Chapter 282

Both Tangtang and Guoguo returned to the military camp after staying at home for three days. These days, Baozi continued to go to King Yan’s mansion every day, while Liu Tong were travelling around. Sometimes, he would go out with Xu Ran.

Since last time gloves were used when they moved corns, Xu Ran began to develop his glove business. He had got many older women in Yanzhou Prefecture to help make gloves.

These gloves varied in quality, thickness, color and style. In addition to selling gloves in Yanzhou Prefecture, they would also sell them in other places. In this way, after a month, they got a lot of income from it.

Of course, the income was not only from selling gloves, but also from the sale of scarves and backpacks. Among them, the backpacks were practical, which could hold a lot of things as well as bear weight. As for scarves, they were beautiful and attractive. As the people who bought scarves were mainly young Ge’ers and Xiaozis, they naturally wanted to pursue beautiful scarves.

Every month, these incomes added up to half of the Red Mansion’s total. Xu Ran’s family had no other expenses, so he put all this money in the bank. In any case, more money was not a bad thing. He was clear that there would always be a need for money in the future. That’s what he was considering anyway.

In addition, Xu Ran had set up two teams that went to other places to sell honeycomb briquettes. And now the teams began to generate profits. At the moment, they came back once every three to five days. When they went on business again, they took with them more and more honeycomb briquettes.

At first, Xu Ran meant to suggest King Yan to get two shops ready for the sale of these honeycomb briquettes, but King Yan rejected the idea. He was clear that only Yanzhou Mansion was his territory. As for other places, they were forbidden to him. If he ever got involved in other places apart from his mansion, he would easily attacked by his enemy.

However, in any case, it could not be concealed that the honeycomb briquettes were products from Yanzhou Prefecture. Moreover, on the day of the opening of the coal plant, King Yan personally attended and delivered a speech. Naturally, this coal factory was King Yan’s property. For this reason, they could not be careless.

This was what King Yan was concerned, but Xu Ran knew that he could not help about it.

On second thought, Xu Ran realized that since they had not set up shops selling honeycomb briquettes, it would be good for them to let these businessmen do more business outside. In this way, it was more convenient for them to do business, and at the same time, they could easily send messages between different places. At the thought of this, Xu Ran would not mention it any more and just let these people continue their business!

Like last year, the winter in Yanzhou over the past few years was still very cold. This year, however, life there was much better. At least there were no beggars on the streets or in the broken temples outside the city. More importantly, no one would starve to death this year.

As Xu Ran not only supervised and trained the sales team for the coal factory, he instructed the team selling gloves as well.

In fact, it might not be necessary for so many people to work in the sales team, but their main purpose was to find a way for these people to survive, so that they could support themselves through their own labor. Even if Xu Ran and others would earn less in this way they felt content.

At the same time, this winter, they would have another very important work to do, which was to open up wasteland, where they had planted potatoes and corn before. They would open up a lot of wasteland and wait until the next year to plant more potatoes and corn.

The people who worked on the mountain would be paid five pence everyday including a free lunch. The money was from King Yan, and the people who came were honest and capable. Those who wanted to cheat on the spot were all dismissed. The people who came to supervise their work were all sent by King Yan from the military camp, which was also a deterrent for the workers present.

Ever since those few people who had cheated were caught, everyone there had been honest. They worked honestly every day, and then got paid for their work every seven days.

Everything was going well and their life was peaceful.

……

On October 20th, Xu Ran develped a new dish at the Red House, which was called fried pork with garlic sprouts. It wasn’t made with hotpot but a different fried dish.

This was the first fried dish that Red House introduced since it was selling hotpot. On the first day, Xu Ran invited several regular customers to have a taste of the dish for free.

At first, Xu Ran didn’t expect to sell this out, but there were a lot of garlic sprouts at home. His family couldn’t finish them for a while. Thus he followed Du Xin’s idea and even sent some to Yan King’s mansion. For an eater, the thing he wanted to do most was to eat delicious food often.

Similarly, they would also be considerate about others. Naturally, Xu Ran liked to share his favorite food with others very much. Hearing Du Xin’s praise, Xu Ran decided to come to the Red House and try it. If the food was apprecated there, he would simply plant garlic sprouts on a large area.

The next day, after the few people who had tasted the food and praised about it, the Red House officially introduced this dish to the customers. Its price was not cheap, but it still received many people’s praise, mainly because it was fresh and delicious.

The effect was clearly seen. In merely two days, garlic sprouts for the dish were out of supply. Xu Ran had to stop this dish that was loved by many people.

