Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 304 Glass

"Uncle Lao, please comfort him more often and don't let him go astray."

The steward nodded quickly: "Oh, okay, I will definitely keep an eye on him. Such a good child will definitely not go astray."

Song Chunlin smiled but did not answer.

After delivering the pork, Song Chunlin went straight home. When he got home, the Song family was setting up dinner. The meat he had eaten yesterday was difficult to digest, so the dinner tonight was simpler, just some light porridge and side dishes, which made Song Chunlin feel very comfortable in his stomach.

"Hmm, the millet porridge cooked by mom is still the best. This rice oil looks very fragrant."

Song Qin poked her son's head in annoyance: "You like the food your mother cooks, but you run outside all day long. I don't know how Feng Yue can stand you."

Feeling guilty, Song Chunlin smiled at Song Qinshi in a flattering manner, which made Song Qinshi laugh again.

On the fifth day after Song Chunlin returned, Yan Qing was brought here by Mrs. An Huaibo by the scruff of the neck. Song Chunlin came back from the military camp and saw the uneasy Yan Qing at a glance. There was nothing he could do, the man was too big and it was difficult to ignore him.

When he saw Yan Qing, Song Chunlin realized belatedly that he seemed to have forgotten to pay his respects to Madam An Huaibo. After all, the two of them were now partners, but he had been away from home for more than a month and had not visited her at her house when he came back, and had let her come to him on her own. Song Chunlin felt his scalp tingling when he thought of this.

Song Qinshi was sitting in the main room entertaining guests. She was smiling and greeting everyone the moment before, but the next moment when she saw Song Chunlin coming back, her face immediately froze. If there were no distinguished guests present, she would have been unable to resist beating up this stupid son.

Zhou Ning happened to be passing by Song Chunlin with tea and snacks. He saw Song Chunlin's expression, sighed softly, and explained to Song Chunlin in a low voice;

"You haven't been to An Huaibo's house during this period. People only knew you were back when Young Master Yan came home from vacation. Looking at Young Master Yan's face, I'm afraid he was brought here before he could even sit down in a chair at home. Chunlin, you'd better take care of yourself this time." After saying that, Zhou Ning handed the tray in his hand to Song Chunlin with an expression that said "May you be lucky" on his face, and then walked away leisurely.

He just left like that?

Song Chunlin looked at his sister-in-law in disbelief. The sister-in-law who loved him the most actually ran away at such a critical moment?

It’s terrible. Will he be beaten up by the people inside if he walks in?

But standing here all the time was not a good idea. Song Qin immediately spoke up and asked Song Chunlin to bring the things in quickly.

Song Chunlin had no choice but to bite the bullet and walked in tremblingly with the tray in hand. With a smile on his face, he served tea to everyone one by one, placed melon seeds and snacks on the table, and finally took the tray obediently and retreated to the corner, standing very properly and dignified, even remembering to smile with his eight teeth showing, hoping that he would be scolded less because he was so obedient.

However, things did not go as planned. Mrs. An Huaibo glanced at Song Chunlin and said with a smile: "Young Master Song is really a busy man. He has been back for a long time. I wonder what he has been busy with recently?"

These words were spoken in a sinister tone, and Song Chunlin instinctively felt a chill on his back. Even Yan Qing lowered his head desperately, trying to reduce his presence.

Song Chunlin plucked up his courage and looked at the father and son in a flattering manner.

"Cousin, you are joking. I am not a busy person at all. It's also my fault that I have a bad memory. I actually forgot to go to your house to ask for a case for you and your husband. I am wrong. Otherwise, Fengyue and I will go to your place to apologize some other day. What do you think, cousin?"

"No big deal." Mrs. An Huaibo snorted coldly. She was not interested in this proposal, but at least she glared at Song Chunlin with mercy.

"You, you've been out for a while, and now you're lazy. Here, I asked someone to make these colored glazes. Take a look at their purity. Is it good enough?"

Song Chunlin caught the small package thrown to him by the other party. When he took it in his hand, he felt it was a little heavy. After carefully placing it on the table, he opened the layers of cloth to reveal a piece of transparent glass the size of a palm.

