Chapter 163: Wang Su Carried The Blame
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Su Ying was in a sleepy daze when she heard a slight sound from the door. When she opened her eyes, she saw Xiao Jin walk in. The sky outside was still dark.
She mumbled something, flipped over, and went back to sleep.
Xiao Jin glanced at Su Ying, who was sleeping soundly, and the corners of his lips curled up slightly. He then took off his dusty outer robe, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes.
When she woke up the next day, Bai Shuang realized that the room where the beautiful young men were housed last night was empty.
“Eh? Where are they? Don’t tell me they have gone to sweep the pigsty so early in the morning?” Bai Shuang ran to the pigsty and realized that the manure in the pigsty was still there. It had not been cleaned.
“Could it be that Mistress asked them to do something else?” Bai Shuang walked to the front yard and saw Su Ying coming out of the house.
“Good morning, Mistress.”
“Morning.” Su Ying woke up a little late today and didn’t go to circulate her energy.
“Mistress, have they all gone to work?”
Su Ying asked quizzically, “Who?”
“It’s those youths that you brought back yesterday. I found that they’re all gone.”
“Gone?” Su Ying walked to the empty backyard to take a look. Sure enough, there was no one inside the room. She returned to the front yard to look for Wang Su, who had been on night duty the night before.
“Wang Su, did you see those youths I brought back yesterday?”
Wang Su’s expression stiffened for a moment before he replied, “I saw them.
They said that they all had parents and missed them, so I let them go.”
Su Ying was absolutely baffled.
Wang Su knew that Su Ying was looking at him as if he was a fool, but when he thought of his Master’s words, he braced himself and endured the pressure. “Mistress, they’re really, really pitiful! If Mistress wants to punish, then punish me!”
Su Ying’s icy gaze swept across his body. “From now on, you’ll be responsible for cleaning the pigsty and chicken coop.”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
After Su Ying turned around to wash up in the backyard, Wang Su saw Bai Shuang staring at him in disbelief.
“Big Brother Wang.”
“What?”
“Is your brain covered in pig shit?”
Wang Su was utterly speechless. “I have been wronged!” he thought.
Bai Shuang sighed helplessly. “How can a good person become stupid just like that?”
Wang Su pulled a long face. He turned around and saw Xiao Jin walking out of the house. He tried to seek some comfort. “Master…”
“Just go and sweep the pigsty.”
Wang Su carried the blame in the end!
Tian Mu went to look for Su Ying. “Mistress, we’ve already dug quite a few pits yesterday and prepared the wood. We plan to start making charcoal today.”
“Mm-hmm. I’ll go with you guys today.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
After a short breakfast, everyone got busy with their own tasks.
Su Ying got the people from the West District to do some work. Every day, they would be given a meal at lunchtime, and at night, they would be given two potatoes or a handful of coarse grains. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to give more, but the food stocks in her interspatial store were limited. There were several hundred people, and they could consume a lot in just a few days.
Although there wasn’t much food, at least the people wouldn’t be so hungry that they didn’t have the strength to work.
The pits were dug on relatively higher ground near the stream. By the time Su Ying and the others reached that place, Number One and the others had already gathered a hundred people from the West District and arrived there.
“Mistress, everyone is here.” When he saw Su Ying walk over, Number One stepped forward to report to her.
Su Ying nodded and walked over to the group. “Who has made charcoal before?” Everyone in the group shook their heads. Just as Su Ying was about to continue, a thin middle-aged man raised his hand and said in a weak voice, “I… I made it before.”
His voice wasn’t loud, but Su Ying still heard him. “You step forward.”
The man walked out of the crowd and stood in front of Su Ying.
“What’s your name? You have made charcoal before?”
The man nodded. “My name is Mu Tou. I used to work in the charcoal business.”
Su Ying raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t expected to find a skilled worker in their midst.
“Under the current conditions, are you able to make good charcoal?”
“The best charcoal might not be that easy to make, but if you want good quality, as long as the burning duration and the degree of ventilation are controlled well, it is still possible to achieve that.”
Su Ying nodded. “If you can teach everyone how to make good charcoal, I’ll give you a cow as a reward.”
A cow!
This made the thin man, who hadn’t tasted meat for a long time, feel energized. “I’ll definitely work hard to make good charcoal.”
“Then we are counting on you. Tell everyone what they need to pay attention to first.”
“Alright.”
At first, the thin man was a little timid when he had to face so many people, but gradually, he became more confident when he talked about his field of expertise, and his voice became louder.
Su Ying listened from the side. The theoretical knowledge he was talking about was similar to what she had read in the ancient records. There were many details that weren’t mentioned in the books, but he was able to explain them out loud. This meant that he was really very familiar with this field.
“Everyone, do as he says first. If there is anything you don’t understand, ask immediately. Don’t work blindly. Five people will form a group and will be assigned a pit. Those who can successfully make charcoal for the first time will get meat. Everyone, put in more effort. This isn’t for me. This is to ensure you yourself will have a warm winter.”
Upon Su Ying’s order, everyone began to work in full swing.
Su Ying also came to the pit, planning to give it a try herself. After all, having more skills wouldn’t be a burden, and one could never go wrong by learning more.
She didn’t understand it before, but after listening to this thin man, she realized that when making charcoal, the arrangement of the firewood was also very critical. If the firewood was placed well, it could be burned sufficiently, and the resulting quality of the charcoal would be better.
After stacking the firewood, Su Ying called the thin man over to check. After confirming that there were no problems, she lit the firewood from below.
“Mistress, there are quite a few people down there. They say they’re looking for you.” Su Ying had just covered up the pit when she saw Tian Mu running over.
“Looking for me? Who are they?”
“They said they were also from the West District.”
After Su Ying finished closing up the pit, she went down to the foot of the mountain where a dozen or so youths were waiting. When they saw Su Ying, they all stepped forward and bowed humbly to her.
“Madam Su.”
Su Ying remembered at once when she saw how refined they were. They were the scholars she had asked Number One and the others to pick out. However, she had forgotten to make specific arrangements for them after picking them out. In fact, it wasn’t that she had forgotten, but that she hadn’t arranged anything for them yet.
“What’s wrong?”
The dozen or so people exchanged glances with one another with hesitant expressions. After a while, they gathered their courage and said, “We wanted to ask what arrangements you have for us, Madam Su. Now that we have submitted to the East District, everyone has started to get busy, while we are still idle at home. We feel very uneasy.”
“Are you starving?”
Er…
These words were so direct that they turned red instantly. They never expected Su Ying to hit their sore spot so point blank. It was really too embarrassing.
“Yes, it’s true that we have no food at home, but we still have wives and
children at home. We really had no choice but to look for Madam Su..”