Ever since they witnessed the miraculous cleaning power of the “pig soap,” the eyes of every man in the Lin family lit up.
This wasn’t just soap for washing clothes—it was clearly a path to making money!
That very night, the entire family gathered around the battered table to discuss turning this skill into a business.
But even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice.
The previous day, they had spent the five hundred copper coins Lu Yuan earned from selling fish on meat for Qingyue’s soup, as well as fine flour, cotton, and other necessities. Not a single coin remained.
Making soap from pork lard required capital.
Under the dim glow of the oil lamp, Mother-in-law Wang clenched her teeth as though she had made an enormous decision.
She turned around, went into the inner room, and groped beneath the bed until she pried a greasy, worn cloth bundle from a loose brick in the wall.
This was the money she had painstakingly saved over decades since marrying into the Lin family, money she had been unwilling to spend even during the New Year.
“Clatter.”
Wang opened the cloth bundle. Inside were more than sixty copper coins covered in green patina.
“Second son, Mother is giving you everything our family has,” Wang said, her eyes reddening.
“Tomorrow, go to town and buy the fattiest pork lard you can find, along with some pig offal. If this money goes down the drain, our whole family will have to starve!”
Lin Erniu solemnly accepted the handful of coins.
“Don’t worry, Mother! Even if I have to risk my life, I’ll earn back twice as much for you!”
Early the next morning, Lin Erniu took the money into town and returned with a large slab of cheap pork fat that reeked terribly.
Lu Yuan rolled up his sleeves and personally guided the three Lin brothers through boiling, refining, and filtering the ingredients.
For the entire day, the Lin family courtyard was filled with the pungent smell of wood ash and pork fat.
By evening, dozens of rough, cloudy-yellow bars of primitive soap had finally been neatly arranged in baskets.
Looking at their results, the whole family was so excited that they could hardly sleep, as though they could already see piles of gleaming silver coins waving at them.
The next morning, before dawn had even broken, Lin Erniu shouldered a basket of “pig soap.” Full of confidence, he braved the biting cold wind and strode toward Yuanhe Town.
Lu Yuan, however, stayed home.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go. He simply couldn’t leave.
These past few days, although the family finally had hope, everything had also become chaotic.
The two little ones slept soundly during the day, but as soon as midnight arrived, they would begin their alternating “duet.”
Just as Changsheng finished passing meconium, An’an would start crying from hunger.
Wang and Li had to prepare meals and handle the housework during the day, then help care for the babies at night. They were already so exhausted they could barely straighten their backs.
Unable to bear seeing his wife and mother-in-law so tired, Lu Yuan simply took over all the nighttime childcare.
A highly intelligent modern researcher like him now had two enormous dark circles beneath his eyes.
In the middle of the night, he had become proficient at washing diapers, cooking rice porridge, and even awkwardly massaging Qingyue’s painfully engorged breasts.
“Husband, go get some sleep,” Qingyue said worriedly from the kang as she watched Lu Yuan drying diapers beside the brazier. “Your eyes are completely dark underneath.”
“It’s fine. I’m not tired.”
Lu Yuan yawned, walked over with a smile, and tucked the quilt more securely around her.
“Second Brother went to town today. Once he makes some money, we’ll hire a capable woman to come and take care of you during your confinement.”
Qingyue’s heart filled with sweetness at his words, and she was also full of anticipation for her second brother’s business trip.
However, reality was often more merciless than the winter wind.
At the market in Yuanhe Town, Lin Erniu found a conspicuous spot. Rubbing his frozen hands together, he put on a broad smile and began shouting.
“Come take a look! Come take a look! Our family’s ancestral recipe—‘soap pancreas’! It washes clothes and bedsheets even better than soapberries!”
At first, quite a few women carrying baskets were attracted by his cries.
“Young man, what is this yellowish stone? Can it really get clothes clean?” a plump middle-aged woman asked suspiciously as she picked up a piece and brought it close to her nose.
“Oh my goodness! What is that smell? It reeks!”
The woman disgustedly tossed it back into the basket.
Lin Erniu hurriedly explained, “Auntie, the smell is a little strong, but it’s absolutely amazing at removing grease! Only five copper coins per piece!”
“Five copper coins?!”
The women gathered around gasped, looking at him as though he were crazy.
“You’re robbing people! With five copper coins, I can buy more than a pound of coarse rice!”
“Exactly! We poor people can just grab some wood ash from the riverbank to wash our clothes. Who would be stupid enough to spend money on this?”
The crowd immediately dispersed.
In the eyes of ordinary people at the bottom of ancient society, having enough food to fill their stomachs was the most important thing. As long as their clothes weren’t completely worn out, they were good enough. Who would spend money that could buy food on some kind of cleaning product?
Lin Erniu stood in the freezing wind for the entire morning. Not only did he fail to sell a single piece, but he also endured countless disdainful looks and mocking remarks.
He was so anxious that he felt as though ants were crawling all over him.
“No. My brother-in-law said poor people can’t afford this. I need to sell it to wealthy people!”
Lin Erniu gritted his teeth, shouldered his basket, and headed toward the bluestone-paved street where the town’s wealthy families lived.
Just then, a maid from the town’s richest household, the Qian family, happened to come out wearing a silk-padded jacket to buy supplies.
Lin Erniu hurried over with an ingratiating smile.
“Miss, take a look at this wonderful washing product. It’s especially suitable for wealthy households…”
The maid picked it up and smelled it.
The odor was strong, and its appearance was unattractive.
She immediately covered her nose tightly with her fragrant embroidered handkerchief and cursed in disgust.
“Get lost! Where did this beggar come from? How dare you bring this filthy junk here to deceive me?”
