After returning to the Duke's Mansion, Lu Zifeng had just approached his yard when he saw Situ Yao coming over. He hurriedly took two steps forward and supported her.
"Why did you want to come out? The baby is about to be born in two months, but you have to be careful."
Situ Yao knew that Lu Zifeng was worried about her, and she felt warm in her heart, but she still said.
"I invited the imperial physician to come to my house today to check my pulse. He said the baby is fine, but I'm about to give birth, so I can't lie down all the time. I need to move around more, otherwise I won't have the strength to give birth."
Lu Zifeng was stunned. He really didn't know this. But when he knew it was the imperial physician's order, he didn't object.
As they walked, they talked about the chili peppers on the farm, and Lu Zifeng smiled.
"The peppers are growing very well. They are all red now and look very festive. We will start collecting seeds tomorrow. After we collect the seeds, the remaining peppers will be ready to eat."
As soon as she heard that she could eat, Situ Yao's mouth immediately started watering. She didn't know why she liked to eat spicy food since she became pregnant. But when the elders heard that she liked spicy food, they said that this baby must be a girl. Isn't it said that sour food means a boy and spicy food means a girl?
Situ Yao was still a little pressured about this. At the beginning, Lu Zifeng didn't notice it. But one time, he brought some peppers back from the field again and asked Situ Yao to eat them, but Situ Yao insisted that he didn't want to eat them. Later, Lu Zifeng found out the reason why he didn't want to eat peppers. He was immediately at a loss whether to laugh or cry. It took him two days of comforting for Situ Yao to finally let it go.
Lu Zifeng said to Situ Yao, no matter whether it is a son or not, to me, it is my child, my first child. Even if it is a girl, it doesn’t matter. If I can give birth to a daughter, I can also give birth to a son. What is there to worry about?
It was after Lu Zifeng's persuasion that time that Situ Yao no longer thought about whether it was a son or not. She ate all the chili peppers that Lu Zifeng brought back.
Hearing that she would be able to eat chili peppers starting from tomorrow, Situ Yao was in a good mood and smiled all night long.
It took three days of hard work to finally take out all the pepper seeds. Now we have more than 100 kilograms of pepper seeds, and we can plant at least 1,000 acres of peppers next year.
However, for the sake of his own business, Lu Zifeng decided not to sell pepper seeds for the time being. He planned to grow them himself for two or three years and then open hot pot restaurants all over the country.
On October 15th, Lu Zifeng launched a new flavor of hot pot in the restaurant of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Unexpectedly, it immediately aroused the love of people in the capital for chili peppers. They all wanted to know what this chili pepper was and why it was so spicy, yet so addictive?
The owner of the restaurant was also an experienced man. He kept people in suspense by being mysterious and refused to tell them the truth. This made it so that those who wanted to eat the chili peppers had no idea where to get them from.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince saw how popular the restaurant was and gave orders to expand it from the capital to the surrounding areas. By the end of the year, more than a dozen restaurants specializing in hot pot had been opened.
During this period, not only did Prince Situ Jin make a fortune, but Lu Zifeng also increased his income a lot.
When the accounts were settled at the end of the year, Lu Zifeng himself made a net profit of more than 100,000 taels of silver from the Lu family trading company, the Lu family caravan, and the hot pot restaurant. This was even after factoring in the silver from the Cheng'en Marquis Mansion and the Dingguo Duke Mansion. Lu Zifeng alone earned more than 100,000 taels of silver.
By the end of the year, Situ Yao was about to give birth. The imperial physician said at the time that the child should be born before or after the New Year.
As a result, Situ Yao started to have contractions on New Year's Eve, which forced the Lu family members who were preparing to go to the palace to attend the palace banquet to stay in the mansion. Lu Minghan and Lu Mingyuan even went to the palace specifically to explain the reason to the emperor and the empress.
Although it was Situ Yao who was giving birth, Lu Zifeng was also very nervous. He stood outside the door and looked at the delivery room from time to time.
Old Madam Kang noticed Lu Zifeng's nervousness and smiled.
"Brother Feng, go pick up your mother and grandmother at the gate. I think they will be here soon."
Kang was helpless. His eldest grandson, who had always been mature and steady, was now like a young boy, fidgeting and making himself very nervous. He had no choice but to find an excuse to send him away.
When Lu Zifeng heard his grandmother say this, he realized that he was a little nervous. He smiled awkwardly, looked at the door of the delivery room, and then walked out.
Cui said with a smile.
"Alas, no matter how calm he is, he is still young. This is his first time being a father, so it's inevitable that he's a little nervous. I guess he'll be fine after the next child."
Lu Zifeng walked all the way to the side door of Duke Dingguo's Mansion. As soon as he arrived, he heard his mother's voice and hurriedly opened the door and walked out.
"Mom, grandpa and grandma, you are here."
When Tan Yunniang saw her son coming out, she hurriedly took a few steps forward and asked.
"How is Yao'er now? Has she started giving birth?"
Seeing his mother so anxious, Lu Zifeng calmed down all of a sudden and comforted her with a smile.
"Don't worry, mother. When I came out, Yao'er had already entered the delivery room, but she probably hasn't started giving birth yet!"
Lu Zifeng actually didn’t understand. He just remembered that this was how it was shown on TV in his previous life. The women in labor were all screaming and shouting, but he didn’t hear Situ Yao screaming just now. It seemed that Situ Yao hadn’t started giving birth yet!
Xu had just gotten off the carriage. When she heard Lu Zifeng say this, she shook her head and said to Tan Yunniang, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"Ask this young boy what he knows. Let's go in quickly!"
After hearing what Xu said, Tan Yunniang realized that she was a little anxious. She actually caught up with her son who knew nothing and started asking him questions. She hurriedly walked up to Xu and helped her walk inside.
When Lu Zifeng heard what his grandmother said, he touched his nose speechlessly and looked at Lu Lancheng.
"Grandpa, let's go in!"
Lu Lancheng looked at his eldest grandson sympathetically and walked into the Duke's Mansion without saying anything.
When they arrived at Lu Zifeng's yard, there was still no sound coming from the delivery room, so Xu and Tan Yunniang chose to go into the delivery room to take a look.
Kang said with a smile.
"His aunt has already gone in. Let Yunniang go in. We two old guys will just stay here to take care of them."
Xu thought so too. She was old and weak, and she was afraid that she would not be able to help much if she went in.
"Yunniang, go in and look after Yao'er. You and your sister-in-law will take care of Yao'er. The midwife will take care of everything."
Tan Yunniang nodded, bowed to the two old ladies, and turned to go to the delivery room.
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