RPAGF Chapter 151 Sugarcane isn't sweet at both ends!
Chapter 151 Sugarcane isn't sweet at both ends!
Although he had always disdained abusing his power for personal gain, he naturally had to protect Liuxianglou from targeting his nephew!
Lord Yang snorted coldly, "Whether they are lying or not, we'll find out when they're taken back to the county office for questioning. I will be fair and impartial, and let the evidence speak for itself. Guards, take them all back!"
The officers rushed forward and immediately took away the madam of Liuxianglou and her gang of thugs. Gu Minghuai led his servants and followed the officers to the county government office.
Before half a day had passed, Liuxianglou was investigated and shut down by the government.
Chaos erupted inside the building. The girls ransacked the madam's room, grabbed their indentures and valuables, and fled in a panic. Liuxiang Tower was instantly deserted.
The streets and alleys were abuzz with gossip. Some cursed Liuxianglou for its despicable and heinous deeds, abducting many respectable women and men and forcing them into prostitution. Others speculated about the identity of the young man in brocade robes, which had prompted the usually upright and incorruptible Lord Yang to quickly close the case.
……
Because they had spent a lot of time selling mules, buying horses, and purchasing fruit trees in the county, Lin Xiaotang and her father didn't get home until the afternoon.
When Liu saw her husband return with a different horse, she was as happy as a child.
“Dad, from now on, when you go to the county to deliver things, you won’t have to walk anymore. This will definitely be much faster than before. That’s great.”
"Yes, this carriage with horses is much faster than with mules. It was my first time riding back in a carriage, and it felt like a dream. Traveling by carriage is so different; it's not tiring at all."
In the past, when traveling, mules would pull mule carts loaded with goods, which moved slowly. He would then rely entirely on his own two feet, and he dared not rest for too long, for fear of being delayed on the road and returning home late.
There's no need to worry about that anymore. Just make sure the horses are well-fed, stop every now and then to let them rest, and they'll run incredibly fast when you're on the go.
Xiaoyu was fascinated by the horse. The horse neighed a few times, and Xiaoyu imitated its neighing.
Ever since the Lunar New Year, she has suddenly stopped stuttering, and her speech impediment has been cured.
Ms. Liu felt that it must be because her eldest daughter went to the temple to pray to Buddha, and Buddha's blessing had worked. She immediately made up her mind that after giving birth to this baby and recovering, she would definitely go to pray to Buddha herself.
Lin Qingchuan was always diligent. While his eldest daughter was cooking, he dug two holes in the yard, planted the fruit trees, watered them, and covered them with soil.
After a flurry of activity, the meal was finally ready, and Lin Xiaotang carried the steaming hot food to the table in the yard.
"Dad, dinner's ready."
"Okay, I'll come after Dad washes his hands."
"Mother, Xiaoyu, would you like to eat some more?"
Liu smiled and shook her head, "We already ate lunch and we're both full. We're not hungry right now. You two should eat quickly."
The father and daughter had been hungry for a long time, and they ate the food with great relish.
Since replacing the mule with a horse, Lin Qingchuan would always take advantage of his free time at night to repair and modify the carriage, transforming it into a much more refined horse-drawn carriage, just like the one the Xue family had ridden on the day they visited.
The time he spent traveling between Qinghe Town and Dushui County was also greatly reduced. He would set off before dawn and arrive home in half a day. After lunch, he would drive his horse-drawn cart back to Guihua Village to chop firewood at the foot of the mountain and weed the fields.
As Liu's belly grew bigger day by day, Lin Xiaotang, afraid that her mother would get tired, wouldn't let her do any work. She burned the pig hair and cleaned the pig's trotters by herself, and braised them with her father in the middle of the night.
However, her father had to leave for the county before dawn and return to Guihua Village to work in the afternoon. She couldn't bear to see her father work day and night without sleep and ruin his health. So she usually braised pig's trotters at night and took naps in bed during the morning.
