Chapter 347 is back]

Qin Mengyue and Shen Fenghe were both startled and hurriedly got up to go to the kitchen to prepare food for them.

Using the banknotes that Xiao Yunshuo had left behind before returning to Beijing as a cover, Chen Fenghe was able to take out money from the space very smoothly. The family had no shortage of rice, flour, grain, and oil.

She and Qin Mengyue mixed some flour and made hand-rolled noodles. They also took down a piece of bacon and sausage from the eaves, boiled some water, steamed the bacon and sausage, and soaked some dried beans in hot water to make a dish of fried dried beans with bacon and sausage.

Cook the hand-rolled noodles in boiling water, then put the topping on the noodles and mix well before eating.

In addition, each person was given a fried egg.

The two finished eating quickly.

Yuan Xu ate silently and didn't dare to praise anything - how could he dare to be slick when the noodles were made by the Empress and the Crown Princess themselves?

After eating, he immediately left for a long journey, saying that he was going to keep watch.

Only then did Xiao Yunshuo tell Shen Fenghe and Qin Mengyue in detail about what had happened in the capital.

Qin Mengyue was no longer as naive and trusting as before. When she heard Xiao Yunshuo say that the prince's crime of treason had been pardoned, she couldn't help but frown.

"Your father...did he really say pardon? Didn't he order a thorough investigation by the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court?"

Seeing Qin Mengyue like this, Xiao Yunshuo felt sorry for her and whispered, "Mother, pardoning her is the same. At least I won't be charged with treason anymore, right?"

Qin Mengyue's face couldn't help but become even more angry: "How can it be the same? You have clearly never committed treason, so why do you need him to pardon you? By doing this, isn't he personally confirming your crime of treason? You are his own flesh and blood, how could he! How could he..."

As he spoke, he was so angry that he couldn't help but hold his chest and gasp for breath.

Seeing this, Chen Fenghe and Xiao Yunshuo hurried to support her.

Chen Fenghe immediately pulled a heart-saving pill from her sleeve and gave it to Qin Mengyue, comforting her, "Mother, there's no rush. At least, the Fifth Prince and Prime Minister Shen have been confiscated and exiled. And now there's the Second Prince and the Sixth Prince fighting in the court. If the Crown Prince rashly returns to the court, he'll become a target of public criticism and be dealt with by the Emperor, the Second Prince, the Sixth Prince, and everyone else. It's better to lie low for now and wait for the right time to clear his name."

Qin Mengyue calmed down, laughed bitterly, and then said, "Feng He, you're right. I was just too impatient. By now, I should have given up hope in the current emperor. What can't a man like him do?"

Xiao Yunshuo whispered, "It would be best if Mother could think this way."

Chen Fenghe turned to look at Xiao Yunshuo and asked, "What are your plans next, Your Highness?"

Xiao Yunshuo smiled and said, "I actually thought about this while I was on the road."

A few days later, the official in charge of measuring and dividing the land came early in the morning to measure the land, and the villagers went over to see out of curiosity.

Madam Yang couldn't help but laugh and asked, "Sir, isn't this land a wasteland? Why did you suddenly come here to measure it?"

Village chief Wu brought his entire village here to escape famine. Although they were divided up the land in the village, there were still a lot of unowned wasteland left.

If you want these lands again, you need to buy them from the government. Secondly, after buying them and cultivating them, ordinary people without any official titles will have to pay public taxes.

Therefore, although the villagers felt sorry for the barren land, they did not dare to buy it for cultivation - and they did not have the money.

The clerk who was measuring the land couldn't help but sneer when he heard this: "It's ownerless, so why can't it be made ownerless? You don't have the money to buy the land, so naturally there will be rich people who will buy it."

Madam Yang found his words unpleasant, but because he was an official, she could not say much and could only smile awkwardly and walk away.

However, within half a day, the news spread throughout the village.

"I heard that all the wasteland in this village was bought by a family named Yun, and the big house not far from Madam Qin's house was also bought."

"A family with the surname Yun? I haven't heard of many people with the surname Yun in this area."

"I heard that my ancestors originally lived near Youzhou, but later fled the war and moved to the capital in the south. Several generations have lived there and made a fortune through business. The young master of this generation is said to be frail and sickly. After a doctor examined him, he said that he needed to be raised in his hometown to survive. Therefore, the young master decided to return to Youzhou.

