The third month of the year was the start of spring, and it was a time when all things were coming back. At a farmstead in the suburbs of the capital, the winter wheat was turning a verdant green and made all of the fields look lush and bright. The view of the fields reminded people of a beautiful ink-painting, awash with green. Xiaocao, who was dressed in a bright yellow dress, resembled the adorable and sweet looking winter jasmine flower. She gracefully stood in-between the fields as she watched the tenant farmers tending to the plants. She quietly worried about the army that was traveling to the northwest.

“Master! The emperor sent down an oral order, stating that you need to immediately go back to the capital.” Chunhua ran like the wind towards her, not even taking time to catch her breath as she bowed down to greet the slim figure.

Yu Xiaocao frowned slightly and muttered somewhat to herself in a puzzled manner, “An oral command? Why did the emperor suddenly summon me back to the capital?”

Yu Xiaolian, who was currently bent over in the fields pulling up weeds, hurriedly walked over when she heard the news. She quietly said, “It must be something urgent. Otherwise, the emperor would just wait until you went back to summon you into the palace. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on things. You should quickly head over.”

The start of spring marked the busy time period for farmers. Yu Hai and his wife weren’t the type of people to just sit back and relax. Thus, they brought their eldest son with them as they left the capital to go back to Tanggu well before the planting period started. Because they were afraid that their youngest daughter would be depressed after Royal Prince Yang was sent to the battlefield, they left behind Xiaolian to keep her company. That way, she would have someone to talk to on a daily basis and distract her from fretting too much. If it weren’t for the fact that Xiaocao was doing work for the emperor, Yu Hai and his wife might have brought Xiaocao back to Tanggu with them.

Princess Consort Jing also frequently invited Xiaocao over. The future in-laws had a very good relationship with each other, so good that the wife of the heir often joked that her mother-in-law had forgotten the old for the new. Xiaocao knew that the princess consort was worried, so in order to relieve the older woman, she always pretended to be as carefree and adorable as usual. Furthermore, she also always came with delicious medicinal cuisines for her future mother-in-law. Consuming all of these foods made Princess Consort Jing glow with health from head to toe. In fact, she looked about seven to eight years younger than her actual age. It made all of the noble matrons in the capital envy her incessantly and created even more interest in the future Yu’s Medicinal Cuisine House.

The wife of the heir had also benefited from her mother-in-law’s relationship with Xiaocao. After eating a bellyful of delicious and nourishing foods, her body was also at the peak of health. Her belly, which hadn’t had any stirrings for many years, was now even carrying a child. All of the lords and ladies of Imperial Prince Jing’s Estate had an imperial physician come over every month to check their pulses. Last time, her pulse was normal, likely because it was too early to tell. This month, however, they had discovered that she had been pregnant for more than a month now.

Princess Consort Jing repeatedly complimented Xiaocao, stating that she was their family’s lucky star. It truly was as the head priest of Huguo Temple had stated: Good fortune follows her, bringing luck to her family and her husband’s family. She hadn’t even married over but she had caused a whole host of good things to happen. Not only was the princess consort’s body nursed completely back to health, but her youngest son’s ‘problem’ was also fixed without requiring any medicine. Even her eldest daughter-in-law had benefited from Xiaocao. It had been eight years since the wife of the heir’s last child but she was now pregnant again. She complimented Xiaocao so much that Xiaocao was a bit embarrassed and had to avoid going to the estate for a few days.

In order to avoid dwelling on her worries, Xiaocao threw herself into work. Originally, she could have sat back and let things happen at the Imperial Plantations. However, now she ran to the Imperial Plantations on an almost daily basis to manage the work there, causing all of the stewards to have no work to do. Ever since Zhu Junyang left the capital, she spent at least six days out of ten at the Imperial Plantations. Naturally, she didn’t spend all of her time there. Instead, she also spent some time at the neighboring farmstead, which was owned by Royal Prince Yang, and workshops on the mountain.

Behind the farmstead, at the foot of the mountain, the outline of the workshops could already be seen. At a glance, it was obvious that these workshops would be even more grand than the farmstead. Now, other than opening a workshop to process flower teas, they were also going to open a fruit wine workshop and canning workshop. All of them were going to be under the management of Xichun.

