The wagons entered through a side door. Xu Changqing led the group into a three-way courtyard called Zhuoxiu Garden. There was a square pond in the courtyard, which was planted with lotus flowers. There were many willows by the water, and there were long and short corridors that were connected to the trees. The eaves were drooping and covered the ridges. Crows in spring and swallows in autumn were everywhere. The setting sun and sparse rain were not unsuitable.
After everyone greeted him, Shopkeeper Hou personally called in two kind women in their thirties to bring Yu Lian and Yi 'er to the back to wash up. Two female guards arranged by Mu San' er also went with them.
After a bath to wash away the dust, Yi 'er's spirit finally recovered a little. The next day, she was taken by her uncle to tour half of Yuzhou City. They tasted the various snacks on the streets and alleys and bought a bunch of things. They only returned at dusk. Not to mention the little girl playing crazily and tiredly, even Amelia felt dizzy.
Coincidentally, Master Cheng from Yunzhou was investigating the child who was rescued by Uncle Wang. Xu Changqing actually met an unexpected person.
In the study room in the front yard, Xu Changqing leaned against the back of the chair, his legs resting on the table. His left hand was holding an invitation and tapping on the table. His right thumb was rubbing his chin as he looked at Shopkeeper Hou with a faint smile.
"Hmph, interesting…"
" Third Young Master?" Shopkeeper Hou couldn't feel his pulse.
"Lu Feng, what is Brother Mu San doing? Let him go and take a look!"
"Alright!" Lu Feng responded and left.
All was silent. The lanterns in the various pavilions and waterside pavilions in First-grade Restaurant blended with the dazzling starlight, causing the meandering stream to drip with a water-like radiance.
Mu Shaofeng strode out of a courtyard, completely ignoring the black-robed guard who had escorted him out. He jumped twice on the spot and shook his neck. While humming an unknown countryside tune, he swayed his shoulders and walked towards Zhuo Xiu Garden. Along the way, he whistled loudly, causing the birds perched on the trees to fly away.
In the study, a few people were waiting for him.
Lu Feng was the most anxious.”
Mu San 'er put away her sloppy look and sat down on a chair that Xu Changqing pointed at.""It's that woman, hey! Not to mention, she really looked like the legendary half-aged woman, but she was still so beautiful! He said that he heard the news of Prince Huai appearing at the pass and brought his son here in a hurry. Unexpectedly, he encountered mountain bandits and his son was kidnapped…"
"She met you personally?"
"Yes!" Mu San 'er rubbed her teeth and nodded." On the surface, she said that she had lost more than half of her guards, but she trusted the reputation of our escort agency and wanted to return to the capital with us."”
"Tsk, how fresh! With the name of King Huai's estate, he could not send a thousand or eight hundred soldiers to escort them along the way.”
"In fact, they want to contact the owner behind First-grade Restaurant through us!”
"Oh-" Xu Changqing replied and asked,""Are you going to say it or test me?"
" I think she's just testing me. She probably knows that those who can stay in Zhuo Xiu Garden must have a special relationship with the owner behind them. I told her that we've been helping First-grade Restaurant to escort the goods…"
Shopkeeper Hou slapped his forehead." I remember now. Last month, when Old Meng from the capital came to settle the accounts, he mentioned that the people from King Huai's Mansion had gone to look for him. However, this kind of thing happens many times. Usually, after finding out, they would let go. Therefore, we didn't take it to heart. At that time, Old Meng had even treated it as a joke, saying that Prince Huai had not walked around the capital for many years, and that someone had actually used his name. Could it be that such a thing really happened? Is this the woman?"
"Oh? So this was planned for a long time? Want to dig out some money from Uncle Hou?”
"Tsk!" Shopkeeper Hou made an extremely disdainful expression."She's just a secondary consort. She really thinks she's a dish. She's not in a hurry when her son was kidnapped and still has the time to play tricks! What the hell!"
"What son?" Mu San 'er snorted. That was not her biological son! Who knew if it was real or fake? Everyone in their family, from top to bottom, even the three-year-old child, was full of schemes!”
Shopkeeper Hou rolled his eyes, which did not match his age."So what? The person who wants to take money from me, Old Hou, has yet to be born! Why don't you guys think about it? If she's really favored, how can she not have a biological son? This woman wasn't a petty person, and she was also quite scheming. One look and she knew that she wasn't a kind person. Wasn't she afraid that Prince Huai would come back and kill her after losing her son?”
"Haha…not bad Uncle Hou, you're really experienced in looking at problems! However, he had to write a few letters to remind those shopkeepers not to be timid!”
Shopkeeper Hou cupped his hands." Alright. Don't worry, Third Young Master. This old man will write it now!"”
"Yes!" Xu Changqing nodded.
Lu Feng was a steady person. He thought for a while and said,"Third Young Master, what do you think this woman wants to do? 'Do you want to use this opportunity to get to the top or do you only have your eyes on First-grade Restaurant or something else?'”
Xu Changqing shook his head slowly and said word by word,"It's hard to say now, but whoever wants to pick the fruit should pick a big one…"
Mu San 'er heard this and spat,""She's not afraid of being stuffed to death!"
When it came to the structure of the Ji family's entire trading company, even people like Mu San 'er, whose father was one of the five major managers of the Ji family, could not figure it out, let alone the shopkeepers of the various shops below.
