"Miss, we’re almost at the county town!" Yang Chuxia sat leisurely in the horse carriage, casually browsing through an agricultural book.
Her knowledge of fieldwork was really limited, so she thought of learning more during her spare time. As a result, she borrowed a few agricultural books from Ye Zi’an.
Her visit to the county town today wasn’t for any field-related matters, but to check on the two shops. She had asked Old Mu to find storefronts in the county town, stating that she wanted to open a nut shop later on. Old Mu had done so efficiently, securing two shops in a short amount of time. They both seemed decent, so he had paid a deposit for each. Yang Chuxia had taken the time to inspect them herself and decided they were indeed good investments, thereby buying both properties.
The smaller of the two shops had already been rented out, but the larger one was kept vacant as she planned to open her own shop in the fall.
"Alright, I’ll take a nap. Wake me up when we arrive at the shop," Yang Chuxia said.
"Alright!" Fugui accompanied Yang Chuxia on this trip. He was originally a carpenter, but since several more servants had recently joined the household, they were all assigned to carpentry work when they had nothing else to do. As a result, the number of available carpenters had increased.
Thus, whenever she needed a servant at home, she would reassign Fugui or someone like Qingyou.
Entering and leaving Quanya County town always required a security check. The process seemed slow, even if there weren’t many people. It was already one hour later when Yang Chuxia and Fugui had finally passed the security check and entered the town.
Seeing that it was getting late, Fugui hurried the pace slightly.
However, the closer they got to the town center, the more congested the streets became.
Yang Chuxia noticed this problem as well.
"It looks like there’s a big crowd up ahead!" Fugui leaned out and took a look. "There are a lot of people gathered, and the carriage can’t pass through."
"A lot of people?" Yang Chuxia raised her eyebrows. "You go up front and see what’s going on and who’s gathered there."
"Yes!" Fugui went up ahead to check, and returned with a report in less than a quarter of an hour.
"Miss, it’s an old man selling fried potatoes. His potatoes were found to be poisonous, and the customers are now demanding an explanation from him. The old man can’t give any satisfactory answers, so the customers ordered their servants to smash his stall."
Yang Chuxia enjoyed eating fried potatoes, and Ye Zi’an often bought them for her when he returned from town.
"How could a potato stall be poisonous? Did he use sprouted potatoes?" Yang Chuxia asked, frowning.
Fugui shook his head. "I don’t think so, but judging by the expressions of some people around, I suspect the old man might be wronged."
"Is that so?" Yang Chuxia pondered for a moment, then got off the carriage and said to Fugui, "Watch the carriage while I go up front and take a look."
Fugui knew of his young mistress’s abilities and didn’t try to stop her, agreeing to stay and watch the carriage instead.
Yang Chuxia made her way through the layers of onlookers and finally squeezed into the center. As she saw, the stall selling fried potatoes was indeed destroyed: its contents were scattered all over the ground, still-warm potatoes amidst the ruined remains of the stove. The old man was bleeding from a wound on his forehead.
He kept crying out, "My potatoes are not poisonous! My potatoes are not poisonous!"