allonlinenovel Chapter 206: The Merchant's Daughter Wants to Marry the General 03
Chapter 206: The Merchant's Daughter Wants to Marry the General 03
Aniu and Dashu are of similar age and have a good relationship with each other, so from then on, whenever Shen Guli comes to the villa to play, she will be accompanied by the two of them whenever she goes into the mountains.
When the young lady called him Brother Niu, the young boy's face immediately turned red. "That's what I should do."
Pear Blossom Fish is a name Shen Guli casually gave to the small fish in the mountain pond, just because there are several large pear trees growing on both sides of the upper reaches of Crescent Moon Pond.
In the past, people came to this village for an outing in spring, when pear blossoms were in full bloom. The petals flowed from the upstream stream all the way to the Crescent Moon Pond, and the fish in the pond always liked to chase the petals. Seeing such a scene for the first time, Shen Guli very forcefully named the fish here Pear Blossom Fish.
In fact, it is just an ordinary crucian carp. But the fish from the mountains are indeed delicious.
"In autumn, fish are fresh. If you can stay here until autumn, the fish will be even better. Then we can build a fire by the pond and eat while grilling. It will taste great."
Niu had just finished speaking when Shen Guli, who was walking in front of him, stopped and asked, "Brother Niu, do you guys do this often?"
Ah Niu was stunned, not knowing what he had said wrong. He felt a little bewildered. He wanted to nod but felt a little afraid, so he stole a glance at the tree.
The tree coughed and said, "This forest belongs to the young lady. We just took it without asking. It's just----"
I couldn't utter the last word at all. I could only blame Ah Niu, that rough and talkative guy who made many mistakes the more he spoke.
Shen Guli didn't know what they were thinking, but she hadn't yet been so overbearing as to forbid others from eating things from the forest.
She walked up to them, tilted her head and asked curiously, "Do you often have picnics by the pond? Besides grilling fish, do you have anything else? Can you catch rabbits, roe deer, pheasants, etc. in the forest?"
I have long been tired of the delicacies from land and sea in the mansion, especially in the hot summer, and I have no appetite. Suddenly, when I heard about barbecue, my saliva immediately began to flow.
Seeing the young lady covering her mouth with an embroidered handkerchief and her eyes sparkling, Cherry knew what the young lady was thinking.
She smiled and held her young lady's arm, "Young lady, are you hungry? Let's go back first! It's time for dinner."
"But I want to eat grilled fish!"
Gu Li stated her request directly, which was in line with her personality. She was frank and a little naive, making it impossible to refuse.
Da Shu knew that he had misunderstood the young lady's meaning, and quickly replied: "Then I will go back and get some seasonings for the barbecue."
He then said to Aniu, "You accompany the young lady to Crescent Moon Lake first, and then go fishing when I come." The young lady had to be looked after by someone at all times. It was not going to be possible to leave a little girl like Cherry alone near the forest behind the mountain.
Seeing Aniu nod, Dashu turned around and ran.
Seeing that Dashu was speaking and doing things in an orderly manner, Gu Li asked Aniu curiously, "Is Dashu still going to the private school in town?"
Ah Niu shook his head, "I only studied there for three years, and I stopped going last year!"
"why?"
"Uncle Lin said that people like them cannot become officials even if they study, so it is enough for them to learn to read and do accounts. Brother Dachuan was appreciated by the master and became the shopkeeper of Yonghe Mansion. Now they want to train Dashu to manage this manor."
Although Grandpa Lin is the head of the village, he is old and it is Uncle Lin who is really in charge. The reason why he is in a hurry to train his grandson is that the village is not just this mountain forest and this village. After decades of accumulation, the thousands of acres of fertile land under the mountain have also become an industry of the village.
Shen Guli was deep in thought, realizing that every time she came here she was just here for an outing and had no idea that the village had expanded to such an extent.
I heard that the Shen family started out by selling grain, and now the grain store and granary under the name of the Shen family are the only giants in Yonghe Prefecture.
So Lin also regards the farmland as the key to earning property?
She might not have cared about these things before, but now, knowing that her biological father, whose brain was clouded by true love, was unreliable, she had to make plans first.
"Brother Niu, what about you? What do you want to do in the future?"
"Me? Of course I'm farming for the master on the farm." It was great for him, an ordinary farmer, to be rewarded with fertile land by a nobleman, and to be able to do some work on the farm to earn money during the slack season.
"Brother Niu, are you willing to work for me?"
Ah Niu smiled naively, "Miss, just tell me what you want me to do. I have a lot of strength, and I will do my best as long as I can do it!"
He can even use idioms. Shen Guli asked, "Has Brother Niu ever been to school? Can he read?"
"I have never been to school and I only know 20 or 30 words."
"How can you recognize so many words even though you have never been to school?" Cherry joked.
Ah Niu scratched his head and said, "I can write the names of all my family members. It was Dashu who taught me."
Cherry covered her mouth with her hands and chuckled, which made Ah Niu blush again. He pulled at his uncomfortable collar and started laughing too.
In such a hot day, the country men only wore wide coats, and some even worked shirtless in the countryside. This was because the master came to escape the heat, and the village head specifically warned these rough people to dress neatly and not to offend the nobles.
Therefore, even though Ah Niu was sweating profusely with heat, he would still straighten his clothes from time to time to prevent himself from being inappropriate in appearance and offending the young lady.
But the young lady seemed to be as pleasant as before, and he relaxed unconsciously, loosening his collar to make it easier for himself to breathe.
Shen Guli saw everything about Aniu and discovered a pure and sincere heart of a loyal servant.
Available.
"Brother Niu, when I say work for me, I mean you work for me alone. I may need you to sign a contract to sell yourself to me. Then you will be mine, not someone from the manor."
Upon hearing the words "indenture", Aniu was visibly stunned. Once he signed the indenture, he would no longer be a good citizen, but a lowly slave.
Shen Guli did not urge him. After waiting for a long time, Ah Niu asked, "What can I do for you, young lady? I can't do anything except farming!"
"I need someone to run errands for me outside!" Although Shen Guli is a merchant, as a woman, and an unmarried woman at that, it is not convenient for her to go out.
This time, Ah Niu did not hesitate any longer and readily agreed, "Okay, I'll ask Dashu to write me a contract of sale when I get back."
Suddenly he remembered that Dashu was also the lady's man, and the lady would arrange the indenture contract. He felt a little embarrassed and scratched his head again, grinning foolishly.
"Don't worry about that for now. I want to ask Brother Niu why he agreed."
Ah Niu couldn't make a profound argument, so he just said, "I'm not a scholar, and being a good citizen or a lowly person doesn't make much difference to me. If it weren't for the reward from the young lady, my little sister would have been sold to someone else as a slave. It's all the same."
After thinking for a while, he said, "I don't have any special skills, but I can definitely run errands for the lady."
The hesitation before falling in love was because he was worried that he didn't have the ability to be a slave to the young lady, Cherry sighed in her heart, and showed Ah Niu a smile that was more intimate than before.