Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 74 Understanding
He Tan's gaze, which had been fixed on Xie Yuyan, was blocked by Wang Yan, so he could only look at Yang Mingde beside him. Yang Mingde's eyes were somewhat unfocused, as if he hadn't fully come to his senses yet.

If it weren't for Miss Xie, who knows what kind of situation the Yang family would have ended up in.

"Inspector He, let's move forward!" Yang Mingde was tugged at by Yang Qin before he remembered to step forward and lead the way.

The Yang family porcelain kiln is nestled against a mountain. The ancestors bought this land because it was rich in porcelain stone. When the Yang family fled to avoid disaster, they longed to return to their homeland, all for the sake of this porcelain kiln.

Unfortunately, more porcelain stones were later discovered in Dongshan, and the Xie family bought the land and built a large porcelain kiln.

To make matters worse, after the porcelain stones from the shallower areas behind the Yang family's porcelain kiln were used up, any porcelain stones dug deeper would have mixed colors no matter how they were fired.

Yang Mingde was unwilling to give up and begged his clan to spend a lot of money to buy good porcelain stones to fire. However, a mistake occurred during the firing process, and a whole kiln of porcelain was ruined. Even though he tried his best to use the remaining porcelain stones to fire good porcelain, the price was much higher than that of Xie Family Kiln, and no one wanted to buy it when it was displayed in the shop.

He watched as the foundation laid by his ancestors crumbled in his hands; how could he possibly let it go?

"Fourth brother."

Yang Qin called out, and a young man in his early twenties walked out. He was Yang Mingde's eldest son, Yang Jiang.

Yang Jiang shook off the dust and strode forward to greet everyone. Yang Qin, knowing his sister-in-law's habit, rushed forward to return the greeting on her behalf.

As soon as Yang Qin straightened up, the cat immediately jumped onto his shoulder.

Yang Mingde said, "The inspector has come to inspect the porcelain kiln..."

Yang Jiang looked at everyone, his gaze lingering unconsciously on He Tan, Wang Yan, and Xie Yuyan.

Needless to say, he had to take a closer look at the two adults, and then there were his sixth brother and sister-in-law.

Although his sixth sister-in-law was younger than him, she had taken over the household management from Madam He, and it was her idea to make the clay stove this time. So even before meeting her, he already knew that she was no ordinary person.

"How is the repair of the large kiln going?" Yang Mingde asked.

Yang Jiang wiped the sweat from his forehead: "According to... what Sixth Sister-in-law said, it will take another three to five days to heal."

Yang Mingde frowned: "Make more every day, we're waiting to use it."

Yang Jiang was well aware of this, but the kiln needed major renovations, and with the weather freezing cold, how could they possibly work?
“Five days is enough,” Xie Yuyan said. “We can still use the small kiln during this period.”

Yang Mingde didn't understand. Since someone was already using the clay stove, why wasn't his sixth brother's daughter-in-law in a hurry? Wasn't she trying to push their clay stove out before the Xie family could react?
Xie Yuyan did not want to explain in detail to Yang Mingde, because there were some methods that someone like Master Yang would never think of.

It's better to let him continue like this.

As she pondered, she turned her head slightly and saw Wang Yan's gaze directed at her.

Their gazes met, as if their suspicions were confirmed through each other's eyes.

"She's setting a trap."

"He figured it out."

Although we cannot know all of Xie Yuyan's thoughts, we can be certain that selling clay stoves is just a pretext, or rather, the current clay stoves are a trap.

Xie Yuyan continued walking forward. Wang Yan was indeed very shrewd. After hearing Yang Mingde's words, he was even more determined to take a closer look at the kiln. Fortunately, she wasn't afraid of him coming to see it.

Inside the kiln, lotus root charcoal was burning to keep out the cold. Several men were busy repairing it when they saw people arrive and quickly stopped to greet them.

He Tan didn't understand porcelain kilns, but he still discovered that this large kiln was not being repaired, but rather a new kiln had been built inside the original kiln. The secret could not be discovered without going inside to take a look.

