The orange Divine Beast was currently full of dissatisfaction and complaints, but then Su Tang sent him a look and he immediately surrendered. He could only sadly cover his face with his paws, heart full of regret and more regret.

When other Divine Beasts found their masters they would get people who were like dumplings that, at most, had a few black sesame seeds sprinkled on top. So why was his dumpling actually pitch black through and through, without the faintest trace of light in her heart? The world was really too terrible wuwuwu…!

Seeing the orange cat cowering down, Su Tang smirked and shifted her eyes to look outside. At the same time, she noticed the orange cat shaped marking on her wrist was actually cowering down with its paws over its head too, and she couldn't help but laugh.

Anyway, with this Su Tang more or less understood everything that had happened the previous night, and she quickly readjusted her mindset. After all, what was done was done. There was no point in whining about it afterward, it wasn't like complaining could change anything. As a human, her eyes were on the front of her head, so obviously she needed to only keep looking forward.

That morning, Huang Daxing, the owner of Fuxing House, was just now noticing that Wu Yong seemed to have failed to show up for work today, and he cursed the other party a few times under his breath. But other than that he wasn't too alarmed, Wu Yong was only a waiter, so even if he didn't show up Huang Daxing could still open his business as usual.

Meanwhile, a bit earlier in the day, Wu Yong had been found by another man from his village. Since they were both from the same village, when the man saw Wu Yong lying down covered with blood and with his clothes in tatters, he hurriedly rushed off to gather up some people and together they took Wu Yong to the Qinghe Town clinic.

Pockmarked Zhang had been very brutal in his attack. After the doctor examined Wu Yong carefully for a while he could only conclude that Wu Yong's legs had been permanently crippled and he wouldn't be able to stand up anymore for the rest of his life. When they got this news, the people who had brought him to the doctor returned to the village to report the news to the Wu family. Of course, after getting this news, the Wu family all fell into a panic.

From the beginning, the Wu family had never been a wealthy family. In fact, back then they had been so poor that they couldn't even find a wife for their son, so they had been forced to sell their daughter as a servant girl to a rich family in town. Luckily, Wu Guixiang had adjusted well and had been able to please her mistress well while working as a servant girl and received various rewards on top of her monthly stipend. However, it still took her some years to earn enough money to buy back her slave contract and return to her old household with the belongings she had accumulated while working for the rich family.

And it was around this time that Su Dafu's wife died. Wu Guixiang was already in her twenties and unmarried, so she took a fancy to the recently widowed Su Dafu. At the same time, Su Dafu was also interested and used his old skills at coaxing girls to get closer to Wu Guixiang and, in the end, she married him as his second wife.

Wu Yong's good job at the Fuxing House was also thanks to Madam Wu. During her time as a servant girl she had pleased her mistress and her mistress had agreed to help her do this small thing for her brother. Thus, it could be said that over the past few years the Wu family had only been able to live a good life thanks Wu Guixiang's help.

However, Wu Guixiang had already gotten married, which meant that the Wu family's current primary source of income was just Wu Yong. So today, when they suddenly heard that Wu Yong's legs had been broken and he was going to be permanently crippled, they were all terrified and wondering what they were going to do in the future?

Because of this, the whole family was in a miserable mood, as if dark clouds had settled over their household. In the end, they decided to hurriedly send someone over to consult their smart daughter who had already married out about what to do.

Meanwhile, Madam Wu had originally asked her brother to help her keep an eye on Su Tang because of the news she had heard from Chen Xiuxiu about Su Tang getting close to the servant boy from a wealthy family. And Wu Yong's reports seemed to have been confirming this piece of news, so she had just been waiting for the right opportunity to expose Su Tang's true face.

After all, Su Tang was going around highhandedly talking about properly observing filial piety for her new stepfather these days, so what would happen if it were revealed that she was hooking up with a boy outside at the same time? Obviously, if Su Yongqiang still had the slightest trace of impartiality left in him, he would find this completely unacceptable as well, and for not observing her womanly virtues Su Tang's only fate would be to be drowned in the pig cage. Madam Wu felt quite confident in her plot and didn't see any way for the little brat to weasel her way out of things this time.

But the result ended up being quite different from what she expected. Although she felt her plan was good, something suddenly happened to Wu Yong midway, messing everything up. As soon as she received the news, Madam Wu found her mother-in-law Madam Zhao and asked for some money so she could go to town and visit Wu Yong. Of course, given the old woman's personality, as soon as she heard Madam Wu mentioning money Madam Zhao was completely unwilling to give.

With no other way, Madam Wu could only go and find Su Yonggui for help. In the end, her father-in-law was slightly more reasonable and ended up telling Madam Zhao to give Madam Wu some money so she could go visit her injured brother. However, it was only after some twists and turns. After all, Su Yonggui had secretly started having some reservations in his heart about this eldest daughter-in-law of his ever since he had heard the exchange between Madam Wu and Su Tang back during the new year. Su Tang had hinted that Madam Wu had some sort of secret, and Madam Wu had immediately backed down, it was very suspicious.

But Madam Wu managed to muddle through and get some money in the end. After all, although Su Yonggui had some doubts in his heart, he was ultimately a person who cared about his face. It seemed that something bad had really happened to Madam Wu's brother this time, so it was impossible for him to let her go to visit empty-handed.

Even with that layer of consideration, Madam Zhao only agreed to give Madam Wu ten copper coins. Since Su Yonggui seemed unhappy with Madam Wu, Madam Zhao felt that he wouldn't say that ten copper coins was too little.

