Quick Transmigration: Underdog Turns out to be Untouchable

Chapter 1186: Chapter 1096: Lady Minister 34

After Yin Shuangshuang recovered from her illness, she heard about Lord County Magistrate encouraging the common people to make matches. Nowadays, every household in the county uses matches to light fires, which are much more convenient than fire starters and easier to preserve and carry than Fire Sticks.

This small thing, the match, once it appeared, quickly became a sensation in the county, and it even inspired poets and literati to compose poems about it.

However, this poet is just flattering the County Magistrate—on the surface he’s praising the convenience of matches, but in reality, he’s extolling the County Magistrate’s care for the common people and his efforts to bring them welfare.

During Yin Shuangshuang’s illness, Yin Zheng bought a large house he had fancied in the county. With a larger house, naturally, seven or eight more servants were added to the household.

Now Mr. Li, the steward, finally lived up to the title, having a handful of people to manage, and the Chen Family became the housekeeper, responsible for several newly purchased maidservants.

This courtyard is quite sizable, with three courtyards front to back, each equipped with a small garden. The gardens are well-built, spacious and dignified, providing a sense of openness.

Yin Shuangshuang divided the courtyard: the front courtyard serves as the outer courtyard and study room, the middle for living quarters, and the back for servants.

To ensure someone always takes care of Yin Shuangshuang, Yin Zheng purchased two expensive young maidservants separately, both fourteen years old, bought from human traffickers who specifically train maidservants for large households. They were costly, fifty Silver each.

But the high price is worthwhile, as each has their own specialty. Cuiwei excels in needlework, reportedly her father is a tailor, and she learned clothing skills from him.

Caiwei is skilled in cooking, making delicious dishes, particularly adept at preparing health soup. Yin Zheng bought Caiwei for this reason.

With the increase in household servants, Mrs. Wang finally doesn’t need to do everything herself and can focus on enjoying life, spending time on things she enjoys.

Mrs. Wang’s new hobby is raising cats. Speaking of cats, there is an amusing story. Mrs. Wang took dried fish to the County Magistrate’s Wife’s home and formally solicited Little Li Nu, the kitten from the newly birthed mother cat.

This reminded Yin Shuangshuang of the great poet Lu You, who was a dedicated cat lover and wrote many poems about cats. There is one that Yin Shuangshuang particularly enjoys.

Wind sweeps the world, rain darkens the village,

the sound of four mountains is like sea waves rolling.

Creek wood fire is soft, Mongolian blanket warm,

We and Little Li Nu don’t go out.

It means the wind and rain outside are fierce, and it’s better to stay indoors on such a cold day, wrapping yourself in a blanket and holding the cat by the fire.

Thus, cat lovers conquered by cats have existed since ancient times, even great poets like Lu You couldn’t escape the charm of cats, illustrating their allure.

The reason Yin Shuangshuang likes this poem is because her mentality aligns with Lu You’s; feeling that holding a cat by the fire, or snuggling in bed together, teasing the cat thoughtlessly, is a particularly peaceful and joyful affair.

Ever since Mrs. Wang’s kitten arrived home, the one who plays most with the kitten is Yin Shuangshuang.

Because of the kitten, Yin Shuangshuang stayed at home for a long time, until Mrs. Wang, also fond of the kitten, forcibly took it away, and a bored Yin Shuangshuang finally decided to go out for a stroll.

She took a carriage, with Caiwei accompanying her, Li Dahu driving, ready to take a tour around the county.

Yin Shuangshuang had no particular destination in mind, just instructing Li Dahu to drive to some bustling places.

While wandering like this, Yin Shuangshuang discovered a problem: in the county, there are few places selling books, and books are extremely expensive.

This county is quite close to the border, so the literary trend is not strong, and the local customs are slightly fierce, with few scholars in the county.

The book prices are too high; wealthy families manage, but poorer scholarly families can’t afford the expensive books and must painfully give up reading.

Yin Shuangshuang couldn’t help but ponder a solution to improve this situation. After much thought, she felt that to enhance this situation, there must be a way for scholars to access books more easily.

Thinking this way, Yin Shuangshuang began paying attention to houses along the street, considering opening a bookstore where scholars could borrow books.

Not charging much, renting a book for a day would cost just one copper coin—compared to the price of one or two Silver, or even more for a book, this price is something everyone can afford.

Even if someone can’t afford it, they can copy books—from the bookstore taking pen, ink, and paper, copy three books, and return two, leaving one for themselves.

The trouble is to open a bookstore, it must have a large stock of books, and even if Yin Shuangshuang spends money, she might not be able to buy enough.

Yin Shuangshuang coughed lightly into her hand, watching the bustling crowd outside the carriage, murmuring, ”I still need the County Magistrate’s Wife’s help.”

Inside, as Caiwei was pouring health tea from a layered warmth-insulated water jug for Yin Shuangshuang, she didn’t catch what Yin Shuangshuang said and tilted her head in confusion.

”Miss, what are you saying? Is there something you want to instruct Caiwei, I didn’t hear clearly.”

Yin Shuangshuang smiled, shaking her head, took the health tea from Caiwei and drank a sip, calmly saying, ”Nothing much, Dahu, to the county government.”

Outside, Li Dahu responded loudly, flicked the whip, and the carriage’s horses turned their heads, heading straight to the county government.

The County Magistrate’s Wife was sharp-minded, when she heard Yin Shuangshuang’s decision, she knew that although the bookstore wouldn’t make money, might even lose money, but it’s definitely a great way to build reputation, which is most important for her husband currently.

The County Magistrate’s Wife immediately decided not only to help Yin Shuangshuang purchase books to fill the bookstore, but also to donate ten thousand books to the bookstore for free.

Yin Shuangshuang is efficient, once she decided to open a bookstore and arranged the book issue with the County Magistrate’s Wife, she immediately went to find a house for the bookstore.

Finally, the bookstore’s location was set in a large mansion along the street, originally belonging to a wealthy merchant.

But after the wealthy merchant died, his descendants were unfilial, ruining the family fortune clean, leaving only this last mansion for sale at a low price, which Yin Shuangshuang purchased.

This mansion is big, with four courtyards, which Yin Shuangshuang simply renovated: the front two courtyards as reading areas, the back two for copying books, and she built several pavilions in the garden for students to relax, compose poetry, and make friends after tiring of reading.

Also, separating two courtyards full of bamboo and peach trees as independent places, they would be where Yin Shuangshuang’s family occasionally came to read books.

Both Yin Shuangshuang and Yin Zheng love reading, including Mrs. Wang as well. Mrs. Wang had been literate for a long time, but while with the Yin Family, she was always busy with endless work, unable to touch books, so naturally didn’t have the opportunity to read.