Chapter 102: Don't Want to Be a Female Knight-Errant Anymore?

"But Mother has always been good to you and never once said she wanted to divorce you—that shows she has no intention of climbing the social ladder."

"You little clever one, come on, let's wash up and go to sleep."

In Shopkeeper Lu's courtyard, no one was asleep either; the excitement of moving to a new home kept them awake.

And today's big news—every bit of it made her so agitated that falling asleep would have been impossible.

"Xin'er, you don't understand. When your mother learned that old gentleman's son was Prefect Zhifu, my legs went weak."

"Mother, you don't need to be like that. Master said that even the emperor is just flesh and blood, the same as us—only the official rank is different. There's no need to take it to heart."

"Your master has someone protecting her, so no one bullies her. Did you see what happened today? A petty little Jiang Family tried to bully your master. If not for Lord Wang and Town Head Qian, today definitely wouldn't have ended peacefully."

"That just shows Lord Wang is an upright official. Even if it were an ordinary family, Lord Wang would have done the same."

Shopkeeper Lu shook her head. "You, your heart is too honest. I need to have a good talk with you."

Most crucially, she still had five mu of land to plant, and she needed to make sure the labor force kept up.

Yuan Jiaqi and the others had breakfast and then started their lessons in the front hall, while Old Madam Wang took her servant girl to feed the poultry—she had long since figured out what she would do here.

"What can you learn?"

"Like it? Of course I like it. Before, when I drank cow's milk, I just knew it tasted good and was good for the body. I'd never seen milk come from a cow like this. When I saw its udder—so big—it startled me at first."

Over at Qiao Mai's place, she had Yuexia and Yuehong go rest in the side room. After coaxing Ling'er to sleep, she went into the space.

Of course, as her internal energy increased, the time would grow shorter and shorter.

She went over to the computer and looked at the boxes on the ground—they were all gone, replaced by money pouches.

There was no change at all in the space, but she wasn't anxious. As long as she could upgrade, she had hope.

In one go, she cleared ten mu and planted them all with ginseng. She planned to first grow precious medicinal herbs, and once that was mostly done, she would plant fruits and vegetables ten mu at a time.

"When you have time, come stay at home for a few days. I have room here now."

Shopkeeper Lu and the others ate their prepared breakfast and then went to the shop, each doing their usual daily tasks.

"How could the family possibly drink all that?"

She looked Xin'er up and down. "Mm, you're a good girl. These next few days, follow me during the day. I'll teach you whatever comes to mind."

She gathered the money pouches and put them all in one place.

Qiao Mai saw the shrewd look in Old Madam Wang's eyes and knew her disciple definitely wouldn't be wasting her time following her.

"These two cows are just mature; their milk production isn't high yet. In another year or so, each one can produce several dozen jin of milk a day."

With internal energy, she could fly over walls and walk on eaves, using Lightness Skill. A journey of a hundred li would take only half an hour.

She looked at the lingzhi mushrooms—they had sprouted but weren't fully grown yet. Beside them, one mu and six fen had already been replicated, now making three mu and two fen, all lingzhi.

In such a short time, she could already circulate internal energy throughout her entire body.

She didn't count them. After finishing, she went to the fields and started from the very beginning.

"Don't worry, I'll come when I'm not busy."

After planting, she sat down right there in Meditation and began cultivating her internal energy.

"I thought coming to your house would leave me with nothing to do, but I didn't expect I could still do what little I can."

She also bought five serving women—one sharp-eyed and perceptive to guard the gate, and the others assigned to Cushi Popo's management.

"Look at the child you raised—too naive. With the waters in the Feng Family's back courtyard, I'm afraid my disciple won't be able to handle it. Don't let her come to the shop for a while."

In the blink of an eye, the night passed.

As she spoke, she pulled Ruxin and headed home. Shopkeeper Lu's mouth opened, then closed, and she said nothing more.

"It's not about teaching her rules. She's too honest. The family she's marrying into—the elders' back courtyard has concubines. You understand."

Especially after her marrow-washing and vein-cleansing, her perception of internal energy and spiritual power was exceptionally strong. Though she was sixteen and the Original Host had already lost her virginity, if a master took her in, she would truly be excellent material for martial arts training.

