Pastoral Splendor

The atmosphere inside the carriage was very somber.

Although Yan Ying had written the divorce papers for Da Hua, when she handed the paper to Da Hua, tears instantly streamed down her face, soaking the paper.

Da Hua really cares about Wang Fugui that much? Yan Ying was very puzzled. She looked at Er Hua, and the two of them were a little worried. Da Hua can't be so sad. It's not good for the baby in her belly.

Yan Ying wanted to say a few words of comfort to Da Hua, but she didn't know how to start. She had never been in love in her previous life and couldn't understand the feelings that come with experiencing emotional changes. All she knew was that Da Hua was very, very sad, so sad that she seemed to have no strength to talk to anyone and was just immersed in her own grief.

"Big sister, please stop crying. Be careful of the baby in your belly." Erhua sat next to Dahua and gently comforted her. She was also at a loss and didn't know how to comfort Dahua either.

“Dahua, actually this is quite good.” Boss Xiao stammered, “Wang Fugui is unreliable. You are still young, and it’s a good time to find a reliable person to settle down with.”

Da Hua wiped her eyes without saying a word. Yan Ying grabbed Da Hua's hand and said, "Big sister, Father is right. Just forget about Wang Fugui and live a good life from now on. He's so unreliable. Rather than waiting until you're over thirty to fight with him, it's better to break up now."

The soft curtain on the side of the carriage was lifted with a "whoosh," and Xu Yixuan's face appeared behind it: "Eldest sister of the Xiao family, don't worry. You are beautiful and kind-hearted. You will surely marry a good man in the future."

Yan Ying couldn't help but chuckle. Xu Yixuan was about the same age as her, yet he spoke with such an air of maturity, as if he had experienced a great deal. Seeing Yan Ying laugh, Xu Yixuan blushed and quickly said, "I'm not lying. Our Prince Yu's mansion has quite a few unmarried servants and stewards. I'll keep an eye out for the good ones for your eldest sister!"

This young master of the Prince Yu's mansion is truly extraordinary; he's such a considerate and warm-hearted man. Yan Ying smiled at him, "Then I must thank you first, my great matchmaker!" Her eyes swept over Xu Yixuan's head and landed on Jian Yifei's face, his eyes looking at her with a gentle smile. Yan Ying's heart skipped a beat. She turned her face away and lowered the soft curtain, instantly darkening the carriage.

"Young Master Xu is truly a good man." Boss Xiao was so excited that he was almost restless: "If he can really find a good match for Da Hua, then Da Hua will have hope for the rest of her life."

“Father, you’re wrong.” Yan Ying shook her head. “Just finding a good man doesn’t guarantee success. We can’t pin our hopes on others. Take Wang Fugui, for example. He was quite good before he married my eldest sister, but look at him now. How can he be considered a good person?”

Boss Xiao thought for a moment, then sighed: "Isn't that right?"

“That’s why I say, relying on heaven, earth, parents, or men is not as good as relying on yourself!” Yan Ying held Da Hua’s hand tightly and gently comforted her: “As long as we have our own money, we can eat and wear whatever we want. We can buy it ourselves without having to worry about what others think or ask men for money. Who would dare to give us a hard time?”

Erhua nodded firmly: "Sanhua, you're right. We must never think of relying on men; we must rely on ourselves!"

"If men are reliable, pigs will climb trees!" Yan Ying suddenly remembered a popular saying from her previous life and blurted it out. Er Hua burst into laughter, while Xiao Laoda was extremely embarrassed—he was a man too, how could San Hua say such a thing?

A protest came from outside the soft curtain: "Miss Xiao, you can't just condemn all men in the world with one blow, can you? I'm a good man, and so is my master."

Yan Ying parted the soft curtain a little and saw Xu Yixuan pouting as he rode on his horse, looking very unconvinced. She smiled slightly at him and said, "Young Master Xu, please don't be angry. I was just talking about those unreliable men."

When the carriage arrived at the gate of Old Master Xiao's house, the driver stopped the horse and said, "Miss Xiao, please get out of the carriage. There's a crowd of people blocking the way, and we can't get through."

