by N/A
Listening to here, Du Xiao Li roughly guessed Li Ming Fu's meaning. He probably wants to let her have the winery purchase these fruits.
As expected----
"Li girl, say, if that piece of mountain is opened up to plant fruit trees, can your winery make the purchase?"
Du Xiao Li considered for a moment and said, "This isn't impossible. I'll just have to tell Madam Li. However, if village chief wants to plant fruit trees, you can only plant the kinds I mentioned, else it won't work."
Not all fruits they will purchase. The fruit wine made from some fruits weren't ideal. This kind of fruit wine they will still abandon.
"Alright, that's not a problem!" Li Ming Fu slapped his thigh and said with a smile, "What kinds are good to plant?"
"En, the best is to plant grapes, however grapes, I still haven't been able to breed in mass. Additionally, you can also plant some of my tangerine trees. These two kinds both don't exist in the outside. The demand for grapes is high and furthermore, only I have the sprouts. But, if we're the only ones planting, we can still guarantee for it to be able to sell for a good price. But this sapling isn't easy to breed. If we really want to do this, it'll probably have to wait until the end of this year."
"En, end of the year is fine. This mountain has lie wasted for a long time anyways, a few more months won't make a difference. During this time, I can go ask if anyone's interested in buying a mountain to grow fruits." Li Ming Fu said.
Du Xiao Li had to say, Li Ming Fu was a good village chief and also a village chief with farsightedness, able to sense a business opportunity from Li Xue Qing's fruit wine that just hit the market. He didn't have the intentions to monopolize either, rather letting the entire village develop economically. This bit made her admire him.
But although Li Ming Fu's idea was good, not that many responded to him. Everyone has always all lived self-sufficiently. And now, suddenly saying they want to build some orchard economy made a lot of people all unable to comprehend. That's why, this news went out for a few months, yet still not many people came to respond.
Du Xiao Li went and enlightened Shi Da, Shi Er, and Du Ping in advance, letting them go to the village chief to sign up to buy a mountain. In the future, they'll definitely profit. Even if when the time comes, the winery is gone, these fruits can still be taken to the county seat to sell. Especially the grapes and tangerines that she let them plant. In the future, they'll definitely be best selling fruits.
Shi Er originally was still somewhat hesitant, but Du Xiao Li's explanation let him make up his mind. And together with Shi Da, one after the other, headed to Li Ming Fu's place and bought a mountain.
Du Ping originally didn't want to buy a mountain either. After all, he had his own fields, and fifty taels of silver isn't a small amount either. His own two sons also need to prepare to take a bride in a few years, so this money was very much tight.
After Du Xiao Li heard the news from the village chief, she went to Du Ping's house and told him about the fruit tree's profits, letting him make long-term plans for the future. In the end, Du Ping, under Du Xiao Li's persuasion, went to Li Ming Fu's place and bought a mountain.
(T/N: In my head I won't everyone in the village to get richer than that eldest uncle's family.)
This year, for Du Xiao Li, appeared much more peaceful. Perhaps because Han Ming Yi and them left, and Luo Qi also left after her birthday.
When Luo Qi left, he left the secret books with Du Xiao Li, repeatedly warning her, before mastering, to never expose her sound wave technique. In addition, as he was leaving, he left behind several thousand taels of silver. Du Xiao Li clearly remembered that he didn't have this much money. But thinking about it afterwards, it was probably brought back when he'd left in the middle.
(T/N: I swear she's just getting rich from all these rich kids leaving behind their money.)
As soon as the fruit wine started selling, it was already selling very well. Aside from having new fruits maturing and need Du Xiao Li to go teach those people, all other times, she stayed in her little mountain village growing her grapes and tangerines.
When the grapes matured, Du Xiao Li saved some for herself to eat, afterwards took the rest to the winery to make into grape wine. Because it was similar to the red wine from the western regions, the texture was good, and moreover the amount was limited, one jar of grape wine sold for the high price of a hundred taels, hearing that in the end, the price rose to two hundred taels a jar.
When Du Xiao Li heard this, she happily laughed. The more expensive this fruit wine sells for, the more money she will get.
