In order to welcome the first New Year after their marriage, Baochai and Yingchun started preparing a month in advance.

New Year goods are indispensable, and gifts for relatives and friends during the New Year must also be prepared in advance.

Fortunately, Shi Zhongkui is not short of meat, not to mention various preserved fruits, grains, vegetables and fruits.

Taking advantage of the fact that he had basically stayed in the camp for the past two months, Yu Shun and others drove a carriage to the camp from time to time to pull goods home. No one suspected at all.

The family thought that meat, fruits, grain and other things were all farmed to honor Shi Zhongkui.

Don't be suspicious, Baochai, Yingchun, the stewards, maids, and servants are quite happy.

None of the officials or soldiers in the camp dared to check the Shi family's carriage. Even if someone checked afterward and found that nothing was lacking in the camp, they had no choice but to give up.

After Yu Shun and others left, Shi Zhongkui would take out some meat and grain noodles from the space farm. The officials in the camp immediately misunderstood that the items were sent by Yu Shun.

As I drank the broth and ate the steamed buns up and down, I was grateful to Shi Zhongkui, but gradually no one cared.

As for the censor Yanguan who knew about this, at least he had to know the financial situation of Daying if he wanted to cause trouble.

Otherwise, Shi Zhongkui would just use the money from the camp to buy some meat for his men before the Chinese New Year. Not to mention the emperor and the important ministers in the court, even the elders of Yushitai would not pay attention to this matter.

Shi Zhongkui even complained against a man who had shaken the morale of the army, deliberately slowed down the progress of land reclamation, and even found trouble with a few field soldiers who were in dire straits at home. The unlucky ones were the censors and officials who complained.

-------

Since there was no shortage of meat, grain, fruits, vegetables, preserved fruits and other snacks at home, Baochai and Yingchun naturally sent some to their parents' and relatives' homes.

At the same time, the two girls did not forget to send some to the homes of Senior Teacher Yu Honggao and Shi Zhongkui's classmates and friends.

For this gift, I also received a somewhat higher value gift in return.

After all, the younger generation should be filial, and the elders should not be stingy.

But as preserved fruits and other items entered Jia's house, Jia She and Jia Zhen, the uncle and nephew, finally found a reason and sent people to ask how the peach trees were growing this year.

After hearing this, Shi Zhongkui, who was staying in the camp, remembered that he had lied about the peach tree, but he had defrauded the Jia family of 40,000 taels of silver.

Think about it, in summer and autumn, a pound of peaches only costs ten to twenty cents, but one of my own peaches can be sold for hundreds of times the price.

Even Shi Zhongkui himself felt that it was unjustifiable not to give the Jia family 250 kilograms of ordinary peaches of four to six taels each.

250 kilograms of peaches, which had been stored in the farm warehouse and were still fresh, were personally escorted from Changping to Jia's house by soldiers such as Shi Xingguo and Shi Xingtai.

However, Shi Zhongkui was still careful. At least one-fifth of these peaches were deliberately frozen overnight.

It's not that he wanted to cheat, but if none of the 500 peaches were damaged during transportation in the winter, then something was really wrong.

Jia Zhen and Jia Lian, who received Shi Xingguo and Shi Xingtai, checked their faces and couldn't help but change their expressions.

Because of the Babao wine, Jia Lian didn't care much about the hundreds of peaches being frozen.

But Jia Zhen is different.

More than a hundred peaches are equivalent to more than 50 kilograms, 2,500 taels of silver, or even more.

After all, I said at the beginning that the price might double a year ago.

However, while Jia Zhen was worried that Shi Zhongkui would not compensate, she also felt that this was normal.

"Uncle Zhen and Second Master Lian, please tell me that when my husband received this year's New Year's gifts from relatives and friends in the west, he already discovered that many of the gifts were damaged.

However, each family’s share of the gifts has already been determined, so we can only send the things over here first, and then send a letter to the west and have someone send another batch over as compensation.”

After Jia Zhen heard this, her expression finally improved.

After all, Shi Zhongkui said he would compensate, so it would be unreasonable to dwell on this point anymore.

I just thought that it would take half a month, or even a month, to send it from Chang'an.

In other words, the next batch of peaches is likely to be after the new year.

The price difference between before and after this year has doubled.

If you calculate carefully, if you sell this year's peaches, you will make a full 2,500 taels of silver.

But when the news reached Jia Mu's ears, the old lady laughed instead.

"My uncle keeps his word, my family can't even give up their face just for some food.

Besides, my uncle had said at the beginning that the peach trees growing in the hot spring valley would bear fruit at different times every year.

This is the first year that my family can eat fresh peaches before the year, which is enough to say that my Jia family is very lucky.

