Chapter 150: Chapter 149 Landlord Life

Ye Shiqi, a little girl of just over a year old, looked as mysterious as ever; she had now become more astute.

In the space, honey couldn’t be sold so openly to others, so she kept bees in the orchard instead, raising them openly and selling the produced honey to others.

The mountains and waters of Bushen Village were beautiful, and Ye Shiqi didn’t confine the bees rigidly to the orchard. The bees could go to other mountains to collect nectar, just like birds, busily gathering pollen and constantly producing honey every day.

The honey produced by the Ye family was better than others, being not only sweet and fragrant but also beneficial to the body.

Those with a bit of spare money all wanted to buy some to keep at home, especially families with elderly and children.

The Ye family’s honey was well-kept, and naturally, some were jealous; some sneaked into the orchard to have a look but were stopped by the long-term workers from approaching the bees’ place.

Yet some saw the bees flying towards the nearby mountains and tried to catch the bees there.

But little did they anticipate that the bees were too cunning; as if they sensed the presence of strangers, they flew away before the strangers could get close.

Others tried to catch the bees with nets but ended up making the bees so annoyed that they stung the people like they were pig heads.

Ye Shiqi now also secretly entered the space every evening, even though her family had a better residence with brick-and-tile houses, many more rooms, and accommodation for guests.

Ye Shiqi was just over one and nearly two years old; her family did not trust her to sleep alone, so her elder sister slept with her.

After the brick-and-tile houses were built, Siwa and Ye Shiqi had always lived together in one room.

Daya, the elder sister, was already ten years old and had her own small boudoir; Er Ya and Sanya, the two sisters, shared a room.

With the addition of a little brother, there was now a crib in the parents’ room, which Ye Shiqi had drawn the diagrams for, and her father had made the bed for her brother.

Hongji, now having money, continued to be busy with carving every day; he had become obsessed with carving.

Considering the youngest two girls and the small son were still young, the family hired long-term workers to do the tasks, take care of the little daughters, and also supervise the management of the many new fields that had been acquired.

Not only did they hire long-term workers, but they also hired a housekeeper and bought two girls around six or seven years old to be maids for the daughters.

These two girls took care of the two youngest daughters on a daily basis and also helped look after the little son.

Ye Shiqi, having learned to speak, named her four elder sisters: Ye Luoqi the eldest, Ye Mei Qi the second sister, Ye Xinqi the third sister, and Ye Fengqi the fourth sister.

When Ye Shiqi named her sisters, they all unanimously requested the last character of their names to be the same, so that it was evident they were sisters just by hearing their names.

The sisters were happy to have their own names, despite being called by their original names–Daya, Er Ya, Sanya, Siya–by others and by their family.

Sometimes Ye Shiqi was still called Wuya by others, a name that didn’t make anyone remember her at all.

The newly arrived maids always addressed the adults in the Ye family as Old Master, Madam, Grand Master, Old Lady, and addressed the children as Lady or Young Master.

Though Ye Shiqi had company in her room, she still couldn’t be as free as before; she could only secretly enter the space every night.

Her space had grown a lot, not just about twenty square meters anymore; it was now over an acre. The area for growing flowers had increased, the area for growing rice had expanded, and besides rice, she also grew corn, while for vegetables and such, she didn’t want to waste the land.

The space would still yield crops and harvest every few days, just as it had before.

Previously, it was only the family who ate, and she could provide enough rice without having to buy any, managing to eat dry meals every day.

Now, there were so many more people in the household, including the long-term workers who needed food, and her space could not supply enough.

Fortunately, they had farmland which yielded crops in three seasons a year, planting rice paddy in March, harvesting in June and July, then rush planting for another harvest by October. After the harvest in October, aside from planting vegetables, they would also sow wheat, reaping the harvest around February or March of the next year.

Ye Shiqi and her elder sisters never ceased their reading and writing. As Ye Shiqi grew older, the family brought back some ink, paper, and books for girls from the county city.

However, Ye Shiqi favored the “Four Books and Five Classics,” “Thousand Character Classic,” and “Three Character Classic,” typically read by boys.

She recognized all the characters in these books but could not appear too clever in front of adults.

Hongji, having made some money, hired a scholar as a teacher for his daughters, and when he had time, he too would learn a few more characters.

Now a small business owner, he couldn’t remain barely literate.

Mrs. Li sometimes joined her daughters in listening to the teacher’s lessons, sitting on a small stool with her youngest son in her arms.

The two little maids, seeing the young ladies and the madam attending the teacher’s lessons, realized that being illiterate was detrimental to their future lives, so they too followed along and learned to read.

Ye Shuzhen, yet to be married, initially ate sunflower seeds while watching the girls read and write, thinking that knowing so many characters was useless for young women.

Latter, her fiance’s family wrote to her, hoping she could learn to do arithmetic to later help keep the books, becoming a virtuous wife and mother.

Ye Shuzhen was aware that her future husband was literate; he had been an attendant student for the Eldest Young Master and had turned to working in the shop after the Eldest Young Master stopped studying.

In reality, he was the manager of the shop; his father was the shopkeeper, and he managed the accounts. The father and son originally had a bond of servitude, but after becoming shopkeeper and accountant, the Tang Family had already freed them from their indenture.

This time, Ye Shuzhen and the accountant, now mediated by the Ye family’s collaborator, the Tang Family, during the calculations for the joint factory, met at the Ye family’s residence, and Ye Shuzhen took a liking to this accountant.

Tall and shrewd, Ye Shuzhen immediately felt a kinship with the man, though the accountant initially thought little of her. After many visits to the Ye family and seeing Ye Shuzhen’s affection for him,

the Tang Family then facilitated their union, and later this young man, upon reflection, concluded that regardless of Ye Shuzhen’s lack of intelligence or beauty, she was still the sister of the minor boss of the Ye family and sister of the village’s rich man, and she was a suitable match for him.

Ye Shuzhen’s slowness could be gradually corrected, and her laziness could be corrected as well. So Ye Shuzhen, lazy and reluctant to learn to read and calculate, followed the teacher to learn under the motivation of gaining a higher regard from her fiance.

When Ye Shuzhen first attended the teacher’s lessons, it was like listening to an oracle; she would find herself falling asleep and becoming the butt of jokes.

Seeing her nieces eagerly learning to read and gradually improving in writing, Ye Shuzhen, unwilling to be outdone, had to diligently learn as well.

With her marriage approaching, she had to put aside her books for now to prepare her wedding dress, her dowry being provided by her parents and brother and sister-in-law.

Since having a son, Mrs. Li had grown a bit plumper, and her skin seemed to be improving–her life had improved significantly in terms of both food and supplies, making her look younger than she had two years ago.

Those who once pitied Mrs. Li now envied her for her improved life.