Chapter 422 - 422 I hope you can still smile in the future
422 I hope you can still smile in the future
Of course, Zhuo Zheng wanted all the workshops to do the same work.
But he definitely couldn’t say this out loud.
“The canned food workshop then, ” he said after some thought. “I’m quite curious about what canned food is.”
Candles, soap, and scented soap were all available outside, but no one knew what canned food was.
When he learned how to make canned food, he could find an excuse to change to another workshop.
Shi Qingluo wasn’t surprised by his choice.
“Alright, we can start working on the canned food in a few days when the preparations are complete. You can work with us.”
Zhuo Zheng smiled shyly, “Thank you, sister. You’re the best. ”
Shi Qingluo thought to herself, I hope you can still smile in the future.
Zhuo Zheng’s eyes were filled with anticipation as he looked at her and asked, “Then can I move to your guest courtyard?”
The guest courtyard was just next to the main courtyard.
He could still take a look and see if he could find an opportunity to go to the main courtyard and find something useful.
Shi Qingluo shook his head apologetically. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Zhuo Zheng didn’t expect her to reject him. “Why not? ”
“Because if you want to work in the workshop, you’re naturally not considered our guest,” Shi Qingluo replied.
“If you live in the guest courtyard and work in the workshop, there will definitely be gossip about you, saying that you got in through the back door or something. It’s so unpleasant!”
Zhuo Zheng remained silent.
He forced a smile and said, “It’s okay. I’m not afraid of gossip. Let them talk about it if they want to.”
He wasn’t going to stay with those people for long anyway.
Shi Qingluo chuckled. “You’re not afraid, but I am!”
Seeing that Zhuo Zheng was a little confused, she explained, “Because this is a workshop built by the county government. If someone says that you used the back door, they will say that my husband is unfair.
“In order not to affect his reputation, you can’t stay in the guest courtyard.”
Zhuo Zheng uttered under his breath, so she was thinking so much.
She pretended to be concerned for Zhuo Zheng and said, “Actually, you’ve been out for more than ten days. Your mother might be anxious. Why don’t I get someone to send you back to Northern City?”
Zhuo Zheng immediately shook his head, “No, I don’t want to go back so soon after this trip.”
He put on a pitiful expression again. “If I don’t stay in the guest house, where should I stay? I don’t have any money right now.”
“The workshop has also built a dormitory for those who work overtime or those who come from far away,” Shi Qingluo said matter-of-factly.
“You can move in today.”
Since he wanted to work, she would fulfill his wish.
However, he could forget about any special treatment.
Moreover, she was sure that Zhuo Zheng wouldn’t be able to find any reason to refute her.
As expected, even though Zhuo Zheng wanted to stay in the guest house, since Shi Qingluo had already said so, he could not turn it down.
Otherwise, if she really asked someone to send him back to Northern City, his efforts would have been in vain.
Thus, he nodded obediently. “Alright, I’ll listen to you, sister.”
Shi Qingluo gave him a smile. “Very good. I know you are a worry-free person.
“Do a good job. In the future, when you enter the imperial examination and become an official, this experience will be helpful to you,” she added.
Zhuo Zheng nodded happily, “Okay, I will definitely do my best.”
If his father’s rebellion succeeded, his mother said that she would let him become the crown prince.
If such a day really arrived, it would indeed be useful to understand more about the people’s livelihood now.
Zhuo Zheng agreed, so Shi Qingluo asked Xiao Hanzheng’s men to take him to the dormitory in the canned food workshop.
After they left, Shi Qingluo’s lips curved into a smile.
She hoped that Zhuo Zheng could hold on for a little longer.
The workshop was not a dormitory with single rooms, but a room for six to eight people.
Last night, she had already told Xiao Hanzheng that if Zhuo Zheng really chose to work in the workshop, they would arranged for Zhuo Zheng to be with the other three spies, as well as four big men who had bad tempers with particularly loud voices, and smelly feet to stay together.
The workshop hadn’t started work yet, but there were already five people living in the dormitory.
After Zhuo Zheng went in, a smell that made his facial expression change a few times.
“Can I change to another room?” he asked.
The servant shook his head apologetically. “Young Master Zhuo, this is the last room with an empty bed.
“If you don’t want to stay here, you can only rent a house or stay in an inn.
“I work every morning and night, so living in the dormitory is actually the most convenient.”
Zhuo Zheng sighed, his purse was stolen. Otherwise, why would he stay in this broken dormitory?
He could ask for some money from the people protecting him in secret, but he couldn’t do it in front of Shi Qingluo.
Moreover, this was Xiao Hanzheng’s territory. It would be troublesome if he was accidentally discovered to be in contact with those people.
He suddenly felt that he was in a difficult position.
“I want to see Sister Shi again,” he could only say.
The servant declined politely at first, but Zhuo Zheng kept pestering him.
He could only bring Zhuo Zheng to see Shi Qingluo.
As soon as Zhuo Zheng saw Shi Qingluo, he asked to borrow money and wanted to go back to the inn.
However, Shi Qingluo turned him down.
Shi Qingluo had given him two choices. “He could either stay in the dormitory and work in the workshop or get someone to send him back to Northern City immediately.”
In order to investigate the situation of the canned food workshop and learn the recipe, Zhuo Zheng could only bear with it.
Once again, he was sent to the dormitory by the servant.
Seeing that the other three people who didn’t look like villagers were covering their noses with sweat towels, he could only follow what they were doing.
He deliberately struck up a conversation with the three of them.
He was also a little resentful of Shi Qingluo. How could this woman be so cruel?
He was a modest young master, how could she bear to let him suffer this?
However, he had previously boasted in front of many people that he would definitely get the formulas, so he could only endure it no matter how disgusting it was.
He only hoped that he could quickly reach the core and get the recipes.
After settling Zhuo Zheng, Shi Qingluo put his matters aside.
She brought her people to several villages with more wild flowers to teach the villagers how to rear bees, and signed a contract for purchasing honey and beeswax in the future.
These places were also very suitable for planting Chinese wolfberries and red dates.
Shi Qingluo led the villagers to more than a dozen more villages to plant Chinese wolfberries and red date trees.
She also signed a contract to purchase them.
After a few days of hard work, a batch of clay jars and wooden bottle caps needed for the canned food workshop was produced.
Shi Qingluo checked it and found that it was well-made and sealed.
The cap with the rubber ring would ensure that it was air tight.
She had already asked Xiao Hanzheng to collect the spices for making mutton.
Her cooking skills were average, so she asked her mother-in-law and sister-in-law to help season the food.
They spent several days adjusting the taste and cooked over a dozen catties of mutton before the taste reached its peak.
After successfully making clay cans, she taught a selected group of people to make braised mutton, red-braised mutton, and canned mutton.
Stewing meat was not difficult for anyone to learn.
At most, it wasn’t the most tasty stewed meat.
Therefore, the key to making canned mutton was to make sure that the canned mutton continued to be air tight and the mutton could be stored for a long time without going bad.
Shi Qingluo had never tried it before.
She had followed the time-traveling encyclopedia and only succeeded after fiddling with it for a long time with her mother-in-law and sister-in-law.
“When this batch of mutton is ready, open it up and try it out in ten days. If it doesn’t go bad, then we are on the right track. We can continue to mass-produce it.”
Although the process of making the canned food that was air tight and wouldn’t turn bad was successful, Shi Qingluo was still prepared to make the second batch after ten days.
If the food went bad, she would try it again.
Xiao Hanzheng trusted his wife. “Okay.”