Chapter 100 Bountiful Harvest Season
After listening to Son's words, Xiao Hai Ru was a little surprised. He thought that his son could live in Luohe Prefecture for so long because someone must have seduced his soul and made him be in bliss. Never thought he treated the other as a younger sister. The father and son have never had a heart-to-heart conversation. Since the son had said so, Xiao Hai Ru had nothing to say. So he picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and firmly lower it on the rice papee. ‘Endure’ was written with the brush. Then he spoke: "You have always been resolute. I know that Bai Family matter was just an excuse for you to leave the capital. Since you have been outside for so long, it’s time you settle down."
"Father, I have been living step by step according to your ideas all my life. You asked me to take the academic examination, I studied hard day and night to get the rank of Juren. You hoped that I would inherit the family business. As soon as I could read, I began to learn how to use the abacus ...Father, I'm just tired and want to take a break. Can't I just take a break?" Xiao Lin Yu felt rather uncomfortable. The smile on his face became more bitter.
Xiao Hai Ru never thought that his son would say such a thing. He put down the brush in his hand and looked at him with a sad expression on his face: "Since you were born, you were destined to be the next head of Xiao Family. The future of the entire Xiao family was tied to you. Now you are really more and more presumptuous. Go to the ancestral hall to plead guilty to your ancestors. Once you figure it out, then you can get up!"
Xiao Lin Yu wanted to say something else. But seeing his father's expression of hating iron for not being steel, he sighed lightly, bowed his hands in agreement, and then backed away.
In the end, Xiao Lin Yu knelt in the ancestral hall for seven days. Old Ancestor felt distressed for her eldest grandson. She couldn't stand it any longer and called Xiao Hai Ru for a lecture. Only then Xiao Lin Yu’s kneeling in the ancestral hall was dropped
***
Back to Su Family in Luohe Prefecture. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, Han Li followed Song Hua to Chaxiang, leaving Han Er Hua to follow Uncle Wang at Su Family.
With the help of You Jin, You He took out her private fund to open a small grocery store in Luohe Prefecture. Some household items, needles, threads, and so on were sold. Although it wasn’t a big business, it was still possible to earn money for household use. The person You Jin entrusted to go to Dingyuan to inquire brought back Mrs. Han's letter.
"Third Aunt didn't mention herself in the letter. She only talked about other people's affairs. From what Third Aunt conveyed, she has no worries now that Elder Sister You He isn’t in Dingyuan. If she wants to fight with Third Uncle, it shouldn't be a problem."
In You Jin's view, Mrs. Han was a very intelligent and resolute woman. Yue Chang Shou was still a little lacking compared to her. It was probably easy to deal with him.
Mrs. Su can recognize a few words now. After roughly reading Mrs. Han's letter, she nodded in agreement with her daughter's words: "But we still need to pay more attention. If something happens to your third aunt, we can help as much as we can."
"Don't worry, Mother. I have my own arrangements." When You Jin sought someone to go to Dingyuan to inquire about the news, she also found someone to help keep an eye on Yue Family's affairs. If something goes wrong, she will know the news as soon as possible and know how to handle it. Although Mrs. Su had separated with Yue Chang Lu, all of them would rush to suck their blood if Yue Family members knew the current situation at home!
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, it was the season of golden osmanthus fragrance again.
Su Family’s sweet-scented osmanthus bloomed very well this year. Only people at the foot of the mountain could smell the faint fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus mixed in the refreshing autumn wind. From today, it was Su Family’s sweet-scented osmanthus harvest period. It was also the favorite tasks of all the little girls in Su Famil - shaking osmanthus. That’s why, early this morning, all the little girls, except for You Yin and You Zhu who were going to open the snack shop in the city, got up early and changed into narrow-sleeved tops and pants that allowed free movement without Mrs. Su's reminder. The maids and female servants combed their hair into two braids. Then they all stood in the front yard and waited for Eldest Sister to declare their departure.
You Jin was wearing a bamboo green narrow-sleeved gown today and had two braids. Although it was an ordinary attire, the girl was glowing and beautiful. The elegant bamboo green color perfectly complemented her.
Holding hands with little Eighth, she slowly walked. She didn’t forget to remind her younger sisters: "When we get to the mountain in a while, you aren’t allowed to run around and make trouble, understand?"
