Ch 108: The Regent’s Farmer Husband

Lu Huaizhou still could not bear to overexert Jiang Ji. After easing their longing a little, the two simply held each other and fell asleep together.

The next day, when Jiang Ji woke up, it was almost noon.

Now that he was finally back home, his mind had relaxed completely, and he had accidentally slept until this late.

No one in the household had disturbed him either, allowing him to sleep to his heart’s content.

He lay in bed for a while, slowly waking up while enjoying the peace and quiet of home, trying to clear from his mind those endless images of swarming locusts that had filled his thoughts day and night.

There was a note placed on Lu Huaizhou’s pillow. Jiang Ji picked it up and read it.

—Rest well. There’s no need to hurry into the palace. Just write a memorial instead. Recover your voice first. Huaizhou.

Jiang Ji’s eyes curved into a smile as he climbed out of bed.

As he stretched and walked out, he immediately spotted Zhao Ru sitting in the hall sewing clothes, clearly waiting for him to wake.

“Mother.”

Hearing her son’s voice, Zhao Ru looked up at once, her face instantly brightening with a smile. She set down the clothes in her hands.

“You’re awake? Did you sleep well?”

Jiang Ji nodded. “Very well. It feels like I haven’t slept this comfortably in ages.”

“I figured you probably couldn’t sleep properly over there.” Zhao Ru immediately felt distressed for him. “You must be hungry. Go brush your teeth and wash up first.”

Then she stepped outside and called, “Xiao Liu! Quick, Xiao Ji’s awake. Bring over the porridge warming in the kitchen first so he can fill his stomach a little.”

“Alright! I’m going right now.” Xiao Liu ran off.

After washing up, Jiang Ji drank a bowl of lean pork porridge Xiao Liu brought him, then went to the study to write a memorial reporting the situation in the disaster regions.

After writing for about half an hour, Jiang Nan and Jiang Bei finished class and came running over.

“Brother, time to eat!”

“Big Brother, are you hungry? What are you writing?”

“A memorial report.” Jiang Ji set down his brush and followed the two outside. “Come on, let’s eat first.”

“Big Brother, what’s a report?” Jiang Bei asked curiously.

The two little troublemakers had grown a bit taller again. Jiang Ji draped an arm over Jiang Bei’s shoulders as they walked.

“It means telling the higher-ups about the things you’ve done so they understand the situation.”

Jiang Bei seemed half-understanding. “Big Brother, why did they have so many locusts over there? We don’t have that many grasshoppers back home.”

“Mhm. Their area’s different from ours. It was too dry there. Grasshopper eggs tend to hatch easily when there’s drought and the temperature is suitable…”

As they walked, Jiang Ji explained why droughts often caused locust plagues. The boys only half understood, but at least learned a little.

While talking, they arrived at the neighboring Wutong Courtyard. Their family usually ate there together. If Madam Lu and the others came over, they would move to the larger flower hall instead.

Not long after they started eating, Lu Huaizhou unexpectedly returned, and the maids quickly laid out another set of chopsticks and bowls.

Jiang Ji looked at him in confusion. “Why did you come back? There’s barely any break time at noon, and you still rushed back and forth.”

After washing his hands, Lu Huaizhou sat beside him and quietly squeezed Jiang Ji’s left hand beneath the table.

“I came back to eat with you.”

Jiang Ji’s lips curved upward, his bright eyes sparkling. It felt as though a jar of honey had been poured directly into his heart.

Jiang Xia mischievously said, “Brother Huaizhou, you came back to eat with my brother, didn’t you?”

Lu Huaizhou nodded very straightforwardly. “Mhm.”

The entire family burst into laughter.

Watching the two of them, Zhao Ru felt deeply gratified.

Lu Huaizhou truly did not have much noon break time. After lunch, he accompanied Jiang Ji back to their own courtyard, sat with him briefly, then immediately hurried off again.

Xiao Liu brought over his medicine. After Jiang Ji finished drinking it, he skipped his nap and continued writing the memorial in the study.

Once the memorial was completed, he pulled out the earlier drafts he had written on locust control. Lu Huaizhou had brought all of them back for him.

Having personally gone through the disaster regions and experienced a locust plague firsthand, Jiang Ji had gained many insights and discovered numerous problems.

Previously, the situation had been urgent, so he had only written emergency solutions. Now that he had returned, he simply decided to complete the entire body of knowledge properly.

