After dinner, Lin Kangping took Zi Qing to the back mountain for a walk. Zi Qing didn't expect him to leave again after only two days back, and her heart felt stuffy. "Qing'er, I really have no choice but to go back, I promise you, I'll definitely come back early to spend New Year's with you. Don't worry, at most it will be another year, then I'll be free. The young master's marriage has already been arranged, and it's estimated that the latest will be next autumn. After I finish my handover, I'll come back to marry you. You don't know how much I miss you outside, wondering if my Qing'er is eating well? Is she catching a cold or coughing? Is she being bullied by others again? Does she miss me?"

  "Don't worry, I'm fine at home and won't easily go out, let alone go out alone. But you're outside, be sure to take good care of yourself. Are you certain that you'll really be free next year?"

  "Don't worry, five years have passed and I've made the jade business into such a big industry. The young master won't always be in others' hands. The Wen family's affairs are too complicated. The old master of the Wen family is being transferred to Guangdong as the governor, it seems he doesn't plan on coming out to be an official again. He wants to cultivate the young master's power. The young master is now diligently studying and has already passed the imperial examination. I also can't explain everything to you at once, in short, just believe me that the young master is a man of his word."

  Zi Qing wasn't very interested in the affairs of the Wen family; all she cared about was whether Lin Kangping could successfully leave the Wen family.

  Lin Kangping saw Zi Qing not speaking, thought for a moment and said: "Don't do the orange garden thing by yourself, if it's not possible then wait until I come back to talk about it, no rush. By the way, there's some good news to tell you, I've already bought Luwei Pond, and the gardener will come next spring to help me fix it up."

  "Really? But didn't he check out the terrain before? How did he suddenly decide to buy it?"

  "I roughly explained to him that the place was very cheap, only one or two silver coins per mu, but it's a bit troublesome to deal with. You guys were worried that I would regret it. He quickly took me to complete the formalities. Speaking of which, when you had an accident last time, his son really helped out a lot. Afterwards, he also made some efforts, so in the first month, I asked my father to accompany me to visit their home, so this time buying land from him was indeed a pleasure."

  The two chatted idly. Lin Kangping held onto Zi Qing's hand the whole time. This scene really had a hint of romance, like a couple on a date. Thinking this, Zi Qing looked up at the person beside her. As a northerner, Lin Kangping was tall and stately, probably around 1.8 meters. His features were chiseled, with sharp eyebrows and eyes that seemed to narrow into slits. In modern terms, he had a very masculine aura. Zi Qing found herself liking him more and more.

  "Have you had enough? We should head back."

  "Thank you, Kevin. It's great to meet you."

  "Fool, this should be what I said. As soon as I saw you, I liked this talkative little girl. Later, when I ran into you on the street, you didn't know how surprised I was. I recognized you at a glance. Until later, when I accompanied Young Master to find you, I was Young Master's long-following servant, but in your eyes, there was no difference between me and Young Master. This was my first experience of being treated with equal respect. Gradually, I also yearned to see you again. Later on, because of you, I left the household register, and my Qing'er grew up." Lin Kangping said slowly, recalling the experiences of these years, scene by scene. The little girl who used to wear a bun and cotton clothes had grown into the bright and beautiful young woman in front of him today. And he was actually holding this young woman's hand. At this moment, Lin Kangping couldn't help but thank fate for its favor towards him.

  "I'm tired, can you carry me out?" Zi Qing stopped in her tracks, one hand grasping Lin Kang Ping's collar and the other still holding onto his hand.

  "Can't find it," Lin Kangping said, squatting down in front of Zi Qing. Zi Qing leaned against his broad back, listening to his questions one by one. At this moment, she felt extremely warm and at ease.

  After Lin Kangping left, Zi Qing was depressed for a day. Zi Xi accompanied her all the time. On the third afternoon, Zi Qing took Zi Shou and Zi Xi to dig up saplings, selecting fifty of the largest ones, and also picked some green vegetables from the vegetable field. Taking a string of coins, the three went to plant trees. Zi Fu saw them and said he would go take a look too.

  "Then bring your sister-in-law along. Otherwise, she'll be bored at home alone and doesn't know anyone," said Zi Qing.

  "I'm not going, I'll stay home and help mother with cooking, you all go early and come back early." Liu said.

  Four people carried the seedlings to the gate, shouting for half a day at the door. Zi Qing thought there should be a doorbell here too. After entering, she saw that Wang Tie Shan was digging holes, and two plots of vegetable fields had been prepared. Zi Qing put down the vegetables and directed everyone to plant trees. Zi Fu and Zi Xi filled in the soil, Zi Qing supported the seedlings, and Zi Shou and Wang Tie Shan watered them. Fifty seedlings were planted, with a few tree pits left over.

  It seems that Lin Kangping is still quite accurate in judging people, and this couple is indeed a hardworking one. Zi Qing handed Li a string of money and said: "This is for the 50 tree holes today, I'll come back every two or three days from now on. You both don't have to work too hard, after all, this isn't something that can be done in just one or two days. Besides, I don't have that many saplings at the moment, how's your life been for the past few days?"

  "It's just fine, the children can eat their fill and wear such good clothes. Don't worry, we will work hard and not be lazy or deceitful. If only we had met you earlier, our third child would still be alive." As she spoke, Mrs. Li began to wipe away tears.

