This year is the fourth year since Xu Qinyu traveled through time. She has lived in this era for four years. She has become accustomed to it. It is not much different from her life in the future. She also cooks all day long.
If she is to be told that she is not used to something, then of course there are some things that she is not used to, such as the various conveniences of life, the environment, the customs and habits that are different, as well as some of the influences and experiences brought about by the feudal environment. But Xu Qinyu is doing pretty well at the moment, except for the hard days when she first traveled through time. Now not only does her mother-in-law love her, but even Ning Jie'er protects her. Whenever there are beautiful jewelry or fun things, she is the first person that comes to mind, not to mention the two children, Feng Ge'er and Yan Jie'er, who are more attached to her. Her fourth brother also treats her very well. Probably the only benefit of traveling through time is 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 is content with having two shops. She has no plans to open branches outside the southwest for the time being.
After all, she is a princess exiled by 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 states.
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 that the restaurant would not close during the Chinese New Year. They all wanted to order New Year's Eve dinner at the hotel 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. It would be good to have more profit.
As for whether the employees want to take annual leave, it is up to them. If they are willing to stay and work in Xu Ji during these days, their salary for these days will be tripled.
And after the New Year, employees will be arranged to take annual leave one after another.
When the employees heard that as long as they continued to work during the New Year holidays, they would receive three times the daily wages, and that they would be given holidays one after another after the New Year, they were not unhappy at all.
Not only that, on New Year's Day, Xu Qinyu also gave all employees red envelopes with an amount almost equal 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.
But within a few days, the restaurant's New Year's Eve dinner reservations were full. Many other people found out that they could also book New Year's Eve 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's Restaurant in Yuanbao Town was open this year in sync with the hotel and did not close during the Chinese New Year. Similarly, all the New Year dinners at Xu's Restaurant were fully booked.
Xu's Restaurant had Cheng Ge'er and the chefs from Donglaiju, so Xu Qinyu felt quite at ease. She would usually go to Xu's Restaurant and stay for a few days every half a year.
It was not until the eighth day of the first lunar month that the restaurant became a little quieter. Wen and other managers of the restaurant began to arrange for the employees 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 gained some weight with great difficulty, 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 again this time?"
Actually, it is not the case. Pei Weixuan has not cared about Liuli's affairs during this period of time. Liuli has Zhou Yan's caravan to help her 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.
He raised some private soldiers on the island, and he usually changed his appearance to train these private soldiers.
As for the obvious leader, it is naturally Huo Jiang.
He could not show up in front of these private soldiers because he could not predict whether everyone was loyal, and naturally he could not let them see his true face, so he could only train 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 Fourth Brother was in deep thought, Xu Qinyu did not ask any more questions and asked him to go back to his room to wash up first. She went to the restaurant and brought back some food.
It was just noon and Xu Qinyu had just finished her breakfast, so she was naturally not hungry yet. She knew that her fourth brother must not have eaten, but she accompanied him to eat some food, which was all ready-made food in the restaurant.
Pei Weixuan was also a little hungry, so he rode back at full speed overnight without resting at all.
Xu Qinyu never stopped talking during the meal. She kept telling her fourth brother about things at home and recent events, including her participation in the cooking competition, the feud with Zuixianlou Zhien, and Kong Songkang's attempt to murder 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 pigeon message that Huo Jiang sent him, his face turned pale. Huo Ye beside him was also stunned. He called him "Your Highness" several times before he raised his eyes.
Even though he knew that Yu Niang would be fine and that 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 and Lian Hua's guards, he asked Huo Jiang to send some secret guards to the hotel overnight to protect the hotel and Yu Niang. No matter where Yu Niang went, they would follow her secretly.
But at this moment, whenever he thought about it, his heart would still 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 spring, where he could 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 lake-colored plum and orchid-patterned wide-brimmed blouse inlaid with gold thread, and a jade-colored embroidered long skirt. Her hair was simply tied behind her body with a ribbon. She was not wearing any 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 didn't even put the sketchbook down before she fell 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 had gradually become accustomed to this kind of close contact.
She buried her head in her fourth brother's arms, feeling lazy and not wanting to get up. When she looked up, she saw that her fourth brother had also opened his eyes.
She called out "Fourth Brother" and went 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 have such leisure time, but Pei Weixuan was still worried about other things.
