After consuming the elixir and chicken porridge, the siblings Chen Ming and Chen Liang have recovered considerably, but they are not yet ready for long-distance travel or strenuous journeys.
So Cheng Ruyi led everyone away from Jingsi Nunnery, intending to find an inn in Nanming County to stay for the night.
Master Huici ultimately accepted all the donations and said she would set up a longevity tablet for the Cheng family. Since it was a kind gesture, Cheng Ruyi did not refuse. However, she felt that the nuns in Jingsi Nunnery were trustworthy, so she would send some supplies over every now and then, as a way of building good karma.
Before leaving, Cheng Ruyi also told Abbess Huici the location of her home, asking her to tell the women in the nunnery that if they wanted to become independent and find a way out after they recovered, they could go to Huaishan County to find her, as the Cheng family had been recruiting female workers for a long time.
This isn't Cheng Ruyi having a sudden burst of saintly compassion; it's just that Lishan is genuinely short of manpower!
Each hillside villa requires at least six people for daily maintenance, so the four villas alone required twenty-four people. The two snack shops together also require at least twenty employees. In addition, the daily snow shoveling and patrol duties require at least twenty or thirty people. After deducting these people, the remaining employees are almost all children under the age of ten. These children are also responsible for the basic cleaning and simple work of several shops.
In other words, she had almost no spare staff to do anything else.
So after paying for ten days' lodging and leaving two elixirs, Cheng Ruyi took You San Niang and rented a mule cart to return to Lishan Villa the next day, leaving Old Man Ding and his wife to take care of the children at the inn.
After two months of heavy snow, vegetables in the county town have become increasingly scarce. Even though she had publicized her method for cultivating bean sprouts in advance, it was all in vain after soybeans and mung beans had both risen in price.
It's not that there's no vegetable market in the county town. Greenhouse cultivation is no longer a novelty, and anyone with the means can try it. However, due to the high costs involved, greenhouse-grown vegetables are naturally very expensive, making them unaffordable for ordinary families.
A greenhouse cucumber less than two inches long could sell for five hundred to one thousand coins in the East Market. This price almost made Cheng Ruyi think she was looking at ginseng instead of a cucumber!
We can't afford it, we simply can't afford it!
Last year, the Cheng family planted soybeans on all ten acres of dry land. Unfortunately, the soybeans have not been improved. Even though she added a lot of spiritual energy to them, the final yield per acre was still less than 200 catties.
However, these 1,000-plus kilograms of soybeans can be used to cultivate bean sprouts, grind tofu and make various soy products, and the soybean residue can also be used as animal feed. Overall, it is indeed very worthwhile to grow them.
With the radishes and cabbages that had filled half a cellar, the Cheng family had no worries about their own food supply. However, maintaining the vegetable supply for their snack stall would be quite challenging.
Even though she has now added a few simple greenhouses to grow vegetables, Cheng Ruyi still had to raise the price of vegetables in her hot pot. However, helping the poor was her original intention in opening the snack stall. So after raising the price of meat and vegetables, she started selling a bowl of pure hot pot soup base separately, which was cheaper than a bowl of vegetables, costing only eight coins.
Although it's just a simple bowl of soup without any meat or vegetables, the broth has absorbed the essence of the chicken and various vegetables and meats. A big bowl of it will definitely keep you warm for several hours.
Moreover, the soup base is only sold 25 minutes before the snack stall closes at night, and you can bring your own bowl to take home, whether you want to reheat it or drink it directly.
This way, daytime sales won't be affected, and the company won't lose money. It will also help poor people get through the cold nights.
As for whether there's any concern about competitors buying the recipe and analyzing it? Absolutely not. The most important ingredient is the Cheng family's unique Phoenix Tail Chicken, not to mention that the other ingredients also contain trace amounts of spiritual energy. So the essence of this soup is something that no one else can replicate, no matter how they try.
As soon as the soup base was launched, sales became incredibly popular. Many people even started queuing up several hours in advance. The long queues not only bothered the neighbors but also made it easy for them to catch a cold. If they got sick because of this, it would completely defeat Cheng Ruyi's original intention.
So in the end, she had no choice but to issue number plates, so that people who got a plate wouldn't have to queue in the snow and could just show up when it was almost their turn. That's how the problem was solved.
The Lantern Festival, which should have been the most important and lively festival in the county, was canceled by Luo Xian due to continuous heavy snow and the shadow of last year's events. Instead, everyone stayed at home to celebrate the festival on their own.
Although the people said they understood, they couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
Fortunately, after the Zhou family found out, they immediately had someone set up a small lantern stand in the open space in front of their house for the people of the county to visit, so that Huaishan County finally had a little bit of a festive atmosphere.
This year, the Cheng family members stayed obediently in their Lishan Villa during the Lantern Festival. At dinner, Cheng Yan suddenly said to Cheng Ruyi, "I have observed that you have been diligently practicing every day, and your lightness skill seems to be quite proficient now?"
"Uh... I'd say I've barely gotten the hang of it. I'm still a long way from being proficient. I need to keep practicing!"
If she had been practicing the Flying Swallow Lightness Technique taught by Guo Xiaoyu, her current strength would likely be considered quite advanced. However, the [Flowing Light Dance] she is currently practicing is a top-grade mortal-level lightness technique, which is naturally much more difficult than the common Flying Swallow Lightness Technique!
Since acquiring this lightness skill, she hasn't dared to slack off for the past month and a half. Besides handling various tasks, she spends almost all her remaining time practicing. She also occasionally takes time to go to the county town to learn dance. Her schedule is absolutely packed, but even so, her progress is still stuck at the beginner level...
