If Yu Tang could do it, couldn’t he also try?

Thinking this, Yu Yuan suddenly felt his spirits lift considerably.

He said: “It’s just that I’ve never managed estates or forests before. How do I know when I’ve managed the estates and forests well? And how can I make Father feel I’m capable of managing the household?”

Yu Tang was most afraid Yu Yuan wouldn’t believe her. Now that Yu Yuan could face her suggestions squarely, she naturally spoke without reservation.

“Didn’t we return to the countryside when we went back for ancestor worship?” she said. “I didn’t pay attention to the field matters, but as for our family’s forest—it’s all growing miscellaneous trees. I remember hearing someone say that the forests in our family’s area can grow a type of fruit tree that can be made into preserved fruit. If we could plant this kind of tree, when it bears fruit, we could make it into preserved fruit and sell it.”

When the two Yu brothers divided the household back then, Yu Bo thought Yu Wen only knew how to read, so he proactively gave the good farmland to Yu Wen and kept the forest land that had no profit. So the forest Yu Tang mentioned actually belonged to Yu Yuan’s family. And Yu Yuan’s family’s forest over all these years—aside from being able to sell some firewood in winter—had no other income whatsoever.

Yu Yuan’s eyes lit up upon hearing this: “Think carefully about who you heard this from. Has anyone made this kind of preserved fruit? What does it taste like when eaten?” Speaking thus, he became worried again: “Even if we can make preserved fruit, where would our family find a master craftsman who makes preserved fruit?”

The sugar on their Lin’an side mostly came from Guangxi, so it was quite expensive. Economically struggling families, when eating porridge or during postpartum confinement, would sometimes put preserved fruit in as a sugar substitute. So preserved fruit was especially popular. But well-made preserved fruit mostly came from Hunan. Even if there were people here who could make it, it would be an exclusive craft—they might not necessarily find a master with this skill.

Yu Tang patted her chest and smiled cunningly: “Ask me?”

Seeing her crafty appearance, Yu Yuan thought about how she could still be as cheerful as before after experiencing so many things, and felt very proud of this sister of his.

He couldn’t help but laugh heartily, half-pretending and half-seriously cupping his hands toward Yu Tang: “Please teach me, Sister!”

Perhaps because he had unburdened himself, Yu Yuan’s laughter was a bit loud, attracting the attention of half the boat.

The person the Gu family sent out also looked over.

It was just that they didn’t know each other.

The Gu family’s person considered himself fairly worldly, but didn’t expect to see on this boat to the countryside a pair of siblings whose appearance and temperament were both beyond ordinary people. After sighing inwardly, he couldn’t help but let his imagination wander—it seemed Lin’an was also a place blessed with spiritual essence, having such outstanding people. He wondered if their family’s son-in-law who was praised by the madam for being “handsome and dignified” was also like these two siblings…

Yu Yuan realized the siblings had disturbed others. His face reddened, and he lowered his head and stopped speaking. Only then did everyone withdraw their earlier gazes and each began chatting about their own matters again.

“What ideas does Sister have?” When Yu Yuan spoke again, his voice was lowered by more than half. “Stop keeping me in suspense.”

Yu Tang smiled with pursed lips for a while before lowering her voice like Yu Yuan: “I can make preserved fruit, but I’ve only made it in small batches. If we want to sell it to merchants, we might need to find ways to test how to make preserved fruit that can fetch a good price. As for what kind of fruit trees can be planted in our family’s forest—you’ll have to inquire about that yourself, Brother. However, I heard that tree is about as tall as a house roof. The fruit it bears is orange-yellow, about the size of a thumb, sweet and sour with a pit. When making preserved fruit, you have to remove the pit. The preserved fruit made is also sweet and sour, especially good for whetting the appetite and satisfying cravings. Many families’ children or elderly who have no appetite like to buy some to take home—eating a few makes them feel better. We… ahem, once we make it into preserved fruit, we can use this as our selling point. It’ll definitely sell well.”

In her previous life, because of this forest, Gao Shi often scolded Yu Yuan. Even Yu Tang, who could only occasionally return to the Yu family, had witnessed it several times. She couldn’t help but be very curious about this forest of theirs that became highly sought after in the Pei family’s hands. She had once taken the opportunity of going to burn incense at her parents’ cenotaph to go inspect it. Although the Pei family strictly managed their properties, when they heard she was the Miss Yu who had married into the Li family carrying her husband’s memorial tablet, after reporting to Lord Pei San, they respectfully invited her in to look around and gave her two boxes of the finest preserved fruit to take back.

Thinking about it now, she had received Pei Yan’s favor back then.

Not only that, the junior steward managing the forest had once told her with pride that the orange-yellow fruit was called sea buckthorn, discovered by Lord Pei San when he went to visit a friend who was an official in the Northwest.

Thinking of this, Yu Tang’s face felt a bit hot and also a bit guilty.

She said: “If our family could grow that kind of fruit and make preserved fruit from it, it would be great if we could sell it in the Pei family’s shops.”

In the preserved fruit business, merchants made the most money. Those who actually made the preserved fruit earned only hard manual labor money. Just like those who grow cotton don’t have cotton cloth clothes to wear, and those who grow rice don’t have white rice to eat—the ones who make money are all those merchants.

