Chapter 326 Lord He, a Sixth-Rank Official in the Capital

With several days of sunshine, the lotus pond is progressing smoothly.

Cheng Wanwan stood by the pond and calculated that it would be almost finished in three more days.

Once the weather gets a little warmer, we start composting the lotus roots. Then we transplant the wild lotus roots from the mountain, mix them with some lotus roots bought from the mall, and sparsely plant them at the bottom of the pond. That completes the lotus pond project.

As she pondered, she looked up and saw Master Yu and his family of four sitting by the field, painting, not far away.

Master Yu was painting, Madam Yu was grinding ink, and the two children were reading attentively—a truly tranquil and harmonious scene.

"It's freezing..." Madam Yu suddenly threw down the inkstone, rubbed her arms, and said, "Old Yu, you can stay here and paint by yourself. I'm going for a walk... Madam Sui!"

She looked up and saw Cheng Wanwan, and quickly walked over.

Cheng Wanwan wanted to run away.

This Madam Yu was far too enthusiastic, completely unlike the women of this era.

“Madam Sui, you look like you’re glowing standing here, you’re so fair.” Madam Yu, ever the friendly type, took Cheng Wanwan’s arm. “And your skin is so good! I’m twenty-nine this year, and I feel like my skin isn’t as smooth as yours. How does Madam Sui take care of her skin?”

Cheng Wanwan smiled and said, "I'm a few years older than you, so you can call me 'sister'."

The main reason is that she is younger than Master Yu, so it wouldn't be quite right for Madam Yu to call her sister-in-law, and calling her aunt would be too much of a generational difference. So they can only address each other as sisters.

“Alright, then I’ll call you Sister Wanwan.” Madam Yu blinked. “My surname is Lu, and my given name is Yingxue. You can call me by my given name. Sister Wanwan, I really like you so much. I heard about you when I was in Huzhou and I was always curious about what kind of woman you were. It turns out… you’re much more beautiful than I imagined, and much more approachable than I imagined.”

Cheng Wanwan was embarrassed by the compliments and immediately changed the subject: "Yingxue, you're more than ten years younger than Master Yu, right? How come the two of you..."

"He was just a down-on-his-luck scholar who wandered to Huzhou and I rescued him. We got to know each other after the first time, and by the third time, I was determined to marry him," Lu Yingxue said cheerfully. "However, there were some issues with his background… My father didn't approve of us being together, and he always felt he was too old, hadn't achieved anything, and didn't want to hold me back. I thought, fine, if you don't want to marry me, then I won't marry anyone. I was fourteen, and by eighteen, I was considered an old maid in our area. My parents were extremely anxious, so they had to go to Old Yu to discuss the marriage, and that's how it happened, isn't it?"

Cheng Wanwan was somewhat stunned.

There were such daring women in ancient times; she was clearly ignorant.

She spent every day in Dahe Village, learning about all sorts of trivial matters there. The villagers' somewhat reserved attitude towards marriage made her feel that this was a reserved era.

Lu Yingxue broadened her horizons.

"Sister Wanwan, you're so young, why haven't you thought about remarrying?" Lu Yingxue blinked. "You're only thirty-four this year, so young and beautiful, how can you grow old alone? I know a lot of people in Huzhou, otherwise I could introduce you to someone..."

"Stop!" Cheng Wanwan said with a headache. "Yingxue, you've just arrived, so you probably don't know how much Da Shan's father and I love each other. I swore at his grave that I would stay by his side for the rest of my life. Don't ever mention remarrying again."

Lu Yingxue was stunned for a moment: "If it were me, I definitely wouldn't be able to hold on. If Lao Yu had died before me, I would definitely have found another man to marry!"

"What did you say?" Master Yu stood behind her with a dark expression. "Say it again?"

"You misheard..." Lu Yingxue grabbed Yu Fuzi's arm, "Are you finished drawing? Let me see what you drew?"

Master Yu flicked his sleeves: "Pulling and tugging like this, what kind of behavior is this?"

After saying that, he turned and left.

"That's just how he is," Lu Yingxue whispered. "I'll go back and coax this old man, then I'll come find you tonight."

She lifted her skirt and followed, and the two children skipped and hopped behind Master Yu.

