XH 301 - Bai Land
From the day where the Gate resealed, it had been forty seven days before things went back to usual and life continues on.
Xiao Hua finally has the time to drop by Lucky Rock town to settle the business of 'Xiao Bao' shop.
"Princess Consort," Lin Fei greeted with formal courtesy when Xiao Hua and her guards entered the shop from the back door.
"Madam Lin, please call me like you usually do," Xiao Hua greeted. "I'm here to speak of shop matters, not a formal visit."
They moved to the office room to continue their talk. "How are you and Han Mei?"
"We are doing fine, all thanks to Madam Hua's grace. Without you, we might not be doing well."
"I doubt that, since Madam Lin is an intelligent woman."
Lin Fei disagreed. "Not many shops would be willing to accept female workers." Especially for a manager position. She knew very well that it was because Madam Hua was the owner, which allowed her to make the decision to hire her and her daughter to work in this shop.
The mother and daughter were living well now, and as a mother, she was reluctant to let her daughter suffer. That was why she had to be ambitious.
"Madam Hua, about 'Xiao Bao' shop..."
"That is the main reason why I'm here." Xiao Hua straightened her back. "I have decided for this shop to continue its business, but you will need to take over more tasks from XiYing's hands. Like how these past few months are doing, XiYing will come here once a week to check the accounts."
Lin Fei immediately understood that this decision was made in thought of her and Han Mei.
"Madam Hua, why don't you open a shop at Guilin Capital instead, which is closer to your residence? The staff can all move there and close this shop. The capital will surely have more sales than this town and we can set the pricing higher."
Lucky Rock town might be Lin Fei's hometown, but this place was only filled with old memories without living relatives. It certainly makes no difference living anywhere, as long as it was safe and habitual.
There was also a concern about Han Mei's marriage. Guilin Capital certainly has a better husband prospect.
Xiao Hua sighed. "That was originally my thought too, but I will no longer be staying in the capital."
Long Zhu and Xiao Hua had decided to move to Bai land, which the entire land will be migrated to the place previously known as Gu Dan country, with the additional acquisition of the nameless village. It became a very large land but they chose to maintain the name 'Bai land' instead of renaming it as 'Bai country'.
Fortunately, after the spring pool had evolved, it enhanced the greens' growth in the previously infertile country. The nameless village that was previously barren started to show traces of life.
Yu Zheng, Doctor Bai, Long Zhu and Long Yuen were still renovating their new land. Destroying the buildings, flattening the land and wiping out every trace of dangerous things took a lot of time and effort.
Doctor Bai had said that they must search through every nook and corner to ensure there will not be any dangerous thing left behind by Gu Dan to be accidentally discovered by any children in the future.
Long Zhu was the one that decided the move in order to solve the matter of guarding the spring pool from being misused by other people. The Emperors of the Four Kingdom were not allowed to possess the spring pool to avoid any imbalance of power between them.
So the best choice was to leave the spring pool to Doctor Bai, the neutral party, even though his daughter was the wife of the Third Prince of the Guilin Kingdom. Doctor Bai was also powerful in strength with upright principles that he would not bend himself to any power.
However, the matter of Bai descendant was worrying, for Doctor Bai was not an immortal and would return to God's embrace one day. If he died without any descendant, the Four Kingdoms might go into war to capture the spring pool.
It was due to that matter that Long Zhu suddenly declared to abandon his prince title and wished to serve his teacher. His decision created a great uproar.
Many scolded him for being an opportunist but Doctor Bai silenced them by agreeing with Long Zhu's request and stated that a son from Long Zhu will be recorded as Bai descendant to continue the family line. After that, there were some that wanted to follow Long Zhu's action, only to be face slapped by Yu Zheng.
"Where will you be moving to, Madam Hua?" Lin Fei inquired. The survival of 'Xiao Bao' shop and her future will depend on Madam Hua's answer.
"You heard of Gu Dan country?"
"...Yes. I also heard it will be demolished and rebuilt with a new name. Perhaps Madam will be moving there?"
