The Blessed

On that very afternoon, Ling Jingpeng went to the village taking the list Lady Wang had written, and hired fifteen women from the village. They only needed to make one meal—the lunch, but they had to finish it before 11, and it was well paid, twenty copper coins each. So, comparatively, the demands were high. First, they had to report before eight. Second, before they went into the kitchen, they had to put on the aprons, sleevelets and hats first. And they had to wash their hands carefully. Whoever couldn’t meet those demands shouldn’t go. Those women were kind of honest, but a little too talkative.

Busy days always go fast. Soon, it was late September, and more than fifty thousand mu of land had almost been opened up. During this period of time, Shopkeeper Zhang came twice, to urge the jam, because they had already made it clear that they only made jam till the end of September, but, even if the weather had turned cold gradually, the jam sales were still very substantial, so Shopkeeper Zhang planned to store more, so he could earn another big one before early October. While others were busy outside, inside the house was also heatedly busy making jam. In order to save time and make more jam, Ling Jingxuan raised another ten copper coins for those fifteen women to let them help with washing the wild fruit in the afternoon.

There would be some unnecessary trouble, of course. The carriages would pull a lot of gunny bags back every day, inside of which was all humus soil, but Ling Jingxuan declared it was all wild fruit inside. Those women also washed the fruit in the front yard, and then Old Song and others moved them into the factory. Now Zhou Er had also learned how to boil the jam. Ling Jingpeng no longer went into the mountain. So picking wild fruit thing was all left to Yan Shengrui. So, it meant that they three of them would boil jam at home, and the daily output was quite considerable. Every day, a few carriages would come fetch the goods.

At the same time, Ling Jingxuan’s aunt’s house and his own factories were under construction. Their house was a common house with two yards, and the kitchen, livestock sheds, warehouse etc., the backyard was temporarily empty, maybe they’d build some other practical things. On the side of the factories was simpler. Except the three-meter-high walls outside, it was whole three rows of factories, each had ten rooms. On both sides were livestock sheds and toilets. Both in the front and back was built two rooms, used for the future gatekeepers. Between the rows was a very broad aisle, enough for three or four carriages to go through side by side. The gate was still a barred one, making it majestic.

During this half a month happened two others things that had something to do with Ling Jingxuan and his family. First, Wang Jingui married a second wife. Lady Wang and Wang Jinyu even made time to make a visit. It was said that on the wedding day, Lady Han nearly cried her heart out. But, she not only didn’t successfully stopped her husband, but also made her parents-in-law who didn’t approve of it accepted their new daughter-in-law heartily. Such a result was within Ling Jingxuan’s expectations. Of the four brothers of the Wang family, three wives were not bad, at least unlike Lady Han who had no brains and was quite greedy. So the old couple should feel guilty for their second son. So if he insisted, the old couple wouldn’t oppose so dramatically. And Lady Han shouldn’t make such a scene if she was smart enough. After such a scene, she had pushed everyone in the family’s heart to her opposite side.

For the new second aunt-in-law, Ling Jingxuan was quite generous. He specifically asked someone to buy a set of silver headwear and sent it for her as their wedding gift. And the whole Wang family was glad about that, Lady Wang who went there on behalf of her family also felt dignified, it was just that someone would feel mad.

And the other thing was also a wedding, but not Ling Jingxuan’s family, but the old Ling family. It was said that Ling Chenghua married the famous ruffian Zhang Hu. At first, the old man wouldn’t agree no matter what. And Ling Chenghua cried all day and even threatened them that she would kill herself. Recently, he heard that they agreed. Ling Jingxuan also had no idea of the details. All in way, Ling Chenghua was getting married.

“What? Such little dowry? Your old man is a xiucai! And your family is so wealthy, your second elder brother even has bought all the wasteland of our Qingyang county. That’s tens of thousands of mu! They are doing such a big business. As his only younger sister, should he offer some?”

At night when it was getting dark, behind booth of Old Wang, Zhang Hu and Ling Chenghua who were getting married were pulling and pushing each other. On hearing that Ling Chenghua only had ten taels of silver and some silly headwear, Zhang Hu instantly pulled his face long. Without even thinking, he pushed Ling Chenghua who was in his arms aside. At least, he only wanted to play with her. Who would want to marry a woman everyone could ride? If it hadn’t been that he saw that Ling Chenglong had been so rich, he’d rather stay single for the rest of his life than marrying such a slut.

“What do you mean? Will you marry me or my dowry? What they have is theirs. What does it have anything to do with me? You know they have long moved out and isolated themselves from my family!”

Ling Chenghua who was scantily dressed held her hands around the waist, totally unlike a single woman. And her face with heavy makeup was like a monkey’s butt. When talking about Ling Chenglong’s family, that face was infected with resentment. If it hadn’t been that her father had forbidden them from provoking them again, she had already gone to declare war! Hum! If she lived miserably, she would never let them live so peacefully!

“I want both. Don’t you want more dowries for yourself? Look at Ling Chenglong’s family. Even those landlords in nearby villages couldn’t compare with them! And their business. I heard that they even supply goods for the biggest Xinyuan restaurant in the town! You may not know. Xinyuan is the biggest restaurant through our whole kingdom. They have branches everywhere. You can imagine how rich they are. Even things that slip down through their fingers are enough to sustain us for a whole life! Now is the best timing for you! Even if they moved out, could they not acknowledge their parents? Isn’t it quite reasonable to ask your mom to go ask for some dowries for you?”