Chapter 2575 - 2549: Drought Relief Part 1

Bai Erlang enjoyed engaging in these kinds of schemes with people the most, primarily because it didn’t require much mental effort. He could still come out on top and secretly make others suffer losses. Just thinking about it made him so excited that he could eat more than half a bowl at dinner.

Mingda initially found it quite troublesome, unable to experience any of this enjoyment. But seeing Bai Erlang refuse Bai Shan and the others’ invitations for two consecutive days just to go to New City and keep an eye on the manager renting out the shops, she joined in the fun alongside him. As long as she saw the manager’s smile start to stiffen, she’d feel quite pleased and begin to understand the thrill.

Thus, the couple started running to New City together every day, sitting in the shops and watching over the manager’s dealings with traveling merchants who came looking due to the posted notices.

With two masters present, the manager didn’t dare play tricks because Mingda and Bai Erlang had already set the rent’s fluctuation range, preventing him from scaring off people by increasing rents.

Consequently, those merchants the manager managed to invite worked directly with the princess to finalize contracts, paying rent for the shop.

When the manager received the news, he almost fainted from the blow—after all, they had spent days negotiating and were finally about to seal the deal, only to find Princess Mingda intervened at the last minute!

They dared not confront Princess Mingda directly, so they went angrily to find the princess’s manager.

Though no words were exchanged, it was implied from the beginning—after you received our gifts, you would rent us the shop at a low price; we’d then sublease them to others. Nevertheless, despite our efforts in pulling merchants from abroad, you suddenly swooped in and snatched the deal?

That isn’t reasonable at all. Is this how we abide by the righteousness of the underworld?

But compared to the interests between master and servant, such righteousness means nothing. The princess and prince are sitting in the neighboring shop—they wouldn’t dare promise them to reclaim merchants who have already signed contracts, nor let them make a big fuss...

If the princess and prince discovered what went on here, he might not even live to see tomorrow.

So all he could do was resentfully return the items previously received and add some compensation himself, complaining, "Now, our princess and prince are personally taking care of this. You saw the notices at the two ends of the street, before our shops are fully rented out, you can’t rent them out at high prices whatsoever."

"But that’s not what you said before..."

"I also didn’t expect the princess to value this particular street’s shops so much," the manager said. "This is merely one street in New City, which itself doesn’t have many people. Her Highness owns numerous properties, not to mention the shops in the capital; even the profits from the fief are substantial yearly. How was I supposed to predict she’d personally manage the properties in New City?"

"Anyway, let’s just consider this a stroke of bad luck for everyone."

"That’s not acceptable..."

"Why wouldn’t it be okay? I’m offering you a shop at the lowest possible rent in a prime location. Even if you can’t lease it, you can run your business here without a loss," he subtly threatened. "The princess is sitting right next door, if we each take a step back, it’ll be good for you, for me, and for everyone. If things escalate, not only would I not benefit, but would your master behind you?"

At once, everyone fell silent.

Yet in their hearts, they were still unwilling, pondering how New City hardly had many people—the hefty expense on decorating would surely lead to losses.

A few gritted their teeth deciding to inform the master, hoping to delay matters further.

They handled the owner’s assets, and meeting significant losses at year-end could result in penalties.

Meanwhile, with many shops efficiently rented out, Mingda was delighted, Bai Erlang was thrilled, but the emperor wasn’t too pleased.

This year’s drought affected the Yongzhou region and various parts of the Central Plains to varying degrees, subsequently not only bringing forward holidays for farming but extending them by an additional three days.

Officials needing to return home and tend to farming were granted a fifteen-day leave combining holidays—a total of half a month.

He thought his daughter would follow the prince back home for a while, spending time with her old father. Yet, after the holidays started, the daughter didn’t even stay in the capital but went directly to the imperial estate.

Furthermore, Bai Er also took his farming leave, claiming he was going to cultivate the imperial estate’s land, receiving an approval slip from his supervisor, albeit with a look of disbelief.

Wei Zhi also took his farming leave, though he only had ten days off instead of fifteen, and even then, sometimes he continued handling official business after returning from the fields.

Wei Zhi owned a piece of land in Yongzhou, which he had bought himself.

This year saw a drought, prompting him to personally join the workers to haul water and irrigate the fields, overseeing their plowing, and rolling up his trousers to plant seedlings alongside them.

Coincidentally, that piece of land was near the land Old Zhou prepared as dowry for Manbao.

Due to the drought, two sharecroppers they recently found backed out, citing hardships in managing their land after realizing the severity of the spring drought. They couldn’t manage so much land and thus returned Zhou Man’s land.

Old Zhou took a glance and couldn’t resist mumbling while leading his sons and daughters-in-law to plow the fields.

Manbao and Bai Shan also took leave for farming, donned wide-brimmed straw hats, rolled up their pants, and headed into the fields.

With no canals nearby, the only way was cutting open the high ground of the fields and letting families flow water down. But with little water in the river, people could only haul water themselves.

There’s no way Manbao was hauling water personally—they arranged for a cart and transported water directly in the car. However, by the time they reached the field, most of the water had spilled.

Even though the barrel had a lid, it didn’t quite solve the problem.

The two of them squatted on the car staring blankly at the water buckets, "If only we had a water tanker."

Specialized water tankers exist, but where could they find one on such short notice? Moreover, water tankers are expensive, and they couldn’t spend more on costs than gains solely for farming.

Old Zhou returned after knocking on the large clumps of earth in the field, saw the two children frowning at the wooden barrels, cast a glance at the ox cart, and couldn’t help but say, "You spilled water all the way here, what a waste."

He lectured them, "Why didn’t you put some large leaves in the barrels before covering them..."

Manbao and Bai Shan’s eyes lit up, recalling how villagers liked placing lotus leaves in buckets while fetching water to prevent much spillage as the water swayed.

Manbao immediately jumped off the cart and said to Old Zhou, "Dad, don’t worry—the water doesn’t go to waste, and whatever falls is for the grass. Once the grass grows, we’ll have our cows eat it."

Old Zhou: ... What a frivolous act, neither rice nor wheat have any water, yet you’re offering it to the grass.

The two led the ox cart again to fetch water.

Compared to other farming tasks, water fetching wasn’t so tiring.

At the riverbank, Bai Shan and Manbao unloaded the buckets from the cart, collected water, and Manbao picked some large leaves, placing them in the buckets before covering them.