Chapter 25: Naming Names and Finding Wang Kuang

  When he heard this, Li Dabao suddenly collapsed to the ground, his whole body losing strength in an instant. The hardships of more than a year had not been in vain, but something inside him was gone, leaving him feeling empty and hollow, with a blank stare. This startled Wang Kuang, who only realized later that this was a normal reaction after completing something important. Wang Kuang had experienced this feeling before, like when he finished taking the college entrance exam, his whole body would lose strength, and he wouldn't want to do anything.

  After calling Sun Er and a few others to carry Li Dabao inside to rest, Wang Kuang himself became excited, suddenly jumping up and down like a child. Sun Zhanggui and the others looked at each other in surprise: How did Young Master Dong suddenly lose his former mature demeanor that didn't match his age? But this look is good now, this is what a kid should look like.

  Sun Zhanggui had already sent someone to call Dongjia, and Sun Ming happened to arrive at this time. Seeing Wang Kuang jumping up and down, he couldn't help but twirl his beard with a smile: "Dalan, that's right! When you should be happy, be happy. Always pretending to be an adult, it's awkward for us to watch."

  This is really frustrating for Wang Kuang, I'm already a grown-up, over 30 years old, do I still have to pretend to be a kid? But he forgot that in other people's eyes, he was only 13 years old and not yet an adult.

  Wang Kuang mysteriously pulled Sun Ming to one side, spreading out the dried chili peppers for him to see: "This is what I was talking about, chili peppers. Tonight, I'll make real loach paste for everyone to try. However, this is just dried chili peppers, and the flavor isn't as good as it will be after being ground into a sauce. We'll have to wait until next year when we have a harvest, then we can make chili pepper sauce. At that time, just selling chili pepper sauce will earn us more than ten times what we'd get from selling corn flour."

  "With just this little, if you take it away to eat, how will we plant next year?" Sun Ming had heard that there was a real loach taro to eat, and his fingers were itching, he swallowed his saliva, and was also a bit worried.

  "It doesn't matter, there are dozens of chili peppers in this one, and I want the chili peppers. Moreover, the spiciness is mainly on the seeds, it's just that everyone hasn't eaten chili peppers before, can't stand the spiciness, so they used to eat the outer skin first, killing two birds with one stone." Wang Kuang split open a dried chili pepper for Sun Ming to see.

  "That's great, then I'll hurry back and arrange for more manpower. We need to buy land and develop it too. This manpower is probably not enough."

  "Uncle, don't worry, these dozens of peppers can be used to grow hundreds of thousands of pepper plants. The space occupied by the peppers is similar to that of eggplants, and their height is also roughly the same, with the fruit growing on the trees. About two or three mu of land should be sufficient. You're planning to open up new land to plant sweet potatoes, so why not set aside some for planting peppers? By next year, I think that if things go smoothly with the Lin family's business, we can also let them join in. With Manager Lin around, many things will be easier to handle. What do you think, Uncle?"

  "Ah, that's a good idea, sweet potatoes are easy to manage, we can take care of them ourselves. But if the peppers grow similarly to eggplants, it'll be hard to guard them, and they're so small, someone with ill intentions could easily hide a few away. Let's do as you say, and see how business goes next year with the Lin family." Sun Mingqian thought for a moment, weighing the pros and cons, before agreeing.

  If they could establish a connection with the Lin family, it would be easier to have more guards patrol around the village in the future, which would ensure safety. Doing business alone often doesn't end well; having a strong backing is necessary. Moreover, with Wang Kuang around, there will be plenty of opportunities for profit in the future, and Sun Mingqian thinks it's essential to strengthen ties with him.

  Sun Mingqian feels that good people will have good fortune, and he has some ideas brewing in his mind, but since Wang Kuang is still young, he'll wait a couple more years before making any moves.

  Sun Mingqian's heart was still thinking about the loach taro for tonight, so he hurried back to arrange things on the ground, and also brought Wang Kuang with him. Sun Mingqian's heart felt much more at ease: Wang Dalang is not here, you can't eat in advance, if you wait until I'm busy, there are so many of you, one bowl for each of you, where will my share be?

  Who would have thought that Sun Mingqian was also thinking about eating like a child? Now that the chili peppers are ready, he has put down more than half of his worries and no longer needs to guard the inn waiting for Li Daban to return. He can finally relax and go to the Fuli Inn, which he hasn't visited in so long, and take a look at Sun Mingqian's villa.

  The Sun family's farm was not far from the city, only about ten miles away. By taking a cow cart, they arrived quickly. The farm was divided into three independent areas: one for growing sweet potatoes, another for growing rice as usual, and the third for further processing of sweet potatoes after they were harvested and crushed. After being ground, the mixture would be transported to another place for water washing and filtration, then dried in the sun. This way, the entire process of making sweet potato flour was divided into three parts. The person growing sweet potatoes did not know how to process them after they were crushed, the person grinding the sweet potatoes had never seen what a whole sweet potato looked like, and the person making the flour did not even know what the white liquid brought over was made of. This was all suggested by Wang Kuang, which made it easier to keep secrets, although there were still many loopholes. However, in the Tang Dynasty, this was already considered very secretive. Wang Kuang also said that if the secret of making sweet potato flour could be kept for five years, he would be satisfied. After five years, they could find a trustworthy official and present him with sweet potatoes as a supplement to grain, which would help the official gain some political achievements. Now it depends on whether the Lin family is reliable or not. Sun Ming had not hung himself from a tree yet, and in recent months, he had been paying attention to which officials in Jianzhou were more reliable. If the Lin family did not work out, they could still have a backup plan.

