Chapter 446: Chapter 419, Government Order_1
“Hey, what are you thinking about?”
Daohua noticed Xiao Yeyang staring blankly and waved her hand in front of his eyes.
Xiao Yeyang snapped back to reality and smiled, “What did you say?”
With a sidelong glance, Daohua said, “You seem distracted, what’s on your mind?”
Xiao Yeyang laughed, “I was wondering how to find a gold mine.”
Daohua looked somewhat skeptical but didn’t press on, instead she followed up, “So have you come up with any ideas?”
Xiao Yeyang shook his head, “Apart from Jing Cao as a clue, we haven’t found much else. I guess we have to send more people to search the area.”
Seeing Daohua frown, he smiled again, “Alright, don’t you worry yourself over it.”
Daohua retorted, “How can I not worry? This directly concerns my noble title. Ah, it’s so bothersome. I can’t reveal the reason, and for sure my grandmother and mother won’t allow me to go out. Then I can’t search for it myself.”
Xiao Yeyang shook his head, “Not to mention the Old Madam and your mother, even I wouldn’t agree to you going out to search. Running around all day is extremely exhausting; how could you, a young lady, endure that?”
Daohua protested, “No pain, no gain. If I just sit around, how can I find the gold mine? If I don’t find it, won’t my title of county princess be for naught?”
Xiao Yeyang reassured her, “Haven’t I told you that I’ve got it covered?”
Daohua scoffed, “I don’t want your help. The credit for this is too great. If you gave it to me, how could I ever repay you?”
Xiao Yeyang’s eyes twinkled as he teasingly looked at Daohua, with a hint of mischief in his brows, “That sounds so familiar, oh!” he said, smacking his own head.
“I remember now, when we were shopping the other day, we came across a girl selling herself to bury her father. A young man gave her some silver, and then the girl said, ‘I have nothing to repay you with but…’ but…,” he made a face as if he couldn’t remember the rest.
“But what?” Xiao Yeyang asked eagerly, his gaze burning into Daohua as if begging her to solve the riddle.
Daohua’s cheeks flushed with annoyance. She quickly glanced at the others in the room, seeing that her master and grandmother were whispering to each other, and her third and fourth brothers were fighting over the tomato salad, none of them paying attention here. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, she stretched out her hand and gave Xiao Yeyang’s arm a fierce twist, “That’s what you get for talking nonsense.”
“Ow ow ow! Let go, I was just joking,” Xiao Yeyang grimaced, begging for mercy.
Daohua didn’t let go but gave his arm a full three hundred sixty-degree twist, huffing, “Will you dare to do it again?”
Xiao Yeyang shook his head repeatedly, “I dare not, I dare not, never again.”
Seeing Daohua’s expression soften slightly, she gave another three hundred sixty-degree twist, then finally released her grip.
With a pained expression, Xiao Yeyang rubbed the twisted area, looking at Daohua with a mixture of pain and grievance, “You were too harsh. I’m sure it will bruise.”
Daohua remained impassive, “Against you, harsh measures are necessary. If you dare to spout nonsense again, I’ll…” she threatened as if ready to twist him once more.
Xiao Yeyang quickly dodged with a fearful look on his face.
“Big sister, what are you two doing?”
Yan Wenkai suddenly spoke up, catching Daohua off guard. She looked up and realized their master, grandmother, and her two brothers were all watching her and Xiao Yeyang, prompting her to quickly retract her hand in slight embarrassment.
Gu Jian gave a heavy snort of disapproval, glanced sideways at Xiao Yeyang, and sent him a warning look to behave himself.
Xiao Yeyang silently bowed his head, unable to help but complain in his heart about the favoritism of Gu Jian—was it not his own disciple who pinched him, yet he came to warn him instead? It was just too much of a confusion of right and wrong.
Grandmother Gu smiled as she glanced at the two of them and spoke, “Didn’t Yeyang say he wanted to send tomatoes to the capital? Are they ready?”
Daohua quickly nodded, “They’re ready,” she said, looking at Xiao Yeyang, “Is it too monotonous to just send tomatoes? The yams have just been harvested, how about sending some of those too?”
Xiao Yeyang replied, “Sure, those yams are very good, better than the ones I ate in the palace when I was little. Uncle Emperor will definitely like them.”
Daohua lifted her chin proudly and laughed, “Of course, you should see who grew them.”
Xiao Yeyang looked at Daohua with an indulgent smile in his eyes, “Yes, yes, yes, our Miss Yan is indeed the most impressive.”
Seeing him like this, Grandmother Gu’s eyes crinkled into fine lines, while Gu Jian found it a bit too much to bear, turning his head stoically away.
Meanwhile, Yan Wenkai nudged Wentao beside him, furrowing his brows, “Third brother, have you noticed that sometimes the Little Prince and elder sister are sickeningly sweet? And,” he said, rubbing his hands together, “why do I always feel this urge to throw a punch at the Little Prince?”
Wentao glanced at Xiao Yeyang and Daohua and then back at Wenkai, thinking to himself that he had long had the impulse to throw a punch at the Little Prince.
…
Daohua really wanted to go look for the gold mine herself, but reality didn’t permit it.
After the stepfather brought people to visit the yam fields, Yan’s grandmother stayed with Grandmother Gu for a few days, then took Daohua back to the manor.
In the carriage, looking at her granddaughter who kept lifting the curtain to peek outside, Yan’s grandmother couldn’t help but lecture, “Yunxi and Yunyan have come so rarely; as the host, you should entertain them properly, yet here you are, gone for half a month.”
Daohua put down the curtain, “Grandmother, I’m on my way back now, aren’t I?”
Yan’s grandmother glanced at her granddaughter and said no more, feeling that the carriage was moving too slowly. She lifted the curtain to look outside and saw quite a few passersby with burdens on their backs, a smile spreading on her face.
“Sha County can grow yams now, and the common people have found a way to make a living, so they are gradually coming back.”
Daohua nodded, “When I first came here, seeing all this wasteland for miles around without even a village, it really felt like such a waste.”
Yan’s grandmother smiled and said, “Your father is now handling the settlement of refugees, and gradually, this place will be bustling with people.”
When returning to the manor, Daohua was surprised to find that both her eldest uncle and second uncle had come.
Li Xingchang smiled at Daohua, “The yams you grow on your farm are really good.”
Daohua asked with a smile, “Eldest uncle, second uncle, did you also visit my farm?”
The day of the visit, she had been busy helping out in the back while Wentao and her eldest brother took care of the front, so she hadn’t seen her two uncles there.
Li Xingchang said, “Indeed, we did. You girl really have a knack for running a farm—not only are your fields well-planted, but your poultry is also well-raised.”
Daohua cheerfully sat beside Madam Li, “Mother, what were you and the uncles discussing just now?”
Madam Li smiled as she straightened her daughter’s hair, “Your uncles are thinking of buying some land in Sha County, but your father has already issued a decree that now only natives and refugees may purchase land, and they’re too late.”
Li Xingchang expressed his regret, “We should have bought the land as soon as your brother-in-law took office. Now, even buying sandy soil land in other counties is much more expensive than before.”
Daohua patted her chest and laughed, “Good thing we acted first, otherwise I wouldn’t own such a large farm now.”
Madam Li, knowing that her daughter had recently bought another ten-thousand-acre farm, said with a smile, “It’s only because Ningmen Prefecture is in the north, where the land is vast but sparsely populated. If this were in Jiangnan, you wouldn’t be able to buy such a farm.”