Having a plan makes implementation much faster, no matter what you do.

A few days later, Zhou Quan took Chen Yu out.

Chen Yu knew where there were still flower farmers and where to find the flowers and plants that Li Mai wanted. She dug up the roots and stored them for artificial cultivation next year.

He even knew where to buy flower seeds.

As for the flowers, plants, and trees in the house, Steward Meng arranged for the four guards to water them according to Chen Yu's instructions when she left.

Suddenly, Chen Yu's talent was discovered by his employer, and his career took off. Li Mai promoted him to steward and increased his salary to three taels of silver. She also asked Steward Meng to buy two more young men to be Chen Yu's apprentices and help him teach the villagers how to grow flowers.

Ten days later, Zhou Quan returned with Chen Yu, bringing back a cart full of things.

Five wooden boxes of flower seeds, five bamboo baskets of flowers and herbs.

When no one was around, Li Mai stored the five bamboo baskets of flowers and plants directly into her space. Then, that night, she and Zhou Quan began to till the land and plant crops in the space. They separated the roots and stems of the flowers and plants, and planted the roots in different fields according to their species, allowing them to sprout and grow.

The land in the space is nourished by spiritual spring water and spiritual energy, regardless of the season, and there is no need for fertilizers or anything like that. They just need to plant them one by one.

Once they grow, the roots and stems are separated, and they are planted in this way. One by one, they will grow more than a dozen roots, and then flowers and grasses will grow. So, after several such fissions, they will get more and more flower and grass roots.

This was all part of Li Mai's plan. Moreover, when the plants grew, she would also get leaves, flowers, seeds, and fruits, etc. She would collect and store these things in categories so that they could be used later.

Some can be used for dyeing, some can be dried, used to make tea, or made into sachets, or used for petal baths. In short, the couple would go back to their room early every night, blow out the lights, lock the door, and go into their space to work and collect these things.

The flower seeds that Chen Yu bought were sorted into about ten wooden boxes according to their categories, and Li Mai also stored them in her space, waiting to use them next spring.

During the day, she continued to look after the shop and focus on doing business. Zhou Quan rode his horse back and forth to the village several times, either to check on the dyeing products from the dye house or to discuss with Zhou Shizhou registering the villagers who were willing to grow flowers.

Apart from the families who worked at Zhou Quan's dye shop and those who made clothes and wove cloth for his family, the remaining twenty-odd households also quickly registered with Zhou Shizhou, intending to plant flowers with Zhou Quan's family next year. They all reported which fields they owned so that Zhou Quan and Zhou Shizhou could choose the land to plant flowers.

After Zhou Shizhou finished registering, he was relieved to find that people who were struggling financially were also coming to him. Even Zhou Erleng and Zhou Ermao, those few lads, came to him with big smiles on their faces to register.

Zhou Shizhou knew that it must be because the small bag of rice that Zhou Quan's family had given to the family who did their work on the Mid-Autumn Festival had made them envious.

To be honest, Zhou Quan and Li Mai are a really generous and kind couple. They've become rich and are living a good life, but they haven't forgotten the villagers and are trying to find ways to help them get rich.

Unfortunately, there are always some people who still want to put on airs and can't bring themselves to do it. Now that they see other families living well like Zhou Quan's, with no worries about food and clothing, and even able to send their children to school, they must be envious, right?

Not to mention other families, his wife, who works with Li Mai making clothes, has now saved up nearly ten taels of silver as pocket money.

Even his good-for-nothing younger brother and sister-in-law approached him several times, asking him to talk to Zhou Quan and find them jobs as well.

He knew his brother and sister-in-law's character well enough not to offer them to Zhou Quan and Li Mai. This time, when Zhou Quan was looking for villagers willing to plant flowers next year, he called them over, asked them, and they were all willing, so he felt relieved.

After the village confirmed the number of people, it was already late September. Zhou Quan took Chen Yu and the two apprentices he had arranged to go back to the village to choose a site. They tried to choose land that was close to the river or on a gentle slope. Such land would be convenient for watering or would not accumulate too much rainwater, which would not affect the growth of flowers and plants.

Some plants need water, but the ground cannot be allowed to remain waterlogged for extended periods. This is why some plants grow better on hillsides than on flat land.

Zhou Quan didn't know much about these things, so he let Chen Yu make the arrangements. After the land was selected, they marked out several plots of wasteland in the middle of the land belonging to these people and organized the villagers to dig ponds to collect water for watering their flowers.

After that, Chen Yu instructed the villagers who were to plant flowers to go to those flower fields to prepare the land. Next year, when planting flowers, the land needs to be thoroughly wetted this year, and grass ash should also be applied to purify the land.

Placing grass ash in the soil can kill some insects in the ground without affecting the growth of flowers and plants next year.

After all these things were arranged, it was early October. Zhou Quan went back to town because in a little over ten days it would be the annual sacrificial ceremony at the Zhou Clan Ancestral Hall in the village, and he wanted to bring Li Mai, Zhou Lin, Zhou Lei, and Zhou Tao back.

The shops on the street also had to close for two or three days.

Since Zhoujia Village was rebuilt after being hit by a disaster last year, the clan chief has designated the day they moved here last year as the big day for their village from now on.

This year marks the first anniversary of the sacrificial ceremony. From now on, there will be a grand sacrificial ceremony every three years, and a small sacrificial ceremony held annually by the villagers themselves.

For minor sacrifices, only the villagers need to participate; no large offerings are required. For major sacrifices, each branch of the clan must prepare a large offering. Even those Zhou clan members who have moved away, as long as they haven't been expelled from the clan, must return to worship their ancestors.

After all, the Zhou Clan Ancestral Hall contains the ancestral tablets of all the Zhou family's ancestors throughout history.

The number of ancestral graves corresponds to the number of people buried there, with that many memorial tablets being enshrined and offerings being made by the younger generation.

Zhou Quan didn't need to worry about these things; the old clan chief and clan leader Zhou Shizhou would handle them along with the other clan elders.

The day they moved into the new village last year was the same day the ancestral hall was moved in, October 19th. It was during the time when Li Mai and Zhou Quan left for the capital last year that the ancestral hall was moved.

As we enter October, the weather has already turned cold.

They also started wearing thicker clothes, with cotton cloaks on the outside and thick undershirts and skirts underneath when they went out.

Some people who are not tolerant of the cold have already put on thin cotton-padded clothes.

After returning to town, Zhou Quan went to the shop to check on the quinoa.

At this time, Li Mai's belly was already quite large. Because she was carrying twins, her belly looked especially big. Fortunately, she was taller than the average woman, otherwise it would have looked rather frightening.

Zhou Quan has been busy lately, and when he's not around, he always thinks about her. He also tells Zhou Heng to do more work at the shop and lets Li Mai rest on the bed he put behind the counter.

But Li Mai can't lie still. She always gets up after a while to walk around and do something before she feels more comfortable.

Upon seeing Zhou Quan return, Li Mai smiled and beckoned to him with her finger, whispering, "Come with me to the carriage to rest for a while; I have some good news to tell you!"

Zhou Quan quickly went over and helped his wife slowly walk to the backyard.