The Wealthy Eldest Sister Rules Supreme

The price wasn’t cheap, that much was certain, but he had gone further by suggesting that if Feng Ershu didn’t have the money, he shouldn’t be aiming for such a good shop, and could settle for a cheap one in a more remote area instead.

The contemptuous looks accompanying such insulting words were enough to infuriate anyone.

Feng Ershu couldn’t recall how he had walked out of the shop that day, his eyes filled with the image of the smug Mrs. Deng renting the shop to others.

At that moment, he had made up his mind to secure this shop for himself, if only to see how deflated Mrs. Deng would appear when the time came, and regret her earlier decision.

The problem was, the money he had was nowhere near enough to afford such a fine shop in such a great location. His only option was to resort to schemes.

For example, tarnishing the shop’s reputation.

Those renting shops were typically business people, who tended to be superstitious when it came to money-making and took Feng Shui seriously, fearing even the slightest damage to their fortunes.

If the shop was deemed to have bad Feng Shui, potential renters would be put off by this, increasingly anxious as time goes by. Any accidents, big or small, they would attribute to the shop’s Feng Shui.

Fate would have it that the shop manager who rented the place then broke his leg, and thus became Feng Ershu’s point of argument, his perfect chance. He propagated the rumor that the shop had terrible Feng Shui throughout the entire town.

What happened afterwards made Feng Ershu feel as if even the heavens were helping him. Misfortunes fell upon the shop or the homes of everyone who rented the place, seemingly validating the rumors of the shop’s bad Feng Shui.

Gradually, no one dared rent the shop anymore, and if someone did, they would greatly lower the price, hoping for a lucky bargain.

Feng Ershu was ecstatic during that period.

As long as he keeps spreading the rumor, and if the shop fails to be rented out for a while longer, Mrs. Deng’s previous cockiness would disappear completely. By then, seeing his willingness to buy the shop would be like seeing a lifesaver, and she would happily sell the shop to him at a low price.

But when he was smugly going along with his plan, someone rented that “bad Feng Shui” shop, paying a decent price and remained in business to this day, the first day’s trading being particularly successful…

If things continued to go this way, wouldn’t all those past rumors about the shop’s bad Feng Shui be proven false, and the shop would successfully clear its name. Not only would the shop return to its former price, it might even rise further in the future.

All he had done before would be in vain.

What a pity.

How he loathes this tofu shop!

Feng Ershu gave the tofu shop a murderous glare, as if his eyes were nearly burning the shop down.

The tofu business was booming. Even though Zhuang Qingning had deliberately reduced the amount of tofu from Zhuang Yonghe’s end for sale at the shop, all of their tofu sold out in less than half a day.

As for the salted duck eggs, needless to say, they all sold out too.

With the tofu sold out, it would be pointless to keep the shop open. However, in consideration of the intended expansion of the tofu factory’s production and the fear of overproduction, Zhuang Qingning asked Mrs. Cao to stay till the afternoon, but not too late, just after lunch, to see how many more people would come to buy the tofu, to determine the demand in the afternoon.

“Sure, even if I have to stay until the evening, I can do it,” agreed Mrs. Cao. “Qiuying and I have brought cornmeal pancakes. We won’t starve or die of thirst as there’s a backyard here. We can heat up some water when it’s mealtime.

Even if we’re too tired, we can take turns to rest. It’s not a big deal.

Moreover, working at the tofu shop wasn’t as laborious as when doing manual labor for others. Plus, Zhuang Qingning paid a full day’s wages. Even if she only works half a day, it isn’t much of a problem.

Whether there’s work or not isn’t the issue. The point is to fulfill the working hours for the pay.

“Alright then, just do as you see fit, Auntie. You don’t have to stay too late. Go home as soon as the sun begins to set. The road isn’t safe after dark, and nobody will come to buy tofu at such a late hour anyway. So, there’s no point in staying.”

Zhuang Qingning said with a chuckle: “Thanks for your hard work, Auntie and Qiuying. Zhuang Qjngsui and I will head back home now to have a look at the tofu factory and finalize things. Auntie, please keep an eye on roughly how many people would come to buy tofu, and how much tofu we could sell daily.”

“The idea is to plan how much tofu we need to prepare from tomorrow onwards. Once I have an estimate, we’ll know how to manage.”

“Sure, leave it to me,” Mrs. Cao agreed and saw Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Qingsui out of the shop.

After tidying things in the shop, she took the cloche used for covering the tofu to the backyard to wash, took advantage of the hot sun, and hung it in the yard to dry. By the time they would leave in the evening, it should be thoroughly dry and ready to be stored away.

Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Qingsui, on the other hand, returned home, quickly ate some noodles, had a long nap before waking up at evening to prepare dinner.

Pounded cucumber salad, stir-fried peas and minced meat, glutinous rice and date porridge, accompanied by aromatic scallion pancakes. After dinner, they headed to the tofu factory.

They walked around the tofu factory several times, looking at every detail of the place carefully, and then examining Mrs. Wen’s courtyard.

After Mrs. Wen had finished her dinner, she was feeding the chickens in her courtyard. When she looked up to see Zhuang Qingning, she asked, “Looks like your business is going well. Are these two tofu pots not enough?”

“Aunt Wen, you’re a really good guesser.” Zhuang Qingning came over with a smile. “I’ve opened a shop in town, and I think we might not have enough tofu to sell every day. I’m considering delivering another pot of tofu to town in the afternoon. We should be able to manage with the fresh tofu we have for now, but there’s no telling what will happen in the future.”

“I was also thinking of making tofu sheets and dried tofu to sell. It would be a waste to have such a large shop only selling tofu and salted duck eggs. If we want to make dried tofu and tofu sheets, the stone mill and pots would definitely not be enough. We wouldn’t have enough space to press the tofu either, and we need another pot to cook the dried tofu. Hence, the tofu factory might be a little inadequate.”

“I thought about it and came over to discuss with you, Aunt Wen. Would it be possible to extend the shed outwards a bit? If we could make this adjustment, it should be enough to last for a while.”

“It’s feasible to extend the shed, the courtyard is big enough anyway. My husband and I expanded the courtyard to the edge of the village beforehand because we were already considering that the tofu factory might expand eventually,” Mrs. Wen replied, squinting at Zhuang Qingning,

“However, with the extension, the rent would increase. The agreed payment in tofu and tofu pudding is no longer sufficient.”

“That’s fair,” said Zhuang Qingning with a smile..