Ch 104: Guide to Feeding a Villainous Husband

According to Yu Jiuque, it wasn’t until he felt the baby move that he truly grasped the reality of having a child growing inside him.

From starting as a tiny “peanut,” slowly growing larger, developing hands and feet, until finally being born—it was then that his and Qin Xia’s bloodline would continue.

It all felt like a dream. Compared to most ge’ers, he was undoubtedly lucky to conceive so quickly.

So, even though working while carrying a belly could be tiring, Yu Jiuque never complained. On the contrary, he found it sweetly fulfilling.

Qin Xia, however, was far more anxious than Yu Jiuque. Like right now, after feeling the baby move, Qin Xia’s initial excitement quickly turned to concern as he began massaging Yu Jiuque’s belly.

“The baby kicked you—does it hurt?”

As a first-time father, there were far too many things Qin Xia was unsure about.

Yu Jiuque laughed at his nervousness.

“No, it doesn’t hurt.”

After thinking for a moment, he added honestly, “It just feels strange.”

“Well, having something moving inside your belly—how could that not feel strange?”

Qin Xia, despite his excitement about the baby they hadn’t yet seen, seemed to care more for his husband at the moment.

Yu Jiuque lightly tapped Qin Xia’s arm.

“Not ‘something’—it’s your own child.”

…

Halfway through the pregnancy, Yu Jiuque’s waistline changed almost daily.

His clothes were altered again and again, and even his shoes had to be replaced due to swollen feet.

Meanwhile, Qin Xia, now a first-time father, was even more motivated to make money.

…

As autumn arrived, the harvest began in succession.

The farm’s crops had been affected by the previous heavy rains, so the results weren’t ideal. However, five acres of sugar beets had fared quite well, thanks to the crop’s high yield.

Previously, with so many matters to attend to, Qin Xia hadn’t had the time to focus on sugar production. Now that things had settled, he finally had the time to establish a sugar refinery on the estate. He hired a few agile tenant farmers to help and started the process of sugar production.

Whether from sugarcane or sugar beets, the process of extracting sugar from the sweet raw materials was more or less the same.

First, the sugar beets were cut into pieces and boiled in large pots to release their sugar. After filtering out the pulp, the remaining sugar water was mixed with lime water and simmered slowly over a low heat.

As the water gradually evaporated, the sugar thickened and settled, forming a thick molasses at the bottom of the pot.

However, by the time this step was complete, the molasses was darker in color than Qin Xia had anticipated.

He pondered for a while before recalling that sugar beets came in two varieties—red beets and white beets.

The red ones were more rounded, while the white ones resembled white radishes.

But in Dayong, only the former variety was found, while the latter was absent.

Since the beets were already planted, they could only give it a try. As long as they could extract the sugar, the color didn’t matter—Qin Xia would find a way to make full use of it.

Moreover, once beet sugar hit the market, it was bound to be cheaper than cane sugar. Salt and sugar were both essential in every kitchen—salt was state-controlled, but sugar was privately produced.

Within that dark, almost black syrup lay a hidden goldmine.

For the next half month, whenever Qin Xia had time, he went to the estate to check on the progress of the sugar production.

They soon discovered that after filtering the syrup a second time, it solidified into blocks of brown sugar. To transform it into lighter granulated sugar, they had to use a “yellow clay water filtering method” for decolorization.

After many failed attempts, one of the tenant farmers figured out the technique. Seven days later, they successfully produced a batch of beet granulated sugar.

Qin Xia rewarded the man with a silver ingot and promoted him to manager of the sugar refinery, relieving him from fieldwork.

The man was overwhelmed with gratitude and, along with his wife and daughter, kowtowed fervently to Qin Xia.

Most of the tenant farmers on the official estate were descendants of criminals, bound to their lowly status with no chance of escape.

Though Qin Xia couldn’t change their social standing, he could at least improve their living conditions.

During his frequent visits to the estate, he noticed that the food was extremely coarse, and most of the tenant farmers barely had enough to eat, leaving them thin and gaunt. He ordered Zhong Cai to improve their diet.

The plan was to provide refined grain meals every three days, one meat dish every seven days, and a bowl of milk daily for children under five.

Despite how modest these provisions were, Zhong Cai felt that Qin Xia was being too soft-hearted.

“Master, I know you are kind, but you can’t be too lenient with these tenant farmers. They are all lazy by nature. If their lives improve too much, they’ll lose the will to work!”

Refined grains, milk—these were just slaves, yet they were eating better than the average field laborer.

Qin Xia shook his head and patiently explained.

“Steward Zhong, these tenant farmers and their descendants are bound to the land, working day in and day out, but most of the grain they produce has to be handed over to the landlord. Living like this for too long, anyone would lose hope.”

On large family estates like this one, it was common for the overseers to blame the tenant farmers for being lazy, often resorting to beatings and scoldings. Meanwhile, the farmers themselves were as unresponsive as old oxen, indifferent to both threats and rewards.

“I’m improving their diet so they’ll have more strength to work. In the long run, this will lead to better crop yields.”

This explanation was something Zhong Cai could accept.

Seeing this, Qin Xia then guided him to establish an incentive system.

“In simple terms, it’s just four words: ‘distribution according to work.’ The more you work, the more you earn.”

Since the tenant farmers had little personal property, the “more” they earned might start as just a bowl of porridge or a steamed bun, but it would be enough.

There were only so many things he could change, so Qin Xia did what he could.

Do good, and don’t ask about the future.

