The Blessed

June was another busy month, and still no news from Yan Shengrui at the boarders, their jam business had to be put on the agenda again. The different thing was that they no longer had to venture to the mountains to pick wild fruit like before. They only needed to pick them in Zhao Dalong’s yard. Han Fei was in charge of this whole thing. And it was also time to harvest the early rice they had planted ahead of time. The whole family kept crazy busy for quite a few days. Then, they had to apply the fertilizers and make preparations for the late rice. This year, a lot of families grew late rice following them. Ling Jingxuan wasn’t being stingy. He had long submitted to the matters needing attention of growing late rice to the yamen and asked the magistrate to spread it.

At the same time, in the mid-June, they had harvested a lot of fat fish and lotus roots from the five-mu pond. Both Ling Jingxuan and Shopkeeper Zhang had long been prepared. The day when they did the harvest in the pond, dozens of carriages had already lined up from outside the gate of their Yuehua Manor. And those fish and lotus roots were sent to those towns and counties of Cang and Yun prefecture at top speed. This lasted three whole days. Finally, there were still a lot of fish fry left. In case that there’d be too many for the pond to hold next year, Ling Jingxuan asked people to pick those bigger ones and put them into the rice fields. And then, when the late rice grew ripe, the fish inside also grew big enough.

In the late-June, it was time to harvest the sorghums. That was something Ling Jingxuan had planned for a whole year. Things on the side of the wineries had already prepared everything. In order to race against time, Ling Jingxuan decisively hired six thousand people at a time. And only in a few days, they had harvested all the sorghums, and then spend another few days to turn up the soil, and then sow the newly bred sorghum seeds. By the end of the month, everyone got so exhausted like dogs.

But their work was still not finished, next would be the busiest. Carrying his nine-month big belly, Ling Jingxuan personally went to the factory to supervise them making wine. And Zhao Dalong who was in charge of things in the wineries also accompanied the whole time. Except taking care of Ling Jingxuan, he also tried to learn how to brew sorghum wine.

In July, Ling Jinghan also started to get busy. He would go to the prefecture to take the imperial examination held in autumn. As the exams were held right quite near Ling Jingxuan’s due date. Even before he left, he had been worried that he might miss his little nephew’s birth. But Ling Jingxuan comforted him and let him focus on his exams. Then he brought Yuan Shaoqi with him and headed for the prefecture. This time, Song Shuisheng didn’t go with him. This Yuan Shaoqi was all-purpose, he could either act as his bodyguard or his pageboy. So, Ling Jinghan made the decision to let Song Shuisheng stay to assist Zhao Dalong to regulate the winery.

According to the modern world, Ling Jingxuan’s due date should be in mid-July. After telling Zhao Dalong and Song Shuisheng how to brew grape wine and sorghum wine, he no longer got out of his own room. Everyday, he just took a walk inside his yard, and told Zhao Shan some details he had to pay extra attention to, especially if he got a difficult labor. He owned a bisexual body, so his birth canal was smaller than women. Though seen from now, his belly was not so big, from which one could tell the baby was not quite big, there were people whose belly looked not big but the baby was very heavy. Generally speaking, the baby might be in the back place in the belly, so it looked not so big. If that was the case, it was quite possible he’d have a difficult labor. And it was impossible for him to do C-section for himself. So he could only leave everything to Zhao Shan.

"Master Xuan, Lord Six who once came back when you got married is here.”

One day, when Ling Jingxuan was taking a walk in the back yard with the support of Zhao Shan, Ling Yun hurried in and reported. Ling Jingxuan looked a bit surprised, and then said blandly, "Let him wait in my room. I will be right over.”

Zeng Shaoqing came at such a time, should be for the grape wine and sorghum wine, right?

"Yes master."

Ling Yun respectfully backed out. Now even Liu Xiaosui was the supervisor of the factory of Baiyunge, Only she was still a minor maid, not even a housekeeper, because from the very beginning, the housekeeper was Lady Yang. If it were someone, she should have already had a problem with it. But Ling Yun was still so dedicated and thought everything thoroughly. So, Ling Jingxuan felt quite satisfied with her. And again, he had been confirmed that he’d take her to the capital with him. Only that kind of steady character of hers could adapt to the life in the capital. If it were Liu Xiaosui, she didn’t even know how she died when she died.

"Shifu, shall we go back?"

Seeing that he only watched Ling Yun’s back without saying anything, Zhao Shan who supported him by the side asked gently. He was fifteen years now, and time to marry a wife and have kids, but his family didn’t urge him or what, only asking him to learn medical skills from Ling Jingxuan. It didn’t matter even if he got married two years late. With enough ability, should he be worried he couldn’t get a wife? He also wanted to choose his own wife like the second and third master.

"No hurry. Let him wait for a while. Let’s keep walking.”

Ling Jingxuan turned around, totally showing no meaning to meet a friend from afar. Under Zhao Shan’s support, he just kept walking slowly as before. Yan Yi who was hiding in the dark couldn’t help titter gloatingly. Even through the whole world, few people had the balls to keep Lord Zeng waiting, right? Their crown princess was one of them.

Every morning, afternoon and evening, Ling Jingxuan would take a walk in the yard, and then, made a circle in the winding corridor above the pond. In the morning and afternoon, he’d usually let Zhao Shan company him, and Dahei and Xiaohei would also be there. Since they bought another dozens of maids, every day, after they finished picking the fruit in the yard, they seldom appeared during the day, after all, their huge bodies were really kind of scary. But the little buns accompanied him at dusk, they would definitely be around.

"This is the way how you entertain your guest?”

When passing the pavilion, he saw that Zeng Shaoqing who was wearing a long face was sitting there, with a few plates of snacks and a pot of tea on the stone table. But this time, he didn’t see his maids in conspicuous green clothes. Ling Jingxuan wiped off his sweat and motioned Zhao Shan to support him over. Ling Yun who was waiting upon hurriedly put a cushion on the stone stool in the pavilion. Under Zhao Shan’s support, Ling Jingxuan slowly sat on the opposite side of Zeng Shaoqing.