Chapter 270

King Yan did not explain to Xiao Qingyun, but walked to Yan Lan with Yan Hao in his arms and picked Yan Lan up too.

He also smiled at Xiao Qingyun, which made Xiao Qingyun even more surprised. Apart from being full of joy, the two children in his arms could no longer find any other emotions.

As for Baozi, he silently covered his eyes. It was better not look at this loving family. Alas! How sleepy he was! He really wanted to sleep…

Then he covered his eyes and fell asleep.

King Yan  put the two children down when he got tired and told Xiao Qingyun about Baozi. When he turned around, he saw Baozi was covering his eyes and sleeping soundly.

The two adults could not help laughing. Although the two children were still confused, they also laughed. Only Baozi, who has been sleeping, did not know anything.

……

Speaking of which, Xu Ran rushed to the Red Tower after coming out of the mansion. When he arrived, the door was already open, and Gao Quan, Shao Yu and the new staff were all there.

The assignment of work for breakfast was different from cooking hotpot. Xu Ran gathered the eight people together and asked what they were good at.

Xu Ran told them clearly, “When everyone came, you all signed the contract and pressed the handprint. The term of the contract is three years. All of you can only work in Red Tower during these three years. As far as pay is concerned, I won’t treat you badly, and I will let you learn my craft. But you must not teach your craft to others. According to the rules in the contract, this is a breach of contract. You must pay me fifty thousand taels of silver. So you have to think about it yourself.”

Xu Ran stretched out his finger and made a gesture of five. And these people were frightened by it. They were all people who could read and they had read it by themselves when they signed it, so there was no way to refute it. This contract was made two copies, one in their hands, and the other in Xu Ran’s hands. They all understood this in their hearts, so they just nodded when Xu Ran said that.

Xu Ran didn’t waste his time talking to them, so he just assigned the work according to what they said they were good at.

Two of them were in charge of selling the pancakes outside, one packed up and collected money and greeted guests, and the other rolled pastry and fried them. If they could sell a lot, they would get a commission.

There were also two people in the kitchen, one would learn to knead dough and pull noodles from Gao Quan and the other would learn to cook noodles from Shao Yu.

Liu Yu was still in charge of greeting the guests at the door, and the other three were waiters. They went wherever they were needed, and all of them were good at dealing with people.

Xu Ran, Gaoquan and Shaoyu were still the main force, and the rest was to help them and learn, but with more people, the slogan was louder and the they moved more faster, which brought more people over.

In the end, business was better that morning than ever before. The noodles they had prepared should have been enough to sell, but they made more temporarily. Even those noodles that didn’t have enough time to rise by fermentation had been sold a lot.

After they were done, the counterjumper should be busy with other things. Xu Ran was with them, he also praised them.

Even though they had come yesterday, they just officially started their work today. When they heard Xu Ran’s praise, they were all very happy. The boss liked them and there would be more benefits to come! How could they not be happy？

However, he wasn’t sure if these people couldn’t stand the praises or something else. The breakfast this morning was sold well. They were nimble in hand and in tongue.

But they often went wrong when they were preparing the meat and vegetables for lunch and dinner. Xu Ran was also a man who liked to use both rewards and punishments. Not long after he praised them, he started to reproach them again.

They knew that they were not doing well themselves , so they didn’t say anything when they heard Xu Ran’s words. They just thought that they couldn’t ruin their good impression in Xu Ran’s heart and tried their best to do their jobs well.

Xu Ran was very satisfied with their attitude.

Life went on so peacefully. Every morning, Xu Ran would send Baozi to King Yan’s residence. In the afternoon, either he or Liu Tong would pick him up.

Liu Tong also often went to the Red Tower. Xu Ran didn’t let him work, so he started to learn how to keep accounts from Xu Ran. He knew the rabic numerals that Xu Ran had taught Tangtang and Guoguo, but he was not very familiar with them. Xu Ran was very patient to Liu Tong, so he started to teach him slowly. As time went by, Liu Tong had learned a lot and he could write a small amount of money on it.

Xu Ran was very pleased about it.

It was still cold in Yanzhou. The gloves and backpacks that Xu Ran asked Liu Tong to make were not only for himself, but also  were placed at the entrance of the Red Tower. Xu Ran asked a widowed old man to help him watch the stall.

The scarf hadn’t been woven out yet, mainly because they were too busy. Xu Ran didn’t have time to teach and no one could do it. When the Counterjumper in the Red Tower started to get ready, Xu Ran would gradually stop going to Red Tower too often. Every day he went back and forth between his home and King Yan’s residence.

Gao Quan and Shao Yu were in charge of the Red Tower. They did a great job and had not made any mistakes.

The days went by in a flash from February to April.

Tangtang and Guoguo had been away from home for two months and there was not even a message from them. Xu Ran asked King Yan but he would not tell him about their situation. He didn’t even let them go and see them, he said it was something about Barracks area.

