Chapter 307 Invitation
The guards of the Chu family have made great progress in martial arts over the years. Speaking of which, this is all due to Old Man Qi.
Old Qi can be regarded as half a master of the guards. On weekdays, these guards also respect Old Qi very much. They will call him Old Qi when they are having a drink or a meat party. He Donglin is no exception. He treats Old Qi as a master. .
No, Zheng Qing gave him a task, so he carried three kilograms of fine red wine, and took two kilograms of soy sauce beef, a beggar's chicken, a plate of drunken peanuts, and a basin of spicy water from the kitchen. Cooked fish and went to see Old Man Qi for a drink and meat.
The cook was afraid that they would not have enough to eat, so she made another dish of shredded ginger pork, spicy shrimps in a dry pot, and a spicy kelp shred, and asked the little girl in the kitchen to deliver it.
As for Xia Zihan, after lunch, Mrs. Zeng went to take a nap, and Xia Zihan accompanied Mrs. Zhuo back to the guest house.
On the way, Xia Zihan sent the maids far away, and she told Mrs. Zhuo and Mrs. Zeng about Zheng Qing's love for Qi Lan. She also said to Mrs. Zhuo, "Yuejin is still young, and my aunt will never marry her again." It’s not too late to find a partner for her in two years. Maybe there will be a better candidate in the future.”
"Hey, it's because the two of them are not destined to be together." Mrs. Zhuo sighed sadly, "Yue Jin told me before that she thought Zheng Qing was too young and was afraid that he was not stable enough, so she wanted to find someone two or three years older. .”
That is to find a man over twenty years old
The only suitable candidate beside her was He Donglin, but He Donglin was a widower, and Yue Jin was just marrying into the house to fill up his house. His status was not as good as that of his original wife, and He Donglin was six or seven years older than Yue Jin.
Xia Zihan thought for a while and shook his head.
It's not easy to be a matchmaker, so she might as well forget it and let everything take its course.
After sending Mrs. Zhuo to the guest house, Xia Zihan said goodbye to Mrs. Zhuo and left the guest house, pretending to be worried.
"County Master, the concierge just came to report that Mrs. Cao is here and wants to see the old lady. She is waiting outside the gate."
While walking, before Xia Zihan could return to her yard, she met the woman guarding the hanging flower gate.
After listening to the mother-in-law's report, Xia Zihan's eyebrows were twisted into two small sea cucumbers. He waved his hands very impatiently and said, "Tell Mrs. Cao that the old lady is not feeling well and does not see outsiders."
The mother-in-law agreed and left in a hurry.
As for He Donglin, I don't know how he talked to Old Man Qi. In short, He Donglin went out in the afternoon.
He went to Orion Village on the outskirts of the city and told his uncle about Zheng Qing. The Zheng family was very happy. The next day, the Zheng family invited a matchmaker to propose marriage to Old Man Qi.
Both families had agreed before that the matchmaker's visit was just a formality.
At that time, the two families exchanged Gengtie stickers and engagement tokens, and the marriage was finalized.
Mrs. Zeng was very happy and asked Hongmei to go to the warehouse to select two pieces of good fabric and send them to the Zheng family, saying that they would be given to Zheng Qing to make clothes.
The boss has a reward, which is to make Zheng Qing look good.
The Zheng family's face was bright.
The wife of the Zheng family happily packed two pounds of wedding candies and asked the red plums to be handed over to the old lady and the county head.
After Xia Zihan ate the wedding candy, he presented Qi Lan with three summer dresses that were popular this year, and a set of gold-plated papilio and jewel-encrusted hairdresses.
Qi Lan took the things and bowed and thanked her.
She had always been carefree, and she was so embarrassed that she couldn't even raise her head.
Chu Fei pursed his lips and smiled, "Oh, our sister Qi Lan, I didn't expect to be the first little daughter-in-law to get engaged."
"You damn girl, you're the only one with a naughty mouth." Qi Lan raised her fist in embarrassment and was about to hit Chu Fei.
"Ah, help, Master." Chu Fei laughed and hid behind Xia Zihan.
Qi Lan stamped her feet, blushing angrily and saying, "Don't be complacent, you will have such a day, and you will see how I will embarrass you to death."
Chu Fei poked his head out from behind Xia Zihan and said with a smile, "I don't want to get married. I want to serve my master all my life."
"I'm afraid if the master keeps you until you are twenty, you will be anxious."
"No shame." Chu Fei shaved his cheek a few times and joked, "If you were anxious, you would have told me earlier, and the master would have betrothed you to Zheng Qing's guard."
When Zheng Qing was mentioned, Qi Lan's cheeks couldn't stop turning red, as if they would be on fire in the next quarter of an hour.
Qi Lan stomped her feet in shame, hugged a large stack of account books that Xia Zihan was optimistic about, and left without looking back.
Chu Fei also shouted behind her, "In this world, the roads are chaotic and dangerous. Shouldn't we let Zheng Qing escort a few more brothers to escort Sister Qi Lan back to another hospital?"
Before Qi Lan could say anything, Xia Zihan nodded and said, "Go tell Zheng Qing to escort him, and Qi Lan will be escorted back by him."
"Okay, I'll go right away, slave." Chu Fei jumped three times and jumped over Qi Lan in the blink of an eye, disappearing from sight.
Qi Lan stood at the door, staring at her back, feeling both sweet and angry.
