Chapter 122: Chapter 122: Guest from the Capital
Today, the magistrate’s house welcomed a distinguished guest, and everyone was on pins and needles, trying to make everything look perfect.
The servants didn’t even let a speck of dust slip by.
"Wipe the leaves on those potted plants! Heavens, what if His Excellency sees it and thinks that our place is unsightly?" The head housekeeper fretted about, pointing to the rows of the plants neatly arranged in that courtyard.
A servant jumped to the task, got a cloth somewhere and began to wipe the leaves.
They had seen the usually composed Magistrate Xu show a flash of concern himself as he told the servants to clean the place thoroughly.
He didn’t even show such an expression when he was facing most of high-ranking officials at the Capital, so his guest this time must have been someone extremely important.
They could help but speculate.
"Is it a prince or even a king who had come to visit?" A servant gossiped as they wiped the vase in front of her with extreme care.
"How could such distinguished people come to this backward place? They must have been imperial envoys!"
"A prince or a king distinguished as imperial envoys? Such high-ranking people may go incognito during travel to avoid the enemy!"
At this moment, the head housekeeper came over and scolded them, "Quick, clean the room and don’t focus on gossiping on things you shouldn’t comment about!"
Seeing the head housekeeper’s stern face, the two servants became pale, and they repeatedly apologized, wiping the vases and antiques they had wiped yesterday once again.
In contrast to the similar scenes at several courtyards, Magistrate Xu personally welcomed the person in the carriage into his place.
"Your... Your Excellency, please go this way." He almost bit his tongue for almost saying the address he shouldn’t.
"Welcome to this official’s humble abode. I will show you the courtyard." Magistrate Xu continued as he led the person and his guards to the courtyard he had prepared before.
The man nodded in acknowledgement, his voice sounded dignified, carrying a sense of majesty. "Magistrate Xu, you are too kind."
After Magistrate Xu brought them all to their courtyard, he thought that they would want to rest after such a long journey from the Capital.
However, the man suddenly told him. "Magistrate Xu, I have something to discuss with you. Do you have time tonight? I hope that you don’t find my request too sudden."
Magistrate Xu was taken aback, and he hurriedly shook his head. "It’s no trouble at all, Your Excellency. I will make preparations right away."
He wasn’t sure of the exact reason for this man’s visit. A week ago, when he received the news, he thought he was hallucinating, but he had confirmed that the seal on the letter was genuine.
The person who now was standing before him had come to visit in his incognito mode.
He had come a long way to the south.
"Sorry we have troubled you, Magistrate Xu."
"It’s no problem at all, Your Excellency. Please enjoy your stay in my residence for the next few days to come." Magistrate Xu replied politely.
***
At the county, Zhou Anran finally taught her younger sister on how to make soy milk so that she could set up her own stall at the county’s market.
She had been looking for a small business to make use of her time. Because of the more advanced irrigation at the county, now she had more time to busy herself with other things.
Zhou Wenzhi had spent several days making the table, stools, and other items they needed on his own.
They didn’t want the stall to be too crowded, which might discourage the potential customers from buying their soy milk. Hence, on the first day, it was Zhou Shuran and Xiao Yuyan who guarded the stall.
At this moment, Xiao Qingya had visited the barn again. Now, there were double the number of chickens compared to last time.
"Young Miss, do you want to drink goat milk? I will get some for you." Guo Tianliang cracked a smile upon seeing the familiar little figure crouching by the chicken coops.
Upon hearing about milk, Xiao Qingya’s eyes lit up. "Yes, yes!"
For this past year, her growth had been significant compared to the year before that. Zhou Anran always made sure she drank her milk, so she guessed she had grown a lot taller because she drank more milk.
"Alright. I will get you a few bottles," Guo Tianliang muttered.
Zhou Wenzhi also always asked him to get goat milk whenever he planned to visit Hejia Village. In order to supply milk for the little one, he even brought a few more goats and a dairy cow.
As the livestock keeper went to get milk, Xiao Qingya also gathered eggs from the chicken coops into the woven basket.
The chickens even voluntarily kicked their eggs carefully toward her.
