"This menu is fine, Lao Zhongbo sent a basket of mushrooms and Fang Datong brought some game, all reserved for you to cook. And let the kitchen maid pick some fresh flowers to make some pastries," Lin Qingwen handed the list back to Lin Yuhuan, looking at her with relief: "Tomorrow you take them to play in the garden, if they go out it's okay, just don't let them go far, just stroll around the yard, and have someone with them at all times, if anything happens call Lin Mama and Wang Mama for help."

  Lin Yuhbin rubbed his hands together and asked, "Little sister, are you really not at home tomorrow?"

  "I'm not going far, just go to the field to take a look at the water," Lin Qingyuan encouraged her: "Yuhbin is already a little adult, even managing the family's account book, are you still afraid of entertaining friends? Not to mention Danlan and others, didn't you have a great time playing with Cui Rong today?"

  But Lin Yubin was still very nervous about inviting friends home for the first time.

  Seeing her bowing her head and not speaking, Lin Qingwen pulled her and said: "Alright, let's go to sleep. Today you stay with Xiao Gu, we'll go over things again."

  There's no rush with things on this side, but opportunities are hard to come by, and Lin Qingwan just wants to exercise her ability to handle matters on her own.

  To avoid being too soft-hearted, Lin Qingwen got up early and went out after washing up while Lin Yuhong was still in bed.

  Zhong Daguanshi and Lin Quan accompanied her.

  Recently, there has been a lot of rain, with showers every now and then. Some low-lying areas have even flooded, not to mention the fields by the river, which are almost all submerged.

  A lot of rice in the fields was washed away, and the villagers were heartbroken when they saw it.

  The tenants are okay, they previously chose to rent land that is a distance away from the river, which is also where they usually live and know the situation, so they picked a good spot. Even so, a lot of their rice paddies were destroyed by the floodwaters, but now it's too late to replant, all they can do is watch with regret.

  The fields on both sides of the riverbank were all rented by Lin's family to short-term workers, and were managed daily by Fang Dasong and others. As soon as the paddy field was flooded, Fang Dasong's eyes turned red with rage, and he wished he could use his body to block the water.

  Because of the abundance of water, the roads they opened were also muddy and impassable. Lin Qingyan sat in the carriage, jolting along, and lifted the curtain to say to Zhong Daguanting, who was sitting at the front of the carriage: "This road needs to be repaired, we have thirty hectares of land here, we can't just rely on the official roads, we need to open up our own roads too."

  "A cart track will become a road after many trips."

  "What I said is not this road," Lin Qingyan said, almost hitting the car wall again. She wordlessly said: "The road I'm talking about isn't much better than the official road, at least it can't be worse."

  Otherwise, would she have to patrol the fields in such road conditions from now on?

  She will fall apart, she definitely will.

  Arrived at the riverbank, Zhong Daguanshi busily jumped off the carriage and put down the horse stool. Bai Mei and Bai Feng got off the carriage in a daze, their feet treading on the muddy ground as they stumbled around to help Lin Qingwen get off the carriage.

  Lin Qingwan saw that they were all standing unsteadily, so she pushed away their hands and said: "I can do it myself."

  Lin Qingwan still wore wooden clogs under her shoes. At first, she was a bit unsteady on her feet, but soon got used to it.

  The river water has overflowed the riverbank by at least three meters, and only the tips of the rice plants can be vaguely seen along the edge. Where Lin Qingyuan is standing, a considerable number of rice fields on both sides have been destroyed, and the not-so-short rice seedlings are still floating in the field.

  Zhong Daguan wiped the sweat and said, "Yesterday, Fang Datong led people to replant the washed-away rice seedlings, but if this rain continues, it's estimated that they will be washed away again. So I told them to stop for now, lest the seedlings aren't planted well and people get into trouble."

  Lin Qingyan nodded her head, "You're right, this water current, even if you insert it, it's useless."

  She slightly frowned and said: "Didn't you ask the old farmers nearby before farming, how can there still be such a problem?"

  "Xiao had indeed asked them at the time, and they all said that the river water would rise during the summer flood, but it wouldn't overflow by two meters. When opening up the wasteland, Xiao had specifically reminded them to leave enough space for the river channel, so as not to be flooded during the summer flood. The short-term workers who were invited at the time were reclaiming land four meters away from the riverbank, who knew that this year's rainfall would be so much..."

  It has been raining on and off since Qingming Festival, each time it doesn't rain much, just like the size of a needle, only fine and dense, and it stops after half a day.

  At that time everyone was still happy and thought that the spring rain was precious as oil, so this year must be a bumper harvest.

  But who knew the rain wouldn't stop, it rained for three to five days, cleared up for a day or two, then continued to drizzle for another three to five days, and cleared up again for two to three days. By the time they realized what was happening, the fields were already flooded.

  Lin Qingwan walked along the riverbank for a while, listening to the gurgling water and sighed: "So this year's rainfall is abnormal?"

  "Yes." Zhong Daguantie lowered his head and blamed himself: "This is a small dereliction of duty, I didn't make sufficient preparations."

  "This is a natural disaster, what can you do?" Lin Qingyan sighed: "Farming for a living is like this, always looking at the weather and geographical advantages. If God is willing to give us food to eat, life will be better, we are still good..."

  At least Jue Tian doesn't have to pay taxes, but ordinary people are miserable.

  Looking at the sparkling water, a grass carp poked its head out from under the rice plants, caught sight of Lin Qingyan and with a "whoosh" sound, darted back in, leaping left and right, disappearing from Lin Qingyan's line of sight in an instant.

  She thoughtfully said: "Although people can't change the weather, they can always adapt to it and do things that benefit themselves."

