The voice belonged to Li Xin's mother. Yan Qingqing sighed helplessly. This girl was becoming more and more unruly. Didn't she even realize there were outsiders in the house?
Li Xinniang was taken aback when she saw Wu Jing, and then said somewhat shyly, "Greetings, Young Master Wu."
Wu Jingzhi said with a smile in his eyes, "So it turns out that Brother Xin is actually a girl. I am truly sorry."
Yan Qingqing raised her eyelids and glanced at Wu Jingzhi after hearing his words. Judging from his tone, he already knew that Li Xinniang was a girl.
Li Xinniang exchanged a few more polite words with Wu Jingzhi, then said to Yan Qingqing, "Mother, please give me the new design quickly. We need to hurry, otherwise we're afraid we won't be able to deliver on time."
Upon hearing this, Yan Qingqing instructed Ruyi, who was standing nearby, to take Li Xinniang to get the blueprints.
Li Xinniang had already walked quite a distance, but Wu Jingzhi's gaze still followed her.
Yan Qingqing saw all of this and thought that Wu Jingzhi was being unusually attentive and bringing so many things because he had his eye on her little darling.
Marrying her daughter isn't that easy; it's not that Wu Jingzhi isn't good enough.
However, Wu Jing's family lived far away in the capital, and their situation was quite complicated. Li Xin's mother was too naive and easily taken advantage of.
Yan Qingqing instructed Li Xiang'an: "Take Jingzhi to the embroidery workshop and accompany him the whole time."
Your sister-in-law and sister are both women, so their clothes aren't suitable for entertaining guests. Please try to dress more carefully.
Yan Qingqing wasn't the type to strictly adhere to the separation between men and women, yet she actually emphasized it today. Although Li Xiang'an found it somewhat surprising, he still nodded in agreement.
Wu Jingzhi had no choice but to follow Li Xiang'an. He had suggested going to the embroidery workshop to see Li Xinniang, and now that Li Xinniang was at home, he couldn't back out.
Just as Li Xiang'an accompanied Wu Jingzhi to the embroidery workshop, A'da reported that Li Kaishan had arrived.
Yan Qingqing rubbed her aching forehead and asked A-Da to invite the person in.
As soon as Li Kaishan entered, he laughed loudly and said, "Oh my, I've lived most of my life and I've never seen so much silver before."
The inn was originally planned to charge 1,000 taels of silver, but so far 1,560 taels have been collected. It's estimated that several hundred taels will be collected later.
"Won't you need to invest several hundred more taels here? That's way over by so much! What are we going to do with all this money we can't use?"
Upon hearing this, Yan Qingqing smiled and said, "Uncle Village Chief, you could build another canteen, or a few more shops, and then rent them out to the villagers so they can do some small business."
In addition, the roads in our village need to be repaired. Everyone says that if you want to get rich, you must first build roads. Only when it is convenient for people to come and go can the flow of people increase.
Fortunately, our village isn't far from the main road, so we only need to repair this section.
After hearing Yan Qingqing's words, Li Kaishan smiled broadly and said, "Oh my, how did you come up with such a thoughtful idea? I'll go talk to the village elders later and we'll pick a good day to start work."
Yan Qingqing nodded, then thought for a moment and said, "Uncle Village Chief, I have another idea. Could our village form a patrol team?"
Once our village develops, the number of outsiders will definitely increase. There will inevitably be those who use their power to cause trouble, so we must ensure the personal safety and property security of these outsiders.
Li Kaishan replied, "Yes, yes, yes, you're right."
I'll go back and select some strong and capable villagers, first establish village rules, then train them, and finally assign them to teams after the training is complete.
Yan Qingqing smiled and said, "Uncle Village Chief is very thoughtful. I'm just making a small suggestion. As for how to do it, it's up to Uncle Village Chief to decide."
Upon hearing this, Li Kaishan's old face beamed like a chrysanthemum. It felt good to be praised, especially by Yan Qingqing.
A few days later, Li Kaishan specially chose an auspicious day for the Canghe Village Inn to start construction. Because the inn belonged to all the villagers, the day was particularly lively.
The workers for this project included not only those from the village but also a large number from other villages. It wasn't that Li Kaishan didn't want to use only those from his own village, but rather that some of the hardworking and reliable people from his village had been recruited by Yan Qingqing to work in the workshop. They couldn't possibly give up their current "iron rice bowl" for building houses and repairing roads.
In addition, the construction of houses in Canghe Village is extensive, the timeframe is tight, and road repairs are also required, making the project very large. Therefore, a significant portion of the workers are from other villages.
The wages were paid from the funds they raised.
While guesthouses are being built in Canghe Village, a trend of searching for roses and peonies has swept through Chengyang County.
I heard that this trend started at the tea house, where the storyteller, Mr. Wen, told a story about a peony that was banished to Luoyang and eventually became an immortal. Of course, Mr. Wen added a lot of details to the storybook given to him by Yan Qingqing.
I heard that there were two exceptionally well-written poems among them, so much so that even Magistrate Ling had them copied down and studied them daily.
The county magistrate liked it, and the students in the county town spread the word by word. It is said that some students even vowed to find the person who wrote the poem.
They asked Manager Yun and Mr. Wen, but the two said they could not disclose the information without the original owner's permission.
However, some observant people listened to the story and gleaned some information from it. Some people did know about Canghe Village, but they were all skeptical and wondered if the Canghe Village in Chengyang County was the same Canghe Village where Peony was banished in the book.
In a few days, students will come to visit, but that's a story for another time.
That day, Yan Qingqing was making a sand table for Xiao Mochen and Li Xiangjian. Ruyi stood aside, watching with concern but not daring to dissuade her. She felt that the madam might be under too much mental stress lately, and had even started playing with mud.
Yan Qingqing had no idea what this girl was thinking about her, and continued with her own busy work.
Just then, Ah Daxing rushed over and reported, "Madam, Manager Yun and Mr. Wen from Pinmingxuan have arrived."
Yan Qingqing paused in her mud-mixing hands, then smiled and said, "I didn't expect you to actually come. You go to the front hall to greet them first, I'll change my clothes and come right away."
Upon hearing this, Ah Da quickly agreed and went to the front hall. As expected, he also quickly fetched clean water for Yan Qingqing to wash her hands.
After serving tea to Manager Yun and Mr. Wen, Ah Da quietly waited to the side.
This is Yan Qingqing's rule: whenever she meets a male customer, A-Da must accompany her.
Now, A-Da has become Yan Qingqing's right-hand man, and Yan Qingqing values him highly.
Neither Manager Yun nor Mr. Wen were in the mood for tea; in fact, they were quite restless.
Manager Yun even sighed, regretting that he should have agreed to Yan Qingqing's suggestion or left room for maneuver.
They never expected Yan Qingqing's storybooks to be so popular. These past few days, their tea house has been packed with people, and they've made a fortune.
Since ancient times, money has been a powerful motivator. Having tasted the joy of making money, Manager Yun naturally did not want to return to the days of living beyond his means. So, after discussing it with Mr. Wen, the two of them came to Canghe Village to find Yan Qingqing.
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