The Blessed

Early in the morning the next day, after sending the children to school, Ling Jingxuan asked Lady Yang to use the little jars for jam to stuff four full jars of spicy jerkies and spiced dried meat slices for Chu Ci and his son. Lady Yang was worried that the kids might starve in school, so she used the oiled paper to wrap some for each of them and stuffed in their bags, and told them to eat some when they felt hungry.

After sending the kids away, another busy day had begun. Because of the kids’ fight thing, they no longer made jam after dinner. There were still a lot of wild fruit in the warehouse to be cleaned and decocted. Under Yan Shengrui’s insistence, Ling Jingxuan could only stay home to make jam, while all the others went into the mountain again. The only one who had nothing to do was Ling Jinghan in the pavilion.

“Master Xuan, Guarantor Liu said he could only bring people here by noon.”

The factory for the jam making covered a very large area, which was divided into two parts, on one side was built a lot of reservoirs used for washing those wild fruits, while on the other side was a long row of large cooking ranges, on each of them was a bit iron pan. When the restaurant was urging too often, Ling Jingxuan would use the three of them together. Today was the same case. When Song Gengniu went to report things, Ling Jingxuan who was busy among the three big iron pans just nodded casually signaling that he got it, but didn’t say one word. Song Gengniu also didn’t think much, directly went out and walked toward the mountain. As long as there was work, he’d go into the mountain to help after sending the kids to school.

At noon, the family got together for lunch. Since the economic condition at home improved, Ling Jingxuan completely ignored the rules of the two meals a day, and changed it to three meals a day. At first, Ling Chenglong and his wife still felt it was a little luxurious and complained it before him obliquely, but instead, they had to listen to his convincing words every time. Gradually, they were used to three meals a day. Even Zhao&Han couple got used to it. Even when they didn’t have to run up, they’d make some food at home at noon.

Another change was taking a nap. Not only Ling Chenglong and others, Ling Jingxuan even asked Song Gengniu and his family to do that. The reason was it’s good for their health. Anyhow, he was a doctor, who dare not believe him?

“Master Xuan, Guarantor Liu is here with people.”

Thanks to wolf daddy and the two cubs, these days, the six dishes and the soup on the table all had meat. As Song Gengniu came in to report, Ling jingxuan put down his chopsticks and said, “Bring them in.”

Seeing that they were almost all full, Ling Jingxuan meant to ask them to select people with him.

“Yes.”

After Song Gengniu went out, Lady Yang and Song Shuiling deftly removed the remnants on the table. Ling Jinghan looked at his big brother and said, “How many people are you planning to buy this time?”

“I don't know, let’s take a look first, it mainly depends on their quality. Later, you guy also try to select two. In the future when our business grows big enough, we’ll have to buy more. So learning how to select people isn’t a bad thing.”

Shrugging, leaning on the chair, Ling Jingxuan narrowed his eyes, a total ‘material comforts lead to sexual desire’ decadent look.

“We also have to do that? Jingxuan, I can’t. You can just pick some randomly yourself.”

Hearing that they also had to learn to select people, Lady Wang hurried waved his hand. She heard from Lady Yang that some servants had already formed that kind of shameless characters being sold between human traders. If they bought some bad servants, they’d be acting like they were the masters. They were born farmers. How would they be those tricky servants’ match?

“Do you even have to learn? It’d be enough as long as we have money.”

Seeing her frightened look, Ling Jingxuan couldn't help finding it so funny. Lady Wang said quickly, “What if I buy some bad people?”

Finally they lived a better life, she didn't want to spend money to trouble herself.

“Mom, don't worry, we have their indenture in our hands. According to the law of Qing Kingdom, if a servant has signed the indenture, the master even doesn’t have to take any responsibility even if he kills the servant. So if we buy a tricky servant, we’ll sell him after giving him a good beating.”

In this respect, Yan Shengrui seemed particularly familiar, even Ling Jingxuan couldn’t help throwing him a look, with a smile crawling on the corner of his mouth. If it hadn’t been that he was 100% sure that he had lost his memories, he would really think he was lying to them. As long as it was things he had ever contacted before, he’d spit it out without even thinking, totally unlike someone who had lost his memories.

“But...”

Lady Wang was still a little embarrassed, but she couldn’t convince them, so finally she could only turn to her husband signaling for help. But Ling Chenglong was no better than her. They could only stare at each other helplessly.

“Brother Ling, long time no see, your big house is good, so spacious and bright. Even I want to build a new house copying yours!”

A little while, under the guidance of Song Gengniu, Guarantor Liu came in with a group of thirty or forty people, the spacious room instantly became a little crowded. There were men and women, old and young, some were even at least over fifty, and also a few skinny children, you couldn’t tell their exact age, but no more than ten. There were also some restless ones. Once they came in, they kept peeping around. Especially a few girls, when they came in, they stuck their eyes on Yan Shengrui as they saw him. Ling Jingxuan looked at Yan Shengrui, while the latter shrugged his shoulders, signaling that he didn’t mean to seduce anyone of them. They stuck onto him themselves, which had nothing to do with him.

