Chapter 358 – Megan
The room that they were in right now was the place where guests would dine in. Here, there were individual compartments to eat your meals, one could also order their own dishes, in contrast to ordinary people where their meals were always set.
After eating in the dining hall, Phil took Zhao Hai directly towards Sweet Plum Courtyard where he was going to stay in. Sweet Plum Courtyard was named after its famous Sweet Plum garden, which houses all kinds of sweet plums. At this time, it was the season for the plums to bloom, filling the entire courtyard with a pleasant fragrance.
Although Zhao Hai was admitted to Sweet Plum Courtyard, Ruyen wasn’t invited and she just stayed inside Shelley Hotel. However, Zhao Hai still took measures for her to be taken care of.
When Zhao Hai had finished eating his meal and headed to Sweet Plum Courtyard, Laura and the others were already waiting for him inside a room of their new residence. In addition to the sweet plum garden, the courtyard also had a small area in in front of the main house. The entire yard could fit about 100 people, it was not a small courtyard.
After entering the room, Zhao Hai saw Laura and the others sitting inside. Their expression were full of worries when they saw Zhao Hai enter. Laura and the others immediately stood up as Laura asked, “Brother Hai, what’s all this about? Why did they send us here?”
Zhao Hai looked at Laura’s worried face, he smiled and answered, “No need to be worried, we’ll start living here from now on. This is something Brother Smith prepared for us.” Then he told Laura and the others about his meeting with Smith today.
Listening to Zhao Hai’s story, Laura and the others were stunned. But Laura immediately wore a happy expression, she turned to Zhao Hai and said, “Brother Hai, aren’t you worried that Smith arranged for us to stay here so that he could monitor our movements?”
Zhao hai showed a faint smiled and said, “Isn’t it good if he watched over us? This way, we can make him more willing to cooperate with us. He will not doubt us, which would be very beneficial for our cause.”
Laura and the others stared blankly, but they immediately understood what Zhao Hai meant. Laura embarrassingly said, “So Brother Hai meant that initially, hehe, now I understand.”
Zhao Hai smiled, “Good, in the following two days, we should see the statistics of our products, how much grain we can make, as well as the production for our milk wine and rations. Then we’ll inform Grandpa Green to ramp up our productions. I’ll go and see Ruyen’s situation, as soon as Uncle Evan arrives here, Ruyen could immediately board their ship.”
Laura smiled, “Making Ruyen go home is also one of our worries. Right, Brother Hai, it’s currently early winter, there’s little business in the prairie. How about we go see the other nations?”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “I also think so, but now is not good. It’s best if we stabilize our business here. We need to get our shop outside set up as soon as possible.”
Laura nodded, “That’s also good. In the next two days, we’ll see our inventory and have our productions set-up.”
Zhao Hai also nodded, “I didn’t think that it would be this smooth. With Brother Smith’s help, we now have a lot of things on our hand that we can work on. Also, it’s the best time to visit the slave market, want to come and see?”
Laura agreed, “That’s a great idea, what we lack the most are skilled people. Although we brought a lot of beastmen slaves, those slaves have zero experience in planting crops. This matter is a very big problem, so it’s best if we go find additional human s
laves, especially those who have skills and are literate.”
Zhao Hai nodded, “Right, we have too low of a population in our territory. Our territory isn’t that much smaller than the entire Aksu Empire, but the amount of people inside are really too few. Even if we improve the land now, there would be no people to work on it.”
These days, Zhao Hai had always been thinking about his territory. In addition to the Black Wasteland, there was still the Carrion Fog which Cai’er could use to expand their territory. But currently, even if he improves all of this land, the hands that could work on it were really too few.
Presently, the amount of people he had was enough to farm the existing fields. But with the increasing amount of factories that they would build, the amount of people who could plant crops would get lesser and lesser. It was very fortunate that it’s currently winter, so there was no need to plants crops outside.
At this time, there was a sudden burst of noise coming from outside. This made Zhao Hai and the others stare, this courtyard was arranged for them by Smith. It was very strange for someone to come in. What is this all about?
Zhao Hai’s expression changed, he turned to Shun and said, “Shun take a look and see what’s happening, and make sure to don’t offend anyone.” Shun nodded and opened the door to head outside.
Megan liked the plum blossoms since she was a child, so Sweet Plum courtyard became her most favorite place to visit. If it wasn’t for Sweet Plum courtyard being too far, she would have already moved in here.
Since it’s the beginning beginning parts of winter, the sweet plums were on their full blossom inside the garden. Megan got a few friends together and visited the garden. Along the way, they were drinking a few cups of warmed up wine as they were chatting about matters in the continent.