That lass Xichun was becoming more and more like a confident head manager. All of the workshops under her ran a tidy and efficient ship. The amount of business she had had already surpassed the amount of business that the Yu’s Frozen Dessert and Pastry Shop had, which was under Yangliu. Although these couldn’t compare to Hechun’s ‘Blossoming Beauty’ and Yingtao’s medicine factory, the profits were still quite good.

The maids all had good relationships with each other but they also silently competed amongst themselves. At the end of the year, when they had to report on their businesses to their mistress, Xiaocao always felt like the four were quietly trying to stay ahead of the others. Each maid under her was extremely hardworking, which actually gave her, as the mistress, quite a bit of pressure!

As for now, ‘Blossoming Beauty’ was the business under Xiaocao’s hands that made the most money as its membership system drove the noble matrons, who loved to compete and brag amongst themselves, to act like bees who had seen honey. These ladies rushed to throw money into Xiaocao’s pockets. Thus, the beauty salon and its accessories always had the largest profits, which made ‘Blossoming Beauty’ the venture that made the most money for her.

The second most profitable business had to be the pharmaceutical factory. Other than the prepared pills that treated colds, fevers, and coughs, Xiaocao was also in the process of experimenting to make a few other pills. For example, she planned on making medicines to treat insomnia, low energy, diabetes, and palpitations...under Yingtao’s management, the capital’s medicine factory had expanded by a large factor and all of the Tongren Medicine Halls in the northern parts of the country were now stocked with the Yu’s medicinal pills. Furthermore, the Yu’s wound balm was also very popular. In the eyes of other people, the pharmaceutical factory was the goose that laid the golden eggs!

Xichun was in charge of the winery and distillery. Whether it was the pure and cold high-alcoholic drinks or the sweet and effective fruit wines that nourished a person’s body, almost all of the restaurants and eateries in the capital had their products on the menu. The dried fruit and fruit canning factory had also signed an exclusive contract with the Zhou Family to provide their goods. Thus, the factory only needed to concern itself with manufacturing and the Zhou Family was in charge of sales and marketing.

Huang Shuya had wrangled her way into being in charge of selling and marketing the dried and canned fruits. She seized the opportunity to see her idol, Yu Xiaocao, and also asked for some tips along the way. For example, she learned how to use holiday sales, limiting products on the market, starvation marketing tactics, etc. With her idol pointing out a few ideas, it caused her to have a lightbulb go off in her head. Thus, she began her journey on the road of becoming a strong, independent woman. Naturally, in her heart, Yu Xiaocao had also become a figure like a god now.

The frozen desserts and pastry store that Yangliu was in charge of was also doing quite well and caused many people to eye it with jealousy. However, compared to the other businesses under her fellow friends’ hands, it was the least profitable. But, she was obsessed with cooking and baking, so she wasn’t down about this at all.

Xiaocao was planning on putting the medicinal cuisine restaurant under her management. Thus, Yangliu was currently in closed-door cultivation, learning how to cook ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ perfectly. Her mistress didn’t care about how expensive the ingredients were to allow her to practice. Yangliu had a gift for cooking, so in about a month, her ‘Buddha Jumps Over the Wall’ had already reached about seventy to eighty percent of the perfection of her mistress’s. If she was able to get the timing and heat down right, then she could truly graduate from this training.

Uh...apparently we had gone off topic. Back to Xiaocao, who was often ‘neglecting sleep and forgetting about eating’ at the Imperial Plantations. The emperor had something he needed to see her for, so he had no choice but to send an eunuch out to the suburbs to transmit his oral command.

The emperor had been in a bad mood recently. His right hand, Su Ran, had left. Although Su Ran’s disciples and grand disciples were all quite good, they still didn’t have the natural connection that he had with Su Ran. It wasn't something that could be cultivated in just a day or two. Thus, Zhu Junfan often felt that getting things done was not smooth as before, so he had a belly full of rage now. He was planning on letting it all out once Chief Steward Su came back.