Once the beet granulated sugar was successfully produced, Qin Xia quickly sealed a jar and sent it, along with a letter, to Xing Yiming in Qinan County.

At present, the candy shop used purchased rock sugar or granulated sugar as ingredients. If they could replace this with their own beet sugar, costs would drop and profits would naturally increase.

In addition to this, Qin Xia realized there was another value that sugar beets could bring—

“Are you suggesting, my dear, that through Lord Liang, we find some impoverished farmers in the villages under Qinan County’s jurisdiction, have them reclaim the land to plant sugar beets, and then sell them to our candy shop?”

Yu Jiuque considered Qin Xia’s proposal and couldn’t help but clap his hands in approval. “This is an excellent idea.”

If they wanted to get into the sugar business, rather than buying land and hiring people to plant, it would be better to adopt Qin Xia’s idea of turning it into a “farmers’ assistance program.”

Throughout history, encouraging farmers to reclaim land has always been one of the key measures to assess the achievements of local officials.

For the court, more land meant more grain, and gradually, the population would also increase—this was the true sign of a prosperous nation.

However, land reclamation was difficult and unprofitable. Even though newly reclaimed land could be exempt from grain taxes for the first few years, there were still very few who responded.

Explaining this idea to Liang Tianqi would require Yu Jiuque’s involvement. As he dipped his brush in ink, he smiled at Qin Xia and said, “This time, Lord Liang will owe us a great favor.”

Yu Jiuque knew well the emperor’s plans for Liang Tianqi—once his term as magistrate was complete, he would be promoted to a higher position in the provincial capital. With this “achievement” in hand, no one would have anything to say about Lord Liang’s promotion.

…

After some back-and-forth correspondence and a bout of autumn rain, the two of them finally welcomed an old friend from Qinan County.

Wei Cao’s younger brother, Wei Xi, had come to the capital with the Yue Trading Company’s caravan, bringing along several large packages.

“Earlier, Aunt Fang heard that Jiu Ge’er was expecting. She and Douzi’s husband made quite a few clothes, hats, and socks, and asked me to bring them. My mother and sister-in-law also prepared some things, and there’s even a gift from Sister Zheng at the restaurant.”

Everyone knew that Qin Xia and Yu Jiuque were not lacking in money, so the most meaningful gifts they could send were these handmade items.

Among them was a letter from Douzi’s husband, Meng Ge’er, who could read and write. He had written on behalf of Fang Rong, and the letter, in Fang’s tone, shared advice on pregnancy and expressed hopes that after the baby was born, they could bring the child back to Qinan County for a visit, so that she, as the godmother, could meet the baby.

When they opened the packages, they found so many things, the most eye-catching of which was a hundred-family quilt.

In her letter, Fang Rong explained that she had personally visited one hundred kind-hearted families to collect fabric scraps and stitch them together.

The stitches were fine, and the colors well-coordinated.

In Dayong, there was a tradition that if a newborn received a hundred-family quilt, they would grow up healthy and free from illness.

“We’ll take good care of it and use it when the baby is born.”

No matter how luxurious the silks and satin, nothing could compare to the love and thoughtfulness behind this small quilt. Both of them gazed at it with great respect and appreciation.

The other clothes and accessories were laid out in front of them. After some sizing up, they realized the items would be enough for the child to wear up until the age of two.

Everything was made of fine cotton, soft to the touch. Considering that the baby would be born in winter, there were also fur-lined tiger-head hats and padded jackets stuffed with cotton.

Qin Xia and Yu Jiuque spent a long time examining each piece, loving everything they saw.

Qin Xia held up a pair of tiny socks, stretching out his fingers to measure them.

“So small, about the length of my finger.”

Yu Jiuque smiled.

“A newborn baby might not even be as long as your arm.”

Both first-time fathers, they were both eager and nervous about the arrival of their child.

After laying the clothes out on their laps and admiring them for a while, they carefully folded everything back up. Yu Jiuque said, “As this child’s biological father, I can’t fall behind. I’ll find some time to make a nice set of clothes for the baby.”

He had been so busy lately that he hadn’t had any time to work on his needlecraft.

Back in Qinan County, Yu Jiuque had learned how to make clothes and shoes from Fang Rong, so it wasn’t difficult for him to pick it up again now.

Worried that Yu Jiuque might strain his eyes from working too hard, Qin Xia suggested that he start by making two protective belly wraps as practice.

Now, returning to the caravan.

Aside from the packages brought by Wei Xi, they had another business arrangement with Heguang Pavilion from earlier.

This was when Qin Xia had commissioned them to make another trip to the eastern coast to purchase a batch of dried seafood from fishing families.

“No restrictions on the types—anything that’s clean, fresh, thoroughly dried, and able to withstand long storage. Find as much as possible,” he instructed.

He also hinted that, unlike Qinan County, the capital’s restaurants and eateries catered to tastes from all over the country, leading to a high demand for dried seafood.

For Yue Trading Company, Qin Xia was a key connection for their business network in the capital, and they were happy to take the trip for him.

As a result, the quality of the dried seafood this time was much better than the previous stock they had found in storage.

Just as Qin Xia had hoped, the variety was extensive, including clam meat, razor clam meat, scallop meat, oyster meat, dried squid, octopus legs, shrimp skins, dried shrimp, dried scallops, dried fish, kelp, and seaweed.

As Qin Xia sorted through the boxes of goods, excitement welled up inside him.

In the dry climate of Shengjing, dried goods could be stored for a long time.

With these ingredients on hand, Heguang Pavilion would be able to add several new dishes to the menu.