Chapter 459 - 455: Golden Little Turtle_1

“Besides, sister is already grown up. After we move to Beijing, she can rely on her brother’s official position to secure a good marriage.”

Huzi is currently a Fifth-grade Martial General, his rank is not low. He is also holding a position in the Imperial Army. At least he should be able to find a suitable match from the official families for his sister.

Jiang Erlang glanced at his daughter, “She’s only six”

Yanru glared at her husband, “She is six now, won’t she grow up in a few years? Moreover, girls in Beijing have to learn many things. If we move there now, we could hire a tutor for her to start learning slowly.”

Jiang Erlang scratched his head: “Hiring a tutor will cost a lot of money. How can we survive eating through our savings? Huzi is indeed a Fifth-grade official, but his expenses are also high. The interactions among his colleagues, along with him having to eat, buy a house, and support several servants. Won’t we just cause him trouble if we move there?”

Yanru was interrupted.

Indeed, moving to Beijing would require a lot of money. Without any extra income, simply relying on Huzi’s salary wouldn’t allow them to live a life anywhere close to that of a wealthy family.

“What if we take some golden ear and snow ear mushroom spores with us?” Yanru suggested, “Last time when I was in Beijing, I went to a pharmacy and asked about the prices of snow and golden ear mushrooms. A small box of dried snow ears costs twenty taels of silver. In my estimation, that weight could be at most half a pound.”

Jiang Erlang pondered for a moment and said, “That might work, I’ll have to discuss it with Yingbao.”

Mushrooms are quite delicate; a slight carelessness can severely affect their quality. If they were to bring them along all the way to Beijing and they got spoiled, all their efforts would be wasted.

Moreover, his niece Yingbao is quite skilled at cultivating mushrooms. The villagers all got their spores from her. Therefore, he needed to discuss with Yingbao how they could safely transport a large number of these spores to Beijing.

Yanru lit up when she heard her husband’s agreement: “That’s a great idea! We can discuss this with Yingbao when we go back.”

…

At this moment, Yingbao was inspecting the agricultural conditions of different townships in Qinchuan County with Wei Zhan.

The entire county had started growing cotton, with varying amounts produced in different townships, but most were still primarily cultivating grains and rice.

“The new county magistrate is talented,” Yingbao praised.

The county magistrate took his position from last year, and he and our younger brother Jiang Jie were in the same Top Scholar class.

From the report, he has a very organized plan for agriculture and sericulture. He’s established quotas on how much cotton, wheat, rice, and soybeans each family should plant each year.

Furthermore, the county magistrate encouraged the villagers to open up wasteland. He asked them to cut grass and compost it for fertilization, promising to exempt the land tax for the first two years; the tax in the third year would be cut in half.

In addition, he asked each household to raise more chickens and pigs. After that, he suggested they should pile the manure with tree leaves for composting. When the composting was done, he advised adding it as fertilizer in winter.

Wei Zhan said with a laugh, “With the county magistrate managing Qinchuan County, we can spend our effort on Zhouhe county.”

Looking at the tax status, the people in Qinchuan County are living much better than those in Zhouhe county. No wonder some people would flee to settle here.

Yingbao closed the documents, handed them to Wei Zhan and said, “You can go check the condition of the public granary when the county government staff start working.”

The public granary is the food reserve of the county’s civilians and soldiers, and also its lifeline. In case of natural disasters and human distress, the grains in the public granary would be crucial. Therefore, it is key to understand the situation there.

Wei Zhan nodded, “Okay.”

“Also, let the county magistrate gather laborers to dredge the riverbed near Chuanhe Town.”

There is a piece of water clusters near Chuanhe Town, which gets filled up every few years causing inability to grow grains on both sides of the riverbed leaving a piece of land as big as Dongchen Village useless, wasting hundreds of acres in the process.

Now that our county has an excellent county Magistrate, why not ask him to dredge the riverbeds.

“Okay, but it will have to be done after the Lantern Festival,” Wei Zhan replied.

“I know that. You just need to inform the County Magistrate in advance.”

Without realizing it, the Lantern Festival had arrived.

