The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 579 The sound of the loom brings in silver.

If Tong Huaqiong heard the clan leader's complaints, she would just laugh it off.

When the weaving workshop was being named, the talented Gu Jingzhe came up with many auspicious and pleasant-sounding names, but Tong Huaqiong rejected them all.

Tong Huaqiong strives for a name that is simple and easy to understand.

For example, a pastry shop is called Peach Blossom Dessert, a seed and pesticide shop is called Tong Xiangjun Seed and Pesticide Shop, a pig farm is called Widow Tong's Pig Farm, a supermarket is called Jufulai, and the weaving workshop is called Tong Family Weaving Workshop, decided by Tong Huaqiong.

For no other reason than to highlight the unique characteristics of a century-old shop from this era, such as Li's Lamb Restaurant, Sun's Tailor Shop, and Zhang's Scissors Shop, all of which combine the surname with the main business.

According to most people's thinking, the weaving workshop opened by Tong Huaqiong must be called Gu Ji Weaving Workshop, Gu Family Weaving Workshop, because it can't be separated from the word "Gu".

After all, she married Old Man Gu, so she was born a member of the Gu family and would die a member of the Gu family. Everything about her belonged to the Gu family, and her title of Widow Tong was also given to her by Old Man Gu, so her name had to have the character "Gu" in it.

However, Tong Huaqiong was unwilling to have her business associated with the Gu family, so she did not hesitate to name her shop Tong Family Weaving Workshop.

The mere mention of the Tong family's weaving workshop shocked not only the Gu family patriarch, but also Prefect Yao and Magistrate Liu.

Tong Huaqiong didn't care, since the title of Lady Tong bestowed upon her by the Emperor was Tong Shi, not Gu Tong Shi, the widow of Old Man Gu.

Therefore, she felt very secure using the Tong family's name to travel the world.

"From this day forward, the Tong Family Weaving Workshop is officially open for business!" Tong Huaqiong announced joyfully.

After Tong Huaqiong finished shouting, firecrackers went off one after another.

The opening ceremony was very simple. After the ribbon-cutting, there was no other fuss except for the shout and the firecrackers.

Tong Huaqiong believes that the most important thing for the weaving workshop is to start work as soon as possible. These female workers come to the weaving workshop to earn money, and starting work earlier means earning money earlier.

The cotton ginning machine, spinning machine, and weaving machine were already in place, and the female workers filed in one after another, taking their positions according to their jobs and starting to get busy.

Picking cotton, carding cotton, spinning yarn, weaving cloth—the work proceeded in an orderly manner inside the house.

Prefect Yao, accompanied by Magistrate Liu and others, visited the weaving workshop.

The other villagers were very curious about the weaving workshop and wanted to go and watch, but Gu Dashu kept them outside.

"Go away, go away, don't let those stinky feet taint the cloth."

"Don't interfere with everyone's work."

Gu Dahan was afraid that Gu Dashu would offend everyone, so he prepared candy and melon seeds to distribute to everyone and asked them to be tolerant.

The villagers clutched their candies, thinking to themselves, "Who would dare to shirk their responsibilities? The sound of the machine making a racket is like the clatter of silver." They only regretted that they didn't have the ability to work in the weaving workshop.

I used to feel quite resentful when I saw Tong Huaqiong making a fortune selling pastries. We were all poor peasants, so why was she the one who rose up and made money?

Since Tong Huaqiong's business has flourished in all directions, there's no point in being jealous anymore, so I'll just give up and stop being jealous.

Since we can't beat them, we might as well join them.

Many villagers are eagerly awaiting Tong Huaqiong's next business venture, so they can quickly come and latch onto her.

As a result, the honest Gu Dahan became the object of everyone's flattery.

"Nephew, does your mother have any plans to start any business?"

"Brother Dahan, when is Aunt Tong going to need people again? Do you think I could put in a good word for her?"