There were not many colored glaze products in the Dajing Dynasty, and most of them were only provided to the royal family. Moreover, the transparency was not very high, at least in the eyes of a modern man like Song Chunlin, they were indeed not transparent.

However, the piece of glass in front of him, although only as big as a palm, is very close to modern glass in terms of transparency. It is probably similar to the original glass products, with a slightly gray feeling. Moreover, this piece of glass is not very thick. Song Chunlin feels that if it is used on window frames, two layers must be used.

"Well, it's not bad. It's already transparent. Cousin, how big can such glass be?"

Mrs. An Huaibo: "Currently, the largest one is about twenty inches, but it's too thin. Our craftsmen are at a higher risk of making such a large glass, and it is more likely to break. My idea is that we should compromise and set the size at about twelve to sixteen inches. The width can be eight inches. Such glass is not small. If the whole wall is covered with such glass windows according to your idea, it will look very transparent."

Song Chunlin thought about it and decided that if that was the case, the wall probably couldn't be made entirely of glass. The bottom layer should be made of wood. Only the upper part of the glass window frame could be retained and decorated with some patterns so that it wouldn't look too abrupt.

So the two of them discussed the ideas for store decoration again. Mrs. An Huaibo told him that the walls and floors had already been completed according to Song Chunlin's requirements, but the corridor seemed a bit tricky.

"Although this colored glaze is good, if it breaks, it can easily hurt people. You said that the corridors should be covered with colored glaze so that sunlight can shine down. The light is indeed very good, but if someone throws a stone up, wouldn't the colored glaze break directly? This seems a bit inappropriate."

Song Chunlin agreed. The glass they were making now was just the most basic glass, which could not be compared with the tempered glass and bulletproof glass of later generations. It would be quite dangerous to use this glass as the ceiling.

"Then again, if the glass is easily broken, then we can't arrange tables and chairs on the side with windows, right?"

Mrs. An Huaibo thought for a moment and said, "It's not impossible, but it's best not to use them downstairs. You can put some upstairs. You know, there are still some people who like to sit by the window and enjoy the view. Downstairs is facing the main road, and pedestrians come and go. Whatever you do will be seen by others, which may be inappropriate."

Well, Song Chunlin forgot that this is ancient times. People in ancient times were not so open-minded and liked to sit in street shops to eat. Especially, the shop he positioned was for high-end people. It was really not very elegant to let those noble ladies and young men sit on the street and let passers-by watch them eat and drink.

So they decided not to set up seats near the windows on the first floor, and then build a flower bed outside and plant some beautiful flowers. This way, it would have the flavor of a modern cafe.

Speaking of coffee, Song Chunlin thought of the various teas that the people of Dajing like to drink the most. The ancients drank tea differently from modern people. Song Chunlin's family drank modern tea leaves, while the people of Dajing preferred to boil tea and then put a lot of strange spices in it, and the taste was also strange. Every time Song Chunlin drank that kind of tea, he felt like he was drinking spiced water instead of tea.

Song Chunlin tried to ask Mrs. An Huaibo and Yan Qing: "I wonder what you two think of my tea?"

This was not the first time that Madam An Huaibo came here, nor was it the first time that she drank the Song family's tea. Upon hearing this, she simply nodded indifferently: "Not bad, but it's rather bland and has no flavor."

Song Chunlin was speechless. It was just an ordinary plain tea, the most common way of brewing it in later generations. It was naturally different from the spiced water they were used to drinking now. Moreover, his tea was about the sweet aftertaste after it entered the throat. This slight aftertaste was incomparable to the spiced water.

However, he also thought of milk tea in later generations. However, not many people in Dajing raised cattle, otherwise he could have replicated milk tea here.

"Milk tea? Do you mean tea made with milk?" Yan Qing finally spoke. He was now particularly interested in the strange foods made by Song Chunlin. The reason was that they were delicious and he couldn't help but pay attention to them.