His family still had some shops left in the city, and they sold the rest for silver, planning to buy some land and live a more pastoral life. It's said that this village was once his family's hometown, so he bought the land here despite its poor quality.

"So there's this connection. However, I'm afraid the Yun family was defrauded by the government. The land here is really too small. I heard he bought it for 1,000 taels of silver. This 1,000 taels could buy almost an acre of good farmland elsewhere."

"That can't be helped. Who told the Yun family's young master to have a disease that can only be cured by soil from his hometown?"

"However, whether the Yun family suffered a loss or not is beyond the point. Now that such a wealthy family has arrived in the village, and they haven't done farm work before, do you think they can afford to hire help? Judging from the lavish amount of money they spent on buying land, they should have enough money to hire help. For us, this is a great thing..."

The villagers talked about it, and after a few days, they saw two carriages carrying Young Master Yun coming to the village.

However, the one who went around checking was only the Yun family's housekeeper. Young Master Yun was so weak that he didn't even get off the carriage. After checking around in the dilapidated mansion, he drove the carriage back to the city.

Chen Fenghe watched the carriage coming and going from afar, and couldn't help but twitch his lips.

If you have the guts to leave like this, just stay in the city at night and don't come back to share the same bed with her.

Although... having a self-heating bed in the middle of winter doesn't seem so bad...

Early the next morning, Butler Yun came again, bringing with him many craftsmen and a lot of wood. It was obvious that they were here to repair the house.

Butler Yun went to Chen Fenghe's house and came out after a while, sending someone to the brick kiln behind.

Madam Yang came over early in the morning and asked, "What is the Yun family's housekeeper doing here?"

Qin Mengyue smiled and said, "Oh, it's that the Yun family somehow heard about my family's Fenghe burning red bricks to make lime and cement, so they came to ask for the firing method, saying that they also want to repair their newly bought house."

Upon hearing this, Madam Yang couldn't help but say, "Madam Qin, your Miss Shen's method is very valuable. Don't be too kind and give it to that family without thinking. His family is originally a businessman. If they learn it and sell it secretly somewhere else, you will lose out!"

Qin Mengyue smiled and said, "Thank you, Sister Yang, for reminding me. My Fenghe said the same thing. They didn't give us the recipe and the cooking temperature. They just asked Fenghe to check the key parts and give us some compensation so that we can help with the family expenses."

After hearing this, Madam Yang couldn't help but nodded and said, "That's it."

As he spoke, he couldn't help but look at the craftsmen with envy, saying, "The Yun family seems quite generous. These craftsmen must be paid a lot for their work..."

Qin Mengyue listened and smiled, "Speaking of this, I was just about to look for you, Sister Yang."

Madam Yang was stunned when she heard this: "Looking for me?"

Qin Mengyue smiled and said, "My Fenghe and Steward Yun have asked around. They found out that the craftsmen who came here are mostly doing fine carpentry work. There's a lot of other work that needs to be done to repair the house later. Fenghe mentioned that everyone in our village is off farming, so we could use a lot of manpower. Steward Yun was very happy and asked Fenghe to help arrange it. I'm thinking that Fenghe, a young woman, is not suitable for such work. So I'll have to trouble you, Sister Yang, and Village Chief Wu to talk to them and find some skilled workers in the village. Steward Yun said that everyone will be paid well."

Upon hearing this, Madam Yang's brows lit up, and she even offered some polite words, saying, "Well, we're all from the same village now, and we're all fellow villagers. We should help each other. Remuneration and the like are trivial matters. I'll go to the village head's house and talk to him. There's not much farm work to do this winter, and many of the village's able-bodied laborers are free. We can take advantage of this time to quickly repair the Yun family's house before we miss the spring plowing."

Madam Yang said this and stood up and left.

Chen Fenghe came out from the inner room and said with a smile: "There is a lady named Yang in the village who can help to talk to her, which makes things much more convenient."

Qin Mengyue smiled and said, "Who says it's not? But Fenghe, you're smart. Shuo'er moving into the village so suddenly would be eye-catching, wouldn't it? Spending some money and having the villagers help repair the house would benefit everyone, so it's not good to speculate too much. When others make nonsense, you might even help explain it. Now I understand why you went to so much trouble to burn red bricks and make cement and lime when you first moved in."