"Brother Dahan, does your weaving workshop still need cotton? I'm planning to plant cotton next year." Gu Dahan was never good with words, and after his family became wealthy, Tong Huaqiong always warned his family to be careful of people trying to get close to him. She said that they were only trying to get something out of it, and that they shouldn't fall into a trap because of someone's smile.

So Gu Dahan used his all-purpose answer: "I don't know," "I'm not sure," "I can't make the decision," and then after handing out the candy, he rushed home to see his little girl.

Outside the weaving workshop, it was bustling with activity, but inside, it was a different story of busy activity.

All the female workers were busy, their eyes fixed straight ahead, using both their hands and feet.

Because Tong Huaqiong had already recruited skilled workers, and Song Qiaoniang and Gu Xiaoxue had trained them before they officially started working, they could spin yarn so fast it was dazzling and weave cloth so quickly it was blinding.

Prefect Yao looked at it and kept praising it.

He exclaimed, “I heard that you not only have weaving workshops in Qinghewan, but also pig farms. If every village had such businesses, the villagers would have opportunities to earn money in addition to farming, and they wouldn’t become refugees during years of famine.”

Prefect Yao came from a gentry family, but he did not have a sense of the traditional social hierarchy of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants.

He knew that besides agriculture and sericulture to ensure food security, the most important factor in ensuring the livelihood of the local people was commerce, not to mention that commerce could bring in a lot of tax revenue.

Tong Huaqiong chimed in, “That’s right. But developing these things in the countryside isn’t easy. It depends on the local officials being honest and upright. Otherwise, it would be too difficult to pay both agricultural and commercial taxes. We are so grateful to Lord Liu for his honest and upright governance. No one dares to bully the villagers. That’s how I was able to grow my business from a small one to what it is today. Otherwise, just the effort of bribing officials at all levels would be enough to stop anyone from doing business.”

Magistrate Liu was surprised that Tong Huaqiong would praise him in front of Prefect Yao.

However, although Tong Huaqiong's words had a hint of flattery, they were also the truth.

She wasn't harassed when she set up her stall in Yanguan Town. Of course, she still had to pay the commission she was supposed to give to the brokers, but that only accounted for a small portion of her turnover. She had heard that in many places, brokers and government officials colluded to exploit merchants, thus discouraging their enthusiasm for business.

Her smooth start in the early stages was indeed due to Magistrate Liu's strict governance.

Prefect Yao looked at Magistrate Liu with an appreciative gaze.

Magistrate Liu said excitedly, "I was just doing what I was supposed to do."

The look in Magistrate Liu's eyes made Tong Huaqiong feel that his next words were "Serve the people."

Tong Huaqiong added, "Another issue is that people's mindset is constrained: scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, with merchants ranked last."

If societal attitudes cannot be changed, more and more people will remain bound to the land.

Of course, this kind of conceptual issue was not something Tong Huaqiong cared about. She didn't have a hierarchy of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants in her mind. In any case, no matter how low the status of a merchant was, it was never as appealing to her as money.

Prefect Yao stood in front of the loom.

Prefect Yao learned from Old Master Lu that Tong Huaqiong's weaving workshop used cotton as raw material to weave cotton cloth.

In his memory, cotton cloth was coarse and was usually worn by people who did manual labor.

In addition, cotton cloth was not popular from Shengjing to the common people because the process of removing cotton seeds, washing and carding cotton was complicated, and the final product was not very good.

He came to Tong Huaqiong's weaving workshop to see how the finished cotton fabrics were.

In his mind, Aunt Tong, who could eliminate corn pests and bring about a bumper corn harvest, would certainly not produce cotton cloth for no reason.

Tong Huaqiong handed the cotton cloth that Gu Xiaoxue had woven in advance to Prefect Yao and said, "Prefect Yao, what do you think of this cotton cloth?"

"Is this cotton cloth?" Prefect Yao asked.

Tong Huaqiong said firmly, "Of course."

When the cotton cloth fell into the hands of Prefect Yao, it was completely different from what he had imagined. The cotton cloth was soft and warm, and not rough at all.