Chapter 132 Guests from the Chang Family

Chapter 132 Guests from the Chang Family

Xiao Yang nodded vigorously, "I'll go find her right now!" It would also be a good opportunity to skip my afternoon nap.

She dashed out in a flash, and Xie Wanniang couldn't even call her back in time.

She shook her head slightly with a helpless expression, "They really are just kids, always so full of energy."

When she was little, she would sneak out of the house to play every day, taking advantage of the adults' inattention. But now she doesn't have that kind of energy anymore.

If she has the opportunity to take a nap, she will take a nap almost every day.

Starting that afternoon, Xie Wanniang resumed her stay-at-home mode. She stayed in the warm house, spending most of her time embroidering and a little time teaching Chen Yuan, Xiao Yang, Jiang Yuan, Hao Yu, and others.

Chen Yuan only learned embroidery, while Jiang Yuan and Hao Yu only learned first aid and external injury knowledge. Only Xiao Yang seemed to have endless energy, wanting to learn everything Xie Wan Niang knew.

More than three days passed, and the soldier who had helped Chang Yao deliver the message last time arrived at the end of Mingfu Village again, travel-worn.

He didn't come alone. This time, he also brought the second steward of the Chang family, a head maid, two servants, two maids, and about twenty guards from the Chang family responsible for protecting their group.

In addition to the letter to Jiang Yuan, the team also brought two large truckloads of supplies.

Caught off guard by the sight of this large procession surrounded by villagers from afar due to its numerous carriages and the swords they carried, Jiang Yuan, who usually had a blank expression, surprisingly lost his ability to control his emotions.

Fortunately, the soldier stepped forward immediately and promptly presented him with the long letter that Chang Yao had written to him.

Jiang Yuan did not read the letter immediately, but first had them bring the carriages and horses to his house, Xie Wan's family home, and Hao Yu's house in batches.

Hao Yu and Xie Wanniang rushed out to help Jiang Yuan the moment they heard the commotion.

Jiang Yuan arranged for all the stewards, servants, and guards responsible for escorting the caravan, as well as Chang Yao's personal guard who ran errands for him, to stay at his house temporarily. The old woman and the two maids were invited to Xie Wan Niang's house.

While Hao Yu and Xie Wanniang were entertaining the group, Jiang Yuan quickly opened the envelope and read through Chang Yao's letter at a glance.

In his letter, Chang Yao said that he had asked his mother to write a letter to the Empress, in a casual tone, briefly mentioning Xie Wanniang's merits, background and past experiences.

As for the items brought by the guards, Chang Yao said that they were a reward from his mother to Xie Wanniang, this remarkable woman who was no less capable than any man.

Jiang Yuan was relieved to see this; at least it wasn't some random gift sent to him and Hao Yu out of the blue.

He found Xie Wanniang, and was about to tell her that all the things the Chang family had sent belonged to her, when he heard the old woman who was holding a teacup and warming her hands look at Xie Wanniang with a smile and say:

"As our lady predicted, Miss Xie is indeed a remarkable woman who is both beautiful and intelligent."

"The booklet you wrote has been a great help to our border troops."

"Since it's inconvenient for my lord and heir to come forward, my lady took the initiative to take on this task of rewarding you."

Although Lady Hou was a woman, she came from a military family and was a formidable woman who had fought on the battlefield with her father, brothers, and husband.

Therefore, compared to those well-bred young ladies who were taught to be molded into dough, her wife preferred capable and assertive women.

The Marquis and the Heir Apparent personally presented her with gifts, which made it easy for Miss Xie to be criticized. Her mistress didn't want a perfectly good young lady to be maliciously speculated about by those with dirty hearts, so she personally stepped forward and selected some items to reward Xie Wan Niang.

"Here is the list. Please check it against the list and see if anything is missing or incomplete."

The old woman took out the two copies of the list that she had carefully kept and enthusiastically counted the things that everyone had unloaded from the carriage with Xie Wanniang.

Although the situation she described as "missing or missing" is unlikely to occur, those of them on duty still need to conduct a face-to-face handover and inventory check to protect themselves to the greatest extent possible and avoid creating any potential problems for the future.

Xie Wanniang, who also came from a prominent family, knew the ins and outs of the business very well. If the head maid hadn't given her a list and allowed her to take inventory, she would have had some doubts. Now that the other party was so open and honest, Xie Wanniang felt relieved.

She exchanged a few polite words with the old woman, and the two of them stood at the door of her family's storeroom to count and count the items together. Then, Xiao Yang and Xiao Mei, who were standing inside the storeroom, directed some of the Chang family's guards to move the items to the designated location.

As for the second steward of the Chang family, he was currently directing others to deliver the horses to Hao Yu's and Jiang Yuan's families, and to feed the horses water and fodder in a timely manner.

The villagers who had been watching the spectacle from a distance, though eager to come closer and satisfy their curiosity, wisely dispersed in small groups, since the group that had arrived was almost entirely armed with swords.

Of course, they still speculated and discussed behind the scenes, after all, it was a rare and novel event.

Xie Wanniang and the others were too busy to care about what the villagers were thinking. After settling everyone and their vehicles and belongings, they busied themselves cooking.

Hao Yu called over the second steward, while Jiang Yuan and Atai went hunting on a nearby mountain, and the other went to the village to ask Wang Xiaozhi and Chen Zhao for help in buying pigs, eggs, duck eggs, and dried goods such as wood ear mushrooms.

Xie Wanniang and Chen Shi were in charge of cooking, while Xiao Mei, Xiao Yang, Chen Yuan, the old nanny, and the two maids she brought were responsible for assisting them.

Kneading dough to make pancakes, washing and chopping vegetables, soaking various dried vegetables and mushrooms...

After they prepared the dough and vegetables, a fat pig that Wang Xiaozhi had just bought from their neighbor was also delivered to Jiang Yuan's house by Chen Zhao and his brothers.

Chen Zhao even invited the village's pig butcher over as well.

With one slash, the fat pig, howling and kicking wildly, struggled even more fiercely, but soon it could only exhale and not inhale.

With the help of the guards, Chen Zhao and the others quickly cleaned the hair off the fat pig, which had already been slaughtered before the New Year, and cut it into pieces according to its parts.

The diligent guards even cleaned the pig's stomach and intestines.

The large basin of pig's blood was mixed with buckwheat flour, lard, chopped green onions, minced garlic, minced ginger, salt, and other seasonings, and then stuffed into the cleaned large and small intestines to make pig's blood sausages.

Sun-dried bok choy, diced pork belly, some spare ribs, and stuffed blood sausage were thrown into a large pot at different times, firstly to cook the blood sausage, and secondly to simmer the pork stew.