Back in the main house, A-Zhu was cleaning the bedroom when Min Yueqing said to her, "In the medicine box we brought, there is a dozen herbs that the doctor prescribed to treat colds and coughs. Take a packet and decoct them. Bring them up for lunch."
Having overheard Min Yueqing's question to Amo, Azhu immediately knew that the medicine was prepared for Pei Han, and quickly agreed and went out.
When Pei Han returned at noon, he was immediately invited to the dining room upon entering the courtyard.
Seeing the two plates of wild vegetables on the table, Pei Hanyin said, "I have already sent people to the nearby villages to buy meat and vegetables, but they may not be back so soon, so I can only have the servants find some wild vegetables in the mountains and send them over. Please make do with these for now, Madam."
Min Yueqing realized to herself, "So that's how it is."
Amei and Azhu were initially quite happy to see the servant bring over vegetables. However, when they saw that they were all wild vegetables, they were dumbfounded. They didn't know what the servant meant by this, or whether he was unhappy with their visit. The two of them had just been complaining to Min Yueqing.
Only after Pei Hanyi explained did Amei and the other woman understand.
In later generations, people have become more accepting of a wider range of ingredients. Sometimes, the more authentic the wild vegetables, the more expensive they are, and they are often snapped up immediately.
Therefore, Min Yueqing had no objection to eating wild vegetables; in fact, she was quite happy to see fresh, vibrant green wild vegetables in the kitchen. After all, these were 100% wild, and it would be hard to find anything wilder than them.
Min Yueqing calmly said, "These wild vegetables seem pretty good to me, so I don't think they'll taste too bad."
Pei Han thought his wife was being considerate and didn't want him to feel embarrassed, so he felt even more apologetic towards her. He quickly added, "We were short on time this morning, so they only found this much. They should be able to hunt some game this afternoon. I've also had people arrange for the carpenter, the cook, and the cow. We should have news by tomorrow."
Pei Han was busy all day. As soon as he arrived at the government office, he summoned his capable subordinate and instructed him to go to Dongshan Village to handle recruitment matters.
Pei Han had visited every village in the vicinity, among which Dongshan Village was the most remote and had the lowest standard of living for the local mountain people.
However, the villagers in Dongshan Village are not uneducated or lazy. On the contrary, they are very hardworking, and some families even have ancestral skills.
The poor geographical location and difficult roads of Dongshan Village have resulted in them having the ability but no work to do.
When the courtyard needed renovations, Pei Han immediately thought of Dongshan Village.
Min Yueqing nodded and said, "Since they can't come until tomorrow, let's put these things aside for now and have dinner first."
Although they were eating wild vegetables, Amei added a large piece of cured pork to the stir-fry, making it very oily and actually quite delicious, with a unique aroma reminiscent of the famous dish "Stir-fried Cured Pork with Artemisia" from later generations.
In addition, Amei also steamed a large plate of cured pork ribs, which were also very fragrant.
Shi Tou was here this time too. Last night, Min Yueqing invited him to dinner, but Shi Tou refused, feeling embarrassed to disturb his master's family reunion, and slipped away when he found a chance. Today, Pei Ji didn't even ask him; after finishing his martial arts practice, he brought Shi Tou along as usual.
In terms of sheer force, Pei Ji certainly couldn't move the stone. The main reason was that the stone had never refused Pei Ji's requests, and seeing his insistence on pulling it, it resigned itself to its fate and followed.
Pei Han naturally did not object. When he saw them coming, he even smiled at Shi Tou and told him not to be shy.
Therefore, the four people had lunch together in the dining room in a very harmonious manner, while a little tiger watched pitifully.
Yes, perhaps it smelled the aroma of the food, because as soon as Min Yueqing sat down, it eagerly tried to climb onto her lap. With Min Yueqing secretly letting it get some water, it actually managed to climb up successfully and is now sitting obediently on her lap.
Min Yueqing looked at Xiao Wei with pity, thinking to herself that he was doing something completely futile.
Not to mention that Xiao Wei is still too young and can't eat anything other than liquid food, even when it grows up, Min Yueqing can't feed it such salty cooked food with so many seasonings.
In fact, tigers are not suited to eating cooked food at all. Cooked food lacks essential nutrients for them, is not only difficult to digest, but also does not help them maintain their wildness and hunting instincts.
That's why Min Yueqing was in a hurry to find a dairy cow.
However, since everyone was eating, they couldn't let Xiao Wei, the little tiger, just watch over things. Min Yueqing asked Amei to move a stool next to her lap and put a bowl of rice porridge mixed with nutrient solution on the stool.
Little Wei was very clever; he immediately recognized that this was his food and lay down on Min Yueqing's lap, sticking his head out to drink the rice soup.
After finishing the meal, Min Yueqing clearly felt the scarcity of local food varieties, which reminded her of something very important.
Min Yueqing then said to Pei Han, "Jinzhi, before we came here, I asked Manager Liu to buy a lot of high-quality grain and vegetable seeds, which are in our luggage. We'll find them later, and you can see if you can plant them locally so that the local people can have a wider variety of food on their tables."
The original owner addressed Pei Han in two ways: one was as "husband," and the other was as "Jinzhi," which was Pei Han's courtesy name.
Of the two forms of address, the original owner actually used the former most often. However, Min Yueqing tried several times but couldn't utter the word "husband," so she had to settle for the second best and address Pei Han by his courtesy name.
Pei Han was overjoyed and immediately said, "Madam, this is a timely help! I just recently had some free time and was planning to send people out to find these things, but the nearest town is more than ten days away, and we may not even be able to find the good seeds we urgently need, so I put it aside for the time being."
The improved seeds brought by Min Yueqing not only enriched the local people's dining tables, but more importantly, they gave hope to many mountain people who couldn't afford to eat.
The mountain people here mostly eat beans and wild vegetables to fill their stomachs; those who can afford millet are considered relatively well-off. Sometimes, when the weather is bad or bandits cause trouble, they even lack beans, and life is generally very difficult.
Now that Pei Han has a way to deal with the bandits, the next step is to work towards improving people's livelihoods.
To improve people's livelihoods, the first priority is to ensure that people have enough to eat. And to ensure that they have enough to eat, developing agriculture is the primary task, and the improved seeds brought by Min Yueqing can help him take the first step in this primary task.
Pei Han became increasingly delighted, wishing he could find the item right now. Just as he took Min Yueqing's hand and was about to leave, Amei came in carrying a small bowl.
"Sir, this is the cough medicine that Madam instructed me to prepare for you. Please drink it while it's hot."
Pei Han and Min Yueqing's clasped hands froze for a moment imperceptibly. Min Yueqing couldn't help but chuckle and said, "Jinzhi, you can't ignore your illness."
Upon hearing this, Pei Han immediately recalled the two muffled coughs he had made last night. Now it seemed that Min Yueqing had clearly been alerted, but hadn't exposed him on the spot.
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