Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 235
His Oddities
When Xiuying returned home, Ms. Liang had just finished cooking and told her to come over and eat. Xiuying replied, “Mother, I’ve already eaten. You can go eat, I’ll take care of the child.”
Ms. Liang had long since noticed the handprint on her face, but pretended like she didn’t see anything. It would be best to cut off all relations with that kind of natal family!
Mo Jing had still caught a cold and was continuously coughing, but there weren’t any major issues. Ms. Liang placed heated sand in a bag on top of his stomach, and he got better after coughing twice more.
After this, Xiuying decided to never return to her natal family ever again, and wholeheartedly focused on living the rest of her days well.
In the blink of an eye, it was about to be the end of the year, and Mo Yan’s storefront was busy making gift boxes for the new year. Xiuying saw the workers busying about, and discussed with Mo Feng, “Do you think the goods in our storefront can be used to make a gift box?”
Mo Feng shook his head, “We mainly just sell snacks in our storefront, who’d give this for the new year?”
But Xiuying didn’t give up, and ran over to ask Mo Yan. Mo Yan replied, “Of course! Who said you couldn’t give snacks for the new year? My mother’s snacks are unique, and it’s a welcome contrast to the oily meat people will be eating throughout the new year. We can afford to spare some bamboo baskets for you, but we don’t have any clay jars to hold the snacks.”
Xiuying suddenly thought of the waterproof oilcloth, and said joyfully, “Can’t we use an oilcloth?”
Mo Yan repeatedly praised her thinking, “Good, use that as a wrapper then. It’s cheaper than clay jars, but it needs to be wrapped exquisitely, and can’t be done sloppily.”
Xiuying went back to plan how to package the gift boxes, what would be in a gift box, and how much they would sell for.
The store opposite theirs in the alleyway sold pastries, and when the workers saw Xiuying wrapping snacks, they all flocked over to ask what she was doing.
If snacks could be made into gift boxes, why couldn’t pastries and dim sum? Specialty snacks such as flower cakes, date cakes, rice cakes, yellow rice cakes and glutinous rice cakes could all be packaged into gift boxes.
The Luo family didn’t have so many bamboo baskets at such short notice, so they could only burn the midnight oil to complete the rush jobs. It was also perfect timing to earn more money for the new year.
Many of the stores in the alleyway hung up exquisite gift boxes, leading to an unending stream of people coming to buy goods for the new year. The reputation of Humanity’s Smokes and Flames Alleyway soared.
Mo Zenian could only shake his head and sigh, as what he sold couldn’t be wrapped up into gift boxes. Aside from him, there was also the manager of the grain shop, the carriage seller and the furniture seller, all of whom could only look at the gift boxes and sigh.
Some people were happy, while others were unhappy. Yet while business was booming here, elsewhere there was a shop which was about to close.
That would be a smithy, with a storefront up front and smiths working at the back. Normally, they made regular farming tools such as scythes, or would sometimes make repairs. It was previously run by a father and son duo, and even though they didn’t make much, it was still a living.
But a few days ago, the elder smith suddenly fell ill. Not only could he not help out, they also needed to spend money to treat his illness.
No one went to repair their farm tools in the winter, and the smithy didn’t have much business in the first place. The father needed to take medicine, rent had to be paid for the storefront, and the son still needed to eat, so they decided to close their shop and find a living elsewhere.
The younger smith struggled to stay afloat until the end of the year, packed up everything in the storefront and placed it on a carriage, fully prepared to never return.
Mo Yan walked towards him, “Brother, please wait for a second.”
The young smith stopped to ask, “Miss, is something the problem?”
“I heard that your storefront was about to close?”
He nodded, “Yes, it’s not profitable and I still needed to pay rent for it.”
“I want to rent your storefront.”
“I’m no longer the tenant. If you want to rent my storefront, just go to the governing official’s office, there’s no need to find me.”
Mo Yan smiled slightly, “I naturally know that, but I don’t just want to rent your storefront, I also want to rent your services. That storefront will still be a smithy in the future, so you can still stay there, but I’ll tell you what to make in the future. How good is your craftsmanship?”
