The Legend of Concubine's Daughter Minglan

Chapter 128

After spending a half day on the road, they arrived at the Rain Estate not long after getting out of the city gate.

This estate which was contiguous to the countryside was located in a perfect district, with river on the front and mountain on the back. It had been presented to Old Madam Sheng, the only legal daughter of Marquis Yongyi's family, as her dowry in the thriving days of her family. After that, Old Madam Sheng had needed money to help Sheng Hong with his career, so she had sold most of this land property.

Although Sheng's family condition had got better afterwards, it was also hard to buy that part of the land back. Therefore, Sheng Hong had bought another estate for Old Madam Sheng. Still, Old Madam Sheng couldn't stop thinking of the land she had sold, so she had kept inquiring about which of those families that she had sold the land to had needed money. After a few years, she had managed to buy some of the land back continuously, which covered five hundred and eighty acres in all.

Steward Cui had been chosen from lots of servants to come with Old Madam Sheng when she had married due to his diligence and perfect skills in the farm work. Mama Cui had been Steward Cui's long lost childhood friend and they had met each other after a long separation. After Old Madam Sheng had known about that, she had spent a lot of efforts and money to buy Mama Cui out of another family. As a result, Mama Cui and Steward Cui had married with each other as they had wished. Then, as grateful as they felt to Old Madam Sheng, they decided to be loyal to Old Madam Sheng forever.

And thanks to this loyal couple's work, the Rain Estate always seemed to be more prosperous than the other estates.

Minglan sat in the sedan with a curtain hat on her head while inspecting the estate and the tenants. On the immense farmland, there were cattles, dogs and countless fruits and vegetables. Most of the tenants here were familiar to Minglan. As they saw her in the sedan, they all stopped doing the farm work and bowed or kowtowed smilingly. The rural atmosphere gave Minglan lots of pleasure.

Minglan was quite satisfied.

"How are the crops?" After reaching to the yard, Minglan sat upright in the hall and started to ask about the details. Steward Cui smiled with his eyes squinted and his head lowered while saying reverently, "Everything's fine. The wind and rain arrive on time this year, we'll have a better harvest than last year. Due to the drought weather over the last few years and the mutiny in the Yangzi River area, the grain price in the capital soared. Still, Old Madam and Sixth La... Oh, and Madam have never pressed the tenants for rents or asked for a rise in the rents. Also, you were so considerate about their lives and comforted them all the time. The tenants all said that they could never find another madam who's so generous and kind!"

Having leafed through the brochure on the desk, she raised her head and laughed, "Steward Cui, you truly are eloquent! I should let Old Madam see how good a talker you are, that'll be so interesting!"

Steward Cui blushed right away. He knew how capable Minglan was and then decided to stop pretending and speak out his mind.

Hearing his words, Minglan was stunned. She exhaled and asked, "Buying land?"

Steward Cui nodded heavily with an excited look, "I don't know why there are several estates in the Bai Tong River area on sale lately. I have already inquired about those places carefully. The lands are great indeed. Our estate still have the surplus over these years, why don't we extend our land?"

Minglan pondered for a while and said shortly, "Then do it as usual. You have to record everything on the paper, the area of the land you are going to buy, the owner of that land as well as the price. Later on, send me all the papers to the Black Mountain Estate on the other side of the mountain. I'll see if it's going to work, then we'll talk again."