Chapter 15: Jiang Cen’s Troubles Unknown to Anyone

It was clear that this niece was capable. Not only did everyone in the first branch listen to her, but she also managed all their affairs perfectly. On this journey, to maintain harmony with the first branch, befriending Yan Huan was the most important thing.

Yan Huan responded with a smile.

Early the next morning, taking advantage of the break before they set off again, Yan Huan carried a prepared rabbit and two bunches of grapes to the officials’ campsite.

Seeing the things in Yan Huan’s hands, Zhao Song greeted her with a smile.

“Last night, we saw from afar that you two girls brought back quite a bit. Knowing we’d have a treat today, I even slept better. Sure enough, you’ve brought it over first thing in the morning.”

Yan Huan smiled and handed it over, saying, “These are just small things. If it weren’t for us troubling you, with Brother Zhao’s skills, catching these little things would be a piece of cake, wouldn’t it?”

Seeing the smile on Zhao Song’s face, she continued, “Moreover, there’s something I’d like to trouble Brother Zhao with today.”

Having eaten their food and taken their favors, Zhao Song had eaten quite a bit of her things over the past few days. Hearing that she had a request, he didn’t make things difficult and asked, “Just tell me what it is. As long as it doesn’t go against principles, I can agree.”
Yan Huan chuckled, a hint of blush on her face, and said a little embarrassedly, “Eating wild vegetables every day is a bit hard on the stomach. I was hoping to trade some game for some vegetables with you.”

Heh, so the little girl was craving something and wanted to enrich their meals. This was a small matter, and Zhao Song naturally agreed.

Although the food for the officials and prisoners was supplied by the official post stations, the officials ate freshly cooked meals. The post stations provided them with fresh vegetables, which naturally included a variety of them.

She had meat, fruit, and even staple food in her dimension, as well as seasonings. The only thing missing was vegetables. Now that she could trade with the officials for some vegetable seeds to plant in her dimension, she could finally relax.

Zhao Song agreed and immediately turned back to get them for her. Yan Huan quickly thanked him and also asked if he could save some of any other types of vegetables for her in the future. Zhao Song readily agreed. Trading vegetables for meat was a good deal for him.

Later, during the journey, Yan Huan thought that since she could retrieve things from thin air, could she also plant things remotely? It would be so convenient if she didn’t have to go into the dimension and could just throw things onto the fertile soil.

She murmured in her mind, “Dimension, oh dimension, you are already a mature dimension, you must learn to plant on your own.” Upon experimenting, it actually worked.

Yan Huan was overjoyed. Upgrading the fertile soil was just around the corner! Not needing to go in and out to put things in and take them out would make things so much more convenient in the future. As long as she saw anything different on the road, she could collect it to complete upgrade tasks.

Ding, fertile soil upgrade task progress +1, current progress 11/50.
Ding, fertile soil upgrade task progress +2, current progress 12/50.
Ding, +3…
+4
…..

Watching the task progress increase rapidly, Yan Huan was so happy her heart was bubbling. At this rate, she could drink cola before noon!

Because she was afraid others would notice something amiss, Yan Huan tried to choose smaller flowers and plants to throw into her dimension, and she basically plucked a handful and threw in only one stalk. Others couldn’t see anything. If someone saw her touch something and it disappear into thin air, she probably wouldn’t even make it to Ganzhou before ending up on the gallows.

Yan Huan happily gathered plants, but in the eyes of others, it looked quite different. Yan’s older brothers watched their little sister pluck every flower and weed she could find along the way. They thought she was in a bad mood because of what happened last night. If glares could kill, their fourth uncle would probably have been riddled with holes by now.

They walked for more than an hour with their own thoughts. Finally, they heard the system notification about the fertile soil upgrade. Looking at the 600ml bottle of cola placed in the dimension, the corners of Yan Huan’s mouth stretched behind her ears.

She turned her head to look at Jiang Duo’er not far away, wanting to share the good news with her. However, before going, she needed to pour the cola into her water skin.

At this moment, Jiang Duo’er was being lectured by her second brother, Jiang Cen. This morning, Jiang Duo’er had given away an entire pot of stewed meat, pot and all, to the Song family next door.

The meat was a small matter, but giving away the pot meant they wouldn’t have anything to cook with in the future.

Jiang Cen looked helplessly at his sister, who showed no remorse, and felt a headache coming on.

“Why do you think the Song family is pitiful? There isn’t a single man in their family, but for so many days, they even had meat to eat last night. Where do you see the pity?”

Jiang Duo’er said nonchalantly, “Our family isn’t lacking that bit of food. Don’t be prejudiced against women just because you’ve been hurt by one. The Song family doesn’t have any men, and they’re the closest to us now. Shouldn’t we take care of them a bit?”
They followed the Jiang family around all day, wasn’t it because the Jiang family was capable?

The women of the Song family occasionally came to fawn over him, and he didn’t want his sister to get too close to that kind of woman.

But there were some things he couldn’t say too directly. He had talked until his mouth was dry, but she still didn’t understand anything. He couldn’t help but sigh deeply and decided to try a different approach to communicate with her. “Let me ask you, this incident started because of our eldest brother. Why is our Jiang family fine, and even Grand Tutor Yan, who was the Crown Prince’s tutor, is fine, but Song Qian of the Ministry of Rites was just a vice minister and yet he was beheaded?”

Jiang Duo’er blinked her eyes twice, speechless. “I don’t go to court. How would I know these things? What does any of this have to do with half a tael of silver for me?”

Okay, Jiang Cen felt that discussing this with her was like playing the lute to a cow. His little sister perfectly inherited the Jiang family’s characteristics: well-developed limbs and a simple mind.

In this family, besides his eldest brother and him, no one else was willing to use their brains to think even a little bit. Perhaps, besides eating and sleeping, everything else was trivial to them.

He looked up at the sky, wishing he could roar to the heavens, “Eldest brother, please come back soon! I can’t handle this alone.”

Just as Jiang Cen was about to go crazy, he caught a glimpse of Yan Huan not far away and felt like he had found a savior. He quickly composed himself and said to Jiang Duo’er, “Sixth Miss Yan has come to find you. It seems urgent. Go quickly.”

If he continued talking, he was afraid he would have a heart attack.

These past few days, Jiang Cen had been secretly observing his sister’s new friend and found that this Sixth Miss Yan acted with considerable method. He was also happy that his unreliable sister was with her.

Since he couldn’t reason with his sister, he could only try to work through Sixth Miss Yan. When the time came, he would talk to her and ask her to persuade his little sister not to be deceived by those women from the Song family.

Yan Huan saw Jiang Duo’er coming over and said with a sly look, “Duo’er, are you thirsty? Do you want to drink some water?”