Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 878: Planning for Champion Scholar (2)

Chapter 878: Chapter 878: Planning for Champion Scholar (2)

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Just across the street from the Imperial palace lay a quaint little teahouse. Though small, its interior decorations seemed elegant and refined. After attending to state affairs, many Ministers liked to come here to savor tea and listen to music, dispelling the fatigue of the day. However, the cost of tea here was firmly three times higher than at other teahouses.

What surprised Mo Yan most was that the Shopkeeper and the few Waiters all had a determined look, and they moved with a robust vigor, hardly resembling a Shopkeeper or Waiters at all. Moreover, each of them had some form of disability; the Shopkeeper lacked legs below the knee and could only walk with crutches, the tea master who brewed the tea was missing a right leg and had lost his left eye, and even the Waiter who served the tea could only carry a tray with his left hand while a loose sleeve dangled emptily where his right hand should have been.

To Mo Yan, all these seemed incredibly peculiar. Observing the man with the frosty complexion but who showed a hint of warmth in his eyes when the Waiter brought in the tea, she began to form a preliminary suspicion about the identity of these people.

"The tea here is good. Give it a try," Xiao Ruiyuan said, pouring a cup of scalding tea for Mo Yan.

Smelling the alluring tea aroma, Mo Yan nodded and took a small sip from her cup. To her surprise, she found that the tea was no worse than that brewed with Spirit Spring Water at home. If brewed with Cloud and Mist Tea from her Space, it would likely surpass the tea she made by a significant margin.

Mo Yan drank the tea in small sips, finishing the cup and sincerely praised, "This is the best tea I’ve ever tasted. That tea master is truly skilled!"

Xiao Ruiyuan cracked a slight smile, "If you want to learn, I can speak to the tea master. Perhaps he’d be willing to teach you."

Seeing him say so, Mo Yan asked with curiosity, "Are you well acquainted with that tea master?"

Xiao Ruiyuan nodded, "This teahouse belongs to me."

"Yours?" Mo Yan’s eyes widened in disbelief, "You’re involved in business?" That doesn’t fit the image you present at all!

Xiao Ruiyuan could tell what she was thinking just by looking at her, and the smile at the corner of his lips grew deeper, "While the teahouse is mine, they run it all by themselves. They only need to send the yearly profits to Shiyi."

Mo Yan was speechless. His laissez-faire approach to being a Shopkeeper was even more "excessive" than hers.

Thinking of her previous guess, Mo Yan inquired, "They were all soldiers under your command before, weren’t they?"

Xiao Ruiyuan nodded, not at all surprised that Mo Yan could guess as much, "At the frontier, there are many like them. Those who lost their able bodies in war didn’t want to go back home to be a burden to their families. After asking someone to send their compensations from the Court back to their hometowns, they chose to remain at the frontier, relying on farming to support themselves."

But even able-bodied Peasants needed to work ceaselessly and pray for favorable weather just to get by, not to mention those with disabilities living in the infertile and harsh conditions of the frontier.

Having spent many years at the frontier, Xiao Ruiyuan was acutely aware of the difficulties these people faced in survival. Once he became a General and had a certain level of authority, he arranged for soldiers who were still physically capable but no longer fit for the battlefield and unwilling to return home to be placed in positions such as jails or other roles that did not require physical labor, allowing them to live with dignity based on their abilities.

For instance, the Prison Head who had taken good care of Mo Qingze in the Ministry of Justice’s Prison was injured and had come down from the battlefield, and had eventually been placed there by Xiao Ruiyuan.

However, these people were only the minority. More were like the Shopkeeper and tea master in the teahouse, severely disabled and unable to support themselves through labor.

Xiao Ruiyuan owned quite a few shops in the capital; however, these shops were left to him by his mother and grandfather, and the business operations were managed by the old servants who had followed his mother and grandfather. These people were loyal and devoted, so even if Xiao Ruiyuan wanted to help his own soldiers, it wouldn’t be feasible to replace them.