Liu Yingying felt deeply saddened after hearing Old Song's story.

Soon, the group arrived at the Song family's door.

After the Song family's house was destroyed in the fire, the villagers took pity on Old Song and gave him the land at the west end of the village, and even helped him build two houses.

Old Song has lived here all these years, making a living off the mountain left by his ancestors.

Lu Daikui told Lao Song about Liu Yingying's purpose. Lao Song looked at them suspiciously for a moment before asking, "You want to see my cotton?"

Liu Yingying nodded, then asked, "I have a textile workshop in the county town. If the cotton you have is up to standard, I might be able to buy it all."

Upon hearing this, Old Song immediately perked up, as he had been worried about selling his cotton for the past few days.

That's a whole thousand pounds of cotton! If it's all piled up in the warehouse, it'll get damp when there's a lot of rain in the spring, and he'll lose a fortune!

So they quickly took the person to the warehouse where the cotton was stored.

This warehouse was built by Lao Song himself later. It was very simple, but it was enough to store cotton.

But when Liu Yingying saw the cotton, her brows furrowed slightly.

However… it was pretty much as she had expected.

The cotton here is quite different from the cotton of her later era.

The cotton of later generations is white, large, and very soft, but the cotton in Old Song's warehouse is all sorts of colors, mostly a mixture of yellow and white, and the cotton fibers are mixed with many granular impurities.

Liu Yingying reached out and pinched the cotton.

Hmm... it doesn't feel as good as cotton from later generations; it's a bit rough and stiff.

She suddenly remembered that cotton had only just been introduced from overseas in this era and had not undergone any improvements.

The cotton she saw in later generations was the result of thousands of years of continuous improvement by her ancestors.

In this era, royalty and nobility used silk and satin, while the poor common people still used clothes and quilts made of various plant fibers.

Cotton was not widely used.

When Lao Song saw Liu Yingying frowning, he assumed she looked down on his cotton, so he quickly explained.

"This year's drought lasted for several months, followed by several months of torrential rain. It's not just my family; everyone in Ningzhou County who grows cotton is in a similar situation..."

The implication was that even if Liu Yingying didn't like his cotton, she had no better choice.

Liu Yingying put down the wad of cotton in her hand and gently shook her head.

Old Song got anxious. "How about this, if you want to buy it, I can lower the price even further."

The Lunar New Year is almost here, and he's waiting to sell this batch of cotton so he can have a prosperous New Year.

Liu Yingying: "Excuse my bluntness, but this cotton really can't be called cotton. Our workshop caters to distinguished people of high status. Do you think your cotton is good enough to meet their standards?"

“This…” Old Song stammered, but he still insisted on trying to persuade Liu Yingying.

"But everyone's cotton is the same, and you won't find any better cotton than mine!"

Liu Yingying smiled, not denying his words, and then revealed her true purpose for coming here.

"To be honest, I don't think much of your cotton."

Hearing this, Old Song got angry. He realized that the woman wasn't there to buy cotton at all. His tone became angry as he questioned her.

"I don't think you're here to buy cotton. What do you want?"

Liu Yingying gave him a friendly smile; "Of course I've come to talk to you about cooperation!"

"Talk about cooperation?" Old Song was a little confused, and his eyes unconsciously turned to Lu Daikui, who was always on good terms with him.

Lu Daikui shrugged, indicating that he was also unaware of his employer's true intentions.

Liu Yingying: "I've already visited your hilltop. It's quite large. You probably haven't hired anyone to maintain it, have you?"

Old Song shook his head; "Of course not!"

The profit margin on cotton is very low. He works from the beginning to the end of the year and can barely make ends meet.

Where would we find the extra money to hire someone to manage the cotton?

Liu Yingying then asked, "So how much money do you make in a year just by selling cotton?"

Old Song was now in a bit of an awkward situation.

He still didn't understand Liu Yingying's true intentions. In fact, the cotton business could only earn him a maximum of twenty or thirty taels of silver a year.

But he didn't dare tell the woman the truth, fearing she would try to lower his price later.

"I can earn fifty taels of silver a year!"

"Hehe..." Liu Yingying lowered her head and covered her mouth with a light laugh, but there was no malice in it.

"How about this, I'll give you one hundred taels a year to rent this whole cotton-growing hill of yours, how about that?"

"Wh...what?" Old Song was speechless, unable to believe his ears.

Liu Yingying continued, "To be honest, I don't think much of your cotton right now, because it's far from meeting my standards. But solving this problem isn't difficult; I'll just have to rent your entire mountain!"

"Old Song, are you going to agree or not? Give me a straight answer!" Lu Daikui nudged him with his elbow.

"Okay...okay! No problem!" Old Song finally snapped out of his daze of surprise.

He worked himself to the bone planting cotton under the scorching sun, earning only twenty or thirty taels of silver a year.

But now he can earn a hundred taels without doing anything, so why wouldn't he agree?

After discussing it, the group went to the county to complete the formalities. Liu Yingying paid three years' rent directly and also spent ten taels of silver a year to hire Lao Song to manage the cotton.

By the time we finished all that and returned to Baotian Town, it was already afternoon.

While it was still early, Liu Yingying went to Cotton Mountain and walked around the mountain, where she also discovered the problem with the cotton trees.

These trees were planted directly without any grafting or improvement, resulting in cotton that was colorful and contained many impurities. However, this was not a problem for her.

The next morning, Liu Yingying dragged out two large boxes from somewhere and handed them to Lao Song.

Inside are cotton trees obtained from the space, all of which have been processed and can be directly grafted.

In addition, I exchanged some insecticide.

Many of the cotton plants that Lao Song planted were infested with insects, which is why his cotton plants were in such a terrible state.

Now that Liu Yingying has taken over this mountain, these problems naturally need to be solved one by one.

Fortunately, Lao Song was very cooperative. He did exactly as she was told and didn't ask where those things came from.

"Yingying, come down and have lunch first!"

Zou Xiuzhi and Li Chunmei each carried a bamboo basket covered with a thick cloth, inside which were steaming hot meals.

These past two days, Liu Yingying has spent almost all her time on Lotus Mountain, except when she's sleeping, leading Lao Song and others to graft cotton trees.

She needs to personally oversee this matter to feel at ease.