Seeing her in-laws getting so protective over ten copper coins, Madam Wu was enraged. But she was also worried about what was happening at home, so in the end, she just obediently accepted the ten copper coins before returning to her room and fishing a few taels of silver out of her own personal stash before rushing into town.

Meanwhile, Pockmarked Zhang, who had really broken both of Wu Yong's legs in a moment of rage before stumbling home to sleep, was finally waking up. When his eyes flickered open and he saw the first rays of dawn outside, he couldn't help but recall what he had done last night.

For a moment, he actually felt a bit afraid. However, he shook off that feeling and slowly stood up from his kang bed. That was when he noticed something. On his table were two plain silver coins, the most common type of silver you could find anywhere on the street, without any markings at all to indicate their source.

When Pockmarked Zhang saw the two silver coins, his back was suddenly drenched with cold sweat. Had that young master came back to deliver this silver last night? It was so strange, the money appeared on his table silently as if it had been left behind by a ghost.

Pockmarked Zhang slowly reached out and picked up the silver coins. At the same time, he ruminated over everything that had happened yesterday. He licked his lips and suddenly felt a bit afraid that maybe that Wu Yong might end up dying from that beating in the coming days.

"Bah, I have nothing to be afraid of!" Pockmarked Zhang dared not think too much about it anymore. He still remembered that he owed five taels of silver to the gambling house, and that was much more important. After all, he remembered that he had properly put a sack over Wu Yong's head before beating him up, so there was no way the man would be able to identify him.

After reassuring himself for a bit, he quickly put the money away and went out to see about finding the rest of the money he would need to pay his debts.

However, despite his efforts to embolden himself and tell himself not to be afraid, when he finally went outside he couldn't help but cautiously look to his left and right after stepping outside his door. He saw that the thick snowfall from last night had left a heavy carpet of snow all over his yard, but his footprints seemed to be the only footprints in the snow. Seeing that, Pockmarked Zhang shivered a bit and told himself not to think too much before quickly striding away.

Meanwhile, Madam Wu had headed straight to Qinghe Town's small medical clinic after she arrived in town. But before she could go inside she found her parents, as well as Wu Yong's wife and two children, all crying at the door. In addition to them, her second brother and his wife were also holding their own children and crying in front of the door as well.

When they saw Madam Wu coming, the whole family almost broke down. Madam Wu's mother came over and said crying, "Xiang'er, I don't know which cruel animal out there did this, but he deserves to suffer death by a thousand cuts! Your brother's legs are useless, your brother is useless!"

The person who had gone to find Madam Wu had told her that he brother's legs were broken, but she hadn't known it was actually so serious. Still, when she heard her mother crying like this, she began to have a headache. She said, "Don't cry yet. Don't cry. But how daring, to really send someone to break eldest brother's legs. Did eldest brother offend someone recently?"

For something like this to happen right after the new year, it was obviously someone trying to settle some score, so Madam Wu asked directly.

Wu Yong's wife had been crying until her eyes were swollen, but when she heard Madam Wu's question, she hurriedly interjected in a venomous tone, "Who could he possibly offend? He has always been well-liked by the lords in town for so many years, and he often gets rewards from them, so how could he offend someone? It's been so many years and nothing like this has happened before, so how could he suddenly offend someone?"

But this just made Madam Wu angrier. Back then, the family hadn't been able to afford to find her brother a wife, so they had sold her off to bring back this woman. With that kind of history between them, how could this 'sister-in-law' of hers dare to speak before her? She snapped, "Are you trying to say something? Don't spout nonsense here."

"How could I dare? You've always been the great savior of our Wu family, so what can I say to you? However, before this, your brother has always been able to live safely and steadily, and he has always brought his salary back every month, and our days have only been getting better and better."

Wu Yong's wife said with her words that she didn't dare to challenge Madam Wu, but her tone gave another impression entirely.

Wu Yong's wife felt that her husband was definitely a useless person who would never dare to do anything stupid or reckless, so there was no way she would believe that this incident had nothing to do with her sister-in-law.

"But, ever since you talked to your eldest brother last time, he has often been coming home very late. When I asked him, he told me he was working for you. And now look! He's gotten into such trouble! Now that his legs are useless, he won't be able to work at all anymore, for you or for anyone else, so what is our family supposed to do?"

Wu Yong's wife was a tough and temperamental person, but ever since she had married into the Wu family she had always been enduring Madam Wu's dislike, so she was often looking for an opportunity to give Madam Wu a piece of her mind.

However, Madam Wu really wasn't someone easy to bully. And, on top of that, the money that had been used to bring Wu Yong's wife into the family in the first place had been earned by selling Madam Wu, so it was really hard for Wu Yong's wife to argue with the woman.

In the past, she had always managed to reign in her temper in front of this sister-in-law of hers, but today, seeing her husband in this state and suspecting that it had something to do with that same sister-in-law, she couldn't just let it go like all the times before. Thus, she had flared up at Madam Wu.

Meanwhile, hearing this woman snapping at her, Madam Wu was so angry she couldn't even think straight, "You dare!"

Wu Yong's wife and Madam Wu had never liked each other, and this incident was just the final spark that caused them to finally really start to fight with no care for the time or place.

"What's going on out there? Why is it so noisy?" As it happened, just as these two began to noisily go at each other in front of the medical clinic, a carriage was passing by. Su Tang was the one sitting in the carriage, with a small hand stove for warmth in one hand and her chin resting on the other. Hearing all the commotion, she asked the orange cat about what was going on.

