsicles and other cold drinks, they couldn’t help but buy some sugar to make their own or went out of town to sell them.

A small industrial chain gradually appeared.