That whole afternoon, Jiang Ji buried himself in the study writing nonstop, recording everything he knew about locust plagues: locust habits, how locust disasters formed, the dangers they caused, methods of prevention and control, how to exterminate adult locusts, eggs, and larvae, and more.

He continued writing until Lu Huaizhou returned.

“What are you writing?” Lu Huaizhou walked over and rested a hand on his shoulder.

Jiang Ji glanced at him and answered, “Things related to locust plagues. I figured I might as well write everything down completely. Then the court can distribute a copy to every county so everyone understands them better.”

The manuscripts lay spread across the desk. Lu Huaizhou picked them up, his eyes lighting up as he began reading seriously.

After finishing his writing, Jiang Ji stood up and rubbed his wrist.

“It still needs some illustrations. Once Lu Wen adds the drawings, it’ll be done.”

Jiang Ji himself was not very good at drawing, and his sketches were crude. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Lu Wen, however, was much better at drawing. Since he had also gone through the locust disaster alongside Jiang Ji, he had personally seen the eggs, larvae, and adult locusts, as well as all the insect-catching tools they used. He was the most suitable person to illustrate it.

But that would have to wait a few days. Jiang Ji had given the twenty-some brothers who accompanied him to the disaster regions ten days off. They could return to duty after resting properly. In any case, there was no urgency now.

“Mhm. This is currently the most complete book on locust plagues in existence.” Lu Huaizhou set down the manuscript, pulled Jiang Ji into his arms, and kissed him. Once again, he could not help sighing, “Having you is Great Sheng’s fortune.”

Laughing, Jiang Ji wrapped his arms around Lu Huaizhou’s neck and kissed him back. Lu Huaizhou immediately deepened the kiss.

The next morning at dawn, Jiang Ji accompanied Lu Huaizhou to court to deliver his report.

The entire court was startled upon seeing Jiang Ji.

He was dark and thin, and even the ducal court robes hung loosely on his body, enough to show just how much hardship he had endured over these months.

Every official felt genuine admiration for him. Even Censor Zhang, who had previously criticized him for not attending court and lacking decorum, bowed deeply toward him.

During court, the Emperor sympathized with Jiang Ji’s hardships and specially had someone bring him a chair so he could sit while attending court.

Before the Emperor and all the officials, Jiang Ji recounted everything that had happened during the locust disaster.

His voice was still hoarse and unrecovered. When everyone learned that he had spoken himself hoarse while teaching farmers planting techniques, and that even his two guards had also spoken themselves hoarse, the officials once again felt deep admiration.

Then they learned Jiang Ji had spent yesterday compiling all the knowledge on locust plague prevention and control into a book, lacking only illustrations before completion. Their shock deepened further.

Some officials had initially held slight complaints about Jiang Ji returning without immediately reporting to the Emperor, but those grievances completely vanished now.

Because Jiang Ji had rendered immense merit in controlling the locust plague and had also compiled a comprehensive locust prevention manual, making enormous contributions toward future prevention efforts, the Emperor bestowed many rewards upon him: gold, silver, jewels, and land.

Others who had contributed to disaster relief also received their own rewards.

Mhm. Jiang Ji’s household gained another five hundred mu of farmland.

After court adjourned, Eunuch Wu accompanied Jiang Ji to select the land. Conveniently, there remained unawarded fertile fields not far from Jiang Ji’s existing estates, so he chose those.

That very afternoon, all the paperwork was completed, and the land deeds were delivered into Jiang Ji’s hands.

The next day, Jiang Ji brought people to inspect the fields, reorganized the estate management thoroughly, and urgently distributed seeds so new vegetables could be planted immediately.

He also inspected the previous farmlands. The autumn and winter vegetables there had already sprouted and were ready for transplanting, and they appeared to be growing well.

Following Jiang Ji’s instructions, the estate managers had fully implemented crop rotation systems to reduce pests and disease.

After returning to the residence, Lu Wen came looking for him.

“Young Master, are you planning to add illustrations for the locust book?”

Jiang Ji took a sip of water. “No rush. Rest properly first before worrying about that.”

Lu Wen smiled. “I’ve already spent two days with my family. It’s fine. I’m in the residence anyway, so let me draw the illustrations for you first.”

Lu Jiu, Lu Wen, and the others were all children born into service at the Lu Residence. Their parents were still at the Lu Residence as well.

Jiang Ji looked at him. “I heard things between you and Xinghua are almost settled. Spend more time with her.”

Xinghua was also born into service at the Lu Residence and was a maid serving Madam Lu. Lu Jiu, Lu Wen, and the others were around Lu Huaizhou’s age and had grown up with him. Madam Lu also treated them like sons and worried about their marriages.