He nodded repeatedly, “My family’s been working iron for generations, so my father and I are the best smiths around.”
Mo Yan had also heard of their reputation, and their handiwork wasn’t bad.
“Then go back home for the new year first, and you can go back to work afterwards. You’ll be earning money with your work, so you’ll get a commission based on the quality and type of work you produce. If you don’t get any work for an entire month, I’ll give you a thousand dollars as compensation, so you won’t waste your time.”
Generous terms such as being paid by commission for his work and receiving a silver tael even when there wasn’t any business wouldn’t be found just anywhere. The smith thanked Mo Yan, and removed his things from the carriage.
To prevent anything from happening, Mo Yan immediately went to the governing official’s office to rent the smithy.
When Liang Lan heard that she had rented a smithy, she was so infuriated she didn’t know what to say, “Sister, you’ve always had a quick brain, so why have you made such a major error this time? That smithy is so old and dingy, and it’s so small, what are you going to use it for?”
Mo Yan turned towards her and gave her a secretive smile, “Since it’s a smithy, then naturally I’ll use it as a smithy!”
“What are you running a smithy for?”
“You’ll know after the new year.”
Before the new year, Lu Junming’s uncle Jiao Zhong sent people over to deliver a pile of goods from Shu county. He also enclosed a letter asking about Lu Junming.
Mo Yan walked from the storefront to the commercial firm every day, and would always keep an eye on the main road, but never saw a postman go towards her.
Lu Junming had been gone for over half a year, and hadn’t even delivered a message since then. He wasn’t one of the people seen coming back home to celebrate the new year either.
It was particularly overcast today, and it looked like it was about to snow. It didn’t look like there were a lot of customers in the storefront today, so Mo Yan let them close up early and go back home.
When she walked to the side of the main road, snow was already falling from the sky. She huddled into her cloak, and couldn’t help but look south. There was a horse galloping over from the distance, and after taking a closer look, it seemed like a white horse.
So what if it’s a white horse? That doesn’t mean it’s him. After all, the horse’s body could just be covered in snow.
Mo Yan turned back to the street, but the sound of the horse galloping approached from behind her, and stopped beside her. Mo Yan rapidly swivelled her head to face the sound, and the person on the horse smiled brightly towards her.
“Yan’er, I’m back!”
Lu Junming got off his horse to hold her hand, and saw tears seeming to brim from her eyes.
“Yan’er, what’s the matter? Are you not happy that I’ve come back?”
Mo Yan couldn’t care less that there were passersby on the main road anymore, and reached over to give him a hug. Lu Junming hugged her back tightly.
When they returned home, Jin’er had already made dinner, and praised Lu Junming when she saw him, “No wonder you aren’t interested in young master Chi, so he does really look better than him.”
While Jin’er went to the kitchen, Lu Junming said, “Yan’er, let’s get engaged!”
Mo Yan was so startled she choked on a mouthful of rice, and coughed for a long time before slowly coming to her senses, “Lu Junming, what are you on about? I’ll only be thirteen after the new year, and you’ll just be sixteen. Why are you in such a hurry?” [1]
“I just am, I want to marry you as soon as possible.”
“No, I don’t want to get engaged this early.”
Lu Junming lowered his head to eat, and didn’t say a word. Mo Yan realised that after he came back, he had become quieter. After all, a border war wasn’t a pleasurable place to be.
After they finished eating, Mo Yan asked Jin’er to help bathe Lu Junming. He had travelled far on the road and definitely wanted to take a rest.
“Yan’er, I still think we should get engaged as soon as possible! As long as we get engaged, I’m fine with delaying the actual marriage.”
His words made Yan’er feel like something was up, “Lu Junming, what happened?”
“My-my dad wants to arrange a marriage for me!”
P.S. I’m back with a chapter! Thank you for your patience!
[1] Please remember that in ancient China, people measured their age using the new year, and thirteen was a perfectly acceptable age to get married back then.