“If I used this thing to wash Madam’s clothes, wouldn’t she beat me to death? Get out of here!”
Several servants rushed over and roughly shoved Lin Erniu into the street.
Lin Erniu’s eyes turned red.
He refused to give up. Carrying his basket, he went from shop to shop, trying his luck at various general stores.
But whenever the shopkeepers saw the crude yellow bars and smelled their odor, they immediately refused.
“Our shop sells scented soap for officials and wealthy families. Your stuff doesn’t even have proper oiled-paper packaging. It’s completely unfit for respectable customers! Don’t bring this filth into my shop!”
One rejection after another.
One humiliation after another.
By the time the setting sun cast its afterglow over the snow-covered ground, Lin Erniu’s psychological defenses had completely collapsed.
He didn’t even know how he had made his way back to Clear Water Village.
Toward evening, the door to the Lin family courtyard was pushed open.
Lin Erniu walked in dejectedly, his shoulders slumped. The carrying pole across them seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.
Hearing the commotion, Wang, Li, and Lin Dashan all came out eagerly to welcome him.
But when they saw the two baskets of yellow soap bars, completely untouched and seemingly not even one having been moved, the smiles on everyone’s faces instantly froze.
“Second son… how… how did you not sell even one?” Wang asked, her voice trembling.
“Bang!”
Lin Erniu suddenly slammed the carrying pole onto the ground. His legs gave way, and he crouched directly in the snow.
“Smack! Smack!”
He slapped himself hard across both cheeks.
“It’s all because I’m useless! I’m stupid! I don’t even know how to say anything nice!”
A seven-foot-tall man like Lin Erniu was now crying like a desperate child.
“They said it was too expensive, too smelly, and too cheap-looking! Mother! I’m sorry!”
Seeing her son like this, Wang felt her vision go black. Her body swayed, and she nearly collapsed.
Sixty copper coins!
That was the last money the Lin family had to survive!
Second Sister-in-law Li also covered her face and began sobbing.
“Second Brother, get up!”
Hearing the commotion, Lu Yuan hurried out of the house and pulled Lin Erniu to his feet.
He glanced at the baskets of crude soap.
Instead of showing even the slightest anger or discouragement, his face was filled with an extraordinary calmness.
“Brother-in-law, I ruined everything…” Lin Erniu said guiltily, unable to raise his head.
“This isn’t your fault. It was my oversight.”
Lu Yuan spoke in a deep voice, his eyes sweeping over the gloomy faces of his family.
He had been too optimistic.
He had assumed that bringing a modern product into ancient times would allow him to dominate the market immediately, but he had overlooked the harshest barrier of all—the social class divide.
“Everyone, don’t panic. The money wasn’t wasted. We simply found the wrong customers!”
Lu Yuan gathered the entire family in the main room and began analyzing the situation in terms they could understand.
“Think about it. The poor people in town can barely afford enough food. How could they possibly spend five copper coins on something for washing clothes?”
“But wealthy families are different. They don’t lack money. So what do they care about most?”
“Appearance! Status! Prestige!”
Lu Yuan pointed at the basket of yellow bars that still smelled strongly of pork fat and pinpointed the problem.
“Our product may be excellent at removing dirt, but it has a foul smell, and its color looks like mud.”
“Even if wealthy families can’t get their clothes perfectly clean, they would never allow that ‘cheap’ smell to cling to their bodies. That’s why the shopkeeper said our product was unfit for respectable customers!”
The Lin family listened, completely stunned.
Lin Dashan sighed.
“Brother-in-law, what you’re saying makes sense. But then who are we supposed to sell this stuff to? We can’t just let it sit here and rot.”
“If the poor can’t afford it and the rich dislike it, then we have to change it!”
A sharp glint flashed through Lu Yuan’s eyes. It was the confidence of a modern businessman who knew exactly how to strategize.
“We need to upgrade the product! We need to make a premium version!”
“We have to find a way to remove the foul smell, make it as white as jade, add the fragrance of flowers and herbs, and finally put it in exquisite wooden boxes!”
“When the time comes, we won’t sell it for five copper coins. We’ll sell it for fifty! A hundred! It will be exclusively for wealthy women and young ladies!”
Lu Yuan’s bold declaration made the entire Lin family gasp.
A hundred copper coins for one bar?!
That was practically faster than robbing people!
But after their excitement faded, Second Sister-in-law Li poured cold water on the idea.
“Brother-in-law, what you’re saying makes perfect sense. But where are you going to get the fragrance of flowers and herbs?”
Li pointed toward the howling northern wind and the snow-covered landscape outside.
“It’s the dead of winter! The mountains are covered in snow! Forget fragrant flowers—right now, you couldn’t even find a single green blade of wild grass in the mountains!”
Her words caused the tiny spark of hope that had just appeared in the Lin family to disappear once again.
Indeed.
Where would flowers come from in winter?
Even the cleverest woman couldn’t cook without ingredients. No matter how capable Lu Yuan was, he couldn’t conjure perfume out of thin air, could he?
Lu Yuan fell silent as well, his brows drawing tightly together.
He had overlooked this.
He possessed extensive chemical knowledge, but he hadn’t considered how scarce raw materials were during winter in ancient times.
Just as the entire family was at a loss and the atmosphere had become so oppressive that everyone could barely breathe, a clear voice suddenly came from inside the main room.
“Husband…”
Lu Yuan’s heart skipped a beat.
He hurriedly lifted the cloth curtain and entered the inner room.
Lin Qingyue was leaning against the pillow, but her eyes were shining like stars in the sky.
She looked at Lu Yuan and raised the corners of her lips into a gentle smile. Then, as if presenting him with a treasure, she softly said,
“Husband, I know a place deep in the mountains where there might still be flowers blooming right now…”