For the first two days, most people were still hesitating over whether to buy. While they compared locations and prices and tried to scrape together the money, several houses in Laocheng Camp were quietly sold.
When the townspeople came for a second viewing and saw that more than half the houses on the signboard had been crossed out, their eyes widened with alarm.
One man grabbed an attendant and asked, his beard trembling.
“Sir, have all the houses marked with red crosses been sold?”
The attendant nodded. “Yes, they’ve all been sold.”
The news struck him like a bolt from the blue, and the question slipped out before he could stop himself.
“How did they sell so quickly?”
The attendant smiled. “They were bought by laborers from out of town who work at the cement and coal factories. County Princess Linghui took pity on them for having left their homes behind, so anyone who wanted to buy a house in Laocheng Camp could draw three months of wages in advance.”
The townsman’s eyes filled with envy. “If only I’d known, I would’ve gone to work at the coal factory too.”
As the two men spoke, another attendant approached from behind. He was holding a red brush, and he drew a cross over the house at the far right of the third row.
At this point, only three of the single-entry houses remained, all of them near the outer wall.
Seeing this, the attendant asked, “Do you want a one-hall, one-room house, or a one-hall, two-room house?”
The townsman opened and closed his mouth. “I want a one-hall, one-room house.”
The attendant raised an eyebrow. “Then you’d better hurry. There are only three left. They’ll be gone if you wait any longer.”
“If you really want one, you can pay a deposit to reserve it. But remember, if you change your mind after paying, the deposit won’t be refunded.”
When they had come to look the day before, no one had been willing to pay a deposit.
First, they had thought there were plenty of houses and that they wouldn’t have trouble buying one.
Second, they had been worried that the deposit was nonrefundable and might go to waste.
Even now, they were still wavering. After agonizing over it for a long while, they finally hurried home.
Meanwhile, the man who had applied the day before for four months’ wages in advance clutched a stamped deposit receipt as he ran back to the dormitory.
He had already requested leave from the supervisor and planned to return to Qingxia County immediately to sell his house, then bring his parents and younger brother over to live with him.
After lunch, Qingshuang carried a thick stack of official cement orders to Song Jinzhao.
“County Princess, these are orders sent in by various prefectures and counties. Altogether, they amount to three hundred and sixty-eight thousand bags of cement.”
Lanxi had gone to the capital to deliver a letter, so Qingshuang was temporarily overseeing the cement factory.
Song Jinzhao flipped through the orders one by one. Yueyang Prefecture had placed the largest order.
“Do we have enough in stock?”
Qingshuang replied, “We’re short by sixty thousand bags, but we can finish producing them within half a month.”
Song Jinzhao calmly placed the orders back on the desk.
“Send the cement ordered by the counties under Sुईning Prefecture first. For the other prefectures and counties, plan the delivery routes carefully and save as much time and expense as possible. All these orders must be delivered within a month.”
“Yes.” Qingshuang’s reply was loud and resolute.
Seven days later, the smokeless-coal shop in Qingxia County was selling both cement and smokeless coal.
Dozens of carts were parked outside the shop, while the shopkeeper led his assistants in checking the shipment.
The guard in charge of escorting the cement handed him the delivery receipt. “Sign it if everything is in order.”
The shopkeeper accepted it with a smile. After inspecting the goods and confirming that everything was correct, he wrote his name in the signature column and pressed his thumbprint onto the page.
He sighed with emotion. “The county office has urged us several times. It’s finally arrived.”
The guard kept a duplicate in his pocket. “Qingxia County was the first delivery. We’ve already gotten it here as quickly as we could.”
Zhao Jinmin and Song Qiming were both friends and classmates, so Qingshuang knew without needing to ask which order should be delivered first.
After delivering the goods ordered by the county office, more than three hundred bags of cement remained in the rear courtyard.
The shopkeeper directed the assistants, “Move all of these to the front hall and put them up for sale.”