Although Xu Ran knew that the two of them should be fine with King Yan’s protection, he still felt a little worried. He took Liu Tong to King Yan’s residence and asked King Yan to take them to see Tangtang and Guoguo.

In King Yan’s heart, Liu Tong was much more important than Xu Ran. As soon as he said that, King Yan agreed. Xu Ran silently shed two drops of tears for such a huge and different treatment.

Because Gao Quan and Shao Yu had to look after the Red Tower, they couldn’t go with them. So Xu Ran took Liu Tong and Baozi to go with King Yan.

Baozi and Liu Tong did not go out to take a look after they came to Yanzhou, especially near the military camp. The border of Yanzhou was vast and there was yellow sand everywhere, which was a different scenery.

The grassy area that King Yan brought Xu Ran to see was now full of grass and green, but you couldn’t even see the edge.

Baozi shouted as soon as he saw this scene, “Dad, look! There are a lot of grass in front of us. So big, Dad, can we raise a lot of horses here?”

Baozi was very excite and kept patting Xu Ran.

What he said was true. Baozi couldn’t use many words now, but these simple words were often the most realistic and direct to express what he wanted to say.

Not only Baozi was excited when he saw it, but Xu Ran and Liu Tong were the same. Only King Yan, who had seen it many times, looked at Xu Ran and the rest without saying a word.

Since there were no outsiders, Xu Ran asked King Yan directly, “King Yan, since there is a lot of grass gere. Where’s your cow and sheep? When can I see them?”

When they heard Xu Ran’s words, Baozi and Liu Tong’s eyes were focused on King Yan’s face.

King Yan had a smile on his face. When he heard Xu Ran’s words, his smile became more obvious. He said, “Cows and sheep are already on the way, and they will soon reach Yanzhou. The grass grows the best in April, and they can eat as much as they like when they come over. We will probably be able to have a lot of big cows and sheep in a year.”

King Yan said it confidentlys, just like when he told Xu Ran that everything would be better after the New Year.

Xu Ran did not refute King Yan’s words, because he was also looking forward to seeing the scene of a cows and sheep being everywhere on the ground.

This time, they mainly came to see Tangtang and Guoguo, so they didn’t stay here for long. After they enjoyed the beautiful scene, King Yan took them to the camp.

Childe and children were not allowed to enter the military camp. Regardless of their identity, King Yan did not make any special arrangements for Liu Tong and Baozi. He asked them to wait outside, and asked someone to get stools and make fire for them. He took Xu Ran to go inside.

The soldiers here were highly self-aware. The men who patrolled and guarded were decent in gesture and manner, even if no one is staring at them.

Many more people were practicing. King Yan himself did not know where Tangtang and Guoguo were, so he asked a vice general, whose surname was Luo and he was directly under the administration of King Yan. King Yan also asked him to manage Tngtang and Guoguo back then.

The Vice General Luo bowed when he saw King Yan, then he turned his gaze to Xu Ran.

King Yan introduced Xu Ran to vice general Luo, “This is Xu Ran, Xu Qing and Xu Mu’s father. I came over to see the two children. Xu Ran. This is Vice General Luo and Tangtang Guoguo were under him.”

Xu Ran and Vice General Luo greeted to each other before finally entering the main topic. Xu Ran said, “Vice General Luo, I wonder if I can see my two children now. Their Daddy and brother are here too. They are waiting outside the military camp. Please do me a favor.”

Vice General Luo was sweating in his heart. He was not sure what kind of relationship this King Yan had with Xu Ran. The children were sent by King Yan, and Xu Ran was personally brought by King Yan. Logically speaking, he must have something to do with King Yan.But King Yan also said that this is a military camp, everything is based on military orders, and no one has privileges.

Vice General Luo looked at King Yan in embarrassment, not knowing how to choose.

King Yan also thought of what he had said before. It was not good for him to use the privilege, then he would not be able to convince the public in the future.

Xu Ran squinted at King Yan and knew that this person must have forgotten his rules. He spread out his hands and was quite helpless.

Seeing them like this, Xu Ran couldn’t say anything else about seeing the children again. He only said to Vice General Luo, “I wonder if Vice General Luo can give my children two days off and let them go home to see everyone? They are only here for training. After all, they are not real soldiers.”

The soldiers also had time to rest. The two children have been here for two months and had never returned home. Xu Ran’s request was not too much. More importantly, he said these two children were just here to  get trained. And More importantly, the two children must have a deep relationship with King Yan.

Vice General Luo thought about it in his heart and knew how to deal with it, so he nodded at Xu Ran abd said. “Don’t worry,there was no problem with it, of course. They get one day off each month, and since they had not been off for the last two months, they will have three days off till now. I’ll tell them about it.”

Xu Ran was excited that he could finally see the children. He had not seen them and said a word to them for two months. This was the longest time they had been apart.