Gu Yui, seeing Mrs. Chen mock her, wanted to talk back as she usually did, but she rembered the lesson from the Wan Family and ultimately did not yell back, simply lowering her head to continue with her embroidery.
Mrs. Chen, seeing her obey recently, did not say anything else to her, letting her continue with the embroidery, thinking that with her little patience, she would give up after embroidering for a few days at most.
As expected, after embroidering for three days, Gu Yui tossed the embroidery with a few leaves stitched on it into a chest and stopped touching it.
Gu Jinxiu, on the other hand, had been constantly embroidering. During this period, she had embroidered two pieces: one was a Mid-Autumn Reunion Picture, and the other was not of scenery, but a scripture – the Blessing Scripture.
In just over half a month, it would be the Jiuyue Festival, and the Blessing Scripture was a prayer book perfect for the festival.
Gu Jinxiu thought that after she finished embroidering the Blessing Scripture, she would send the embroidery to Huaiyu Embroidery Shop, and formally respond to Granny Li, becoming an embroidery master at Huaiyu Embroidery Shop.
After discussing it with the family, it had been decided to let Gu Jinxiu beco an embroidery master, signing a three-year contract with Huaiyu Embroidery Shop. During these three years, she would only sell her embroidery to Huaiyu Embroidery Shop. After that, she would be completely free to sell her embroidery to any shop she wanted.
Third Grandma said, "Embroidery masters are rare and precious. Will Huaiyu Embroidery Shop really agree to just a three-year contract?"
Gu Jinli said, "Granny Li is a broad-minded person. Since she appreciates elder sister’s embroidery skills and wants her to be an embroidery master, she will grant elder sister the respect deserved by an embroidery master. Besides, our family is not one without loyalty. Although after three years elder sister will be completely free, familiarity breeds business – if elder sister has more embroidery products in the future, she would still send them to Huaiyu Embroidery Shop first."
Since embroidery masters could be compared with scholars and eccentrics, they would care about their reputation as scholars and eccentrics do. Therefore, Granny Li wouldn’t worry about this at all.
Moreover, the current Huaiyu Embroidery Shop also had two quite famous embroidery masters of the court who, despite not having a contract, still consigned their embroidery products to sell there.
"Then when the ti cos to sign the contract, will Sister Xiu need to go to Huaiyu Embroidery Shop?" Third Grandma glanced at Gu Jinxiu and said worriedly, "Sister Xiu is getting older, and she has a good appearance too. If she can avoid traveling far, it’s best she doesn’t, Huaiyu Embroidery Shop is far from Tianfu County."
It’s worriso for a young woman to travel such a long distance to Huaiyu Embroidery Shop. If sothing happens on the way, crying to death could not redy it.
Mrs. Cui was also worried about this and looked at Gu Jinli.
Gu Jinli smiled and said, "Don’t worry. Let’s ask Mrs. Jiang first, it would be best if elder sister doesn’t have to personally travel to Huaiyu Embroidery Shop."
This is why she always insisted that the family practices martial arts. Their family was not a noble family with lots of servants and protectors, so they could only rely on martial arts to protect themselves.
Gu Jinxiu was embroidering her signature mark. After embroidering the words ’Fu’an’ correctly, she tidied up the thread, and said to Third Grandma and Mrs. Cui, "Third Grandma, Mother, don’t worry, I will be very careful. If I cannot balance it all, then not being an embroidery master is also okay."
She loved embroidery and wanted to be an embroidery master, but perfect scenarios are rare in the world. After weighing the pros and cons, she would choose a way that is good both for herself and her family, and not because of a hobby, bring trouble to her family.
Third Grandma nodded and said, "Of course Third Grandma believes in you, you’ve been worry-free since you were young."
Sister Xiu had a tenacity and steadiness to her. Just by sitting there, she conveyed a reassuring presence.
"Xiao Yu, I’ve made a new batch of mosquito incense tools for you, and I’ll move them to the pharmaceutical workshop for you tomorrow." Gu Dashan clapped off the wood shavings from his body, put away his woodworking tools into his tool box, and walked into the house.
Gu Jinli looked into the yard and saw five stacks of wooden grinders each one ter long and wide. She smiled and said, "Thank you, Father, you’ve really helped a lot. Without the mosquito incense tools you made, I couldn’t have succeeded in making them."
Gu Dashan’s carpentry skills were superb, and the mosquito incense tools he made were as uniform as if asured with a ruler, with a variance no greater than the size of a needle.
