Chapter 205 Distributing Soil Instruments

Chapter 205 Distributing Soil Instruments

She reached out to Haitang, who understood and took out a small piece of silver and handed it to Xie Wanniang.

Xie Wanniang handed the piece of silver, weighing about an ounce, to A Bing, saying, "Thank you for your hard work, Uncle Bing. Please take this money to buy some wine."

Ah Bing happily accepted it, saying, "Thank you, young lady! Thank you, young lady!"

Xie Wanniang smiled at him, then instructed Lao Hong, "Uncle Hong, send someone to Uncle Hao's house and tell him that I will go over to pay my respects to him and Aunt Chen tomorrow morning."

Old Hong nodded and arranged for a steady but quick-witted companion to go and deliver the message to Hao Yu and Chen Shi.

After thinking for a moment, he asked someone to make room for another horse. "Ah Bing, you can borrow this horse to ride."

Ah Bing rubbed his hands together with joy, thinking that being able to ride a horse was certainly better than walking on two legs.

Although Hao Yu gave him money for meals, tea, and transportation, whether he was willing to spend that money on himself was another matter entirely.

After all, he still has a family to support.

He was Hao Yu's youngest brother. His eldest brother died on the battlefield not long after Hao Yu was discharged due to injury. After that, it was his second brother and his third brother.

Just when he thought it would soon be his turn, a new dynasty was established, the foreign tribes went into a brief period of dormancy, and his fourth brother was lucky enough to survive.

Later, Hao Yu followed Jiang Yuan to Yi County. Remembering his former comrades-in-arms, he sent people to search for them from house to house.

When his men found the village where A Bing's family lived based on the clues, the family was so poor that they had started eating dirt.

Wild vegetables, elm seeds, grass roots, tree bark, and even thatching grass—anything edible and not likely to kill anyone in the short term—have been incorporated into their diet by their family.

Even so, because of the large number of people in their family, most of whom were elderly, weak, women and children, they were still in a state of hunger all year round.

It was Hao Yu who gave him and his two nephews each a job, which transformed their family from a miserable existence where they knew they would die from eating too much dirt, but still had to eat a little bit of clay to stave off hunger, into a happy family that could barely afford two full meals a day, making them the envy of everyone in the village.

His family is very content with their current situation, but Ah Bing, having seen the outside world, increasingly wants his family to live a truly prosperous and comfortable life.

Therefore, he subconsciously tries to save as much money as possible on all things that require him to spend his own money.

During the few days that Hao Yu sent him to keep watch over Xie Wanniang and the others, in order to save money, he not only went out early and returned late every day, commuting on his own two legs, but also never ate lunch at a restaurant outside.

The cheapest tea with free refills at the teahouse, along with two plates of the lowest-priced dim sum, constituted his entire expense of using the charcoal fire for lunch.

If it weren't for the fact that if he lingered in the teahouse for too long, he wouldn't be able to catch up with Xie Wanniang's caravan on foot, he wouldn't have just pulled out a handful of copper coins and thrown them to the teahouse owner without even counting them.

He was still feeling the pinch of spending extra copper coins while running, but unexpectedly, Xie Wanniang generously gave him a reward as soon as they met.

Now that Xie Wanniang's guards had lent him horses, so he no longer needed to spend money to rent a carriage, he became even happier.

After sending Ah Bing and the guard who had gone to deliver the message away, Lao Hong gave a signal, and the convoy continued towards Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan's small home.

Although she had been gone for a long time, the servants and guards who stayed behind did not slack off or become lazy just because their master was not there.

They cleaned the house spotlessly, and there were no thefts.

After touching the tables, chairs, and ornaments in the main room, and then running to the bedroom and storeroom to check her valuables, Xie Wanniang finally went back to wash up, eat, and rest, satisfied.

After a good night's sleep, Xie Wanniang tidied herself up again the next day and took the gifts from Qingyuan County that she had prepared to give to Hao Yu, Chen Shi, and Yinzhu to Hao Yu's house.

Seeing that she was no different from before she left, still looking as radiant and bright-eyed as before, Hao Yu finally felt relieved.

Chen, who was holding the child, and Xiao Yang and Xiao Mei, who had been entrusted to Xie Wan Niang, surrounded Xie Wan Niang and asked her all sorts of questions.

From the smallest details—whether she ate well, whether she was cold on the road, whether they encountered heavy snow that hindered their journey, and the differences between the prefectural city and their small county town—to the biggest questions—whether they encountered bad people, whether their mission went smoothly, and whether Xie Wan Niang had met the Lady of the Marquis—it all went on to discuss these matters.

Xie Wanniang answered them one by one with a smile, and then took out the things she had bought for Hao Yu's family and told Chen Shi and Hao Yu who she planned to give these things to.

As for Xiao Yang and Xiao Mei, who were watching eagerly, Xie Wan Niang turned to them and explained, "I didn't bring yours with me. I'll have Hai Tang give them to you when you get back."

Upon hearing this, their eyes lit up even more.

He picked out the things he could talk about and told them to Hao Yu and Chen Shi, and then, at their warm invitation, he stayed at their house for lunch.

After eating and drinking their fill, Xie Wanniang led Xiaoyang, Xiaomei, Haitang, and the accompanying guards back home.

Back home, she pointed to one of the boxes containing the soil and said to Haitang, "As we planned before, let's distribute these things to everyone."

She had already planned what items would be given to whom when she first started buying them, so there was no need to waste any more words on the distribution now.

Haitang responded with a "yes," and quickly picked out her share, as well as Xiaoyang's and Xiaomei's shares. Then she called over the other employees hired by Xie Wanniang, such as the cook, kitchen helper, tailor, embroiderer, shop assistant, manager, accountant, and others, and had each of them take a portion of the Qingyuan County local gifts that Xie Wanniang had prepared for them.

As for the guards' share, Haitang directly called the guard captain and asked him to bring a few more people to carry away the boxes, and then distribute them equally among everyone according to Xie Wanniang's plan.

With this, Xie Wanniang's journey outside finally came to a complete end.

With the Lunar New Year approaching, Xie Wanniang didn't try anything new in the coming days. She spent her free time with Haitang, Xiaoyang, and others making various preparations for the New Year.

Sending New Year's gifts to relatives and friends, purchasing whole pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, fish, eggs, tofu, pastries, candies, nuts, dried fruits, red paper, incense, candles, and other New Year's goods; doing spring cleaning, cutting paper-cuts for windows, writing couplets, slaughtering the New Year's pig, frying pastries, steaming buns, flower rolls, bean buns, and New Year's cakes...

After being busy for about ten days, the day of the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, which is the Little New Year, arrived.

Because Jiang Yuan still showed no intention of returning for the New Year, Xie Wanniang couldn't help but sigh silently again when she got up in the morning to express her disappointment.