Yingbao blinked and said, "It can cure any disease. Uncle Wu, you must take it. It will make you healthy."
Wu Daozi smiled and said, "You are really a clever girl."
As he spoke, he put the pill in his hand into his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it, nodding: "Hmm, it tastes good, sour and sweet, and it seems to contain hawthorn."
Ying Bao smiled awkwardly, stole a glance at the tumor on his neck, and when she saw that it hadn't grown any bigger, she breathed a sigh of relief and said mysteriously, "Uncle Wu, please don't disbelieve me. My medicine is the best. Even Chen Zhu was cured by me."
Wu Daozi waved his fan and asked casually: "Who is Chen Zhu?"
"He's the son of Patriarch Chen. He was seriously injured in the thigh and was about to die, but I cured him." Ying Bao praised herself hard, "Do you think I'm awesome?"
Wu Daozi laughed and said, "Great."
"So Uncle Wu, you must take the medicine well, and the lump on your neck will not grow again." Ying Bao boldly pointed out the sore spot of County Magistrate Wu.
Wu Daozi seemed to be thinking about something. He picked up another pill, examined it, and even smelled it.
Yingbao looked back at her second uncle and saw that he had retreated to the eaves with Wu Rui. She then said to Wu Daozi, "Uncle Wu, my family also grows a lot of cotton. We can weave cloth and make cotton clothes and quilts from it. It's much better than ramie. Do you want to take a look?"
She knew that if Wu Daozi wanted to stand out in the year-end assessment, he must do one or two great things that benefit the country and the people during his tenure, and his own cotton would surely be the greatest achievement of the county's officials in the future.
Once cotton planting is promoted, it will largely solve the problem of people's clothing and cold protection.
Yingbao didn't understand these things at first, but she had read a lot of novels, so she knew a little about the officialdom.
"What cotton?" Wu Daozi was indeed interested.
Yingbao pulled out a bag of cotton, a piece of cotton thread and a piece of cotton cloth from the bottom of the bamboo basket and showed them to Wu Daozi one by one.
Wu Daozi took it and looked at it carefully. His eyes lit up more and more. "What kind of species is this? Where did you get it from?"
"This is the cotton my family grows. I bought the seeds from a peddler. They say they are foreign seeds." Ying Bao told Wu Daozi everything. "My family planted it last year, and the yield per mu was several hundred kilograms."
Wu Daozi suddenly sat up straight and asked Ying Bao seriously: "How many households in your area grow this?"
Yingbao counted on her fingers, "There are about a dozen households. They don't grow much. Each household only grows a few acres of land. Not as much as my family."
"Did your family also give them the seeds?" Wu Daozi asked, "Are there any left now?"
"Yes, but my family has distributed all the cotton seeds to the villagers. After the autumn harvest, my family will have a lot of cotton seeds again."
Wu Daozi stood up and looked at Yingbao with burning eyes: "Little Yingbao, can this kind of cotton really produce several hundred kilograms per mu?"
"Well, if it's good farmland, it should be more than a few hundred kilograms. Last year, my family produced nearly 1,000 kilograms of seed cotton from more than two acres of land. This year, my family has planted more than 20 acres, and it is estimated that we can produce 10,000 kilograms of cotton."
Ten thousand kilograms of cotton can be spun into a lot of threads and woven into a lot of cloth. It is much better than growing ramie.
Wu Daozi's eyes sparkled with excitement. He walked back and forth a few steps with his hands behind his back, then suddenly turned around and walked out.
Yingbao was anxious because she hadn't said the most important thing yet.
"Uncle Wu, I have something important to tell you."
"Hmm?" Wu Daozi turned around and asked, "What's the matter?"
Yingbao ran up to him and whispered, "The Wei family in Fucheng wants to overturn Han's case."
"The Wei family in the prefectural capital?" Wu Daozi knew this Wei family. It was said that his family had a close relationship with a certain prince.
"How do you know?" Wu Daozi asked.
