Chapter 140: A Letter from Ji Yun An

Chen Xiao Cai paid 200 tales of silver for 20 acres of farmland and donated them to the village.

The income from those farmland was mainly used for the poor families in the village, especially the poor kids.

In return, the villagers promised to maintain Granny Shen, Chen Xiao Cai and Lu Lin's parents' graves.

The old Village Head Zhang Cheng had resigned and Zhang Cheng's son, Zhang Jin, had taken over.

Zhang Cheng was very grateful for Chen Xiao Cai's good deeds towards the poor kids in the village.

Everyone in the village knew that Chen Xiao Cai had money, but they were still impressed by Chen Xiao Cai's generosity, 200 tales of silver in one go.

Twenty acres of land was quite a lot. The Lu family and Chen family only had that much land when they were in their prime.

Zhang Jin was very happy with Chen Xiao Cai's generosity.

The members of the Chen clan, on the other hand, were not very happy. Chen Xiao Cai donated the land to the village and not to the clan. The Chen clan wouldn't get any benefits directly from the land. Many members of the Chen clan felt that Chen Xiao Cai should have had donated the land to the clan instead of the village.

Several elders from the clan talked to Chen Xiao Cai. Chen Xiao Cai sticked to principle and refuted their suggestion.

Zhang Cheng sat on the bed and asked his son, "I heard Chen Xiao Cai is leaving soon, is that right?"

Zhang Jin nodded, "Yeah!"

"He doesn't come back often, why doesn't he stay longer?"

Zhang Jin sighed helplessly. He understood why Chen Xiao Cai hardly felt any sense of belonging in the village. There were too few people who were nice to him when he was little. Zhang Jin who had talked to Chen Xiao Cai a fair bit recently always felt Chen Xiao Cai was too experienced and knowledgeable to be a villager.

"Lu Lin has got a promotion, and he even knows a prince?" Zhang Cheng asked.

Zhang Jin nodded and said, "Chen Xiao Cai didn't say brag about it, but the guards following him said that. It should be right."

Zhang Cheng said with a complicated expression on his face, "Lu Lin is so capable. When will he come back?"

Zhang Jin smiled bitterly and said, "He is now an official. He can't leave his post easily!"

Zhang Cheng sighed and said, "Lu Lin is probably angry at our village. It's my fault to some degree! I was too biased towards Lu Cheng Yu back and I've neglected his feelings back then, so he doesn't feel any sense of belonging in the village either."

Zhang Cheng felt so guilty. If he hadn't sided with Lu Cheng Yu back then, maybe Lu Lin would come back to the village more often.

Zhang Jin thought to himself, 'If it wasn't for the pedigree of the Shen Clan, even Chen Xiao Cai might not have come back, let alone Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi.'

The fact that Chen Xiao Cai donated 200 taels of silver made Grandma Lu very depressed.

Lu Cheng Yu had been spending the family savings to prepare for his exams, the Lus didn't live well in the past few years.

Grandma Lu couldn't help but imagine how great it was going to be if Chen Xiao Mi bought those farmland for her, all she needed to do was to rent out those land and count the monthly rent. Unfortunately, Chen Xiao Cai donated the land to the village. Grandma Lu just couldn't understand that behavior.

Grandma Lu was not alone, Granma Chen was even more furious.

She jumped up and down at home and ran to Zhang Cheng's house to argue. She insisted that these twenty acres of land was purchased by Chen Xiao Cai, so the land belonged to the Chen family. She even offered to split the income in half with the village.

Grandma Chen's request to take half of the profits would naturally ruin the interests of other people in the village. Therefore, no one took her side. Grandma Chen could only give up when there was no one giving her any attention.

......

Shen Chi and Chen Xiao Cai returned to Sha County soon.

"Welcome back! How was the trip! How is Big Stone Village?" Lu Lin asked Chen Xiao Cai.

Chen Xiao Cai said, "It's still like that, it feels like nothing has changed for them."

