Meng Wanfu believed in her and admired her.
Subsequently, Ding Xiang employed this technique to instruct him in recognizing commonly used words. She went on to purchase several history books, narrating tales of the 36 strategies, historical anecdotes, principles, and more from the books. Meng Wanfu became even more impressed, feeling his own intellectual limitations. He found it challenging to grasp so much merely through reading.
However, 50 taels of silver proved insufficient. In the provincial city, Ding Xiang acquired a subpar eyebrow pencil, investing over ten taels in novel-looking paper flowers to sell to the embroidery workshop.
Despite the flowers appearing novel, their actual value was limited, and the embroidery workshop was unwilling to pay a high price. After negotiations, they settled for a sale of four taels of silver.
Ding Xiang then designed two sets of jewelry and sold them to a shop for twelve taels.