Chapter 459: Chapter 455: Golden Little Turtle_1


    “Besides, sister is already grown up. After we move to Beijing, she can rely on her brother’s official position to secure a good marriage.”


    Huzi is currently a Fifth-grade Martial General, his rank is not low. He is also holding a position in the Imperial Army. At least he should be able to find a suitable match from the official families for his sister.


    Jiang Eng nced at his daughter, “She’s only six”


    Yanru red at her husband, “She is six now, won’t she grow up in a few years? Moreover, girls in Beijing have to learn many things. If we move there now, we could hire a tutor for her to start learning slowly.”


    Jiang Eng scratched his head: “Hiring a tutor will cost a lot of money. How can we survive eating through our savings? Huzi is indeed a Fifth-grade official, but his expenses are also high. The interactions among his colleagues, along with him having to eat, buy a house, and support several servants. Won’t we just cause him trouble if we move there?”


    Yanru was interrupted.


    Indeed, moving to Beijing would require a lot of money. Without any extra ie, simply relying on Huzi’s sry wouldn’t allow them to live a life anywhere close to that of a wealthy family.


    “What if we take some golden ear and snow ear mushroom spores with us?” Yanru suggested, “Last time when I was in Beijing, I went to a pharmacy and asked about the prices of snow and golden ear mushrooms. A small box of dried snow ears costs twenty taels of silver. In my estimation, that weight could be at most half a pound.”


    Jiang Eng pondered for a moment and said, “That might work, I’ll have to discuss it with Yingbao.”


    Mushrooms are quite delicate; a slight carelessness can severely affect their quality. If they were to bring them along all the way to Beijing and they got spoiled, all their efforts would be wasted.


    Moreover, his niece Yingbao is quite skilled at cultivating mushrooms. The vigers all got their spores from her. Therefore, he needed to discuss with Yingbao how they could safely transport arge number of these spores to Beijing.


    Yanru lit up when she heard her husband’s agreement: “That’s a great idea! We can discuss this with Yingbao when we go back.”


    …


    At this moment, Yingbao was inspecting the agricultural conditions of different townships in Qinchuan County with Wei Zhan.


    The entire county had started growing cotton, with varying amounts produced in different townships, but most were still primarily cultivating grains and rice.


    “The new county magistrate is talented,” Yingbao praised.


    The county magistrate took his position fromst year, and he and our younger brother Jiang Jie were in the same Top Schr ss.


    From the report, he has a very organized n for agriculture and sericulture. He’s established quotas on how much cotton, wheat, rice, and soybeans each family should nt each year.


    Furthermore, the county magistrate encouraged the vigers to open up wastnd. He asked them to cut grass andpost it for fertilization, promising to exempt thend tax for the first two years; the tax in the third year would be cut in half.


    In addition, he asked each household to raise more chickens and pigs. After that, he suggested they should pile the manure with tree leaves forposting. When theposting was done, he advised adding it as fertilizer in winter.


    Wei Zhan said with augh, “With the county magistrate managing Qinchuan County, we can spend our effort on Zhouhe county.”


    Looking at the tax status, the people in Qinchuan County are living much better than those in Zhouhe county. No wonder some people would flee to settle here.


    Yingbao closed the documents, handed them to Wei Zhan and said, “You can go check the condition of the public granary when the county government staff start working.”


    The public granary is the food reserve of the county’s civilians and soldiers, and also its lifeline. In case of natural disasters and human distress, the grains in the public granary would be crucial. Therefore, it is key to understand the situation there.


    Wei Zhan nodded, “Okay.”


    “Also, let the county magistrate gatherborers to dredge the riverbed near Chuanhe Town.”


    There is a piece of water clusters near Chuanhe Town, which gets filled up every few years causing inability to grow grains on both sides of the riverbed leaving a piece ofnd as big as Dongchen Vige useless, wasting hundreds of acres in the process.


    Now that our county has an excellent county Magistrate, why not ask him to dredge the riverbeds.


    “Okay, but it will have to be done after the Lantern Festival,” Wei Zhan replied.


    “I know that. You just need to inform the County Magistrate in advance.”


    Without realizing it, the Lantern Festival had arrived.


    Yingbao didn’t go to the night market, she stood under thentern rack at her home’s entrance, watching the fireworks.