Xiaocao galloped at top speed the entire way there and didn’t even bother to wash up or change her clothes before she entered the imperial city. The jade tile, which had been carved with a dragon on top, allowed her to go through all of the checkpoints without any problems. She directly entered the imperial study. The emperor was currently seated at his desks, frowning as he stared at the official documents in front of him.

“Imperial Majesty, Miss Yu is outside waiting!” The direct successor that Su Ran had trained, Su Chi, quietly reminded the emperor as he glanced at his master cautiously.

“Quickly allow her to come in!” Zhu Junfan straightened his body and leaned back in his chair. His face was full of fatigue. These were truly troubled times. War had started at the northwest border and the northeast border was starting to become restless too. Then there was the stud farm there…

“Greetings to the emperor…” Xiaocao hadn’t even finished her official greeting before Zhu Junfan stopped her in her tracks.

“Alright, no need to act so falsely meek! Take this document and look at it for yourself!” Zhu Junfan took a sip of his already cold coffee and his frown became deeper. Should he change out the chefs in his private kitchen? They couldn’t even brew a cup of coffee properly. Why couldn't the coffee they made taste as good and fragrant as the one he had at the Yu Residence?

Yu Xiaocao obediently received the official document and flipped through it casually. Apparently, now that the stud farm at the borders had obtained some good breeding stock from the wild horses, it provoked the actions of some foreign tribes and they started to scheme against them. However, with the detoxifying pills that Xiaocao left behind as well as the well water that she had altered to contain some weak spiritual energy, the usual plots that could be used against them weren’t effective against the horses at the ranch at all.

However, at the time, Zhu Junyang was afraid of having her act too conspicuously, so the pills that Xiaocao left behind and the well water could only do so much. Counteracting the normal sort of poisons could be done, but there were all sorts of weird venoms and toxins to be had in the world. Thus, it wasn’t hard to concoct poisons that were out of the ordinary that normal detoxifying pills couldn’t cure.

This time, the stud farm had hit a hard rock. Other than the head stallion of the wild herd, Snow Scar, and the extremely intelligent Black Whirlwind, who had dodged this crisis with their heightened sense of danger, the rest of the horses at the farm had fallen into a trap.

It looked like the rest of the horses had become infected with a type of horse plague. They had fevers, pulmonary edema, and internal bleeding. If it wasn’t for the fact that they had special fodder, the well water with spiritual energy, and the detoxifying pills, then it was likely that the only horses remaining now would be Snow Scar and Black Whirlwind.

Even though this problem was discovered early and they had treated these horses with a lot of well water and pills, there were still a few older and weaker horses who had died from this. The most tricky problem was that the disease afflicting these horses was now resisting the effects of the detoxifying pills and gradually destroying the horses’ bodies. If this continued on, it was likely that…

A spark of anger and anxiety twined within Yu Xiaocao’s heart. The stud farm was her fiancé’s, Zhu Junyang’s, special project that he had poured his heart and soul into. She had stayed at the borders for almost half a year and it could be said that she had watched the farm slowly grow into what it was today. As for the horses at the ranch, she had a deep relationship with a lot of them. She absolutely couldn’t allow their special project to fall apart just like that. She also couldn’t allow her fiancé, who was on the battlefield risking his life for his country, to come back later and find out that his project had been utterly destroyed!

“Imperial Majesty, please send down your orders ah!” Yu Xiaocao was now very clear as to why the emperor had summoned her today. She held the documents in her hand as she steadily stared at Zhu Junfan.

Originally, Zhu Junfan had prepared all sorts of arguments to convince her. Now he knew that he had thought too much. However, he glanced at Su Chi, who was standing at the side, and said, “We know that Beloved Official Yu has the ability to concoct medicines that are heavenly in effect and that you are quite skilled at diagnosing and treating. Thus, we were planning on sending you along with a few famous veterinarians there…”

He paused for a second before continuing, “We suspect that those foreign tribes have an expert at concocting poisons on their side. However, why would he send a poison that mimics a horse plague instead of directly killing the animals in one shot? This is quite suspicious and requires more thinking!”

Yu Xiaocao was quite clever and slightly furrowed her brows as she thought out loud, “Imperial Majesty, what you're trying to say is that the poison that they snuck into the farm is just a bait. Just who are they trying to bait out with this?”