Chapter 323: The Cassia Branch Breaks, the Moon Palace Arrives

Xu Minghui came back to his senses from the fury of cursing Xu Yu three hundred times, forced a smile and said, "Sister-in-law, if you have time later, I would like to ask you for advice on how to plant tea trees and how to ensure that all of them survive."

Sang Zhixia didn't expect him to ask this. After a pause, she said, "They were transplanted from far away. It's almost impossible for all of them to survive, right?"

Even the most mature planting techniques will have a certain loss rate, not to mention that their current tea tree maintenance is still in the initial trial stage and they don’t have any impressive technology at all.

Even if Sang Zhixia rolled up her sleeves and went to the tea mountain herself, she could not guarantee that all the tea trees planted would survive.

Xu Minghui choked for a moment, trying his best to suppress the bitterness surging in his heart, and said with a headache: "Then try to live as long as possible?"

Sang Zhixia didn't quite understand why he was suddenly concerned about how long the tea trees could survive. After a pause, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Is it important to you that more transplanted tea trees survive?"

Where did this inexplicable urgency come from?

Xu Minghui closed his eyes exhaustedly and said calmly, "Yes, it's very important."

"Sister-in-law, you don't want to see Chen Jing'an chasing me with a knife, right?"

If the tea trees that Chen Jingan had worked so hard to get were really killed, that heartless bastard Chen Jingan would really chop him into pieces!

That heartless Xu Yu might even scatter his ashes when he comes back!

Sang Zhixia didn't dare to imagine what that scene would be like. After a moment of silence, she said with difficulty, "Although I don't quite understand, how does the survival of the tea trees have anything to do with whether Chen Jing'an carries a knife or not?"

"But if you want to know, I can tell you what I know right now."

"I could actually be free right now."

The soil quality of the tea garden has been improved, and we are just waiting for the tea tree seedlings to arrive so that they can be transplanted smoothly.

Apart from paying attention to the details when transplanting tea trees, there are really not many tricky parts.

Sang Zhixia specially set aside an entire afternoon and even found a pen and paper to write down the key points that needed attention. After making sure that Xu Minghui had solved them all, he moved on to the next item.

The afternoon passed quietly. Xu Minghui, his mind full of new content, looked dazed. Sang Zhixia put away her pen, feeling both amused and helpless. "That's pretty much what I told you."

"I'm free tomorrow morning, so I'll take you to the tea garden to try it out. After tomorrow, when Hezhongxiang starts getting busy, I won't have time to go to the tea garden."

The shop "Box Fragrance" has been in preparation for a long time and has experienced many twists and turns along the way.

The opening and the first few days of business are extremely important, and Sang Zhixia would feel uneasy if she didn't keep an eye on them.

Xu Minghui opened his mouth hesitantly, then realized that Xu Yu, that bastard, hadn't revealed anything to Sang Zhixia. He suppressed his anger towards Xu Yu and said, "My sister-in-law is just getting better. I don't have to do anything myself if I can delegate it to someone else."

Sang Zhixia didn't care, smiled and waved her hand: "It's not that busy."

"The hard work is already done by others. I'm just going to talk. It won't take up much time."

Seeing Xu Minghui looking distracted, Sang Zhixia thought for a moment and said, "I heard from Xu Mingyang that you like collecting calligraphy and painting?"

Xu Minghui hadn't expected the topic to turn to this. He paused for a moment and then laughed, "He was just trying to be cultured when he was younger. Why does Xu Mingyang keep spouting nonsense?"

"He kept talking about your birthday coming up and how he wanted to prepare a big gift for you, and he didn't want us to help. He kept talking about it so much that I naturally remembered it."

Even when the Xu family was prosperous, they never celebrated the birthdays of their younger generations in a grand manner.

This is even more true today.

In the past, I had to think hard about how to eat, so I couldn’t take care of anything else.

Life is getting better now, and the leisure time that I had suppressed earlier has started to emerge again.

Sang Zhixia glanced at the paper and pen on the table and said with a smile, "I'm a common man who treats good ink as charcoal. I can't find any good ones. I had some brushes made from the bristles left over from the pig slaughter. Why don't you take a set back and play with it?"

Perhaps because she was used to chatting and laughing with the four little ones at home, Sang Zhixia couldn't help but use a coaxing tone when she said this.

Xu Minghui was a precocious child. Because of his father's many outrageous behaviors, he started to behave like an adult at a very young age.

Even Aunt Xu, who loved him dearly, had not spoken to him in such a gentle tone for many years.

Seeing Xu Minghui's expression blank and his refusal to respond, Sang Zhixia asked curiously, "What's the matter?"

"Don't you like it?"

"It doesn't matter if you don't like it. When your elder brother goes out this time, ask him to find you a set of wolf-hair brushes."

Although those made of pig bristles can be used, the ones that can be produced on the farm now are far from good in terms of hair quality and production techniques.

In the hands of someone who is used to playing with good things, it is actually just a toy.

Xu Minghui's eyes flickered and he quickly shook his head: "It's not that I don't like it, but I didn't expect that my sister-in-law would save a portion for me."

Sang Zhixia blurted out naturally: "All the children in the family have one, everyone has one."

"Xu Mingyang and Yanran Mingxu's portions are slightly smaller. You and Xu Yu's portions are for adults. If you hadn't come today, I would have brought them back for you another day."

Sang Zhixia was too busy to take Xu Minghui to get it, so she asked a young boy who had previously played with Xu Mingyang with a stick to take him there.

At first, Xu Minghui thought that Sang Zhixia was talking about one brush for each person, but when he was taken to the place, he found out that Sang Zhixia was talking about a set of brushes for each person.

I couldn’t find any good materials on the farm, and I didn’t pay too much attention to it the first time I made it. The pen holder was not made of fancy materials, just a simple bamboo holder.

The pen shafts change from thick to thin, and the tips change from shallow to dark. A set of brushes are neatly packed in a box. They don’t look very expensive, but you can see the care put into them everywhere.

The person who made the pen was a down-and-out old scholar who was rescued during the summer famine in Sangzhi.

This person is obsessed with calligraphy and has studied it in depth. He is extremely attentive and careful in his work.

Seeing Xu Minghui pick up a pen, he quickly smiled and said, "The boss specifically told me to make this for my brothers and sisters. He was afraid they would get mixed up, so he asked me to put my seal on the pen so there would be no mistakes."

There is a small hibiscus flower on the pen holder of Xu Yanran.

Xu Mingyang's is a little sun.

Xu Mingxu is his favorite puppy.

Xu Jinxi's favorite chubby meat buns.

Xu Minghui rubbed the pen with his fingertips and turned it, and saw a cluster of small cassia twigs on the slender bamboo pole.

The cassia twig breaks, and the moon palace arrives.

To win the first prize in the imperial examination is the lofty ambition of countless aspiring scholars. No one has studied hard for many years without achieving this goal.

Before the Xu family fell, Xu Minghui was not the type to show off and never mentioned it to anyone.

After the Xu family fell, Xu Minghui quietly hid his ambitions deep in his heart and never told anyone about them.

The passion that I thought was unknown to anyone was seen and remembered by others in a deserted place.

Xu Minghui's fingertips slid across the small cinnamon stick on the pen, his eyelashes trembling, and he laughed hoarsely: "It's my sister-in-law who is thoughtful."

"Thank you very much."

Outside the saponification room, Sang Zhixia, who had no time to accompany Xu Minghui to get a pen, took out a box mysteriously and winked at Xu Yu who came over. "Here's a little gadget I prepared for you. Open it and take a look."