She had gotten her woven baskets full of them. Her little arms couldn’t even lift the heavy woven baskets.
[Your second brother is as strong as an ox, Little Ya. You can ask for help from him.]
Xiao Fenghao’s lips twitched. Why did this System often bring up oxen to describe him now?
"Brother!" Xiao Qingya called him enthusiastically.
Her second brother, who had pretended to pass by the barn, glanced inside and entered the barn. He showed a surprised look on his face.
"Little Ya, where did you get so many eggs?" He asked curiously.
Every time Xiao Qingya went to gather eggs, she always got them doubled compared to when others went to collect them.
He once thought it was his twin sisters who had deliberately left some eggs at the chicken coop, but he realized that it was because of Xiao Qingya’s again.
The family would eat eggs for another week again, he thought as he lifted the woven baskets. There were simply too many.
"Uncle Guo, do you want some eggs? I will leave you some here, you can boil them later." He didn’t forget to leave some for Guo Tianliang.
"Oh, yes, yes, thank you Young Master and Young Miss." Guo Tianliang looked up briefly and grinned.
The family had advised to call them by their names, but Guo Tianliang always refused. He insisted on calling them like these addresses people often use in noble families.
He was a stubborn man, and since they couldn’t persuade him, they finally just gave up.
Xiao Fenghao went to the house with Xiao Qingya, and the people inside suddenly became quiet. He had a faint feeling they had interrupted a discussion by their grandfather and mother.
[System, why do Grandfather and Mother become so quiet? What’s happening?]
Zhou Anran snapped back to her senses upon hearing the little one’s thoughts. Before the System could answer, she scooped her youngest daughter to her arms.
"How many eggs did Little Ya find today?" She caressed the back of her head.
Xiao Qingya pointed to the woven baskets in Xiao Fenghao’s arms. There were a total of two and they were filled to the top. It seemed that each chicken had given out three eggs.
"That’s really a lot." Zhou Wenzhi glanced at the eggs, then Xiao Qingya, smiling. "The chickens seem to like Little Ya a lot."
"What should we do with this many eggs?" Xiao Fenghao asked.
As long as Xiao Qingya was there, they should find more eggs from the chicken tomorrow.
"How’s your sister and little aunt’s stall doing?" Zhou Wenzhi suddenly asked.
Xiao Fenghao had been helping with transporting the soy milk jars and arranging them to the stall.
His expression was a little indescribable. "There are still a lot of jars..."
"Ran’er, how about you deliver these eggs to Shu’er and Yan’er’s stall? These people like it. They might try the soy milk in passing."
Zhou Anran nodded at her father’s suggestion. "That’s a good idea, Father. I will go there with Little Ya."
With that, Xiao Fenghao drove the ox cart to escort them to the county’s market, bringing two full baskets of eggs.
Upon arriving there, Zhou Shuran and Xiao Yuyan were surprised. "You bring a lot of eggs, Elder Sister."
Zhou Anran nodded and smiled. "We are going to sell them."
After he was done with his job, Xiao Fenghao ran off somewhere, already planning to bring Xiao Yuxi along with him.
There were many people who were interested in buying the eggs as Zhou Wenzhi had claimed. Some of them also tried the soy milk in passing.
Suddenly...
"Whose carriage is that? Look at the materials, they are definitely a group of nobles!"
"They just came out of the Magistrate’s place. I saw it!"
"They must want to visit this market. I wonder what they are looking for."
At this moment, an accident suddenly happened. A child had run off in front of the carriage, forcing the coachman to stop abruptly.
The child’s father was so frightened that he immediately hugged his child and slammed his head against the ground to apologize to whoever was inside.
Someone who travelled with such a luxurious carriage was definitely people he couldn’t afford to offend.
The onlookers stared with pity, expecting an arrogant noble who would soon order the man and his child to be punished.
However, they didn’t expect that the person inside the carriage would get out and helped the father and child to get up from his kowtow position.
Zhou Anran accidentally watched the scene, and...
She froze on her spot, her heartbeat almost stopped.
Why does that man look so similar to her missing husband?!