However, unaware of the orange cat's existence, the carriage driver thought she was asking him, so he replied, "I don't know what's going on. It seems some women are quarreling in front of the medical clinic," he replied. "I'll speed up a little bit so they won't disturb the young miss anymore."

"Thank you!" Hearing the carriage driver unexpectedly answering her question instead, Su Tang still remembered to give her thanks.

And, sure enough, the driver swung his whip a few times to speed up the horses and take them away. Meanwhile, inside the carriage, Su Tang continued to lean lazily against the cushions with the orange cat in her lap. Of course, the orange cat knew she had been asking him, so he also replied with his own dialogue bubble.

'Actually, it was Madam Wu fighting with her sister-in-law. Her sister-in-law blamed her for what happened to Wu Yong, and their fight was very lively.'

Su Tang quickly understood what was going on, but just blinked noncommittally and continued to laze about in the carriage. Seeing his master was unconcerned, the orange cat also closed his eyes again and comfortably lay back down on her legs.

After waiting up for the orange cat for so long last night, Su Tang had tiredly come out of the space and laid back down to sleep for a while longer. Thus, Su Nuo managed to eat his breakfast and even head out for the academy before Su Tang even came out of her room.

Su Tang just sent Zhang Cuilan to carry everything Su Nuo needed to bring the academy, and told her to hire a carriage on the way back. Meanwhile, Su Tang herself had used the time to leisurely eat her breakfast.

Today, she was planning to find a realtor in the Qingyuan County Seat so she could finally buy the plots of land she was going to need. Knowing that she would need to roam all over the place to personally inspect the land, she had decided to hire a carriage for a few days.

In the end, Zhang Cuilan managed to find one for her. The driver's name was Niu'er, and his carriage was a bit different from the ordinary ones on the road. His wife had specially made thick cushions and pillows to line the inside of the carriage, so the price for using it was naturally a bit higher compared to ordinary carriages. But, thanks to the fact that it was much nicer to ride in compared to ordinary carriages, he still earned a lot of money.

And today, Su Tang had appeared and nonchalantly threw out a few taels of silver, so Niu'er was very happy. It was rare for him to find such a generous customer, so Niu'er was being very courteous.

Su Tang leaned against the cushions and held her hand stove with a contemplative expression. Sadly, she couldn't enter her space while riding on a carriage, so there was nothing much for her to do. In the end, she could only close her eyes and rest.

Su Tang didn't care too much about the matter regarding Madam Wu's family. At any rate, it seemed pretty certain that Madam Wu wouldn't have the time or energy to cause any more troubles for her for the next little while, so the goal could be considered achieved. Of course, Su Tang was just too busy with her business these days to deal with Madam Wu, but it wasn't as if she was forgetting about her. Once things had calmed down a bit and she had some more free time, she would definitely be willing to 'play along' with the other woman.

Thus, one person and one cat comfortably rode a carriage and, in less than an hour, passed the gates of the Qingyuan County Seat and officially entered the city.

Compared to Qinghe Town, which was basically just two intersecting streets and a smattering of other buildings nearby, the Qingyuan County Seat was really too prosperous. After all, it was the largest and wealthiest population center in the whole county. There were a total of five main sections that divided the whole Qingyuan County Seat into districts.

Today, Su Tang was headed toward East Street, where the Qingyuan County Seat Brokerage Office did business. In the Qihuang Kingdom, all Brokerage Offices needed to apply for certain official certifications before they were allowed to start operations, and they were responsible for the rental and sale of houses and land, the sale of slaves, and generally just worked as middlemen to facilitate various kinds of transactions.

Because they were under the supervision of the county government, these Brokerage Offices could be considered to be relatively official and reliable. Basically, almost all land transactions within Qingyuan County would have to go through them first. Of course, for very small transactions or transactions in relatively distant areas, there would be local brokers appointed who would take charge.

Meanwhile, all the individual brokers would also need a qualification issued by the brokerage office, or else they would not be able to work as brokers by law.

When Niu'er finally brought his carriage to the front of the Brokerage Office, he turned back and said, "Young miss, we've arrived at the Brokerage Office."

Su Tang tossed her small hand stove into her space's storage and pushed open the doors of the carriage before stepping outside. Looking up, she could see 'Qingyuan County Brokerage Office' written on the building's sign. The front gate was full of people coming and going, and the atmosphere was very lively.

"Alright, go to the side and let the horse rest and get yourself something to eat too, but don't go far."

Because Su Tang had set off relatively late in the day, it was already almost time for lunch. Su Tang felt that if the broker she talked to recommended a plot of land, she would need to go inspect it herself. Thus, while there was still time, Niu'er should get himself something to eat. That way, they wouldn't be delayed later on.

Niu'er had been following Su Tang for a while already and had some grasp of her character, so when she dismissed him he didn't say any nonsense and just hastened to agree, not daring to delay the work of his employer.

After sending off Niu'er, Su Tang went directly inside the Brokerage Office. Inside, there was a wide lobby that had many counters with workers behind them.

It seemed to be divided into three sections. Respectively, there was a section concerning the sale of real estate and land, a section concerning the sale of servants, and finally a section concerning the sale of other miscellaneous valuables. At a glance, it was clear that the section for the sale of land was the most crowded of the three.

As Su Tang was looking around, she happened to see a middle-aged man sitting behind one of the counters who had a white flower pinned obviously to his clothes. Clearly, he, like Su Tang, was currently in a mourning period.

