Unlimited estates for rural beauty-Chapter 240 Arrival at Baihe for Promotion (2)

The guard driving the carriage vigilantly observed the man appearing before him. Xuan Yue dismounted, took a bundle from behind him, and approached the carriage, respectfully saying, "Princess, I am the Prince’s close guard, sent in the Prince’s name to deliver this."

Inside the carriage, Feng Xuxu furrowed her brows, and Zhu Lengqing, seeing this, nodded towards her mistress, "It is indeed Xuan Yue, one of the four great guards."

"Alright, go and check."

Zhu Lengqing stood up, took the bundle from Xuan Yue’s hands, returned to the carriage, and handed it to the young lady.

Feng Xuxu opened the bundle to find a letter, the script appearing to be hastily written. On closer inspection, it read, "At Xiwupo, there is good farmland, it’s my estate, I entrust it to you, make sure to manage it well, do not overwork yourself."

After reading the letter, Feng Xuxu placed it against her chest, unable to speak for a long time, took a deep breath, and then addressed Xuan Yue waiting outside the carriage, "Tell the Prince, I understand, and he should also rest well."

"Yes, princess," Xuan Yue promptly replied, then mounted his horse and quickly departed.

The two carriages rattled on and finally arrived as evening approached.

Upon getting the estate settled, it was already nightfall, they had a simple dinner, and retired early to rest.

The next day, at the first crow of the rooster, Feng Xuxu awoke. Since leaving Feng Family village, she had rarely heard a rooster’s call, so she got up, dressed, stepped out of her room, arrived at the courtyard, and began to wander, breathing in the fresh air.

"Eh, Miss, how come you’re up so early?" In the courtyard, Wang Liuzhu, who was repairing a bamboo basket, expressed his surprise on seeing the young lady appear in the back yard.

"I had a good sleep, so I decided to take a walk," Feng Xuxu replied to Wang Liuzhu with a slight smile.

"As long as you slept well, otherwise you’d get sleepy during the day. If the butler sees, who knows how he’d punish you," Wang Liuzhu said cheerfully.

Upon hearing this, Feng Xuxu found it amusing and approached with a smile, looking at the bamboo basket in Wang Liuzhu’s hands, "Do you always get up this early?"

"Yes, my wife and I get up before dawn," Wang Liuzhu put down the fixed basket, picked up another one, fumbled to find the holes, then continued repairing.

Seeing this, Feng Xuxu looked up and frowned slightly, "Why do I only see you here, where’s your wife?"

Wang Liuzhu laughed when he heard her question, pointing behind him, he told Feng Xuxu, "My wife is busy boiling water in the main kitchen; she’ll have to cook for everyone heading to work in a bit."

"Is all the cooking for everyone just done by your wife alone?"

Wang Liuzhu sighed and turned to see that no one was in the yard, then whispered to Feng Xuxu, "Alas, it wasn’t like this before, there were a few other maids, but then the butler fired them, leaving only my wife."

"Fired them? Didn’t you go to the butler?"

"I did, but the butler said, ’If you want to work, work, otherwise leave, nobody’s stopping you,’" Wang Liuzhu recalled the butler’s words with a mix of anger and helplessness.

"And what’s the story with you?" Feng Xuxu indicated the pile of bamboo baskets on the ground, addressing Wang Liuzhu.

"Well, spring plowing and tilling are about to begin, and the butler instructed me to make sure I fix these baskets properly, otherwise they’ll deduct from our silver," he said with resignation, his hands steadily repairing as he regarded the large heap of baskets yet to be fixed.

Feng Xuxu’s brows knitted tightly at the sight of these worn baskets, clearly having been repaired more than once before.

"Don’t you buy new baskets?"

"What’s there to buy, the butler says the times are tight, and we should save where we can." After finishing his explanation, he repaired another basket and set it aside, then started on the next one.