How could Yang Chuxia not be agreeable? She happily received gifts from the County Magistrate and others, and immediately began preparing return gifts.
She planned to send gifts to a few families in the town the next day, letting Shopkeeper Li deliver the one for the boss.
As for the gift for the County Magistrate, she’d have Yang Dachuan and Brother An deliver it personally.
She had planned it all perfectly, but who would have expected the wealthy households in town to be so well informed? After learning that the County Magistrate had sent New Year’s gifts, families like the Li’s, Zhang’s, and Wang’s all sent their own New Year’s gifts.
Different carriages went to Yang Chuxia’s home for two consecutive days, causing the villagers to watch with envy.
However, this only made Yang Chuxia feel a headache. Looking at the pile of gift boxes at home, she felt really irritated.
Because when someone sends a New Year’s gift, you have to send one back, and the return gift can be more but never less. So how much stuff does she have to prepare for all these families?
It seemed she had to use the congratulatory gifts she had stored last time to make up for the numbers. If other families needed anything in the future, she would select other gifts to supplement it.
"Dad, you take the New Year’s gifts to Shopkeeper Li and Uncle Hong in the town tomorrow. Zi’an and I will go to the county town to give the County Magistrate the return gift. We’ll deliver the gifts to the Li and Wang families in town after we return from the county town." Originally, it was decided that Yang Dachuan and Ye Zi’an would go to the county town, but she decided to switch with Yang Dachuan as she thought going to the county town would be a good chance to look for botanical drugs in the pharmacy.
Upon hearing this, Yang Dachuan nodded, "Okay." But when he thought about his daughter going to the county town the next day he said, "Why don’t we invite Brother Niu to go with you guys? Your dad wouldn’t feel at ease with you two alone."
"Okay, we’ll bring Uncle Niu when we go to the town tomorrow."
With no more words for the night, Yang Chuxia, Ye Zi’an, and the others got up early the next day. Yang Dachuan loaded various types of gifts on the ox cart, then drove the ox cart to take the two of them to town.
Once they reached the town, Yang Chuxia summoned Uncle Niu and hired a horse-drawn carriage to go to the county town.
Since they had set off early, they reached the county town before noon. Upon arrival, they had the carriage go directly to the back of the governmental office.
The front of the governmental office was the working area of the County Magistrate, and the back, connected to the governmental office’s courtyard, was his residence. Upon reaching the entrance to the official residence of the County Magistrate, Uncle Niu stepped forward and knocked on the door, and after a while, a young boy poked his head out from inside.
"Who are you looking for?"
Uncle Niu took out a social visit card from his chest in response. This card was written by Ye Zi’an to make sure they wouldn’t be impolite.
Usually, you should give a social visit card first when visiting someone, and wait for them to send a card back saying they are free before making a visit. But as they didn’t live in the county town, it was not convenient to go back and forth like that, so they had to do it this way.
The young boy seemed literate. After receiving Uncle Niu’s card and glancing at it, he didn’t remember the Yang family, but still went inside to report out of respect for the County Magistrate’s reputation.
A short while later, the boy came back out, "Follow me in." His voice was unemotional, and it was hard to tell his attitude towards them.
The boy led them to a side hall, only let Ye Zi’an wait there, then a maidservant came to lead her into the harem.
Inside the harem, the Madam of County Magistrate had been waiting for some time. When she saw her coming in, she quickly got up and smiled, "Is this Miss Yang? My husband often mentions you, saying that both this case and the previous one were solved thanks to your help. And also, the soybean paste you sent, my mother-in-law loves it. She ate several more bowls of rice because of it. I have to thank you profusely."
Before Yang Chuxia could say anything, the Madam of County Magistrate came up laughing and talking nonstop. Yang Chuxia thought that this Madam was a bit too enthusiastic.