All the other counters had many people lined up in front of them, but for some reason, this middle-aged man's counter didn't have a single person in front of it. After thinking for a moment, Su Tang realized that now, so soon after the new year, everyone would be paying more attention to good omens and good luck.

And to be served by a person wearing mourning clothes, although it was their own business, and although everyone had relatives who died sometimes, it would still create a sense of discomfort and unease in the customers. Thus, they would just choose to find someone else to help them.

The name of this middle-aged man was Hu Sande, and his mother had died shortly before the new year, thus he could only come to work in his mourning clothes. Of course, he was naturally aware that dressing in mourning clothes at this time of year, when everyone was hoping for good fortune, would cause the customers to avoid him. However, he was just an ordinary person who needed to make a living, so it wasn't like he could just stop working.

It was already the second day since he had returned to work, and he still hadn't been approached by a single customer. He couldn't help but sigh deeply. He really didn't know when he would be able to do business again…

Out of boredom, he looked down and readjusted his clothes as he continued to sit and wait. However, he suddenly sensed that there was a person nearby, so he looked up again. What he saw was a delicate little girl in front of him.

Hu Sande quickly straightened up and asked: "Little miss, what do you want to ask about?"

After coming in and seeing there was no line at this counter and that the man behind it was wearing mourning clothes, Su Tang had immediately walked over. After all, she didn't believe in superstitious nonsense like 'bad luck', and since they were both wearing mourning clothes they complemented each other anyway.

After coming over, Su Tang quickly realized that Hu Sande wasn't just dismissing her because she was a little girl but was actually very polite, so she felt somewhat satisfied with the Brokerage Office's service attitude and nodded contentedly. "I want to buy some plots of farmland. Can you recommend some to me?"

"Plots of farmland?" He responded in a shocked tone.

Hu Sande was very idle these days, so when he had seen Su Tang, a little girl who looked as delicate and beautiful as jade but who was wearing simple clothes and two white flowers in her double-ring bun, he realized that she was also in a mourning period and felt a little sympathetic for her, so he had spoken to her politely.

However, he really never would have expected that this little girl in simple clothes had come to buy farmland, so he had asked what she was here for without much interest. But who would have guessed her response would be so earth-shaking? She directly said she wanted to buy some plots of farmland, and that was "plots", which was to say, not just one!

You should know that the plots of farmland near the Qingyuan County Seat, even the cheaper and smaller ones, were all worth at least one or two hundred silver taels. Thus, if he could sell even one of them, he would earn a lot from the commission.

Hu Sande was so surprised that his voice wasn't low at all, so he ended up attracting the attention of the people nearby. Seeing that, Hu Sande quickly lowered his voice. "Little miss, you really want to buy plots of farmland? Are you aware that even the cheapest plots will cost one or two hundred taels of silver?"

Feeling a little afraid that Su Tang was too young and didn't understand what she was talking about, Hu Sande hurriedly tried to confirm with her. However, after he asked, the little jade-like girl just nodded her head and replied: "En, I know. So do you have any recommendations?"

Hearing her confirmation, Hu Sande's heart suddenly warmed up and he felt a bit excited. This was a big customer! He quickly reached out his hand and beckoned, "Please come right this way little miss, let's talk inside!"

When the other people working the counters saw that Hu Sande was unexpectedly inviting this little girl to the inner hall to talk, they all showed looks of envy. The Brokerage Office did the work of middlemen and, generally speaking, all of the transactions could be completed here in the lobby.

But there was also a hidden rule that if one of the brokers came across a particularly large piece of business, they could invite the guests to talk in a special rest room in the inner hall. After all, for these kinds of deals, they would be discussing business worth hundreds, or even thousands, of taels, so it wouldn't be good to talk about them in front of every random person in the lobby.

Therefore, for the brokers working the counters, seeing someone inviting a customer to discuss in the inner hall represented a deal worth at least hundreds of teals of silver, so how could they not envy Hu Sande?

Of course, being invited to the inner hall, Su Tang didn't refuse. She just nodded and followed him for a while until they arrived at a rest room deeper inside the building. After she walked inside, Hu Sande followed behind her and closed the door, and then poured her a cup of hot tea and set it on the table in front of her.

"Little miss, what kinds of plots of farmland are you looking to buy? How big do they need to be? What are your requirements?" After he finished pouring the tea, Hu Sande directly sat down across from her and started to get down to business.

"I need several plots of more fertile land. My requirements are that they need to be located somewhere with better privacy and, if possible, for them to be located all in one place. If it's impossible for them to all be in one place, then it would be best if they were all close enough to the County Seat that a carriage can complete the journey to them within a day. Also, it would be better if they could be closer to Qinghe Town. It's fine if they are a bit more remote, but I need them to be reachable via carriage."

Su Tang directly stated out all of her requirements. She knew it would be better to try to hide the tomatoes and chili peppers for a period of time, so she hoped that the land could be somewhere with more privacy. However, at the same time she knew that the tomatoes and chili peppers would also eventually have to be shipped out, so the land needed to be somewhere that carriages could reach, or else things would be very inconvenient.

Hearing Su Tang's requirements, Hu Sande ponder for a moment. Finally, he asked, "Might I know what sort of budget the little miss is working with, so that I can decide which plots are most appropriate?"

Qingyuan County was considered mountainous land, however, the soil was also very fertile. Thus, there were actually many plots of farmland that were a bit deeper in the mountains and could be considered very private, so this request wasn't too difficult. However, if the land also needed to be accessible to carriages, then that made things slightly more complicated.