Yan Ying lifted the curtain and jumped down, only to see a large group of aunts and sisters-in-law from Xiaojia Village blocking her doorway. She was overjoyed; she had predicted that the people from Xiaojia Village would come looking for her, and it seemed that her calculations had not been wrong.

No secrets stay hidden forever. The news of making and selling pickled bamboo shoots spread far and wide. Not only Xiaojia Village, but the rest of Yuzhou City knew that making pickled bamboo shoots could be profitable. Everyone rushed up the mountain to pick small bamboo shoots, bought jars to make pickled bamboo shoots, and sent them to the city to sell.

The first batch of pickled bamboo shoots was delivered, and since other parts of Yuzhou City hadn't yet tasted them, they sold smoothly. However, as more people started making pickled bamboo shoots, they became available everywhere in Yuzhou City, leading to market overcrowding and supply exceeding demand, resulting in unsold produce. Xiaojia Village was the first to receive the news. Many large-scale pickled bamboo shoot producers in the village had made ten or so jars and stored them at home, but now they couldn't sell them. Naturally, they were anxious, as each jar cost over eighty copper coins; how could they let that money sit idle?

"Gentlemen and aunties, what brings you here at our door?" Yan Ying walked over with a smile. "Perhaps you have some good news to tell me?"

Those people looked embarrassed: "Sanhua, you're finally back."

"What's wrong? Were you really waiting for me?" Yan Ying shrugged and parted the crowd. "Excuse me, let's help our eldest sister inside to rest."

Only then did everyone notice Da Hua, who was being helped over from behind by Er Hua, and their faces showed surprise: "What's wrong with Da Hua? She doesn't look well?"

“Our eldest sister has just divorced Wang Fugui, and she will be single from now on.” After Da Hua and Er Hua went in, Yan Ying stepped onto the threshold, raised her eyebrows at everyone, and said, “If you all have nothing else to say, I’m going to close the door.”

"No, no, no, we came here to find you." The leader was Xiao Laifu's wife. At first, she sold five jars for one tael of silver each, feeling quite pleased with herself. She quickly went and bought twenty more jars, hoping to make a good profit. However, after the second batch was made, no one at Ruyi Restaurant came to inquire about them. Xiao Laifu even took them to Yuzhou City to sell, but no one was interested. The two of them were so anxious that their eyes turned red. Twenty taels of silver had gone down the drain, and they had even lost one tael and six mace of silver for buying the jars. Just thinking about it made them feel uncomfortable.

"Let's go find that third daughter of the Xiao family and have her come and buy ours!" Today, Xiao Laifu's wife went out for a walk and met the butcher's wife and a few other women. They put their heads together and came up with this idea: "Didn't the third daughter of the Xiao family want to spend copper coins to buy our bamboo shoots? These are already pickled bamboo shoots, so she doesn't even have to make them herself to sell. She should be even more eager to buy them."

After discussing it, everyone went to Old Master Xiao's house. Not long after they arrived, they saw Yan Ying return.

"My dear aunties and sisters-in-law, you really think highly of me." Yan Ying smiled. "I wonder what good news you have?"

"This is wonderful!" Mrs. Xiao Laifu smiled so broadly that her eyebrows and eyes crinkled together. "We've come to sell you some pickled bamboo shoots."

"Selling pickled bamboo shoots?" Yan Ying feigned surprise. "I'm not a restaurant, why would I need pickled bamboo shoots? You must have come to the wrong place."

"Sanhua, stop hiding it. We know you've found a good backer." Xiao Laifu's wife glanced at Xu Yixuan and Jian Yifei standing in the courtyard, her face full of fawning smiles: "With that young master's help, you've gotten on the good side of Ruyi Restaurant and made a fortune selling pickled bamboo shoots. Aren't you going to help your neighbors out?"

“Isn’t that right?” The butcher’s wife puffed out her cheeks and said, “We can’t sell our pickled bamboo shoots right now, so we have to come to you for help. You can take ours and then sell them to Ruyi Restaurant. You won’t have to make the pickled bamboo shoots yourself anymore, how about that?” The aunts and sisters-in-law behind her nodded in agreement, “That’s right, Sanhua, that would save you a lot of trouble.”

