Chapter 538. Changes and Developments (1/2)
These old officials gossiped privately amongst themselves. Who among them had drunk the fruit wine the emperor emeritus had given them? Those who used to be bedridden for most of the year could now get out of bed and move around. Who among them had a body full of old injuries after battling for the throne with the emperor emeritus? After drinking the grape wine that was given to them, they no longer felt the pain of those old injuries in the winter. Their legs and feet had also become more nimble as well…
Even taking the emperor emeritus as an example would work. When he was young, he spent many years out on campaign and was famous for risking his life. Consequently, he constantly added on new injuries on top of the old. Ten years ago, he had abdicated from the throne and gave it to his imperial grandson. He was in his early sixties then but resembled a doddering old man with illnesses all throughout his body. When his old injuries flared up, he wasn’t even able to mount a horse then.
But what about now? He was in his seventies but resembled a man in his early sixties and seemed even younger than he was ten years ago. It was as if he had obtained a second spring in his body. His body was full of youthful vigor now and his complexion glowed with health. During the autumn hunt, he even competed with men much younger than him and had killed quite a bit of game with his arrows.
In the eyes of these old officials, these changes in the emperor emeritus were linked heavily with the fruit wine. Although fruit wine had just started being used by the emperor this year, those old generals with a good relationship with the emperor emeritus had tasted some grape wine with him before. When they went home, they couldn’t forget the taste of that beverage.
Therefore, in many people’s hearts, the fruit wine was more effective than the most miraculous medicine being produced by Tongren Medicine Hall. There were plenty of old men whose bodies were deteriorating, yearning to stay in power, and reluctant to retire from their official posts who privately tried to investigate the origins of the fruit wine. However, other than the imperial family, very few people knew about where the wine came from. Of the people who had an inkling, they kept their mouths shut and refused to divulge the secret. Thus, they could only stay disappointed!
However, going off topic for long was not good, so it was best to go back to the maidservants by Xiaocao. Out of the four personal maidservants she had first chosen, Xiaocao now only had Wutong and Pipa left by her side. Pipa had a steady and introverted temperament, so she was currently in charge of managing all of the affairs at the Yu Residence.
Originally, Xiaocao had been planning on giving this task to Wutong. After spending two plus years with her mistress, this maid had tempered herself and was now very loyal and skilled at managing people. However, Wutong personally made the decision to stay by Xiaocao’s side as a personal maidservant as she felt she could continue to learn a lot more and sharpen her skills. Nevertheless, she did a very good job in managing Xiaocao’s courtyard. Everything was clear and orderly under her management and the maids in the courtyard were more afraid of her than they were of their master. Because of this, she had trained quite a few useful maidservants.
If Wutong was considered her left hand, then Yingchun, who had gradually matured, could be considered her right hand. Although the little lass was a bit talkative at times, she resembled a completely different person on the outside. She was very decisive in her actions and never made her master lose face.
Tanchun was the youngest of the bunch and was currently studying very hard with a teacher to learn arithmetic. She noticed that her mistress seemed to labor hard over the account books every day and wanted to help her mistress out. Thus, she secretly learned how to read account books by her master’s side. When Xiaocao noticed that she was quite diligent about this, she hired a specialist to specially teach her. She wasn’t the only student. In the future, as the family’s businesses increased, she would need more and more people who had the ability to read and balance account books. Right now she was recruiting more talent for the future!
Tanchun’s goal was to become the best bookkeeper under her master! In the past, accounting and bookkeeping were only done by men but times had changed! Her mistress had said that women could hold up half of the sky. She wanted to become the best female accountant in the nation, one that would make men envious of her skills! However, the most important task right now was to carefully learn the ‘Arabic numerals’ and the ‘multiplication tables’ that her master had talked about.
Consequently, the maidservants under her were now even more busy than herself. Yu Xiaocao felt a bit embarrassed about this fact. However, with people willing to help out, there wouldn’t be anything wrong with delegating the management of her industries to these maids she had personally taught herself, right?
Thus, the maids that accompanied her on this outing were still Yingchun and Wutong. Ah! She also had the two bodyguard maids that Zhu Junyang had sent to her, Chunhua and Qiushi. Speaking of them, Xiaocao felt a bit remorseful for what had happened to these two maidservants.
After the hunt had ended, these two had disappeared for a long period of time. At first, Xiaocao had thought that that fellow Zhu Junyang had taken them back for a mission. After all, it wasn’t easy to raise and keep female hidden soldiers who were skilled at martial arts. Later on, she discovered that her assumption was wrong. In fact, Chunhua and Qiushi had the crime of not protecting their master well and were duly punished. They were bedridden for a whole month after that.
If it wasn’t for the fact that Zhu Junyang worried that Xiaocao would feel sad if he gave her new people, these two maids wouldn’t be able to even keep their lives. Every time he thought of his little lass confronting that starved and half-mad tiger, helpless and alone, Zhu Junyang had a desire to go out and slaughter people.
Although the little lass had put up an external act of being perfectly fine, she had had nightmares for several nights in a row. If another weak and delicate noble maiden had been in her place, they would have become severely ill from the fright and might have laid in bed half-dead.
In Zhu Junyang’s eyes, making the two maidservants, Chunhua and Qiushi, bedridden for only a month was a sign of mercy for them. After all, they weren’t able to protect his little lass well. Since the two of them had escaped the death penalty, they were even more loyal to their ‘savior’ and now naturally accompanied Xiaocao wherever she went.