Later, Du Xiao Li had the grape saplings she she bred cheaply sold to Shi Da, Shi Er, and Du Ping. Originally, she didn't intend on receiving their money, but Shi Da and them insisted on giving. Thus, she finally took some for the sake of it. Afterwards, she explained to them some things they need to pay attention to. Everyone were all farmers in Du village, so when it came to planting grapes, they also understood immediately.
When the tangerines matured, Du Xiao Li had a portion sold to Li Xue Mei, and a portion sold to the winery to make fruit wine. In addition to the profit share from the winery, this year she's made quite a bit of money.
Another year passed, and by the time the grapes matured, Du Shi and the others' mountains were all filled with grapes. When Li Xue Qing saw the few mountains of grapes, she was unable to conceal her happiness. The other villagers, seeing Da Shi and them making that much money, also successively went to go find Li Ming Fu.
In this year, Du Xiao Li also opened her own restaurant in the county seat. However, that wasn't on her own either, the same as the winery, she found someone to partner up with. She provided a portion of capital and also quite a few delicious recipes, and the rest was all taken care of by the other party.
(T/N: Tbh making money through business investments is a pretty legit business model. This is almost like stocks but in ancient times.)
When it was time to split the profits at the end of the year, Li Xue Qing said this year someone had caused some trouble, and they spent quite a bit of money to have the matter settled. That's why, the profit share was a little lesser than anticipated. However, this was also many times more than last year's profit share.
When Du Xiao Li heard Li Xue Qing mention this matter, she wasn't surprised, only feeling that this was something expected. With the fruit wines selling this well, certainly there will be people that were jealous, so it wasn't strange for something to have happened. However, these were all taken care of by Li Xue Qing. This was also why Du Xiao Li was willing to work with them in the beginning.
After Li Xue Qing left, Du Xiao Li said to Silver who was in the courtyard, "Silver, let's go stroll around the mountain, see if you can still keep up with me now."
With that said, Du Xiao Li flew to the roof with the tap of her foot. Afterwards, she provocatively smiled at Silver and flew towards the mountain. Silver immediately bolted out of the courtyard and chased after Du Xiao Li's figure towards the mountains, calling out as he ran.
"Awwooo---"
Du Xiao Li thought that this kind of satisfying countryside life would continue all the way until Du Xiu Heng goes to the capital to participate in the imperial exam. Yet unexpectedly, a few years later, a sudden visit from a luxurious horse carriage shattered her peace......
T/N: This concludes the first arc of the novel! I never thought back when I first started translating this series back in January of this year, it would progress this far this fast. Thank you to all the many sponsors that fueled me with caffeine, allowing me to continue translating at the rate of my aggressive typing speed. Although I did lose a lot of sleep over this, I am still quite proud of my progress, despite also stimultaneously translating two other series, which one I haven't been able to release yet ;;v;; Anyways next chapter is the start of the second arc, thank you for reading~
Ch. 058.1 – Saving Someone in Passing (1)
Saving Someone in Passing (1)
T/N: Chapt
er sponsored by Azurixa! Thank you for supporting! This is technically chapter 1 of the second arc, but the chapter numberings will just continue on like normal. Also all the chapters from now on will be really long so I'm going to have to break them up. This chapter is going to have 5 parts.
Sixth lunar month. On the spacious official road outside Fuyang city, the white birch tree stood erect on the two sides of the road like soldiers.
The scorching hot sun made the tree leaves appear somewhat withered and listless, also making very little pedestrians appear on the road. Aside from the cicadas on the white birch tree diligently singing the hot summer song, only four horse carriages, as well as the ten some men dressed as guards riding along on horses at the front and rear.
The curtain of the second carriage counting from the front was pushed open. A delicately pretty little face appeared. Surprisingly, this was the grown up Du Xiao Li. Although she was only thirteen fourteen years old, she was already a beauty. Beautiful lush brows, red lips, white teeth, and skin as soft as congealed fat. A wisp of long hair flitted across from behind her ear, hanging at her chest.
"Chang Feng." She shouted towards the guard on horseback in front.