It’s hard to say that I only have this luck because I inherited my uncle’s luck.”

When everyone heard it, they felt that it was indeed true.

Besides, the second uncle promised to pay for 100 kilograms of fresh peaches, so he might as well pay for them himself.

Based on this calculation, they do keep their word and they do take care of the relationship between relatives.

Otherwise, if it were someone else, they might cheat and not pay. After all, this is a full 2,500 taels or even 5,000 taels of silver.

Suddenly, Shi Zhongkui's reputation in the Jia family became better, and the attitude of everyone in the Jia family towards Yingchun also became better.

While Shi Zhongkui was enjoying the snacks that Yingchun brought to his mouth, he silently thought to himself, was he getting a bargain and being good?

However, not long after the Spring Festival, I was worried again, "Ms. sir, will my family have to pay for the new peaches that will be shipped after the new year? And if that is the case, doesn't it mean that my family will actually lose money?"

Shi Zhongkui chuckled, hugged Yingchun's slender waist and said, "Since we made an agreement at the beginning, we must keep our word. As for the loss, it is nothing more than a hundred peaches.

Our family doesn’t have enough to eat, so there’s no point in selling it for money.”

When Yingchun and Baochai heard this, they couldn't help but blush slightly.

It's not that they both like to eat peaches, but when they heard that these peaches cost 10 taels of silver a pound a year ago, they subconsciously felt that they were indeed more delicious than peaches in autumn.

Keep eating this, two or three a day is considered too little.

In addition, the four girls who filled the house have already enjoyed the treatment of concubines. It is really unreasonable not to give them some share.

Of course, if Baochai and Yingchun insist on refusing to give it, that's okay.

But the two of them were more worried about Shi Zhongkui's opinion and that if word got out, people would gossip about it.

Now that we have the orioles, fragrant water chestnuts, amber, and pearls, the other maids, big and small, must also be rewarded.

Including Yu Shun, the guards and the servants in the front yard, the peaches weighing more than 100 kilograms were reduced by half in just a few days.

Indeed, just as Shi Zhongkui said, some of it is not enough to eat.

And this move also made Baochai and Yingchun gain the gratitude of the servants and women in the family.

But after keeping it for a long time, they were worried that it would spoil. After struggling for a long time, Baochai and Yingchun couldn't help complaining, "If only the peach fruit had been delayed for half a month, it would have been better to have delivered it as soon as the new year is approaching."

Shi Zhongkui burst out laughing after hearing this.

She held Yingchun and Baochai in her arms and said with a smile, "Madams, why don't we three have a rest tonight? I'll send someone to go to Chang'an quickly tomorrow and transport two hundred kilograms back first. How about that?"

Baochai and Yingchun immediately sighed and gave Shi Zhongkui a hard look.

Marrying the same person is enough to make people blush. If they serve Shi Zhongkui together again, they will never have the nerve to manage everyone in the Shi family in the future.

And when we meet each other on weekdays, it is inevitable that we will feel embarrassed.

After all, things in ancient times are not weird and weird, they have become commonplace in modern society.

Etiquette restricts and persecutes countless people, but it also truly restricts the entire society.

Once etiquette breaks down, social turmoil and even war are not far away.

Baochai and Yingchun put their hands on Shi Zhongkui's waist at the same time and gave him a hard squeeze.

Then they broke free from Shi Zhongkui's hands, held each other's hands, and said with a smile as they walked, "Ms. sir, we sisters are going to have some secrets tonight, so you can just sleep alone in the main room."

Shi Zhongkui pouted, if his wife doesn't accompany him, why can't he eat his little wife?

It's a pity that since Baochai and Yingchun planned to punish him, how could they not prevent him from stealing it?

Not to mention that eating him was just a house-fill, even a maid didn't show up in his house.

Shi Zhongkui sighed helplessly and could only sleep peacefully all night.

------

Now that Baochai and Yingchun have appeared, there are not enough fresh peaches to divide and eat.

For the Jia family, which has more people and more masters, the situation is even more serious.

There is no need to worry about missing Jia Mu's share.

No one dared to compete with her, but Jia She, Jia Zheng and Jia Zhen all felt uncomfortable.

I didn't even eat a few, but one after another old relatives and family friends came to visit me.

If you just take a few out to accompany guests, it's actually nothing.

If you plan carefully, you can at least last until the Chinese New Year.

But what I am most afraid of is that people will want to take it after eating it, and there are also those relatives and friends who come to the door and directly ask for ten or twenty kilograms on the pretext of celebrating the birthday of an elder in the family.

Really speaking in terms of silver, ten kilograms is only one hundred taels of silver, and the Jia family will not be reluctant to part with this small amount of money.

But who said this peach only weighs 250 pounds.
To be continued...