  Now, apart from sweet potatoes, Sun Mingqian has another powerful tool in his hands - chili peppers. He doesn't know much about chili peppers yet, and he hasn't thought as far ahead as Wang Kuang did. However, from Wang Kuang's emphasis on chili peppers, Sun Mingqian can also see that this chili pepper will likely bring him even more benefits than sweet potatoes and corn flour.

  The ox cart had not yet entered the village when a big yellow dog suddenly ran out of a thatched hut by the side of the road and barked incessantly at the cart, making the old ox pulling it so angry that its tail stood straight down and its head lowered, ignoring the yoke on its back, wanting to charge forward. The person driving the cart was frightened and quickly whipped the ox, as the master was sitting in the cart, if the cart were overturned by the ox, he would be in trouble. At this moment, a man ran out of the thatched hut, scolding the yellow dog: "Three Yellow, come back! You stupid thing, you don't even recognize the master!"

  It turned out that these were the guards on the outskirts of Sun's village, all of whom took turns doing it, just to prevent strangers from coming to the village to steal sweet potatoes. The man who had seen Sun Ming before said: "The master is coming, why didn't he announce in advance, so that everyone can prepare to welcome him." He hadn't been to Fulaiguan Inn and didn't recognize Wang Kuang. Seeing that Wang Kuang was a young boy sitting alongside the master on the ox cart, he thought to himself that he must be the son of some wealthy family, and even the master treated him with such courtesy.

  Sun Ming saw his confusion and said, "I recognize you, you're Fifteen, right? You've met Wang Dalang before. Later on, if he comes to the village, make sure to identify him clearly, don't let the village dogs hurt anyone." He didn't introduce Wang's situation in detail, waiting until they arrived at the village and gathered everyone together to explain thoroughly later.

  On the road, they passed by two thatched cottages, both of which had people and dogs guarding them. It was clear that Sun Mingqian was very concerned about the safety of this village. However, it was unknown how long they could hold out. The influence of You Fen was not yet significant, but if chili peppers were to appear in the future, relying solely on such protection would likely be far from sufficient. Even if one had some power and authority, they could still summon a few officials, and there would be no way to stop them. Wang Kuang expressed his concerns about this to Sun Mingqian on the carriage, and Sun Mingqian was frightened by Wang Kuang's words. Indeed, at present, there were no official forces involved, and previously, the Lin family had been a decent and upright household that did not exploit their power. Otherwise, with just a slight movement of their fingers, Sun Mingqian would have to hand over everything related to You Fen. This further solidified Sun Mingqian's determination to maintain good relations with the Lin family. Why wouldn't they rely on such relatively honest officials and instead rely on those white-eyed wolves?

  The village of Zhuangzi was not very large, with only over 30 households and a total population of around 200 people. The villagers were mostly women, children, and the elderly, with young adults making up about one-third of the population. All the villagers shared the same surname, Sun, and were either close or distant relatives of Sun Mingqian's family. The village was managed by four elderly men, all of whom were senior to Sun Mingqian. One of them was even three generations older than Sun Mingqian and was the most respected elder in the village.

  Sun Mingqian, although now the head of his household, did not dare to show off in front of these elders and instead brought Wang Kuang to visit each of them one by one. At first, the four old men were skeptical about meeting this outsider, Wang Dalang, and they glared at Sun Mingqian, ignoring Wang Kuang's presence. They all expressed similar sentiments, saying that matters concerning the Sun family should not be controlled by an outsider.

  Sun Mingqian had to exhaust his saliva to persuade them, and it was only when he finally told them the truth - that the sweet potatoes and corn flour were all thanks to Wang Kuang's efforts - that they accepted him.

  With the support of the four old men, the rest was easy. The oldest one, named Sun Laiquan, had his grandson climb a tree in their courtyard and bang on an old pot hanging from it, and soon all the household heads and laborers from the village gathered in this courtyard.

  Sun Laiquan saw that everyone had arrived, and before Sun Ming said they would leave immediately, without wasting words. Since they were all from the same clan, he pointed to Wang Kuang and said: "Everyone has met Wang Dalang, and in the future, Dalang will often come to the village. Everyone should take a good look and remember, don't hurt him. Whatever Wang Dalang says in the future, you shouldn't ask questions, just do it."

  "Master! Master!" Before Old Sun Laiquan could finish, someone stumbled in from outside the door, panting and out of breath. It was Sun Er, who gasped for air before continuing: "Quickly return home, something's happened, someone has come to specifically look for Young Master."

  Division

  Little knowledge: The choice of cooking wine: Now there are many ready-made cooking wines on the market, but they are not the best. Because those cooking wines have already added a lot of spices and seasonings, some of which will conflict with the original flavor of the ingredients. Therefore, the best cooking wine should be pure rice wine without any additives (no coloring agents, no preservatives, etc.). If you can't buy pure rice wine, beer can also be used as a substitute. White wine is rarely used for cooking, only certain specific ingredients, such as those with strong original flavors, can use white wine. Everyone must remember that the cooking wine bought in supermarkets cannot produce good dishes. If you can't find rice wine, huangjiu (yellow rice wine) can also be used as a substitute.

  Still thick-skinned asking for votes, recommendations and collections, your support is the motivation of gray sparrow.