In the year of disaster in the book, the villain girl is the real winner

In the two days after returning, He Qiudi spent most of his time studying the "soap balls" and "bath beans" he brought back from the grocery store.

In my spare time, I go to release water around Shiliu Village.

Groundwater is flowing.

Therefore, He Qiudi only needs to ensure that there is sufficient groundwater in Shiliu Village, and the groundwater will automatically flow to the surrounding areas.

This saved He Qiudi a lot of effort.

*

When He Qiudi was studying "soap balls" and "bath beans", he did not avoid He Sanlang and He Laotai.

She asked He Huaian about the methods of making these two things and even went out of her way to consult someone who knew the business.

People who know the business don’t actually make “soap balls” and “bath beans”. They just know what the raw materials of these two things are and the general processing process.

After all, this was ancient times, and craftsmen’s skills were the ability to support their families, and would not be easily passed on to others. Even when teaching apprentices, many masters would choose to secretly keep the most critical skills.

Others just watch from the sidelines and only know the general idea but don't understand the overall situation.

He Qiudi pretended to listen carefully and came back to write a summary.

She can read.

Old Lady He came from a family of imperial chefs. She knew that in this world, women who could read and write would have more opportunities than others.

It’s just that the original owner didn’t like studying before. He knew a few words from books, but it was difficult for him to write them all by himself.

The font is also ugly.

When Old Lady He saw her like this, she asked out of curiosity. He Qiudi told her the truth, saying that she wanted to research a "soap" that was convenient, cheap, and affordable for ordinary people.

Old Mrs. He neither supported nor opposed this.

She thought He Qiudi was just a person with brilliant ideas.

If she could do it, she wouldn't find it strange. After all, she was her own child. She saw Qiu Di through the filter of her biological mother. No matter how she looked at her, she thought she was smart, virtuous and dignified.

After seven or eight days of research, He Qiudi announced that he had an idea for making "soap".

It just so happened that He Sanlang and the others were on vacation.

The next day, He Qiudi got up early in the morning and went to the city to buy fifty cents of fresh pork fat.

The previous afternoon, He Qiudi collected the wood ash from her home and carefully sifted it through a sieve to pick out the debris. (Note: The method of making handmade soap comes from Baidu information, etc. The following steps are the same.)

I took about half a pound of wood ash and put it into a clay pot, then added three or four pounds of water and stirred it evenly.

Then put the clay pot on the stove and boil it, stirring it all the time during the boiling process. Let it stand and cool, then filter the clear liquid on the top with thick gauze and pour it into a new clay pot.

Boil repeatedly, let cool, and filter out the clear liquid.

During this process, a small amount of egg white is added to the solution each time. Egg white is incompatible with water and can float on the solution. The egg white liquid is then skimmed off to produce a potassium salt solution of appropriate concentration and sufficient alkalinity.

In addition, He Qiudi also purified a small amount of fine salt from coarse salt these days.

After buying the pork fat, He Qiudi couldn't wait to wash the meat, cut it into small pieces, and asked He Sanlang to light the stove.

The aunt and nephew performed a novel operation, which attracted the whole family to watch.

He Qingshu stood outside the kitchen, standing on tiptoe to watch.

Wei Sixian winked at her, asking the young He Qingshu to remember the steps He Qiudi used to make soap.

Although she was not optimistic about He Qiudi, what if she could succeed?

Soon, the lard was refined.

The freshly refined lard is particularly clear and crystal clear, exuding a rich and unique fragrance.

He Qiudi put the lard in a new ceramic jar and let it cool down.

While waiting, she took some oil residue and shared it with everyone.

Under normal circumstances, the oil residue is also an extremely important commodity in the family and would be strictly controlled by Grandma He. But now Grandma He did not interfere. Jin Cuihua had already taken a bowl and filled it with half a bowl of oil residue to share with her two sons.

After the temperature of the hot oil dropped, He Qiudi fixed the ceramic pot containing the lye solution and heated it. While heating it, he poured lukewarm hot oil into it and asked Jin Cuihua to stir it vigorously.