"You want me to buy them and sell them to Ruyi Restaurant?" Yan Ying laughed. These people were quite shrewd, immediately thinking of using her as a middleman. However, Ruyi Restaurant was a high-class establishment, and their pickled bamboo shoots certainly wouldn't taste as good as hers. She wouldn't sell such a thing to cheat people.

"How about it? We'll sell it cheaper, only five hundred coins a jar." The butcher's wife glanced at Yan Ying cautiously. She couldn't even sell it for two hundred coins a jar in Yuzhou City. She wondered if the third daughter of the Xiao family knew the market price. "If you sell it to Ruyi Restaurant, you can get one tael of silver a jar. Wouldn't you make five hundred coins in profit?"

Mrs. Xiao Laifu had originally planned to ask for eight hundred coins, but seeing that the butcher's wife had already spoken, she couldn't argue anymore. She had twenty jars, and even if she could sell them for ten taels of silver, she would still be making a profit. "Five hundred coins, you can make half of it, okay?" Mrs. Xiao Laifu looked at Yan Ying with hopeful eyes: "Sanhua, you won't turn away the silver you've already got, will you?"

"Five hundred coins?" Yan Ying smiled and said, "Aunties and sisters-in-law, you think too highly of me. Pickled bamboo shoots are everywhere in Yuzhou City now. Even if they cost two hundred coins a jar, nobody wants them. What kind of backer have I found? Ruyi Restaurant only bought them because they thought my pickled bamboo shoots tasted okay. They don't really want pickled bamboo shoots anymore. Do you think I should take yours home and eat them myself? I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to finish them even after a year or two."

The people gathered at the door looked disappointed upon hearing Yan Ying's words. Several of them hung their heads and turned to leave, but Yan Ying stopped them with a smile: "Aunties, if you are really short of money and want to sell pickled bamboo shoots, I'll buy them for 100 coins a jar."

"One hundred coins a jar? Xiao Sanhua, you're too greedy!" Xiao Laifu's wife gasped, as if she had been pricked with a needle, and almost jumped up.

Chapter Sixty-Two Bargaining

A commotion erupted at the entrance of Old Master Xiao's house. The noise startled even the birds in the trees, who fluttered away and flew off to other places. Yan Ying stood at the door, smiling at the group of aunts and sisters-in-law: "San Hua's abilities are limited, and she can only offer one hundred coins per jar. Please don't blame me. You all know our family's situation. San Hua can't possibly use the money she worked so hard to earn to do charity, can she?"

"Hmph, you could buy ours and resell them, who knows how much you'd make!" The butcher's wife was very displeased, her eyes fixed on Yan Ying: "What, can't you offer more? Two hundred coins a jar, how about that?"

"How could the taste of yours be the same as mine? Do you think I can make money by taking your pickled bamboo shoots?" Yan Ying glanced coldly at the butcher's wife. "You didn't sell me the bamboo shoots back then, and you took them to make pickled bamboo shoots for yourself. Now that you can't sell them, you come to me. Do you think I'm a sucker?"

The butcher's wife blushed and mumbled, "A jar of pickled bamboo shoots weighs fifteen catties. You bought it for four coins a catty back then. If you include the price of the jar and give us some money for our labor, it would be about two hundred coins."

“The problem is that you need me to have money to buy it. Where would I get so much money?” Yan Ying glanced at the group of aunts and sisters-in-law: “If you want to sell, just bring it over. If you don’t want to sell, then forget it. I can only offer 100 coins per jar. If you don’t have the money, I won’t buy it.”

The people at the door slowly dispersed, and the shrill voice of Xiao Laifu's wife carried on the wind: "Taking advantage of someone's misfortune, Xiao Sanhua, you are so unethical!"

Boss Xiao walked to the door and glanced at the backs of those people: "Sanhua, it's not like our family is short of money. We're all neighbors, so it's okay if you give us more."

Sihua came up from behind and took Xiao Laoda's arm: "Father, don't worry about so much. Didn't you say that Third Sister would be in charge of the family?" Humph, the aunties and older women in the village used to compete with her for bamboo shoots. Now that the bamboo shoots can't be sold, they all come begging to her. They even asked for the wages for making pickled bamboo shoots. She won't pay them!