Yingbao didn’t go to the night market, she stood under the lantern rack at her home’s entrance, watching the fireworks.

On the side, Anrou was holding Wuyang in her arms.

Wuyang seemed utterly excited as his round eyes stared enthusiastically at the lanterns.

Erni was munching on some snacks, sitting with her stepmother Yanru and Third Aunt Chunniang, looking around the entrance.

There was no other option, Yingbao wouldn’t let them out. She only allowed for a lantern stand to be erected at the entrance, upon which hung two to three dozen multi-colored lanterns for people to admire.

Yet Wei Zhan and father-in-law had left, allegedly to join the County Magistrate in patrolling the streets.

Yingbao was teaching Little Sister Jiang how to guess riddles, when she suddenly heard someone call her name: “Yingbao.”

Looking towards the sound, she saw a man in a green robe, standing at a distance, looking at her.

“Xiao Mo?” Yingbao’s face turned serious, on guard as she watched the man approach: “What are you doing here?”

Xiao Mo walked leisurely up to her, standing still right in front of her.

The guards wanted to interfere, but Yingbao dismissed them: “Take everyone back to the mansion.”

Upon hearing the command, Magnolia led Anrou and the other children back home.

Chunniang and Erni, along with the others who were also unclear about the circumstances, were escorted back to the courtyard by the guards and palace maids.

“Yingbao, no wonder I always felt like I’d seen you somewhere before.” Xiao Mo smiled: “So, you are the little demon that I could never find.”

Yingbao twitched at the corner of her mouth, coldly responding: “You’re the demon.” Your whole family are demons!

Without engaging in idle chatter with her, Xiao Mo directly asked: “Yingbao, is Xuanwu here with you?”

“What Xuanwu?” Yingbao played dumb.

Xiao Mo paused to consider this for a moment, then clarified: “It’s a small golden tortoise.”

With a poker face, Yingbao responded: “Never seen one.”

Xiao Mo glanced at her dismissively, “But I smelled its scent on you.”

“That’s because I had turtle stew for lunch.” Yingbao responded while surreptitiously trying to communicate with Xuanwu. However, he kept silent.

Xiao Mo glanced around, then said: “Yingbao, stop pretending. You are no different from me; you do not belong to this world either. Why not come back with me?”

Without uttering a word, Yingbao’s gaze turned colder.

Xiao Mo continued: “I was careless before, so you don’t need to dwell on past mistakes. Can assure you justice in the future. But this place is definitely not suitable for you. You should leave with me as soon as possible.”

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about?” Yingbao replied coldly, “You’re not from this world, did you come from King Yama’s place?”

Xiao Mo: “Yingbao, don’t deceive yourself. I must also tell you, Wei Zhan is actually your cousin; there is a blood connection between you two.”

“Bullshit!” Yingbao was furious and was about to summon the God Scythe.

Xuanwu clung tightly to the trembling God Scythe, communicating urgently to Yingbao in fear: “Don’t fall for his trick! Not a single one of the cultivators of the human clan is a good person! He just wants to provoke you to make the first move. Once the taboo is touched, you will be pulled out of this world!”

Was it indeed so?

Yingbao gradually calmed down, giving Xiao Mo a faint smile: “Xiao Mo, what exactly are you trying to achieve by telling me all this? You don’t happen to be trying to sow discord between Wei Zhan and me, do you?”

Wei Zhan’s blood relation with her was the one thing Xuanwu would know without a shadow of doubt.

Though the Book of Heaven couldn’t explain everything, it did record her multilife journey and all related people clearly down to their eighteenth generation of ancestors.

Xiao Mo watched Yingbao with a serious expression for a moment, then stated, “Your grandfather and Wei Zhan’s grandfather are cousins; there’s no mistake about that.”

“And where did you get this information from?” Yingbao asked, narrowing her eyes in question.

Even if Xiao Mo was a man of profound cultivation in another world, he was suppressed by divine providence here and reduced to an ordinary human body, making it simply impossible for him to examine bloodlines through magic.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have failed to notice that her bloodline was already quite different from before.

To put it bluntly, her current body had been condensed into being by Xuanwu’s own cultivation.