Also Hu Sande just generally wanted to know how much Su Tang intended to spend so that he could plan things more easily.

"Just recommend me anything under five thousand taels." Hearing this question, Su Tang didn't hide anything and just directly stated her budget.

Luo Xingchen had sent her five hundred taels of gold, which was equivalent to five thousand taels of silver, and she was prepared to use all of it to buy farmland. Although she knew the factories would also need some investment to be built, Su Tang was confident. Once the tomatoes and chili peppers were ripe and her payment for the soap arrived again, she would be rich enough to handle these trifles.

With all that in mind, Su Tang was fully prepared to use all of the money she had on hand to invest. Hu Sande had already been a broker working in the Qingyuan County Seat for ten years and he knew that it was no exaggeration to say that this might be the biggest piece of business to pass through their office for the whole year. He began to feel a fire in his heart. If he could close this deal, he would earn more in one day than he had in the past two years combined.

"If we're talking about five thousand taels, we can just directly look at some of the higher quality plots. These plots are all fertile land with over 200 mu of space. I know of a few that are barely suitable to the little miss's needs." With these words, Hu Sande took out a rough map.

"On the southern side of the city there is a plot of farmland called the Zhou Farm that is confirmed to be fertile. This plot of land used to belong to Master Zhang, and it is surrounded by mountains on three sides with only one relatively steep road that connects it to Qingshui Town. Master Zhang recently died, so the Zhang family is now selling the farm."

Qingshui Town was another small town just west of Qinghe Town, and it couldn't be considered very far away.

Su Tang inspected the place that Hu Sande indicated and saw that the area on the map wasn't small. "How many mu of land is this farm? Is it all fertile land? How much does it cost?"

Hu Sande quickly replied, "The area of this farm is relatively large. It has nearly 300 mu of farmland, all of which is fertile and able to bear crops. Also, there are currently twenty tenant families who work there, which is basically enough people to make a small village. Anyway, because this plot is relatively larger, the price is also somewhat higher. Right now, we can sell it to you for 1900 silver taels."

Qingyuan County was not a very rich county. Even when people occasionally came to the Brokerage Office wanting to buy plots of farmland, they would generally only be interested in buying the relatively smaller plots, so these large plots rarely ever sold. However, Su Tang's requirements were for the land she bought to be together in one spot and also in a private location and, coincidentally, this 300-mu farm that was surrounded by mountains on three sides happened to meet both of her requirements very nicely.

"I'll want to go have a look before making a decision. Are there any other suitable plots for sale?" Su Tang nodded along. The first item that Hu Sande recommended seemed very good and in line with her requirements, but she still didn't commit to buying anything yet. She wanted to feel things out a little further.

Hu Sande quickly nodded and continued to introduce another nearby plot of land. "There's another plot for sale that is just east of the plot I mentioned before, called the Yang Farm, which is also surrounded by mountains on three sides. This plot isn't as big as the other one I mentioned, but it still boasts nearly two hundred mu of fertile land. Actually, both of these plots are owned by Master Zhang's family, so they are fairly similar. They both only have a single road that connects them to Qingshui Town. As you know, you can reach Qingshui Town from the County Seat in less than an hour in a carriage, so this plot also meets your requirements little miss."

Su Tang continued to nod. "Anything else?"

Uncharacteristically, Hu Sande was feeling a bit nervous. He had already been working as a broker for many years, but whenever he thought of the money this deal could earn him a fire would start to burn in his heart, burning away all his usual professional calm. Trying his best to press this feeling down, Hu Sande continued with his next recommendations.

In the end, he recommended two more farms that were nearer to Qinghe Town, both of which were only around 100 mu in size, and two more near the County Seat, which were also only around 100 mu.

However, these last few options were all relatively farther away and more spread out, so Su Tang wanted to take a look at these closer ones first. After all, she wasn't used to running around all over the place, so it would be more convenient for her to manage if she could find plots that were closer together. Anyway, the final steps of production and transportation would all be handled by the Luo family, so there was no sense in her worrying too much about any of that.

With her general direction decided, Su Tang didn't bother to beat around the bush any further and directly told Hu Sande her decision.

Of course, since she was going to buy a whole farm it would be impossible for her not to go out and take a closer look. Thus, Su Tang directly told Hu Sande which farms she was interested in and asked him to arrange for her to be shown around. She told him that if she felt it was suitable, she would pay the money and buy the farm on the spot.

Understanding Su Tang's intention to be straightforward, Hu Sande also didn't say any more nonsense and immediately arranged, "Alright then little miss, please wait for a little while first. You can go and have a look at the first two plots that I mentioned later on this afternoon. But, as for the rest of them, I'm afraid that they are all relatively farther away, but if you use all day tomorrow we should be able to look at all of them. Is that alright with you?"

In this business, the buyers would definitely want to go take a look before buying anything, and the sellers would also want to send someone along to introduce things to the buyers properly. Brokers, as the people working in the middle, were responsible for communicating with both parties and arranging everything. This was basically the whole reason they could earn their commissions so, of course, the buyers and sellers would cooperate with them.

But, to be sure, Hu Sande still asked Su Tang to confirm. Of course, Su Tang gave the nod and said "Alright!"

She was coming out to buy land from the beginning, so she had known it would be a somewhat lengthy process and she had already told Song Yi and Su Nuo in advance that she wouldn't be able to come back on the same day. Of course, before leaving she had also ensured that the Dessert Bar had enough raw materials to run for a few days without her. She knew she would need to stay overnight in the Qingyuan County Seat, but she hoped that two days would be enough to get everything done.