After driving a group of maids out, Xia Zihan finally calmed down and looked at the account books handed over by a dozen Zhuangzi. Now is the beginning of spring, and there is no profit in Zhuangzi. I remember that the account book handed over is all the expenses for spring plowing and planting and daily expenses.
Last year, due to the floods in the south of the Yangtze River, the price of grain seeds this year increased threefold. This price was still under the mandatory suppression of the imperial court, and it was equivalent to each Zhuangzi paying 20% more than in previous years.
Xia Zihan opened the account book of his hot spring village. When he saw that the cost of buying grain and seeds from the farm owner was as high as in previous years, Xia Zihan raised his eyebrows subconsciously.
She called Chu Kui, "Send a message to the hot spring village and ask the head of the farm to come over."
"Master forgot, the head of the farm came here in early March and said that farming would start this month and he didn't have time to go to the city."
Oops, she really forgot.
Xia Zihan had no choice but to write a letter and send Chu Kui to deliver it to Zhuangzi.
In the evening, Chu Kuan came back and brought a reply from the head of the farm.
Several sheets of letter paper were filled with words, and everything Xia Zihan wanted to know was written down.
It turned out that Gianzhuangtou was acquainted with the person selling grain seeds. The grain seeds had been decided last year. The price negotiated at that time was the same price last year. Gianzhuangtou was also quick to do things and gave half of the silver as a deposit.
The price of grain seeds has doubled this year, and the vendor selling grain seeds also regretted it. However, the two of them knew each other and were good friends. After thinking about it, they didn't have the nerve to ask for more money from Gianzhuangtou.
The head of the farm is also a cunning person. He obviously saw that the other party regretted it, but he pretended not to see it, and happily paid the money, took the grain seeds, and left.
Tianzhuangtou also told Xia Zihan that he plans to cultivate a batch of high-quality grain seeds this year, and he will know whether it is successful or not after the experiment next year.
If he succeeds, he will be able to grow high-quality grain and sell it in the future, which can earn four times more profit than growing grain and selling it.
However, the head of the farm also wrote in the letter that high-quality grain seeds are not so easy to cultivate. Otherwise, if everyone cultivates high-quality grain seeds by themselves, there is no need to spend a lot of money to buy high-quality grain seeds from the court every year.
It turns out that some Zhuangzi in the Dasheng Dynasty used high-quality rice varieties that were carefully cultivated by the agricultural officials in the imperial court. I don’t know what methods they used to grow high-quality rice seeds that were better than those of farmers. The yield of ordinary grain seeds grown should be 30% higher.
A few hundred acres of paddy fields, with a 30% higher yield, is not a small sum, so it is worth spending some money to buy grain seeds.
Gianzhuangtou has long seen the fat of growing high-quality grains, and he has been studying it carefully for many years. This year, he plans to give it a try.
If it fails, it means eating the seeds as food.
But once successful, the income from Zhuangzi every year will be doubled or even tripled compared to previous years.
And Tianzhuangtou was very confident in himself, otherwise, he would not have told Xia Zihan in advance.
After Xia Zihan read the letter, she sent him a reply. The main message was to ask him to take good care of the grain seeds. If anything happened, just send someone to tell her.
The next day, Manager Lu went to Orion Village early in the morning to buy a large cart of fresh medicinal materials, and also brought a few poisonous animals. After Xia Zihan heard about it, he hurried to the front yard after walking with Zhuo. Just as he was about to ask Manager Lu about the poison, the concierge came to report it.
"Master, Mrs. Cao is here again, saying she is visiting the old lady."
Mrs. Cao again?
Xia Zihan was very annoyed, "Tell her that the old lady has not seen anyone else recently, and ask her not to disturb her in the future."
Her sudden outburst frightened the concierge's legs to tremble. He hurriedly said yes and went to the gate to convey Xia Zihan's words to Mrs. Cao.
Mrs. Cao's face turned dark and gloomy in an instant, "I kindly came to visit Mrs. Cao because I was thinking about the little relationship between the Chu family and my sister. I didn't expect that the Chu family would be so shameless and treat me like a slave." Shut out, huh... I guess I misjudged the Chu family."
Then, walk away.
A few days later, Mrs. Xu sent her maid over to give an invitation to Xia Zihan and the old lady.
The maid explained, "My wife has recovered from her illness and can walk a few steps in the yard. The master is very happy. He even asked someone to go to Xiangshan to get some azaleas. Mr. Xu said that seeing the joy, he wanted to have a housewarming at home. Feast.”
After the Xia family moved into the big house, the court had been singing the word of frugality. Xia Shiming followed the trend and did not dare to hold any banquets.
With the beginning of spring this year, the earth has a new look, all things are recovering, and spring plowing is about to be sown. The emperor is also in a good mood during this period, and no longer forces the ministers to follow him in saving and simplicity.
Mrs. Xu just wanted to hold a banquet at home to get rid of the gloomy and unlucky months at home.
Of course, this is what Xu said.
As soon as the maid left, Xia Zihan called Chu Fei, "What happened to Mrs. Xu and Mrs. Cao these days?"
"Yes, this slave is about to report to the master." Chu Fei said.
"Under Mrs. Cao's persuasion, the master no longer restrained my wife, and allowed her to move around. My wife's illness also recovered immediately. In the past few days, Mrs. Cao often went to sit in my wife's yard, but every time Cao Cao After the lady goes, she will send the servants far away, and then the two sisters will talk on the stone bench in the middle of the yard.”
(End of chapter)