Not only were Gu Dashan’s woodworks well made, but they were also completed quickly. In just half an hour after dinner, from July to late August, he had made two hundred mosquito incense tools for her.
Each mosquito incense tool had ninety grooves. If all the grooves in two hundred tools were filled with dicinal clay, her pharmaceutical workshop could produce nearly twenty thousand mosquito incenses a day.
However, the current manpower of the pharmaceutical workshop was insufficient. Mai Dong and the three others, including San Qi and Ye Dakou siblings, could at most process one hundred catties of dicinal clay a day, filling one hundred mosquito incense tools, to make nine thousand mosquito incenses.
Even so, she could still make a clean profit of thirty taels of silver a day just by selling mosquito incense.
Mrs. Chen knew that Gu Jinli was making mosquito incense and that it was selling well. People from the county and prefecture cities ca to Xuanhu Fang looking for mosquito incense, and she knew that Gu Jinli must be making a killing, so Mrs. Chen was filled with unbearable envy and had been flattering Gu Jinli a lot lately.
Unfortunately, Gu Jinli kept the pharmaceutical workshop under her strict control and would not let other families get involved, so no matter how much Mrs. Chen flattered, it was useless.
...
The next day, Gu Jinli went to the pharmaceutical workshop early to make scar removal ointnt and mosquito incense with Han Liu and the others.
During this period, Gu Jinli and Han Liu produced another one hundred and fifty bottles of scar removal ointnt, all with a faint floral fragrance.
"The scar removal ointnt sells very well. Manager Cheng said that the wealthy households in Linhe Prefecture really like the scar removal ointnt. Now, any family that is not short of silver will keep a bottle on hand, just in case a daughter injures her hands or face, so they can use it imdiately."
Yuanzi Pharmacy has a branch in Linhe Prefecture, and Gu Jinli’s scar removal ointnt and mosquito incense are first sold to Xuanhu Fang, which then sells them to the pharmacy branch in Linhe Prefecture.
The manager of the pharmacy branch in Linhe Prefecture is nad Cheng An, and he belongs to the sa generation as Cheng Han, who is associated with Boss Min.
The scar removal ointnt sells for a very high price in Linhe Prefecture—twenty-five taels of silver per bottle. The noble families in the city care about their appearance, and daughters cannot have scars, hence the scar removal ointnt is in high demand in Linhe Prefecture.
"Mosquito incense is also selling extrely well. In the past few days, three pharmacies from the prefecture city ca to Xuanhu Fang, all wanting to buy mosquito incense. Doctor Wu did not sell to them, only saying that he had already signed contracts with other pharmacies, and the scar removal ointnt and mosquito incense must be sold to those with contracts."
"When the representatives of those three pharmacies heard this, they were quite angry, accusing Xuanhu Fang of not wanting to earn money. Elder Wu retorted that Xuanhu Fang was not short of money and managed to drive them away."
"Those pharmacy representatives won’t give up so easily. Elder Wu has already sent a ssage to Manager Cheng, who will take care of it. He told to inform Young Master that they would handle these troubles so that Young Master can focus on making dicine without worry." Mu Tong, while tying up the mosquito incense that had been dried yesterday, was discussing with Gu Jinli about the scar removal ointnt and mosquito incense.
"That’s good, I hate bother." Gu Jinli chose to cooperate with Yuanzi Pharmacy and give Elder Wu a forty percent share of her profits, precisely to have soone who could solve her problems.
"Xiao Yu, Brother Rui and the others have brought the green bricks. They are waiting at the back door. Go open it for them." Gu Dashan walked in through the corner gate of the third mansion and said to Gu Jinli, who was mixing mosquito incense dicinal clay.
Gu Jinli held the keys to the fourth and fifth mansions, so to bring in the green bricks from the back door, Gu Jinli needed to open it.
"I’m on it." Gu Jinli followed Gu Dashan and made her way around to the back door of the Lu Mansion. When they neared the door, she heard the earnest voice of Gu Yui.
Gu Yui, with a bamboo basket in her hand and a flush of red on her cheeks, said to Chang Errui, "Errui, you brought the green bricks so early, you must have set out before dawn without having breakfast... This is bean dregs cake made at ho, we made plenty of it. My aunt and I brought so for you to have as you please."
Gu Yui was not alone; Mrs. Chen had also co with her.
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