When Shi Xiaolan came to her senses, she couldn’t immediately speak. She swallowed, opened her mouth a few times, and finally managed to speak with difficulty, still unable to believe what she had heard, "You really want to buy three thousand catties of tofu from my family?"
"Someone has ordered three thousand catties of fermented tofu from me, of course, I need to buy three thousand catties of tofu from you. Otherwise, how can I make fermented tofu for them?" An Jing replied with a smile.
Only then did Shi Xiaolan believe it. She remained stunned for a long while before grabbing An Jing’s hand, excitedly saying, "An Jing, my family is going to get rich with your help."
An Jing laughed and cried a little, "It’s not like we’re getting rich..."
"Three thousand catties of tofu, after deducting the costs, my family can earn more than three taels of silver! More than three taels of silver, that’s a lot of money for not many families in our village, if that’s not getting rich, what is?" Shi Xiaolan had the expression of someone who has struck it rich.
An Jing: "..." Alright, three taels of silver were quite a lot for a farmer’s child.
"Xiao Lan, I’m in quite a rush for this tofu; it would be best if you could deliver two hundred catties of tofu to me every two days." She paused, "If your family is too busy, you can pay wages to your relatives to help out just like last time; all in all, you’ll still make a profit."
"Mm-hmm, I know," Shi Xiaolan nodded repeatedly. Even if they paid their relatives to help, in the end, they would still make two or three taels, which was still getting rich compared to not earning a single coin.
Three thousand catties of tofu, three coins per catty, a total of nine taels of silver, half of which would be paid as a deposit.
An Jing took out four taels and five hundred coins to give to Shi Xiaolan, who had never seen silver before. When she saw the silver pieces that An Jing handed to her, she was stunned for quite a while.
When she was no longer stunned, Shi Xiaolan counted the five hundred coins, made sure the amount was correct, confirmed the sum with An Jing, and then put the money away.
At this moment, Shi Xiaolan still couldn’t hide her excitement and agitation, but then she suddenly remembered something, "Right, we don’t have much soybeans left at home, I have to go back and tell Fu Zi right away to go to the surrounding villages to buy soybeans. Since you bought so much tofu from us before, the soybeans in our village have all been bought up, we need to go to other villages to make purchases."
With that, Shi Xiaolan, holding her basket, was ready to leave, but An Jing held her back.
"Xiao Lan," An Jing spoke earnestly, "I’m not afraid of being laughed at, you know all about my past experiences. Those people who used to mock and bully me, I still hold grudges in my heart."
"If it weren’t for my husband," she said, glancing at Xiao Changyi who was standing to the side, with a gaze full of tenderness, "I would definitely be much more miserable than I am now."
Her gaze fell back on Shi Xiaolan, and An Jing continued, "Those people from Jiuping Village, including Pan Family Village’s Pan Shuangquan’s family... I’m willing to take tofu made from anyone else’s soybeans, but I refuse theirs. To avoid any unpleasantness with you later, I’m telling you in advance, you can buy their soybeans, but don’t use their soybeans to make tofu for me. If I find out that you’ve used their beans to make the tofu, I absolutely will not accept it."
Pan Shuangquan was Lin Anjing’s former fiancé, who made a fuss and called off the marriage because Lin Anjing didn’t menstruate and then married Lin Anjing’s cousin sister Lin Luye.
Lin Anjing couldn’t see clearly at the time, but she, An Jing, could see clearly that Pan Shuangquan and Lin Luye must have been cheating together much earlier.
And the matter of Lin Anjing not menstruating must have been revealed to Pan Shuangquan by Lin Luye.