However, it was not that there would be no longer the dish. As long as the new garlic sprouts came out, everyone would be satified.

This was an explanation given by Xu Ran. Most people present were not satisfied with this explanation, but there was no way and they couldn’t do it because there were no garlic sprouts left.

Just as Xu Ran had mentioned in the beginning, this dish was just introduced and no one was sure about its effect. As for whether it would sell out in the end, no one was sure about it. If it received a good reception, it would sell well. If it was not good, then it would not sell again.

The result proved that this dish was so delicious that people who had tasted it sang highly of it. Those who failed to try this dish could only express regret and hope to taste it once it came out again next time.

In fact, Xu Ran was worried about the situation. Although they had garlic now, it needed time for garlic seeds to grow. Another important thing was that they had to find fields to grow so many garlic seedlings.

Of course, they could plant some garlic seedlings around their own home, but the places were definitely not enough. At the moment, all were planted in pots and a lot of pots were thus needed.

And more pots would take up more space. It was a real hassle. In fact, it’s not that Xu Ran didn’t think of other ways, but that they hadn’t tried outdoor planting. Thus he didn’t know whether it worked or not.

Xu Ran told Liu Tong about his troubles. Liu Tong thus went to King Yan’s mansion and asked King Yan for a yard as well as many pots. In this way, as long as they kept planting, the business should be fine this year.

However, this method could only help the business this year, and he probably had to think of another way for the demand of next year.

After a new batch of garlic seeds were planted, Xu Ran opened up a tract of land in his own yard, which was just about the size of two dustpans.

Seeing this, Liu Tong was puzzled and asked him what he was doing.

Xu Ran explained, “It’s too troublesome to plant garlic seedlings in pots. I’ll try if I can plant them directly outside in the ground. If it’s done, we don’t have to bother with one pot after another. It’s really a trouble in that case.”

Looking at the hoar-frost that had not yet completely melted, Liu Tong said, “Ran, it is so cold outside. Is it all right to do so?”

Xu Ran replied as he was waving the hoe in his hands, “How can we know it if we don’t have a try on it? Anyway, I won’t plant much this time. Even if it doesn’t work, it’s not a big loss.”

Hearing this, Liu Tong didn’t ask too much. He trusted Xu Ran blindly.

Thus, Xu Ran planted two rows of garlic seeds on this small piece of land, waiting for its roots to sprout.

Of course, Xu Ran still tried to cover the seeds with some branches outside, otherwise the garlic would have been frozen to death before they grew out.

……

The days went by quickly. It had been a whole year since Xu Ran and the others came to Yanzhou. To celebrate this, King Yan specifically invited their family to his mansion for dinner. Except Tangtang and Guoguo, who were in the military camp, the others in the family were all present.

During dinner, King Yan personally opened a jar of wine, the unique almond wine of Yanzhou, which was the most popular among the people of Yanzhou. It was said that it was famous for its taste.

King Yan knew nothing about what happened today. He sounded quite  sentimental and people present finished a whole jar of wine.

What King Yan said meant to thank Xu Ran. He said that Xu Ran was a lucky star. Not only did he take good care of his brother, but also helped improve everything in Yanzhou ever since he came. Even the old emperor’s illness had worsened. No one was sure whether the old king could survive this year.

When King Yan said this, he looked obviously happy. He seemed to believe  that everything would be good before the year was over.

However, Xu Ran said, “It’s best to let the old king survive the new year. Otherwise, you’ll probably be in trouble this year. The barbarians have been casting covetous eyes on the Yanzhou Mansion. If there’s any change in the court, the barbarians may come at any moment. I still hope that we can enjoy a peaceful new year.”

King Yan thought about what Xu Ran said and knew that he made sense, so he stopped talking about it. Although he really wanted to eliminate the barbarians if they dared come, it was still not the time to expose his strength.

Alas! King Yan sighed. Sure enough, he still had to wait!

He had been waiting for so many years, and he didn’t want to wait anymore.

Except the Ge’ers and children present who didn’t pay much attention to the situation around them, the others there could see all this.

Xu Ran walked behind King Yan with a cup in his hand and patted him on the shoulder, “King Yan, you’ve been waiting for so many years now. Why not wait for another year? It is just as what you said last year that as long as the old year passed, everything would be better. Thus this year will be the same and everything will be fine.”

Xu Ran sounded very certain. There seemed to be some kind of magic that attracted King Yan, making him unconsciously believe what Xu Ran had said.

He became even more lazy.