Seeing Shitou like this, Duoduo felt somewhat puzzled.
Shitou lowered his voice mysteriously.
“Princess, I feel that this Liqing is not an ordinary person.”
Duoduo froze for a moment and looked at Shitou suspiciously.
“What did you discover?”
Shitou shook his head honestly. “Nothing. I’m only suspicious.”
“Someone as capable as him, both scholarly and martial, couldn’t have been raised by an ordinary family.”
“And the way he eats and goes about his tasks is different from ours.”
“Just look at him. He seems exactly like the wealthy young masters Nanny Li described!”
Shitou voiced the guess he had been harboring.
Since Shitou and Liqing often had to handle matters together, they spent the most time with each other.
Shitou had noticed that no matter how tired Liqing was, he bathed and changed clothes every day.
Moreover, Liqing did not eat as roughly as they did. He ate in complete silence, with elegant movements.
None of this seemed like something a poor family could have taught a child.
“Have you asked Liqing about it?” Curiosity flickered in Duoduo’s heart.
Shitou scratched the back of his head. “I have.”
“He said that his family had been fairly well-off in the past, but later fell into decline.”
Duoduo nodded. In these troubled times, that was perfectly ordinary.
“Starting today, continue looking for suitable candidates—orphans around ten years old.”
“Then have Liqing select those who are naturally bright and willing to endure hardship.”
“About twenty people. They are to be trained separately.”
“Try to finalize the candidates as soon as possible. I’ll write you a training plan later.”
“When the time comes, hand these twenty people over to Liqing and have him train them according to my plan!”
Duoduo remembered the real reason she had summoned Shitou to the estate.
Shitou looked confused.
“Princess, we already have twelve people. That should be enough.”
“The more people we raise, the greater the expenses will be.”
Duoduo gave Shitou a sharp look.
“I have my reasons for ordering you to do this.”
“Your only responsibility is to find the people I need as quickly as possible and hand them over to Liqing for training.”
“As for everything else, I’ll find a way to handle it myself. You don’t need to worry about it.”
Shitou lowered his head. “Yes. I understand.”
Duoduo glanced at him. “Once these twenty people have completed their training, I have other arrangements for them.”
Since Shitou was the first servant she had bought, she gave him a little more explanation.
Curiosity flashed through Shitou’s eyes, but he did not ask anything.
Liqing had told him before that a master was a master and a servant was a servant.
When the master made a decision, a servant only needed to obey.
If the master was kind, that was the master’s own business.
A servant must not assume that being close to the master gave him the right to ask about matters he should not ask about or interfere in matters that did not concern him.
That would all be wrong.
“Yes.” Shitou suppressed his curiosity.
Duoduo was very pleased with his response.
She smiled brightly. “You said you were looking for new shops. How is that going?”
Shitou shook his head. “The shops for sale aren’t in very good locations.”
“However, Princess, Liqing and I have our eyes on several estates.”
“One is in the outskirts of the city, with nearly a hundred mu of farmland. Most of it is medium-grade land, while the rest is divided evenly between high-grade and low-grade fields.”
“Another is in Wen County, also with nearly a hundred mu of land. It has a larger proportion of high-grade and medium-grade fields.”
“The other estates have less farmland than these two, but one of them includes a mountain of several hundred mu.”
After introducing the properties, Shitou explained his own thoughts.
“Liqing and I feel that food is the greatest problem for all of us.”
“If we buy some farms, at least we’ll be able to provide for ourselves when it comes to food.”
“Relying solely on shops is still somewhat risky.”
“There’s always a transition period between opening a shop and actually making money.”
“Besides, after working so hard to earn money, we’d only be lining someone else’s pockets when we used it to buy grain.”
“If that’s the case, we might as well buy farmland and grow our own crops.”
“Many of us are skilled farmers, anyway.”
Seeing that Duoduo was listening attentively, Shitou continued.
“Liqing and I have visited several places.”
“We both think the farm outside the city is a good choice.”
“First, it’s nearby, so it will be easy to manage.”
“Second, although it doesn’t have much high-grade land, it has a lot of medium-grade fields.”
“If they’re tended properly, the harvest won’t be poor.”
Duoduo nodded. “How much is the farmland outside the city? What about the one in Wen County?”
“And did you investigate the original owners of these properties and find out why they were selling?”
“Are there any other complications involved?”
Shitou hurriedly nodded.
“Princess, I remembered all of that!”
“There’s nothing wrong with the backgrounds of any of these properties.”
“The original owner of the farm outside the city suffered losses in business.”
“That’s why he put the estate up for sale.”
“However, he’s asking a rather high price: one thousand five hundred taels in silver, paid in cash.”
“Still, his hundred mu of land is almost all connected in one piece.”
“The one in Wen County costs one thousand taels, but its fields are somewhat scattered.”
“The other estates have less land, and their value for money is only average.”
Shitou explained the entire situation in one breath.
Duoduo blinked.
For the past few days, she had been unable to leave the estate.
A few days earlier, her father had reminded her to pay more attention to managing the servants.
She had assumed that Shitou and the others had simply been lazing around outside.
She had not expected Shitou and Liqing to have accomplished so much.
Duoduo felt somewhat puzzled.
Could it be that Shitou and the others had done something improper outside?
Was that why her father had specifically come to give her a warning?
Duoduo pushed her doubts aside. She would deal with the matter at hand first.
“Since you both think highly of the farm outside the city, go and negotiate with the owner.”
“When doing business, an opportunity can disappear in an instant.”
“If he can get the cash sooner, he can also make a quicker comeback.”
Duoduo offered Shitou a pointed reminder.
Shitou’s eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously.
“I understand, Princess!”
Duoduo thought for a moment. “What about the estate with the mountain? How much is it?”
Shitou recalled the details.
“Although the mountain is also a hundred mu, it’s all mountainous terrain and isn’t worth much.”
“There are thirty mu of high-grade fields at the foot of the mountain, though.”
“The seller is also asking for one thousand taels.”
“Princess, his asking price is too high.”
“Liqing and I both feel that if we’re going to spend the same amount of money, we might as well buy the land in Wen County.”
Duoduo fell into thought.
Li Jin had told her that one should never put all one’s eggs in a single basket.
Opening shops alone would not be a long-term solution.
So acquiring farmland was a good idea.
In fact, she had enough silver to buy everything Shitou had mentioned.
But if she could choose the better options, why settle for the worse ones?
Although the land outside the city was expensive, it was easy to manage, just as Shitou had said.
Besides, Li Jin had once told her that with the right methods, even low-grade fields could be transformed into high-grade farmland.
