It was also a celebration.

Perhaps because of her joy and the wine, Su Yujin went to bed earlier than usual.

After Ai Cao helped Su Yujin to bed, she blew out the lamp, closed the door, and then sighed deeply.

“Why are you sighing?” Liu Mama checked the doors and windows, added a shovel of new charcoal to the underfloor heating system, and stoked the stove until it smoldered.

The fire didn’t need to burn very brightly; it would keep the room warm all night.

“I’m worried,” Ai Cao sighed again, holding the still-warm hot water bottle in her hands. “Our young lady has received her indenture and is now free. Does that mean Second Master doesn’t plan to let her enter the He family?”

After all, when promoting someone to concubine, it was easier if the master controlled her indenture.

Now that the indenture had been returned, it meant he no longer wanted to control her…

Liu Mama thought for a moment, “I don’t think it might be a bad thing. Maybe Second Master has other plans.”

“How so?” Ai Cao leaned closer, deliberately lowering her voice so as not to wake Su Yujin, who was still sleeping inside. “Second Master, what could his plans be?”

Liu Mama immediately fell silent.

Whether or not the indenture was returned, it really made no difference to Second Master whether or not he would make Miss his concubine. But for Miss, it probably meant two things.

Either he would let her go in the future, or he would marry her as his principal wife, so he would give her a clean and free identity.

The He family was a prestigious family, and the probability of the latter was really low. After thinking it over, the first possibility was probably more likely.

If Second Master wanted to let Miss go…

What will become of Miss in the future?

Seeing that Liu Mama no longer spoke, Ai Cao sighed again.

Seeing that the young lady’s relationship with the Second Master was growing stronger, but then he suddenly did this, and now Miss’ support was completely gone…

The young lady was truly unfortunate.

Ai Cao and Liu Mama’s expressions both darkened. After a long silence, Liu Mama finally spoke, “It’s getting late; let’s go to sleep.”

“We should be cheerful around Miss so as not to upset her,” Liu Mama reminded her.

Ai Cao hurriedly nodded, suddenly remembering that Miss had been so cheerful today, asking for food and drinking wine, but it probably wasn’t genuine joy, just a pretense of being in a good mood.

Miss was also very sad…

Because of this, Ai Cao tossed and turned all night, finally falling asleep in the middle of the night.

Meanwhile, Su Yujin fell asleep slightly tipsy. When she woke up, she felt refreshed all over, even drinking half a bowl more tofu pudding than usual in the morning, and was already thinking about having stewed pork tripe and chicken for lunch.

The sisters Hong Qiuyan and Hong Qiuyue delivered their finished looms. News came from Li Shi that Feng Yuandong was very interested in opening a weaving workshop and wanted to discuss cooperation with Su Yujin.

Since that was the case, Su Yujin didn’t delay and arranged a time through Li Shi to meet in a private room on the second floor of the Huibinlou restaurant.

Li Shi accompanied Su Yujin, while Feng Yuandong brought along his younger brother, Feng Yuanhao.

“Miss Su’s suggestion is excellent. My brother and I discussed it briefly and found the business very promising, so we thought we’d like to have a proper talk with you about it,” Feng Yuandong said. “I brought my younger brother along today because of our two family businesses. I manage the tea business, and my brother manages the cloth shop. He’s more skilled in the cloth business, and if we can do this business with you, Miss Su, he will be the main person in charge of managing and organizing it.”

Feng Yuanhao was meeting Su Yujin for the first time and cupped his hands in greeting, “Greetings, Miss Su. I hope you will take good care of me in the future.”

“Greetings, Second Young Master Feng,” Su Yujin curtsied. “You’re too modest, Second Young Master Feng. I certainly don’t know as much about the workshop business as you do, and I will have to rely on you a lot in this business.”

“I also have this idea about the weaving workshop, but it’s just a concept. To actually set it up, Young Master Feng will have to carefully consider all the details.”

Madam Zhou had mentioned this before. If the two families cooperated, Su Yujin would provide the weaving machine technology and half the money, while the Feng family would provide the other half to manage the daily operations of the weaving workshop. The profits would then be split in half.

Su Yujin’s offer to let Feng Yuanhao handle the arrangements was both a humble statement and a genuine expression of the matter. Feng Yuanhao didn’t offer further modesty, simply smiling and nodding slightly. “Regarding the workshop, if we were to set it up, my Feng family has a vacant house in the county town. With a little renovation, it can be directly converted into a workshop.”

“As for the looms, my family employs some craftsmen, and we’ll have carpenters outside make some parts. Then, reliable people can assemble them, ensuring the loom technology isn’t leaked.”

“The weaving craftsmen will be selected first from those already under contract. If that’s not enough, we’ll hire long-term workers, ensuring proper contracts are in place to avoid any trouble.”

“Spinning is easy. The spinning machines are readily available, and there are plenty of people who can do it. There’s no need to worry about cotton either. We have a few decent farms at home, and we produce a lot of cotton every year. In previous years, we transported it to other places to sell for money. This year, because the price of cotton is not high, we were planning to sell it to the south after the New Year, so we kept it in the warehouse and can use it at any time.”

“The pattern of the cloth can also be adjusted at any time. We can find a few skillful people to figure out the loom. We can leave the thread matching and color matching to them. The only thing is selling the cloth after it is woven…”

Feng Yuanhao paused and smiled. “We have quite a few cloth shops at home. It’s not difficult to put them on display and sell them together with the goods from Songjiang. The sales volume is estimated to be not bad. However, since we are going to open this weaving workshop, we think that the cloth should have a name so that people in Qinghe County can recognize the cloth woven by our workshop. Only in this way can we establish a reputation for this weaving workshop and make it last.”

“Young Master Feng is absolutely right.”

Su Yujin, having listened for a while and seeing that Feng Yuanhao had explained the key points clearly and logically, was impressed by his prudent approach and business experience. She considered him an excellent business partner and nodded repeatedly in praise. She even suggested, “The loom is currently set up at home; we’d like you two to take a look at it first.”

The success of the business depended on whether the loom was usable.

“Please.”

Feng Yuandong and Feng Yuanhao followed Su Yujin and Madam Li to Su Yujin’s home in Shuanggui Lane to see the loom.

Ai Cao demonstrated how to use the loom, even weaving for half an hour to show Feng Yuandong and Feng Yuanhao its output.

The two brothers nodded repeatedly after seeing it and discussed the cooperation on the weaving workshop with Su Yujin in detail. They talked until sunset before the two Feng brothers took their leave.

(End of Chapter)

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