"Has it been found?"
"not yet."
The three answered in unison, and suddenly all three broke out in a cold sweat.
Who asked that?
Arrest him!
The visitor was Constable Zhang from the government office.
It turned out that after Bai Ri noticed something was wrong with Zhou Yue, Fang Da went to Cao Shangjin's residence for help.
The Cao family now has a high opinion of the Li family, and Cao Shangjin didn't just brush off Fang Da, so he contacted his constable friends in the county government.
That's why Officer Zhang was able to capture Zhou Yue and the others in one fell swoop.
Constable Zhang spent a day wandering around Fang's shop and indeed found two people who seemed a bit suspicious, but he didn't immediately take action.
They secretly kept watch all night and caught the culprit red-handed. Zhou Yue was also imprisoned along with them.
At this point, there's no need to worry about Niu Aotian. The government is arresting people, but Niu Aotian wouldn't be foolish enough to oppose them. Besides, he might just be a shill for Xiangyue Tower.
Zhou Yue and the other two were arrested, but the Fang family never showed up. Whether they showed up or not is irrelevant; the main thing is who is behind it all.
Sure enough, within two days, Constable Zhang sent a message to Fang Da, confirming that it was indeed one of the owners of Xiangyuelou who had done the trick.
The Xiangyuelou restaurant has a rather complicated structure; it's rumored to have several owners. Officer Zhang didn't reveal who they were, and the Fang family didn't bother to find out either. It's safest to know nothing at all.
The next day, Fang Da took Fang Xiang to apologize to Niu Aotian, saying that the government had arrested Zhou Yue as well when they were arresting thieves the night before.
The Fang family only showed that it was Zhou Yue's family who took it upon themselves to steal the recipe from his house, and that Niu Aotian was also involved. The Fang family couldn't explain the ins and outs of the matter.
Niu Aotian was uneasy and found out through other channels.
He's a bit eccentric. After all this, he felt he'd lost face in public. Xiangyuelou was making trouble for themselves, using him as a scapegoat, and looking down on him.
After a few months of silence, Niu Aotian helped other employers bring that person down and get revenge before finally letting the matter go.
That's a story for another time, and it has nothing to do with the Fang family.
In short, after this incident, Li's Braised Food got on Niu Aotian's good side, and the two became acquainted. For some reason, Fang Xiang won Niu Aotian's favor.
With the Cao family looking out for them and Niu Aotian, that scoundrel, protecting them, no one in the county was keeping an eye on Li's braised food recipe anymore. Even if they wanted it, they could only keep it to themselves.
———
The busy season of Lesser Fullness (Xiaoman) is for transplanting rice seedlings, and the fragrance of rice blossoms awaits the autumn harvest.
Time flowed by like water, and before they knew it, the rice seedlings in the Li family's fields had begun to sprout ears.
The climate here is quite strange. When it's cold, the temperature suddenly drops sharply, and it snows without warning. It's so cold that Pan Jinhua even had to bring out the precious kang (heated brick bed).
Winter passed, and soon it became humid and hot again, making me feel sticky and uncomfortable all over.
She couldn't possibly use her preconceived notions from her past life to judge the temperature in the south, but fortunately, the rice seedlings were growing quite well.
Before Xiaoman (the 8th solar term), the Li family was busy fertilizing the fields. With the ears of grain about to sprout, nothing was more important than the land.
Looking around the fields, all you could see were people working in the fields. The Li family finished their work in just two days, and then it started to rain.
A spring rain brings warmth.
Looking at this precious spring rain, the farmers all smiled with joy.
The rain was torrential and accompanied by rumbling thunder.
Pan Jinhua was awakened by the thunder in the middle of the night, and her mind was not at peace, so she could not fall back asleep.
A few days later, the village chief went to each village in the morning to announce that the emperor had died and the crown prince had ascended the throne.
The emperor, oh no, now it's the former emperor.
The late emperor's poor health had been evident for some time, so the Li family wasn't particularly surprised. What they were concerned about was another important matter concerning themselves.
"Upon the throne, the Crown Prince granted a general amnesty, continuing the late Emperor's will, exempting those exiled or convicted of serious crimes from pardon..."
"mother!"
Upon hearing this news, Li Xushi felt his legs go weak. If exile was the only option, how could his Li family possibly change their allegiance?
Not only him, but the rest of the Li family members were also very disappointed.
"What's with the dejection? If there's no pardon, then there's no pardon. Does life not need to go on? Does the workshop not need to be built? Get back to work!"
"And you, second brother. Always calling me 'Empress' all the time, you're not a three-year-old anymore, can't you stand up for yourself a little?"
"Get to work, don't just stand there thinking too much, you're just wasting your time!"
Li Xuming couldn't stand seeing everyone like this, so he yelled at them all and kicked them out.
That's what he said, but deep down he wasn't sure either.
"Mother, can this rice really turn our family's life around?"
Pan Jinhua was just pleased that her eldest son was becoming more and more capable of handling things, but in the blink of an eye, he also came to her side.
She couldn't help but roll her eyes at Li Xuming, speechless.
“You were just scolding the second brother for always bothering me, but you turn around and do the same thing yourself.”
"Hehe, Mother is the pillar of our family. It is only right that you make the decisions about our family matters."
Li Xuming, being thick-skinned, wasn't afraid of his mother laughing at him.
"Whether it will work or not, Mother doesn't know. Only by doing our best can we know the result in the end."
If this doesn't work, she'll have to think of other ways.
That thing was intended to give the Li family more leverage in the imperial court; hopefully, it won't be brought out prematurely.
As the weather cleared up, Pan Jinhua led the boys in her family to plant flowers along both sides of the village road.
They're not anything rare or expensive; they're just wildflowers from the mountains and fields, and they look quite pretty in clusters.
They dug them up and transplanted them to the roadside. Wildflowers and weeds are the most resilient; they can survive anywhere.
When the village children saw them, they would follow them to search.
Pan Jinhua wasn't doing this out of boredom; the main reason was that once the workshop was built, the county magistrate would definitely come.
Everyone knows the village is poor, so making some changes to the cultural landscape can be considered a way to add a touch of rustic charm.
"Hey, I heard you don't have a mother?"
Jinbao was the leader of the children in Shuxia Village, but since the Li family came to Shuxia Village, his status as the leader of the children has become less effective.
The Li family's children seemed different from theirs. He often saw them running exercises outside, or something like that. He also heard that they went to school.
What I hate most is that his family always has lots of delicious food and fun things, which attracts all the village children to his family.
He can't even control the kids in the village anymore, it's so annoying!
Jinbao has been eyeing Li Qingtong for quite some time now. He thinks Li Qingtong is the most pretentious and the most suitable person for Jinbao to bully!
Li Qingtong had sandbags strapped to his hands and feet, and he boasted about his strength every day.
Putting aside everything else, Jinbao's ability to be the leader of the village's children is quite remarkable.
He is ten years old this year, and he is already as tall as a typical fifteen or sixteen-year-old child. No one knows how he grew so tall. The people in Shuxia Village are poor, so maybe he absorbs good nutrients.
"You're talking to me?"
Li Qingtong pursed his lips. He wasn't a clueless child; he knew his parents were divorced.
Jinbao stood with his hands on his hips, looking like a small hill.
He glanced left and right before rolling his eyes.
"Is there anyone else here? A motherless little brat."
Jinbao smiled smugly.
So what if he's a kid from the Li family? He still has to be afraid of him!
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