Chapter 425 - Visitor (2/2)

Zhu Junyang reached out to help fix the crooked jade hairpin on Xiaocao’s head, and softly said, “Minister Liu is seriously such a workaholic. It’s already this late yet he’s still staying at another person’s house with no intention of leaving. You should go and send him away. This prince will take you to the Imperial Plantation tomorrow morning. Go to rest earlier. Have your maidservant burn some calming incense for you and brew a cup of soothing tea.”

Yu Xiaocao’s heart warmed up because of Royal Prince Yang’s concern. She nodded her head obediently like a gentle kitten, waved goodbye to him, and then followed Xichun to the study in the outer courtyard.

Minister Liu had already drunk the nth cup of tea in the study, and his intention was very obvious. The faster he could get the pesticide and spray it on the corn seedlings, the sooner he could feel at ease. Today was the first day that the eighteen grain shops in the capital started selling corn seeds, and it was extremely popular. He heard that the villages around the capital had been notified in advance, so under the leadership of the village heads, the villagers were rushing to the capital. He reckoned that the stores around the grain shops would have decent business in the next few days.

He had hurried over to the General’s Estate in order to share the news with Miss Yu. He hadn’t expected that she got summoned by the emperor right after lunch. It seemed like the emperor shared the same view as him. The current priority was to increase the output of crops so that the common people wouldn’t have to starve.

Minister Liu sighed when he thought about the problem of people’s livelihood. In the past two years, the north had been suffering from drought and locust plague. Fortunately, the emperor made a timely decision to send Royal Prince Yang to transfer grain from the south to the north via waterway so as to avoid widespread starvation. The emperor had racked his brain in order to ensure that the people wouldn’t starve! If these high yield crops could be popularized and every family had surplus food, they wouldn’t be thrown into chaos in times of disaster.

The sun was slowly moving closer to the west. Miss Yu had been in the palace for the entire afternoon, so it was apparent how much importance the emperor placed on her. Those officials, who discriminated against Miss Yu because she was a girl and tried to stop the emperor, should have realized their mistakes now, right? Miss Yu didn’t get the position of an official to be an ornament, but instead she was an official who worked diligently. She was much more capable than those fellows who held a position but didn’t do any work.

From now on, he could finally take his hands off the matters of the Imperial Plantation with ease. In the past two years, he was seriously exhausted from running back and forth between the Ministry of Revenue and the Imperial Plantation. He believed that the Imperial Plantation’s experimental fields would thrive under the management of Miss Yu!

Just as Minister Liu held up his eighth cup of tea and felt too full to stomach it, he heard some movement outside of the study. A moment later, Yu Xiaocao, who dressed in a red official’s gown, came in from outside and she was followed by a young maidservant who couldn’t hide her excitement.

“Official Liu, you must have waited for a long time!” Minister Liu was a second-ranked official, so he had a much higher status than her who was just a low sixth-ranked official. As a lower ranked official, she should show proper respect to the higher ranked official.

Minister Liu didn’t wait for her to finish her bow and stretched out his hands to stop her, saying, “Yu… Official Yu, please don’t be so courteous. Quickly have a seat!”

After staying in the imperial study for the entire afternoon and suffering a fright, Yu Xiaocao really did need to sit down for a rest. She politely asked Minister Liu to sit down and had someone get a new pot of tea before she sat down.

“Miss… Official Yu, may I know how much of the pesticide you have on hand…” Minister Liu almost called her ‘Miss Yu’, but when he saw the small official’s gown on her body, he quickly changed his words.

Xiaocao smiled and said, “Official Liu, you’re a higher ranking official and an elder to me, so you should just call me ‘Xiaocao’. It sounds more cordial. When you say ‘Official Yu’, I almost thought that you were calling my father!”

Originally, with Minister Liu’s rigid temperament, he wouldn’t easily change his way of speech. However, the young girl in front of him was about the same age as his granddaughter. She also spoke and behaved in a very amiable and lively manner. Thus, people couldn’t help but to feel a sense of affinity towards her. He smiled and said, “Then I’ll call you ‘Miss Xiaocao’.”

As long as he didn’t insist on calling her Official Yu, it didn’t matter what he called her. Yu Xiaocao picked up her cup of tea to moisten her throat, and then said, “Xiaocao really admires Official Liu’s dedication to the people. But, I didn’t bring a lot of the potion with me this time. I just have some samples for the emperor and officials to look at.”

Seeing Minister Liu’s eager and anxious expression, she quickly continued, “But, after seeing the emperor last time, I started to work on gathering the ingredients for the medicine. I almost have all of them now. It’s getting late now, so it’s a little late to leave the city. I’ll work overtime tonight to make more potions so that tomorrow’s work won’t be delayed.”

Since Yu Xiaocao said that, Minister Liu could only suppress the anxiety in his heart. He nodded and said, “Then I will have to trouble Miss Xiaocao tonight! This old man will come over early tomorrow morning!”

[1] Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) - author of Dreams of the Red Chambe