Mrs. Xie followed Lin Qingwen up the mountain, she hadn't moved for a long time, but this gentle slope made her panting.

  But Lin Qingyuan didn't stop, so she didn't either, persisting until they reached the edge of the Cold Spring.

  Yang's mother originally wanted to speak up and go down the mountain, but seeing her daughter-in-law and granddaughter walking forward like they were competing with each other, she didn't have any intention of stopping them.

  Lin Qingwan was fine, just a bit short of breath, but Mrs. Xie could only stand with the support of the tree trunk.

  Lin Qingwan couldn't help but smile. "Mother, from now on, will you accompany me to the mountain every day to fetch a jug of cold spring water?"

  Mrs. Xie shook her head slightly, "You, you're still so mischievous, wanting me to take a walk, just say it directly, why bother finding such an excuse?"

  Lin Qingwan tilted her head and winked at her, "What about Mother, is she willing?"

  "I want to say no, will you still find another reason to drag me out?"

  Lin Qing smiled and nodded slightly.

  Looking at the smiling Yuanyuan, Mrs. Xie really couldn't associate her with the determined and resolute Yuanyuan that everyone had mentioned. Mrs. Xie walked over to a rock by the cold spring and sat down, a refreshing breeze blowing across her face.

  Mrs. Xie suddenly had no more doubts, and her tentative mood disappeared.

  "Sister Wan, have you ever thought about how to spend your future days?"

  Lin Qingwan had thought of that, of course. She stayed here with only one goal in mind. Not to mention the future, she had even planned out her life for this lifetime.

  But these words obviously couldn't be said out loud, so she thought for a moment and said: "Raise big sister to grow up, find her a good husband, best to see her give birth to two children, one adopted by the Lin family."

  Every single word and sentence is for Lin Yubin.

  Yang's heart tightened, and Mrs. Xie also looked up at her, saying softly: "I was asking you, not Yubin."

  Lin Qingwan smiled, "This is my future goal, and from now on, my days will naturally revolve around this goal."

  Mrs. Xie felt as if there was a stone weighing on her heart, she remained silent for half a moment before finally saying with difficulty: "Mei sister, you're still young, in the future if you meet a young man you like..."

  "Mother," Lin Qingyan interrupted her, looking at her seriously: "Mei has already married Erlang, and the wedding dress has been sent to the grave. There is no 'if'."

  Mrs. Xie opened her mouth, but was too choked with emotion to speak.

  Lin Qingwan squatted in front of her, holding her hand and said: "Mother, Dr. Xu has taken your pulse for you. You've been feeling cold lately, which isn't a good thing."

  Mrs. Xie looked at her.

  Lin Qingwan looked up at her eyes and said, "Second brother is dead, but he lives in our hearts, so let's just pretend he's still alive, okay? If he were alive, he would definitely hope that we eat well, sleep well, drink and have fun, take care of ourselves, and live to be a hundred years old, right?"

  "Will you live to be a hundred years old?" Mrs. Xie asked her.

  Lin Qingwan fell silent for a moment before saying, "I will try my best to live a little longer."

  Mrs. Xie could tell she was lying, but she didn't expose her, just nodded and said: "Alright, I'll take care of myself, you should too."

  Lin Qingwan nodded and said with a cold smile: "After all, our enemies are still alive."

  Yang's wife was shocked and covered her chest, while Mrs. Xie's eyes flashed with a strange light, and her hands clenched into fists involuntarily.

  The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law finally fetched a kettle of water down the mountain. From then on, Mrs. Xie went to the villa with Lin Qingyuan every early morning, then went up the mountain to fetch a kettle of cold spring water, took a bath after coming down the mountain, and had tea and snacks.

  If Lin Yuhong was resting at home, they would stay in the forest for a while longer, watching her chase after wild chickens and pick another handful of wildflowers to put in a vase.

  It wasn't until Lao Zhongbo had handed over the farm work in the village and finally found an excuse to run to the other courtyard that it was already August.

  He stared at Zhong with wide eyes, "So Madam Xie couldn't persuade the young lady, but instead the young lady persuaded Madam Xie?"

  Zhong nodded in disappointment, "It's not like that, the young lady hasn't changed much, but Mrs. Xie seems to have come around, every day she not only copies scriptures but also reads other books, and even gives advice on managing the farm to the young lady, it's a world of difference from when she first arrived. Old Zhong, didn't you say that Mrs. Xie was going to persuade the young lady? But I think it hasn't had much effect."

  Lao Zhongbo gave him a sideways glance and said: "What's the hurry, this matter needs to be handled slowly. I'll go see Madame Xie. By the way, where is the young lady?"

  "Grandma went to the fields, today they're harvesting wheat with sickles, Grandma is going to take a look."

  Lao Zhongbo let out a sigh of relief, patted his clothes and said: "Then I'll go pay respects to your mother."

  Mrs. Xie had been waiting for him early, and since the conversation at Lengquan, Mrs. Xie no longer doubted that, as the letter said, Wan Jie was indeed determined to die, but it was a hopeful determination to die.

  And her hope is Lin Yuhbin!

  She didn't have a good way out of this either, because she was still immersed in the grief of losing her son, how could she persuade her sister to let go?

  So she could only apologize and look at Old Loyal with a sorry expression: "I can only say that I will do my best to encourage her, but I cannot guarantee that I can persuade her."

  Lao Zhongbo said with gratitude: "This is very good. With Madam's advice, I think Miss will be more open-minded."

