Chapter 92 People from Xinghua Village
Chapter 92 People from Xinghua Village
After spending seven days at the racetrack, Xia Yichen and his subordinates learned to sing "Clatter, clatter, clatter." "Little sister," he said, "I must return to the capital to report. You must come to the capital at the end of the year to spend the New Year with Father and Mother."
Wen Yuxia smiled and nodded in agreement: "Don't worry, Brother Chen, I will definitely go to the capital this year to pay my respects to my godparents."
As Xia Yichen read the imperial edict at the horse farm, the accompanying eunuch delivered the emperor's rewards to Nanping Village. Every household in Nanping Village received a share of the emperor's silver, and they wanted to come to the horse farm to thank Wen Yuxia.
Knowing that Xia Yichen was staying at the horse farm, and fearing that the villagers might disturb him, Village Chief Li intervened and stopped the villagers, telling them that they could only go to the horse farm after the Crown Prince had left.
They then sent people to stake out the village entrance. Yesterday afternoon, the villagers who were staking out the village entrance saw Xia Yichen leading a group of people away. So, early this morning, Village Chief Li brought the villagers over.
"Princess Mu Hua, our village's reward from the Emperor this time is entirely due to your efforts. Everyone has prepared a small token of our gratitude, please accept it," Village Chief Li said with a broad smile.
Unable to refuse the villagers' hospitality, Wen Yuxia accepted all the gifts they brought, then quietly instructed Bei Yi to prepare return gifts for them.
Veterans like Qinling and Hou Tie enthusiastically led the villagers on a tour of the horse farm.
Gu Jiusi led his guards through a side gate to the racetrack, then quietly left the racetrack and headed straight for Nanping Village.
When Village Chief Li led the villagers away, Gu Jiusi and the others had not yet returned. Following Wen Yuxia's instructions, Bei Yi gave Village Chief Li five bags of sweet potatoes as a return gift.
As dusk approached, Gu Jiusi and the others carried two large wild boars down the mountain, directly to the doorstep of Village Chief Li's house.
"Village Chief Li, this was sent by the Princess," Gu Jiusi said, pointing to the wild boar on the ground. Hearing that the wild boar was a gift, the villagers who had been watching the spectacle were overjoyed.
Village Chief Li said somewhat embarrassedly, "We brought sweet potatoes this afternoon, and now we're bringing wild boar. This is too much of a gift. We'll accept one, and you can take the other one back."
Village Chief Li initially wanted to refuse, but seeing the villagers excitedly gesturing around the wild boar, he couldn't bring himself to say no, so he reluctantly accepted it.
Taking only one is exactly what Gu Jiusi wanted. He smiled slightly and said happily, "Okay, you take one, and I'll take one."
Early the next morning, Wen Dashan, Grandpa Wen, and the Wen brothers arrived at the horse farm, accompanied by Hunter Zhang, Granny Li, Li Xiang, and Wang Guiyuan, the village chief of Xinghua Village.
Grandpa Wen believed that the imperial edict should be taken back to Xinghua Village and kept at home, and that the emperor's rewards should be kept by Grandpa Wen Dashan for Wen Yuxia.
So, as soon as he saw Wen Yuxia, Old Master Wen couldn't wait to ask, "Da Ya, I heard you received a reward from the Emperor. Where is the imperial edict?"
"Princess, please don't be offended. Old Master Wen is getting on in years and can't change his form of address so easily," Village Chief Wang said, breaking out in a cold sweat from Old Master Wen's use of "Da Ya" (a term of endearment for a young lady).
“It’s alright,” Wen Yuxia said calmly, then turned to Bei Yi: “Take them with you.”
Having anticipated that Wen Dashan and the others would come to see the imperial edict, Wen Yuxia did not put the edict into her spatial storage. Instead, she found a separate room and placed it on the desk.
Village Chief Wang and his men were probably after the imperial edict. To get rid of them, they needed to see it. As for the Wen family, they could be dealt with after dealing with Village Chief Wang and his group.
As expected, Village Chief Wang and the others followed Bei Yi into the room and knelt before the imperial edict on the table. Bei Yi stepped forward and read the contents of the edict aloud.