A twenty-four year old man heard her calling and turned the horse back towards the carriage, looking to the girl and asking, "Miss, what orders do you have?"
"How much longer before we reach Fuyang?" Du Xiao Li asked.
"Replying to miss, there's still about another two-hours before we can reach Fuyang." Chang Feng respectfully replied.
"Younger sister, what's wrong?" In the horse carriage in front, Du Xiu Heng heard Du Xiao Li's voice and pulled open the back window curtain. He looked to Du Xiao Li's horse carriage and asked.
"Big brother, it's nothing, I was just asking." Du Xiao Li replied.
With that said, she put down the curtains, muttering to herself, "Still another two-hours, it would have been better to just ride a horse!"
Inside the horse carriage, there were also two other girls, Ying Ge and Xia Yuan*. Both were seventeen to eighteen years old, delicately beautiful and full of life, wearing clothes slightly secondary to Du Xiao Li's, but were still quite a bit better looking than ordinary servant girls'.
(*T/N: Their names are based off of birds, oriole and kite respectively.)
Hearing Du Xiao Li's complaint, Ying Ge said with a smile, "Miss, if you can get pass young master, you wanting to ride a horse isn't impossible."
Du Xiao Li pouted and said, "Sigh, Ying Ge, you saying this just to upset me? In order for me to conceal my martial arts, he's dead set on not letting me ride a horse. From Zhou county to here, ten days, an entire ten days! I feel like I'm about to become moldly!"
"Miss, just endure for a little longer. Isn't young master saying it for your sake? Eat some grapes to calm your anger, we'll reach Fuyang very soon." Xia Yuan opened a delicate small chest to the side. Inside was actually a box of grapes, and moreover, there was also the rarely seen ice cubes inside.
As soon as she saw the grapes, Du Xiao Li immediately became spirited again. Her low spirits from her inability to ride a horse were immediately swept away. She reached out and picked up a piece, asking as she peeled the skin, "When did the grapes come, how come I didn't know?"
"It was sent over early this morning. At that time, miss was still asleep, so we didn't tell miss." Xia Yuan also picked up a piece and peeled it before handing it to Du Xiao Li.
Du Xiao Li waved her hand and said, "I want to eat the ones I peeled myself, the ones you all peel, eat it yourself." Seeing them not moving, Du Xiao Li picked up two and shoved each one into their mouths, saying: "You've been following me for this long and know my temperament. Although you two were given to me by big brother Luo Qi, I've never viewed you two as servant girls. It's not like you didn't know, why still be this polite with me?!"
"Thank you miss." Ying Ge's personality was a bit more lively and ate the grape in one bite, then spitting out the skin.
Xia Yuan's personality obviously was more steady. After she ate the grape, she said, "Young master Luo Qi gave us to miss, thus we are miss's people. Miss although doesn't treat us as servants, we still can't lose our propriety. Especially now that miss has to go the capital. There, we further need to be more careful."
Ying Ge stuck her tongue and said, "I know, alright!"
Du Xiao Li couldn't do anything about them and said, "It's been more than a year. Ying Ge has already been corrected by me. But Xia Yuan, how can you still be the same as in the beginning? This makes me feel very defeated!"
"Hehe...." Xia Yuan and Ying Ge heard Du Xiao Li's words and both laughed.
"That's right, how's the situation over at the capital?" Du Xiao Li asked.
Ever since a year ago, when Luo Qi had sent over these two servant girls for her, she had been slowly transferring work into their hands.
She still remembered what they said when they'd first arrived, "Young master Luo Qi said, in the past he was our master, but from today onwards, miss is our master. We'll only listen to miss alone."
"Everything has already been arranged appropriately. Although this was much sooner than what we'd anticipated, for the most part, the affect isn't big." Xia Yuan replied.
"All eldest senior brother, that old man's, fault! Who let him have a slip of tongue after drinking? Wait until I get to the capital, I'll definitely have to find him to properly settle the score!" Du Xiao Li grumbled.
