Jin Qianqian sat comfortably in the courtyard, sipping the tea Qing Mei had just served.

"Any regrets?"

Liu Qingmei shook her head. "I’m a little envious of how capable Qingzhu and Qing Lan are, but I feel very lucky to be by your side, Madam."

Ever since Jin Qianqian had trained Qingzhu and Qing Lan, she had handed off many matters for them and Housekeeper Fu to manage.

"You’re getting better and better with your sweet talk. But even though you’ve cheered me up, you still have to learn what needs to be learned." Jin Qianqian pointed to the ledger Xiao Dongzi had just delivered. "You don’t want to be outdone by a child, do you?"

Liu Qingmei’s scalp tingled with dread. "I really can’t compare, Madam. It would be more reasonable to compare me to Mrs. Huang. Comparing me to Little Hu Shopkeeper... isn’t that an insult to him?"

Jin Qianqian was amused by her response. "Look at you, you hopeless thing. I’m not asking you to do much. Hu Dong already brought the ledger over, and it would be a shame not to look at it, considering all the effort he put into keeping these accounts.

Now, take this ledger and check the accounts properly."

Liu Qingmei pointed at herself. "Me? Madam, I can’t. I mean, I can count, but I’m afraid I’ll make a mistake."

Jin Qianqian shook her head. "The very fact that you might make a mistake is why I’m having you double-check it."

"???" Liu Qingmei felt like her brain was short-circuiting again.

Jin Qianqian didn’t explain, just waved her hand. "Go on."

Watching Liu Qingmei leave, clutching the ledger and looking back every few steps, Jin Qianqian finally picked up a brush and paper and began to sketch and scribble.

Just then, Housekeeper Fu came in with Xu Dawang and the others. "Madam, the Li Family has delivered the furniture. Should we have it sent directly to the workshop?"

Jin Qianqian looked up at him. "Are the kangs at the workshop all built?"

"Most of them are done. A few are still drying."

"Then send everything over directly. Also, hurry the embroidery workshop along. We need the clothes and quilts finished soon." As the selected start date for the workshop drew closer, Jin Qianqian wanted everything to be perfect.

Housekeeper Fu quickly agreed. "I’ll go hurry them along in a moment. But the rooms and furniture here are ready. Should we go to the estate and bring the people over first?"

"Bringing them over now would be good. The workshop needs the extra hands for many things. But have someone get everything arranged properly over there. We don’t want to be short on this or that when the time comes..."

At that moment, there was a knock on the gate. Mrs. Huang quickly went to open it.

"Madam, there’s a woman at the gate looking for you. She says her name is Lin Aijiao," Mrs. Huang reported, returning a moment later.

Jin Qianqian immediately thought of the small shop currently being used as a temporary dormitory. Although she wondered why the woman was visiting at this hour, she told Mrs. Huang to show her in.

"It seems I’ve come at a bad time. My apologies for disturbing you, Miss Gu." Lin Aijiao smiled apologetically at Jin Qianqian, noticing the servants still reporting to her in the courtyard. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Any visitor is an honored guest. There’s no disturbance at all.

Please, have a seat over here. What brings you to see me today?" Jin Qianqian said, walking over quickly and taking Lin Aijiao’s hand as she noted she looked more worn out than before.

"I should have visited long ago, but I’ve been so tied up with trivial matters at home. I finally found some free time today, but it seems I’ve still managed to interrupt."

"If you keep talking like that, Sister Lin, I’ll get angry. We’re neighbors, after all. You should feel free to drop by whenever." Jin Qianqian patted her hand. She had left for the south in a hurry before the new year and didn’t know what had happened to Lin Aijiao afterward.

"Actually, I came today to ask for a favor," Lin Aijiao said, looking at Jin Qianqian apologetically. "Is your workshop about to start production?"

Jin Qianqian nodded. There was no reason to hide it; everyone in the neighborhood had probably heard about it.

"You’re producing soap, right?"

Jin Qianqian was a little surprised. ’Has the news already spread?’

"Actually, my maternal aunt told me. You might not know her, but you’ll know who I mean when I mention her youngest son." Lin Aijiao smiled. "My cousin, Lu Ping. You know him, right?"

"You and Lu Ping are cousins?" Jin Qianqian was a bit stunned. "Then you..."

"You’re asking why I didn’t go to my aunt for help last time?" Lin Aijiao shook her head. "At the time, I figured I could just pay them off and be done with it. Besides, I didn’t want to lose all my hard-earned money.

But those people were too greedy. After taking over my dowry shop, they wanted to go after the rest of my dowry. I had no other choice but to seek help from my aunt.

I stayed in the Prefecture City for a while and happened to overhear my aunt and cousin talking about you two, which is how I found out about all this."

"So, you came today because...?"

Lin Aijiao gave a wry smile. "Once I brought up my aunt’s status, my husband and his family finally stopped their scheming. But we were tired of it all, so we took the opportunity to officially separate our households.

We didn’t want to stay in this place any longer, so we moved to the neighboring county to start over.

But starting over in a new place is never that simple, is it?

It’s been the same for me there. I opened a new cosmetics shop, but business is so bad I can’t even make ends meet. That’s why I had to come to you for help."

Jin Qianqian thought about the soaps from her earlier experiments, which were still piled up in the warehouse. Clearing them out now would save her the trouble of moving them later, and it would also help Lin Aijiao.

"Sister Lin, the soap workshop won’t be operational for a while yet, and the first batch has already been fully pre-ordered."

Disappointment flickered across Lin Aijiao’s face, but she still forced a smile. "Oh, that’s all right. I’ll come back when there’s another opportunity."

"Sister Lin, let me finish first," Jin Qianqian said quickly. "The workshop hasn’t started production, but I made some myself before. The quantity isn’t large, and the styles are a bit different, but the quality is just as good, if not better. Would you be interested in taking those for now?"

"This..." Lin Aijiao’s hands trembled with excitement. "Is that really okay?"

Jin Qianqian nodded. "Come, I’ll take you to see them first. If you think they’re suitable, we can discuss it further."

"Suitable, they’re suitable! My little shop is saved!" Lin Aijiao knew full well that her aunt’s variety store had turned its fortunes around precisely because of these soaps and scented bars.

She had spent enough time in the Prefecture City to know how crazy people were for these soaps. They were severely out of stock everywhere. If her little shop could get this "crown jewel" product, her sales would skyrocket immediately.

Jin Qianqian pushed open the door to the storeroom. In a corner were three or four hundred bars of soap and over a hundred scented bars, stacked neatly. "It’s not a lot, but it’s all I can offer right now."

Lin Aijiao gripped Jin Qianqian’s hand tightly. "Sister, I don’t know how to thank you. If you weren’t a woman, I’d pledge my life to you in gratitude."

Jin Qianqian, "..." ’Why does that sound so wrong?’