On the way back, they happened to meet students from the Green Mountain Academy. Jin Shanyao stopped the oxcart and walked towards Meng Anci.
What are you doing?
Meng Anci was squatting on the edge of the field talking to an old farmer when he heard the voice, turned around, and his eyes lit up immediately.
"Auntie!" He jumped up and ran over to her. "We have a policy essay exam next month, and the questions are related to agronomy. I came here today specifically to check on things... Are you all done with your work?"
"Hmm." Jin Shanyao glanced at the field. "Want me to wait for you a bit? Shall we go back together?"
"Alright! You all get on the oxcart and sit down first, I'll be right there."
After finishing his Meng Anci ran back to the edge of the field, squatted down, and continued chatting with the old farmer.
On the other side, Zhao Zhiyuan was talking to his classmate when he saw Meng Anzhi coming over. He unconsciously smiled, greeted his classmate, and then walked towards the oxcart.
"Sister Anzhi," he said lightly as he approached, "Are you here to pick up Meng Anci and take her home?"
"Just passing by." Meng Anzhi looked around. "Didn't your academy send a carriage to follow us?"
Zhao Zhiyuan looked at her and smiled, "There are too many people at the academy, and there aren't enough carriages for us, so we have to walk the whole time."
Seeing that there was still room for the oxcart, Meng Anzhi suggested, "Why don't you come with us?"
Zhao Zhiyuan looked up, his eyes instantly lighting up... "Is that alright?"
"Of course." Meng Anzhi moved to the side and patted the sideboard next to her. "You can sit here."
Zhao Zhiyuan did not refuse and bent down to sit down.
The oxcart swayed slightly, and his gaze swept naturally across the distance between the two men, a barely perceptible curve appearing at the corner of his lips.
On the surface, she showed no emotion whatsoever, only lowered her eyes and spoke with a hint of sincerity, "Sister Anzhi, I couldn't help but touch your chessboard last time, please don't be angry with me."
His voice was low, filled with genuine remorse, as if he had done something wrong, "I just... saw the game was going so well, I couldn't resist."
Meng Anzhi smiled. "It's alright, it was an endgame. The black pieces were slow to move, and the game remained deadlocked. Your move was brilliant. I thought about it a few steps later and solved it."
Zhao Zhiyuan was overjoyed, his voice brimming with excitement, "You solved it?"
"Hmm... Let's play a game sometime, and I'll see what your chess skills are like."
Zhao Zhiyuan's ears turned slightly red. Before he could speak, Shiyan rushed over and sat down on Meng Anzhi's other side with a "thump".
Full of curiosity, he asked, "What kind of chess? When did you play? I didn't know about it."
Zhao Zhiyuan didn't say anything, but moved a little further forward on the oxcart, distancing himself from Meng Anzhi. Just as he settled down, he saw Meng Anci walking quickly toward him with a stern face.
He plopped down between Shiyan and Meng Anzhi, almost knocking Shiyan over.
Meng Anzhi patted his shoulder, then turned and sat on the other side of the oxcart.
Zhao Zhiyuan glanced at the empty space, then at Meng Anzhi, but still didn't say anything.
The oxcart started moving, crushing the withered grass along the edge of the field, heading towards the Anzhi Hall.
Shiyan turned sideways to chat with Meng Anzhi, "Sister Anzhi, when you're collecting herbs in the mountains, have you ever encountered wild boars?"
Meng Anzhi laughed, " Anci and I rarely encounter prey, and even when we do, they run away as fast as they can."
"Why?" Shiyan moved closer to Meng Anzhi curiously. Meng Anzhi shook her head. "I don't know, maybe animals don't like me."
Shiyan responded with an "Oh," and added, "Sister Anzhi, Zhao Zhiyuan going back to Willow and Poplar County for the Spring Festival this year, so you probably won't see me for a while."
