Chapter 629 - Oral Order (1/2)
The third month of the year was the start of spring, and it was a time when all things were coming back. At a farmstead in the suburbs of the capital, the winter wheat was turning a verdant green and made all of the fields look lush and bright. The view of the fields reminded people of a beautiful ink-painting, awash with green. Xiaocao, who was dressed in a bright yellow dress, resembled the adorable and sweet looking winter jasmine flower. She gracefully stood in-between the fields as she watched the tenant farmers tending to the plants. She quietly worried about the army that was traveling to the northwest.
“Master! The emperor sent down an oral order, stating that you need to immediately go back to the capital.” Chunhua ran like the wind towards her, not even taking time to catch her breath as she bowed down to greet the slim figure.
Yu Xiaocao frowned slightly and muttered somewhat to herself in a puzzled manner, “An oral command? Why did the emperor suddenly summon me back to the capital?”
Yu Xiaolian, who was currently bent over in the fields pulling up weeds, hurriedly walked over when she heard the news. She quietly said, “It must be something urgent. Otherwise, the emperor would just wait until you went back to summon you into the palace. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on things. You should quickly head over.”
The start of spring marked the busy time period for farmers. Yu Hai and his wife weren’t the type of people to just sit back and relax. Thus, they brought their eldest son with them as they left the capital to go back to Tanggu well before the planting period started. Because they were afraid that their youngest daughter would be depressed after Royal Prince Yang was sent to the battlefield, they left behind Xiaolian to keep her company. That way, she would have someone to talk to on a daily basis and distract her from fretting too much. If it weren’t for the fact that Xiaocao was doing work for the emperor, Yu Hai and his wife might have brought Xiaocao back to Tanggu with them.
Princess Consort Jing also frequently invited Xiaocao over. The future in-laws had a very good relations.h.i.+p with each other, so good that the wife of the heir often joked that her mother-in-law had forgotten the old for the new. Xiaocao knew that the princess consort was worried, so in order to relieve the older woman, she always pretended to be as carefree and adorable as usual. Furthermore, she also always came with delicious medicinal cuisines for her future mother-in-law. Consuming all of these foods made Princess Consort Jing glow with health from head to toe. In fact, she looked about seven to eight years younger than her actual age. It made all of the n.o.ble matrons in the capital envy her incessantly and created even more interest in the future Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House.
The wife of the heir had also benefited from her mother-in-law’s relations.h.i.+p with Xiaocao. After eating a bellyful of delicious and nouris.h.i.+ng foods, her body was also at the peak of health. Her belly, which hadn’t had any stirrings for many years, was now even carrying a child. All of the lords and ladies of Imperial Prince Jing’s Estate had an imperial physician come over every month to check their pulses. Last time, her pulse was normal, likely because it was too early to tell. This month, however, they had discovered that she had been pregnant for more than a month now.
Princess Consort Jing repeatedly complimented Xiaocao, stating that she was their family’s lucky star. It truly was as the head priest of Huguo Temple had stated: Good fortune follows her, bringing luck to her family and her husband’s family. She hadn’t even married over but she had caused a whole host of good things to happen. Not only was the princess consort’s body nursed completely back to health, but her youngest son’s ‘problem’ was also fixed without requiring any medicine. Even her eldest daughter-in-law had benefited from Xiaocao. It had been eight years since the wife of the heir’s last child but she was now pregnant again. She complimented Xiaocao so much that Xiaocao was a bit embarra.s.sed and had to avoid going to the estate for a few days.
In order to avoid dwelling on her worries, Xiaocao threw herself into work. Originally, she could have sat back and let things happen at the Imperial Plantations. However, now she ran to the Imperial Plantations on an almost daily basis to manage the work there, causing all of the stewards to have no work to do. Ever since Zhu Junyang left the capital, she spent at least six days out of ten at the Imperial Plantations. Naturally, she didn’t spend all of her time there. Instead, she also spent some time at the neighboring farmstead, which was owned by Royal Prince Yang, and workshops on the mountain.
Behind the farmstead, at the foot of the mountain, the outline of the workshops could already be seen. At a glance, it was obvious that these workshops would be even more grand than the farmstead. Now, other than opening a workshop to process flower teas, they were also going to open a fruit wine workshop and canning workshop. All of them were going to be under the management of Xichun.
That la.s.s Xichun was becoming more and more like a confident head manager. All of the workshops under her ran a tidy and efficient s.h.i.+p. The amount of business she had had already surpa.s.sed the amount of business that the Yu’s Frozen Dessert and Pastry Shop had, which was under Yangliu. Although these couldn’t compare to Hechun’s ‘Blossoming Beauty’ and Yingtao’s medicine factory, the profits were still quite good.
The maids all had good relations.h.i.+ps with each other but they also silently competed amongst themselves. At the end of the year, when they had to report on their businesses to their mistress, Xiaocao always felt like the four were quietly trying to stay ahead of the others. Each maid under her was extremely hardworking, which actually gave her, as the mistress, quite a bit of pressure!
As for now, ‘Blossoming Beauty’ was the business under Xiaocao’s hands that made the most money as its members.h.i.+p system drove the n.o.ble matrons, who loved to compete and brag amongst themselves, to act like bees who had seen honey. These ladies rushed to throw money into Xiaocao’s pockets. Thus, the beauty salon and its accessories always had the largest profits, which made ‘Blossoming Beauty’ the venture that made the most money for her.
The second most profitable business had to be the pharmaceutical factory. Other than the prepared pills that treated colds, fevers, and coughs, Xiaocao was also in the process of experimenting to make a few other pills. For example, she planned on making medicines to treat insomnia, low energy, diabetes, and palpitations...under Yingtao’s management, the capital’s medicine factory had expanded by a large factor and all of the Tongren Medicine Halls in the northern parts of the country were now stocked with the Yu’s medicinal pills. Furthermore, the Yu’s wound balm was also very popular. In the eyes of other people, the pharmaceutical factory was the goose that laid the golden eggs!
Xichun was in charge of the winery and distillery. Whether it was the pure and cold high-alcoholic drinks or the sweet and effective fruit wines that nourished a person’s body, almost all of the restaurants and eateries in the capital had their products on the menu. The dried fruit and fruit canning factory had also signed an exclusive contract with the Zhou Family to provide their goods. Thus, the factory only needed to concern itself with manufacturing and the Zhou Family was in charge of sales and marketing.
Huang Shuya had wrangled her way into being in charge of selling and marketing the dried and canned fruits. She seized the opportunity to see her idol, Yu Xiaocao, and also asked for some tips along the way. For example, she learned how to use holiday sales, limiting products on the market, starvation marketing tactics, etc. With her idol pointing out a few ideas, it caused her to have a lightbulb go off in her head. Thus, she began her journey on the road of becoming a strong, independent woman. Naturally, in her heart, Yu Xiaocao had also become a figure like a G.o.d now.
The frozen desserts and pastry store that Yangliu was in charge of was also doing quite well and caused many people to eye it with jealousy. However, compared to the other businesses under her fellow friends’ hands, it was the least profitable. But, she was obsessed with cooking and baking, so she wasn’t down about this at all.
Xiaocao was planning on putting the medicinal cuisine restaurant under her management. Thus, Yangliu was currently in closed-door cultivation, learning how to cook ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ perfectly. Her mistress didn’t care about how expensive the ingredients were to allow her to practice. Yangliu had a gift for cooking, so in about a month, her ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ had already reached about seventy to eighty percent of the perfection of her mistress’s. If she was able to get the timing and heat down right, then she could truly graduate from this training.