Ying Tao’s words broke through the last of Da Jun’s restraint, and he crouched down on the ground, hugging his head and sobbing loudly, all the while muttering something to himself.
Lin Yuan, standing at a distance, couldn’t hear him clearly, but with this she had understood the relationship between the two. Although she was curious about the girl Ying Tao mentioned, hearing that they had done nothing disgraceful, she was relieved.
No longer interested in eavesdropping, Lin Yuan shook her head and turned away, thinking to herself that they were all people with tough lives.
The opening date for Rice Flower Fragrance was set, and as Lin Yuan busied herself with preparations, she fretted over whether to inform Xia Zheng. Truth be told, she dearly wished for his return to witness the opening of her new shop.
She had been exchanging messages with Xia Zheng via little green birds, sharing only trivial everyday matters. His replies were always along the lines of "Your husband is unharmed, put your mind at ease," or "Your husband is lonely and misses you terribly; do you miss your husband as well?"
Perhaps it was due to reading the phrases "your husband" and "your wife" too many times, Lin Yuan now found herself quite indifferent when facing these once sensitive terms. If Xia Zheng were to one day not use "your husband" or "your wife," Lin Yuan might feel a bit uncomfortable.
However, frequent as their communication was, not a single message detailed when he might return, leading Lin Yuan to guess it would still be some days away. She carefully tied all the notes together with a red string and placed them in her makeup drawer, then into a large chest for bedding.
The new house was now built, with the flooring nearly installed. Once the floors were done, they would move in the newly made furniture. Lin Yuan estimated that within ten days at most, they would be able to move in and live there.
Afterwards, the plan was to tear down the three old rooms they currently lived in and convert them into wing rooms. By then, their house would likely be the largest and finest in the Lin family’s hamlet, and they would be the wealthiest as well.
Lin Yuan delighted in anticipation, but was brought back to reality by the squealing of the piglets outside, realizing she had yet to feed them.
She hurried to the kitchen to mix the swill with the pigs’ feed and served it to the piglets, watching them devour it with great appetite. Lin Yuan happily tapped the piglets on their heads with the spoon.
These piglets had been very well reared by Pork Rong, and she was careful not to spoil them, always preparing the best feed. They had brought with them half a field of old corn cobs from the main house at the division of the family assets, and now they were coming to good use. Since the corn was old and had a certain taste that people didn’t like, no one ate it, but the pigs didn’t mind and gobbled it up enthusiastically.
After feeding the pigs, she went to check on the rabbits. Some of them had started to mature, so she separated the ones in heat into a solitary cage.
Among them was a white doe which Lin Yuan had intended to use for an experiment, hoping to breed entirely white rabbits. So this time, she chose for it a partner of the plainest, sparsest-colored buck. If successful, she would wait for the newborn rabbits to see how many pure white ones there would be.
If the experiment worked, they would use the fur of the white rabbits for new clothes come New Year. When she said new clothes, they certainly wouldn’t be made entirely of fur, perhaps just a trim of rabbit fur on the cuffs and collar.
The small wooden boxes for Rice Flower Fragrance, made by Lin Changqing, were finished, and the pouches crafted by Lady Liu and Lin Wei were complete, all delivered to the shop ahead of time by