"Eldest Sister, you already said it yesterday. We all remember! Let's go!" Anxious little Seventh pulled You Ling to the front and chimed in response: "Eldest Sister, hurry up. Uncle Song and Uncle Niu are both waiting!" Uncle Niu was Su Family’s new driver. Now there were three drivers for Su Family. One was responsible for transporting You Yin and You Zhu to and from Luohe Prefecture every day. One was for You Jin. The other who picked up Mrs. Su, Uncle Song and others on normal days.
Chuckling, Uncle Niu stood in front of the carriage. When he saw Seventh Miss rushing over first, he picked her up and put her carefully on the carriage: "Seventh Miss, you have to sit still."
"Thank you, Uncle Niu!" Little Seventh thanked Uncle Niu very politely and sat on the shaft of the carriage as she waved to You Jin and others who had just walked to the gate: "Elder Sisters, hurry up!"
Ever since old Third Chen and others pretended to be bandits and blocked the way to kidnap You Jin, Mrs. Su and You Jin paid more attention to the safety of the children in the family. Most days, there weren’t many opportunities for the children to go out to play wildly. So it was really exciting to be able to go out to play together like today.
With the addition of the guards sent by Xiao Lin Yu, You Jin asked the leader of the guards to pick seven or eight boys with good qualifications back for training. They will be guards in the future. Now that the family’s security at home had reached a higher level than before, You Jin can be rest assured to bring the few younger sisters out to play.
On the mountain in Houjiawan, a group of long-term workers had received their order yesterday. The owner family’s girls were going to come to the mountain to shake the osmanthus. They had already prepared the sackcloth for collecting the shaken off osmanthus. There were also sugar water prepared to quench the girls’ thirst, Except for the supervisor who was still waiting for the arrival of the owner family in front of the hut at the foot of the mountain, the other long-term workers had already gone up the mountain to collect osmanthus flowers.
"Hello Eldest Miss. Yesterday we heard that Miss is coming, This news had us delighted. Everyone is waiting for Miss!" The manager saw the carriage from a distance and knew that it was Su Family. The carriage hadn’t stopped yet when he went up to meet her and fawningly grinned.
You Jin got out of the carriage first. Then she brought little Eighth down. The other younger sisters also got out of the carriage one by one. Standing in front of the supervisor, You Jin had a faint smile on her face: "It's just a few children who want to come out to play. Uncle Hou doesn't need to spend so much time preparing things." Handing little Eighth to You Bao to hold, she instructed a few more words: "I'll talk to Uncle Supervisor for a while. You Bao, you are the elder sister. You have to take care of the few younger sisters."
The barren hills in the past two years have already been tidied up. More than half of them have been planted with various trees. Among them, osmanthus, jasmine, and thorn rose were the main ones. Today, there were nearly 20 mu of osmanthus trees in bloom. Harvesting the osmanthus was a big project.
"Don't worry, Elder Sister, I will take good care of younger sisters." You Bao earnestly nodded and then set off with the cheering younger sisters who were ready to explore. The servants that were brought along hurriedly followed their masters for fear they would bump into something.
After watching the younger sisters merrily and rowdily leave, You Jin came back to her senses and continued to discuss with Uncle Song and Houjiawan’s supervisor.
"How many sweet-scented osmanthus needs to be collected now?" The three of them walked on the flat mountain road. You Jin took in the rosy-scented osmanthus and asked Supervisor Hou who was half a step behind her.
Supervisor Hou was originally a long-term worker hired by Su Family. Due to being responsible and steadfast in doing things, he was promoted to a supervisor. He respectfully answered: "Replying to Miss, more than half of it has been collected now. It will be mostly done in two days. The collected sweet-scented osmanthus flowers have been dried, packed, put in bags, and stored into the warehouse."
You Jin nodded in satisfaction. She turned to Uncle Song beside her: "When all the sweet-scented osmanthus flowers come down this year, leave enough for the snack shop to use along with dried jasmine and thorn rose flowers. As for the rest, arrange for them to be sent to Chaxiang. Get Song Hua to prepare his side. We’ll try it with autumn tea first and produce good ones. Next year, we’ll try with the good ones."
Su Family’s tea garden in Chaxiang naturally couldn’t produce tea so quickly. So Song Hua and Han Li’s tasks in Chaxiang weren’t only the daily management of the tea garden and tea workers, but also finding good tea gardens to supply for the next two years. The required tea was to be used during the special period when their tea garden had no output.
"Miss, don't worry, this old servant had already contacted someone. I can arrange to send the sweet-scented osmanthus to the south after all the sweet-scented osmanthus flowers are harvested here." Uncle Song always knew what his Eldest Miss was going to do. Naturally, everything was carefully planned out. Due to this, the finishing ends had been arranged long ago.