Old Madam Wang was very skilled at training people—you could tell from the servant girls and women around her.

Old Madam Wang was feeding the cows at the moment. She wore ordinary clothes with sleeve covers, holding a bundle of green grass and placing it into the trough for the cows.

She had known grappling and combat in her past life; with internal energy, it was like a fish in water, making up for her shortcomings.

Ruyi, Xiuhong, and Xiuyu were secretly laughing while Shopkeeper Lu gave Ruxin a thorough lesson. They went to sleep very late.

"Ruxin doesn't need to embroider a wedding gown. What's she doing staying at the shop all the time? She's about to get married—she'd be better off learning more from Old Madam Wang."

Seeing Qiao Mai arrive, she waved at them kindly.

Qiao Mai saw that the two Kitchen Maids were a bit overwhelmed, so she went to the Yahang and bought four young women to put under the Kitchen Maids' guidance.

"That's soon. Her name is Ruxin, right?"

"No, just knowing some basic fist and footwork for self-defense is enough."

Lu Ruxin quickly bowed to the old madam. "Yes, Old Madam."

This meant her goods had sold. So she stocked a full house of merchandise again and put them up on the store shelf.

"You said it. Then I won't look anymore. This really is hard to find."

"Teach her what? Don't go teaching her those rotten rules that ruin people."

It wasn't that her planning was poor—at first the space was small, and there were many demands on her money, so she could only plant in small patches. Now that the space was bigger, she could naturally plant on a larger scale.

She concentrated her internal energy on her feet, exerted a little force, and without using her will, she could fly three or four meters high.

"Ah, you don't want to be a Female Knight-Errant anymore?"

The cow lowered its head to eat, and she gently stroked its head with her hand.

Qiao Mai took Ruxin's hand. "Old Madam, my disciple is about to get married. If you have time, could you teach her a thing or two?"

The two sisters hugged. Qiao Mai saw her onto the carriage, waved until the carriage disappeared into the distance, and then went to the shop.

After all, the family still had so many poultry to raise, and the place was so much bigger—five people definitely couldn't handle it all.

When Wang Zongsheng and his daughter left, Qiao Mai prepared another cartload of local specialties for them.

To let the whole family feel at ease, they generally didn't eat together. Each person's servant girl would report to the Chufang, and after the Kitchen Wang Jiaru's Servant Girl finished cooking, the servant girl would take the food box and carry it away.

The only thing that left Qiao Mai feeling that the beauty was lacking, and a bit disgusting, was that she married a man like Tian Sanzhuang.

She took Miss Wang's hand and said, "Forget about the martial arts manual."

Old Lady Wang, smiling, "Alright, when will you get married?"

This time we must plant with a plan; we can no longer sow the Four-Fen Land piece by piece, it's too slow.

In no time after Qiao Mai finished inspecting her shop, she came here.

"October 18!"

"If you like it, that's fine."

"If we can't finish drinking it, we'll just sell it; we can't let the milk go to waste, right? Besides, I can make all kinds of dairy products, and later Old Lady Wang and I will keep going to the kitchen to make them for them to eat, okay?"

"Thank you, Old Lady Wang!"

She knew Qiao Mai was doing it for Ruxin, so she let her go.

"Sure, I also like to stir things up in the kitchen."

Not only the people of Jixiang Yuan found it hard to sleep that night, but the folks in the Small Town did as well; after a year, a street‑vendor woman moved into such a New Residence, so you can imagine how profitable her shop became.

To grow winter vegetables you need a greenhouse and transparent cloth; the bright cloth mentioned in the book doesn't exist here at all.

So she bought two bolts of ordinary white cloth from the cloth shop, marked it out in the field, and found that such white cloth can't block the wind; it lets light through and also lets wind through. When the grass curtain is opened during the day, the temperature in the warm greenhouse drops sharply, and the vegetables will quickly freeze to death.

That night, when she reached the space, she searched online and found that a white adhesive can be painted onto the cloth; once it dries, it becomes waterproof, lets light through, and also blocks wind.

Qiao Mai pursed her lips, "White adhesive? Where can we find that?"

That's harvested from rubber trees; does she expect to plant rubber trees over ten mu of land?

(End of chapter)