Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 806: Bestowed Marriage, Together until we are old (2)

Chapter 806: Chapter 806: Bestowed Marriage, Together until we are old (2)

Yan Junyu, lost in thought, watched Mo Yan across from him enjoying his meal, and suddenly understood why Xiao Ruiyuan would force himself to eat what he disliked, and also realized where his own defeat lay.

He would never, for the sake of a woman, like his friend, force himself to eat things he didn’t like, to do things he didn’t enjoy... This outcome, perhaps, had been determined long ago!

As Xu Time arrived, over a hundred palace maids and eunuchs carried trays of delicacies, bustling through the grand hall. Mo Yan, attending the Imperial Family’s New Year Banquet for the first time, was full of curiosity about the banquet’s cuisine but to prevent the dishes from cooling, they were all covered, concealing the food and leaving only the wafting aromas to hint at their ingredients.

Only after Emperor Huian raised the first cup of wine and drank together with the civil and military officials, did the New Year banquet officially begin!

Aside from Emperor Huian and Empress Dowager’s tables, which had a few extra dishes, everyone else’s tables had the same number of plates - twelve in total.

The lids on the tables were lifted by the standing palace maids, and Mo Yan finally saw the court cuisine. Each dish was modest in portion but, like pastries, were made exquisitely, and coincidentally, all the vegetables paired with the dishes came from Liu Yang Village.

Not to mention that these vegetables were hard to find elsewhere during winter, the revitalizing aroma that lifted one’s spirits could only come from being watered with Spirit Spring Water.

Due to the big business deal with the Imperial Family, these became the selling point for a few stalls in the market, which became even more prosperous; every day, within less than two hours, all the vegetables would be sold out.

The greenhouse vegetables from Liu Yang Village became renowned throughout Jing City, and even major merchants who traveled between several states and counties around Jing City took notice of the business potential of greenhouse vegetables, making special trips to Liu Yang Village to propose selling some back home for trials.

Though the area for cultivating greenhouse vegetables seemed large, it was only enough to be sold within Jing City. Even those merchants who wanted to trial the sale required a not insignificant amount.

Yang Bao and others didn’t dare to decide on their own and sought Mo Yan’s opinion, who rejected the idea without a second thought.

Firstly, there indeed weren’t surplus vegetables for these merchants to trial sell, and secondly, she was whetting their appetites. After all, she planned to continue expanding the greenhouses next year, and once the cultivation area increased, Jing City alone wouldn’t be able to consume all the produce, necessitating the sale of vegetables outside the city. These merchants would be just right to help them break into the market.

Through Mo Yan’s efforts, the merchants signed a preliminary agreement with Liu Yang Village for the winter supply of greenhouse vegetables. The gist was that once next year’s vegetables matured, they would first be sold to these merchants, and if other local merchants expressed interest, Liu Yang Village would only sell to those who had signed an agreement this year.

The agreement did not specify a fixed amount that these merchants had to purchase, so virtually risk-free, all the merchants signed. In order to make a profit, these merchants were bound to open up the local market and carefully manage the sale of greenhouse vegetables, creating a win-win cooperation with Liu Yang Village.

After the agreement was signed, the villagers, who were worried that Mo Yan might not be involved in growing the vegetables next year, were relieved. They firmly believed that it was Mo Yan’s good fortune that led to the high-quality vegetables from the greenhouses, which made them wealthy. If Mo Yan stopped, none of them had the courage to risk ruining their own fortunes by attempting to grow greenhouse vegetables on their own.

Many in the hall had tasted the greenhouse vegetables from Liu Yang Village, and even if they didn’t know where the vegetables came from, merely seeing that even the sovereign was eating them made them feel instantly more sophisticated about their dietary choices.

As expected of the court’s offerings, aside from the associated vegetables, the other ten dishes were rare treats seldom seen by the common folk, with two sea-based dishes, one being prawns and the other sea jelly. This surprised Mo Yan, who had rarely seen prawns since her arrival here.