Chapter 493 - 493: Treasure
Zhou Jia politely sent the eunuch away and returned to the courtyard to entertain the guests.
After the eunuch left, many guests came. The guests who came to congratulate them greatly exceeded their budget. Zhou Jia could only go to the Intoxicated Immortal Restaurant to book a banquet before arranging for the guests to leave. The banquet only ended before dark.
After sending the guests off and the two of them returned to the house, Li Yu glanced at Zhou Jia and sat in front of the makeup table. She took off the head accessory on her head. “I’m finally done! Chenyue, Chenxing, this is great. You’ve worked for nothing again. ”
Zhou Jia walked behind Li Yu and helped her spread her hair. “This is a good thing. Look, after my colleagues left, did they become much more intimate and polite?”
Zhou Jia hugged Li Yu and whispered in her ear, “Yu’er, it’s time for us to rest.”
Li Yu replied gently, ‘Yes!”
Li Yu nodded. “That’s true. Since His Majesty is so generous, we’ll find a day after spring to send a basket of sweet potatoes in the wooden frame to His
Majesty and make him happy.”
Zhou Jia looked at Li Yu curiously. “You’ve already dug them out and taken a look?”
Li Yu shook her head. “It’s spring. The sweet potatoes are about to start breeding. Those sweet potatoes have to be dug out and planted again.”
“You’re still the best at these.” Zhou Jia thought for a moment. “Before sending them into the palace, you should dig out a basket and take a look. You don’t know what it looks like down there. It’s better to be careful.”
“Alright, I’ll dig a basket tomorrow and send it over.”
Zhou Jia also wanted to see what the sweet potatoes looked like. He hurriedly instructed Li Yu, “Dig a basket and leave a basket for me to dig when I come back.”
Li Yu looked at Zhou Jia and smiled. “Yes! I’ll leave a basket for you to widen your horizons.”
The next morning, Zhou Jia went to the government office in high spirits. Li Yu had just woken up when Granny Chen and Xing Hua came to look for Li Yu with Yueyue and Xingxing.
Granny Chen whispered, “Madam, Second Young Master is already full. Young Master didn’t want Nanny to feed him this morning no matter what. He only drank a small pot of goat milk after coaxing.”
Li Yu saw that Yueyue was sleeping soundly after eating and that Xingxing was still pouting when he fell asleep.
Li Yu hugged him and kissed his cheek. She began to feed him. “I feed him every morning. He might remember!”
Granny Chen nodded. “Madam, Second Young Master is carefree. His temper comes and goes quickly. It’s fine if Young Master isn’t angry. It’s not easy to coax him when he’s angry.”
Li Yu looked at the child in her arms. “That’s right! A little child has a temper.”
After feeding Xingxing, Granny Chen took the child. Li Yu remembered that she hadn’t seen Yangyang when she woke up today. “Did Eldest Young Master go to school?”
Granny Chen smiled. “Master told Eldest Young Master not to come and pay his respects. He went to school.”
“No wonder I didn’t see that child,” Li Yu said uncomfortably. She put on her shoes and went to the backyard to train.
After her meal, Li Yu went to the backyard to dig up sweet potatoes. Uncle Zhou, Auntie He, and Old Madam Liu followed her to the backyard. Everyone surrounded the wooden box and watched Li Yu cut off the sweet potato vines. Old Madam Liu also helped cut off the other two baskets, leaving behind a frame that had not been cut. The frame that had not been cut was sent to the palace to be dug up when Zhou Jia returned.
Little Loach looked curiously at the cut sweet potato vines. “Madam, are the sweet potato vines useful?”
Li Yu thought that since they were all planted with vine, those which had been planted before could be replanted. She pointed at the empty space under the wall. “Dig out a piece there and plant them in the garden.”
Little Loach nodded excitedly. “Aye! I’ll get the hoe.”
Uncle Zhou was amazed. “Madam, this thing is a treasure! Can we plant it again?”
“I can plant it, but I don’t know how the harvest will be. Besides, this is the time to breed. Auntie He, you can plant it if you cut the potato vines like me.”
Uncle Zhou surrounded the wooden frame excitedly. “Madam, dig one out and see what it looks like.”
Li Yu looked at the wooden frame. “It’s not easy to dig in here! We might even have to dig through it. Why don’t we dismantle the wooden frame?”
“Madam, I’ll pull it out.” Mao Dou grabbed the potato vine left outside and pulled hard, breaking the remaining piece of potato vine and falling to the ground.
Ji Xiang also ran in to take a look. Seeing that Mao Dou had not managed to pull the vine, he walked forward and looked at the wooden frame. “It looks quite deep. Let me dig it up and see.”
Li Yu pointed at the bulge. “Dig from here.”
Ji Xiang dug through the soil with his bare hands, revealing red-skinned sweet potatoes. Ji Xiang sped up and dug out a sweet potato to lift. Everyone widened their eyes and looked at the red-skinned sweet potato.
Mao Dou exclaimed, “Wow! There are five red-skinned radishes hanging on this one.”
Li Yu took one and placed it in her hand. When she realized that it was a red sweet potato, she was extremely excited. She had really planted it. Now, there was something to eat even if it was a drought!
When it was planted in large quantities, it could also be made into sweet potato noodles, hotpot, hot and sour noodles…
Uncle Zhou picked one up and weighed it in his hand. He couldn’t stop smiling. “I’m afraid the bigger one weighs half a catty. The smaller one is also three to four catties.”
Ji Xiang looked at Li Yu. “Madam, is this really edible?”
Li Yu said affirmatively, “It’s edible. Let’s cook a few today. I guarantee you’ll like it!”
Little Loach looked at Li Yu curiously. “Madam, you’ve eaten it before?”
Li Yu shook her head. “My master said that it’s edible.”
Old Madam Liu touched it in surprise. “Oh my god, this thing is as good-looking as a red-skinned radish. It’s only so much more than a nest of radishes. How much would it take to dig it all out?”
Auntie He called out to Ji Xiang, “Xiangzi, dig them all out and take a look. How much has this frame grown?”
“Aye!” Ji Xiang bent down and dug. Little Loach and the others joined in. They stuck out their butts and dug out all the sweet potatoes in the two wooden frames and piled them on the ground.
Everyone counted. There were a total of 50 sweet potatoes in the three big wooden frames. The most prolific one had seven or eight sweet potatoes growing on it, and the least was two or three.
Uncle Zhou dug again with a small hoe and pulled out a few more.
Uncle Zhou sighed and said, “Madam, this is amazing. So many can be grown in the wooden frame. It should be better to plant it in the soil!”
Li Yu shook her head. “That’s not necessarily true. I think sweet potatoes like soft sandy soil. When they’re planted, they have to be fertilized and can’t be watered too much.”
Auntie He smiled and said, “This is already not bad. Think about it, the leaves and stalks of this thing can be eaten, and the fruits below can also be eaten.
Where can I find such a good treasure?!”
Li Yu smiled and nodded. “It’s a good treasure. Plant the sweet potatoes first.
Grandma Liu, Auntie He, wash some of them and cook them. Try them all.
When this season’s seeds come down, let everyone eat freely.”
The seeds were precious, and Li Yu couldn’t bear to eat them. She asked Ji Xiang to send a few pieces to Li Qing’s family and Uncle Lin to try.
“Yes.” Old Madam Liu and Auntie He picked up some and went back to the kitchen..