"In addition, the chickens we raised this year aren’t bad. We’ll make a trip to Yunweixuan later to see how much Second Master Huang wants this year. If he doesn't want many, you should contact the other restaurants." There were thousands of chickens on this mountain waiting to be sold. They were all chickens raised on the mountain. The taste was much better than ordinary domestic chickens. In addition, there weren’t many such large chicken farms nearby. Ordinary restaurants liked to cooperate with these chicken farms that could supply stable supply. Yunweixuan had always been the first choice for Su Family to cooperate with.
"Deal. I'll go to Luohe Prefecture when I'm free in two days." After hearing this, Uncle Song kept this matter in mind. He calculated when he was free to find the supervisor of Yunweixuan.
The trio walked around the mountain. The long-term workers all knew Eldest Miss of the owner family. Upon Eldest Miss’s arrival, they all stopped their work and greeted Eldest Miss.
"Everyone had worked hard. After this busy period is over, I will give everyone a few more days of vacation for winter isolation.” In winter, there was little work on the mountain. So You Jin was also willing to give the long-term workers a vacation. After all, they had worked hard. After a year's work, it was time to let everyone have a rest on such cold winter days.
"Thank you, Eldest Missl!" All the long-term workers joyfully expressed their thanks and began to concentrate on their work. The sackcloth was spread on the ground. Then one person shook the sweet-scented osmanthus tree, which had not yet grown to a large size. The sweet-scented osmanthus hanging all over the branches fell like a torrential rain under man-made force. After a while, only a few small flower buds remained behind among the leaves of the originally bountiful golden sweet-scented osmanthus tree. Majority of the sweet-scented osmanthus fell on the sackcloth spread on the ground.
By the time You Jin finished dealing with the garden’s matter and went to find her younger sisters, the children were already immersed in playing.
They were originally children who grew up in the countryside and had been locked up at home for a long time. How could they not want to play like a wild horse when they got to the field? Standing at the side, the servants attentively watched the girls, for fear that something might happen.
You Jin smiled and reassured everyone: "It's okay. They grew up in the mountains when they were young. Bumping around isn’t a problem. Let them play!"
Seeing that Eldest Miss had said this, the servants were no longer so nervous. Still, they didn't dare to really relax and stood at side in a disciplined manner.
After listening to Son's words, Xiao Hai Ru was a little surprised. He thought that his son could live in Luohe Prefecture for so long because someone must have seduced his soul and made him be in bliss. Never thought he treated the other as a younger sister. The father and son have never had a heart-to-heart conversation. Since the son had said so, Xiao Hai Ru had nothing to say. So he picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and firmly lower it on the rice papee. ‘Endure’ was written with the brush. Then he spoke: "You have always been resolute. I know that Bai Family matter was just an excuse for you to leave the capital. Since you have been outside for so long, it’s time you settle down."
"Father, I have been living step by step according to your ideas all my life. You asked me to take the academic examination, I studied hard day and night to get the rank of Juren. You hoped that I would inherit the family business. As soon as I could read, I began to learn how to use the abacus ...Father, I'm just tired and want to take a break. Can't I just take a break?" Xiao Lin Yu felt rather uncomfortable. The smile on his face became more bitter.
Xiao Hai Ru never thought that his son would say such a thing. He put down the brush in his hand and looked at him with a sad expression on his face: "Since you were born, you were destined to be the next head of Xiao Family. The future of the entire Xiao family was tied to you. Now you are really more and more presumptuous. Go to the ancestral hall to plead guilty to your ancestors. Once you figure it out, then you can get up!"
Xiao Lin Yu wanted to say something else. But seeing his father's expression of hating iron for not being steel, he sighed lightly, bowed his hands in agreement, and then backed away.
In the end, Xiao Lin Yu knelt in the ancestral hall for seven days. Old Ancestor felt distressed for her eldest grandson. She couldn't stand it any longer and called Xiao Hai Ru for a lecture. Only then Xiao Lin Yu’s kneeling in the ancestral hall was dropped
***
Back to Su Family in Luohe Prefecture. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, Han Li followed Song Hua to Chaxiang, leaving Han Er Hua to follow Uncle Wang at Su Family.
With the help of You Jin, You He took out her private fund to open a small grocery store in Luohe Prefecture. Some household items, needles, threads, and so on were sold. Although it wasn’t a big business, it was still possible to earn money for household use. The person You Jin entrusted to go to Dingyuan to inquire brought back Mrs. Han's letter.