In the past, people in the village looked at him with dis, making him uncomfortable. This time, the people in the village looked at him as if they were looking at silver, making him even more uncomfortable.

However, he still felt proud and elated. Back then, those people in the village looked down on him. And now they regretted for not treating him better when he was younger.

"I donated 200 taels of silver to the village," Chen Xiao Cai said.

"As long as you like it."

Chen Xiao Cai shook his head and said, "I can't say whether I like it or not. I just feel like that's my root, my parents are both buried in that village, they would love to see me helping the poor kids in the village."

Lu Lin held his chin and said, "Cai, I'm sure your parents would be very happy and very proud of you. And I'm so glad that you're back early. The trip would be ten times harder if you came back in winter."

It was going to be very hard to camp outdoors in winter.

"Time passes so quickly. It's going to be wintertime again!" Chen Xiao Mi said.

Chen Xiao Cai smiled and said, "Recently, the weather is getting colder, but I bet the business in the hot pot restaurant is getting better."

It was the best to eat hotpot in winter. A group of people gathered around and surrounded the hotpot for a hot meal. Hotpot was the most ideal food for winter.

Although there were also people who had mimicked their hotpot restaurant, but Xiao Cai's restaurant was still the most popular one. For starters, Lu Lin's soup base was indeed great, secondly the restaurant was approved by His Highness Cheng. A lot of people came to Xiao Cai's restaurant out of admiration.

Under Chen Xiao Cai's promotion, the story became His Highness Cheng once travelled incognito and showered praise on the restaurants in Sha County, especially the hotpot one.

The power of 'the celebrity effect' was very great. Quite a few rich councilors around Sha County came all the way here to try the delicacies that His Highness Cheng approved.

......

In the capital city.

Ji Yun An held a book and flipped it page by page.

It has been a long time since he and Xiao Cai published the book Journey to the West, but the impact of this book was still very great, he had accumulated over 2000 tales of silver after Xiao Cai left. However, he encountered the problem of piracy recently, things started to go downhill.

Ji Yun An saved some for his further studies, and he sent the rest to Chen Xiao Cai and Ji Cheng Kang.

Ji Yun An opened the letter in his hand. The letter was written by Chen Xiao Cai, but he was sure Xiao Cai wrote the letter at Xiao Mai's dictation.

Most of the content on the letter was about food. 'Chen Xiao Cai has opened one more restaurant and he has tried some delicacies in the neighboring county.'

Although the letter was actually very boring, Ji Yun An just couldn't stop smiling when he read it. Ji Yun An could almost see Chen Xiao Mai gorging himself with all kinds of delicacies through the letter.

"Yun An, I heard Highness Cheng's servants said there were so many unique dishes in Sha County, I don't believe him, isn't Sha County a remote and backward place?" One of Ji Yun An's classmates asked.

Ji Yun An said lightly, "There are some specialty dishes."

"Is that so? Is there really dishes that cannot be found in the capital city?" the other classmate chimed in.

Ji Yun An smiled. They were all born and raised in the capital city, and they all had an innate sense of superiority, which was no wonder. After all, the capital city was the most prosperous place in the country.

"Even His Highness Cheng pines for the food there, the food was indeed great. Hopefully you can have an opportunity and try the food as well, " Ji Yun An said lightly.

"This is true, Highness Cheng must have tried delicacies of every kind, but he missed the food there all the time, so I agree with you, Yun An, I think the food there must indeed be extraordinary."

Ji Yun An smiled and nodded.

"Yun An, you really think highly of Sha County's delicacies! However, I just feel like there are a lot of local delicacies are overpraised, I've tried some famous specialties myself, but they all tended to be rough on the texture. Yun An, since you've returned to the capital, you should try more food in our capital city."

Ji Yun An glanced at the person who spoke and did not refute him. There were many concepts that could not be easily changed. If he hadn't tried all those food personally, Ji Yun An would not believe that either.

Ji Yun An chatted with everyone for a while, then put away his books and walked out.

