This year is the fourth year since Xu Qinyu traveled through time. She has lived in this era for four years and has gotten used to it. It is not much different from her life in the future. She also cooks all day long.
It's definitely difficult to get used to it. The various conveniences of life, the environment, and the customs and habits are different. There are also some influences and experiences brought by the feudal environment. But Xu Qinyu is doing pretty well at the moment. Except for the hard days when she first came here, now not only her mother-in-law loves her, but even Ning Jie'er protects her. When there are any beautiful jewelry or fun clothes, the first person they think of is her, not to mention Feng Ge'er and Yan Jie'er, who are more attached to her. Fourth brother also treats her very well. The only benefit of coming here is probably that she has a family, which includes the Pei family and her original family.
Although she opened a second branch in her fourth year here, Xu Qinyu was content with having two shops. She had no plans to open branches outside the southwest for the time being.
After all, she is a princess exiled from the royal family, so she has to keep a low profile. It’s fine for her in the southwest, but it’s hard to say if she goes to other state capitals.
This year, the restaurant did not close during the Chinese New Year. Originally, Xu Qinyu wanted to close the business, but two months ago, people started asking one after another, hoping that the restaurant would not close during the Chinese New Year. They all wanted to order New Year's Eve dinner at the restaurant and bring their families to the restaurant to have fun and eat during the Chinese New Year.
Xu Qinyu thought about it and decided that Xu Ji would not close during the New Year holidays. It would be good to have more profits.
As for whether the employees want to take annual leave, it is up to them. If they are willing to stay and work at Xu Ji during these days, their wages for these days will be tripled.
And after the New Year, employees will be arranged to take annual leave one after another.
When the guys heard that as long as they continued to work during the New Year holidays, they would get triple their daily wages, and that they would be arranged to have holidays one after another after the New Year, they were very happy.
Not only that, on Chinese New Year's Day, Xu Qinyu also distributed red envelopes to all employees, which was almost equivalent to their annual salary, which surprised and delighted all the employees.
Because the employees were willing to stay and work during the Chinese New Year, Xu Qinyu began to arrange reservations for the New Year's Eve dinner.
However, within a few days, the restaurant's New Year's dinner reservations were fully booked. Many other people found out that they could also book New Year's dinner at Xu's Restaurant, but there were no seats left, and they regretted it very much.
So during this year's Chinese New Year, Xu Qinyu was also very busy.
Even Xu Ji Restaurant in Yuanbao Town followed the same pattern as the other restaurants this year and did not close during the Chinese New Year. Similarly, Xu Ji Restaurant's New Year's dinner was also fully booked.
Xu Ji Restaurant had Cheng Ge'er and the original chefs from Donglaiju, so Xu Qinyu felt quite at ease. She would usually go to Xu Ji Restaurant and stay for a few days every six months.
It was not until the eighth day of the New Year that the restaurant became a little quieter. Wen and other managers of the restaurant began to arrange for the waiters to rest.
Xu Qinyu also arranged for herself to rest for three days.
Just after the eighth day of the New Year, my fourth brother came back.
When Fourth Brother came back this time, he had finally gained some weight, but now he became thin again.
Xu Qinyu saw this and felt very distressed. She asked, "Did Fourth Brother travel very far with the caravan this time?"
In fact, it is not the case. Pei Weixuan has not cared about Liuli's affairs during this period. Liuli has Zhou Yan's caravan to help run the business, so he and Huo Ye don't have to worry about it. It's just that he and Huo Ye have been busy with private soldiers recently.
There are some private soldiers on the island, and he usually changes his appearance to train these private soldiers.
As for the apparent leader, it is naturally Huo Jiang.
He couldn't show up in front of these private soldiers because he couldn't predict whether everyone was loyal, so he naturally couldn't let them see his true face. So he just trained these private soldiers with a different appearance and identity.
Otherwise, if the news gets to the capital, it will implicate the Pei family, the Wen family, and Yu Niang. I'm afraid even Yu Niang's family members in the capital will be implicated.
Seeing that her fourth brother was lost in thought, Xu Qinyu didn't ask any more questions. She asked him to go back to the house and wash up first, and she went to the restaurant to bring some food over.
