Chapter 74: Thriving

Jitou Mountain was bustling for a long time, and Lu Jingbai also paid close attention to it privately for a while. The amount of evidence hidden on the desk kept piling up, and it seemed that after he got the ledger, the evidence he wanted to collect came more and more smoothly, as if someone had done it on purpose.

Hearing footsteps outside the door, he immediately extinguished the candle, cautiously took out the dagger hidden in his sleeve, and carefully untied the hidden thread on his arm to make sure that the concealed weapon could be successfully activated at that moment.

As soon as the door creaked open, Lu Jingbai, like a ferocious beast poised to pounce, raised his hand and launched his hidden weapon with a whooshing sound. After a few clangs, a deep male voice rang out: "What exactly happened that made you, a seventh-rank county magistrate, become so... adept at using hidden weapons?"

"Brother?" Lu Jingbai asked in surprise, taking out a flint and lighting it, instantly illuminating the room.

Lu Changrui put away his folding fan, looked down at the three short arrows that had fallen to the ground in front of him, and said, "Preparing hidden weapons is not enough; we also need to coat them with poison."

“Brother, I am a county magistrate, not an assassin,” Lu Jingbai said helplessly.

"Then what are you guarding?" Lu Changrui said. "Since guarding it is so hard, just give it to me."

"Give it to you?" Lu Jingbai's guard instantly went up. He was as smart as he was; he knew exactly what this meant. "Do you know what I'm investigating? Did my brother send those pieces of evidence to me? Are they meant for Prime Minister Su to secure your position in the cabinet?"

“No matter how you see me now, just hand over the things to me,” Lu Changrui said calmly, walking steadily toward the desk, but Lu Jingbai did not move aside.

“You know! You know what they’ve done, yet you turn a blind eye, and even become their accomplice! Is this still the brother I know?” Lu Jingbai said angrily. “You know those people imprisoned in the salt fields, they…”

With a loud bang, the inkstone on the table fell to the ground and shattered into several pieces. Lu Changrui said calmly, "They are too far away from us. Even if we don't see or hear them, it won't affect anything. But if we look up, there are some things we have to let go of and be willing to accept. We must be people who blend in with the world."

"Do you expect me to wait for you to come up with your ridiculous evidence and presumptuously expose us, only to see our Duke's Mansion targeted and plunged into utter ruin?" Lu Changrui's tone turned serious as he easily pulled out the most important ledger from a hidden compartment under the desk. "You still prefer to hide things here."

Lu Jingbai frowned as he watched Lu Changrui's actions. The questions became unimportant when the other party picked up the ledger. Whether it was his enlightenment or his martial arts training, it was all taught by this elder brother. No matter what identity he used, he could not convince him.

"Brother!" Lu Jingbai called out in a low voice as if making a last-ditch effort.

Lu Changrui tidied up the other letters in the drawer, then put them into his sleeve pocket as he said, “Jingbai, the world is not black and white. Do you remember Zhou Hainian, the second-place scholar of your year? He angered His Majesty with a single sentence and his entire family was executed.”

“If even a single word can cause such a reaction, do you know how many people will die because of this evidence?” Lu Changrui retorted.

Lu Jingbai let out a shout, which sounded exactly like someone laughing in extreme anger.

Lu Changrui ignored him and left as calmly as he had come. But as he stepped out of the room, he heard Lu Jingbai's voice: "Brother, from now on, we shall be strangers."

"Jingbai, don't be so naive," Lu Changrui said helplessly, then left without looking back.

Lu Jingbai picked up the short arrows from the ground with a sullen face, and then inserted them one by one into the hidden weapons concealed on his arm, as if he was seriously thinking about something through this action.

The moon is crescent-shaped, and its back seems to hold untold sorrow.

At the foot of Jigong Mountain, some figures could still be vaguely seen in the houses, and the campfire gradually died down, but the aroma of roasted meat lingered.

"I didn't expect Daya to be so good at hunting! This pheasant is so delicious when roasted!" Zheng San said happily, sucking on the bones. "Daya, in a few days it will be my wedding day. You'll have to help me set the scene and roast a few plates of meat skewers, right?"

"No," Zhao Daya refused.

"Don't refuse so quickly! How about thirty coins? Fifty coins? Hey, hey, don't go!" Zheng San said, hurriedly catching up with Zhao Daya.

Shen Zhiyi smiled helplessly, knowing she had to slip away before the fire reached her.

After a short while, Zhao Daya couldn't stand Zheng San's nagging anymore and said, "It was Zhiyi who mixed the chili powder with the others, saying it was some kind of barbecue seasoning..."

Before she could even finish hearing the last part of those words, Shen Zhiyi quickened her pace toward the room. Luckily, she had anticipated this and had already pushed open the door, saying impatiently, "Third Brother, it's very late now, I'm going to sleep first!"

At the same time, she closed the door.

Shen Zhiyi recalled that during the time she and Zhao Daya were running around to various villages, they unexpectedly found all kinds of seeds, including fennel and Sichuan peppercorns. With the addition of chili peppers, they could barely make up a bit of the flavor of barbecue seasoning, which led to tonight's kebabs.

Who knew that this meal would reveal Zheng San's cravings?

When Shen Zhiyi opened the door the next day, she never expected to see Zheng San so soon, and even less expected that his first words would be: "Sister Shen, your barbecue seasoning will definitely sell like hotcakes! Sister, have you ever thought about selling this barbecue seasoning?"

"We don't have many raw materials; the rest will have to wait until they're grown before we can prepare the mixture," Shen Zhiyi said earnestly.

"Oh, okay? Then let's wait until they're grown before selling them," Zheng San said with a grin. "Hey girl, about those tomatoes you mentioned, I was thinking of selling them in the city first..."

