Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 227
Duan Caimei
The lady rolled her eyes towards Cao Zhang unbelievably coquettishly, “Since you also know that this is a storefront, there’s no rule saying you can’t come here without buying anything! Manager, isn’t that right?”
Liang Lan replied, “You’re right, don’t listen to him. Feel free to come here more often! You’re welcome to be here.”
There were a lot of people coming and going in the storefront, and this woman kept walking back and forth in front of Cao Zhang unabashedly while staring at him. Very quickly, everyone in the town knew that she was interested in him.
From other customers’ words, they learnt that the woman was called Duan Caimei, and was the descendant of an official. Her grandfather used to be the Minister of Civil Service, and he retired from his position to live the rest of his days in his hometown after the new emperor ascended to the throne.
Hadn’t Cao Zhang’s mother always wanted him to marry the descendant of an official? Even though he had retired now, he still had innumerable connections with the officials in the palace. Who would’ve thought that there’d be such an important official in just a small town?
“Miss Duan, how about you come over to sit for a while and have a cup of tea?”
Duan Caimei didn’t refuse, and sat down by the tea table. Mo Yan poured a cup of tea for her, and she praised it, “This is good tea!”
“It’s Huangding Mengya, upper-middle quality!”
“Miss Duan, are you well-versed in tea?”
“I just know a fact or two, I can’t be considered well-versed.”
“What do you like to do normally?”
Duan Caimei laughed openly, “I’m more disobedient, and dislike sewing or embroidery. What I do like, is reading, but I like reading more fantastical stories.”
“Oh! That’s quite similar to my interests, I have quite a few stories at home!”
Duan Caimei perked up, “Then could you lend me some of your stories to read?”
Mo Yan smiled faintly, “Of course I can, but they’re all my possessions of my late master, so you can’t damage them.”
“I’ll definitely be careful, please accompany me to get them!”
She was an impatient person, so Mo Yan got up and went with her.
After seeing the ‘Lu Manor’ plaque on the front door, Duan Caimei asked, “Isn’t your surname Mo? Why is your home called Lu Manor?”
Mo Yan knocked on the door, “I’m simply living here temporarily.”
Jin’er opened the door, and Mo Yan said, “Jin’er, this is Miss Duan, please go and make tea.” After that, she asked Duan Caimei what kind of tea she liked to drink, and Duan Caimei started to say, “I like…” Then, she changed her mind and asked, “What kind of tea does Cao Zhang like?”
“Longzheng.”
“Then let me try it too.”
The word ‘try’ was sufficient to show that she didn’t drink Longzheng tea often, or might have never had it before.
Mo Yan said, “I’m not a fan of Longzheng tea, so there isn’t any here.” She ordered Jin’er again, “We’ll have Mengding Huangya as always.”
After situating Duan Caimei in the sitting room, Mo Yan went to her bedroom to fetch her stories. She didn’t take out every story she had, but only fetched a single book.
“Miss Duan, read this one first! You can read the other ones afterwards.”
Duan Caimei truly liked to read stories, and started reading immediately. She didn’t even have the heart to drink the tea, while Mo Yan sat by the side and watched her.
When she finally stopped to drink tea, Mo Yan said, “Cao Zhang is the most well-read person in our village.”
When she raised the topic of Cao Zhang, Duan Caimei was interested, “He looks pretty good too.”
This time, Mo Yan didn’t agree with her, and hesitated for a while before saying, “I think the owner of this manor has better looks.”
Duan Caimei raised her head to look at the ceiling, then out towards the courtyard, and asked, “Who’s that?”
“Lu Junming, his father is currently a major general.” [1]
“Lu Hong?”
“Miss Duan, you know of him?”
Duan Caimei put down the story in her hands, and the smile on her face was replaced with a trace of enmity, “It was that peasant who helped Prince Yi launch a rebellion. My grandfather advised the new emperor to treat the disposed emperor better, and was forced to retire from his position and retire here.”
After saying this, she realised she had spoken too much and looked all around her. Mo Yan lightly smiled, “Don’t worry, he’s not here, he’s gone to the border.”
Duan Caimei said angrily, “If Miss Mo wasn’t living here, I would’ve torched this entire place today. How did you get involved with those villains?”
“My family lives in the same village as Lu Junming’s grandfather. He’s quite kind and gets along well with the people in the village, which is how we met. The storefront you went to is also Lu Junming’s, he’s our landlord.”
“In the future, I’ll open up my own storefront and have Cao Zhang help me manage it. There won’t be any relation to Lu Junming.”
Mo Yan could tell that Cai Duanmei was a straightforward person, and wasn’t conniving. Despite her lack of scheming, she was still from an official’s family, and what she experienced was tens of thousands more than girls from the village. But she lacked the wantonness and self-importance of Lu Junming’s sisters, so it seemed like the Duan family taught their descendants well.
Duan Caimei saw that it was getting dark outside, so got up and excused herself, “Miss Mo, it’s getting late, I’ll take my leave first.”
After sending Duan Caimei away, Mo Yan sat there in a daze, thinking about something.
When Prince Yi ascended to the throne, he must have massacred the court, and anyone who even slightly condemned him would have been caught in the crossfire. Naturally, Lu Hong’s father-in-law was one of those people.
With stories to read, Duan Caimei came to the storefront much less often, and Cao Zhang couldn’t help but thank Mo Yan.
Mo Yan smiled and said, “Miss Duan is a good person no matter which way you look at it, does she not match up to you?”
Cao Zhang sighed in frustration, “Yan’er, stop messing with me, she’s the descendant of an official while I’m a peasant. I’m the one that doesn’t match up to her.”
“Her grandfather has left his official position, so she’s also a peasant, you match up to her.”
“Then I don’t like her!”
Cao Zhang showed his displeasure on his face, and Mo Yan had no way to continue talking about this topic.
After being absorbed into her stories, Duan Caimei frequently came to look for Mo Yan, and the two became good friends.
As the days passed, it was autumn in the blink of an eye, and the chinese foxgloves in the field were ready to be harvested. Mo Yan drove the donkey-powered plough, while Ms. Liang picked up the herbs. Xiuying was about to give birth, but she wasn’t willing to just stay at home, so came down to the fields to help out as well.
Seeing the chinese foxgloves being harvested, she couldn’t help but bend down and pick them, and as she did so, she couldn’t stop.
Suddenly, she faintly felt that her waist was sore, but she only thought she was tired and stood up to rest. Suddenly, she felt a sinking sensation in her abdomen. It was sour and swelling, with faint feelings of pain. She had never felt like this before; Am I about to give birth?
“Mother, I felt my stomach sink, am I about to give birth?”
Ms. Liang heard this and dropped what she was doing to immediately run over to her, “Does it hurt? Does it feel sour, like you’re swelling?”
“Yes.”
Ms. Liang hollered at Mo Feng to stop ploughing the land, and to immediately use the carriage to send Xiuying home.
They couldn’t care less about collecting the chinese foxgloves on the ground. Mo Feng got the carriage on the donkey, and Ms. Liang placed Xiuying on it before they rushed back to the village at a blistering speed.
When they returned home, she helped Xiuying in and asked Mo Feng to instantaneously call for a midwife.
P.S. One week intermission between exams. Most of the worst ones I’m done with, sixteen down and eight more to go 😀
[1] A crude translation; the literal meaning is ‘guerilla-general’ but I don’t think that’s what he actually does. Sources vary on how important his position is, but I assume he was relatively important since it seemed to be a fairly high-ranking position in the Bei dynasty. (If I remember correctly, that’s where the story is set since the country is called Beiyan.)