The Lucky Farmgirl

Chapter 2283 - 2258: Gold and Silver (April Monthly Ticket Bonus 8)

Assistant General Nie did not mention the matter of the beauts again until he returned to the post station.

The next day, Manbao and Zhou Liru went to see the injured soldiers staying at the inn next door, while Steward Li took Bai Shan and the others to look at houses and finally chose one to move into.

This time, they rented three large courtyards in a row. They stayed in the middle, while the soldiers and guards occupied the ones on either side.

As soon as they rented the courtyards, Steward Li took the guards to purchase some necessities and hire some servants. They planned to stay in Xizhou for quite some time, and the exact duration depended on when they could find the recipe.

Though along the way, it seemed they hadn’t heard much about the recipe.

Because they needed to stay for a considerable period, they had to be well-prepared, and Steward Li was very meticulous in selecting the servants.

However, before he finished choosing people, the Protectorate sent over the beauts from the previous night.

Bai Shan and the others didn’t expect the Protectorate to act so swiftly. They forgot to tell Steward Li last night, and were too busy to remember today, so when Steward Li received the people, he was utterly bewildered.

Bai Shan, noticing his gaze repeatedly glancing over at him and the beauts, gave a slight cough and said, "These are sent by General Guo to Mr. Liu, and Manbao has already accepted them on his behalf. Just take them in for now."

Steward Li secretly breathed a sigh of relief but still felt worried, "There are ten of them, young master. How should we arrange for so many people?"

Bai Shan thought for a moment and said, "Aren’t there two spare rooms in the courtyard where we stay? Let’s clear them for them."

Steward Li: ... But those rooms were originally reserved for the servants.

Oh well, a steward who troubles their master is not a good steward. He had no choice but to reshuffle rooms, moving some guards to the courtyards on either side.

Manbao was already in the kitchen of the neighboring courtyard, stoking the fire and directing people to decoct medicine.

Since they were all external injuries, the medicine everyone took was similar, so she decocted the same prescription of medicine together.

They also needed to prepare to go out, so they had to prepare some injury medicines to take with them, such as ointments, powders, and pills.

The medicines made during the previous two campaigns had basically been used up.

Mr. Zhuang was in the courtyard helping them select herbs, weighing them according to Manbao’s prescription, laying them on paper, and taking them to be sliced once done.

Manbao sighed while making medicine, "The herbs are too expensive."

Mr. Zhuang chuckled, "What’s difficult about that? If you hint to the outside, someone will naturally come with money seeking medicine."

He pointed to the medicine she was making and laughed, "You might as well make a few more pots while you’re at it."

After hearing this, Manbao thought it made a lot of sense and entrusted Bai Shan with the task, "By the way, aren’t those beauts here? Let them come to help me."

Manbao asked for people yesterday solely because she saw they really wanted to leave the Protectorate. She felt General Guo wasn’t a good person, and these beauts were truly beautiful; secondly, because she urgently needed extra hands.

Of their own people, including the guards, there were scarcely any who had not been injured, with even more being severely injured, some missing an arm or a leg. Assistant General Nie never intended to leave anyone still alive in the Western Regions, neither did Manbao, so they urgently needed manpower now.

Just as General Guo wanted to send them, Manbao asked for them.

As for whether these delicate beauts could handle such grueling work... there was really no issue. Although somewhat bewildered, the beauts changed into new clothes and came over to help, slicing, drawing water, and stoking the fire with great proficiency, clearly no strangers to hard work.

Liu Huan saw this and quietly remarked to Zhou Man and the others, "No wonder they wanted to leave the Protectorate so badly; turns out they had to do hard labor at the Guo Family."

Manbao lowered her head and looked at her own hands, "Is this hard labor?"

While chopping the herbs with a clang, Liu Huan said, "I suppose, I’ve seen that at home, our uncles and aunts’ concubines didn’t need to do any work."

Although they were merely dancers, not concubines, Liu Huan saw them as quite similar.

But that didn’t seem to be the case here.

The petite beauts were not only adept at household chores but also skilled in martial arts.

Manbao watched as a beaut effortlessly leaped to catch some falling herbs and was amazed, asking, "You can perform martial arts too?"

The beauts knew it was Zhou Man who had requested them, and since she was the envoy in charge, they bashfully lowered their gazes and offered a shy smile, displaying their most appealing demeanor, "I merely know sword-dancing."

Still far better than her, Manbao was already envisioning leading them as her personal female bodyguards when Bai Shan nonchalantly shattered her fantasy by asking, "Could they defeat Daji?"

Seeing her fall silent, he pressed on, "I heard Jin Kui’an regained consciousness in prison. General Guo appreciates his martial skills and has recruited him into the military, even putting Lian’er into service."

Manbao frowned slightly, but using criminal slaves as military personnel was indeed within the Great Jin’s laws, so General Guo’s actions weren’t illegal. However, Jin Kui’an was excessively murderous, which deeply displeased her.

Nonetheless, it quelled her desire to turn the beauts into female bodyguards. Alas, they couldn’t even outmatch Daji, let alone someone like Jin Kui’an. Using them as bodyguards would merely send them to their deaths. They were better off slicing herbs at home.

Manbao spent most of the day making medicine and didn’t have time to deal with the luggage until late afternoon. Without waiting for Assistant General Nie to ask, they had the boxes moved into a storeroom.

These courtyards were rented to merchants, so each had a storeroom, lacking windows or furniture, making them uninhabitable.

Though unsure why Bai Shan and the others were so cautious about moving boxes filled with stones and straw into the storeroom, the soldiers and guards still helped carry them in.

Then Bai Shan cleared everyone out, closed the door, and it was just the two of them left in the storeroom.

Bai Shan first opened the boxes with fallen seals and broken locks. Most contained only half a box of stones and straw, indicating that although the soldiers followed orders and put the contents back when they fell, they didn’t bother to refill them completely.

He emptied these, and Manbao kept putting in some gold and silver ingots, jewelry, and the like...

Finally, they opened the boxes with intact seals and locks, in which Bai Shan replaced conspicuous large items like cloth and silk. Once finished, he opened the door and called people in to dispose of the rubbish in the storeroom, and had the boxes moved out, as they needed to return the contents to everyone according to the previous list.

Assistant General Nie was stunned by their ability to produce items as if by magic, and the soldiers and guards were also astonished.

Assistant General Nie turned to look at the four empty large boxes being carried out by the soldiers, a suspicion forming in his mind. He recalled these four boxes were bought in a village in the Western Regions...