Fortunate Life of the Rural Beauty
Chapter 165 - 164: Unexpected Visitor

Chapter 165: Chapter 164: Unexpected Visitor

Dabao nodded and took his mother’s hand to enter the gate. "Mom, I saw Uncle Chu smiling," he said.

Chen Afu laughed and scolded, "Nonsense. He’s too far away, you can’t even see him smiling in broad daylight, let alone in pitch darkness."

Dabao pouted and said, "Anyway, I just felt like he was smiling at us."

Upon returning to the west wing, Chen Afu told a few stories to the three children. Then she sent Dabao and Yang Chao to sleep in the east wing with Alu, while she and the little girl, Yang Qian, slept in the west wing.

Zeng Xiaoqing came in with a basin of water to help them wash up. She watched as Zhui Feng, Qi Qi, and Hui Hui eagerly waited for their turn. This seemed quite incredible to her.

Chen Afu laughed and said, "They’re waiting for their turn to be wiped down."

After putting Yang Qian to bed, Chen Afu returned to the main room and moistened and wrung a special towel out in a basin. Seeing this, the little creatures stretched their necks. After she had wiped their faces and bodies clean, they lifted one foot, then the other. Once cleaned, all three of them went off to their nests in the southern room to wait for Chen Afu to cover them with their little blankets.

After tucking them in, Chen Afu would always say, "Goodnight, my darlings."

After closing the southern room door, Chen Afu said to Zeng Xiaoqing, "Though they’re dogs and parrots, we treat them like family. It’s cold now, so we bathe them every half month. But we clean their mouths every morning and wipe them down every evening..."

Perhaps the two parrots were overly thrilled from playing today, and could still be heard in the room saying, "Drill time, one, two, three, four, two, two, three, four..."

Chen Afu cracked open the door to the south room and scolded, "Keep talking and you’re not getting fed tomorrow."

Only then did the two parrots settle down.

Zeng Xiaoqing held her mouth and laughed. Her little bit of dreariness from the city to the countryside dissipated completely.

Just after dawn the next day, Manager Luo and Luo Yuan arrived in a horse-drawn carriage. They not only brought nine sheep, but also ten jars of wine, two of them being tribute Blue Flower Brew, six hams, a basket of apples, ten kilograms of refined sugar, twenty kilograms of dates, one hundred kilograms of refined wheat flour, ten kilograms of Rouge Rice, four pieces of satin, and other items, arriving with a grand total of six fully loaded horse-drawn carriages. They said these were New Year’s goods sent by Tang Garden, and even provided a detailed list.

Chen Ming and Mrs. Wang gaped at the enormous amount of goods, "Oh my, we can’t accept all these, we can’t accept all these."

Chen Afu laughed and said, "You forgot? Mr. Chu said yesterday that when his grandfather arrives, we should prepare several hot pot meals for them. I think his grandfather will not only dine at our house, but will very likely have most of his meals here. Some of these goods are probably his personal provisions. We mustn’t touch the expensive items like the Blue Flower Brew and Rouge Rice, but keep them for his grandfather."

Chen Ming nodded in agreement and added, "Shouldn’t we add some of these good items to the gifts for my mother and elder brother?" They had previously bought many New Year’s gifts, including food, drinks, and clothes, in the county town.

After listening, Chen Afu nodded and said, "Okay, lets add a ham, two legs of mutton, a jar of wine, ten kg of apples, and a piece of satin."

The elder generation had done well this time. They did not betray their conscience for fifty taels of silver and had even tipped them off about the situation in Fu Garden. They had taken certain risks by doing so. Both Chen Ming and Chen Afu remembered their kindness.

Mrs. Wang asked, "Tang Garden has given us New Year’s gifts, should we send them some in return?"

Previously, they had only prepared some New Year gifts for Manager Luo’s family, and had also made two sets of clothes for the little girl, Chu Hanyan. But now that the other party had sent over so many things first and claimed them to be New Year gifts, it would be inappropriate not to send some back in return.

"We should give them something too," said Chen Afu. After some thought, he added, "People in their house like sweet food. Let’s make some special pastries for them."

Then, Yang Chao and his sister, devastated from crying, were sent away. This time, Chen Afu made a set of clothes for each sibling, and gave them ten pounds of apples, along with a basket of homemade pastries.

There were four guardians waiting to escort them from Tang Garden. Chen Afu, leading Dabao, Zhui Feng, Qi Qi, and Hui Hui, went off to work at Tang Garden. Wang Cai wanted to come along, but Alu didn’t allow it and tasked it with guarding the house instead.

Seeing Wang Cai’s tear-filled eyes at being denied the trip, Dabao promised it would bring back some delicious food from Tang Garden. Only then did Wang Cai feel a little better.

After lunch at Tang Garden, Chen Afu led the guards back to Lu Garden in a hurry to make pastries. She planned to make them early and deliver them to Tang Garden. With fewer masters in Tang Garden, and the pastries she made being quite unique, perhaps Tang Garden could send them as New Year gifts to others.

She planned to give twenty catties of glutinous rice dates, twenty catties of gold silk cake, twenty catties of twist biscuits, twenty catties of plum blossom cakes, and twenty catties of sweet doughnuts to Tang Garden. All together, it equaled one hundred catties. Additionally, she added two sets of little girl’s outerwear, two middle garments, two pairs of shoes, and six pairs of socks. It was quite a decent New Year gift from her end.

With more hands to help, these pastries were made in two days.

On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, Chen Ming led Alu and Dabao to deliver the New Year gifts to Tang Garden in a very serious manner. Manager Luo received them formally at the entrance of Tang Garden. After treating them to tea for a while, Chen Ming brought Alu back to Lu Garden, and Dabao went into the inner courtyard.

Chen Ming then led Chen Lu to deliver New Year gifts to Manager Luo’s family, including a set of clothes for Manager Luo and Madam Luo, as well as some food and pastries.

After having lunch at Tang Garden, Chen Afu returned to Lu Garden with the guards.

From a distance, she saw two carriages parked at the entrance of Lu Garden. The only guests who would visit them, other than the people from Tang Garden, would be Yang Mingyuan, who could drive a carriage. But, Yang Mingyuan was in Capital City, and the siblings had only left two days ago. They couldn’t possibly be visiting.

Who could it be then? Chen Afu and her companions hastened their steps towards home.

Before Chen Afu could reach the wall of Fu Garden, she saw Zeng Xiaoqing running towards her hurriedly. Seeing Chen Afu, Zeng Xiaoqing ran even faster. When she arrived, she gasped, "Miss, several guests have arrived at home. One of them is an old lady who claims to be the mother of governor Chen and she wants to discuss something with you..."

Turns out, a few uninvited guests had arrived at Lu Garden - five women and two men.

Upon hearing the combination, Chen Afu wasn’t afraid since there were several strong labourers at home, including her guards. They wouldn’t suffer if a fight broke out.

She was only anxious to know why the old lady was looking for her and if Mrs. Wang might be bullied again. She quickened her pace towards Lu Garden.

Upon entering Lu Garden, she saw Mr. Zeng, his son, Xue Dagui, and Chu Xiaoniu, all standing in the courtyard. There were two other men: Junior Officer Zhao and another man she didn’t recognize.

Junior Officer Zhao saw Chen Afu and politely bowed to her. Chen Afu ignored him and turned to the four guards following her, "You all wait outside." Then, she walked briskly towards the main room.

In the main room, Chen Ming sat on the left side of the square table with a serious look on his face. On the right side sat an old woman, around fifty years old.