My mother set up a stall to sell roasted sweet potatoes before the New Year. She had already sold a lot of sweet potatoes, and they decided to keep the few left for themselves, so they didn't need to continue this small business.
A few months later.
The turmeric in the field gradually formed fruit, and with harvest time fast approaching, Lin Qingchuan had no choice but to return to Guihua Village to keep an eye on it, fearing that the turmeric would be stolen.
But his wife was pregnant and couldn't help braise the pig's trotters anymore. It wasn't realistic for their daughter, a child, to braise all those trotters. Even if they managed to finish, who would deliver them to the county?
He suddenly encountered such a big problem.
Seeing her father sitting in the courtyard sighing repeatedly, as if he had something on his mind, Lin Xiaotang couldn't help but ask him.
"Dad, what's wrong? Have you run into some trouble?"
"Tang'er, there's something that's stumping your father. I really can't think of a solution."
“Then let Dad tell us, and we can discuss it together. It’s better than you worrying all by yourself.”
“Here’s the thing, our braised pig’s trotters business is doing very well, we can’t stop every day, but right now the turmeric in our field has already borne fruit, and it won’t be long before we can harvest it. Dad has to go back to the village to keep an eye on it, especially at night, we can’t let anyone steal it in the dark. But if that’s the case, Dad can’t get up early to deliver the braised pig’s trotters to the county. What should we do?”
We can't just ignore the turmeric in the field just to make braised pig's trotters, can we?
We can't temporarily cut off the supply of braised pig's trotters just because of the turmeric in the fields.
Lin Xiaotang thought about it and realized that it was true.
Her original plan was that when the turmeric was almost ripe, her father would return to the village to watch over the fields with Uncle Shuisheng, and she and her mother would braise pig's trotters and take Xiaoyu to the county.
But now it's obviously not possible; Mother is pregnant and it's not suitable for her to ride in a bumpy carriage.
The turmeric has been growing in the field for months, and it's finally ready to be harvested. We can't just let it rot in the field and let it be stolen.
But sugarcane can't be sweet at both ends!
The family depends entirely on my father, the only adult in the family. We can't stop the business, but we also want to keep the turmeric. It's impossible!
So how do we solve this mind-bending problem?
She thought for a moment and said, "Dad, why don't you go back to the village and watch the fields with Uncle Shuisheng, and I'll drive the cart to the county by myself, how about that?"
Lin Qingchuan immediately rejected the idea, saying, "Absolutely not. You're just a six or seven-year-old girl. Driving a carriage for such a long distance, what if you encounter someone with malicious intentions along the way? You won't be able to fight back at all. It's too dangerous. Absolutely not."
Yes, she's only seven years old in this body. What if she encounters a beast on the street and is persecuted?
However, she couldn't go back to the village to go with Uncle Shuisheng to check on the fields. Putting aside the question of what kind of character Uncle Shuisheng, a grown man who had never married, was, the gossipy old women in the village could spread rumors as if they had seen them with their own eyes.
She not only couldn't protect her own reputation, but she also ended up harming Uncle Shuisheng.
Uncle Shuisheng is already poor, so wouldn't he be even less likely to find a wife?
No, no, neither of these methods will work!
This is driving me crazy!
Lin Qingchuan sighed, "If I had known it would turn out like this, we wouldn't have planted this season's crop. Renting it out would have saved us so much trouble."
Lin Xiaotang forced a smile. "Dad, didn't you tell me before that there's no such thing as knowing beforehand? If you did know beforehand, you wouldn't have encountered such troublesome things?"
"Yes, that's right!"
Hearing her father sigh, Lin Xiaotang thought for a moment and suddenly came up with a solution that might work.
"Dad, I have an idea, what do you think?"
Lin Qingchuan looked up instantly, his eyes lighting up with hope. "Tang'er, tell me quickly, what's the plan?"