Traveling to Daliang Kingdom starts from falling into the water

Watching his in-laws, who were both willing to abandon their son and daughter, walk away chatting and laughing, Gu Wenxuan immediately turned to the side, reached out his right hand, and took his wife's hand, walking in the opposite direction.

"Is our son/child asleep?"

"Yes, and there's also Mai Huang over there."

Upon hearing this, Gu Wenxuan immediately changed his mind.

With a wet nurse, a head maid, and a maidservant, plus a wheat husk watching over things, and the son asleep, the night was perfect for watching the stars with my wife.

The back garden of the west courtyard.

Unlike the bare landscape of winter.

Today, all kinds of plants grow freely, and the fragrance of flowers lingers.

Tea, snacks, and fruit have already been laid out in the pavilion where lanterns are hung.

Humans are inherently lazy and know how to enjoy life.

It hasn't been long, and he's already fallen into depravity, unable to live without maids and servants to wait on him. He's so used to that he only needs to say a few words to get what he wants.

After washing her hands, Zhou Banxia waved away the maid, not in a hurry to ask Gu Wenxuan what his father wanted to see her father for tonight.

Stone benches are definitely not as comfortable as chairs.

She sat down in a grand chair that had been brought from somewhere, and leaned back lazily.

Seeing this, Gu Wenxuan smiled, put down his teacup, and moved closer to her, "Wife, what did your father say?"

“I didn’t say I would donate 100% like I did in the south. I only said that the granaries in those two estates are safe and can help my uncle if necessary.”

"What about the grain bricks we ordered?" Gu Wenxuan asked casually, but then reached out and carefully picked up a piece of apricot from the fruit plate with his silver fork and put it to her lips.

Zhou Banxia suppressed a laugh and glanced at him sideways. She took a bite, chewed for a moment, and said with a muffled laugh, "After much consideration, I still think there's no need to bring up the grain bricks."

"Be careful not to choke, isn't it sweet? These are yellow apricots delivered from Qilizhuang Village before dark, a different variety from last time. Don't rush, tell me slowly."

Zhou Banxia nodded. It was sweet but not too sweet, both sweet and crisp. "Not bad. The fruit craftsmen in the orchard over there are not much worse than the craftsmen in Peach Village."

I'll give the order tomorrow, and the head of the farm over there can let the fruit growers get to work. No rush, it's just a matter of a word. Let's get down to business first.

After much consideration, I decided against mentioning the grain bricks. Why should my father know that we were moving grain from the estate and then bringing in grain bricks to build walls in the vacated area?
He wouldn't think we're trying to fool outsiders by storing the wheat this time. Just the fact that the grain should be concentrated in those two villages, my father even mentioned Old Madam Gao.

My father still felt that the grain donation from the south could be attributed to my uncle's involvement, and that Old Madam Gao couldn't blame me for intentionally concealing the truth from her beforehand.

In particular, the fact that the grain was transferred to one place and stored in a granary on the outskirts of Beijing this time is too obvious. We are not even there, so it is clear that they intend to hide it from Madam Gao.

If we don't donate it later, it's fine. At most, we'll just believe that we originally planned to move to Beijing but couldn't go, so storing up some extra food rations isn't a big deal.

In short, even at this critical juncture when the old master might be demoted, my wife and I were still in frequent contact, without even a hint. She couldn't possibly be indifferent to me.

So I was worried that if the topic of transferring the stored grain again came up, and if those villages were to use the opportunity to repair the granaries and build brick walls before the wheat harvest, my father would start to have all sorts of wild ideas.

Even if I can explain it clearly to my father, he will believe that I built the grain brick wall because I had too much money and wanted to prepare for my descendants. He will also worry about how many years the grain bricks can be stored.

They say it can be preserved for decades, but who knows? There's no physical proof. Believe me, if I told you, my dad wouldn't sleep soundly for the rest of his life!

letter!
This is why he didn't even dare to tell his own father. Otherwise, since Yuyuan already had a wall of grain and bricks, whether or not he kept it from his father wouldn't be so important.

