They're Back
Ma Sheng and his companions returned when the first snow fell in the capital.
They traveled by boat to a river port dozens of miles from the capital and sent someone to report to Zhao Ruxi.
Zhao Ruxi had already arranged for Zhou Chun to contact the cart company. Upon receiving the message, she immediately sent Zhou Chun with more than twenty cargo mule carts to the dock to transport the stones from the ship to the capital.
In the car dealership business, what customers want to transport is their private matter, and dealership staff are not allowed to inquire about it.
This time, however, seeing that the people were unloading stones from the boat onto the mule carts, the cart drivers couldn't contain their curiosity and asked, "Steward Zhou, what are you doing transporting these stones back to the capital?"
To prevent anyone from finding out, Zhao Ruxi had already made up a whole story and told it to Zhou Chun and Ma Sheng. Of course, depending on the time and place, this story had to be used flexibly and the content had to be adjusted accordingly.
Zhou Chun sighed and calmly replied, "My grandfather went to a temple to burn incense and heard from a highly virtuous monk that he would face a calamity next year. He said he needed to build a house using stones from Qiu City, the birthplace of the Guanyin Avalokiteshvara, in order to get through it safely. Therefore, he instructed his servants to go to Qiu City to buy stones and transport them to the capital."
Anyway, Old Master Zhao Family died more than ten years ago, so he's not afraid of being cursed.
The people at the car dealership were skeptical.
However, wealthy people have nothing better to do than to daydream all day long. Especially the old men and women, they have all sorts of strange and unusual ideas. Anyway, they have money and power, so they can do whatever they want.
He didn't ask any more questions. When others curiously inquired about it, he told them Zhou Chun's story, and everyone sighed for a while, marveling at how rich people could be so capricious.
The stones filled five large boats, and the stones were heavy; more than twenty mule carts couldn't possibly transport them all. Zhou Chun then hired more than a dozen mule carts locally, and only then were all the stones transported back.
When Zhao Ruxi started preparing for the workshop, she never imagined she would be doing business with the Emperor, having such a useful scapegoat. Now that the situation has changed, her plans have changed as well.
In the jade workshop, she planned to operate in the same way as with a safe: she would remain hidden behind the scenes, while the glorious and majestic emperor would be placed in front to attract attention.
So she bought a two-courtyard house in Beining, which she used specifically as a Feicui processing workshop. To facilitate management and make better use of the guards, she bought the house next to the one with the underground passage.
Zhou Chun couldn't understand it.
He asked, "Miss, isn't the house next door vacant? Why are you buying another house?" To secure the property, the girl offered a high price.
"I have other uses for the house next door," Zhao Ruxi said.
Xiao Lingyan's men frequently came through the tunnel and took away the clock parts being processed in the workshop. Although those men in gray were extremely secretive, the guards Zhao Ruxi sent to watch over the house never discovered them. However, the guards had rules for their duties and their actions were relatively fixed, making it relatively easy to avoid them.
Once she assigns people to work inside, these people will be more unpredictable and wander around, greatly increasing the chances of them bumping into each other. This will make it very inconvenient for Xiao Lingyan's people to do their work, and if they discover it, it will be even worse, as the secret will be completely exposed.
At that point, will she kill him to cover it up, or will she kill him to cover it up?
Therefore, she would rather buy another house than take this risk.
Fortunately, she has money now, and houses in Beining aren't expensive, so buying another one wouldn't be a big deal.
The Great Jin Dynasty has enjoyed peace and prosperity in recent years, and property prices around the capital have been steadily rising. Buying this house is a sure way to make a profit, and you can always sell it later if you don't need it anymore. Just consider it as saving money.
After unloading the stones and dismissing the cart drivers, Zhao Ruxi gave each of the people heading south ten taels of silver as a reward, saying, "Go back and rest well. You don't need to work before the New Year. I'll arrange work for you after the New Year."
Before they left, Zhao Ruxi had said that the journey would be arduous and risky, so their monthly allowance would be ten taels of silver. The round trip took more than two months, and Ma Sheng had given them a total of twenty-five taels of silver in monthly allowance. Now, with an extra ten taels of silver as a bonus, everyone was overjoyed and bowed to Zhao Ruxi to express their gratitude.
Especially those men who were transferred from the village, their eyes were red as they held the silver.
They used to toil all year round on the estate, and if they could save a hundred or so coins at the end of the year, they were considered to be living well. Now, they only had to go out once, taking a carriage there and a boat back, without having to walk, and in just over two months they received more money than they could earn in a lifetime. They felt like they were dreaming.
Qian Duoduo's son, Qian Buque bolder than others.
Before leaving, he couldn't help but ask, "Miss, will you still be transporting stones in the future? If so, could you still use our services?"
Upon hearing this, the men of the village all looked at Zhao Ruxi expectantly.
Zhao Ruxi smiled and said, "Of course we'll need to transport it; we'll still need your help then. But when we'll go next depends on the situation; it might be a year later."
The men were Gao Xing to have another chance to earn so much money a year later. They thanked Zhao Ruxi profusely and bowed to her again before taking their leave and returning to their estate.
"Sigh, being away from home for more than two months feels like I've been away for a lifetime."
"Indeed! I'd never left the village before. At first, it was quite disorienting. But now, thinking about it, it's been so worthwhile to have the opportunity to travel all over the country, see so much of the world, and earn so much money."
"Haha, Shuanzi, you used to cry because you were homesick," another person laughed.
"Hmph, you dare say you didn't cry?"
"..."
Watching the young people joking and playing around ahead, the man in his thirties walking behind sighed, "The young lady is truly kind. In the past, even if she wanted to send us on a long journey, she would be lucky to give us one or two taels of silver, let alone so much!"
"That's right. Dazhu was so sick on the way. If it were any other master, they might have given up. But Steward Ma was willing to spend a lot of money to treat Dazhu and managed to snatch Dazhu's life back from the brink of death."
"Steward Ma said that before we set off, the young lady specifically instructed him to ensure our health and safety, and to rather travel slowly and take a longer route than rush or take any risks. If it weren't for the young lady's instructions, would Steward Ma have dared to spend more than ten taels of silver to treat Dazhu? The arrangements for the journey were also very relaxed. Sometimes, even in the late afternoon, because we didn't know if there would be a place to stay ahead, Steward Ma insisted that we stop and rest early. Otherwise, the round trip wouldn't have taken so long."
"That's right. Because of this, the girl spent a lot more money than she should have."