Zhong Deping's two sons are one and the other. Zhong Lingming is eleven years old this year, and Zhong Lingzhi is ten years old, which is the time to be naughty. The two sons of Zhong Fengming and Zhong Fengfang, born to the second old lady, also happened to be the same age, and they both studied in the same school; Although the house is separated, the yards are all connected, and they are usually only separated by a wall, so the four of them often play together on weekdays.

Zhong Lingzhi was timid, he was scared just now. At this time, after listening to the eldest sister's words, the pale little face nodded vigorously: "Yes... Be... Sister Yu'er, I... I...... Got it..."

Zhong Lingming on the side pulled down Zhong Lingyu's sleeve: "Sister, now that the rain is heavy, you go back to the room to change your clothes first." When the rain stops, I'll go with you to the tea plantation. ”

Zhong Lingyu touched his brother's head with relief: "It's okay." You're also older, it's time to learn how to manage a tea plantation. Before his death, Dad always said that when you reach the age of twelve, you don't need to go to school, and take you by your side to teach you to take care of your business. Speaking of the back, his voice couldn't help choking, and tears fell from his eyes.

Everyone present wept and wept, and the cry that the eldest lady Zhuang had just stopped sounded mournfully.

Zhong Lingyu sniffed, wiped away her tears with a handkerchief, and glanced up at everyone: "Although the master is gone, our life has to go on." As long as everyone works together, there is nothing to be afraid of this difficulty, and the glory of the past will return! ”

"Yes!" Everyone present responded in a deep voice.

The eldest lord had just died, the eldest son was still young, and the wife was weak, so Zhong Lingyu faintly became the backbone of the family.

"Everyone has worked hard today~ Let's go back." Zhong Lingyu looked up and saw that her mother was still crying, and couldn't help but sigh again.

"Madam, the wind is too strong, you can't get sick anymore, go back." Zhuang's nurse Yuan Ma cared about her and helped her leave.

"Good...... Yu'er, it's raining too much now, it's better to stay at home first..."Although Zhuang was weak and mourned the sudden death of her husband, she still didn't forget to care about her daughter, and commanded, looking at Zhong Lingyu's response, before holding the hand of the garden grandmother and wiping her tears and leaving.

Zhong Lingzhi's mother-in-law, Du Erfang, saw Zhong Lingyu holding Zhong Lingming's little hand to leave, hurriedly pushed Zhong Lingzhi, and whispered a few words in his ear, Zhong Lingzhi trotted to Zhong Lingyu and whispered: "Sister Yu'er, can you take me with you when you go to the tea garden?" He looked at Zhong Lingyu pitifully.

Zhong Lingyu looked at Du Erfang, and didn't know what it meant~ She smiled gently, nodded and said, "Okay~, I'll send someone to call you when the rain stops~"

"Sister Yu'er is so good!" Zhong Lingzhi was very happy.

"It's nothing, Yu'er will go back~" Saying that, Zhong Lingyu had already led Zhong Lingming along the corridor.

Du Erfang was quite uncomfortable with Zhong Lingyu's glance.

"Humph! What are you proud of? Don't think that if the master is gone, you will be able to call the shots in this house, if I want to catch you with something... Hum! Du Erfang looked at the direction where Zhong Lingyu had disappeared, took a sip secretly, and also pulled Zhong Lingzhi back to the room.

"Madam, let's go back." The maid Xiaoqing saw that everyone was gone, and said to her master.

"Hmm." Yuan Sanfang only gave birth to a daughter, and he was a quiet person, and when he saw that everyone was gone, he took his daughter back to his room.

Zhong Lingyu went back to the room to change her clothes, and the nurse came in with some snacks, seeing that she had only eaten two bites of snacks and was about to go out, she hurriedly persuaded: "Miss, the rain is still very heavy, why don't you wait for the rain to stop before going?" ”

"Nurse, where can I wait for the rain to stop? I don't know how many days it will rain this season. Dad went suddenly, and I don't know what the chaos in the garden has become. Seeing that I am going to pick spring tea, I don't go, how can I rest assured..."Zhong Lingyu picked up the umbrella and was about to go out.