"Third Aunt didn't mention herself in the letter. She only talked about other people's affairs. From what Third Aunt conveyed, she has no worries now that Elder Sister You He isn’t in Dingyuan. If she wants to fight with Third Uncle, it shouldn't be a problem."
In You Jin's view, Mrs. Han was a very intelligent and resolute woman. Yue Chang Shou was still a little lacking compared to her. It was probably easy to deal with him.
Mrs. Su can recognize a few words now. After roughly reading Mrs. Han's letter, she nodded in agreement with her daughter's words: "But we still need to pay more attention. If something happens to your third aunt, we can help as much as we can."
"Don't worry, Mother. I have my own arrangements." When You Jin sought someone to go to Dingyuan to inquire about the news, she also found someone to help keep an eye on Yue Family's affairs. If something goes wrong, she will know the news as soon as possible and know how to handle it. Although Mrs. Su had separated with Yue Chang Lu, all of them would rush to suck their blood if Yue Family members knew the current situation at home!
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, it was the season of golden osmanthus fragrance again.
Su Family’s sweet-scented osmanthus bloomed very well this year. Only people at the foot of the mountain could smell the faint fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus mixed in the refreshing autumn wind. From today, it was Su Family’s sweet-scented osmanthus harvest period. It was also the favorite tasks of all the little girls in Su Famil - shaking osmanthus. That’s why, early this morning, all the little girls, except for You Yin and You Zhu who were going to open the snack shop in the city, got up early and changed into narrow-sleeved tops and pants that allowed free movement without Mrs. Su's reminder. The maids and female servants combed their hair into two braids. Then they all stood in the front yard and waited for Eldest Sister to declare their departure.
You Jin was wearing a bamboo green narrow-sleeved gown today and had two braids. Although it was an ordinary attire, the girl was glowing and beautiful. The elegant bamboo green color perfectly complemented her.
Holding hands with little Eighth, she slowly walked. She didn’t forget to remind her younger sisters: "When we get to the mountain in a while, you aren’t allowed to run around and make trouble, understand?"
"Eldest Sister, you already said it yesterday. We all remember! Let's go!" Anxious little Seventh pulled You Ling to the front and chimed in response: "Eldest Sister, hurry up. Uncle Song and Uncle Niu are both waiting!" Uncle Niu was Su Family’s new driver. Now there were three drivers for Su Family. One was responsible for transporting You Yin and You Zhu to and from Luohe Prefecture every day. One was for You Jin. The other who picked up Mrs. Su, Uncle Song and others on normal days.
Chuckling, Uncle Niu stood in front of the carriage. When he saw Seventh Miss rushing over first, he picked her up and put her carefully on the carriage: "Seventh Miss, you have to sit still."
"Thank you, Uncle Niu!" Little Seventh thanked Uncle Niu very politely and sat on the shaft of the carriage as she waved to You Jin and others who had just walked to the gate: "Elder Sisters, hurry up!"
Ever since old Third Chen and others pretended to be bandits and blocked the way to kidnap You Jin, Mrs. Su and You Jin paid more attention to the safety of the children in the family. Most days, there weren’t many opportunities for the children to go out to play wildly. So it was really exciting to be able to go out to play together like today.
With the addition of the guards sent by Xiao Lin Yu, You Jin asked the leader of the guards to pick seven or eight boys with good qualifications back for training. They will be guards in the future. Now that the family’s security at home had reached a higher level than before, You Jin can be rest assured to bring the few younger sisters out to play.
On the mountain in Houjiawan, a group of long-term workers had received their order yesterday. The owner family’s girls were going to come to the mountain to shake the osmanthus. They had already prepared the sackcloth for collecting the shaken off osmanthus. There were also sugar water prepared to quench the girls’ thirst, Except for the supervisor who was still waiting for the arrival of the owner family in front of the hut at the foot of the mountain, the other long-term workers had already gone up the mountain to collect osmanthus flowers.
"Hello Eldest Miss. Yesterday we heard that Miss is coming, This news had us delighted. Everyone is waiting for Miss!" The manager saw the carriage from a distance and knew that it was Su Family. The carriage hadn’t stopped yet when he went up to meet her and fawningly grinned.
You Jin got out of the carriage first. Then she brought little Eighth down. The other younger sisters also got out of the carriage one by one. Standing in front of the supervisor, You Jin had a faint smile on her face: "It's just a few children who want to come out to play. Uncle Hou doesn't need to spend so much time preparing things." Handing little Eighth to You Bao to hold, she instructed a few more words: "I'll talk to Uncle Supervisor for a while. You Bao, you are the elder sister. You have to take care of the few younger sisters."