"This is……"

Xie Yuyan said, "We plan to switch to using charcoal to fire porcelain, so naturally the kiln body will also need to be modified accordingly."

You just said it like that?
Seeing through He Tan's meaning, Xie Yuyan said, "Inspector He and Registrar Wang have helped our Yang family a lot. We are not afraid of the two of you knowing this secret. The people who are helping us here are also people we can trust."

"I don't know if switching to burning coal will work," Yang Mingde said with some concern. "We've never done it before, so we'll probably have to try it several times."

“It’s alright,” Xie Yuyan said. “Uncle, just go ahead and burn it. The clan will send money over.”

Yang Mingde couldn't believe that the clan would give them money. "This..."

Xie Yuyan said, "This business will require a lot of money to start, how can we rely on water shops to support it?"

Besides, she had other uses for the money she earned from the water shop.

"Really?" Yang Mingde was still a little uneasy, because it was his clansmen who forcibly sealed off the porcelain kiln back then.

Yang Qin comforted Yang Mingde: "If your sister-in-law says it's possible, then it definitely is."

Since that was the case, Yang Mingde stopped thinking about these things and, without even caring that He Tan and the others were still there, rushed to check on the repair work.

Wang Yan asked, "Is my wife planning to open a porcelain shop before New Year's Day?"

"I'm afraid so," Xie Yuyan nodded. "I originally thought it was too rushed, but I didn't want to miss such a good time as New Year's Day. Everyone is in a hurry to buy things, so my family's porcelain might sell better."

Her family's porcelain? Does she really think she's a daughter-in-law of the Yang family?
He Tan said, "Then I hope your new shop will be very successful."

Xie Yuyan thanked He Tan, saying, "Thank you for your kind words, Inspector He."

It seemed there was nothing more to say. He Tan looked at Wang Yan and said, "We should go too." It was Wang Yan's idea to go to the border town to gather information under the pretext of capturing bandits. As the inspector, he couldn't leave Daming Prefecture for too long and had to go and return as soon as possible.

Wang Yan nodded and was about to leave with He Tan, but when he reached the entrance of the porcelain kiln, he turned around and asked, "Do you need any more craftsmen here?"

Ever since the cat came to her place, Wang Yan has paid extra attention to what's happening around her.

She had no reason to refuse the people who were brought in.

Xie Yuyan said, "If Lord Wang can help, that would be wonderful." She was never afraid of spies.

Wang Yan took off his waist tag and handed it to Yang Qin.

Yang Qin quickly reached out and took it.

"Take it to the yamen, and someone will take care of it." After saying that, Wang Yan glanced at the cat on Yang Qin's shoulder.

The raccoon stared with its big eyes wide open, looking completely obedient.

Wang Yan subconsciously reached out his hand, and the cat didn't dodge. When the hand landed on its head, it comfortably squinted its eyes.

"Don't feed it too much dried fish, or it will get sick if it gets too fat."

Yang Qin responded, but actually... he didn't know who Wang Zhubu was talking to, because it was his sister-in-law who fed the dried fish.

The cat on his shoulder seemed to sense something, its eyes widened, and it meowed impatiently at Wang Yan, as if urging him to leave.

Stepping out of the kiln, He Tan shivered as he immediately felt the chill outside.

The two walked to the door and were about to mount their horses when Yang Jiang came out, carrying a small clay stove: "There's one left. Liu Lang's wife asked me to bring it to the inspector."

He Tan immediately smiled and was about to instruct his attendants to give money when Yang Jiang said, "Sixth Sister-in-law said that the clay stove is not fired well enough, so there is no need for the inspector to give money."

He Tan refused and insisted on sending his attendant to hand over a dime.

"The rest will be used to buy lotus root charcoal."

He mounted his horse, a smile spreading across his face, and was about to speak to Wang Yan.

Wang Yan said, "When I am not here, elder brother should speak less with Lady Xie."

He Tan was taken aback. He had just received the clay stove and was thinking that Lady Xie was quite nice.

“I’m afraid you’ll be fooled,” Wang Yan said, urging his horse forward. “If you don’t believe me, just watch how she sells this clay stove.”

Second update

(End of this chapter)