I just wrote a love poem, how did that make me so powerful?

Xiao Mingyuan took out a porcelain bottle from his pocket, the mouth of which was tightly sealed with a cork.

He uncorked the cork, held it up to Xu Qing's nose, and a refreshing aroma of wine instantly filled the air.

It possesses a cleanliness and mellowness that rice wine lacks.

Xiao Mingyuan chuckled and leaned closer in a low voice.

"Brother Qing, why didn't you bring out this good stuff sooner? It smells much better than rice wine; it's so fragrant it can make you dizzy."

Xu Qing took the porcelain bottle and smelled it; it was indeed the batch of distilled liquor he had produced last time.

He didn't reply, but instead held the bottle and calmly said...

"It's not that I don't want to show you now, it's just that the bra stalls are being set up now, and the staff from several shops are being sent out. There aren't many capable managers and key personnel to begin with, and if we also share the beverage business, we won't have enough manpower and energy."

Xiao Mingyuan frowned.

"Yes, that's true, but we can arrange to train more people specifically."

Xu Qing added.

"There are two types of wine: grain wine and fruit wine. For grain wine, grain is the main ingredient, but Hengyang County doesn't have that much grain, and it can't afford to start another business that consumes a lot of grain."

After listening, Xiao Mingyuan stroked his double chin and thought for a while before nodding somewhat helplessly.

"Alright, let's wait until next spring and get more fruit wine to steam. Fruit wine has its own unique flavor. We'll deal with the bra issue after we've sorted things out."

He had barely finished talking about the wine when his hands were busy, and he pulled out a copper-framed object with inlaid lenses from his pocket and handed it over.

"But... we can at least give this a try, right?"

Xu Qing took it and saw that it was a copper frame inlaid with two polished crystal pieces, with one lens larger than the other.

He recognized it immediately as the prototype of glasses!

"Who made this for you?"

Xiao Mingyuan perked up and spoke a few more words.

"I was watching when you had Cheng the blacksmith grind the microscope last time. I noticed that when you pointed the uneven lenses at something, some things would appear larger, and some smaller. I wondered, what if we used them in reverse?"

As he spoke, he pointed to the protruding lens.

"I had Uncle Zhou try it on. He's the old accountant at the cloth shop. He's old and has to be very far away to see the account books clearly. With this on, he can see normally now, and he was quite surprised himself."

"And the other one, I also tried it on Clerk Zheng. He reads case files every day, studying late into the night, and his eyesight is always blurry, especially when it comes to distant objects. Wearing this piece helped a lot."

Xu Qing held the bronze frame and looked at it for a long time, remained silent for a moment, and then slowly spoke.

"You're really amazing. One is for presbyopia and the other is for nearsightedness. If this can be promoted, it can really help a lot of people."

He put down his glasses and added another sentence.

"However... the profit margin for this isn't that high right now. These lenses can only be made from readily available high-transparency crystal. While a whole piece of crystal isn't too expensive, grinding it takes a lot of time and effort, so the cost of a set isn't low. Only a limited number of people can afford to buy them."

Xiao Mingyuan smiled and patted his large chest.

"How do we sell them? I already have an idea. We'll put a few copies in Zhuangyuanlou first, so that accountants and other people with presbyopia can try them out. If they like them, they'll naturally pass them on to each other."

As for the nearsighted one you mentioned, even more people use it, especially people like Registrar Zheng; they definitely have a need for it.

After Xiao Mingyuan finished speaking, he paused for a moment, then leaned closer and lowered his voice even further.

"But you just said that profits are not high now, what do you mean? Is there any way to reduce costs and increase profits in the future?"

As Xiao Mingyuan spoke, his eyes gleamed with the shrewdness that comes naturally to businessmen.

Xu Qing glanced at him, a smile appearing on her lips.

"You're such a shrewd fellow, you can glean the secret from just one sentence. I won't lie to you, I once read in a travelogue about how Westerners make glass, using special minerals and ingredients. If you could make those highly transparent glass sheets to polish mirrors, the cost would be much cheaper than crystal."

Xiao Mingyuan's eyes lit up immediately, "Then let's..."

Xu Qing waved his hand.

"No, we can't do it now. It's not just a matter of manpower and energy, but also the minerals... Firing glass requires specific ores, which we don't have on hand right now. This matter needs to wait for the right time, place, and people. We can't rush it."

Xiao Mingyuan was not disappointed after hearing this; on the contrary, he was even more excited.

"Got it. I'll go get the glasses done first. They don't take much effort anyway. I'll have Blacksmith Cheng and his men grind them slowly."

He picked up the brass frame and said again.

"Is it alright if I just have a little bit of alcohol to satisfy my craving? But I'll be waiting for your big deal. As for the glasses..."

He held the glasses up to the light coming from the window.

"I've been thinking about this for a long time, and I never thought of such a simple and easy-to-understand name like yours. You really are talented. Just by hearing the name, you can tell what it's for. It's so fitting, as if you were born with that knowledge."

Xu Qing's heart skipped a beat.

Xiao Mingyuan is not just smart, he's almost too smart. We were really fooled by his simple and honest appearance.

Xu Qing didn't reply, but turned to look out the window. The clouds on the horizon were getting thicker, as if the weather was about to change.

……

……

Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside the study of the Chen family mansion was completely different.

Chen Chengsong sat in the main seat, with a cylinder in front of him. The cylinder walls were still damp, indicating that there was water inside.

He used a utility knife to pry open the seal, took out a wax-sealed roll, removed the wax seal, and unfolded it.

The characters inside are very small, and the ink is light and even, clearly written with an extremely fine pen tip.

Chen Chengbo came over from the side to take a look, and Chen Shijin also stood up and walked to the table.

After reading it, the three of them remained silent for a moment.

Chen Chengbo said, "Does Father mean we should go along with Li Jinghuan?"

Chen Chengsong placed the scroll on the table without putting it away.

After a while, a wisp of very thin white smoke suddenly rose from the paper, the edges began to curl, and it started to burn from the inside.

A short while later...

The paper burned to ashes on its own, leaving not a single spark, only a small clump of Anhui-colored powder.

Chen Chengbo's brows were furrowed tightly. After sniffing the air, his expression turned somewhat grim...

"It smells like white phosphorus. The paper was coated with phosphorus and then written on with a special solution. Once it dries, it will spontaneously combust when heated."

He looked up at Chen Chengsong.

"The old man is becoming more and more cautious in his methods of sending messages. He burns them after reading them, leaving no trace. This is not a good sign."

Chen Chengsong remained silent for a long time, tapping his fingers on the table a few times before finally speaking.

"We can't worry about that now. Since the old man has spoken, let's do it!"