Lu Mosheng exchanged a glance with Song Jiayan.
“We can supply baical skullcap exclusively to you, but the price can only go up, not down.”
Businessmen cared about profits. Lu Mosheng knew that if there weren’t enough profits to be made, they wouldn’t have offered twenty thousand yuan upfront to secure an exclusive supply of baical skullcap.
The businessman who had come to purchase the herbs took out another two thick bundles of red banknotes.
“This should be enough to show my sincerity, right?”
After the businessman left, Lu Mosheng held the hefty forty thousand yuan in her hands, feeling as though it were all a little unreal.
Song Jiayan thought for a moment before speaking. “I’m planning to lease another plot of land.”
Their current planting capacity clearly couldn’t meet the overwhelming market demand.
Hearing this, Lu Mosheng nodded. “The land we have now definitely isn’t enough.”
“There isn’t much land available for leasing at the moment,” Song Jiayan continued. “I’ll ask around first and see what I can find.”
“Alright.”
Song Jiayan didn’t try to keep his plans to lease more land a secret, so the news quickly spread throughout the village.
Bai Xing was the first to come knocking.
“My family has land! Brother Jiayan, I heard you’re looking to lease some. You can lease ours!”
Song Jiayan frowned. “This isn’t something you can decide on your own.”
Bai Xing looked at him with utmost seriousness. “I can decide! Brother Jiayan, wait here. I’ll go get the land certificate right now!”
With that, Bai Xing immediately turned around and hurried home to retrieve the certificate.
Song Jiayan didn’t even have time to stop her.
Lu Mosheng shot Song Jiayan a sidelong glance, and he quickly explained, “I didn’t ask her to come here.”
“She came on her own initiative.”
“Even if Bai Xing really brings the land certificate here, I still won’t lease her family’s land—”
“If Bai Xing hears you say that, she’ll be heartbroken.”
“As long as my wife is happy, that’s all that matters.”
Lu Mosheng loved hearing Song Jiayan say things like that. She rose onto her tiptoes and rewarded him with a kiss on the stubble along his chin.
Lately, Song Jiayan had been busy with one thing after another, and he’d become rather rough around the edges. His beard was especially prickly.
The moment Song Jiayan felt Lu Mosheng’s kiss against his chin, his eyes immediately darkened.
He gazed at her belly and murmured, “I wonder when this little rascal is finally going to come out.”
Lu Mosheng immediately understood the implication behind his words.
Remembering how she’d helped him take care of his needs with her hand the last time, she suddenly felt her ears burning.
He was already like this while she was pregnant. What would happen after the baby was born?
In her previous life, she’d been terrified of being intimate with him. In this life… they hadn’t even done it yet.
The more she thought about it, the more embarrassed she became, so she quickly forced herself to stop.
Meanwhile, Song Jiayan watched her cheeks turn red. To him, Lu Mosheng’s flushed face looked as tempting as a ripe peach, making him itch to take a bite.
“Mosheng…”
His large hand gently rubbed her earlobe, his voice growing husky.
Lu Mosheng knew him all too well. Song Jiayan was like a dog—always thinking about that sort of thing at the slightest opportunity.
“Go on, get out!” Lu Mosheng pushed him out of the small hut. “If you have nothing better to do, go ask around and see whose land is available for lease!”
Song Jiayan was efficient. Before long, he returned with good news.
Since he’d offered a fair price, the landowner was equally straightforward. They signed the leasing contract and put their fingerprints on it right then and there.
Soon afterward, Song Jiayan took Lu Mosheng to see the newly leased land.
Unexpectedly, they ran into Bai Xing.
Bai Xing pulled out the land certificate and showed it to Song Jiayan.
“Brother Jiayan, my parents have agreed to lease our land to you!”
Lu Mosheng replied, “There’s no need anymore. We’ve already settled the land issue.”
Bai Xing stared at her with wide eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said.”
While they were talking, a village woman carrying a hoe happened to pass by and called out to them.
“Bai Xing! Your parents said you stole the land certificate from home! They’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
Bai Xing’s face instantly flushed red. She turned toward the woman and snapped, “Stop talking nonsense! Who stole the land certificate from home?!”
Then she turned back to Song Jiayan and hurriedly explained, “Brother Jiayan, don’t listen to what other people say. My parents handed the land certificate to me personally. I didn’t steal it!”
Song Jiayan simply watched her in silence.
Under his gaze, Bai Xing grew increasingly flustered. She desperately tried to explain herself.
“Brother Jiayan, it’s really not what you think! I just wanted to help you…”
Lu Mosheng interrupted her. “Even if you wanted to help, this isn’t the way to do it. If we’d signed a land lease without knowing whether you had your parents’ permission, and a dispute broke out later, we wouldn’t be able to explain ourselves no matter how many mouths we had.”
Bai Xing stared intently at Song Jiayan.
“I—”
“Bai Xing, I never thought you’d resort to stealing things,” Lu Mosheng said.
Song Jiayan finally spoke. “Let’s end this here.”
Large tears rolled down Bai Xing’s cheeks.
“Brother Jiayan, what’s wrong with wanting to help you?”
Lu Mosheng had no desire to prolong the argument with Bai Xing. She and Song Jiayan soon left together.
After inspecting the land Song Jiayan had newly leased, Lu Mosheng was reasonably satisfied.
The soil was dark and fertile, far better than the plots at the foot of the mountain. However, it was also more expensive. Leasing it for just one year would cost ten thousand yuan, which was no small sum.
Then again, looking at the rich, dark soil suddenly reminded Lu Mosheng of something from her previous life.
When an old, dilapidated house belonging to a villager in Songjia Village had been demolished, a large number of cultural relics had been unearthed beneath it.
If her memory served her correctly, that villager was also distantly related to the Song family.
After the relics were discovered, the villager had handed them over to the state.
At the time, many provincial officials had come to the village and even presented the villager with a medal in recognition of his contribution.
The villager had also seized the opportunity to recommend his son for advancement. Fortunately, his son proved capable and eventually did quite well for himself.
As for the Song family, they benefited from this distant family connection. Whenever they needed someone to help get something done, they could turn to the villager’s family, who were always quick and willing to lend a hand.
Remembering all this, Lu Mosheng wasn’t thinking about secretly keeping those cultural relics for herself.
Instead, she was thinking about the future she and Song Jiayan would share.
Having money alone wasn’t enough. They also needed connections.
Having lived through all the ups and downs of her previous life, Lu Mosheng understood all too well just how important connections could be.