Chapter 308: Meeting
Editor: Atlas Studios
After spending a lot of effort, Mu Yangling managed to buy 100 calves. Now, she had just herded them to the cattle ranch to let them gradually adapt, and she was eating and living in the cattle ranch.
Fortunately, Zhang Wu and Zhang Liu could share a lot of the burden with her now. As soon as the cattle ranch got on track, she would be able to leave everything in Hanzhong Prefecture to Zhang Wu and Zhang Liu. She would then still return to the city.
Zhang Wu and Zhang Liu dragged two carts of pasture back from outside. “Miss, should we dry this grass first or let them eat it directly?”
As this area was 20 miles away from the nearest stockade, there was an abundance of pasture. As long as Qi Haoran’s horses did not cross the border to eat their pasture, there would be more than enough pasture to last until next spring.
However, no matter how lush the pasture was, it would wither and fuse with the soil come winter. Therefore, they needed to cut more pasture, dry it, and store it for the cows to eat in winter.
Mu Yangling looked up and said, “Dry them in the sun. Herd the calves out later and let them eat on the grassland.”
“But these calves have only been here for two days. Will they run away?” Zhang Liu said worriedly. These calves were still young—the oldest was only four months old, and the youngest was only two months old. Perhaps because they had come to an unfamiliar place, they had been very restless these two days.
“It’s fine. We’ll split them up. We’ll release a batch in the morning and a batch in the afternoon. You can watch them while cutting the pasture. Leave some hay for those inside the fence to eat. Otherwise, no matter how hard we cut, there won’t be enough hay for them to fill their stomachs.”
It was almost winter, so it was better to harvest as much pasture as possible.
Just as Mu Yangling was about to go back and hire someone to help with the work, Qi Haoran brought Yuan Hui over.
Yuan Hui looked around for a while and nodded. “The feng shui of this cattle farm is excellent. I don’t have any pointers for you.”
Yuan Hui was slightly stunned when he saw Mu Yangling. Then, he nodded slightly at her and did not speak.
Mu Yangling also looked curiously at Yuan Hui’s smooth head for a while. After which, she pulled Qi Haoran over and asked in a low voice, “Why did you bring a monk here?”
“He’s my Big Brother’s advisor now. He knows how to read feng shui, so I brought him here.”
Mu Yangling’s eyes were filled with stars as she asked in confusion, “Aren’t Daoists the ones who know how to read feng shui? Can monks do it too?”
Qi Haoran was stunned and a little confused. With some hesitation, he said, “Aren’t Daoists and monks similar? They should be connected, right?”
Mu Yangling looked at Qi Haoran speechlessly and changed the topic. “Then what did he say?”
Qi Haoran grinned and said, “He said that the feng shui in your cattle farm is excellent.”
“That’s good, as long as there’s no need to make any changes.” Mu Yangling replied nonchalantly before asking about the labor. “I was just about to hire some people to help me work. Didn’t you bring back a group of people? Do you have any arrangements for them?”
Qi Haoran said happily, “I’ve already handed them to Zijin, but he’s receiving Shen San these few days. Last night, he stayed up all night to make arrangements for them. If you’d like to take them in, you can have as many as you want. You don’t even have to pay them a salary. Just give them something to eat.”
Mu Yangling also knew that labor was cheap now, but she didn’t want to take advantage of this. Although she wasn’t paying a high salary, it wouldn’t be lower than the market price.
Elated, Qi Haoran decided to tell Fan Zijin the good news when he returned. He had sent the 6,000 young men to build the house they were going to live in. As for the remaining 12,000 people, no, 6,000 people, it was not easy to make arrangements for those 6,000 people. They consisted of old people, children, women, and a large group of young teens. He could only hand them over to Fan Zijin.
However, Fan Zijin was also busy, for this year was the most critical period for his career. During this period of time, he was so busy that he even fell behind on his homework. Qi Xiuyuan scolded him a lot, but even so, Fan Zijin still stayed up late to formulate a plan to make arrangements for those people.
Mu Yangling seemed to be quite good at this. With her help, Zijin should be able to relax a lot.
Qi Haoran also conveyed how highly Magistrate Fang viewed and cared for her cattle farm.
When Mu Yangling heard that she had suddenly gained 500 acres of land, she immediately looked in the northwest direction of the pasture with her mouth agape. She pointed at the large grassland and said, “Did Magistrate Fang really say that that area belongs to me?”
Qi Haoran nodded with a smile. “Yes, I’ll go to the government office with you later to settle the procedures.”
Mu Yangling fell into deep thought. “100 calves is not enough. We can raise another 400 calves. Coincidentally, you have someone there. Let’s go to the government office first before looking for Fan Zijin.”
Yuan Hui followed beside the two of them without saying a word, causing Qi Haoran to take a few glances at him.
Mu Yangling followed his gaze. Although she felt a little strange, she did not ask. Instead, she waved Zhang Wu and Zhang Liu over and asked them to watch the cattle ranch while she went out to handle some matters.
When Mu Yangling and the rest came out of the government office, it was already noon. Qi Haoran smiled and said, “Let’s go eat at Zijin’s place.”
Poor Fan Zijin was buried in a pile of documents. This year, he could not give the money earned from diced rabbit meat and cured rabbit meat to Qi Haoran and Mu Yangling. All that money was invested in other businesses. Now, his business spanned several areas—tea, silk, and porcelain. If not for the fact that he did not have enough money, he would also like to get involved in the grains industry.
However, this was enough for him to be busy. After all, he was only 15 years old and had to clean up Qi Haoran’s mess from time to time. Hence, he fell behind on his schoolwork by quite a lot in the past six months.
When he saw Qi Haoran and Mu Yangling walking over leisurely, he instantly gritted his teeth. Other than the restaurants, these two had shares in every single one of his businesses. But why was he the only one who had to work so hard?
Feeling indignant, Fan Zijin looked at the documents on the table. He wondered if the two of them would ruin the businesses he had painstakingly built if he handed these matters to them to handle.
Seated on the chair casually, Qi Haoran said, “Zijin, we’re here to eat with you.” After saying that, he directly instructed Yanmo, who was serving them tea, to serve them a table of fine dishes.
Yanmo looked at Fan Zijin, who rubbed his forehead and waved his hand. “Go ahead. Bring the food to this room.”
Seeing Fan Zijin’s headache, Qi Haoran frowned and said, “One can never finish earning all the money in the world. It’s not like we’re short of money now. Didn’t I just move a lot of silver back two days ago?”
Fan Zijin glanced at Yuan Hui and glared at him.
Was this something that could be mentioned casually?
Qi Haoran waved his hand and said, “Even if we can hide this from others, we can’t hide it from him. He was the one who brought us to empty the silver from the place.”
Fan Zijin immediately choked. Didn’t they say that the silver had been handed over to the Imperial Court? Now that he put it that way, even a fool would know that they had pocketed the silver.
However, Yuan Hui did not seem to have heard him. He merely sat there with his brows slightly lowered. Sometimes, he would frown. Qi Haoran couldn’t help but take a few more glances at him. He kept feeling that Yuan Hui was very strange today.
Fan Zijin had only seen Yuan Hui once, and Qi Haoran had not told him those words said by Yuan Hui. Hence, when he saw that Yuan Hui did not react, he was satisfied, for he assumed this was Yuan Hui being tactful. However, he did not know that Yuan Hui was not listening to them at all.