He thought about some of the things he had seen recently while observing the sky, and after some contemplation, he decided to tell Yu Niang, "Yu Niang, there is something I want to tell you about. I have recently observed strange phenomena in the sky, and I am afraid that a natural disaster will occur soon."
Yu Niang's face turned pale and she couldn't help but sit up and asked, "Fourth Brother, where could there be a natural disaster?"
She still remembered the first year after 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. Many people in the north began to flee from the famine, and there were countless casualties. Some even fled to the southwest and suffered from diarrhea.
"It should be in Zhongzhou."
Xu Qinyu knew that this place had nothing to do with the historical dynasty she lived in, but the geographical location roughly 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 we prevent it?"
"It may be a drought."
Pei Weixuan's voice also became a little lower. Although he could observe something from the celestial phenomena, as for natural disasters, there was no way for him and the people on the island to help Zhongzhou by himself. Even if there were crops like potatoes and sweet potatoes, distant water could not put out a nearby fire. He had asked the residents on the island to grow these crops for two years, but it was just enough to produce seeds for one state city. If he wanted to provide relief to Zhongzhou, it would not even be enough to feed all the people in Zhongzhou for a day.
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, so she just asked Pei Weixuan in a low voice, "Fourth brother, I have made some money in the past few years. Why don't we buy some food and send it over to Zhongzhou?"
All the money earned from Xu's Restaurant was invested in the restaurant. However, the restaurant has been open for more than half a year, and she now has two hundred thousand taels of silver notes on hand.
She is not short of money now. If a drought really happens in Zhongzhou, she is willing to donate some of the money and leave it for the restaurant's expenses and employees' wages. After all, Zhongzhou is still quite far away from the southwest, and if a natural disaster really happens in Zhongzhou, it will not affect the southwest for the time being.
Since it is a drought, the harvest will definitely be affected. As long as people can survive the drought for a few months, most people will be able to survive.
But the crops there are only harvested once a year, so we have to wait until the next spring to plant the crops. Droughts usually occur in the summer, so it will take at least half a year. If you can survive this half year, you will be able to survive.
"No need." Pei Weixuan refused. "You should keep the money for yourself. Even if you really donate it, I'm afraid it won't reach the hands of the people in Zhongzhou."
The court is in such a state now that the money allocated by the court for disaster relief may not even reach Zhongzhou, let alone the money donated 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 told Yu Niang, "It should be half a year. If Ma Liu comes again next time, ask him to take a message home. Do not communicate by letter. Ask your father-in-law and mother-in-law to secretly store some 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 him submit a memorial to the court, saying that he had learned from a wandering Taoist that a natural disaster might occur in Zhongzhou in the next few days, and hoped that the court could take precautions in advance.
If we want to take precautions, we should stock up more food while food prices are normal now so that we can provide relief to the victims when the time comes.
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 the memorial was delivered to the capital at full speed and landed in front of Empress Dowager Fu's desk, she sneered, "The governor of Raozhou City is so foolish that he even believes the words of such a quack. If there is such a master, why doesn't he come to the palace to be the imperial teacher instead of traveling 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 appoint a 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 after searching the entire palace.
She also gradually stopped caring about the relationship between Wen and the Fourth Prince.
Prince Shu is now just doing business with a small caravan. Even if the second daughter of the Marquis Dechang's Mansion is quite capable and has opened a wine shop to earn money to support her family, she is not short of that little money and naturally does not care, not to mention that she is just a lowly merchant.
However, she has had a lot of worries recently. Yu Shi has been scolding her and King Handong, and she can't let the new emperor kill Yu Shi directly in the court.
Fortunately, she recently got two new male pets, which was some consolation.
…
Inside the Dechang Marquis Mansion.
Xu Qinhui was also worried and confused. She vaguely remembered that there would be some strange phenomena this year, as if there was a natural disaster in Zhongzhou. The Queen Mother ignored Zhongzhou and countless people in Zhongzhou were killed or injured. The world began to become chaotic and many places started to revolt. Gradually, only the Shu Wang lineage remained.
A few years later, the number of rebels led by King Shu gradually increased, and they recaptured many states and cities.
In the tenth year, he marched straight to the capital and produced the imperial edict written by the late emperor, appointing the eldest prince as the crown prince.
Therefore, King Shu could be said to have legitimately defeated the tyrant emperor and the evil queen mother and successfully inherited 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.
She was naturally 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 had risen a lot, so she asked Xu's father to stock up a lot of food. However, they were all placed in her mother's dowry farm and were not transported to the house, so as not to disturb other people.
