The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 172 Shipping

Zhang Ruomei chuckled, this is the fun of raising a daughter, if it was a son, there would definitely be no such things.

She couldn't help but touch her belly again. The midwife said that the baby in her belly should be a boy. She thought this was a good idea. In the future, the master would naturally take care of his sons' studies and imperial examinations. She only needed to take care of their daily lives.

Thinking of the master, she became a little worried again. He had been away for several days, and except for sending someone back the next day to report that he was safe, there had been no news in the past few days.

Seeing her expression change from happy to sad, Chen Cui couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong with you? It's time to give birth. Don't think too much. Just wait for the baby to be born."

"I'm worried that something might have happened to the master outside. There has been no news from him for several days!"

"What are you thinking about? The master is accompanied by attendants and runners when he goes out. There are a lot of people around him, and he is going to the county below. What could happen? Don't let your imagination run wild. If you have time, you might as well spend more time with Brother Yun. After you give birth, everyone will focus on the little one, so don't ignore the big one!"

Zhang Ruomei laughed at herself and said, "Yeah, I was just imagining things. You're right, I should pay attention to Brother Yun and not let him get hurt!"

Recently, Yun Ge often holds her belly and asks when the little brother will come out. He wants to take the little brother to play together. Thinking of her son's childish words, Zhang Ruomei can't help but show a loving look on her face.

Chen Cui looked at her expression and pretended to be nonchalant and sighed, "By the way, if corn could grow in our area, the harvest for the next season would be guaranteed. The master probably wouldn't have to worry so much and could come back earlier to accompany you!"

"Who says it's not true? When the master first learned that corn was only grown near the capital, he locked himself in his study for a long time. He was so angry!"

Zhang Ruomei sighed.

"Oh, it would be great if there were other high-yield seeds. If this doesn't work, then that will work. There must be something that can benefit the people!"

Chen Cui said this deliberately.

Zhang Ruomei thought for a moment and said, "You are right. If we find other high-yield crops, I don't believe we can't promote them!"

"But this is easier said than done. Didn't you and the master send someone to look for the shop later? The owner had long since disappeared. Other caravans traveling to the west didn't have similar news either. If there had been any, they would have discovered it long ago!"

Chen Cui deliberately spoke ill of the matter.

"There are no caravans heading west, but what about other directions? Our Great Zhou Dynasty has a vast territory. We are located in the northwest inland and have never been to other places. There are many places on the coast in the east. Two years ago, our Zhang family invested in a fleet that goes overseas to ship our silk and porcelain and bring back gems and spices. In just two years, the dividends from the fleet investment have surpassed the profits of half of the business in Shuzhong!"

Zhang Ruomei's eyes lit up when she mentioned the business at sea.

Although the shares were purchased in the name of the Zhang family, many members of the family had a share, but her father held the largest proportion of it, because their family was the richest.

She knew all this because she had contributed a portion of the money her father had given.

Thanks to the good money I made from the canned food and hot pot business in recent years, I had a lot of spare money and decided to invest it.

Since the clan had invested so much money, they naturally had to send people on board, so a lot of news from overseas was passed back.

In some places, it is like spring all year round and there are three crops a year. In some other places, people actually use slash-and-burn farming and live like savages, which is really amazing.

Among them, they also mentioned that they saw many crops on overseas islands that had never been seen in the Zhou Dynasty.

If by chance one comes across something useful, then wouldn’t the master have made another contribution?

Zhang Ruomei slammed the table excitedly when she thought of this. "I will write a letter to my father and ask him to tell my cousin to help me find those plants that we don't have when he goes out to sea again. No matter what they are, bring them back first, and then we can identify them later."

Chen Cui suppressed her excitement and quickly agreed, "You are right. We don't have it in the Great Zhou, and we don't have it anywhere else. If we are lucky enough to get one or two of these, it will benefit not just one or two people, but the people of the entire Great Zhou. Then you and the master will have done a great deed!"

A while ago, she overheard Zhang Ruomei mention that their family had invested in an offshore business and that she had invested all her spare money in it over the past two years.

At that time, she just sighed that the Zhang family was really capable. In the shipping business, everyone knew that there was money to be made. You couldn't just invest if you wanted to. If there was no big shot behind the scenes to support it, it would only take a few minutes to be swallowed up.

Once a ship goes out to sea, it is no longer under the control of land. The situation at sea is complicated and the celestial phenomena are unpredictable. When it comes back, it may say that the ship encountered wind and waves, the things were soaked in water, or were lost. What can you do?

If you are even more cruel and say that you encountered pirates, and both your property and your life were lost, and there is no evidence, then you can do nothing about it.

This time it was probably the King of Shu who played a role in it, which allowed the Zhang family to become eligible to invest and receive dividends safely.

Chen Cui didn't think too deeply about it at the time, but now that she had encountered the successive disasters, she thought of the discovery of new seeds during navigation and guided Zhang Ruomei to think about this.

Fortunately, Zhang Ruomei was not an ordinary boudoir girl. She was well-educated, thoughtful, and knowledgeable. She not only cared about her husband's career, but also had a business vision. This method was able to work.

Seeing that she didn't want to wait any longer, Chen Cui immediately ordered someone to prepare writing materials and pens, and then quickly advised her, "Take it easy, don't get so excited, be careful about what's in your stomach, it's just a letter, how long will it take, it's okay to take it easy."

Zhang Ruomei also realized that she had gone too far, so she quickly calmed down, patted her chest and said slowly: "Yes, yes, no rush, no rush, my belly is the most important right now, no one is more important than this little guy!"

Seeing that she looked tired and needed to rest, Chen Cui stood up and said goodbye: "You should rest more at this time. I will take my leave today. Starting tomorrow, I will come to disturb you every day. Don't think I'm annoying then!"

Zhang Ruomei knew that she was concerned about her and was worried that her master would not be able to come back before the birth. There was no elder in her house, only a yard of servants. If something unexpected happened during the birth and she encountered a problem, there would be no one to make the decision.

She was very grateful, and took Chen Cui's hand and said, "Thank you very much."

Chen Cui patted her hands and said, "With our relationship, why are you still being polite to me?"

From then on, Chen Cui would visit her house after breakfast every morning, and sometimes she would bring Sui Sui with her so that she could play with Yun Ge.