After listening, Cheng Yan nodded. "Speaking of which, according to tradition, our family goes to Dabeisi Temple to burn incense and pray for blessings every year. However, this year there has been heavy snow, and the road up the mountain has been blocked. But, although we can't go up, with your current lightness skill, it shouldn't be difficult for you to go up the mountain, right?"
So that's why!
She was also wondering why her father, who had always been very laid-back about cultivation, had suddenly started checking on her progress.
"There shouldn't be any problem, Father. Don't worry, I'll go up the mountain tomorrow!" Cheng Ruyi silently compared the height of Mangshan's cliffs with the terrain of Wuling Mountain in her mind...
Although Wuling Mountain is much higher, the path to the top has been developed. They had walked it last year, and it seems that the snow had covered the stairs, making it difficult for people who are not good at light-footed skills to move. However, it was not a big problem for her.
The next morning, Cheng Ruyi prepared her belongings and set off alone, traveling light.
She intended to increase her proficiency with the [Flowing Light Dance] technique, so she immediately activated her skill and traveled at full speed as soon as she left the house. Before she had even finished warming up, she had already easily arrived at the entrance to the mountain at the foot of Asahi Peak.
Cheng Ruyi looked at the stone steps at the entrance. The first dozen or so steps still showed traces of people walking on them, but the higher she went, the fewer people there were. The steps behind were completely covered by thick snow. Looking at them, they blended into the whole mountain, making it impossible to tell which way was which. The power of nature was indeed not to be underestimated.
After sighing, Cheng Ruyi gathered her energy and leaped up, carefully sensing the patterns within, and then slowly disappeared into the snow-covered mountains with the help of the wind and snow.
The higher they climbed, the lower the temperature and the stronger the wind and snow became. After half an hour, Cheng Ruyi had to stop halfway to find a place to replenish her lost physical strength and internal energy.
"Dingfeng Pavilion? What a coincidence!"
Cheng Ruyi remembered that they had rested here a year ago and even met the Zhou family's patriarch and young master and miss in the pavilion...
Time flies! In the past year, she and Zhou Yantang opened two shops together, earning a large sum of money to save their lives.
The Zhou family were truly reliable partners! What a pity...
Since visiting Zhou Yin at his home during his illness, Cheng Ruyi has never seen him again. She originally thought that after some time, the two could continue to get along as ordinary business partners, but he obviously didn't think so.
In truth, Zhou Yin's personality was somewhat awkward. He naturally felt that Cheng Ruyi was quite special. While he wouldn't say he liked her, he certainly had some affection for her. Therefore, when he learned that Cheng Ruyi had no feelings for him whatsoever, and even seemed to dislike or despise him, his pride was severely wounded...
He had never experienced any setbacks in matters of the heart throughout his life, and had always found it annoying to have too many suitors. However, what Cheng Ruyi said when she left that day struck him like a blow to the head, leaving him unable to recover for a long time.
So all those romantic entanglements before were actually caused by him? Could it be that he was actually a bastard who provoked people and then abandoned them? The more Zhou Yin thought about it, the more he felt like he was sinking into a quagmire, his thoughts a jumbled mess that he couldn't sort out no matter what he did.
So he simply tried to avoid meeting the two of them, hiding in the shadows to grieve silently, his eyes increasingly following that figure.
That's how he discovered that Cheng Ruyi seemed to have a strange hobby: collecting certain antiques and paintings. So he immediately sorted out the items in the Zhou family's storeroom that met the criteria and had them sent over in batches.
Upon learning this, Cheng Ruyi's first reaction was to refuse. She immediately stated that she absolutely could not accept these gifts without a valid reason.
Unexpectedly, the servant in charge was quite surprised after hearing her words, looking like he wanted to explain but didn't know how. Cheng Ruyi also noticed that the servant's expression was strange. After asking, she learned that Zhou Yin did not intend to give her these antiques and paintings. Instead, he had heard that she seemed to be looking for something, so he found some old items that had been gathering dust and rarely used in his storeroom and planned to sell them to her. The price was negotiable and definitely more cost-effective than antique shops outside.
It has to be said that Zhou Yin's move was indeed very thoughtful, and his vision was very unique. Most of the antiques and paintings he sent were items that contained spiritual energy but were not too valuable, which was exactly what she needed!
Thinking about this, Cheng Ruyi couldn't help but feel a little regretful about losing the opportunity to become friends with Zhou Yin.
Speaking of which, last year when she visited Dabeisi Temple, she not only met the Zhou family, but also the Wen couple. At the time, she thought they were a perfect couple, and she never imagined that their relationship would develop into such a strange one a year later...
Oh right! She later met a monk who claimed to be psychic, and he told her to follow her heart and continue to do good deeds. But so many things happened in the past year that she forgot about it!
Cheng Ruyi thought back carefully and realized that she had done some good deeds in the past year. Although she had forgotten the master's instructions, she had at least managed not to mess things up.
I wonder if we'll run into that master again later? This time, she'll definitely cling to him desperately, determined to find out exactly how she can get home!
I definitely won't let this opportunity slip by today. I'll search the entire temple, no one's going to drag me out for vegetarian food this time anyway...
Huh?
Cheng Ruyi, who was sitting in Dingfeng Pavilion eating an egg pancake and resting, suddenly stood up excitedly, not even caring that half of the egg pancake had fallen off, because she suddenly remembered that she had seen that Taoist priest earlier that morning!
The Taoist priest I saw last year at Dabeisi Temple who had amazing lightness skills and stole chicken legs was the same one I met in Wolong Village! This Taoist priest is so familiar with Dabeisi Temple, there must be some connection between the two.
Good heavens! I searched high and low, but found it without any effort!
Looking at the mountaintop that was faintly visible, Cheng Ruyi knew in her heart that the answer to everything probably lay there.
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