Keep simmering over low heat while stirring until the fat is completely dissolved.

She knew that Wei Sixian and He Qingshu wanted to steal her skills, and she was not afraid of them peeking.

The final step is to add salt.

Only by adding salt can the alkali solution and lard that undergo saponification reaction complete the final step of salting out principle to form a lumpy precipitate.

You can't make a hard bar of soap without adding salt.

This is the most important step, so He Qiudi will avoid some people when operating.

While stirring, He Qiudi also added some clove powder, which would give the soap the unique scent of cloves.

clove.

It was the cheapest spice she had ever bought in Ningyuan County.

With his back to Wei Sixian and He Qingshu, he calmly sprinkled in the fine salt, stirred it quickly and evenly, then took an iron spoon to scoop up the soap paste and pour it into the mold that had been prepared.

The mold was made by a carpenter in the village when she was "researching" bath beans and soap balls.

This time the lard was not used up and there was a small bowl left.

All the soap paste was poured into the mold, leaving only eighteen bars of soap.

Because of the addition of pomegranate flower pigment, the color of the soap cream looks very rich and pleasing.

He Sanlang looked at the dozen molds and exclaimed, "Aunt, is this the soap you mentioned?"

"Not yet. The soap has to dry naturally and then be unmolded."

"Qiniang, how much do you plan to sell this soap for?"

Jin Cuihua asked curiously after eating the lard residue.

Since we have made so much soap, we must sell it to make money.

What Jin Cuihua cares most about is how much money she can earn for her family.

When she was stirring just now, she also put in a lot of effort under the guidance of He Qiudi.

He Qiudi calculated silently in his mind.

A bar of soap weighs more than two taels.

One pound of lard can make four or five bars of soap.

A pound of pork fat costs only fifteen cents.

Although clove powder is very expensive, one or two ounces of clove powder can make dozens of soaps, and the cost is less than one penny per piece.

Lye is almost cost-free.

That is to say, the cost of a bar of soap is about four cents.

He Qiudi's price in mind was about fifteen cents per bar of soap.

She said, "Fifteen cents."

"What?" Jin Cuihua asked in surprise, "Such a big piece of soap, only sold for fifteen cents? The soap balls in the city grocery stores are only half as big as this and cost twenty cents."

Jin Cuihua doesn't care about the cost.

She only knew that this soap block looked much bigger than the soap ball, so it couldn't be priced the same as the soap ball.

He Qiudi did not explain the cost to Jin Cuihua, but said: "It is because the soap balls are expensive and difficult to sell in the city. The process of making soap does not seem so difficult. If someone buys this soap, I want to go the route of small profits but quick turnover. In addition to our Ningyuan County, we can also sell it to the state capital Licheng, the prefectural capital Kuncheng, and even to Yuhufu, and the provincial capital."

This was a decision He Qiudi made after careful consideration.

Ningyuan County is a safe line of defense as long as the Western Rong cannot break into the city.

The government will not come forward to organize the people to evacuate.

Without the intervention of the government, the people could not get a pass. Without a pass, the people fled to other places and became refugees. In ancient times, refugees had no human rights and were considered illegal residents. They deserved to be caught, kidnapped, or sold. Their descendants had no chance to take the imperial examinations to change their lives and could only work in the lowest class of jobs.

The bottom of society.

Now that Yanshi is in good health, he will definitely be able to save Yongning Prefecture.

Pomegranate Village will not suffer from war.

Just survive three years of drought.

There was no need for the He family to flee from famine.

She has the port space and can protect the He family and Shiliu Village. After the war is settled, they can go to the provincial capital to settle down, or wait for the fifth and sixth brothers to become officials before considering where to develop.

Since we have to stay in Yongning Prefecture, we have to make money first, to make money for the He family. Only with money can we live better in this disaster year.

Jin Cuihua gave He Qiudi a thumbs up.

"Gao, it's really high. Qi Niang, you really are worthy of being your parents' daughter. You are the glory of our entire He family!"