It was just noon, and Xu Qinyu had just finished her breakfast, so she was naturally not hungry. She knew that her fourth brother must not have eaten, but she accompanied him to eat some food, which was all ready-made food from the restaurant.
Pei Weixuan was also a little hungry, so he rode his horse back at full speed overnight without resting at all.
Xu Qinyu never stopped talking while eating. She kept telling her fourth brother about family matters and recent events, including her participation in the cooking competition, the grudge between her and Zuixianlou, and Kong Songkang hiring someone to kill her.
Pei Weixuan listened quietly, but when he heard Yu Niang talking about Kong Songkang hiring someone to kill her, he paused slightly.
He already knew about this matter, and it was he who asked Huo Jiang to find people to suppress those bandits.
When he first saw the carrier pigeon message that Huo Jiang sent him, his face turned pale. Huo Ye, who was standing next to him, was also stunned. He called out "Your Highness" several times before he looked up.
Even though he knew that Yu Niang would be fine and Huo Jiang and the others would protect her, at that moment, he still felt scared. He was worried that anything might happen to Yu Niang.
So in addition to Huo Jiang, Lianhua and other guards, he asked Huo Jiang to send some secret guards to the restaurant overnight to protect the restaurant and Yu Niang. No matter where Yu Niang went, they had to follow her secretly.
But at this moment, whenever he thought about it, his heart would tremble.
Xu Qinyu didn't notice that her fourth brother was acting abnormally. She chatted with him about family matters.
After dinner, Pei Weixuan wanted to wash up in the house, but Xu Qinyu asked him to go to the hot springs to soak in the water to relieve his fatigue, so he went there.
When he returned more than half an hour later, Yu Niang was already taking a nap on the couch in her room.
She was wearing a wide-brimmed jacket in lake-colored plum and orchid with gold thread, and a jade-colored embroidered long skirt. Her hair was simply tied behind her with a piece of silk. She wore no makeup, but her skin was as white as cream, and her cheeks were snow-white. She was lying on the couch in his room with her eyes closed, taking a nap, with a sketchbook in her hand. Perhaps she was too tired during this period, and she had not even put the sketchbook down and had fallen asleep.
Pei Weixuan stood at the door, looked at Yu Niang for a few seconds, then walked over to the couch and held her in his arms.
Xu Qinyu chose a comfortable position and fell asleep in Pei Weixuan's arms.
The two of them slept for more than an hour, and when they woke up it was already time for dinner.
Xu Qinyu slept very comfortably. When she opened her eyes, she felt a hard chest and a familiar sandalwood scent. She knew it was her fourth brother's embrace.
She gradually got used to this kind of close contact.
She buried her head in her fourth brother's arms, feeling lazy and not wanting to get up. She looked up and saw that her fourth brother had also opened his eyes.
She called out "Fourth Brother" and leaned over to kiss him on the lips.
After a while, Xu Qinyu's breathing became a little difficult, so she separated from her fourth brother.
Pei Weixuan sat up, leaned on the couch, and let Yu Niang lean on her arms. It was rare for both of them to be so leisurely, but Pei Weixuan was still worried about other things.
He thought about some of the things he had seen recently in the sky, and after a moment of contemplation, he decided to tell Yu Niang, "Yu Niang, there's something I want to tell you about. I've been observing the sky recently and I've noticed something strange. I'm afraid there will be a natural disaster in the near future."
Yu Niang's face darkened, and she couldn't help but sit up, "Fourth Brother, how could there be a natural disaster?"
She still remembered the first year she came here. There was a snowstorm in the north, and the weather in the southwest became much colder. Many people were frozen to death by the snowstorm, and many people in the north began to flee from the famine. There were countless casualties, and some even fled to the southwest, where diarrheal diseases broke out.
"It should be Zhongzhou."
Xu Qinyu knew that this place had nothing to do with the historical dynasty she lived in, but the geographical location probably corresponded to it.
There were a total of sixteen states in the Great Sheng Dynasty. Zhongzhou was considered a large state, and each state had several capitals.
Xu Qinyu asked worriedly, "Fourth Brother, can you tell what kind of natural disaster it is? Can you prevent it?"
"It might be a drought."
