The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 368 - 357: Manor Head Bai

Chapter 368: Chapter 357: Manor Head Bai

With toys in hand, the attention of the three children naturally turned to food.

Old Master Bai didn’t allow the three children to eat at the street stalls, but took them to a restaurant instead, smilingly said, "Let’s have lunch first before going back, where else do you want to play?"

Having been through childhood himself, Old Master Bai certainly knew why the three children had come to the town.

The three little heads huddled together, chattering away as they discussed. There were not many, but also not a few, places to play in the town.

Manbao usually had tasks to attend to on her previous visits to town, with few opportunities to freely roam and play, let alone Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang, who had been to the town even fewer times than Manbao.

Today, with nothing pressing and Old Master Bai accompanying them, the three were free to play to their heart’s content.

Even Bai Erlang was not too worried, his father had always doted on him.

After finishing lunch, the three children played carelessly around the town until nearly evening before Old Master Bai led them onto the horse carriage.

Not having napped and worn out from playing, the three children soon became drowsy upon sitting in the carriage and fell asleep, sprawling this way and that before they even left the town gates.

Old Master Bai resigned himself to laying them down, steadying their little heads, and instructed the coachman to slow down.

Once off the main road and onto the mountain trail, the going became tough; fortunately, the carriage moved slowly. Though it rocked from side to side, it didn’t jolt too much.

Thus, the three children slept all the way back to Qili Village.

The carriage first dropped Manbao off at Old Zhou’s house, then turned around to cross the river and head back to the Bai Family.

Cradling an armful of toys, Manbao happily went to share them with her nieces and nephews.

Old Zhou sat on the threshold watching them play and asked Manbao, "Did Old Master Bai buy all these for you?"

Manbao nodded, "Everyone gets some."

Only then did Old Zhou not say much, instead he asked, "Did the young miss from the county magistrate’s family say anything?"

Manbao had almost forgotten her good friend’s departure; it was only when Old Zhou mentioned it that she remembered and took out a box from her cloth bag, opening it to show her father, "This is from Second Sister Fu."

Old Zhou briefly glanced at it, saw it was a handkerchief, and smacked his lips, "It’s a fine thing, but you’re still too young to use it. Keep it for now and use it when you’re a bit older."

Daya looked over, envious, "So pretty, Auntie, is this the legendary silk satin?"

Manbao pulled out a piece to look at it, touching the soft, smooth fabric, she hesitated, "Should be silk, right? Isn’t that why it’s called a handkerchief?"

Old Zhou nodded approvingly, "Exactly, why else would they call it a handkerchief?"

Daya felt doubtful, is that really the case?

But since Old Zhou was right, and Manbao wouldn’t need it at the moment, she placed the box on her bookshelf.

The bookshelf was called as such, but aside from books, it held various other items as well, so it might as well be called a storage shelf.

Manbao placed it on the topmost part, deciding to take it out and look at it whenever she missed Fu Wenyun.

However, Manbao, still young, didn’t have so many sorrows; she and Fu Wenyun communicated mainly through letters, so not seeing each other for a while didn’t lead to too much longing.

Not like Bai Shanbao, who saw her every day, thus a separation for a period would result in intense longing.

Seeing that Manbao hardly mentioned Fu Wenyun and didn’t seem sad, Bai Shanbao let go of his concern and then sought her out to discuss many matters.

He was originally worried she might be heartbroken and didn’t want her to fret too much, but it seemed unnecessary today.

The steward Ms. Liu had found for their farm had arrived.

Indeed, Ms. Liu had transferred a steward from one of the Bai Family’s manors to help them manage the one hundred and twenty acres of land and the mountain.

Even Old Master Bai thought Ms. Liu was making too much of a fuss over a mere hundred acres of land, especially in Qili Village, where any long-term worker or servant could handle it. Why bother transferring a steward from another manor?

However, since it was previously agreed that manpower and resources would be provided by Ms. Liu’s side, Old Master Bai didn’t comment.

Once the steward had arrived, Ms. Liu had the three children come home to meet him.

Although all three had grown taller, in the eyes of Ms. Liu and others, they were still children.

The newly arrived steward stood respectfully to the side, lifting his head slightly at the sound of their arrival.

The children, too, curiously observed the steward. With frost at his temples, an aged face, a simple smile, and thick fingers, he clearly was accustomed to farm work.

Ms. Liu said, "This is Bai Zhong, from now on he’ll be your manor head. You can just tell him what needs to be done."

Manbao politely called out "Uncle Bai," seeing that Manor Head Bai looked a bit older than her father.

Bai Shanbao, after giving her a glance, said, "Should call him Grandfather Bai."

Bai Erlang nodded strongly in agreement.

Manbao frowned in frustration.

Amused, Ms. Liu patted their heads and laughed, "From now on, just call him Manor Head Bai."

Anxious Bai Zhong nodded again and again, bowing, "Young Master, Honorable Young Master, if Miss Man has any orders in the future, just instruct this humble one."

Ms. Liu had already explained to Bai Zhong before the children’s arrival that the little manor belonged to all three children, and thus, they were all his masters.

Although Manbao and the others had big ambitions, they weren’t likely to spend much time on farming, especially at their young age with fickle minds. Their main task was to learn.

In fact, they had been somewhat slack lately, gathering to play together after school and finishing their homework, so much so that they even joined Zhou Silang and others to catch rhizomys up the mountain the other day.

While the farmhands diligently plowed and fertilized the land under orders, their work lacked supervision and was therefore slack.

The children could not supervise the fields every day, and Ms. Liu wouldn’t allow them to spend too much time on this, hence she had long intended to find them a manor head.

Now that the manor head had arrived, many tasks could be undertaken.

Manbao and the others only needed to stand behind the manor head and instruct him; as for everything underneath, that was for the manor head to handle.

Therefore, the most important qualities in a manor head were not capability but rather obedience and loyalty.

Especially obedience; otherwise, the three children would fail to direct the workers, and without the ability to do so, the manor would lose its purpose.

A hundred and twenty acres of land along with a mountain lush with vegetation made for a very, very small manor.

Moreover, the hundred and twenty acres of land were not particularly fertile, with most being barren sandy soil. But Bai Zhong dared not slack off.

For although honest, he saw clearly that the Old Madam cared deeply about this parcel of land, or rather, she cared about grooming and testing the three young masters. It seemed as though this little manor was intended to cultivate and test the management skills of the young masters.

Knowing this, Bai Zhong was very obedient, executing even the misguided directions of the three young masters without question. Here, his role was to be the hands and feet of the young masters, not to have thoughts of his own.