    On the side, Anrou was holding Wuyang in her arms.


    Wuyang seemed utterly excited as his round eyes stared enthusiastically at thenterns.


    Erni was munching on some snacks, sitting with her stepmother Yanru and Third Aunt Chunniang, looking around the entrance.


    There was no other option, Yingbao wouldn’t let them out. She only allowed for antern stand to be erected at the entrance, upon which hung two to three dozen multi-colorednterns for people to admire.


    Yet Wei Zhan and father-inw had left, allegedly to join the County Magistrate in patrolling the streets.


    Yingbao was teaching Little Sister Jiang how to guess riddles, when she suddenly heard someone call her name: “Yingbao.”


    Looking towards the sound, she saw a man in a green robe, standing at a distance, looking at her.


    “Xiao Mo?” Yingbao’s face turned serious, on guard as she watched the man approach: “What are you doing here?”


    Xiao Mo walked leisurely up to her, standing still right in front of her.


    The guards wanted to interfere, but Yingbao dismissed them: “Take everyone back to the mansion.”


    Upon hearing themand, Magnolia led Anrou and the other children back home.


    Chunniang and Erni, along with the others who were also unclear about the circumstances, were escorted back to the courtyard by the guards and pce maids.


    “Yingbao, no wonder I always felt like I’d seen you somewhere before.” Xiao Mo smiled: “So, you are the little demon that I could never find.”


    Yingbao twitched at the corner of her mouth, coldly responding: “You’re the demon.” Your whole family are demons!


    Without engaging in idle chatter with her, Xiao Mo directly asked: “Yingbao, is Xuanwu here with you?”


    “What Xuanwu?” Yingbao yed dumb.


    Xiao Mo paused to consider this for a moment, then rified: “It’s a small golden tortoise.”


    With a poker face, Yingbao responded: “Never seen one.”


    Xiao Mo nced at her dismissively, “But I smelled its scent on you.”


    “That’s because I had turtle stew for lunch.” Yingbao responded while surreptitiously trying tomunicate with Xuanwu. However, he kept silent.


    Xiao Mo nced around, then said: “Yingbao, stop pretending. You are no different from me; you do not belong to this world either. Why note back with me?”


    Without uttering a word, Yingbao’s gaze turned colder.


    Xiao Mo continued: “I was careless before, so you don’t need to dwell on past mistakes. Can assure you justice in the future. But this ce is definitely not suitable for you. You should leave with me as soon as possible.”


    “What kind of nonsense are you talking about?” Yingbao replied coldly, “You’re not from this world, did youe from King Yama’s ce?”


    Xiao Mo: “Yingbao, don’t deceive yourself. I must also tell you, Wei Zhan is actually your cousin; there is a blood connection between you two.”


    “Bullshit!” Yingbao was furious and was about to summon the God Scythe.


    Xuanwu clung tightly to the trembling God Scythe,municating urgently to Yingbao in fear: “Don’t fall for his trick! Not a single one of the cultivators of the human n is a good person! He just wants to provoke you to make the first move. Once the taboo is touched, you will be pulled out of this world!”


    Was it indeed so?


    Yingbao gradually calmed down, giving Xiao Mo a faint smile: “Xiao Mo, what exactly are you trying to achieve by telling me all this? You don’t happen to be trying to sow discord between Wei Zhan and me, do you?”


    Wei Zhan’s blood rtion with her was the one thing Xuanwu would know without a shadow of doubt.


    Though the Book of Heaven couldn’t exin everything, it did record her multilife journey and all rted people clearly down to their eighteenth generation of ancestors.


    Xiao Mo watched Yingbao with a serious expression for a moment, then stated, “Your grandfather and Wei Zhan’s grandfather are cousins; there’s no mistake about that.”


    “And where did you get this information from?” Yingbao asked, narrowing her eyes in question.


    Even if Xiao Mo was a man of profound cultivation in another world, he was suppressed by divine providence here and reduced to an ordinary human body, making it simply impossible for him to examine bloodlines through magic.


    Otherwise, he wouldn’t have failed to notice that her bloodline was already quite different from before.


    To put it bluntly, her current body had been condensed into being by Xuanwu’s own cultivation.