Village Chief Wang led everyone in repeatedly saying, "Thank you, Your Majesty, thank you, Your Majesty!" After bowing to the imperial edict, Village Chief Wang knew the Wen family had other matters to discuss, so he tactfully led the others to take their leave.
Wen Yuxia had wild boar meat delivered to them, and Village Chief Wang, Hunter Zhang, Granny Li, and Li Xiang each left satisfied with a large piece of wild boar meat.
Wen Yuxia looked at Wen Dashan and asked softly, "Grandpa, how have you been lately?"
"Good, good, Grandpa is in good health!" Wen Dashan said with a smile.
His eldest granddaughter was granted the title of princess, and these past few days, the villagers have been incredibly kind to him. Even Wen Zhihua has humbled herself to curry favor with him.
Grandpa Wen asked eagerly, "Da Ya, no, I should call you Princess. Princess, what treasures has the Emperor bestowed upon you? Show them to us!"
"The Emperor's reward is land, and the land he bestowed is in Mengzhong County. If Great-Grandfather wishes to see it, I, the Princess, can tell you the exact location," Wen Yuxia said, enunciating each word clearly.
The Emperor bestowed upon her the title of Princess and granted her two mountain peaks and a thousand acres of fertile land. The mountain peaks and fertile land were located at the border of Mengzhong County and Xinchuan County, and were under the jurisdiction of Mengzhong County.
Grandpa Wen shook his head in disappointment. The land he was granted was in Mengzhong County; he wanted to show it off to the villagers, but they couldn't see it anyway. How boring.
Wen Zibai smiled and asked, "Princess, do you need any more people at the horse farm?" His eldest son, Wen Yunqing, said that during the academy's holidays, they would come to the horse farm to practice riding and archery.
Wen Zibo wanted to send his youngest son, Wen Yunbo, to the horse farm. Horse riding was useless, but shooting was. If Wen Yunbo learned shooting, he could take a bow and arrow and go hunting in the mountains during the off-season.
Wen Yuxia, unaware of Wen Zibai's thoughts, smiled faintly and said, "Second Uncle, the horse farm belongs to the Crown Prince and doesn't hire outsiders. The workers are all wounded soldiers who have retired from the army."
Relatives are relatives, and employees are employees. Wen Yuxia didn't want to confuse the two relationships. She didn't want any of her family members involved in her businesses.
"Oh," Wen Zibo said, somewhat annoyed, inwardly blaming Wen Yunbo. He thought to himself, "Why didn't he study harder back then? If he could have passed the imperial examinations like my older brother, he wouldn't need to plead for me to be here at the horse farm learning riding and archery."
"Second Uncle, how is Second Aunt's business?" Wen Yuxia asked softly.
"It's great, the daily income is very stable," Wen Zibai said with a smile when he mentioned the food stall.
The snack stall run by the Yang sisters-in-law brought in about two hundred copper coins a day. At the end of the month, each family could receive two taels of silver, which made their lives much easier.
Before she was made a princess, Yang and her family's stall at the market had no impact on Wen Yuxia. But now, she is the Crown Prince's adopted daughter and the Emperor's personally bestowed title of Princess Muhua.
It seems a bit inappropriate for the princess's three aunts to be setting up stalls at the market. Two days ago, Wen Yuxia had someone buy a shop in town specifically for her sisters-in-law, the Yang family.
"Second Uncle, I bought a shop for Grandpa in town. Why don't you and Aunt move your food stall into the shop?" Wen Yuxia said with a faint smile.
"How can the shop be registered in my name?" Wen Dashan hurriedly insisted on transferring the shop to Wen Yunhong.
“Grandpa, this shop is for your retirement. You can rent it to your aunt and uncle. Just charge them a low rent, one hundred coins a month,” Wen Yuxia said with a faint smile.
She and Wen Yunhong would leave this place sooner or later, and she would buy a shop for Wen Dashan so that he could collect rent every month. She did this to put Wen Yunhong's mind at ease.
The food stall became a food shop, and Yang and others no longer had to push their carts to the market in the wind and sun, nor would anyone gossip that the princess's aunt was a street vendor.
Haha, killing three birds with one stone, this shop is a worthwhile purchase.
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