Chapter 546. Thinking Freely (1/2)
For one’s own family, it was fine no matter how you received them. However, it was rumored that Xiaocao’s maidservants had come from the imperial city and their usual conduct was even more elegant than most girls from wealthy families. Yu Jiang’s wife had been worried this entire time that these maids would not be used to their crude and simple fare. Now, from the looks of it, her worries were superfluous.
In the farming villages in the northeast, almost every family would slaughter a year end pig. The villagers there all got together to celebrate noisily. From the start of the twelfth month, these villagers ate pig banquet foods non-stop. Dongshan Village originally didn’t have this type of custom, but when her eldest grandaunt fled from the northeast, she and her family brought this event over. Now, many of the families here had also started slaughtering pigs for the pig banquet. However, the most authentic pig banquet still came from Eldest Grandaunt’s hands!
Yu Xiaocao rubbed her rotund little belly that was stuffed full of food and strolled around the foot of the West Mountain. She also checked the traps and snares that were set earlier to see if she had any game. Zhao Han silently walked along with her and cherished his previous memories they had together in their childhood.
Every snare that Xiaocao set always had a higher than usual chance to catch prey. This lass seemed to have been blessed by a god. Just look, they were clearly in an area where wild animals were not numerous but out of ten traps and snares, around six to seven of them had animals caught in them.
The four maidservants took off their reserved and composed demeanors and revealed their true natures. Every time they found a snare that had prey in it, they all exclaimed in excitement and rushed forward to be the first to grab it. Almost everyone by the end had their hands full with some game. In fact, Zhao Han even carried a dead dumb roe deer back on his shoulders!
The twelfth month seemed to pass faster than other months. In the blink of an eye, they were at the year’s end. The farmstead’s greenhouse pavilions had stopped business since the twenty-ninth and would only reopen on the fifth of the next year. Little Shitou had braved the winds and snow to go back home on the twenty-eighth and only then was the Yu Family all back together.
At their New Year’s Eve family dinner, other than the Yu Family, there were an additional two guests. Zhao Han had been invited by Xiaocao to celebrate the New Years with her family and the other was the orphan Zhuang Xiaomo. At the table, Zhuang Xiaomo exerted quite a bit of effort to be attentive to Xiaolian the entire time. Yu Hai didn’t have a good expression to any of his ‘sons-in-law’ who were trying to steal his daughters from him. He couldn’t do much to Royal Prince Yang, but he wouldn’t make it easy for the fellow surnamed Zhuang, that big wolf, to steal Xiaolian away.
Xiaolian, who would be turning fourteen at the start of the year, had experienced her first awakening to love. Apparently, she seemed to have a bit of a good impression of the tall and handsome looking Zhuang Xiaomo. As for his attempts to get closer to her, Xiaolian had a red blush on her face and didn't seem to reject them at all.
As for the so-called future mother-in-law, Madam Liu seemed to regard this future son-in-law with increasing appreciation. She had always had a decent impression of this orphaned fellow, who, despite his lack of family, had a sense of self-confidence and ambition to do better for himself. In addition, he had a polite and gentle demeanor, a kind heart, and understood gratitude. If it wasn’t for her husband stopping her, Madam Liu would have treated him as if he was her half-son.
During New Years Eve night, Yu Hang took his younger brother Little Shitou, along with Zhao Han and Zhuang Xiaomo, to set off fireworks in the courtyard. In the rooms, Yu Hai took out the account books and went over the past year in detail with his youngest daughter. He also went over his proposed plans for the following year.
“Right now, the corn and winter wheat seeds from our farmstead are selling very well. In addition, we’re by the ocean, so it’s very convenient to ship our goods around. There are plenty of shipping convoys that are traveling from south to the north that want to buy our seeds to bring it there. However, we have a limited amount of land on our farm, so we’re not able to supply all that they want.” Yu Hai felt his heart itch whenever he thought of all of that money in front of him that he couldn’t get.
“That being said, we are still employed by the court! Naturally, we have to provide high-yielding seeds to Tanggu Town and the nearby Zhou Prefecture. Based on that, the amount of seeds we can sell elsewhere goes down even more!”
Yu Hai had found out through his older sister that the climate in the northeast was harsh, so their crop yields were very poor. The peasants who lived there had to tighten their belts for half a year. During the harshest time of the year, the people there could only eat one bowl of the cheapest and most common type of coarse grain gruel a day. If a disaster befell them, then they had to pack all of their things and flee from their homes.
Corn had a high harvest yield and wasn’t picky about its growing environment. If this crop could be widely planted in the north, then the commoners' lives would improve considerably for they would at least be able to fill their stomachs. Thus, Yu Hai did his best to sell as much corn as he could to those ships going to the north, but his efforts were like trying to put out a forest fire using one cup of water at a time.
Yu Xiaocao bit her lip in thought and then smiled at her father, who was looking at her expectantly, “Father, what are you looking at me for? Are you that certain that I’ll be able to come up with an idea?”
Yu Hai chuckled and stated in a somewhat proud manner, “Of course, my daughter is so incredible, so how could such a small problem cause any problems for my Cao’er?”
“In our hearts, Younger Sister, you are the most resourceful of us all, our lucky little immortal girl. Quickly tell us, what do you think about this?” Xiaolian urged Xiaocao on as she ate roasted melon seeds.
“I truly have an idea!” Yu Xiaocao continued under the gleaming and excited looks of her family, “I want to make Tanggu into a giant agricultural center and become the country’s largest seed wholesaler!”