The key issue is that this batch of grain bricks is quite large. If it's not stored properly, the money will be wasted, and it's impossible not to worry. Once you start worrying, you'll inevitably want to check on it, which will easily attract attention. It's better to say nothing and pretend this batch of grain bricks never existed.

"Another issue is fairness. Since your father doesn't know, it's better to keep it from my father as well, otherwise it would be too easy for the two of them to be exposed since they're together every day."

Gu Wenxuan knew Zhou Banxia would think this way. When he said he didn't want to mention this to his parents, he knew this was the inevitable result.

But those two old brothers can be together every day?
No, that won't work.

It won't work for at least the next month or two.

"Do you know what my dad wanted to see your dad about tonight?" Gu Wenxuan didn't wait for Zhou Banxia to speak before stuffing another piece of peach into her mouth. "Our dad is going on a long trip."

Going on a long trip?
Two fathers?
wrong!

Her father can't leave right now!

Zhou Banxia's eyes darted around, and she covered her mouth with her hand, swallowing the peach flesh in her mouth. "I know, it's your father. Where did he go? Why didn't my parents mention it?"

"One more bite?"

"No, you eat it."

"Be good, listen to me. You haven't eaten enough fruit today. Have another bite. Peaches are good for you, apricots are bad for you. Let's have another bite of peach to balance it out."

This person… Zhou Banxia suppressed a laugh and glared at him, “Are you deliberately trying to keep me in suspense?”

"Oh, I only found out half an hour ago that Dad is going on a long trip with Uncle Yun the day after tomorrow. Do you remember that rich merchant that Dad saved?"

Zhou Banxia nodded, "I saw him last year when Dad went on his long trip. Now that you mention it, I understand. Is Dad going somewhere to collect furs?"

"Pretty much. Last year, didn't the gentleman find a way for Dad to get furs? In addition to that, Dad also partnered with Uncle Yun to buy whatever he could get his hands on."

It is said that Uncle Yun has a sworn brother who is a military officer with some influence in the northern frontier. This time, he was the one who received the goods there and then transferred them to that wealthy merchant through his father.

The transit station was in Jingu, not far away. The only problem was that you needed to verify the goods in Jingu and hand them over to the wealthy merchant before you could return home.

It's not far, so it's normal to wait until I get the money before coming back.

Zhou Banxia nodded to show that she understood, but there was one question: "Wouldn't that wealthy merchant go back on his word and deliberately fail to arrive in Tianjin on time? Was there a written contract or a deposit paid?"

"Now that we've got to the point! This is one of the reasons why our father decided to set off the day after tomorrow. That wealthy merchant is even more anxious than our father; he's already in Tianjin."

The Shunyi Escort Agency sent messengers back twice from its Tianjin branch to deliver the message. As for whether the goods would be rejected, Father said he wasn't worried about no one wanting them.

Zhao Laosan couldn't possibly refuse, but his father felt that being too familiar with the business would make it difficult to negotiate prices, so it would be better to find that wealthy businessman, with whom they had a very pleasant collaboration last time.

"Furthermore, Dad suspects that Zhao Laosan not only pays us in cash every time he comes to pick up goods, but he also emptied the inventory of several of our places last year, so he doesn't have much cash on hand."

Zhou Banxia rubbed his forehead.

"Don't disbelieve me, maybe Dad figured it out. The Zhao family's business can't possibly have too little working capital on hand, and I've heard they've expanded and added several more branches."

Although they must have made a lot of money from that big deal last year, the problem is that they still had to pay dividends to the Wang family at the end of last year, and later they also bought estates and shops just like us—”

"Stop for a second!" Zhou Banxia looked up and raised her hand. "I was wondering just how big a deal Dad's made this time, and why he's worried they won't have the cash?" (End of Chapter)