Pei Weixuan's voice also became a little lower. Although he could observe some things from the celestial phenomena, he alone and the people on the island had no way to help Zhongzhou with natural disasters. Even if there were crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes, distant water could not quench a nearby fire. He had asked the residents of the island to grow these crops for two years, but the amount was just enough to feed the entire provincial capital. If he wanted to use it to provide relief to Zhongzhou, it was not even enough to provide a day's food for all the people in Zhongzhou.
Only the imperial court can save the people of Zhongzhou.
But now it is Empress Dowager Fu and the new emperor who are in control of the government. Given Empress Dowager Fu's personality, she didn't care about the snow disaster in the north before, and I'm afraid she will still turn a blind eye to this natural disaster.
However, Pei Weixuan still planned to do something for the people of Zhongzhou. He could not save the people of Zhongzhou, so he could only pass the news to the prefect.
Xu Qinyu was very worried when she heard this. She didn't know what she could do for Zhongzhou. She just asked Pei Weixuan quietly, "Fourth Brother, I've made some money in the past few years. Why don't you buy some food and send it over to Zhongzhou?"
All the money earned by Xu Ji Restaurant was invested in the restaurant. However, the restaurant has been open for more than half a year, and she now has a silver note of 200,000 taels on hand.
She is not short of money now. If a drought really happens in Zhongzhou, she is willing to donate some money and leave some for the restaurant's expenses and the wages of the waiters. After all, Zhongzhou is quite far from the southwest. If a natural disaster really happens in Zhongzhou, it will not affect the southwest for the time being.
Since it is a drought, it will definitely affect the harvest. As long as they can survive the few months of the drought, most people will still be able to survive.
But the crops there are only harvested once a year, so we have to wait until next spring to plant the crops. Droughts usually occur in the summer, so it will take at least half a year. If we can survive this half year, we will be able to survive.
"No need." Pei Weixuan refused. "You should keep this money for yourself. Even if you really donate it, I'm afraid it won't reach the people of Zhongzhou."
The imperial court is now in such a rotten state that the money allocated by the imperial court for disaster relief may not even reach Zhongzhou, let alone donations from other places. Besides, it is still too early to discuss this matter now.
Xu Qinyu also knew that it was too early to discuss this matter now, and she could only take it one step at a time.
Pei Weixuan then told Yu Niang, "It should be half a year yet. If Ma Liu comes again next time, have him take a message home. Don't communicate by letter. Ask my father-in-law and mother-in-law to secretly stock up on food."
Xu Qinyu nodded. She remembered that Brother Ma Liu had told her that a group of prisoners would be sent to the border town after the New Year, and they would bring her letters from home.
The next day, Pei Weixuan went to see the prefect and told him that he was an astronomical observer and knew that a natural disaster would occur in Zhongzhou in a few months. He hoped that the prefect would help submit a memorial to the court, saying that he had learned from a wandering Taoist priest that a natural disaster might occur in Zhongzhou in a few days, and hoped that the court could take precautions in advance.
If you want to take precautions, you should stock up on more food while food prices are normal, so that you can provide relief to the victims later.
When the prefect heard this, he was indeed worried. He would rather believe it than not. He wrote a memorial to the court and asked someone to send it to the capital as quickly as possible.
When this memorial was rushed to the capital and placed before Empress Dowager Fu's desk, she sneered, "This governor of Raozhou City is truly foolish, believing even the words of such a quack. If such a master really existed, why didn't he come to the palace to be the Imperial Preceptor instead of wandering around the world and suffering hardships?"
Empress Dowager Fu naturally did not believe this memorial and threw it aside.
Four years had passed, and she still hadn't found the edict written by the late emperor to establish the crown prince. However, four years had passed, and in the past two years she hadn't been as anxious as before, thinking that perhaps she had made a mistake, and that the edict didn't exist, otherwise why couldn't she find it even after searching the entire palace.
She also gradually stopped caring about the Wen family and the Fourth Prince's lineage.
Prince Shu is now just doing business with a small caravan. Even if the second daughter of Marquis Dechang's mansion is a bit capable and has opened a restaurant to earn money to support her family, she is not short of that little money and naturally does not care about it, not to mention that she is just a lowly merchant.
But she has had a lot of troubles recently. The censor has been scolding her and King Handong, and she can't let the new emperor kill the censor directly in the court.
Fortunately, she recently got two new male favorites, which was some consolation.
