Huá Wànxī wasn’t worried at all that Madam Wang would fail, because she knew the heroine would definitely help persuade the family. Perhaps at this very moment, Jiang Wenwan had already begun carrying out her own plans.
She boiled a large pot of water in the kitchen and then moved the two big clay jars into the bathroom. These were meant for storing drinking water, so they needed to be thoroughly cleaned.
The jars were truly large—so large that she felt she could almost take a bath inside them.
Wearing household gloves, she wet the jars, then took out a scrub brush and applied antibacterial soap. After working up a thick lather, she scrubbed them vigorously, cleaning both the inside and outside of the jars until they were completely covered in foam. Finally, she rinsed them clean with water.
The water in the kitchen had already come to a boil, so Huá Wànxī used a ladle to splash hot water everywhere, giving the jars a high-temperature sterilization. Conditions were limited, but this should be sufficient.
After using up one pot of water, she continued boiling more. While waiting for it to heat, she also hurriedly scraped soap on the side, not wasting a single minute—truly a master of time management.
In the end, she filled one jar with hot boiled water and placed it in a corner of the bathroom, and another jar with boiled water and set it beside the bed, planning to let it cool before storing it away. One jar of hot water and one jar of cooled boiled water should be enough for the journey of fleeing disaster, and it would also make daily drinking more convenient without needing to boil water all the time.
As for tomorrow, when Madam Wang discovered the two jars had “vanished,” she already had an excuse prepared. Madam Wang was naturally careless, so a few casual words would be enough to get by.
After handling the jars, Huá Wànxī continued cleaning the four baskets Madam Wang had brought that day. She intended to use them for steamed buns and other cooked food, so she cleaned them especially carefully—scrubbing every gap with a toothbrush, then wiping them dry with a face towel and lining them neatly.
Looking at the baskets arranged neatly in the corner, just waiting to be filled, Huá Wànxī felt her sense of security increase a little more.
By the time she finished, it was late at night again. She carried the two babies over and gave them a comfortable warm bath, using gentle goat-milk soap to wash their hair and bodies.
The umbilical cords had already scabbed over and fallen off, so they could now safely get wet. Every night, she bathed them.
The babies loved bathing. Once undressed, they seemed freed from all constraints, flailing their limbs happily. They kicked and splashed the water so vigorously that Huá Wànxī could barely hold onto them, getting her clothes completely soaked in the process.
After finally settling them, she laid them down on the bed and then took a long, refreshing bath herself. The bathroom was warm and comfortable, without the cold air outside—it felt especially soothing after washing.
She rubbed her slightly sore lower back. She had overworked herself today; it seemed she couldn’t push herself too hard.
Completely exhausted, she finished feeding the babies and fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, Madam Wang excitedly told Huá Wànxī that she had convinced the father-in-law. Today, Jiang’s father and Jiang He would both go to town to do business. The farmland had been entrusted to a hardworking and honest villager who would take care of it for five copper coins a day and was overjoyed to accept.
Exactly as expected. Huá Wànxī smiled in satisfaction. More people meant more strength—making more money was always a good thing.
Sure enough, that evening when Jiang’s father and Jiang He returned, all the soap had been sold out. They even came back earlier than usual. The two men were clearly in high spirits. Who would have thought that the two of them could earn over a hundred taels of silver in a single day? Even the wealthiest family in the village—the village head’s—wouldn’t see that in a whole year.
The father and son were delighted, but knowing that wealth should not be flaunted, they could only quietly celebrate. They secretly bought meat and cloth for the family, their faces full of joy and noticeably more energetic than before.
Huá Wànxī’s private savings also steadily grew, and everyone was happy.
From then on, Jiang Wenwan came over whenever she had free time to help with chores and report on her “progress.”
Huá Wànxī didn’t let her sit idle either, teaching her how to make handmade soap. It wasn’t difficult—just control the amount of water, then press it into molds.
This left Huá Wànxī much more relaxed; she only needed to scrape soap on the side.
She wasn’t worried that Jiang Wenwan would leak their secret. After all, they shared the same hidden truth and were now on the same boat. Moreover, the heroine was the heroine precisely because of her outstanding character and integrity—completely trustworthy.
She also didn’t let Jiang Wenwan work for free, giving her silver so she could save some private money, and occasionally gifting her small items: a rubber band, a towel, a bar of fine goat-milk soap, or a sandalwood comb.
But what Jiang Wenwan liked most were the satin scrunchies. She now had two—one wine red and one pale yellow. They were so beautiful that when she wore them around the village, her friends would ask enviously where she bought them, some even wanting to wear them when they got married. She would proudly say they were brought from overseas and not easy to get. Seeing their longing expressions filled her with a small sense of pride.
Huá Wànxī could only smile helplessly at her boasting. She didn’t plan to sell the hair accessories yet—they were too few, only two a day. She intended to stockpile more and sell them later in her own shop, where they would surely attract many female customers.
She also began thinking about other products: skincare items, cosmetics, laundry liquid, detergent… Once things stabilized, she could put them into small bottles and sell them for another source of income.
She also discovered another function of her bathroom space: items didn’t disappear when moved out. As long as they were relocated—for example, placed into baskets—new identical items would refresh in the original spot the next day, while the moved ones still remained.
Because of this, the bathroom was now filled with baskets, plastic buckets, and basins, all used for storage.
Fortunately, her bathroom was fairly large. When she renovated it, she had expanded it into a wet-and-dry separated space, around thirty square meters in total, which now turned out to be extremely convenient for her current situation.