Chen Fenghe smiled and said, "Everyone in this village has experienced hardship. Even small favors will make them happy and grateful. However, you can't let them feel like they're being taken advantage of. Otherwise, over time, they'll just keep asking for more."

Madam Yang quickly spread the word that every household in the village was willing to do the work. To be fair, Village Chief Wu asked each household to provide one able-bodied worker to do the work.

Steward Yun, also known as Yuan Xu, paid everyone about 20% more than the local laborer's wage, which came to 50 coins a day. If they had some skills, such as carving and painting, they could get 70 or 80 coins.

As for the meal money, it’s the same as everything else, we don’t cover it.

Fortunately, we all come from the same village, so at noon we all go back home to have lunch before coming back.

In this area, a day's work, even if it's very tiring, can only earn about 40 cents at most, so everyone was very motivated in the first few days.

Butler Yun paid very generously and did not arrange for a supervisor. Therefore, after three or five days, some people who usually liked to cheat started to slack off blatantly.

Zhu Huaihua’s elder brother was one of the leaders.

Yang Baozong couldn't stand it any longer, so he walked over and whispered, "Zhu Dazhuang, why are you so lazy even though you're getting paid? Young Master Yun's family hasn't owed you any wages, and they're not like other masters who criticize their supervisors harshly. Don't go too far."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Dazhuang couldn't help but say contemptuously, "The Yun family is obviously wealthy. Every day, there are more than ten people from our village who come to work. That's five or six hundred coins in wages. Add to that the carpenters and stonemasons they hired, and you're spending at least one or two taels of silver a day. That's not to mention the expenses of buying high-quality logs, firewood, limestone, and the large bluestone slabs they sent people to the mountains to collect. We'll all be from the same village in the future. What's the big deal about taking advantage of them? This is just being lazy. Is it really necessary to make a fuss? I can see it, Yang Baozong, you just take advantage of their wealth and think you can work harder. Then, like that young lady Shen, they'll leave all the errands to you, so you can earn more money, right? Humph! You want to curry favor with them and work hard? Just do your job. You're meddling in everything, and you're even meddling in my affairs?"

Zhu Dazhuang's words made Yang Baozong so angry that his face turned black. "Zhu Dazhuang, I'm doing this for your own good. You know the Yun family is very wealthy. If you do a good job now, people will trust you and give you more work. If you have this attitude from the beginning, who will dare to employ you in the future? And take advantage of you? No matter how much benefit they give you, I'm afraid they won't let you take it! However, I don't hesitate to say it to you, it's up to you. Don't regret it when people don't want to use you anymore!"

Zhu Dazhuang looked at Yang Baozong's departing figure and said disapprovingly, "Tsk! He just works like me, and he pretends to be the village chief!"

On this day, Butler Yun did not say anything and paid Zhu Dazhuang his wages as usual.

Zhu Dazhuang was very proud. Others got fifty cents for doing so much work, but he still got fifty cents for being lazy for half a day.

It can be seen that the young master of the Yun family must be young and inexperienced and cannot manage the household. In the future, he only needs to use some tricks to cheat out a lot of money from the Yun family for his use, right?

He has made friends with many rich and dissolute young men in the town and even in Youzhou City. When the time comes, he can act as a bridge and introduce Young Master Yun to them. Then, won't he be included in the feasting, drinking, gambling, and debauchery in the future?

The more Zhu Dazhuang thought about it, the more excited he became. After work that day, he took the fifty cents he had earned and went to the town to drink with his friends.

Fifty cents couldn't buy any good wine, so they ordered a plate of peanuts at the door of the simple little tavern, imagining the good days of living a life of luxury with the Yun family's money in the future.

After drinking until midnight, Zhu Dazhuang returned home drunk.

The next day, I went to work and was an hour late.

This time, even Village Chief Wu couldn't stand it anymore and came over to scold Zhu Dazhuang.

Zhu Dazhuang didn't take the village chief seriously at all. He said a few perfunctory words and went to find a deserted place to slack off.

When he was paid in the evening, he was still paid the full salary.