Chapter 150
Chapter 150
“Valley Master, the Young Master sent me with thirty cartloads of grain this time. He also asked me to pass along a message. Many families in the valley have more potatoes than they can finish, and the next crop looks set to be another bumper harvest. A great many residents have asked whether they can sell some of theirs.
“The Young Master could not decide on his own, so he had me ask you.”
In fact, Xiao Che had expected this. Potato yields were simply too high.
Good land could produce five thousand catties per mu. Some households had received more than ten mu and harvested fifty or sixty thousand catties in a single season.
Even after taxes, twenty or thirty thousand catties remained. No family could eat that much.
“All right. I’ll make a note of it. Before you return, we’ll draw up detailed rules for you to take back to the Young Master.”
Xiao Che intended to abolish the valley’s points system and introduce normal currency.
One point would be exchanged for one copper coin.
Now that they had a gold mine, they also had a source of revenue. In the beginning, they truly had no money, so the points system had been the only way to get everything operating normally without currency.
But Xiao Che knew the common people would feel more secure with real silver in their hands.
They did not unload the grain. The carts could continue directly to Jintang Valley.
Old Han was advanced in years, and the journey from Black Pine Valley had not been easy. Exhaustion covered his face.
Xie Chengyan had someone take him away to rest and ordered the kitchen to prepare good wine and food to help him recover from the journey.
The moment Jin Bao heard there would be delicious food, she spun around several times and dashed straight for the kitchen.
She wanted to see what they were making today. Grandpa Han loved roast chicken most, so she needed to tell the cooks to prepare two extra birds, one of which would be for her.
Watching Jin Bao skip away, Xiao Che and Xie Chengyan smiled and shook their heads in unison. What a little foodie.
They turned toward the study. With so many matters demanding attention, including the issue Old Han had just raised, they needed to discuss proper rules in detail.
They happened to be short on food. Buying grain from the valley residents and villagers would benefit them enormously. Their real fear was having money with no grain available to buy.
Jin Bao skipped all the way to the kitchen.
It was only midafternoon, well before mealtime. The cooks were local women, while the kitchen steward had come with the Xie Family.
Despite the hour, the kitchen was bustling. They said three women were enough to stage an entire opera, and there were at least a dozen in this kitchen. Everyone chatted as they prepared ingredients, filling the place with lively noise.
Jin Bao heard laughter from far away. She slowed as she reached the kitchen door, gripped the doorframe, and poked half her little head inside.
She did not recognize anyone.
She had seen the Xie Family’s female steward a few times, but the steward was not there.
Jin Bao scratched one of her little braids and hesitated. She did not know these aunties and felt a little shy about going in. Would they call her a little foodie?
“Sob… Cousin, please speak to the steward for me. I can do anything and endure any hardship. I don’t need wages. I only need somewhere to live and enough food to survive. If you won’t help me, I truly have nowhere else to go.”
“Hongying, don’t cry yet. What happened? How did you find me here?”
“Cousin, can you give me something to eat first? I haven’t had a single grain of rice in three days.”
“All right. Wait here. I’ll get you a steamed bun. Sit down and rest first. You look terrible. You can tell me everything slowly in a moment.”
Jin Bao heard footsteps approaching from beyond the moon gate.
She immediately searched for a hiding place. She had not meant to eavesdrop, but hearing a private conversation still felt embarrassing. Mommy had taught her that listening in on others was wrong.
She could not let them discover her. If no one found her, then no one would know she had eavesdropped.
Unfortunately, the kitchen courtyard was bare and could be seen at a glance.
Jin Bao tipped back her head and looked up. “If Baby hides up there, nobody will ever find her.”
With no time to think, she wrapped her arms around a pillar beneath the veranda and scrambled up to a roof beam.
She had only just settled against it when a woman in dusty gray homespun entered through the moon gate.
Her hair was twisted into a bun and held by a single hairpin, with no other ornament. A gray apron was tied around her waist.
She hurried toward the kitchen.
Lying on the beam, Jin Bao could not see what was happening inside, but she did not dare climb down.
She did not wait long before the woman emerged with a panicked expression. The front of her clothes bulged suspiciously. She glanced around like a thief, then hurried out of the courtyard even faster than before.
Jin Bao’s curiosity flared at once. She threw every rule Pei Wanqing had taught her to the back of her mind, slid nimbly down from the beam, and followed the woman to the moon gate.
She could hear more clearly there, but she did not remain behind the gate. Instead, she climbed a small tree beside the wall and pulled herself up to the top.
Swinging one short leg over, she sat astride the wall. Now she could not only hear them, but see them as well.
Besides the woman who had entered and left the kitchen, Jin Bao saw another woman below.
The second woman’s hair was tangled, and dirt covered her face. Her summer clothes were patch upon patch, with tears all along the sleeves and lower legs.
She looked so thin and frail that a gust of wind might blow her away.
Grime coated all ten of her fingers.
The instant she saw the white steamed bun in the other woman’s hand, she practically snatched it away.
Several black fingerprints immediately appeared on its snowy surface.
The first woman’s lips moved. She raised a hand slightly as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, no words came. Watching Hongying devour the food, she shed tears of heartache.
“Slow down, Cousin. I have more if that’s not enough. You can eat as many steamed buns as you want today.”
The ragged woman did not seem to hear. She took enormous bites and stuffed the entire bun into her mouth in only a few.
Her cheeks bulging, she reached out and snatched the other two buns from her cousin’s hands.
One bite from the left, another from the right. Before she swallowed what was already in her mouth, she had torn through half the buns in her hands.
“Urk!”
She ate so frantically that she choked and rolled her eyes, yet she still refused to slow down.
Her cousin was badly frightened. She hurriedly patted Hongying’s back, pulled out a waterskin, and poured water into her mouth.
After a long while, Hongying finally caught her breath. She drew in a deep lungful of air, then slowly slid down the wall until she was sitting on the ground.
Only after swallowing all three buns did she seem to come alive again.
Her cousin crouched, took Hongying’s hand, and gently smoothed her hair with the other.
“Cousin, what in the world happened to you? Where are your husband and children? Your home is two or three hundred li from mine. How did you find your way here?”
With a wail, Hongying threw herself into her cousin’s arms and began to sob.
“Cousin, my husband is dead. My children are gone too. I was separated from everyone else. I asked for directions all along the way until I found your house. The villagers said you were working as a kitchen helper here, so I kept searching until I reached this place. Cousin, you and Auntie are the only family I have left in this world.”
Her cousin went rigid, one hand frozen in midair, disbelief written across her face.
Hongying had married into a better family than she had, supposedly a wealthy household. How could this have happened?
“What happened?”
She was completely bewildered. What terrible upheaval had taken place?
Hongying finally explained. “Prince Cheng went to war with the Murong Family, and the Murong Family started conscripting men everywhere.
“They seized every male they saw, from men in their fifties or sixties to boys barely over ten. Not one was spared.
“Only my mother-in-law, my two sisters-in-law, and I were left at home.
“In the end, the Murong Family could not hold out. Prince Cheng breached the city.
“His soldiers burned, killed, and looted everywhere. We had no choice but to flee in the night. We encountered several groups of bandits on the road and were separated in the chaos. I hid in the forest and barely escaped with my life.”