Xiao Hua nodded with a smile. "It will be named as Bai land once it's done."
"Will it be a town like Lucky Rock?" Lin Fei inquired with a sharp glint of a business-like gaze.
"I do not know. It will be decided by my Honorable father. However, he prefers peace and nature."
As things were still uncertain and at a standstill, 'Xiao Bao' shop will continue operating at 'Lucky Rock' town for now. Xiao Hua managed to calm down Lin Fei's anxiousness for her daughter's future by saying they still have time to decide carefully. Han Mei was still young.
In the end, the demolished Gu Dan country was still a large land, even with the original Bai land taking over a considerable space beside the spring pool.
Instead of building a new courtyard, Xiao Hua's old room became the newly wed's bedroom. Although the bed was much smaller than the one in the prince's manor, Long Zhu does not mind it. It gave off a more intimate and homely feeling, allowing him the opportunity to hug his wife every night.
As for the servants in the prince's manor, Long Zhu only had half of them stayed behind to take care of the manor for the couple to stay whenever they went back to the capital. He let go of the other half, giving them their slave contract and set them free.
Eunuch Lau Liu was released from employment, but he chose to accompany the 19th Emperor, who was his first master and the one he was closest to.
Duan XiYing and Da Bei naturally followed Xiao Hua to the Bai land. The rest of the Da family also followed along, continuing to serve Long Zhu as their master.
An Wan decided to return to Feng Jiu's side, as her duty to protect Long Zhu was no longer necessary. Personally, she wanted to stay away from her first love, and hoped to find her own romance.
As for Tian Chi and Tian Zi, Long Zhu gave them two choices. Choose to take back their slave contract and live freely or to serve beside the Emperor and become his reliable inner maids.
Till now, Heise had yet to have any inner maids, disliking the maids with ambitious eyes which he noticed no matter how casual they acted. It would not be suitable to only have Heng Xin and a small number of male servants to serve Heise in everything.
Long Zhu nodded when both maids decided to serve the Emperor. He was more relieved to have two of his trusted inner maids to help his eighth brother.
That would shut Heise's mouth from endlessly complaining about Long Zhu being a traitor for dumping all responsibilities on him!
As for the shadow guards, most of them were either entrusted to guard Heise or choosing to continue staying with Long Zhu in Bai land.
Xiao Hua has a strange feeling of being confused and also touched when San Sheng, her new guard, chooses to continue serving her.
Long Zhu had also decided to continue learning from Doctor Bai to become a doctor, completely accepting his new identity of Doctor Bai's son-in-law. He would use his knowledge to open a small clinic below the Bai mountain, available to the public.
Now that the Bai land's coordination was known to everyone, many clamored over to seek treatment.
Originally, only those from noble families came to seek for Doctor Bai, only to be pushed to Long Zhu's hands. Most of them did not mind, as Long Zhu was now widely known to be Doctor Bai's successor and son-in-law.
Being close to Long Zhu has its benefits.
Surprisingly, the number of patients does not reduce, and there were even commoners starting to line up everyday to seek treatment.
They were willing to set out from their country from far away to reach Bai land to get treatment, regardless whether their ailment could be treated by their local doctor or not.
The reputation of Doctor Bai's legendary healing ability was truly mind blowing and irrational.
But there were also those annoying people that have no serious injury but insist on taking most of the doctor's time! Xiao Hua was annoyed when those clingy ladies took up her husband's time.
Fortunately, none of them ever had the idea to design a setting for the doctor to touch them inappropriately! That was what Le Xiao Ting had seen from mangas with a handsome doctor that the female patients salivated over.
However, it still grew worse, to the point that their clinic finally set up a list of rules that all patients must oblige, or they will be blacklisted.
One of the rules was the clinic will only accept thirty patients a day, with working and break hours clearly stated.
After the large wave settled down, it was not long before another wave hit them.
The news of the spring pool was exposed to the public and reached the ears of big shots and moguls.