  Zi Qing only then realized that she had another child who didn't make it on the way. Zi Qing sighed and said, "Wang Shu, later on things will slowly get better. You'll definitely have more children too."

  A few days later, Zishou and his family left. Every day, Zifu would read books at home in the morning, and accompany Ziqing to the orange garden in the afternoon. The two of them would carry twenty saplings over every day, sometimes bringing Liu with them. As they watched the rows of saplings stand up before their eyes, Ziqing felt a great sense of accomplishment. Maybe in another three or four years, this place would be lush and green, with birds singing and rabbits hopping about. Ziqing seemed to have already seen himself counting his silver coins with a smile on his face.

  "Qing Er, what are you thinking about? You're still smiling to yourself, be careful your saliva will flow out." Zi Fu saw that Zi Qing was spacing out again and couldn't help but knock her lightly.

  "Big brother, how annoying! I was dreaming that this garden of mine had a bumper harvest and I was counting my silver coins. You startled me with your knocking and now all the silver coins have run away. You should compensate me!"

  "What you said is true, from a young age you've been obsessed with wealth, knowing that money is good, so even in your daydreams you're counting it. Our family really owes it to your obsession with wealth, otherwise who knows what would have happened today." Zi Fu started out smiling but ended up sighing.

  Liu didn't know the inside story, she just smiled with her mouth closed. These days living in the Zeng family, she originally thought there would be many inconveniences and discomforts. Before getting married, her mother also taught her a lot about how to get along with her parents-in-law. The Zeng family had many children, and there were many young uncles and aunts, so it was inevitable that there would be some trivial matters. At first, she thought everything would have to be endured. But who knew that after getting married, she found out it was completely different? Her parents-in-law didn't need to be mentioned, they even exempted her from following rules. The few young uncles, although they hadn't spent much time together, were all knowledgeable and courteous. And this little aunt, it could be seen that she had gathered the love of everyone in the family, but wasn't spoiled at all. Every time Liu saw her doing household chores, she would lend a hand to help. Thinking about this, Liu's mouth also revealed a few smiles, feeling fortunate that she had married into the Zeng family.

  Zi Qingzheng and Zi Fu were laughing, when suddenly he caught a glimpse of Liu's expression, and hastily said: "Big brother, don't tease me, sister-in-law might have also dreamed of something good and drooled too."

  One sentence made Liu's face turn bright red, and Zi Qing laughed even more happily.

  Before long, it was mid-October, and Zi Qing saw that several hundred fruit trees had been planted. He asked Wang Tie Shan if he knew how to build a chicken coop, and upon learning that he did, Zi Qing told him to build one every ten trees among the already-planted saplings. There were still some leftover bricks, stones, and tiles from the previous house construction, so they would start with a few first. Zi Qing drew the size of the chicken coop on the ground and pointed out the areas that needed attention. After the coop was built, they would sprinkle it with lime and cover it with straw.

  "It's still the same, if you don't hurry up with this task, you'll be doing it slowly by yourself. You must do it as I said, and I will come to check on the first one. Fifty coins for a single chicken coop." Zi Qing added a few more sentences.

  Wang Tieshan listened to the fifty cents for a chicken coop and rubbed his hands, asking: "Master, didn't you set our wages? Why do we get paid for digging tree holes and building chicken coops, but not for our labor?"

  "Of course, I'll give it to you, don't worry. It's just that I see you're having a bit of trouble now, so I'm giving you some extra help. Later, after we finish these tasks, taking care of the saplings and raising chickens and sheep every day, I won't pay you separately for labor, that's your own responsibility."

  Wang Tieshan let out a sigh of relief upon hearing this. These days, he had been so poor that he was frightened, and suddenly seeing a mistress like Zi Qing, he really didn't adapt.

  Two days later, Ziqing took Zifeng to buy all the chicks from the market town. There were more than 80 of them and they put them in the first chicken coop. She told them that the little chickens were still small and needed to be caught at night to go into the coop, but after a few days when they grew up, they would go in and out by themselves. Then, Ziqing also brought four puppies and one kitten from home and entrusted them to take good care of them.

  "Madam, don't worry, we can do all these things. We're used to raising chickens and ducks, feeding pigs at home. My husband is not only good at farming but also knows how to tend fruit trees and castrate chickens. You won't need to hire outsiders in the future."

  "Really? That's great, otherwise it would be a hassle to ask someone to do so many chickens in the future. I didn't expect to pick up a treasure." Zi Qing felt it was an unexpected joy.

  Mr. Li saw that his son was happy, so he said: "There's just one thing, we want to discuss with the master, this mountain is a private school, can our boy be sent to study for two years? This month, thanks to the master's blessing, we also have some extra money on hand, we think the child wants to go, so let's send him. Anyway, the child can't do anything else, and we also have a fixed income every month, so it doesn't matter that much about the tuition fee of 100 taels."

  "It's a good thing, you should be willing to send him off. The child will study for a few years, and even if nothing else, in the future, the child can help you with accounting and managing things, which is also convenient." Zi Qing agreed enthusiastically, but she had also thought about letting the child attend her own family's school, and was worried that it was still a bit far from the orange garden. After all, an outsider child would be somewhat inconvenient.