Zheng San spoke with the same playful smile when he got down to business. Shen Zhiyi listened patiently, offering suggestions from time to time. Whether or not to use them was up to Zheng San to decide.

Since you've taken on the role of a hands-off manager, you can't be completely hands-off.

"Alright, after chatting with the girl, I'm getting more and more confident!" Zheng San said confidently. "I'll take the fresh tomatoes first! San Tou is coming with me too, he works best with me."

"Understood," Shen Zhiyi replied.

A busy day begins with turning over the soil, and Shen Zhiyi, hoe in hand, continues turning over the soil with the others.

The alternation of day and night is called a day, and the cycle continues day after day. No matter how lively Jitou Mountain is, it must stop at the beginning of this month and everyone embarks on the road back to Xiaba Village. Afterwards, the cows' hair is washed until it shines brightly, and the trucks are neatly lined up and head towards Huanghua Village.

Zheng San sat in the lead carriage, wearing a new outfit, which was a rare treat for him. Today was his big day, and so many people were coming to pick up his bride. He was truly being given a lot of face!

This procession of oxcarts alone is the grandest display of wealth and prestige for the wedding.

The sun was shining brightly, what a fine day! I was eager to get there, and even more so to get back.

Shen Zhiyi and the young women and wives of Xiaba Village helped arrange the banquet. However, halfway through, Zhao Daya ran away. Originally, she wanted to catch someone to do the work, but she didn't expect to see Xuan Yan. Almost subconsciously, she looked around and then suddenly realized what was happening.

Anyway, she didn't need Zhao Daya's help, so Shen Zhiyi didn't go up there to eat this dog food and preferred to go to the kitchen to enjoy the warmth of home cooking.

The wedding in Xiaba Village was a lively affair, which made other girls from other villages who wanted to marry into the village extremely envious. They tried every possible way to get married, and it also made the young men from other villages think about how to become sons-in-law.

As a result, strange "chance encounters" would occur every day in or outside the village.

To avoid these troubles, Shen Zhiyi rarely left Jigong Mountain.

When the gate was knocked on, the barking of dogs echoed throughout the foot of the mountain. Shen Zhiyi came out of the mountain and hurriedly ran to open the gate.

As soon as the gate opened, three heads were seen standing outside the courtyard.

"Why are you here?" Shen Zhiyi asked, puzzled. She thought of how Zheng Sancheng went to continue selling tomatoes the day after his wedding, and San Tou followed him around.

“Sister, I came to see you and brought this for you.” San Tou said, handing over the tattered bundle in his arms. “These are what I saw outside that look like seeds. I brought them all for you, sister.”

"Hey, I didn't expect you to collect so much. It must have taken a lot of effort, right?" Shen Zhiyi took the bundle and felt it was a bit heavy. As soon as she asked this question, San Tou didn't even go through the door. He turned around and went back to the donkey cart.

"Sister, I have something to do, so I'll be leaving now!" San Tou said, slowly turning his gaze away, and then driving the donkey cart away.

Shen Zhiyi stood by the door, watching the donkey cart leave, before excitedly carrying her bundle back home. When she opened it, she was slightly surprised to find all sorts of fruits, round, flat, long, and short. Some of them were unidentifiable at first glance, but they were definitely seeds.

The more she made this discovery, the more excited she became. She could only cultivate them all together first, but the cultivation method for this potato was different.

These are life-saving seeds!

Even if there is only one now, there could be thousands upon thousands in the future.

Fortunately, she has such a large area of ​​mountain where she can grow potatoes, and she doesn't have to worry about being spied on.

Shen Zhiyi's originally boring and boring life in her cramped apartment finally has "something to look forward to"!

This continued until the day all the tomatoes were sold. Then, the gate was knocked on again, and the barking of dogs reminded Shen Zhiyi, who was checking the seedlings. She gripped the fire poker and went towards the sound with a hint of wariness.

As they got closer and heard Zheng San's shout, their wariness instantly vanished.

"Girl! Girl! I have some great news!" Zheng San shouted while banging on the door.

As soon as the courtyard gate opened, Shen Zhi saw Zheng San's big smiling face and guessed what it was about. He deliberately didn't ask and instead changed the subject, saying, "Third Brother, I'm afraid the fertilizer I have here isn't enough. I'll have to trouble you to go to the neighboring county to buy some for me."

"That's nothing, I'll have Santou make a trip there in a bit," Zheng San said hurriedly. "Sister, why didn't you ask me what the good news is? Have you already guessed? The persimmons and tomatoes have all sold out! And a lot of people are interested in them, but unfortunately we don't have much stock. Could we grow more of these?"

Zheng San excitedly took out the contract he had been carrying in his pocket for half a day and handed it to Shen Zhiyi, saying, "You have no idea how good our stuff is! That person only took one bite, just one bite, and he wanted the whole thing! I said I'd pay two taels of silver a jar and he didn't even try to bargain! Although fresh ones are relatively cheaper, they don't keep for long, which is a real shame!"

"Every advantage has its disadvantages; that's the way to balance things out," Shen Zhiyi said earnestly. At the time, the fresh tomatoes were priced at 500 wen per jin, but there was a secret to canned tomatoes that were not so easy to imitate, so they were priced at 2 liang, mainly because of their advantage of being able to "store for a long time."

In addition, the quantity is limited, and there aren't many far-sighted businessmen who can accept this selling price. But once one appears, it becomes the key to gaining brand recognition.

Therefore, Shen Zhiyi never thought about lowering the price. This is how she caught a fish that was willing to take the bait, and it's all for the sake of a win-win situation.