The City Lord’s Mansion’s Sweet Plum Courtyard was very famous inside Sky Water City. This courtyard had the largest Plum Garden in the entire city. When it is early winter, it was the best time to come and see the scenery. Many noble young ladies and young gentlemen would come visit Sweet Plum courtyard to appreciate the garden throughout the year, but it was always better with a little snow on the ground.
Megan had two servants by her side. In order to not disturb the front yard, they came in to the courtyard via the backdoor. This was not only to minimize the disturbance, but this was also the closest way towards the plum garden.
Megan’s servant opened the door to the courtyard and the group went in and headed towards the plum garden. But at this moment, Megan felt that something was different about the courtyard.
Before this day, Megan didn’t have anyone clean the courtyard, so the place should look quite messy. But now, the yard was very clean, it seems like it had been cleaned by someone, she just didn’t know why.
One could say that Megan’s itinerary became quite soured. In her mind, sugar plum courtyard with a bit of dead leaves and twigs contrasting with the elegant garden, two different facades, was very beautiful.
But now, the courtyard has been tidied up, the ground was swept and the waters were cleaned, Meg felt very confused.
At this time, the door to the courtyard’s main house opened, then a shadow of a small and thin warrior wearing leather armor suddenly appeared and stared at them with his naturally cold eyes.
The young ladies and young gentlemen who came with Meg quietly stood in place. They all looked at the thin figure, everybody was very silent.
The person who came out was naturally Shun. Shun understood what Zhao Hai meant, he doesn’t want to stir up unnecessary trouble, so he told Shun to not offend anyone when he comes out.
Shun looked at the young gentlemen and ladies and groaned a bit inside. Then he looked at Megan who didn’t understand what was going on.
Shun saw that Megan and the other ladies were mostly carrying hand warmers while the young men were wearing thick soft beastkin clothes. Each and every one of them were dressed beautifully. At their back were a lot of servants, some servants were carrying food boxes while the others were carrying some charcoal stoves, the group looked very lively.
After taking a look at them, Shun understood that Megan should be the daughter of the city lord and had her other friends come over and visit the sweet plum garden. He wasn’t surprised about any of this, after all, when they arrived here, he went around and performed some scouting all around the courtyard. Right nearby the back door, there was a small area that was very near to the garden where people could go and enjoy the scenery. Looking at Megan’s entourage, Shun immediately understood what they were doing.
Shun bowed towards the group and said, “This one has seen young lady Megan. This one is my young master Wales’ servant. Today, the young master came to visit the City Lord and came to be bestowed this Sweet Plum Courtyard to settle in. I have to ask the young lady to forgive me.”
Shun’s words were very attractive, but it also went straight to the point. It was informing Megan that Zhao Hai’s group were invited by the city lord and did not break in. He also politely asked Megan and his group that they could leave.
Megan stared, then with a confused look she asked Shun, “Are you really father’s guests?”
Shun quickly replied, “I’ll have to be honest to the young lady. The only guest of the city lord is my young master, I’m just the young master’s servant.”
When he had just finished speaking, Zhao Hai’s voice could be heard, “Alright Shun, no need to say these. We were the one who originally disturbed the young lady, the young lady can come visit anytime she wants.”
Shun nodded and turned to Megan and said, “I apologize to the young lady. Please continue on, we’ll just have to rest inside the house.”
Shun’s lowered attitude made Megan embarrassed. The young men and ladies who came with her also felt embarrassed, Megan hurriedly said, “Since that is so, I and the others won’t disturb mister’s rest. We’ll be excusing ourselves.”
As she was about to leave, a female voice came, “Miss, please stay.” Then Laura came out of the door, Shun bowed to Laura and then went behind her.
Laura bowed and said, “The young lady doesn’t need to leave. Just like the young master said, we were the ones who intruded inside the City Lord’s Mansion, so how could we let the young lady leave? I invite the young lady and her friends to the plum gardens, we won’t be disturbing your visit.”
Hearing Laura’s words, Megan became even more embarrassed, she quickly responded, “Then wouldn’t we be disturbing your group’s rest?”
Laura smiled and said, “It was my young master who disturbed the lady’s visit to the plum garden, and he also asked me to invite you. Right, this is some strong liquor that the young master wanted to gift the young miss. It’s quite fierce but I guarantee that it is very pleasant.”
Then she gave the liquor bag to Shun as the latter handed off the bag towards Megan’s servant, then he turned back.