…
Raozhou City.
Pei Weixuan had no hope for the capital or the imperial court. After staying in Raozhou City for half a month, the imperial court did not send anyone to reply to the letter from the prefect, so he returned to the island.
Xu Qinyu was also busy with the restaurant's affairs.
A month later, Ma Liu sent the prisoner to exile in the southwest and brought Cui's reply to Xu Qinyu.
When Xu Qinyu received the reply from her parents and touched the thick stack of letters inside, she knew that it must be her mother who sent back the 20,000 taels of silver that she had given her before.
Xu Qinyu opened the letter and saw that, as expected, Xue said that she had left two thousand taels of silver, and that it was not easy for her to earn money, so she asked her to keep it for herself so that she could eat well and dress well, and that there would be no shortage of money at home, and that the money should not be revealed to other people. She went on and on about it.
Thinking of the natural disaster that would 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 back in a new envelope, and asked Ma Liu to tell her family to stock up some food.
The words were like a memorial delivered by the prefect to the capital, saying that he had met a wandering monk who observed the celestial phenomena and learned 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 also 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, so she naturally knows what kind of person he is.
When Ma Liu heard this, he 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, he handed the envelope to Xue and told her what Miss Xu had told him.
After hearing Ma Liu's letter, Xue did not refuse, but was worried about the people of Zhongzhou and Yu Niang. She planned to keep these banknotes to buy more food, and when a natural disaster really happened in Zhongzhou, she could donate the excess food.
Xue also listened to Yu Niang and stockpiled a lot of food. However, she did not put the food in Dechang Marquis's mansion, but in her brother Xue Liang's house.
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 already very satisfying for him.
He also bought a farm and some land outside the city.
After hearing about 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 is a natural disaster in Zhongzhou, there will be no harm in the southwest, right?"
Xue Liang said, "It shouldn't happen. Zhongzhou is more than 3,000 miles away from the southwest. If there is any impact, it should be that the people of Zhongzhou can't hold on any longer and flee to the southwest. However, Zhongzhou is close to the capital, so people fleeing famine will go to the capital first. Yu Niang doesn't need to worry too much about her. Let's store our own food and 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 sighing, "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 remained silent, as he was also concerned about his niece.
…
Raozhou City.
In the blink of an eye, more than a month passed. In the hotel, the garden built before the New Year has been completed, and guests have begun to be received 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 twenty or so more courtyards, and naturally a lot more guests.
The restaurant has been recruiting people one after another, and now it finally has enough staff.
Xu Qinyu's life in Raozhou City was still the same as before, 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 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 didn't know that there was a "rumor" in Zhongzhou that a severe drought would occur soon, and that everyone should stock up on food. Some people believed it and stocked up, but some people didn't believe it at all and said, "It just rained two days ago, there is no sign of a severe drought. Why do you still believe this? It must be the idea of a 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 have not grown much. Due to the gap between the harvest season and the harvest season, the only way is to transport water from the nearby rivers to irrigate the fields.
Some people finally started to panic and bought some food.
Food prices have risen a bit at this moment, but the increase is not outrageous.
After a month, 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 a month-long drought, which has also affected the crops. 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, they can still be eaten after cooking. Otherwise, if they are left in the fields to dry out, there will be countless grains.
Some people still refuse to believe that there will be a severe drought, thinking that it will definitely rain, and are unwilling to harvest crops and let them continue to grow in the fields.
In this era, many people and tenants had no food in their homes.
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 tenants 30%. The whole family depends on this little food, and they have to eat frugally. If there is a severe drought and no grain is harvested, they will have no 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 problem of drinking water 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 the various provincial capitals of the Dasheng Dynasty, and naturally reached the capital first.
Empress Dowager Fu never expected that the memorial submitted by Governor Zhu was actually true and that there was indeed a severe drought in Zhongzhou.
But even if we knew, it would be of no use.
It is easy to provide relief to these disaster victims now. All we need is for the government 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 want to use the money in the national treasury to buy food for disaster relief, the entire treasury will be completely emptied.
In order to build the palace and support 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 after court was dismissed he went to consult Empress Dowager Fu.
Empress Dowager Fu could only let the new emperor delay for the time being.
In this way, another half month passed and summer had arrived. The weather in Zhongzhou was getting hotter and hotter. All the crops in the fields had been completely sunburned to death. Many tenants and common people were left with nothing and had to use the little money left in their homes to buy expensive food to eat.