…
Inside the Marquis Dechang’s Mansion.
Xu Qinhui was also very anxious. She vaguely remembered that there would be some strange phenomena this year. It seemed that there was a natural disaster in Zhongzhou. The Queen Mother ignored Zhongzhou. Countless people in Zhongzhou were killed and injured. The world began to fall into chaos. Many places started to revolt. Gradually, only the Shu Wang lineage was left with a strong force.
After a few years, the number of rebels led by King Shu gradually increased, and they recaptured many provincial capitals one after another.
In the tenth year, he marched straight to the capital and produced the imperial edict written by the late emperor to appoint the eldest prince as the crown prince.
Therefore, Prince Shu had the legitimate right to defeat the tyrant emperor and the evil queen mother and successfully inherit the throne.
There are only five or six years left, Xu Qinhui sighed.
No matter how worried she was, she had to take care of the affairs of Zhongzhou first.
Of course, she was not concerned about the people in Zhongzhou, as their lives had nothing to do with her. However, after the incident in Zhongzhou, prices in the capital also rose a lot, so she asked her father Xu to stock up a lot of food. However, they were all placed on her mother's dowry farm and were not transported to the mansion, nor did they disturb other people.
…
Raozhou City.
Pei Weixuan had no hope for the capital and the imperial court. After staying in Raozhou City for half a month, the imperial court did not send anyone to reply to the prefect's letter, so he returned to the island.
Xu Qinyu was also busy with the restaurant's affairs.
Another month passed, and Ma Liu sent the prisoner into exile in the southwest, and brought Cui's reply letter to Xu Qinyu.
When Xu Qinyu received the reply letter from her parents and touched the thick stack inside, she knew that it must be her mother who sent back the 20,000 taels of silver note she had given her before.
When Xu Qinyu opened it, she saw that, as expected, Xue had left two thousand taels of silver notes, saying that it was not easy for her to earn money, so she asked her to keep it for herself, eat well and dress well, and that the family would not be short of money. She also asked her not to let other people know about the wealth. She went on and on about it.
Thinking of the natural disasters that might happen in Zhongzhou, Xu Qinyu was worried that the money at home would not be enough, so she planned to send the money back.
This time she did not write a letter, but simply put the 18,000 taels of silver notes back in a new envelope, and asked Ma Liu to tell her family to stock up some food.
The pretext was the same as when the prefect delivered a memorial to the capital, saying that he met a wandering monk who learned from observing the celestial phenomena that there would be strange phenomena and natural disasters in Zhongzhou in a few months, so he asked his family to stock up some food.
Xu Qinyu asked Ma Liu to keep the matter secret and find another excuse to let relatives and friends at home stock up some food.
She has known Ma Liu for more than four years and naturally knows what kind of person he is.
Upon hearing this, Ma Liu immediately promised Xu Qinyu that he would never tell anyone about this.
When Ma Liu returned to the capital with a letter containing only silver and money, he gave the envelope to Xue and told her what Miss Xu had told him.
After hearing Ma Liu's message, Xue did not refuse. She was just worried. She was worried about the people in Zhongzhou and Yu Niang. She planned to keep these banknotes to buy more food, so that when a natural disaster really happened in Zhongzhou, she could donate the excess food.
Xue also listened to Yu Niang's advice and stockpiled a lot of grain, but she did not put the grain in Dechang Marquis's mansion, but in her brother Xue Liang's home.
Xue Liang has now expanded a small tea stall into a two-story restaurant specializing in barbecue. He can earn more than 30,000 taels of silver a year, which is very satisfying for him.
He also bought a farm and some land outside the city.
After hearing this from his sister, Xue Liang believed it immediately. He helped his sister and himself store a lot of food on the farm. He did not tell the children at home about this. Only he and his wife Shi knew about it.
Shi was also a little worried about Yu Niang and asked him, "If there really is a natural disaster in Zhongzhou, will the southwest be in trouble?"
Xue Liang said, "That shouldn't happen. Zhongzhou is over 3,000 miles away from the southwest. If there is any impact, it will probably be because the people of Zhongzhou can no longer hold on and flee to the southwest. However, Zhongzhou is close to the capital, so those fleeing famine will head there first. Yu Niang doesn't need to worry too much about her. We should store our own food and also help store the food bought by my sister's family."