Of course, just buying the land wasn't actually the most troublesome part. After all, land was land, so long as it was fertile and crops could grow on it, that would be enough and she could directly buy it. The more troublesome part was the tenants who lived on and worked the land. According to her requirements, they needed to be honest people who wouldn't betray her so that the news of her new tomatoes and chili peppers could be delayed from leaking for as long as possible.

Although it was only a matter of time before the news got out since, after all, the diligence and wisdom of working people could never be underestimated, she still wanted to delay as much as she could in order to earn more profits later. Thus, she had no choice but to go out and inspect these farms personally.

After she finished setting everything up with Hu Sande and bid farewell, Su Tang sent the orange cat to tail him before leaving the Brokerage Office. Looking around, she found it was already noon.

By now, Niu'er had already finished his meal and fed the horse and was waiting outside the door. When he saw her coming out, Niu'er quickly stepped forward and called out: "Young miss, there you are!"

Su Tang nodded and directly boarded the carriage. At the same time, she ordered, "Bring me to the largest inn in the County Seat."

Since she was going to be staying outside tonight, as a girl out on her own, she decided to just go to the largest and most reputable inn around in order to give herself a little more sense of security. Of course, she wouldn't actually be sleeping in the inn at all, but rather inside her space.

Niu'er nodded and whipped the carriage into motion. A few moments later, he stopped in front of the door of Xingyue Inn. "Miss, this is the largest inn in the Qingyuan County Seat."

Su Tang got out of the carriage and had a look around. The entranceway was large and bright, and as soon as she stepped inside an attendant approached and asked: "Does this young lady plan to stay in our inn? How many rooms do you need?"

"Give me one of your best rooms, somewhere quiet where I won't be disturbed. Also, give my driver an ordinary room." Su Tang replied.

The attendant nodded and led Su Tang upstairs while saying. "Young miss, please follow me!"

He directly led Su Tang up to a room on the third floor. The room was exquisitely decorated and had a window that didn't face the main street, meaning it was still fairly quiet. Looking around, Su Tang nodded with satisfaction and said, "Acceptable!"

"This room costs three hundred copper coins a day, may I ask how many nights the young miss plans to stay?" Hearing her word of approval, the attendant quickly inquired how long she planned to stay.

Hearing that price, Su Tang couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. This may be the County Seat, but that number really wasn't small. Back then when Luo Xingchen had rented a whole courtyard in Qinghe Town, she had paid three hundred copper coins for a month, but now the same amount of money could only buy Su Tang one night of lodging here.

"We'll stay for one night. How much will it cost altogether?" Su Tang took out her purse as she spoke.

"The young miss' room is three hundred copper coins a night, and the little brother's room is fifty copper coins a night, so 350 copper coins total."

Su Tang nodded and passed over 350 copper coins.

After that, she passed over another ten copper coins and asked, "I wonder what the most famous restaurant here in the County Seat is?"

Seeing money in his hands, the smile on the attendant's face became a few degrees more sincere. "If we're speaking of the Qingyuan County Seat, the most famous restaurant is definitely Cuiwei House. The chef there is an expert with some rare fish dishes, and during this time of year Cuiwei House is the only restaurant that can still take out fresh fish to cook in their dishes."

After all, the Qingyuan County Seat was also close to the Qing River, so fish was a local specialty here as well, and their most famous restaurant had a chef who was very skilled at cooking fish.

But when she heard the word 'fish', Su Tang could only shake her head wryly, "Is there anywhere else?"

When she said that the attendant suddenly recalled that the girl in front of him was wearing mourning clothes and probably couldn't eat fish, so he hurriedly corrected, "Sorry, I misspoke. If the young miss wants to eat vegetarian dishes, the chefs at the Fu An Resuturaunt are pretty good. The Fu An Restaurant's specialty is a special warm room that can grow vegetables out of season. You can eat green vegetables even now in the dead of winter, which is a rare experience. Also, their chef is also a good cook who is skilled with vegetarian dishes."

Hearing the attendant's explanation, Su Tang nodded along. She was convinced and wanted to head over there for lunch, so she asked where to find the Fu An Restaurant. At the same time, she was secretly feeling impressed. She had only traveled a short way from Qinghe Town to the Qingyuan County Seat, but the situation was completely different.

Sure enough, people still needed to go out and experience the world for themselves in order to gain knowledge. If she hadn't coincidentally found out about this restaurant growing vegetables in a warm room today, then she would still be thinking that it was a concept no one else in this era had ever thought of.

It seemed that the wisdom of the ancients really shouldn't be underestimated, and the ordinary working people really were, in fact, very smart.

She didn't bother to find Niu'er to drive her over in the carriage. After all, they would need to run around all over the place this afternoon, so it would be better to let the horse and Niu'er stay put and rest for now. Thus, Su Tang walked over to the Fu An Restaurant on her own feet.

The Fu An Restaurant was on one of the County Seat's main streets. It was a three-story building and Su Tang happened to arrive right around lunchtime, so it was very lively inside. When Su Tang walked over, the waiter at the door warmly greeted her, "Are you here to have a meal? We have excellent vegetarian cuisine, little miss, why don't you come in and have a taste?"

Su Tang was wearing her mourning clothes, so the waiter greeted her enthusiastically. Su Tang smiled and walked inside, and the waiter quickly led her to an empty table to sit down.

"Little miss, would you like me to explain our specialty dishes?" The waiter asked politely.

