After dinner, Jiang Hong let his wife and daughter go to bed early, but he himself kept waiting until nearly midnight when he finally heard Zhou Qian, who had left to get rid of that group of people, come back. He went out and asked him about his journey, wanting to make sure that the people had all been sent away properly and that there were no accidents.
After a brief discussion, he understood that there had been no issues, and the two men separated to return to their own rooms.
The night passed by silently, and when Su Tang awoke the next morning she found Madam Zhang was standing nearby with a basin of warm water for her to wash her face with. Seeing Su Tang had woke up, she said, “Zhou Qian returned just before midnight last night. This maidservant asked him, and he told me that all of the people were sent to the brokerage office as you ordered. He’s been waiting to report everything to the young miss once you woke up.”
Su Tang nodded and then washed up a bit and changed her clothes before stepping out of the room to meet Zhou Qian. His report matched with Madam Zhang’s words. Although some of those unruly farmers had been big burly men, there were equally as many strong men still working on the farm so it hadn’t been an issue to tie all of them up and keep them from making trouble in the carriages.
And, of course, once they were at the brokerage office there was no need for any concern. These ancient brokerage offices were in the business of buying and selling humans, so they naturally had the means to control their “product”.
“Well done. Go back to the Zhou Farm and tell everyone to leave the fields empty for now. Don’t plant anything until I return.” Hearing that those people had finally been dealt with, Su Tang’s face remained indifferent and she quickly changed the topic.
Zhou Qian nodded and agreed without another word. He ate a quick breakfast and then left immediately for the Zhou Farm.
A little while later, Su Tang herself also had breakfast, and Niu’er had finished feeding all the horses and tidying himself up. At the thought that he could finally go home today, Niu’er’s face was all smiles.
Su Tang didn’t want to ride with anyone else like last time, so she sent Jiang Hong off to hire another carriage for his family of three. Once the second carriage arrived, they all left the Yang Farm and prepared to go back to Qinghe Town.
It took about an hour by carriage to go from the Yang Farm to Qinghe Town, and it was a horribly bumpy ride every inch of the way. Naturally, Su Tang directly grabbed the orange cat and hid inside her space immediately, only coming out again when the carriage was nearing the entrance of Qinghe Town.
Jiang Hong and Madam Zhang’s carriage followed behind Niu er’s carriage and entered Qinghe Town together. Once inside, they all went straight to East Street.
It had been nearly half a month since Su Tang had gone out, so when she finally saw the familiar streets of Qinghe Town again Su Tang felt a rare current of warmth in her heart. The feeling of returning home.
Niu’er’s familiar carriage parked itself in front of the entrance of the Dessert Cafe’s back courtyard. Hearing the sound of the carriage outside Yu Caihe, who had been making soap as usual, hurriedly rushed out to open the door. After seeing that it was Niu’er’s carriage, she immediately smiled and exclaimed: “Miss, you’re back!”
Zhang Cuilan heard Yu Caihe’s cry and came out to see the familiar carriage outside as well. Then the two quickly gathered themselves and approached the carriage and, sure enough, when the door opened it was their master who came out.
“Miss!” The two immediately saluted.
Su Tang nodded and slowly clambered down from the carriage. Once she was on the ground she turned around and handed Niu’er another two taels of silver, “Thank you for your hard work.”
“Thank you, miss. Thank you, miss. How could you mention hard work? It’s no trouble. In the future, if you ever need a carriage again, please feel free to contact me.” Niu’er responded happily. In fact, although this had been an unusually long trip for him, Niu’er truly didn’t feel it was hard work.
With all the meals his employer had been feeding him, he had even gained a little weight, and, of course, he had earned quite a bit of money. He didn’t feel tired at all, instead, he felt very happy.
“En!” Su Tang smiled and nodded.
Niu’er had received his money, so he drove off with a smile to go find his family that he had been away from for so long.
A moment later, Jiang Hong and Madam Zhang also climbed down from their carriage with their daughter. Their carriage had been hired today from a small village that was next to the Yang Farm, so it was much less expensive compared to Niu’er’s and the only needed to give the driver fifty copper coins. Once they gave him the money, the driver didn’t say anything more, he just cracked his whip and quickly drove away.
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