Manbao looked carefully and asked, "How does it look like, it’s completely different, isn’t it?"
Yin Huo also stared at the wheat field, thinking to himself: How does it not look like, it’s obviously exactly the sa everywhere, right?
The two of them wandered in a daze with the other three, walking through the entire field, picking enough wild vegetables to fill three baskets before they stopped.
The Bai Family’s servants had already spread out mats on the grass. When they returned with the baskets, there were tea and snacks laid out on the mats. Mr. Zhuang was sitting cross-legged on the mat, enjoying the spring breeze, his eyes slightly squinted, looking very content.
Hearing the noise, he opened his eyes and glanced at them, shook his head slightly, then picked up a teacup and took a sip.
Manbao placed the basket on the grass and sat down next to Mr. Zhuang. After gulping down a cup of tea, she asked, "Sir, aren’t you going to play?"
Mr. Zhuang shook his head. He just wanted to go out and enjoy the spring breeze. Stepping on the green grass was already a way of enjoying spring, and sitting to enjoy the breeze was very pleasant. There was no need to exhaust oneself to find discomfort.
Seeing that Mr. Zhuang didn’t join them, the others went off on their own.
Manbao saw many wildflowers at the foot of the mountain, so she went up to pluck so flowering vines and began to clumsily weave them together.
She had learned this from Lijun and the others, but unfortunately, she was never very good at it.
Bai Shan, seeing her clumsiness, took the materials from her and deftly wove them with a few twirls.
Bai Erlang unearthed a nest of ants from the ground, causing Liu Huan to scream and retreat repeatedly, making Bai Erlang burst out laughing.
Yin Huo glanced at the ants, then turned his head away, unwilling to watch, and walked away with a bit of a shoulder shake.
He walked over to where Bai Shan and Zhou Man were, glanced at the grass, hesitated for a mont, then lifted his robe and sat down on the grass like them.
While Bai Shan was weaving a basket, Manbao wandered off again to fetch more vines and brought back plenty of flowers for him to decorate.
Yin Huo was quite amazed, "You can make this?"
Bai Shan pointed at Manbao and said, "She used to make these all the ti when she was a child, so I learned from watching her."
Manbao laughed and said, "You an you learned it with when we were kids."
The basket Bai Shan made was obviously not as pretty as the ones Zhou Lijun and the others made; even he found it sowhat unsatisfactory, so he handed the flower basket to Manbao.
Manbao placed all the vines she held in the middle of the three of them, "Make a few more, and then we’ll go pick flowers."
While weaving, Bai Shan remarked, "They were growing nicely on the branches, why do you have to pick them?"
Manbao said, "Didn’t you tear off less flowers and grass when you were little?"
Seeing the two of them start to bicker after just a few words, Yin Huo simply took the flower basket beside Zhou Man and turned to leave, going off to pick flowers by himself.
The group rarely had the chance to go out on a spring outing. Although the scenery in the palace was also nice, it felt completely different here.
Here, they could relax and lean back on the mat, feeling sleepy in the spring breeze. But in the palace, sitting on the railing and swinging one’s legs was considered improper.
Even Yin Huo lay down on the mat after the al, feeling drowsy, and Mr. Zhuang simply fell asleep snoring.
Manbao and Bai Shan sat by Mr. Zhuang’s head, just enough to shield him from the spring sun; a plant fan was on his face, and he slept very soundly.
Bai Erlang did not sleep. He was playing so gas with Liu Huan, and the two occasionally burst into laughter. The group waited until they all woke up and only packed up after 1 p.m to go ho.
When they returned ho, Ms. Qian and the others kept Yin Huo and Liu Huan for dinner before they went back.
It was impossible to stay for dinner, but they could have a little sothing to eat before returning.
Junior Ms. Qian and two of her sisters-in-law gathered the wild vegetables, boiled them briefly, chopped them, and mixed them. It was done in less than 45 minutes.
She also cooked so small dishes and served them with warm porridge.
"Wild vegetables mixed with white porridge taste the best, try them," she said.
Yin Huo and Liu Huan each took a small bite with their chopsticks, and seeing Bai Shan and the other three eat elegantly yet heartily, they finally ate the greens on their chopsticks...
It was a bit sour and also sowhat sweet, crisp and crunchy, and with each bite ca a crunching sound that made their mouths water, prompting Yin Huo to lower his head and take a sip of porridge...
Seeing the two open their appetites and start on their second and third bites, Junior Ms. Qian couldn’t help but smile and said, "I’ve made a lot, would the two gentlen like to take so ho? It’s perfect with porridge if you’re not feeling well."
Yin Huo thought that his grandmother, being old, indeed had a poor appetite, so he nodded, put down his chopsticks and thanked her, "In that case, it would be rude to decline. Thank you, Eldest Sister-in-law Zhou."
Seeing him take so, Liu Huan agreed as well.
Junior Ms. Qian was pleased they liked it and set aside so of the best to leave for the princesses.
However, when Zhou SiLang returned in the afternoon and heard about it, he said, "How can you let the ones ant for the princesses wait overnight?"
He said to Junior Ms. Qian, "Sister-in-law, prepare the remaining wild vegetables. The day after tomorrow morning, my brother and I will go pick so more, and sister-in-law can make them in less than 30 minutes, so Manbao can take them out."
Manbao was peeling an orange, eating it. It had been stored in an ice cellar by Old Madam Liu last year and was still edible. She said, "Isn’t that too much trouble? There’s no guarantee we’ll make it in ti."
Zhou SiLang said, "It’s not the first day of the month, you don’t need to attend the grand court assembly, do you?"
Manbao nodded, "But Changyu won’t mind."
Zhou SiLang said seriously, "The princess may not mind, but we can’t be careless with the princess."
Manbao looked at him suspiciously, wondering when did he beco so considerate and helpful?
It wasn’t as if it was her first day knowing the two princesses well. Last ti he caught her taking stead at to the palace for the princesses to eat, he even advised her to eat more herself, not always thinking to give to others...
Seeing her peculiar look, Zhou SiLang leaned over and whispered, "I heard from Lijun that Princess Changyu wants to partner with our family in business?"
Manbao: "... Fourth Brother, what do you intend to do with Princess Changyu’s na?"
"Nothing," Zhou SiLang whispered, "I’m about to go out to the grassland. If we have the princess as a shareholder, the road might be much easier."
"If we use the princess’s na, I won’t have to worry about encountering things like that incident in Liangzhou next ti I enter a city or town, right?" Zhou SiLang continued, "I don’t need her to do anything, just however much she invests, she gets that percentage of shares, just borrowing her na. What do you think?"
Manbao frowned and asked, "Is my na not useful anymore? Fourth Brother, are you trading dicinal herbs? Don’t do anything bad."
Zhou Man was young and had limited experience, but her na was even more influential than Princess Changyu’s when it ca to collecting dicinal herbs.
Zhou SiLang said, "Nonsense, am I soone who does bad things? But besides dicinal herbs, this ti going to the grassland, I also want to collect other things."
"Like what?"
"Like pearls from the grassland," Zhou SiLang said, "I heard from A Lidun that there is a big lake not far from their tribe, with lots of clams producing many pearls every year. A lot of people go there to collect pearls each year, but generally, rchants who collect pearls can’t make it back to the mainland. Not to ntion the bandits, many towns are passed on the way, and most of the pearls are forcibly bought in the towns ahead."
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