"Alright." Su Tang felt that the service of this Fu An Restaurant was quite good, not much worse even when compared to modern times. Thus, when the waiter volunteered to recommend their specialties, she agreed.

The waiter quickly began to introduce their specialty dishes, and Su Tang listened quietly. However, just when she was about to order, suddenly a young man in fine clothes strolled inside the door with several attendants in tow. One of the attendants called in a large voice. "You there, come open up a private room for our young master."

When the waiter talking to Su Tang heard the attendant addressing him, his face changed and he sent Su Tang an uncertain look.

Seeing his predicament, Su Tang opened her mouth and said, "I'm in no hurry, if you need to…"

But when the young man heard Su Tang's words, he sharply cut her off, "There's no need. Please go ahead and order miss."

Su Tang looked over again. Unexpectedly, the young man seemed somewhat familiar. Su Tang raised an eyebrow, however, before she could think further another waiter had already arrived and taken the young man and his party to the second floor.

"Well, give me your braised bean curd and the cabbage, egg, and vegetable soup, and also a bowl of rice." Su Tang returned to ordering.

Meanwhile, her waiter seemed to notice that someone else had gone and greeted the arrogant young man, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Then, when he heard Su Tang ordering, he quickly smiled and replied, "Understood little miss, just wait a moment please and the food will be out soon."

When the waiter finally left, Su Tang couldn't help but look up at the second floor. She smiled and said, "Hmm, the County Seat is kind of interesting!"

The Fu An Restaurant served their food very quickly, so before long everything Su Tang had ordered arrived at her table. And somehow, seeing this touch of green on the plate despite the winter weather was a bit comforting. Of course, although vegetarian dishes were the special characteristic of the Fu An Restaurant, they also sold meat dishes as well. And if you looked around the main room, most people were actually eating meat dishes.

After all, vegetarian dishes were much more expensive than meat dishes at this time of year, so only rich people would go out of their way to order them. After all, in another few months, there would be wild vegetables springing up from the ground all over the place, so most people felt like they could afford to wait.

However, when Su Tang ordered her meal this time, her two dishes and one soup were all vegetarian. And since she was seated in the main dining area, a little girl, alone, who ordered so confidently, it aroused some curiosity in the surrounding diners. But then when they saw her plain white mourning clothes and the small white flowers in her hair, everyone quickly understood what was going on.

Su Tang picked up a bite of tofu with her chopsticks and tossed it into her mouth. Immediately, she felt slightly surprised. The tofu tasted very good and the sauce was also rich, it melded well with the leeks and chinese cabbage, and the egg & vegetable soup was also fragrant and tasty.

Of course, at the end of the day, these out-of-season ingredients weren't able to bring out the same flavor as ingredients grown in-season, so the taste was slightly lesser and, when compared to the ingredients from the space that Su Tang was used to, the taste was even more lesser, however, the chef really had some skills to be able to make up for these deficiencies. Su Tang couldn't help but nod with approval before continuing to eat.

In the end, Su Tang had to pay nearly two silver taels for this one meal, which was indeed quite a bit of money, but that was expected in a bigger city like this. Su Tang calmly paid her bill and then left to slowly make her way back to the inn. However, when she arrived in front of the inn, she found the orange cat squatting near the door with a resentful face.

Su Tang: …

Orange cat: 'Hmph, went to go eat delicious food by yourself? Do you even have a conscience?'

He had laboriously followed Hu Sande all over the place over the last few hours, not daring to look away for fear that Hu Sande might try to play some tricks, and what was the result? When he came back he found that his heartless master had gone out to eat delicious food without bringing him along!

Even if he was a foodie cat, he could also have a temper okay!

'I'll make you grilled fish later on tonight, alright?' Su Tang sighed. It really wasn't easy to raise a foodie cat. She even began to suspect that maybe this "Divine Beast" had only bound himself to her because she could cook.

Of course, the orange cat would never admit to that conjecture even if you beat him to death!

However, when he secured Su Tang's promise to make him grilled fish tonight, the orange cat relented a bit. He proudly twisted his fat neck and relayed everything that he had heard while following Hu Sande to Su Tang.

Su Tang wasn't at all familiar with the County Seat. Although it was said that the Brokerage Office was supervised by the Yamen, Su Tang believed in herself more than any Yamen, which was why she had asked the orange cat to follow Hu Sande. This way, even if Hu Sande tried to play any tricks in the middle, she wouldn't end up being cheated.

Thus, the orange cat had followed Hu Sande diligently. The man had gone around to visit several places and, because the owners of the farms that were for sale were scattered all over the place, Hu Sande had hired a carriage and ran around for nearly an hour to meet all of them to set up times to see their farms. Once that was finally done, Hu Sande had hurriedly returned and then gone to have lunch, and the orange cat had also returned to look for Su Tang.

'There are no big problems. It seems that Master Zhang really died recently, and his children are very prodigal and want to sell off all of his property. However, because the two farms are so large, it means the prices are correspondingly high, which is why they are so hard to sell and are still on the market until now. As for the other plots, two are being sold by families who want to use the money to send their children to take the imperial examination, and one is being sold by a wealthy man's mistress secretly to increase her own private property. In short, all of the plots of land that Hu Sande had introduced earlier are really being sold and also didn't have any complicated background.' The orange cat reported.