“Ha ha…yes, long time no see, about the worker's thing, I haven't thanked you. After I am done with everything and not so busy, I will invite all relatives and friends home for a big feast. You have to come then, Guarantor Liu!”

Reading his eyes, Ling Jingxuan grinned. When he turned to Guarantor Liu, that social big smile had already hung on his face.

“Then I won’t stand on ceremony. I wonder how many people you are gonna buy. Any special requirements?”

After some small talk, Guarantor Liu got to the point. He was too busy recently and had no time to delay.

“No, are these all you have?”

Then he moved his eyes to those people. Many who had ever served those rich families all showed undisguised despise in the eyes, apparently they didn’t want to work for this kind of family, thinking they were only some parvenu at most, and wanted to learn from those rich families to parade their wealth. But it seemed they forgot one thing—whether Ling Jingxuan was a parvenu or whether he was parading his wealth, at least he had the money to buy them, unlike them who were even no better that some animals.

Of course, there were bad ones, there’d be some good ones. There were even some who were for sale for the first time. Some were written with fear on the faces, some still held the fantasy that someday they could fly onto a high branch and become a phoenix. But most of them looked numb. Being sold for too many times, they gradually became numb to it. There were too few of them like Song Gengniu and his family.

“Well, Song didn't say it clearly, so I brought all of them here. Pick anyone you want. The price is negotiable.”

To Ling Jingxuan, Guarantor Liu always held some kind of suck-up feeling and inexplicable fear, although he himself also had no idea what he feared of.

“Dad, mom, brother Zhao and Han, Jinghan, Jingpeng, you choose first.”

Giving a rough look at those people, Ling Jingxuan decisively offered his priority to others. On hearing that they were also included, Zhao&Han couple hurriedly said, “Don’t include us. Look! We already have three meals here everyday. And we still have our own land to take care. So we don’t need any servant.”

“Hehe... don't you want to buy a footboy for Tiewa? I plan to prepare one for Xiaowen. Little Huzi is steady, so I’ll leave him for Xiaowu. For footboys, you’d better pick those of their age. So they can grow up together and they could serve them better. Some day Tiewa and others have to go to the capital for the imperial examination. We can’t let them go by themselves, right?”

As long as it was something Ling Jingxuan had decided to do, he had plenty of words to persuade them. See? When it came to Tiewa, Zhao Dalong instantly shut his mouth, while Han Fei already moved his eyes on those kids of Tiewa’s age. For his son, he’d like to spend each copper coin they earned.

“Mom, I’ll help you.”

Seeing his parents were still hesitating, Ling Jinghan got up and held his mom up, while Ling Jingpeng also held up his father and walked behind them. They passed through those people in four rows. Seeing that the two brothers looked kind of handsome, one was strong while the other was so elegant, the point is both looked still single, some women slightly raised their chin and gave them those pitiful eyes. Pity that the two brothers didn’t even look at them at all.

“I want this girl. She looks not bad.”

In the last row, as they were almost finished, Lady Wang just randomly picked a comely girl. With a glance of that girl, Ling Jinghan slightly frowned. Noticing that, Ling Jingxuan also walked over. He saw that girl was looking at Ling Jinghan shyly. He instantly found it so funny. Is his mom selecting a bed-warming girl for Jinghan? That girl looked pure, but that pair of seducing eyes sold her out. It should be some maid who rolled sheets with the master of a big family and got sold out. His mom was really daring.

“Mom, we are choosing someone who could do some labor work, this is not a beauty contest. Don’t look at their appearances but their hands first. Those who even have no cocoon on their hands, no! Besides, no too beautiful ones. Mom, you are the most beautiful in our family. How can you let someone beat you?”

Holding her, Ling Jinghan half-jokingly said so, also indirectly denied her choice.

“Go away! How could you tease your mom like that?”

As she heard those teasing words, Lady Wang's nervousness disappeared a lot. According to his method, she pulled up that girl’s hands. They were even more delicate than hers! Lady Wang decisively gave up, and then went on choosing. Finally she chose a woman who had a birthmark on the face in her thirties. Ling Jinghan asked about her condition and knew that she was sold because she was too ugly and talked back to her last master. Then he no longer objected. Anyway, it was only a maid. Like Yan Shengrui said, if she was not appropriate, they could sell her.

And it was a rare thing that Ling Chenglong performed better than his wife. After careful looking back and forth, he chose a middle-aged honest-looking man like him. And Ling Jinghan and Ling Jingpeng chose two men in their twenties each. Although they both followed their principles and specially chose those honest-looking and had cocoon on their hands, nothing was absolute. Soon after, they’d find that buying people is also some profound thing. You should never judge people from their appearances.