To honor the neighborly price, the village chief of Riverbend Village finalized the deal with Clara and paid her a five-tael deposit.
They signed a simple agreement, and by the time the ink dried, the sun was already slanting west.
York Wang enthusiastically offered to drive the ox cart and take Clara and her group home, but Clara politely declined. She didn't want to trouble him—more importantly, she had things to discuss with Carpenter Liew that weren't for outsiders' ears.
So York saw them off at the village entrance, repeatedly reminding her, "Clara, once you've finished the drawing for the mill structure, please send someone over with it right away!"
"Don't worry. I'll deliver it myself once it's done." Clara preferred to explain certain technical details to the craftsman in person to make sure everything was precise.
Hearing that, York finally breathed a sigh of relief. He waved them off, watching the trio walk away before heading home.
The sunset was a warm orange hanging low over the horizon.
At some point, Lester Liew had already returned home. He held a string of eggplants in hand, clearly in high spirits. "Wifey, so it's all settled?"
Clara responded with a short "Mm," then squinted at him. "Where did you disappear to just now?"
Lester raised the eggplants like a prize. "I dropped by Sonny's place. His mom gave me these. I'll cook up some braised eggplant for you tonight."
He wasn't lying—but the eggplants weren't the real reason he'd gone. He'd dragged Sonny out by the ear and scolded him for betrayal. Brothers through thick and thin, and now Sonny had a sister-in-law and forgot his bro? He demanded a breakup on the spot!
Clara glanced at Lester's sheepish face and decided not to press. She quickened her pace to walk alongside Carpenter Liew, switching to proper business.
Carpenter Liew had been holding it in the entire walk. Now that there were no outsiders, he couldn't wait and asked, "Fifteen taels… isn't that asking a bit too much?"
He feared that if Riverbend villagers found out the real cost, they might come beat him up.
Clara chuckled. "Not too much at all."
She broke it down for him. "Timber costs money, right? And we need good timber for this job—that's four taels right there."
"We promised delivery in half a month. You don't have any materials prepped. Starting from scratch, you can't possibly handle it all alone. You'll need to hire help. Even half a tael for labor isn't unreasonable."
"And my end? You think grinding those stones into millstones is easy? Anyone else would need ten strong men just to source and carve the stone, not to mention transporting it from Liew Clan Village to Riverbend."
"One worker's wage is thirty copper coins per day—two weeks is four taels and five qian!"
That meant each of them was putting in about 4.5 taels of cost. The remaining 6 taels would be profit.
Split evenly, that's 3 taels each.
Three taels for an exclusive technology? That's a bargain, honestly.
What Clara said made perfect sense—but Carpenter Liew still felt something was off.
What was it?
Ah—he could use timber from his own grove, and the labor could be handled by family. If he accounted for that, all 7.5 taels of the "cost" could go right into his own pocket.
"Clara, I really have to hand it to you!"
At the riverside where they parted ways, Carpenter Liew gave Clara a sincere cupped-fist salute before walking off grinning from ear to ear.
Clara patted the five-tael deposit in her pocket. Its weight grounded her with reassurance.
She and Lester returned home just as the sky turned fully dark.
The main hall and kitchen were already lit. Upon hearing footsteps, Chad and Deb rushed out to greet them from the main hall.
"Mom! Dad!"
Clara asked, "Where are your brothers?"
The twins pointed toward the kitchen. Adam and Ben were already cooking dinner.
Lester walked in with the eggplants and happily tousled his sons' hair. "Come, Daddy will cook tonight."
Clara washed her face in the courtyard, the four children trailing her into the main hall. Adam asked like a little grown-up, "Auntie Clara, did Riverbend Village really agree to let you build the watermill?"
Clara smiled and nodded.
The kids burst out with joy. "That's great!"
Even the children understood — work meant money.
From the kitchen, Lester shouted, "Adam! Ben! Set the table, dinner's ready!"
The boys responded with an "Okay!" and gave Clara a shrug like little adults before running off to grab the dishes.
Chad shooed the chickens into their coop while Deb went to wash her hands, and soon the six of them were seated around the dinner table.
With the Riverbend job secured, the entire family was in high spirits. The mealtime atmosphere was cheerful and light.
It would've been perfect—if Lester hadn't spoiled it by asking, all sly, "So… how much are we making from this job?"
"You just focus on studying. Don't worry about the money," Clara warned firmly.
Lester thought to himself, If there were a mirror in front of me right now, I'd look exactly like a poor wife who just got scolded by her husband!
After dinner, Ben and Chad went to wash dishes in the courtyard. Technically, all four siblings were supposed to take turns—but Adam was never at ease letting his younger siblings do chores alone, so he joined in too.
Naturally, Deb wouldn't be left out. What was supposed to be a two-person job turned into a four-kid task force.
Clara didn't interfere. As long as they weren't fighting, she was fine with however they worked things out.
Come to think of it, she'd never actually seen the four siblings argue. They were so sensible it made her heart ache.
Her gaze softened as she watched the four little heads huddled together, then sharpened immediately as it landed on Lester, who was lying back on a bamboo chair, dozing after dinner.
"How many books have you copied?"
She didn't raise her voice, but her tone turned cold—and Lester instantly felt a chill down his spine.
In the heat of summer, that coldness worked better than a mountain breeze. He jolted upright.
"Uh… three volumes?"
Crap. He forgot how far he'd gotten!
Clara's brows drew together. "It's been a whole week and you've only finished three?"
Of the nine books, the shortest had over a thousand words, and the longest nearly forty thousand. She'd calculated—if he copied eight hours a day, a thousand words per hour, there was no way he should've finished only three.
"Bring them. Let me see."
Uh-oh. Lester didn't dare disobey—life was precious, after all. He quickly scurried off to the bedroom and brought back the three books he'd copied.
Thank goodness one of them was the Book of Songs, over 32,000 words long.
The other two were The Great Learning (1,700 words) and The Doctrine of the Mean (3,500+ words).
Add in the study notes he had from Master Ding, and he hadn't been slacking off too badly.
Because he didn't have access to fine-tipped pens, even the thinnest brush produced large characters. Each copied book was essentially a magnified version of the original.
The pages were A3 in size, big enough to hide a person behind. The sight of Lester holding one looked a bit ridiculous.
Still, the large format was surprisingly pleasant to read—big characters, less eye strain, and more space for notes. Just… a little wasteful on paper.
Clara flipped through the pages. His handwriting wasn't beautiful, but it was steadily improving—copying books was clearly helping his penmanship.
She handed the books back to a nervous Lester. Barely passing.
She gave a little chin nod—get back to work.
Then Clara returned to her room, lit the oil lamp she usually couldn't bear to use, and sat at her desk, burning the midnight oil to draw up the plans.
(End of chapter)
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