Madam Ji knew very well that one could not put all their eggs in one basket. From the top of the business empire, she had divided the various industries vertically. There was no broken connection between the various managers and various industries horizontally. Even the interactions between them were completely carried out according to normal business dealings. For example, grain merchants who supplied restaurants had to compete with other grain merchants, and mulberry fields who supplied silk reeling workshops had to participate in auctions like other mulberry fields. Moreover, all business transactions had to be settled with normal money. Not to mention outsiders, even they themselves did not even know that they belonged to the same owner.
Everyone was silent for a while. Xu Changqing exhaled and slowly said,"I originally wanted to rest here for another day, but it seems like it won't do. Third brother, let's set off tomorrow morning!”
"Alright, I'll arrange it later!" Mu San nodded.
"Will they follow?"
"I don't think so. I let her know that we're escorting silver darts this time. It'll be dangerous on the road, but we still have to be careful!”，Mu Shaofeng replied cautiously, then revealed two malicious expressions."Anyway, we are the brothers of the Bodyguard Agency. Why don't we go and find out what that woman is doing here? He even brought his son out to look for Prince Huai? Even ghosts wouldn't believe these words. Could it be that she wanted to harm someone else's son?”
Xu Changqing was also a troublemaker. He immediately nodded when he heard that."Alright, investigate. At the same time, cause some trouble for this woman. She has harmed someone and still wants to return to the capital smoothly? How could there be such a good thing in the world! It's a pity that we're not familiar with Prince Huai, haha…otherwise…"
Lu Feng looked around at the two people who harbored ill intentions and chuckled."Go and write a letter to Master Cheng about this. We'll leave early tomorrow. Third Brother, you lead the team and I'll cover the rear!
Due to the large amount of water used by the flour mill, Wang Maocai simply chose the place on the wasteland beside the Hetao after walking around the village. This was a piece of saline-alkalized land. In the early years, there were villagers who came over to open up wasteland, but they could not plant anything. Later on, no one came. Only the sweet wormwood grew freely. In midsummer, it could be as tall as a person.
The terrain here was flat and it was also well aired. Mr. Feng had said that the fine powder should be dried as soon as possible after it leaked out. Moreover, it was not far from the village and there was no shelter. The wind was good, so they were not afraid of those naughty children coming over to cause trouble. When the time came, they could just arrange for a few old men who had nothing to do to guard it. There were 40% of the village's shares, so who would dare not take it seriously?
Wang Maocai had gathered all the major generals in the village under the big pagoda tree that day and told them what Mr. Feng had told him. The crowd was so excited that even he felt his blood pumping. That night, he baked pancakes on the brick bed for half the night.
Mr. Feng thought of Yang Ping's words and specially instructed Wang Maocai to hand over the work of cleaning up the sweet wormwood to the old, the weak, the women, and the children.
The work was not heavy, and there was no pay, but 20 catties of sweet wormwood for a coarse flour bun, the kind of bun that was the size of a child's face, and 30 catties of sweet wormwood for an egg.
Hearing this news, all the women and children moved. They went home with sickles and pickaxes. Those who had nothing could pull out a large amount of wormwood in a day. Although the wormwood in this season was not too heavy, if the women worked together, they could cut at least 300 catties in a day. When they finished work in the evening, the children who were smiling happily took the steamed buns and eggs held on the clean leaves of the big trees with their hands filled with black grass juice.
Wang Maocai was worried that the eggs wouldn't reach the child's mouth, so he learned from Mr. Feng and asked people to boil the eggs. Therefore, for a few days, even the most stingy old lady had no choice but to let the most unlikable granddaughter eat an egg a day.
Old Lady Shan was one of them. Her boss had raised three sons and gave birth to a daughter when she was almost forty years old. Her grandson should have married a wife, but she still did not leave the house. Her granddaughters were all sallow and skinny like bean sprouts, but her daughter was fair and fat.
Last time, Yang Ping's family distributed the food to the villagers, including cloth and grains. Two men worked on the construction site and got eggs. One of the eggs was given to the old man; the other one was given to the old girl. Even the younger daughter of the second son didn't even have a taste of the egg. It couldn't be helped that the second son's wife gave birth to three daughters in a row.
Now that she saw her granddaughters burying their heads in the eggs and eating them, Old Lady Shan's eyes were burning with anger. She wanted to reach out and dig them out again. Under the pressure from above, the two daughters-in-law did not dare to make a sound. They buried their heads in the bowls. From the corner of their eyes, they saw the children swallowing the eggs and let out a long sigh of relief.
The sons also looked down. It wasn't like they didn't know what their mother was like. It turned out that they didn't have a choice. However, no one was stupid. Which child in the village wasn't taller and fatter than their own children?
In the past two days, even the second child, who was less than four years old, knew to follow the adults to the Hetao to pull out the wormwood to exchange for steamed buns. However, the younger sister at home was still in the house at the age of 15 or 16. Even when eating, she had to wait for her two sisters-in-law to bring it into the house. Today, the eggs were exchanged for the children's hard work. No matter what, they had to let the children eat them. Moreover, in the wormwood field today, she and Seventh Granduncle were staring at them and telling them to ensure that the eggs were eaten by the children.
On the table were a bowl of multi-grain porridge for each person, half a basket of black-flour steamed buns, one coarse flour steamed bun exchanged with sweet wormwood for the old man, and one for the old girl. The rest were put away by the old lady. When the weather turned cold, the steamed buns were put away. The old girl could eat for a few days with one meal. There were also two bowls of black pickled vegetables that were invisible. These were the dinner of the old Shan family. Of course, his old daughter, Shan Zhenzhu, was not included. Even this multi-grain porridge was different. Their family's rules were that the old would be thick and the young would be thin. The men would be thick and the women would be thin. When it came to the second child's family, it was really clear soup with little water.
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