Song Chunlin looked at Yan Qing, the big eater. He was almost twice as tall and twice as wide as him. How could he still eat? If he ate any more, he was afraid that the small bed in the barracks would not be able to accommodate such a big guy.

Mrs. An Huaibo also looked disgusted: "Look at your little achievements. All the food sent by the Charity Bureau ended up in your mouth. Look at your belly. Oh my, you are such a big fool. I am afraid that no girl or boy will dare to marry you in the future."

The people around burst into laughter, and Song Chunlin laughed uncontrollably with his head down, which made Yan Qing grit his teeth.

"Song Chunlin, stop laughing."

Mrs. An Huaibo hit him on the head with a slap. Yan Qing was tall, and in order to hit the opponent's head accurately, he even jumped up and hit him, causing Yan Qing to grimace in pain.

"It's rude to call me uncle."

Yan Qing stared, he almost forgot that there was a generation gap between him and Song Chunlin, so he didn't deserve to be hit by this slap in the face.

In the end, Yan Qing still didn't call him uncle, probably because he felt too ashamed.

Mrs. An Huaibo did not force it. After getting the answer she wanted, she happily took Song Chunlin back to apologize to him.

After seeing off the giant Buddha, Song Chunlin finally breathed a sigh of relief. Alas, if he had known earlier, he would not have taken on so many things. It is really too much to handle now.

In the evening, the Song family sat together and looked at the palm-sized piece of glass.

"This is glass. It looks similar to the glass cans Chunlin brought back."

"No, this one looks more green and not as clear as the can."

"Oh, it's true. It's indeed greener. But this kind of glass is also very good for making windows. It's much brighter than paper."

Song Dazhuang looked at the glass and couldn't let it go. He asked his son with great interest:

"Chunlin, tell me, if our windows were made of glass like this, wouldn't the house be brighter?"

Grandpa Song suddenly realized: "Yes, we can also use this kind of glass for our windows. Chunlin, do you think this glass will be very expensive?"

Song Chunlin told everyone: "The materials needed for glass are not expensive, they are things that can be found everywhere. The production process is not complicated as long as you are familiar with it. The most important thing for us now is whether we can protect the glass industry with the Earl's Mansion of Anhuai and the Marquis' Mansion of Yongyi. As long as we have a firm grasp on the glass technology, we can still make a lot of money from this glass in a short period of time."

Grandpa Song stroked his beard and said, "Chunlin, we don't care about how much money we can make. The most important thing is the safety of our family. The last grain seed incident and what happened when we first planted sweet potatoes are all valuable because they are rare. There is no shortage of people in this world who are jealous of your success. We should be more careful in our actions."

Song Chunlin nodded and humbly accepted the advice: "Grandpa, I know that it is because they are afraid of jealousy that they want to let the Earl's Mansion of Anhuai rush to the front. Their family not only has the title of earl, but also has real power. Only such powerful people can protect this glass technology for a while."

"For a moment?"

"Yes, for a while. In fact, people who really understand the principle of this kind of thing can definitely steal its skills easily. We can keep it secret for a while, but we can't keep it forever. Sooner or later, we will have to hand over this technology."

Song Chunlin's words made everyone feel cold. Since the raw materials are so easy to obtain and the technology is not very complicated, there will definitely be people who will do whatever it takes to steal our skills. By that time, they will not be able to hide even if they want to.

Song A-mo said calmly, "It's just a matter of time before someone else learns from us. If this method is learned by others, it will also reduce our burden. There is a saying that many hands make light work. Who knows, there might be someone who can make the tempered glass that Chunlin mentioned?"

"That's true. There are always people who are better than you. The world is so big, there are always some smart people who can understand the mysteries. Maybe it would be good to spread it. Then we can study together and see who can make the tempered glass first. It would be best if we make the glass bigger. I've seen the floor-to-ceiling windows in the Chunlin flat panel. They look beautiful. When the sun comes out, the whole house is bright."

Song A-mo's eyes were sparkling, and she rarely showed a look of longing.

"If there was a floor-to-ceiling window in my little grandfather's room, I would wake up laughing in my dreams."