His Peasant Wife : Yao Ling

Yao Ling felt lucky. Although she was also from a peasant background, Jiu Lan taught her to read and write. If it weren’t for her, she probably wouldn’t be able to work at ’Fu Rong’ and gain Wang Luo Hai’s approval. If it weren’t for Jiu Lan, when she became a part of Wang Luo Hai’s family, they would definitely insult her because she was illiterate.

"I need you to spend some times teaching them how to read and write. You can start working at ’Fu Rong’ after making lunch for the children. I’ll personally explain this to Xiao Qian. It’s common to have someone only taking one shift, so it won’t be a big problem considering that you also have responsibilities for the children. You already prove your worth with your beautiful embroidery just now. This way, in the morning, you will have time to teach the children," Yao Ling started to work on her plan. She didn’t want to delay their progress.

"Okay. How about their jobs? How will you assign it to them?" Ning jie asked curiously.

Yao Ling pondered over it for a while. "Hmm... I need to know their personalities first. I also need to know their strength and weakness. In a few days, I will probably go to your place and find out about it. I’m not in a hurry to put them on the jobs, because I need to clean up my courtyard first."

"I can help you by giving the list of their names and I can also tell you a little bit of them for an introduction. It will be easier for you that way," Ning jie offered.

"That would be helpful for me. Thank you. For now, you should go back to your post. I’ll explain to Xiao Qian. About your salary, don’t worry! I’ll take care of it," Yao Ling assured Ning jie.

"Okay, Yao Ling. Thank you very much. Then, I’ll go first," Ning jie curtsied and left.

After Ning jie went back to her work, Xiao Yu went closer to her young mistress. "Young Mistress, do you plan on using the children as your subordinates?" Xiao Yu couldn’t help but ask curiously. Her young mistress really thought deeply about this matter.

Xiao Yu admired how her young mistress could cook up such a good plan. The children were fresh - not contaminated by any fractions previously - and young mistress would certainly get their loyalties, especially because she was able to convince Ning jie whom being loved by the children. Xiao Yu noticed that the plan must have been cooked up on the spot back at Ning jie’s house.

Xiao Yu also thought that she should train herself to be more useful for Young Mistress. After being used and blackmailed by Liu Li, she felt her naivety should be thrown away. No one should be trusted except her master. She was also feeling thankful to Xiu. If Xiu didn’t tell about it to Young Mistress, she probably would still lie to her young mistress and make a greater mistake. She would lose her chance to prove her loyalty.

Yao Ling watched Xiao Yu’s full of curiosity expression and laughed. "Indeed. I need to gain more people to fight back. I don’t want them to bully me and my people."

Xiao Yu nodded in understanding. Before she could say anything else, Li Huan came. "Young Mistress, a servant from ’Lin Fu’ said that Young Master won’t be able to come to ’Fu Rong’ today because Young Master Lin caught him and he will borrow our young master for the rest of the day. They accidentally met after Young Master finished doing his business with Master."

"Okay. I understand," Yao Ling smiled. "Give a treat to Lin Fu’s servant and let him go back. Tell him I already got the message."

"Yes, Young Mistress." After saying that, Li Huan did his job.

Yao Ling shook her head in amusement. She knew that Lin Jian gong zi would certainly make troubles for Yao Ying. Yao Ling turned to Xiao Yu, "Later, don’t forget to ask Ning jie to give me the children’s name list!"

"Yes, Young Mistress," Xiao Yu answered.

"Come on then. We should get back to work." They got busy for the rest of the day.

---

While Yao Ling was busy with recruiting people, Yao Ying went to General Lin’s estate just like usual. He did his morning practice drill wholeheartedly. With his way with words, he befriended a lot of the soldiers there. He didn’t differentiate himself from the others because of his new status. This made him become brothers with those soldiers.

After finishing the morning drill, he went home, took a bath, and went to ’Fu Rong’. Currently, Xiu was away. He went out to tail Liu Li, trying to find a loophole there. He really needed to find one more people to serve him as to not make it obvious if one of them was gone doing another job secretly.

When he met Wang Luo Hai at ’Fu Rong’, he asked where Xiu was. Yao Ying simply said that Xiu was sick -- the classic excuse and Wang Luo Hai seemed to believe him. Wang Luo Hai pondered a few moments before asking, "Don’t you have another servant in your courtyard? Why don’t you let one of them serve you? Just in case, Xiu isn’t around."

Yao Ying couldn’t say that he trusted no one in his own courtyard, so instead, he answered, "I don’t like them."

Wang Luo Hai raised one of his eyebrows but then gave him a solution. "How about I give you one more? Xiu was from my courtyard. This one servant is also Xiu’s friend -- Feng. He’s clever and you can trust him."

Yao Ying looked at Wang Luo Hai in astonishment. It seemed that he knew about Yao Ying’s insecurities and he offered his help. Was this the feeling of having a loving father? He could certainly get used to it. "Thank you, Father. It will be helpful for this son."

Wang Luo Hai smiled and patted his shoulder. "I know that you will have some difficulties at first. Once I give them to you, they will be loyal only to you. I will send him to your courtyard later. For now, I want you to meet one of our biggest customers, but you have to keep a secret who they are."

Yao Ying nodded in excitement. Before he went out, Yao Ying told Li Huan to give Yao Ling a message that he would be gone and meet an important customer. He didn’t want her to feel worried when she didn’t find him in ’Fu Rong’ later.

Wang Luo Hai brought him to a secluded place. It was a run-down gazebo on the outskirt of the town. To get there they had to go through the complicated twist and turn through the forest and Yao Ying found no human presence around the area. Wang Luo Hai didn’t bring any of his servants, only Yao Ying.

"Father, why do you only bring me here?"

"You mean no servant?"

"Yes."

"You will know later. In the future, if you meet this person, you also can’t bring anyone with you. Only I know about this person’s existence. And now, you."

"Why?"

"You are my son. Of course, I will trust you. You will inherit my legacy and you have to learn carefully from now on," Wang Luo Hai explained.

Yao Ying was taken aback. "Why? Why do you trust me so much?" This was the question that kept bothering him.

Wang Luo Hai laughed. "Just like I said, I am good at judging people and I know you can be trusted."

"But... you don’t know about my background at all! How can you trust me so easily? Sometimes, I don’t even trust myself. I’m afraid that I wasn’t a good man," Yao Ying protested and he finally opened up to Wang Luo Hai. This matter... was hard to discuss with his wife. He knew that Yao Ling was always looking up at him and he didn’t want to shatter it with his own insecurities.

Probably having a father to look up to wasn’t a bad thing. Having man-to-man talk was what he needed at the moment.

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