  Mrs. Xie saw that he was still running around at his age and couldn't help but sigh: "You have a kind heart, no wonder Mr. Lin trusted you, it turns out that your family has loyal servants and ministers."

  Mrs. Xie gave Old Zhongbo a high hat, and Old Zhongbo naturally returned the compliment, thinking that their family's aunt was fortunate to have such a tolerant mother-in-law as you.

  The two of them complimented each other for a while, and then tacitly agreed on "persuading Sister Juan to let go and walk towards a happy life".

  When Lin Qingyan returned to the other courtyard with a big sweat on her head, Lao Zhongbo had already left.

  Lin Qingwan had someone go fetch water for bathing while asking: "Old Zhong Bo, what's going on? Why didn't you wait for me to return before leaving?"

  "He said he came to deliver pears to his aunt and sisters, but since there's a lot of work on the farm, he had to hurry back to work, so he didn't stay long." Bai Mei helped Lin Qingwen take off her clothes and added, "Before leaving, Old Zhongbo went to pay respects to Mrs. Xie and chatted with her for a while."

  Lin Qingwan nodded, "Old Zhongbo's first meeting with his mother-in-law should indeed go to pay respects. What did they say?"

  "Mrs. Xie was being attended by Nurse Yang, we didn't hear anything, but should the slave go and ask?"

  "No need," Lin Qingyan took off her clothes, turned around the screen and said: "Send some of the pears that were sent to Chunxiaoyuan, pick out a basket and hang it in the well, take it out to eat at the hottest time tomorrow."

  Bai Mei sighed, "What a pity that cold cucumbers are hard to buy in Suzhou. Otherwise, putting them in the well and icing them would be even more refreshing. In previous years, when Master was still alive, someone would always bring some from Beijing as a tribute, but this year there aren't any."

  Lin Qingwan paused, turned her head and asked, "Do you all want to eat cold melon?"

  "It's not that, it's just a pity, we won't be able to eat winter melon this year."

  After all, it's almost time to pass the season.

  Lin Qingyu seemed lost in thought and turned to take a bath.

  Hamigua is actually watermelon, which is also cultivated in the Central Plains, but very few. In the past, when the country was not yet divided into four or five parts, this thing was mostly transported from the Western Regions.

  For the past hundred years, wars have been constant, and most people can't even get enough to eat, let alone exert themselves to grow melons. The Silk Road has also been disrupted for a long time, and watermelons are heavy and fragile, so merchants naturally don't like to transport them, mostly bringing precious goods such as jewels and spices.

  So now most of the cucumbers are locally grown, with very low yield, so this fruit is not only expensive, but also hard to buy due to lack of channels.

  In the past, Lin's family didn't need to buy anything. With Lin Jiang's status, many people would bring things to him voluntarily.

  This year no one from Lin's family came to send it off, and it seems like they can't even buy it anymore.

  If Bai Mei hadn't mentioned it, she wouldn't have realized there was a problem yet.

  Lin Qingyan came out of the bath, changed into dry clothes and said: "Although the season for eating cold melons is almost over, there must still be people selling them now. Let Lin's steward go buy some back. These few days are hot weather, just right to eat."

  Bai Mei happily agreed and turned around to find Lin's housekeeper.

  Lin Guanjia couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise and exclaimed: "Miss, why did you suddenly think of eating cold melon at this time?"

  As the steward of Lin's household, he would think one step ahead of what his master thought of, and also think of what his master didn't think of. When the cold melons just came out in late June, he had already sent someone to buy them.

  Those big merchants Lin Guan Jia also knew, thought it was just a matter of one sentence, who would have thought they actually pushed and said the cold melons were all pre-sold, couldn't spare any for the Lin family.

  But Lin Guan's family knew that this was not selling to the Lin family. He did not expect these people to be so greedy, and as soon as the old master left, they would slack off against the Lin family like this.

  Lin Guanjia was so angry at the time, but he couldn't tell his aunt that the old master was gone. Even if his aunt knew, she would only get angry for nothing.

  Originally, Auntie didn't think of eating wax gourd either, it's just that he knew about it, but now Auntie wants to eat...

  Lin Guan's family hesitated for a moment and still went to find Lin Qingyu to confess.

  In July when cucumbers were plentiful he couldn't buy any, now that it's August and cucumbers are almost out of season, he can't buy them at all.

  Lin Qingwan took a sip of tea and asked faintly, "So it seems that someone has stopped buying the Lin family's account?"

  Lin Guan's family lowered their heads in shame, "Yes, yes, it was our fault for being incompetent."

  Failed to keep Lin's family connections.

  "Is it so with all men?"

  "That's not true, apart from those few families, other families sell us things that are not only of good quality but also at a lower price."

  Only those few families have cold melons.

  Lin Qingyan nodded and asked, "Apart from this matter, is there anything else you're hiding from me?"

  Lin Qingyan said: "Lin Guanjia, some things you think are good for me by hiding them from me, but in fact they just make me unclear about our situation and invite ridicule."

  Lin Guan's family was somewhat sad and lowered his head: "Zhong Da said that there were some problems on the side of the bookshop, but they could still handle it, so he didn't report it to the top."

  "What's wrong?" Lin Qing asked coldly.

  "There are several bookstores that have reduced their orders, and the price of high-quality Xuan paper that our bookstore needs to purchase has increased significantly. Now they are thinking of a solution."

  "Is someone targeting?"

  Lin Guanjia sighed and said, "There are people who have been targeted, but there are also several families who have followed the trend, praising some while criticizing others."

  "Which of those families is deliberately targeting us?"