  "What?" Both Zhang Daguantie and Lin Quan were perplexed.

  Lin Qingwan couldn't help but snap her fingers, "With such a large field, isn't it lacking in water sources? We can dig a river course and divert the water in. By next year, we'll have more fertile land to grow rice and the pond will be able to raise fish and ducks."

  Lin Quan's mouth opened wide, "This, this will cost how much money?"

  Zhong Daguanshi was also shocked and lost his color, "Auntie, we have no money left, and this Jue Tian, this Jue Tian will be returned to the court in the future..."

  The benefits of this water conservancy project will last for a hundred years. Now it costs a lot to build these, but the old lady lives a long life and they can still make some money. If...

  That's really a waste of money, what matters most is whether they still have money now?

  Zhong Daguan was whispering to Lin Qingwan, "Madam, there are only 12,600 taels of silver left in the mansion now. Not counting the ones used for public expenses, even if we add those few tens of taels, it's still not much. You have a large number of people under your care."

  "Alright then, let's dig canals and a few more ponds. We'll put the river on hold for now."

  Zhong Daguan was tearfully full of worry, "Auntie, the expenses for digging the pond are also considerable."

  "It'll make money," Lin Qingyan comforted him: "There's a return for every investment, at least when it rains our fields won't be washed away, and if there's a drought, the water in the pond can still be used for irrigation."

  Zhong Daguan's face was expressionless, "Miss, this is Jiangnan, how can it be drought-stricken?"

  "At least it can prevent flooding."

  Zhong Daguanshi silently looked at her, Are you serious?

  Just relying on a few ponds can prevent flooding, what about those dams?

  Lin Qingyan's eyes fluttered open, and she pointed to the opposite side of the unopened paddy field: "Let's dig four ponds over there, and dig four canals through them, trying not to damage the rice fields."

  Lin Qingwan saw Zhong Daguan furrowing his brow, and sighed: "Uncle Zhong, the fields on both sides of the river are the easiest to cultivate into good fields. If we don't take preventive measures, the annual flood damage will be so great, and our losses will be huge. It's just a matter of digging a few ponds. If the flood is not severe, we can solve it ourselves."

  "What if it's serious?" Jiangnan has a lot of rain, and if there is strong wind and heavy rain, the flood will be even more severe.

  Lin Qingwan sighed, "That's a natural disaster, beyond what human power can change now. But the current water problem is not severe, and human power can do something about it, so we can't just let it be."

  Zhong Daguan was silent for a moment, his heart moved but hesitated, "But the money..."

  "Just dig a few ponds and ditches, how much money can it cost?" Lin Qingyan waved her hand: "Go find some workers, now that the farming season is over, there are plenty of idle laborers around."

  Labor is cheap; at this time, hiring laborers costs 20 cents per day. Even for 100 people, it would only be 2,000 cents per day, which is even less when converted to silver.

  Digging ponds is hard work, but the Lin family can afford two meals a day, the vegetables are grown in their own garden, and they also have grain reserves. The daily expenses are just oil, salt, and meat, which add up to not much money at all.

  Four ponds will be built, the pond base will be piled up, and then the ditches leading to them will be dug. It can be done in about a month. If there are many people, it may not take a month to finish.

  The money spent in this way is not much, actually the main expense is still on tools and after digging the pond, you need to buy fish fry.

  Actually, the Lin family's biggest expense is still seed money, including rice seeds, wheat seeds, bean seeds, fruit tree saplings and flower wood saplings. Moreover, planting requires continuous investment, and there will be a lot of expenses afterwards. Lin Qingwen set aside the money separately, which made it seem like the family didn't have enough money.

  In the eyes of Lin Guan's family and Zhong Daguantie, the Lin family's money was indeed insufficient. The aunt only calculated the expenses of the villa but forgot that apart from the villa, the cost of socializing would be even greater.

  Let's not mention anything else, can we afford to offend the mistress and the young ladies? They need to eat and drink fine food, if it's not available in the manor, someone has to go out and buy it. The young lady now needs a small bowl of bird's nest every day. Currently, there are still some stored goods in the Lin family warehouse, but after three or four months, they will be finished. Should we replenish them at that time?

  A box of swallow's nest costs fifty taels, the big sister used to eat only the best kind, how could she suddenly change to that inferior kind which cost ten taels a box?

  Besides, with the change of seasons, they need to change their clothes and accessories. The Lin family has plenty of fabric, and there are already skilled embroiderers available, so that's not a concern. But what about accessories?

  It's better to wear one or two pieces per season. Although the ladies are in mourning, many things are not suitable to wear, but some simple and plain accessories are acceptable.

  It's not only elegant and refined, but also expensive. The cost of those ornaments is probably even higher than the gold and silver inlaid ones. Every year, a few new sets of jewelry are released, and all the other ladies have changed theirs, but only the Lin family's aunt and daughter haven't changed theirs. When they go out and meet people, others might really think that the Lin family has declined.

  Lin Guanjia and Zhong Daguanshi absolutely did not allow anyone to look down on their sisters.

  Apart from the most important one, there is also the issue of paying respects during traditional festivals. Next comes Dragon Boat Festival, followed by Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival, and then Chinese New Year. All these major festivals require paying respects.

  Apart from the Lin family relatives, there are also the Shang family and other in-laws, as well as families that are closer to the Lin family, such as Liu Pei's son Huai in Yangzhou, Old Master's good friend Ling Yun Wang Jin, and even the Emperor in Beijing. Do these require money?

  Zhong Daguanshi just roughly calculated and felt a blackout in front of him, no money, oh auntie, we have to save some expenses.