The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 341 - 330: Battle of Wits

Chapter 341: Chapter 330: Battle of Wits

Bai Erlang and Datou sat on stools, thoroughly enjoying the little fish. Datou asked him, "Tastes good?"

Bai Erlang nodded, "Last year’s were even tastier."

"That’s because the young master’s family’s cook made them with a lot of oil, of course they were delicious."

Bai Erlang immediately said, "My family has oil as well."

Then he looked at Datou.

He couldn’t decide what to do with the fish at home, nor was he allowed to touch the fishing nets.

So, rotating his eyeballs, he said, "I’ll get my Fourth Uncle to catch the fish, and you take them home to fry. You’ll have to share half with us."

Datou knew how expensive oil was, while the little fish didn’t cost money, just effort.

But Bai Erlang didn’t see it that way; he thought the oil, which they had at home and didn’t cost money, was inconsequential compared to the rarity of the little fish.

So the two made eye contact and struck a deal.

Manbao struggled to open the envelope; Bai Shanbao must have been worried about Bai Erlang snooping, so he had sealed it very tightly.

Upon opening the envelope, inside was a thick stack of letter paper.

Of course, all this letter paper wasn’t written by Bai Shanbao in one go, but was accumulated over time. He had thoughtfully arranged them in order for her.

Instead of saying he wrote letters to Manbao, it would be better to say he wrote a journal.

Only the beginning was addressed to Manbao.

The writing on the first page was from the day Bai Shanbao left; not long after they had left Luojiang County, they found a shady spot on the road to stop and rest at noon, and he wrote it there.

By then his sorrow had dissipated quite a bit, and he was enthusiastic about the journey, so what he wrote about the mountains, waters, trees, and even the insect sounds that could be heard everywhere in the woods, all seemed much more lively.

Manbao felt her spirits lift as she read.

But enthusiasm always fades eventually, especially since they spent most of their time sitting in a horse carriage.

The trees on both sides of the road looked much the same, and eventually, even the mountains seemed indistinguishable; there was no joy to be had, so the letters Bai Shanbao later wrote to her mostly complained about the boring journey, the bumpy carriage, or discussed schoolwork with her.

Apparently, out of boredom, he could only work on the homework Mr. Zhuang had assigned.

It wasn’t until he arrived in Longzhou that the content of the letters became rich again.

Bai Shanbao apparently still didn’t understand the principle of not airing one’s dirty laundry in public, nor the family’s secrets; some of the things he wrote to Manbao were even things he hadn’t told his grandmother or mother.

On their journey, they didn’t just hurry on the road; after entering Jiannan Road, the Bai Family gradually acquired properties.

Compared to grand clans, they couldn’t compete, but owning a manor here and a shop there made their journey much easier.

Different from the previous troubled trip to Qili Village, fraught with anxiety, this time the Bai Family was unhurried and leisurely, making the travel seem less arduous.

As they inspected their properties along the way back to Longzhou, the most important thing was to check on the industry that the Bai Family business was overseeing to ensure everything was fine, which allowed Ms. Liu to return to Longzhou City with Shanbao with ease.

This year, Old Master Bai suffered a severe disaster because his properties were mostly located in Jiannan Road, especially around Yizhou and Mianzhou. But the Bai Family, or rather, Bai Shanbao’s properties, would not.

The majority of Bai Shanbao’s properties were still located within Jiannan Road, in and around Longzhou.

This included the dowries of Ms. Liu and Ms. Zheng, which were also within Jiannan Road.

Jiannan Road hadn’t suffered any disasters this year, and being close to Jiannan Road, it was poised to be the first to transport grain to the Yizhou region.

Ordinary people had grain merchants above them, so they might not earn much, but Ms. Liu was different; her family owned quite a few manors.

They didn’t need to go through the local grain merchants; they could simply organize a caravan direct from the manor to transport grain to Yizhou and make a tidy profit.

However, she was always cautious and didn’t want to take such a risk, after all, there were bandits on the road, and who knew when they might encounter them?

But she also didn’t want to sell the grain to local merchants at low prices; that would be a big loss.

In June, the grain prices in Yizhou sky-rocketed, but the grain merchants from Jiannan Road still suppressed the grain prices, only willing to buy at standard prices from the common people.

Those with more grain, like the Bai Family, might get a little more, a few extra coins per bushel, but did Ms. Liu care about those few coins?

She was right in the disaster zone and knew what the grain prices were like there. If those grain merchants were buying grain at standard prices and then selling it here only slightly reduced prices, she wouldn’t have minded and wouldn’t have said anything.

But when they sold it here, they pushed the grain prices sky high.

She wasn’t foolish and naturally wouldn’t take that loss.

So, at the time, she directly found a grain merchant here and made a transaction with them right on the border between Jiannan Road and Jiannan, making a large profit.

The situation in Jiannan Road was relatively stable, mainly because she had properties there and had some connections with the government, so she wasn’t afraid of being robbed.

But once they entered Jiannan, things were different.

Somehow, news leaked, and some members of the extended Bai clan knew that Ms. Liu made a substantial profit, which made them jealous, and they began to think of "buying" her properties near Longzhou.

Especially those profitable farms and manors.

Unlike three years ago when they left Longzhou dejectedly, this time Ms. Liu returned in glory.

As soon as they entered the Longzhou region, the Bai Family sent stewards with servants ahead to the ancestral home to clean out the rooms where they were staying.

While the extended Bai clan watched on, Ms. Liu took her daughter-in-law and grandson to visit those farms and shops first, only entering Longzhou City two or three days later.

Bai Shanbao told Manbao in the letter that every morning, Nanny Liu, who was close to his grandmother, would personally come to wake me up, wash me squeaky clean, dress me in particularly nice new clothes, and then take me out to brag.

Bai Shanbao told Manbao he didn’t like wearing new clothes at all because the textiles and patterns were exquisite, and he couldn’t even squat on the ground to play with pebbles.

He just came back to Longzhou but already didn’t like it.

However, there were also happy things, like every time he went out for a walk, several of his little enemies would get beaten up that same evening.

"... Grandmother took me to see the clan leader, who asked if I was still pursuing my studies, and upon hearing I had already mastered ’Etiquette and Ceremonial,’ he was quite incredulous, so he tested me," Bai Shanbao wrote in the letter. "I knew that among those wishing to buy our property, he was not one, but he was allowing everything, never objecting. Although grandmother didn’t say it, I always felt that he had accepted someone’s favor, which is why he was accommodating towards others."

"Just as the teacher said, those who are greedy will always find their advantage, and our clan leader is obviously one such person, so I questioned him with ’The Great Learning.’ When we left, his face looked very displeased." Bai Shanbao wrote. "Unfortunately, when I was leaving, I ran into his extremely annoying grandson, so I deliberately stopped to ask what book he was reading recently. At night, I specifically listened outside their wall; his grandson was scolded miserably, and apparently, he still has to go to school the next day, so I decided not to rest tomorrow and go to the clan school to ’audit’ classes."

Manbao laughed heartily upon reading this, but turning the page, she realized it was the last letter, indicating that he hadn’t had time to write about the next day before he sent the letters off.