Chapter 121 - Zhuangzi
After exiting the Treasure Pavilion, Zuo Shaoqing stood on the busy street, looking at the scene of the prosperity in front of him. He missed the Lu Zheng who was not beside him more and more in his heart.
“Second Uncle, your nephew still wants to go see Nanny Liu.”
Zuo Yunyang pulled him into the carriage. “Let's go, it's about time to visit your manor. Spring is about to come, and the manor should be getting ready to plow in the spring.”
Zuo Shaoqing read a lot of books on farming, but he had no experience on what to plant or how to plant it. So he thought that in the future, he would need to have a thorough knowledge of the farm management.
After exiting the city, Zuo Shaoqing lifted the curtain of the carriage to look at the scenery on both sides of the road. Most of the people living in Kyoto were nobles, and the number of farmers was probably the least.
In the outskirts of the capital, the majority of the farmers were farmers who were farming. They fed the people in the city with food and vegetables and lived a better life than the poor people in the smaller areas.
After the carriage had gone on for half an hour, Zuo Yunyang pointed to a mountain and said: “It's at the foot of that mountain, the manor occupies thirty acres. Including the surrounding mountains and fields, there are almost five hundred mu of land.”
Zuo Shaoqing calculated silently. A seventh grade Zhixian County's annual salary was eighty taels of silver plus sixty stone meters. The output of his manor should be about the same as the county's salary. Of course, this didn't include the extra income of the county lords.
When they reached the entrance of the manor, Zuo Shaoqing jumped off the carriage and looked around. All he saw was the budding tree and the fresh grass; even the air had the fragrance of earth.
The manor's door was tightly shut, and the beams were very high. Even though it was a bit old, one could still tell that the previous owner of the manor was a rich man.
Zuo Yunyang asked attendant to come up and knock on the door. He told Zuo Shaoqing about the former owner of the manor.
A youth opened the door a crack and poked his head out. “Who are you looking for?”
attendant, who knocked on the door, knocked on his head and scolded, “Your master is here. Why aren't you calling everyone out to welcome him!?”
“Ah…” The teenager obviously came later. He looked around at the group of people, then bowed to Zuo Yunyang in a fawning manner, “Master is here. I will go get someone.”
“Haha… Brat, you've got the wrong person, the main culprit is here.” Zuo Yunyang pushed Zuo Shaoqing out of the way as he stepped through the door first.
The youth didn't expect his master to be so young and only be around the same age as him. For a moment, he was both envious and reserved, not knowing how to greet him.
“Alright, let's talk inside. Is Nanny Liu here?”
Nanny Liu was now the manager of the manor. Although she was a woman and couldn't care less about the matters in the fields, she was the one who decided how many people the manor asked for and how many months they spent.
When the teenager heard Zuo Shaoqing mention Nanny Liu's familiarity, he knew that he must be the Patriarch without a doubt.
After just taking a few steps, Zuo Shaoqing saw Nanny Liu running towards him. He smiled and asked, “Is Nanny Liu alright?”
Nanny Liu rushed in front of him and grabbed his arm as she looked around, nagging, “Master San is here. He's a bit skinny, is he not doing well at home? Did they bully him again?”
Zuo Shaoqing kept on grinning. He didn't find her annoying, he only explained after she finished asking: “Did you forget? A few days ago, it was Conference Test, so there was no one who couldn't take a few kilograms of meat.”
He could eat or sleep inside the Academic Institution, and he knew that there were many students who could not sleep at night and could not eat. After the ninth day of exams, everyone had shed their shape.
Only then did Nanny Liu remember this and asked, “How was your test?”
Zuo Shaoqing was disgusted by Zuo Yunwen's question, so he didn't dislike Nanny Liu's sincere care. Thus, he whispered into her ear, “Absolutely sure.”
Zuo Shaoqing was very confident in his answer, so he naturally wasn't worried about his results. He just didn't know that in a few days, the capital would stir up a storm, and this storm would almost drag him into the water.
She was even happier than when Lady Ruan had given birth to her son. She clasped her hands together and bowed to the sky, “God bless us, our Lord San has finally made a name for himself. Lady Ruan must be very proud to know that she is in the underworld.”
Zuo Shaoqing thought of his mother who died early. His eyes darkened and he subconsciously clenched his fists.
“Shao Qing, come here quickly…” Zuo Yunyang waved at him from the side of the yard, and only when people approached him did he point at a fake mountain and say, “When I came to see this manor, Second Uncle took a fancy to this. Don't look at how ordinary this fake mountain is, it actually has some truth to it.”
