Chapter 234 My Lady, the World Has Changed
"Madam, look! Cola's teeth are coming in!"
Liu Ye took Cola from Mango's arms, pried open his little mouth, and sure enough, Cola had two front teeth, just peeking out: "My good son, so you've grown little teeth. No wonder it hurts so much when you bite. You naughty boy, if you bite Mommy again, Mommy will wean you off milk."
At this moment, Bai Zilin came in from outside with a serious expression. Liu Ye could tell that something was wrong, so she handed the cola to Mango and said, "Take the cola to play in the garden."
Mango took Cola out to play, while Bai Zilin closed the door and sat down on a chair with a worried look on his face: "Wife, the Kingdom of Wuli has changed!"
Liu Ye didn't understand: "What do you mean? Emperor Xuan has suffered another defeat. Which city has been lost this time?"
Bai Zilin sighed and said, "Alas, it's not a city, it's that the Kingdom of Wuli no longer exists. The Xiongnu Kingdom, the Tar Kingdom, and the Zhao Kingdom have already breached the capital and entered the palace. It's probably only a matter of time before the Kingdom of Wuli belongs to any of them. I'm worried that it will affect us."
Liu Ye wasn't worried at all: "Husband, I think your worries are unnecessary. What does it matter to us who becomes emperor? Besides, we're so far from the capital, far from the emperor's reach. We'll just live our lives, do business honestly, and not cheat or harm anyone. Who becomes emperor won't affect us. By the way, what about Emperor Xuan? He should be dead, right?"
Bai Zilin frowned and shook his head: "He should not be dead. The three kingdoms are sending troops to capture Emperor Xuan. I heard that one of Emperor Xuan's concubines ran away with her child, and the children born to the other concubines were said to have been thrown to their deaths."
The concubine ran away with the child? This reminded Liu Ye of Fu Rong, the concubine who ran away with the child. Could it be Fu Rong? It's very possible. Fu Rong knows martial arts and has subordinates who also know martial arts. Maybe the Emperor Xuan is with her too: "Husband, do you think the Emperor and the others might have run south?"
Bai Zilin was worried about this: what if Emperor Xuan really did come to the south and found that they were still alive…? He said with a worried expression, “That’s possible, but the south is so big, he might not necessarily come all the way here. Funan Town is quite remote, it shouldn’t be that much of a coincidence…”
Liu Ye shrugged and said, "I hope it's not such a coincidence, otherwise I will definitely avenge you. That damned emperor, you helped him ascend to the throne, but he repaid kindness with enmity. Now this is his just desserts. He deserves it!"
"Alright, let's not dwell on it anymore. I heard that a hot pot restaurant opened in town, and business is pretty good."
When the topic of the newly opened hot pot restaurant came up, Bai Zilin laughed in exasperation: "That's right, the new hot pot restaurant makes everything exactly like ours, from the menu to the utensils, including our slicing knife. They've copied everything. Da Long stole a sauce from there, and I've tried it. It tastes exactly like our sauce. They're really something else."
Liu Ye thought, "What's so special about that? Making hot pot is simple. As long as you're willing, you can learn it with just a glance. Slicing knives are simple too. Just steal the slicing knives from their shop and have the blacksmith make them."
"Hey, it's okay. We'll do our business, and he'll do his. We'll eat our fill, but we should let others have some soup too. We can't just be the ones with full bellies. By the way, how much rice flour have you ground?"
Bai Zilin held up two fingers: "We've already ground 20,000 jin. This morning I had Hei Yi notify the factory to stop. Half of the workers were sent to the pickled vegetable factory, and the other half were sent to the village to pick chili peppers."
Liu Ye nodded with satisfaction: "20,000 catties of rice noodles is enough. Let's leave it for today. Tomorrow I'll go to the factory to teach the workers how to make rice noodles. Next month, our restaurant will be able to offer new dishes: snail rice noodles, spicy hot pot, hot and sour vermicelli, braised goose in an iron pot, and we can also steam rice cakes with rice noodles, and make..."
Before Liu Ye could finish speaking, Mango burst in carrying Cola: "Madam, it's raining outside. Hurry up and hold Cola while I go collect the laundry."
Bai Zilin got up and hugged Kele in his arms. Kele giggled in his arms, revealing two little teeth: "Oh my, our Kele has grown teeth."
"That's right, I only found out today too. You watch the child, I'll go help Mango pick up her clothes."
Just as Liu Ye and Mango brought the clothes inside, the rain outside started pouring down, as if the sky were leaking. Bubbles were rising from the ground. At first, it was just raining without any wind, but later, along with the rain, a strong wind picked up, causing the trees to sway and knocking the fruit off them.
The rain lasted for three days and showed no sign of stopping. However, the wind had stopped. Liu Ye stood at the door for a while, then closed the door and went inside. Bai Zilin was coaxing the child to play on the bed.
"My lord, this rain seems to be getting worse. Could it be that we're going to flood?"
In her previous life, she had heard a saying: the South fears floods the most, and the North fears droughts the most. She hoped she wouldn't experience both, or she didn't want to have to flee famine again.
Bai Zilin didn't take her words seriously and casually said, "No, it's rainy in the south. I remember the last time it rained, it seemed to last for seven or eight days. It's okay, maybe it will stop raining tomorrow. Come and see, my wife, Cola is blowing bubbles again."
Liu Ye took off her shoes and went to bed to play with the father and son. She also realized that she might be overthinking things. Fortunately, the rain really stopped the next day, and Bai Zilin hurried to the mountain villa to check on the crops.
When Bai Zilin returned from the mountain villa, he brought back bad news: mudslides had occurred in several villages next to the villa, flooding them all. The villagers had nowhere to live and had all come to their mountain villa. Seeing that the villagers were homeless and pitiful, he felt too embarrassed to turn them away, so he allowed them to build wooden houses in the villa for temporary accommodation.
“Wife, there are mountains behind our manor. If it rains again, I’m worried that there might be mudslides on the back mountain. I’m thinking of sending all the chickens, ducks, geese, cattle and sheep from the manor to the vermicelli factory. That way we can minimize our losses, and the restaurant will also benefit from them.”
Liu Ye readily agreed: "Okay, you can handle it yourself."
The next day, Bai Zilin led the workers to move the chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep from the mountain resort to the vermicelli factory. When the villagers living in the mountain resort saw this, some of them were unhappy. They thought that Bai Zilin was afraid that they would eat the animals. They muttered and cursed behind his back, saying that he was rich but heartless, and that God was unfair, only bullying them poor people. They wondered why the mountain resort was not flooded by the mudslide!
These words quickly reached Bai Zilin's ears. In a fit of anger, without consulting Liu Ye, Bai Zilin ordered his men to drive everyone out of the manor, leaving them to fend for themselves and go wherever they wanted. They were spoiled rotten. He had given them a place to live and the time to rebuild their homes, yet they were still insatiable and resented him. Well, he wouldn't tolerate them anymore. Anyway, there was plenty of food in the mountains, and they wouldn't starve.
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