Meng Anzhi responded softly. Shiyan wanted to say a few more words, but the oxcart had already reached the intersection of East Street, so he had to get off and say goodbye.
At the end of November, all the medicinal herbs picked from the mountain were dried and bagged. Meng Anzhi thought she would be implicated in the Cloud Brocade Workshop case this year, but the case turned out to be a huge scandal, which instead made Anzhi Hall famous throughout the streets and alleys.
Before all the medicinal herbs were even dried, stacks of deposits were already being delivered, which could be considered a blessing in disguise.
Wu Yong and his accountant sat in the courtyard, busy from morning till night, without even a sip of water. Despite this, the carriages outside the estate lined up for three whole days.
The courtyard finally quieted down only after the last bag of herbs was loaded onto the truck and sent to a pharmacy a thousand miles away.
Looking at the empty courtyard, Meng Anzhi suddenly asked Wu Yong, "You didn't sell the discarded medicinal roots, did you?"
Wu Yong smiled and said, "We didn't sell them. As Miss said, we cleaned them up and kept them for the shop..."
Meng Anzhi breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, but her relief lasted only two days before she had to start checking the accounts, excluding expenses for hiring people, seeds, estate costs, and charitable donations.
The net profit from the medicinal herbs from the five mountains is eight thousand taels, and with the addition of the precious medicinal herbs and delicacies from Hat Mountain, the total is fifteen thousand taels.
Meng Anzhi handed the account book to Jin Shanyao, Jin Shanyao glanced at it and said with regret, " Qingzhou Prefecture doesn't have any empty mountains left... otherwise we could have bought another one."
Meng Anzhi chuckled to herself. To outsiders, the Meng Household seemed incredibly wealthy, but only Meng Anzhi knew that all the money they earned was used to buy mountains.
They were actually very poor, relying entirely on their aunt's fortune-telling and medical skills to make a living. Now they can finally catch their breath.
Meng Anzhi closed the ledger. "Let's save this money for now... and take it out when we need it."
Jin Shanyao, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Before they knew it, the year was drawing to a close. Qing He had just finished pasting the door gods when Shopkeeper Wang came over. He looked them over and said, "Did you paste the door gods upside down? Why aren't these two gods looking at each other?"
Qing He put away the paste, admiring her masterpiece. "What do you know... I was afraid they'd chat face-to-face and not watch the door, so I pasted it like this on purpose."
Shopkeeper Wang clicked his tongue twice, "You're wasting your money. With Shopkeeper Jin here, which brat would dare cause trouble at your place?"
Qing He glared at him. "My master has been busy all year, can't he at least find a couple of paintings to swap shifts?"
Shopkeeper Wang was most afraid of her glare, so he quickly said, "Okay, okay... You're right, whatever you say is right."
"Hey... I'm telling you, old man," Qing He hadn't finished speaking when she saw Shopkeeper Wang dash back to his shop. Qing He rolled her eyes, closed the shop door, and went back to the main room.
She rubbed her frozen, red hands together, hurried to the stove, and repeatedly warmed them with her hands. Her gaze fell on a pile of scraps of paper beside Jin Shanyao's feet. "Master, is it still not done?"
She held her breath Jin Shanyao, carefully applying pressure with the scissors along the grain of the fabric until the last snip, only then daring to let out a long sigh of relief.
He laughed and said, "It's done..."
As she spoke, she unfolded the paper-cut window decoration and held it up in the air for everyone to see, "How is it...? Don't I think it looks good?"
Qing Yang looked at the crooked, thick, and sturdy red paper and smiled, "Hmm... plump snowflakes are just so pretty."
"That's..." She handed the paper-cut window decoration to Qing He, pointing to the window, "Just paste it in the most conspicuous place in the main room."
Qing He smiled and accepted it, saying "okay," before casually sticking it on the window. Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci each cut out two small horses and pasted them next to the Jin Shanyao window decoration.
With everyone decorating, the festive atmosphere of the New Year is getting stronger and stronger.