After all, in this era, buying land wasn't just a matter of saying a word or signing a contract. If there were some complicated family circumstances in the background, there may be troubles when trying to take the land over. Su Tang had made all this clear to the orange cat earlier so he could investigate properly, however, she really hadn't expected that there wouldn't be any issues. Well, except for that mistress who was secretly selling in order to increase her private wealth. There might be an issue there, and Su Tang noted it down. If there was a choice, she would try not to buy from that woman.

Although Hu Sande was eating right now, Su Tang found out from the orange cat that he had already made an appointment with the butler from the Zhang family to discuss regarding the farms they were selling, so Su Tang picked up the orange cat, left the inn, and had Niu'er drive her back to the Brokerage Office.

"Miss Su, what a coincidence for you to appear right now. Let me introduce you, this is the Butler Zhang from the Zhang family. He will follow along while we go to take a look at the Zhou Farm and the Yang Farm today." Hu Sande saw Su Tang coming, and quickly moved forward and spoke with a smile.

Butler Zhang had already heard from Hu Sande in advance that the buyer today was not very old, but he was still surprised when he really saw Su Tang. This little girl in mourning clothes was so small and looked as delicate as jade, but unexpectedly she could still bring out so much money to buy his master's farms?

"Hello, Butler Zhang. Now that we've all gathered, let's go." Su Tang was very straightforward and didn't bother with too many pleasantries, ready to just begin directly.

"Alright, then could the young miss's carriage please follow ours." It was already past noon, and daylight was wasting, so no one wanted to delay. Thus, Hu Sande was also very straightforward with his agreement.

That settled, Su Tang turned around and climbed back into her carriage and Hu Sande and Butler Zhang also boarded the carriage in front. In short order, with them leading and Su Tang behind, they rode out in the direction of Qingshui Town together.

The journey took about an hour, but eventually, they arrived at the Zhou Farm. A farmer spotted the two carriages coming, and he hurried over to greet: "Butler Zhang!"

"This is Miss Su, who is interested in buying this farm. Please take her around and introduce everything carefully." Housekeeper Zhang remembered this farmer's name was Zhou Qian, and he casually gave him his instructions.

Zhou Qian was a man in his forties. Back when the Zhang family was still more prosperous, he and his wife were both family servants. However, at one point they offended some people and ended up being sent to manage this remote farm. After hearing Butler Zhang's instructions, Zhou Qian glanced over at Su Tang and didn't dare to ask anything more, he just hastened to say, "Understood. Miss Su, this way please!"

Su Tang glanced over and felt that this farmer looked like an honest person, so he probably wouldn't try to cheat her. Unfortunately, the orange cat had already run off to take a look around and, of course, Su Tang wasn't a farmer herself, so there was no way she could know what good land or bad land looked like. But the orange cat, as the Guardian Beast of her space, was different. He would only need a glance to see through the quality of farmland.

'Hmph, it seems that broker didn't try to cheat you. It's rare to meet such an honest two-legged beast. The land here is all basically fertile land of good quality. Of course, the tomatoes and chili peppers grown here won't be nearly as good as what we produce with the space, but they should still taste good.' The orange cat suddenly reappeared and gave his thoughts.

As soon as they had arrived the orange cat had already run off to take a look around. Now, quick like the wind, he had already returned to tell Su Tang about what he had found out.

Of course, Zhou Qian had no way to know that Su Tang had already understood the land's condition, and he continued to introduce: "Miss Su, this Zhou Farm has a total of 289 mu of fertile farmland, and currently there are five families working the farm…"

Because this piece of land was relatively large, obviously, there also needed to be correspondingly more farmers to work it. The Zhang family had already owned the land for a long time so, naturally, all of the farmers here were subordinates of the Zhang family. Originally, there were only a few families working the land, but now there were already a total of five large households with more than 50 people across several generations working here. Of course, they were all slaves.

The Zhang family used to be the powerful landowners in the Qingyuan County Seat, but unfortunately, the younger generation turned out to be prodigal wastes who had caused the family to decline. By now, the Zhang family had already fallen to the point where they even planned to sell off their farms.

Hearing that the farmers were all slaves, Su Tang turned to Butler Zhang, who was still standing by the side, and asked: "Are you going to take the people back or sell them with the land?"

Butler Zhang immediately replied, "There's no way we can take them back, they'll all be sold along with the land."

When Zhou Qian heard them suddenly start discussing this topic, he just bowed and didn't dare to speak. After all, he was a slave, so his life and death were completely in the hands of his masters. Although it was technically illegal for masters to kill their slaves, at the end of the day the only punishment would be a fine, so that was hardly any deterrent.

It was already normal for masters to harshly beat and scold their slaves, and it was even more normal for them to buy or sell them at will.

Su Tang nodded when he heard Butler Zhang's reply and, at the same time, she gestured for the orange cat to secretly go and take a look at the farmers who were being sold along with the land. After that, she followed Zhou Qian around to continue looking at the land. It was still winter and before the spring thaw, so the ground was frozen solid and carpeted in white. Su Tang reached down and pulled up a piece of snow so she could dig out a piece of soil and take a look.

Although the orange cat had already looked around and passed his judgment, she still had to at least put up an act for other people to see, right?

Of course, seeing her doing this, Butler Zhang and Hu Sande just quietly stood to the side and observed. After all, this was very normal. It was common sense that the buyer would have to inspect the land for themselves. If they didn't even inspect, then there was no way they would buy.

Of course, a farm that was close to 300 mu in size wasn't small, so Su Tang only casually dug up a few places to inspect. Before long, the orange cat came running back, so she stood up, patted her hands, and nodded, "Alright, let's go look at the next one!"