Zuo Shaoqing walked around the fake mountain. Other than the rocks, he only saw a few handfuls of moss. There was nothing special about it.
He smiled and said, “Second Uncle, don't keep us in suspense. Tell us quickly.”
Zuo Yunyang raised his chin, with his hands behind his back like a master, he took a steady step and said, “Come with me!”
Zuo Shaoqing followed behind him and went into the crack under the fake mountain with him. Zuo Shaoqing thought this was just a gap made by stones, he didn't expect to see Zuo Yunyang fiddling with the stone wall to open a door.
Zuo Shaoqing touched the intersection of the door in surprise. If he didn't look carefully, he wouldn't have noticed there was a door here.
He remembered that he had read a few words, swallowed his saliva and asked, “Second Uncle, this place… Could it be that some big shot is being locked up?”
Zuo Yunyang smirked and said in shock, “You really know how to think!”
Zuo Shaoqing smiled embarrassedly and followed him inside. They went down a flight of stairs and it got darker and darker. The outside light could no longer reach in.
Zuo Yunyang took out a paper roll from his pocket and lit up the torches on both sides of the path. Only then did Zuo Shaoqing see the stone walls on both sides.
“Huh?” Zuo Shaoqing used his finger to feel the lines on the stone wall and whispered, “This place should have been carved with calligraphy and paintings.”
Zuo Yunyang looked at it closely with a torch in his hand. There were indeed some twisted lines that he could not understand, but he didn't think too much about it. This manor had only been built for more than ten years, how big of a secret could it be?
“Let's go. The last time Second Uncle came, he only took a random glance and did not properly study it. In the future, this place can be turned into a cellar or an icehouse, or even a cave to store some precious items.”
Just as she finished speaking, the two of them had already walked to the largest open space. Nanny Liu stopped after the two of them entered the fake mountain.
When Zuo Yunyang lit up the torches, Zuo Shaoqing finally saw the whole cellar. It was not big, only two small rooms and the empty space under his feet. It should have been where the former owner put the grains.
It was very cool underground. Zuo Shaoqing felt cold just by standing there for a while. He roughly observed around and found that there was nothing but bags of food in one of the small rooms.
“I only planned to buy this manor when I saw this place. Although this cellar isn't meticulously dug out, it is better to keep it a secret. It might be useful in the future.”
Zuo Shaoqing nodded, he was also very satisfied with this. He planned to turn one of the rooms into an icehouse. It would also be good if he could have iced acid plum soup in the future summer.
When he was about to turn around and leave, Zuo Shaoqing felt something flash in the corner. He took the torch from Zuo Yunwen and walked towards the corner. He used his shoes to open up a thick layer of dust on the ground and exposed a little bit of light.
Zuo Yunyang came over and squatted down to dig it out. He casually wiped it with his sleeve and exclaimed.
Zuo Shaoqing looked at the glowing pearl and asked: “What is this? A gem?”
Zuo Yunyang brought the gem closer to the firelight and looked at it carefully, “It doesn't look like one. Although the gem is beautiful, it doesn't emit this kind of light. It seems more like a Night Pearl or something.”
“Luminous Pearl?” Zuo Shaoqing opened and closed his mouth, shocked beyond words.
The Night Pearls were too far away from him. Perhaps even the imperial palace would not be able to find this much, so how could it appear in this grain storage cellar?
Zuo Yunyang also felt that it was unlikely. He rubbed his nose and handed the pearl to Zuo Shaoqing, “Keep it. We'll know if it's true after we return to the city to check it out.”
Zuo Shaoqing put his stuff away and shook his head: “It's better not to take it out. If it is, it wouldn't be good to cause trouble.”
Okay, even though Zuo Shaoqing felt like this bead wasn't anything precious, he still had a fluke in his heart. If it really was a Night Pearl, then what he bought was worth it.
The uncle and nephew went out of the cellar and closed the stone door. Then they walked around the manor together with Nanny Liu.
Zuo Shaoqing had also seen all the stewards in the manor. Most of the stewards here were transferred from the home by Zuo Yunyang, saying that they were here to train a few successors and let them go back when someone took over.
Zuo Shaoqing accepted this favor and planned to gift a portion of the output to Second Uncle in a few days.
The stewards reported everything they had on hand, including what land to plant, how many sharecroppers to hire, and how many seeds to buy.
Zuo Shaoqing kept these things in his heart as he listened. According to the madame, he had to take care of his family's matters in the future. He couldn't possibly not know how much the seeds cost.
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