Housekeeper Meng had already sent out the message for a day or two, and seeing that the masters had already disposed of two shops and were preparing to return to the Capital City, the luggage was mostly packed.
He started to feel a bit troubled—if the estate couldn’t be sold, would the family leave him behind? During the Spring Festival, then, he wouldn’t be able to reunite with his own family.
If the estate couldn’t be sold in the future, would they leave him here at the Mountain Villa to manage the estate? Managing here compared to in the Capital City—if he had to choose, of course, a bustling place would offer more opportunities.
Having managed the estate here for half a year, he felt he had aged considerably: tanned by the sun, he had lost weight, and riding horses in the winter wind had caused the skin on his hands to peel and his face to become chapped by the cold winds.
Was this still the same Housekeeper Meng who had once elegantly managed the inner courtyards?
Ye Shiqi overheard her parents chatting casually; they had no intention of purchasing the neighboring estate. They felt that it wasn’t managed very well and that even if they did purchase it at a high price, it would not be profitable.
Ye Shiqi looked at the neighboring estate—it was indeed priced a bit higher, but if managed as well as theirs, it could actually make money.
She felt that not everyone could manage an estate as well as her family did. They didn’t just rely on management; it was thanks to her "Space Water" which grew the crops. The neighboring estate was alright; it was just that the land had been purchased at a high price, and without superior crop yields, it hadn’t turned a profit quickly.
Ye Shiqi had heard that the land purchased by the neighboring estate was even more expensive than theirs. It seemed that this was why their estate was difficult to sell.
She didn’t immediately suggest to her parents to buy the neighboring estate, also knowing that her parents had invested all their money into the previous estate. The one closer to the road hadn’t yet yielded a better harvest.
In matters of trade, it came down to whether the other party could lower the price a little. In business, this is always the case—no profit, no deal. Who would take the risk without the lure of significant profits?
Ye Shiqi had actually considered that the Bull Power crop they were growing on the estate could be planted on the hill of the neighboring estate, and it wouldn’t be necessary to specially buy paddy fields.
The paddy fields here, being quite distant from the village and of less than top quality, were part of the reason why the neighboring estate wasn’t achieving the highest yields—they included some swampy lands that, while alright for growing vegetables, made rice cultivation less productive as the muck reached up to an adult’s thighs.
When those people bought the land here to cultivate the estate at such a high price, it was simply because they saw the profits from their own estate!
Those who sold the land at such a high price had people laughing behind their backs—the County Magistrate’s family, who had never farmed, buying such expensive land, how much crop yield would they need to break even?
The onlookers persisted in their amusement for over half a year, yet out of fear, no one dared to speak openly. Those who had been tempted away by the high wages soon regretted their decision bitterly.
Nobody could figure out why, despite similar farming practices, the crop quality next door never matched up to the estate’s.
When Meng Zhaojun bought the land, she thought about diverting water from the neighboring land, wanting the "Space Water" to irrigate her crops and thus make a fortune.
But she was half-hearted in her efforts and had once instructed her servants to do such a thing. However, the diverted water came from their own estate, not from the neighboring one.
Both estates could channel water in different directions, and it isn’t possible for one to divert water exclusively to their fields, as the lands had varying elevations.
Both estates were fenced off, especially the cultivated lands which were protected by thorny vines. The crops planted near the border with the neighboring estate fared alright, but farther away, where the water from the neighboring estate didn’t reach, the yields were less ideal.
The neighboring estate suddenly purchasing land at a high price to start their own farm and even poaching their staff had made the housekeeper vigilant.
To better conceal her actions, Ye Shiqi later only released her Space Water into the ponds and wells, and she only visited the estate sporadically, after long intervals.
In the second half of the year, when paddy rice was planted—although it could grow well without the Space Water—she continued to do so to reduce pests affecting the crops.
Ye Shiqi did not pour out the Space Water in front of others; nobody knew what she was doing.
All they saw was her occasionally going up to the hills, then visiting the estate, sometimes accompanied by her elder sisters. Who would suspect that a young girl possessed such a unique ability?
Ye Shiqi could actually use her will to transport the crops and Space Water from her space, extending the range of her will to 100 meters, and always took care to do so when others weren’t watching.