Cheng Wanwan couldn't help but laugh.

Master Yu has been in Dahe Village for several months now, and she always feels that Master Yu is like a deep pool, unfathomable, and although he is only in his early forties, he seems to be aging.

But when his wife and children arrived, the pond began to ripple and come alive.

She was actually a little envious of this kind of love.

As expected of a single dog, after being easily subjected to some kind of emotional abuse, he's already starting to fantasize about love.

Cheng Wanwan shook her head, turned around and went home to continue practicing calligraphy.

Just as they spread out a sheet of paper, they heard a commotion outside, as if a horse-drawn carriage had entered the village.

She thought it was a customer coming to pick up the goods, but when she went out, she found that the person who came was actually Magistrate Shen.

Four or five horse-drawn carriages drove in from the main road in a grand procession.

The carriage stopped at the village entrance. Magistrate Shen was the first to get out, then walked to the second carriage and cupped his hands to welcome the people inside.

"Lord He, we have arrived at Dahe Village."

After Magistrate Shen made a report, the carriage curtain was lifted, and a man in his thirties stepped out of the carriage.

He stood at the front of the carriage, looking at the muddy ground with a hint of disdain. At that moment, two servants got off the carriage behind him, carried the sedan chair over, and helped him sit on it.

"Lord Shen, call someone to lead the way to Coal Hill." Lord He squinted and pretended to sleep, looking quite pleased with himself. "If the coal reserves in this village are similar to those in Xicheng, then I'll reluctantly stay here and suffer. But if it's just a small hill, then this trip has been a waste."

Magistrate Shen sent someone to invite the village head, and he carefully stayed by Lord He's side.

This Lord He is the Salt and Iron Commissioner of the Imperial Court. Coal, copper, iron and other commodities are all under the control of the Iron Commissioner. This department is very lucrative, and everyone is eager to get in. Although he is only a sixth-rank official, his prestige is no less than that of a fifth-rank official.

In particular, this Lord He, whose surname is He, comes from the He family in the capital. That is a very prestigious and influential family. With the support of his family, Lord He can act with impunity when he leaves the capital to do business. He doesn't care about anyone. Yesterday, when he met with the prefect in Huzhou, the prefect, who was a fourth-rank official, had to show some deference to a sixth-rank official.

It wasn't Lord He who was being yielded to, but rather the He family behind him.

Thinking of this, Magistrate Shen became even more respectful.

Before long, the village head, dressed in clean clothes, rushed over and knelt down with a thud: "This humble subject kowtows to Lord He, and kowtows to the county magistrate!"

The yamen runner who went to inform him had already told him the identity of the person who came: a sixth-rank official from the capital. The village head secretly looked up and saw the county magistrate, whom he always admired and respected, standing humbly beside Lord He. He couldn't help but feel a chill. This Lord He was someone of great importance. Could their Dahe Village accommodate such a big shot?

The village head, walking unsteadily, led the way, taking the group to the desolate low hills behind Dahe Village.

This stretch of low hills was a gift from the imperial court last time. No grass or trees grow on the hills, and the foot of the hills is barren. Given other options, the villagers don't care about this wasteland, and few people come here.

The accompanying technical personnel went up the mountain to check the situation of the coal mine. They investigated all the dozen or so low hills and worked for a whole day. Finally, they concluded that the land was full of coal, making it roughly a medium-sized coal mine.

"This is truly a stroke of luck!" He Yan laughed. "Once this coal mine is officially completed, my official position will be promoted again. It's getting late, let's find a place to settle down."

The coal mine needs further detailed exploration and the construction of an operational mine shaft, as well as the building of a transportation route. This is not something that can be completed in ten days or half a month, so we need to stay in this village temporarily.

The village head was already prepared and bowed his head, saying, "Please, Lord He, stay at my humble home. Although it is an adobe house, the quilts and sheets on the bed have been newly changed. Please make do with it."

"Mud houses? Wouldn't that be an insult to my status?" He Yan raised a finger. "Aren't there brick houses over there? I'll requisition them."

The village head looked up and saw that it was Manager Yan's house, which was already built. Manager Yan and his family planned to move in on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which was tomorrow...