In her plans, they weren't planning on going to the capital city until when Du Xiu Heng needed to go to participate in the imperial exam, and they weren't intending on acknowledging that degenerate father, Du Yun Han, either. But who knew, Niu Jing's identity was actually an imperial physician of the Imperial Physician's court, and moreover his relationship with that degenerate father was even not bad. Although he promised Su Su Xin on her death bed that he won't have their whereabouts told to Du Yun Han, but that glutton, one time while drinking with Du Yun Han, got drunk and had her and Du Xiu Heng's matters inadvertently blurted out.
According to that old man's words, Niu Jing at the time said this: "That daughter of yours, really makes one both love and hate. Don't know after this many years, with her being that small, how she's doing over there?"
Du Yun Han, who was also an old fox, upon hearing Niu Jing's words, originally thought he was referring to Du Ke Xin, but carefully pondering his words, it didn't feel right. Taking advantage of Niu Jing while he was still drunk, he managed to get out of him the matter of encountering Su Su Xin in Du village.
As soon as he heard this, he was shocked. Turns out his original wife didn't die that year, but instead took his son and their unborn daughter and escaped. Recalling that he'd clearly seen a pregnant woman's and a boy's corpse that time, he immediately knew, that incident that year definitely had other secrets. But he still held his patiences and continued asking, learning that Su Su Xin had already died, and when Niu Jing had left Du village, Du Xiao Li was only seven and Du Xiu Heng was also only ten.
Hearing that his son and daughter having to be self-reliant at such a young age, Du Yun Han felt extremely heartbroken. Not having enough time to thoroughly investigate the truth of that year, he immediately entered the palace and requested a leave of absence from the emperor, before getting on his horse carriage and heading south to go seek his daughter.
Thinking of what will happen when Du Xiao Li comes to the capital, Niu Jing hated that he couldn't immediately escape to the Medicine King Valley! However, knowing this was impossible, he voluntarily went to find the emperor and left for the border town to be the temporary military doctor for Han Ming Yi who was currently fighting a war there.
(T/N: Oi, don't run away from the mess you caused old man!)
As for Du Yun Han, he spurred his horse carriage directly to Du village without rest. And after finding a person working in the fields and asking, he found Du Xiao Li's home at the waist of the mountain.
Ch. 058.2 – Saving Someone in Passing (2)
Saving Som
eone in Passing (2)
The first sight Du Yun Han saw of Du Xiao Li was her wearing a straw hat in old clothes working in the fields. At the time, Du Xiao Li was in the middle of combing through the tangerines in the orchard. That is to pick off the excess tangerines from a branch, so as to avoid too many tangerines from growing on one branch, pressuring the branch to break. In addition, there were also two other girls together with her.
"Who are you?" Ying Ge saw the head poking out of the horse carriage and asked.
Everyone had actually long noticed this luxurious horse carriage enter the village, but all thought it was just a passerby. Yet, unexpectedly, he stopped at the foot of their mountain and even stuck his head out for a look.
Du Yun Han got down from the horse carriage and looked to the already thirteen and a half years old Du Xiao Li, asking with a shaking voice, "You're Du Xiao Li?"
"I am, who are you?" In the last few years, Du Xiao Li had also interacted with some wealthy people before, so she momentarily didn't figure out who the other party was.
"Su Su Xin is your mother?" Du Yun Han continued asking.
Du Xiao Li's face immediately darkened and retorted, "You're mistaken."
With that said, she turned around, wanting to return to her own courtyard.
"You're my daughter, I'm your father." Du Yun Han suddenly spoke, "Niu Jing told me everything!"
At this time, the nearby villagers working in the fields all heard the commotion on this side and successively turned to look over.
"Damn it!" Du Xiao Li couldn't help cursing, not knowing whether she was cursing Niu Jing or cursing Du Yun Han. She turned and looked to those spectating villagers below the mountain, and said with a darkened expression, "You, come up first!"
Du Yun Han followed the mountain path upwards, and upon seeing the new house built just a few years ago, he felt a little better inside. At least, his son's and daughter's days were still decent.
"Who are you?" Du Xiao Li went to wash her hand, asking as she glared at Du Yun Han.