He was back in the capital city for a while now and he wondered how Mai was doing.

His Highness Cheng was full of praise when it came to Lu Lin and Sha County.

Ji Yun An smiled bitterly. It seemed that everything was going well for Lu Lin, then he felt so inferior because he hadn't made any achievements.

Ji Yun An often felt lonely now that his Uncle Ji Cheng Kang was back in Sha County as well. Chen Xiao Mai's letter had cheered up Ji Yun An a great deal.

......

Chen Xiao Mai excitedly returned to the house.

"This is Ji Yun An's letter," Chen Xiao Mai jump about joyfully. Chen Xiao Mi showed a meaningful smile on seeing how thrilled Mai was.

Lu Lin held his chin and asked, "Another letter?"

Chen Xiao Cai and Ji Yun An were business partners, so they always had kept in touch. Ji Yun An would write a letter to Chen Xiao Mai along with a letter to Chen Xiao Cai. In fact, it was unclear whether he was mainly writing to Cai or Mai.

Mai was always very excited when he received Ji Yun An's letter. In order to understand the contents of the letter, Chen Xiao Mai was even interested in studying.

"Ji Yun An seems to have become a Xiucai two years ago, isn't that impressive, so young," Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiao Mai held his chin and said, " He still has a long way to go if he wants to become an official."

Lu Lin smiled, "But he is very young, he has plenty of time and opportunities!"

Lu Cheng Yu became a Xiucai after at least 5 times trying, and Ji Yun An made it on his first attempt.

Chen Xiao Mi pouted and said, "We will see."

"Mai is getting bigger now!" Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiao Mi frowned.

Xiao Cai and Shen Chi got engaged when they were both very young, but no one had proposed a marriage to Mai yet. Everyone just saw Mai as a wild child, no one had seen him in a romantic way. Chen Xiao Mi narrowed his eyes and thought to himself, 'You cannot force destiny that ties people together, Mai will have his destiny one day.'

"Yes, Mai is getting bigger and bigger, but there's no need to worry. The worst case scenario is we take care of him forever."

Lu Lin nodded with a smile.

......

Lu Lin walked into Chen Xiao Mai's room only to see Mai lost in deep thinking.

In order to learn to understand Ji Yun An's letters, Chen Xiao Mai had already learned a lot of words.

Mai put down his writing brush on seeing Lu Lin.

Lu Lin looked at Mai and said, "Are you writing to Ji Yun An?"

Chen Xiao Mai nodded and said shyly, "Yeah! But I'm still struggling with my handwriting, I can understand a lot of words now, but I cannot write, I still need Second Brother to write for me."

Lu Lin secretly rolled his eyes in his heart and thought, 'Ji Yun An, you lucky bastard! Our Mai is learning to write and read solely because of you!'

Looking at the words written by Chen Xiao Mai, Lu Lin suddenly felt that his handwriting was not that bad.

"Ji Gege said that the food in the capital city is not as good, I'm so worried, what if he is starving?" Mai frowned.

Lu Lin looked at Chen Xiao Mai and thought, 'You are really overthinking, Mai. What kind of place is the capital city? And he is a young master, I bet there are so many chefs in his manor! How dare that Ji Yun An deliberately make Mai worry about him!'

"Lin Ge, can you please tell me a story," Chen Xiao Mai said.

Lu Lin looked at Chen Xiao Mai and said, "Why do you suddenly want to hear a story?"

Chen Xiao Mai lowered his head and said, "Lin Ge, you tell me a story. When Ji Gege comes back, I can tell him the story, he likes to listen to stories."

Lu Lin stood transfixed on hearing that, 'Ji Yun An, what have you done! You have totally charmed our Mai!'

Lu Lin suddenly recalled how he felt sorry for Ji Yun An when Mai forced him to pull the grind, and now he felt Ji Yun An didn't deserve his sympathy.

Lu Lin looked at Chen Xiao Mai's sparkly eyes and nodded, "A story? Alright, let me tell you a good one."