The Little Lucky Girl

"Then, I will adopt this child as my goddaughter. When you are transferred back to the capital, she will leave with us. How about that?"

Magistrate Tao was speechless. "The Ming family is not the kind of family that would cling to the rich and powerful. They only have this one child, so they may not be willing to give him up."

He looked at his wife and hesitated for a moment, then said, "Besides, I think it may not be a good thing to let someone follow us. You spoil the child too much."

Mrs. Tao glared, "The Ming couple has worked hard for our business, so what's wrong with me taking care of them?"

"Does the so-called 'care' necessarily mean spending money?" Magistrate Tao shook his head. "You still remember the story of the Xu sisters, right?"

Mrs. Tao was silent. She had a good relationship with Madam Xu and knew a little about her family affairs.

Mrs. Xu once said that when she was young, the Xu family was just an ordinary family in the village. Her father, Mr. Xu, was just a peddler who carried a shoulder pole and sold straw sandals everywhere.

When she was little, she thought it was fun and pestered her father to go with her to do business. Her father had no choice but to put her in a basket, carry her on one end and the straw sandals on the other end and set off.

Along the way, the father and daughter climbed over a dozen mountains and visited five or six villages, but they only sold less than ten pairs of shoes, earning only one penny for each pair. When passing by the county town, her father bought her a bowl of sour plum soup, but he himself was reluctant to drink a sip.

By the time Second Lady Xu was born, Mr. Xu had already started to make a fortune. They moved from the village to the county and opened a shop to do business, so Second Lady Xu had never suffered any hardship since she was a child. In addition, her family members couldn't help but pamper her even more when they thought of the past, and over time, she developed a spoiled personality.

Magistrate Tao sighed and said, "Everyone says that Master Xu loves his second daughter more, but in my opinion, what Madam Xu got is more valuable."

"I know you want to improve the lives of those children, but they don't have to worry about food and drink now. It would be better to save the money for them to make further progress in their studies and broaden their horizons."

Tao County Magistrate's thoughts drifted away. "We should also think more about raising children. Both sons are not around. We can only compensate them with money through correspondence on weekdays. Now it seems that it is far from enough."

"The teacher at the tribe's school said that they were too naughty, and would take their classmates to skip school, and they didn't work hard in their studies. The tribe members took my face into consideration, so they were afraid that they wouldn't be able to take harsh measures even if they wanted to."

Mrs. Tao had a bad feeling, and as expected, she heard Magistrate Tao say, "So I thought, why not send these two brats to stay with General Feng in the Northwest for a while, and let them learn a little bit in the army, maybe they can become more promising."

Mrs. Tao felt distressed. "If you want them to suffer, they can come to our place. Just throw them to the farm and let them farm with the tenant farmers."

"The person is right under your nose, can you really bear to let him go?" Lord Tao asked back.

Not to mention his wife, even he might not be able to bear to do so. He already feels guilty about his child, and when they meet again... forget it, it's better to turn a blind eye.

Madam Tao discussed the matter, "The northwest is bitterly cold, and Erlang is still young. Why don't we wait two years?"

"How can he be younger than Ming Youyou? That child was able to follow me all the way from the capital, so why can't Erlang do the same?"

Seeing that Madam Tao wanted to say something, Magistrate Tao narrowed his eyes and said, "Niang Yan, as parents, we must think long-term for our children."

"You actually want to say 'A loving mother often spoils her child,'" Mrs. Tao snorted, "Anyway, you are always right, and I can't just ignore it."

Mrs. Tao came out of the study, feeling depressed, and couldn't help but walk around in circles in the yard.

She quickly figured out what was going on with her two sons. She decided to send them some warm clothes and ask the general's wife to take good care of them. It wouldn't be a bad thing for boys to suffer a little and become tougher.

Ming Youyou, on the other hand, had more on her mind. "Raising daughters in wealth" was a popular idea in the capital, and the noble ladies in the rich families were more extravagant than each other in their food, clothing and daily expenses. However, these girls usually stayed at home, and their horizons were limited to the backyard. Some of them were too naive and kind, and had rarely seen people from outside, so they were easily deceived...

Gradually, she understood what her husband was thinking. Mrs. Tao suddenly thought of something, stopped, and asked the maid, "Did the master let Xiaguan Village build two schools?"

The maid nodded. "When the village chiefs of Xiaguan Village and Dafeng Village came to report on the school, the master asked them to build another one, which is specially used for teaching girls in the village. The expenses are paid by the county government, and the female teacher who teaches the class is invited by me."

Mrs. Tao chuckled and said, "That's right. With her husband's personality, how could he resist not doing something he thought of?"

Those people above are following the rules and are not easy to touch. He is planning to start from below. Mrs. Tao suddenly had a headache, wondering how big the chess game her husband was going to play this time.

Ming Youyou saw that the time was almost up, so he went to find Madam Tao to say goodbye and asked, "What does the county magistrate want to reward me with?"

Mrs. Tao was speechless. After thinking for a while, she asked, "Besides silver, is there anything else you want?"

Ming Youyou blinked and said, "Can I borrow the pony from the county government? The horses in the academy are too tall, and the teachers don't let me ride them because they're afraid of danger."

So every time she was in class, she just watched from the sidelines, which was so boring.

Mrs. Tao felt that this was related to the six arts of a gentleman and did not violate her husband's principles, so she took the lead and said, "No need to borrow. Just take the one you like back home."

Ming Youyou waved her hands hastily, "No, no, I can come over and ride when I want to practice, or I can just ask the driver to lead it to me."

"That's too much trouble. It would be much better if I could just take it home and ride it whenever I want."

"It's not a big deal. It's tiring to raise a horse. Feng Xu said that the grass a horse eats must be fine and very expensive."

Mrs. Tao understood this time and nodded her head with a smile, "You are such a money-grubber."

Ming Youyou didn't know that she was actually a wealthy woman who owned several hundred acres of land. She chuckled and said, "I heard that Lord Tao will host a banquet for guests from the grassland tomorrow. The county government will definitely be very busy. How about I come over to help? Well, Zheng Huan and the others can also come and lend a hand."

Unfortunately, the expression on her face showed that she didn't just want to help. Mrs. Tao smiled and said, "You are actually craving for meat."

The county town has been under blockade for two months and mutton has long been unavailable. The grassland tribes did bring a lot of mutton, but they are all waiting outside the city and will only trade after they are settled.

However, because the county government was preparing for a banquet, they had stored a lot of meat, so Mrs. Tao asked someone to cut a large leg of lamb for her to take away.

Ming Youyou thanked him happily, went out to visit Madam Zhang, gave her some meat, and then returned to the village happily.

Zheng Huan and his colleagues had been delivering medicine to many villages during this period and were extremely tired. They had originally planned to have a good rest for a few days and then go out for some fun, but the academy sent someone to inform them that classes would resume in two days.