Zhongzhou is relatively close to the capital, but still quite far from the southwest.
Shi nodded, and finally couldn't help but sigh, "Yu Niang has been exiled to the southwest for more than four years. I don't know if I will have the chance to see her in the future. If it weren't for Yu Niang, our family wouldn't be able to live like this now."
Xue Liang didn't say anything either, he was also worried about his niece.
…
Raozhou City.
In the blink of an eye, more than a month passed. In the restaurant, the garden built before the New Year has been completed, and the restaurant has started to receive guests one after another.
The garden here is called Taolin Garden because there are many peach trees planted in every yard here.
With the addition of a garden, there are about twenty more courtyards, and naturally there are a lot more guests.
The restaurant has been recruiting people one after another, and now it finally has enough people.
Xu Qinyu was still doing the same thing as before in Raozhou City, cooking every day and going to hot springs with her family. Ning Jie'er had already rented a shop in the city, renovated it and opened it for business. Ning Jie'er no longer had to go to the shop in the city every day. She hired a shopkeeper to help look after the shop and spent most of her time at home.
Xu Qinyu had no idea that a rumor had started spreading in Zhongzhou, saying that a severe drought would soon strike the region and that everyone was being urged to stockpile food. Some people believed it and began hoarding food, while others refused to believe it, saying, "It just rained a couple of days ago, so there's no sign of a drought at all. Why would anyone believe such a rumor? It must have been the brainchild of some rice shop owner."
But since this heavy rain, it has not rained in Zhongzhou for half a month. Although it is not summer yet, the weather is very hot. The sun is shining all day long. The crops in the fields are not growing much. There is a gap between the old and the new, and the only way to irrigate the fields is to transport water from the nearby rivers.
Some people finally started to panic and bought some food.
The price of food has risen a bit at this moment, but the increase is not too outrageous.
A month passed and there was still no rain. The water levels of the large lakes dropped a lot, and the smaller rivers had dried up without a drop of water.
Everyone then realized that it was not just a "rumor" but that there would really be a severe drought.
Many crops have not yet matured because of the severe drought that has lasted for a month. In order to reduce losses, some people and tenants harvested the crops directly, so that at least there would be some harvest. Although the grains are not fully ripe yet, they can still be eaten after being cooked. Otherwise, if they are left to dry in the fields, there will be countless grains.
Some people still refuse to believe that there will be a severe drought, believing that it will definitely rain, and are unwilling to harvest their crops, allowing them to continue growing in the fields.
At that time, many people and tenants had no food stored at home.
Especially some tenants, because they rent other people's land to grow crops, they usually can only get 40%. Some landlords like Zhou Paopi only give 30% to the tenants. The whole family depends on this little food and has to eat frugally. If there is a severe drought and there is no harvest, they will not even have food to eat.
The biggest impact of the drought is the problem of drinking water.
The lake water has dried up, not to mention the well water.
Even if there is food, the drinking water problem is not easy to solve. Fortunately, the well water on the ground has not completely dried up, so there is still some drinking water.
The news of the severe drought in Zhongzhou also spread to various provincial capitals in the Dasheng Dynasty, and naturally reached the capital first.
Empress Dowager Fu never expected that the memorial handed over by Governor Zhu was actually true and that there was indeed a severe drought in Zhongzhou.
But even if I knew, it would be of no use.
It is now easy to provide relief to these disaster victims. All we need is for the court to allocate funds and purchase food for disaster relief.
But the entire Zhongzhou has a population of several million, and they consume a lot of food in a day. If we really use the silver in the national treasury to buy food for disaster relief, the entire national treasury will be completely emptied.
Because of the construction of the palace and her extravagant lifestyle, there was not much money left in the national treasury.
Empress Dowager Fu was at a loss for a moment, and all the officials in the court were submitting memorials to the new emperor asking him to provide disaster relief.
The new emperor had no idea at all, so he went to ask Empress Dowager Fu after the court was dismissed.
Empress Dowager Fu could only ask the new emperor to delay for the time being.
In this way, another half month passed and summer had arrived. It was getting hotter and hotter in Zhongzhou. The crops in the fields had been completely sun-dried to death. Many tenants and common people had no grain to eat and could only use the little money left in their homes to buy expensive food to eat first.
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