The nurse couldn't help it, so she still followed behind, and sighed: "It's bitter Miss." ”

The old lady Liu, as a stepmother, is not the vicious woman, but she also has her own careful thoughts. When discussing Zhong Deping's marriage, he only said that Zhuang was the daughter of Xiucai, knowledgeable, and outstanding, virtuous and gentle, and a good girl who was one in a hundred. As a father-in-law, Mrs. Zhong was not good at seeing other girls, so he sent someone to inquire, and Zhuang's personality was as Liu said, so he proposed to marry his eldest son.

But when I entered the door, I realized that this Zhuang was a paper man, soft and weak, without assertiveness, and would only shed tears when encountering problems, and he couldn't afford it. The Liu family used this as an excuse to control the internal affairs of the back house, even if they wanted someone to help, they only called the second lady Chen. Later, Mrs. Zhong died, and the three brothers split up their families, and the big house was single, but Zhong Lingyu took over the housekeeping and kept the house in order, so Zhong Deping was relieved of his worries.

If Zhong Deping had a long life, he would have helped Zhong Lingming marry a capable wife earlier, and replaced the vacancy left by Zhong Lingyu after he got married, and the life of this family would be able to go on as usual. But before Zhong Lingming grew up, Zhong Deping left the west, and the burden inside and outside the family couldn't fall on Zhong Lingyu?

Zhong Lingyu ate a snack and instructed the maid: "Go and call Mother Zhou." ”

"Yes." The maid answered.

Not long after, a woman in her forties wearing a lotus-colored satin gown walked in, and after saluting, she stood there quietly, waiting for Zhong Lingyu to ask questions.

She is the wife of the housekeeper An Jiu, Zhou.

An Jiu was Zhong Deping's little servant when he was a child, and as he grew older, his ability gradually improved, and after the Zhong family separated, Zhong Deping made him the housekeeper of the big house; And the Zhou family was originally the dowry maid of the Zhuang family, and later married An Jiu. After Zhong Lingyu took over the affairs of the inner house, he promoted the Zhou family, who was originally serving by Zhuang's side, and temporarily took charge of the needlework room. She originally wanted to learn about the movements of the outer courtyard through the Zhou family beside An Jiu, so that she could better help Zhong Lingyu. Unexpectedly, this approach has now become a clever move, allowing her to quickly control internal and external affairs in her own hands.

Thinking of this, he asked Zhou: "Is the tea garden okay during this time?" ”

Zhou shook his head and said with a wry smile on his face: "It's indeed as Miss thought, now the people in the tea garden are panicking. I don't know where the rumor came from that the young lady couldn't manage the tea garden at all, and the tea garden was either sold or given to the second master. ”

Saying that, she raised her eyes, looked at Zhong Lingyu's face, and said cautiously: "Actually, the situation in the tea garden is quite good. The situation is even worse on the tea farmer's side, I heard that someone has gone to the tea merchant next to him to collect tea. ”

At this time, the tea merchants in Fuling County were basically self-produced and self-sold, that is, their own tea was sold by their own tea estates. Those small landlords or commoners who could not afford to open tea estates and had their own fields to grow tea had to rely on a certain big tea merchant and sell him the wool tea of each season.

In just over ten years, the Zhong family has developed from a small landlord with only some fields to a large tea merchant with a hundred acres of tea plantations and some small tea farmers, and it is also a wealthy businessman in Ba County. Before his death, Mrs. Zhong divided the family of the three brothers, and the big house was divided into more than 30 acres of tea gardens, plus a tea house in Ba County, a tea house in Fuling County, and dozens of acres of mountain land attached to the tea farmers. Every year, the yield of tea harvested from tea farmers is twice as high as that of their own tea plantations.

If those tea farmers sell their tea to others, Dafang will not only lose the profit of this year's tea, but it will be difficult to buy back the tea in the hands of these tea farmers in the future. The people of Fuling County do business or are based on integrity, and the tea farmers cooperate with the tea merchants, as long as the price is reasonable and there is no major contradiction, the tea farmers generally will not take the initiative to change the tea merchants they cooperate with.

Hearing this, the nurse suddenly became worried and asked, "Didn't we sign a contract with those tea farmers?" Aren't they afraid of lawsuits? ”

Zhou has been married to An for more than 90 years, and he knows a lot about things outside, so he naturally has a little more knowledge than the nurse who is locked up in the inner house all day.

She shook her head and said, "This kind of official will not care. The master is gone, and it is very normal for those tea farmers to find another buyer for the sake of long-term interests, and at most they will compensate our family for some breach of contract fees. ”