Legend of Concubine’s Daughter Minglan - Chapter 234
234. Rain Estate– Black Mountain Estate: Accidentally Show Her True Color (1)
Translator: Iris
After spending a half day on the road, they arrived at the Rain Estate not long after getting out of the city gate.
This estate which was contiguous to the countryside was located in a perfect district, with river on the front and mountain on the back. It had been presented to Old Madam Sheng, the only legal daughter of Marquis Yongyi’s family, as her dowry in the thriving days of her family. After that, Old Madam Sheng had needed money to help Sheng Hong with his career, so she had sold most of this land property.
Although Sheng’s family condition had got better afterwards, it was also hard to buy that part of the land back. Therefore, Sheng Hong had bought another estate for Old Madam Sheng. Still, Old Madam Sheng couldn’t stop thinking of the land she had sold, so she had kept inquiring about which of those families that she had sold the land to had needed money. After a few years, she had managed to buy some of the land back continuously, which covered five hundred and eighty acres in all.
Steward Cui had been chosen from lots of servants to come with Old Madam Sheng when she had married due to his diligence and perfect skills in the farm work. Mama Cui had been Steward Cui’s long lost childhood friend and they had met each other after a long separation. After Old Madam Sheng had known about that, she had spent a lot of efforts and money to buy Mama Cui out of another family. As a result, Mama Cui and Steward Cui had married with each other as they had wished. Then, as grateful as they felt to Old Madam Sheng, they decided to be loyal to Old Madam Sheng forever.
And thanks to this loyal couple’s work, the Rain Estate always seemed to be more prosperous than the other estates.
Minglan sat in the sedan with a curtain hat on her head while inspecting the estate and the tenants. On the immense farmland, there were cattles, dogs and countless fruits and vegetables. Most of the tenants here were familiar to Minglan. As they saw her in the sedan, they all stopped doing the farm work and bowed or kowtowed smilingly. The rural atmosphere gave Minglan lots of pleasure.
Minglan was quite satisfied.
“How are the crops?” After reaching to the yard, Minglan sat upright in the hall and started to ask about the details. Steward Cui smiled with his eyes squinted and his head lowered while saying reverently, “Everything’s fine. The wind and rain arrive on time this year, we’ll have a better harvest than last year. Due to the drought weather over the last few years and the mutiny in the Yangzi River area, the grain price in the capital soared. Still, Old Madam and Sixth La… Oh, and Madam have never pressed the tenants for rents or asked for a rise in the rents. Also, you were so considerate about their lives and comforted them all the time. The tenants all said that they could never find another madam who’s so generous and kind!”
Having leafed through the brochure on the desk, she raised her head and laughed, “Steward Cui, you truly are eloquent! I should let Old Madam see how good a talker you are, that’ll be so interesting!”
Steward Cui blushed right away. He knew how capable Minglan was and then decided to stop pretending and speak out his mind.
Hearing his words, Minglan was stunned. She exhaled and asked, “Buying land?”
Steward Cui nodded heavily with an excited look, “I don’t know why there are several estates in the Bai Tong River area on sale lately. I have already inquired about those places carefully. The lands are great indeed. Our estate still have the surplus over these years, why don’t we extend our land?”
Minglan pondered for a while and said shortly, “Then do it as usual. You have to record everything on the paper, the area of the land you are going to buy, the owner of that land as well as the price. Later on, send me all the papers to the Black Mountain Estate on the other side of the mountain. I’ll see if it’s going to work, then we’ll talk again.”
Steward Cui agreed respectfully.
Seeing him getting overjoyed, Minglan couldn’t help laughing inwardly. The biggest hobby for the people in the ancient times was purchasing lands.
“… Madam, you don’t know that Old Madam’s Estate used to cover twenty to thirty Qing (a unit of area, =6.6667 hectares)! Even the forest behind the mountain used to belong to us!” Steward Cui said that with tears in his eyes and strong emotion, “If this place could be restored to its former state, I could repay my debt of gratitude to Old Madam!”
Minglan fell into silence for a while and persuaded him in a low voice, “I know you meant for good, but everything should follow the protocols. If the land really is great, of course we can buy it. But don’t push it, in case it’ll bring us troubles.”
Steward Cui bent his back and patted on his chest to promise, “I would never dare to push this thing! Old Madam has set the rule for years that everything on the contract should be extremely clear. Madam, don’t worry. There wouldn’t be any mistakes.”
About half past the Shen Hour (3 p.m.), Minglan and the people following her left the Rain Estate and headed straight to the Black Mountain Estate. She brought more people with her this time. Although the Black Mountain Estate was not very far from her, the road she had to take was bumpier than the road in the capital. Only until it got dark and the road was hard to be seen did she arrive.
Xiaotao overlooked the estate in the sedan, seeing the dark gate of the estate and a few flaming scorches. When they got closer, she saw Danju, Quan Zhu’s wife and a short swarthy man standing there, with a group of people behind them.
As the coach reached the gate, the short swarthy man stepped forward and knelt down right away while saying loudly, “My name is Ba Laofu, it’s a great honor to meet you, Madam. You must be really tired on the journey, the room for you to rest has already been prepared.”
Xiaotao and Lvzhi jumped out of the car and then stood with joined hands. After that, they winked at Danju who stood opposite to them. Danju nodded slightly.
A melodious voice came through from the coach, “Steward Ba, stand up please. Sorry to have you wait here until the night. I didn’t come at a right time.”
“Madam, please don’t say that!” Under the blaze of the scorch, Ba Laofu put on a fawning look and said, “You are an exalted madam. It’s our pleasure that you could make time to check on us. We’ve been looking forward to your arrival.”
Minglan didn’t say too much and only asked, “Has Master come yet?”
Ba Laofu stood up and replied, “Master sent someone to tell us in the afternoon that he would arrive later.”
“All right. Leave a few people at the door to wait for Master. We’ll go inside first.” Minglan felt relieved a bit.
Ba Laofu replied in a loud voice and asked someone to open the front gate. The coach slowly entered the estate, with the servants and maids following behind.
The main room in the estate was already brightly lit. The tables and chairs were wiped clean, the furniture was placed neatly. Seeing that, Minglan nodded lightly and turned around to go to the inner room. Then she found that room was well prepared too. The ram-horn shape lantern that she usually used had already been placed on the table beside the bed. There was a whole set of porcelain tea ware with flower petals patterns on the pearwood round table. She could even smell the fragrance of the tea from the spout of the tea pot. She approached to the pot and found that the tea was her favorite jasmine tea.
Minglan sat on the side of the brick bed and said smilingly, “My Danju is getting more and more efficient. It only took her half a day to get everything well prepared. Well, you’ve learned everything. Now you are ready to get married!”
Danju who didn’t get bashful at all went over to help Minglan take off her clothes with a straight face, saying, “Save it, Madam. I can hear your voice are changed due to the whole day’s work. Don’t think you can hide it from me! And look at the dust on your face, and your messy hair. Luckily you didn’t get off the coach just now! Just wash yourself now. If you need to give any instructions, tell Quan Zhu’s wife to send the message.”
Qinsang entered the inner room and said gently with a smile, “The hot water is ready. Madam, you can have a bath now. Luckily, I have brought two boxes of shampoo, otherwise we would be short of that.”
Minglan was very weak due to her tiredness. She took a bath in the round wooden bucket for an hour while Danju kept adding hot water into the bucket. Only after Minglan felt her muscles and bones totally relaxed did she come out of the bucket. As she laid on the bed, she muttered, “I am pampered. I wasn’t even able to bear such a little hardship.”