Lu Wen scratched his head, the tips of his ears reddening slightly. “It’s no trouble.”

Jiang Ji did not say more and smiled. “Alright then, draw. I’ll tell you what needs to be drawn.”

He explained all the illustrations needed, and Lu Wen sat at Jiang Ji’s seat and began drawing.

Jiang Ji sat at Lu Huaizhou’s seat instead, checking through the manuscript to fill in any gaps.

It took two days for Lu Wen to finish all the illustrations. Jiang Ji also organized and checked the manuscript, then had Lu Wen and Lu Jiu look through it once more to make sure there were no wrong characters or mistakes. After confirming everything, he handed it to Lu Huaizhou and asked him to arrange printing.

After finishing that matter, Jiang Ji spent another two days inspecting the farmlands belonging to the Regent’s Residence and the Lu Residence.

Aside from watermelons and tomatoes, they had planted large quantities of various chili peppers this year. In summer, green peppers had also sold very well and earned them quite a bit of money.

Especially for the dried chili peppers, they had planted a great many. These peppers were all meant to supply the restaurants. Once cultivation spread further, Jiang Ji would no longer have to worry about running out of stock when he traveled far away.

Because of Jiang Ji’s restaurants, eating chili peppers had already become fashionable in the capital, and many other restaurants had begun developing spicy dishes as well.

The court had already promoted last year’s autumn wheat seeds to more regions, and the spring wheat farther north had also been harvested with greatly increased yields. Sweet potatoes and corn were also nearing harvest season, and the court was currently planning to expand those seeds as well.

Before heading to the locust disaster regions, Jiang Ji had left behind many seeds for broccoli and other new autumn and winter vegetables. Aside from planting them on their own lands, Lu Huaizhou had people sell the seeds so more farmers could grow them.

These vegetables were all meant to be spread widely and enrich people’s dining tables.

Jiang Ji had been busy for several days. Seeing that he had only rested at home for one day before running around everywhere again, Lu Huaizhou wrapped an arm around his waist and pinched lightly, somewhat displeased. “Stay home and rest properly for a few more days. All your flesh has disappeared.”

“I’ll gain it back in winter.” Jiang Ji knew Lu Huaizhou felt sorry for him, so he kissed him and said, “I’m not tired. I’m just walking around and looking at things. It’s not like I’m doing hard labor.”

Lu Huaizhou sighed and handed him the booklet printed by the bookshop.

“It was printed this quickly?” Jiang Ji’s eyes lit up as he accepted it.

There were a large number of illustrations in the book. Carving those images alone should have taken quite a bit of time.

“Mhm. I had them rush it. Take a look.”

The book was titled Manual for Locust Plague Prevention and Control. Jiang Ji opened it, and on the first page, the title read:

Manual for Locust Plague Prevention and Control — Written by Jiang Ji of Changping, Yunzhou.

Jiang Ji blinked.

This was yet another book of his, after all the crop-planting manuals.

In the study, those planting manuals had all been compiled and printed into booklets. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. Lu Huaizhou had specially cleared out one whole row of shelves to store all the books Jiang Ji had written.

Jiang Ji looked at the booklet in his hand, then at the long row of planting manuals on the bookshelf. Smelling the strong scent of fresh ink, his heart filled with emotion.

At the beginning of last year, he had still been a nineteen-year-old university freshman, a rich second-generation young master. Even if he could not quite be called a wastrel, he had definitely been an ignorant young master who did not know the hardships of the world, the type who could not even distinguish chives from wild grass.

Who could have imagined that in less than two years, he would become Great Sheng’s master of agriculture and write such a long row of books?

Looking back now, Jiang Ji felt as though his previous world had become distant. Every day here was so busy that, if he did not often chat with the viewers in the livestream room, he might sometimes forget that he had transmigrated at all.

After another ten or twenty years, Jiang Ji even worried whether he might become completely assimilated.

Seeing him lost in thought, Lu Huaizhou asked, “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Ji came back to himself, looked at Lu Huaizhou, and shook his head. “Nothing.”

He roughly flipped through the booklet. “I’ll check it again. You check it once too.”

“Alright.”

That evening, Jiang Ji and Lu Huaizhou carefully checked the booklet. After confirming there were no issues, Lu Huaizhou had the booklets distributed the next day.

Once those matters were handled, Han Qingshan came to report that the second restaurant in the capital was ready to open.

