Capítulo 1994: Chapter 1969: Teasing
Yin Huo had dinner at the Zhou Family before returning ho. Liu Huan, who promised to co and eat together, was nowhere to be found. Nobody really thought much about it, but the next day Liu Huan appeared at the Zhou Family’s door looking very gloomy.
He followed Yin Huo inside, continuously muttering, “I didn’t co, and none of you even sent soone to check on . I was thinking you would send soone to find so I could have an excuse to go out.”
Bai Shan and his companions were engrossed in the accounts of Little Manor in Qili Village and the estates in Pu Village. He heard Liu Huan without looking up, “You seed fine when you left the palace, why won’t your family let you out now?”
“My grandfather said the envoy ca to your house to announce a decree, and they’re busy at the mont, so I shouldn’t go and cause trouble.” Liu Huan curiously edged closer to Bai Erlang, “So, does that an you’re really going to be a prince consort?”
Bai Erlang nodded sowhat boastfully, but couldn’t hide his joy, “Yes, indeed.”
Liu Huan didn’t understand what was so exciting about that. Seeing Bai Erlang so pleased, he said, “When Wei Yu was selected as a prince consort, you sympathized with him alongside . Why are you so happy about becoming a prince consort yourself?”
Bai Erlang replied, “How can that be the sa?”
Liu Huan inquired, “Why isn’t it the sa?”
“How could it be the sa? The princesses are different,” Bai Erlang explained, “Princess Mingda is well-read, sensible, and smart.”
Liu Huan elongated his “Oh—” with a low voice, “So you’re saying Princess Changyu is unreasonable and clumsy?”
Manbao and Bai Shan, who were nearby: …
The two coughed lightly, raising their heads to warningly look at them. Manbao added, “Princess Changyu and Princess Mingda are both my friends.”
Liu Huan imdiately stopped speaking ill of others.
Yin Huo chuckled to the side and put down his book, asking, “Is there anything I can help with?”
Bai Shan didn’t hesitate to pass him an account book, “Help check the balance.”
Yin Huo looked at the records, “On March 5th, received 38 eggs and 12 duck eggs… what is this?”
“These are so outputs from our estate in Qili Village,” Bai Shan replied, “Calculate the accounts to see if they balance, and finally verify the money totals. By the way, our eggs sell three for two coins.”
Liu Huan, having nothing to do, was surprised, “Eggs are that cheap?”
Manbao glanced at him, asking, “How expensive did you think they were?”
Bai Shan added, “They’re not that cheap. Calculate how many eggs a family needs for one al?”
Manbao said, “In my family, it’s a lot, even if it’s one egg per person, it’ll be around twenty, not to ntion one person might eat more than one.”
Yin Huo helped them with the calculations while Bai Shan looked at the account book for a while and then said to Manbao, “I see that Pu Village’s sumr harvest wasn’t bad this year. We don’t need to worry much about seeds, but we’ll need new farming tools. Are you going to buy them or not?”
The implication was, are you not planning to leave your official post?
Will you still put effort into managing?
Manbao hesitated for a mont before nodding, “Let’s buy a few, just a little.”
She sighed, “Do today’s work today, doesn’t matter anyway.” After all, the resignation isn’t finalized yet, and she couldn’t delay the hundreds of Pu Village families because of her own issues.
Bai Shan recorded this, nodding, “Autumn harvest is about to start. Once it’s finished, we can calculate this year’s yield.”
By then, losses or profits will be clear.
Bai Erlang also finished calculating expenditures. After noting them down, he tossed the pen aside, “It’s exhausting, making so little money is not easy.”
Manbao remarked, “You shut up, it’s just accounting. We haven’t made you go out and farm yet.”
Bai Shan turned to Manbao, “How are the rice fields in the experintal plot coming along?”
If they’re successful, we might recoup our investnt faster.
Manbao said, “I was just about to tell you. My elder brother said it was growing well initially, but later it started becoming uneven. So stalks grew long, while others branched out, and now as harvest approaches, so husks are still empty.”
Bai Shan comnted, “Didn’t fill properly?”
Manbao nodded, “Many issues overall. My brother said that the rice in the experintal field attracts pests too. Though there is other crop nearby, the pests seem to favor the rice in that particular field. My brother worries about this experintal field as much as he does about the whole estate.”
Although the experintal field’s situation isn’t promising, Manbao still instructed Zhou Dalang to take good care of it. She plans to select seeds for further planting and also provide Doctor D with a sample for reference.
anwhile, Doctor D will provide her with new trial seeds.
Manbao kept this in mind, and once Bai Shan and the others had finished verifying the accounts, she confird everything was okay before putting them away.
Liu Huan was incredulous, “You’re even managing the estate’s accounts now? Can you handle it all?”
He added, “Isn’t this sothing the manager should handle?”
Manbao replied, “My second niece isn’t at ho, so I’m managing it myself. It’s just verifying; my nephews have already recorded everything.”
She paused there, asking Liu Huan, “Doesn’t your family verify the accounts after handing them over to the manager?”
Liu Huan thought about it and fell silent, seeing the four very at ease, he couldn’t help but turn his mind again, “But Bai Er, you just got engaged yesterday. Are you really so calm today?”
Bai Erlang lifted his head and retorted, “What else should I be? I’d like to be excited, but none of them will go out with . Can I really get excited alone?”
Liu Huan rolled up his sleeves and said, “I’ll accompany you!”
Bai Erlang, however, looked at the scorching sun outside and decided, “Forget it, it looks too hot. Let’s stay ho instead. Eldest Sister-in-law Zhou made lots of pork sauce yesterday; we can continue eating noodles with pork sauce.”
Manbao remarked, “It’s the Sanfu Days, best to stay indoors without a reason.”
So the four indeed stayed ho. Liu Huan had no choice but to remain at Zhou Residence and spend an entire day with them.
He was still sowhat incredulous when leaving in the evening, wondering if he’d wasted a day. But upon boarding the carriage and reflecting, though he hadn’t accomplished anything or gone out to have fun, he felt quite happy and, most importantly, relaxed.
He lifted the curtain to see Yin Huo boarding a carriage to leave, quickly leaned against the window to talk to him, “Shall we enter the palace together tomorrow?”
Yin Huo declined, as he still enters the palace with his father through the back door; otherwise, it would be too hurried to walk from the gates to the Chongwen Pavilion in the morning, and his health couldn’t bear it.
Liu Huan watched Yin Huo’s carriage drive away, quickly instructing the coachman to catch up, the two leaving one behind the other.
Liu Huan wasn’t the only one who wanted to tease Bai Erlang. The next day when they entered the palace, they encountered quite a few people at the gates, all jokingly calling Bai Erlang “Prince Consort.”
Bai Erlang rarely found himself embarrassed, blushing, unsure if he should respond or not.
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