The barren hills in the past two years have already been tidied up. More than half of them have been planted with various trees. Among them, osmanthus, jasmine, and thorn rose were the main ones. Today, there were nearly 20 mu of osmanthus trees in bloom. Harvesting the osmanthus was a big project.
"Don't worry, Elder Sister, I will take good care of younger sisters." You Bao earnestly nodded and then set off with the cheering younger sisters who were ready to explore. The servants that were brought along hurriedly followed their masters for fear they would bump into something.
After watching the younger sisters merrily and rowdily leave, You Jin came back to her senses and continued to discuss with Uncle Song and Houjiawan’s supervisor.
"How many sweet-scented osmanthus needs to be collected now?" The three of them walked on the flat mountain road. You Jin took in the rosy-scented osmanthus and asked Supervisor Hou who was half a step behind her.
Supervisor Hou was originally a long-term worker hired by Su Family. Due to being responsible and steadfast in doing things, he was promoted to a supervisor. He respectfully answered: "Replying to Miss, more than half of it has been collected now. It will be mostly done in two days. The collected sweet-scented osmanthus flowers have been dried, packed, put in bags, and stored into the warehouse."
You Jin nodded in satisfaction. She turned to Uncle Song beside her: "When all the sweet-scented osmanthus flowers come down this year, leave enough for the snack shop to use along with dried jasmine and thorn rose flowers. As for the rest, arrange for them to be sent to Chaxiang. Get Song Hua to prepare his side. We’ll try it with autumn tea first and produce good ones. Next year, we’ll try with the good ones."
Su Family’s tea garden in Chaxiang naturally couldn’t produce tea so quickly. So Song Hua and Han Li’s tasks in Chaxiang weren’t only the daily management of the tea garden and tea workers, but also finding good tea gardens to supply for the next two years. The required tea was to be used during the special period when their tea garden had no output.
"Miss, don't worry, this old servant had already contacted someone. I can arrange to send the sweet-scented osmanthus to the south after all the sweet-scented osmanthus flowers are harvested here." Uncle Song always knew what his Eldest Miss was going to do. Naturally, everything was carefully planned out. Due to this, the finishing ends had been arranged long ago.
"In addition, the chickens we raised this year aren’t bad. We’ll make a trip to Yunweixuan later to see how much Second Master Huang wants this year. If he doesn't want many, you should contact the other restaurants." There were thousands of chickens on this mountain waiting to be sold. They were all chickens raised on the mountain. The taste was much better than ordinary domestic chickens. In addition, there weren’t many such large chicken farms nearby. Ordinary restaurants liked to cooperate with these chicken farms that could supply stable supply. Yunweixuan had always been the first choice for Su Family to cooperate with.
"Deal. I'll go to Luohe Prefecture when I'm free in two days." After hearing this, Uncle Song kept this matter in mind. He calculated when he was free to find the supervisor of Yunweixuan.
The trio walked around the mountain. The long-term workers all knew Eldest Miss of the owner family. Upon Eldest Miss’s arrival, they all stopped their work and greeted Eldest Miss.
"Everyone had worked hard. After this busy period is over, I will give everyone a few more days of vacation for winter isolation.” In winter, there was little work on the mountain. So You Jin was also willing to give the long-term workers a vacation. After all, they had worked hard. After a year's work, it was time to let everyone have a rest on such cold winter days.
"Thank you, Eldest Missl!" All the long-term workers joyfully expressed their thanks and began to concentrate on their work. The sackcloth was spread on the ground. Then one person shook the sweet-scented osmanthus tree, which had not yet grown to a large size. The sweet-scented osmanthus hanging all over the branches fell like a torrential rain under man-made force. After a while, only a few small flower buds remained behind among the leaves of the originally bountiful golden sweet-scented osmanthus tree. Majority of the sweet-scented osmanthus fell on the sackcloth spread on the ground.
By the time You Jin finished dealing with the garden’s matter and went to find her younger sisters, the children were already immersed in playing.
They were originally children who grew up in the countryside and had been locked up at home for a long time. How could they not want to play like a wild horse when they got to the field? Standing at the side, the servants attentively watched the girls, for fear that something might happen.
You Jin smiled and reassured everyone: "It's okay. They grew up in the mountains when they were young. Bumping around isn’t a problem. Let them play!"
Seeing that Eldest Miss had said this, the servants were no longer so nervous. Still, they didn't dare to really relax and stood at side in a disciplined manner.
Xiao Lin Yu (╥﹏╥)
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