Jiang Ji found time to inspect it. Since it was a branch location, the decoration style followed that of the first restaurant. Everything looked quite good, and Jiang Ji was very satisfied.

This second restaurant would be managed by Yu Yang. Jiang Ji also assigned him a shopkeeper, while the chefs and servers beneath them had all been trained at the first restaurant.

Jiang Ji patted Yu Yang’s shoulder. “Work hard.”

Originally, the plan had been to open the second restaurant after two years. Unexpectedly, it had not even taken a year. Yu Yang was very excited and thumped his chest in assurance.

“Young Master, I will!”

On opening day, Jiang Ji brought his family along to support the restaurant.

Jiang Ji also specially invited Doctor Yang’s family. Back when the first restaurant opened, Jiang Ji had invited them as well.

After nearly a year of treatment and conditioning from Doctor Yang, Zhao Ru’s health had improved considerably. After coming to the capital, Zhao Ru had continued inviting Doctor Yang to help regulate her health. Because of this, Jiang Ji was especially grateful to him.

Now that they had not seen each other in a long time, they caught up for quite a while.

Doctor Yang’s son was also a physician with excellent medical skill, though he had not entered the Imperial Medical Bureau. He worked as a physician at a medical hall. His grandson was also studying medicine and was nearly ready to graduate from apprenticeship. Their family was a lineage of traditional physicians.

This time, Jiang Ji heard Doctor Yang say that his son wanted to open a medical hall of his own.

When Jiang Ji heard this, he said happily, “That’s a good thing. Where will it be opened?”

“On Changxing Street. It’s a bit closer to home. We’re currently looking at storefronts and still negotiating,” Doctor Yang said cheerfully. Then he held Jiang Ji’s hand and said, “Duke Chang, the granules you mentioned to me before, I’ve studied them for a long time, and recently I’ve made quite a bit of progress.”

Back when Lu Huaizhou and the others were preparing to head south to capture Prince Qi, Jiang Ji had worried that taking medicine would be inconvenient if Lu Huaizhou and the others were injured, so he had asked Doctor Yang to make medicines into pills or granules.

At the time, Doctor Yang had mostly made pills. The granules had not yet succeeded because the medicinal effect weakened during production.

Now, hearing that Doctor Yang’s research had progressed, Jiang Ji was very happy. “You’re truly amazing. You figured it out this quickly.”

Doctor Yang sighed emotionally. “This is all thanks to what you mentioned. These granules truly are convenient. When one is traveling far and cannot conveniently brew medicine, pills and granules are both excellent.”

Jiang Ji smiled. “It was only a suggestion. Your medical hall can make more of these too. They should sell well.”

Doctor Yang nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly what we plan to do.”

The opening of the second capital restaurant was equally successful. For the first three days, they offered a twenty percent discount as a grand opening promotion, and the restaurant was packed every day.

After those three days, there were still many customers making reservations.

At the main restaurant, reservations were already booked out more than half a month in advance. Now that the branch had opened, many customers who could not secure bookings there came here instead. Everyone was delighted.

Half a month later, Doctor Yang’s family medical hall opened. Jiang Ji brought gifts over to visit. The place was spacious, clean, and excellent.

He also looked at the granules Doctor Yang had developed. There were two formulas for wind-cold common cold granules: one suitable for children and one suitable for adults. Quite a few people were buying them.

Good news also came from back home.

After the new factory buildings were put into use, cloth production increased greatly. Now many cloth merchants from surrounding counties and even the prefectural city had rushed over upon hearing the news to place orders, and sales were especially good.

Moreover, back home, cotton and other vegetables had also enjoyed bumper harvests. This year, the people of Changping County once again earned a great deal of money by selling the new vegetables and fruits.

The village chief also wrote Jiang Ji a letter, which was sent together with Meng Dahai’s letter.

In the letter, the village chief told Jiang Ji about the village’s situation. Many households in the village had built tile-roofed houses. Auntie Xiufang’s family had also built a new house. Xiao An had found a good marriage match and had already gotten married.

The young men of the village no longer had to worry about finding wives. Many families now wanted to marry their daughters into their village.

Everyone was living better and better, and life held more and more hope.

Jiang Ji felt very happy reading it. He even read the contents of the letter aloud to Zhao Ru and the others. Zhao Ru was so happy she could not stop smiling.

“Life now is truly good,” Zhao Ru said with deep satisfaction. “In the past, we wouldn’t even have dared imagine it.”

Jiang Ji nodded as well. “It will only get better and better.”

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