Yu Yuan had never done this kind of business and didn’t know how much profit there was in it. Most importantly, he ultimately still wanted to build up the Yu family’s lacquerware shop. Making preserved fruit was more about proving his own ability for him, so he could gain a voice in family matters. So Yu Yuan instinctively assumed this was just small-scale minor business and didn’t take it seriously.

He said: “The Pei family does big business—they might not value such a small trade. If we can make it work, selling to Yao San’er would be the same. Right now we just need to find a way to locate the kind of tree you mentioned.”

This was very different.

If this business could be done, their family would merely be taking on the hardest preliminary work for the Pei family, still giving the Pei family the profits they deserved just like in the previous life.

Although the wild geese were still flying in the sky and they shouldn’t be boiling water at this point to haggle over gains and losses, this matter touched upon Yu Tang’s bottom line of conduct. She still felt she should make things clear with Yu Yuan.

“Brother, the Pei family has shown our family great kindness,” she insisted. “Our Yu family has today thanks to the Pei family’s protection. We can’t forget our roots. For the preserved fruit business, as long as our family does it, we must sell it for the Pei family. Other businesses that are ours remain ours.”

Although she benefited from rebirth’s advantage, she couldn’t harm others’ interests or seize others’ things because of her rebirth.

Yu Yuan thought it over carefully and felt Yu Tang’s words made sense. He had no further objections: “Then let’s settle it like this. After we return, I’ll talk to Father and see what he thinks.” Finishing, he smiled at Yu Tang: “If Father agrees to let me manage the shop, then you go plant trees on the mountain. Our family has such a large forest. When there was no solution, that was one thing, but now that we have a solution, we can’t just waste it.”

Yu Tang was stunned.

Yu Yuan chuckled.

Yu Tang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Did this count as lifting a rock only to drop it on her own foot?

They returned to Lin’an smoothly and favorably all the way.

Every household in Lin’an was beginning to prepare for sweeping the stove for Minor New Year.

Yu Tang had just finished washing up when she was dragged by Yu Wen to Uncle’s house.

Yu Bo—whether he had just returned from the shop or hadn’t gone to the shop at all—was actually at home waiting for her. After she paid her respects to Uncle, Yu Bo had someone also summon the just-washed Yu Yuan over and asked them both: “How was it? Did you gain anything from this trip to Hangzhou?”

His tone actually held some impatience.

Yu Yuan couldn’t help exchanging a glance with Yu Tang. He spoke on behalf of both siblings: “Not bad! We sat at Yao San’er’s place, had a meal with Shopkeeper Tong’er, and took Sister to browse the streets. We discovered that Hangzhou’s shops all have their own characteristics—either they sell cheaper than others, or their young clerks are particularly sharp, or they have exclusive crafts.”

Unhurried and composed, he related all he’d seen and heard in Hangzhou over the past two days in detail. In just these two days, Yu Tang suddenly discovered that her eldest cousin seemed to have become much more steady, gradually showing glimpses of the successful and confident figure from her previous life.

Could it be because he now had a direction to strive for?

Yu Tang thought about this, but her thoughts involuntarily drifted to those sea buckthorn berries.

She couldn’t very well tell her eldest cousin about her rebirth experience, so naturally she couldn’t straightforwardly have him directly search for sea buckthorn trees. Relying only on her description to find sea buckthorn trees—not just for her eldest cousin, but for anyone—would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Perhaps years would pass without results. For her eldest cousin who urgently wanted Uncle to value him, this was too slow. The best method was for her to use her memories from her previous life to find a way to locate sea buckthorn trees and plant them successfully as quickly as possible.

Besides Pei Yan and the Pei family, who else would know about this kind of tree?

Yu Tang wracked her brain.

Over on Yu Yuan’s side, as she had predicted, although business at the shop was very poor—aside from the excitement on opening day, they had barely sold anything these past few days—Yu Bo still rejected without thinking the proposal to hand the shop over to Yu Yuan to manage.

Using her uncle’s words: her eldest cousin hadn’t even started his own family yet—what did he understand about doing business?

He also scoffed at Yu Yuan’s proposal to manage the estates and forests: “What can you do with the income from a few acres of fields and forest? Stop with these wild fantasies. Learn the craft properly from me and do business. After you and Miss Xiang get married and give me a few fat grandsons, I’ll be at the age of enjoying grandchildren. Then I’ll hand the shop’s business to you and A’Tang. Your uncle and I will help you discipline the children—we’ll surely be able to support at least a Cultivated Talent or Recommended Man.”

Yu Yuan was extremely frustrated.

When had he become inferior to even Yu Tang!

The family shop wasn’t being handed to him to take good care of Yu Tang, but to both of them.

Then what was he, the elder brother, for?

Besides producing a few fat grandsons, did he have no other use?

He sat alone in his room sulking for a while.

But after calming down and thinking it over carefully, it really was like that.

Relying on her own abilities, Yu Tang had already secured a place in his father’s heart. Who knew from when she had already become someone who could stand shoulder to shoulder with him? And judging from the things that had happened during this time, Yu Tang indeed had this ability to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. No—rather, Yu Tang was more decisive and more capable than him.

He, the elder brother, was already inferior to his younger sister.

Yu Yuan paced back and forth in his room several times, then ran to Yu Tang’s house.