Yingbao then told the story of how Chen Laoshuan went to the provincial capital and brought back a group of people.
Wu Daozi touched his chin, as if thinking about something.
"Anyway, I'm not a child of the Chen family. Uncle Wu, you must not listen to what others say."
Yingbao said everything she wanted to say, and then said goodbye: "I'm going home now. Uncle Wu, if you have time, please come to my house to play. When the big gourds I planted grow up in the fall, I will give you two then."
Wu Daozi smiled slightly and said, "Okay."
Yingbao jumped up and down to find her second uncle, and turned back to remind him: "Uncle Wu, you must take your medicine well. I will come back in a while. My pears are almost ripe, and there are peaches as well."
Wu Daozi smiled and nodded.
Coming out of the county government office, Jiang Erlang wiped the sweat from his forehead. He didn't know if it was because of the heat or something else, but he actually admired his little niece very much.
He couldn't even talk clearly to Mr. Ming, but his little niece was chattering so much and even asked the big man to take her medicine, and Mr. Ming actually agreed.
Oh, I need to learn well from my niece.
It's getting late now, and it would be a bit unsafe to travel dozens of miles out of the county town to go home.
Jiang Erlang simply decided to go back the next day. Now he could just stroll around the county town and do some shopping.
This time, from the sale of high-quality golden ear and snow ear, he and his elder brother each earned more than 100 taels of silver, and he earned back all the money he had spent on marrying a wife.
With this money, Jiang Erlang decided to buy some things for his wife and children.
He bought some pens, ink, paper and inkstones, as well as copybooks and books for Hu Zi and Er Ni, and some colorful summer cloth for his wife and children. Then he parked the mule cart in front of a nunnery and went in alone to check on Yan Ru.
The old nun in the nunnery said that it would be difficult for a woman like Yan Ru who had never had her menstrual period to get pregnant, so she told Jiang Erlang not to hold out too much hope.
Jiang Erlang was a little disappointed, but he soon got over it.
Anyway, I already have a son and a daughter, so it doesn’t matter whether Yanru can have children in the future.
In fact, Jiang Erlang already knew the result before he married Yan Ru, and he asked now just to give himself an explanation.
Yan Ru was married before, but was divorced by her husband's family because she didn't get pregnant for three years.
Yan Ru had once told Jiang Erlang clearly about this.
So Jiang Erlang didn't ask his parents to find a matchmaker for him, nor did he let his family know about it.
The county seat is about eighty or ninety miles away from Chuanhe Town. As long as I don’t tell Yan Ru and she doesn’t tell anyone, no one in Chen Village will know about this.
…
Yingbao and her second uncle wandered around the county town, bought books, calligraphy and other things for her younger brother, some facial cream, rouge and powder for her mother, and finally went to Jiukang Pharmacy to buy a lot of spicy seasonings produced in the Western Regions.
These spices were very expensive; a few small bags cost her twenty taels of silver.
The spices she bought all had seeds, such as pepper, coriander, garlic, onion, etc.
When she returned home the next day, Yingbao immediately planted the seed-like spices in the cave and watered them thoroughly.
I don’t know if it can survive, but who cares? As long as one can survive, I’ll be lucky.
That day, Chuchu came back, bringing her younger brothers Chuyan and Chuqing with her.
"Yingbao, they just followed to take a look, there is no other intention. You...you don't mind, right?" Chuchu pointed at her finger awkwardly, afraid that Yingbao would be unhappy and send her away.
Yingbao: "No problem, you can take them around and pick some apricots from the trees for them to eat. Then come with me to the pond to catch some shrimps, and we'll have lunch at my house."
Chuchu smiled, walked up to hug Yingbao, "Thank you Yingbao."
So, a large group of children carried bamboo poles and scoop nets to catch apricots and shrimps.
It’s a pity that the pond is not big and the shrimp production is limited. After fishing for half a day, I only caught half a basket.
While her second cousin was away, Yingbao secretly went to his breeding puddle and fished out half a basket of loaches. Then she went home satisfied with the group of children.