Transmigrated as a Stepmother: Time to Bring the Family to Prosper!-Chapter 367: Preparing New Year’s Gifts

Next year he’ll definitely be different from this year. After all these months of hard memorization with additional pointers from his teacher and senior brother, he truly has some knowledge in his head now.

Qin Yao opened her eyes, stared at him for a few seconds to ensure those eyes weren’t deceiving, and then nodded in satisfaction, saying:

"Coincidentally, I also need to go to the Prefecture to settle accounts. The roads aren’t safe near the end of the year, so I’ll escort you and your teacher to the Prefecture. You come with me. By the way, we can visit the Qi Family aunt so she knows where her nephew has gone, and can rest assured."

Qin Yao spoke as if she were visiting some relative of an acquaintance, causing Liu Ji to instinctively nod. Only afterward did he react, and his eyes widened in shock, his mind buzzing as if it exploded.

"Meet, meet the Prefect’s Wife?" Liu Ji weakly asked, doubting he’d heard correctly just now.

Seeing Qin Yao nod, Liu Ji quickly wiped the fine sweat from his forehead that had been steamed out by the hot water vapor. In his whole life, he never entered an official’s house, and now he was going straight to a Prefect’s home - that was too exciting!

"Miss, do you think they’ll want to see us?" Liu Ji asked apprehensively. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Qin Yao gave him a skeptical look, "Weren’t you always very eager to associate with the powerful before? Now that a great opportunity is in front of you, why are you chickening out?"

Liu Ji thought to himself, usually, it was just talk, but now you want to do it for real, how can I not panic!

Besides, the most powerful person he ever thought of connecting with before was someone like Fan Xiucai, but a Prefect’s home, now that was something he never dared to imagine.

Moreover!

"Associating with the powerful - don’t make it sound so awful, Miss. I just wanted to find some decent work to do..." Liu Ji murmured quietly.

Qin Yao chuckled lightly, seeing through but not pointing out, she lifted her foot from the tub, and Liu Ji instinctively handed over a foot towel. Qin Yao took it, dried her feet, put on her shoes, and stood up, giving instructions:

"I’m not good at these things; I’m just responsible for taking you to the door. The rest, you have to handle on your own. I don’t expect you to leave a good impression; just don’t mess it up."

After speaking, seeing Liu Ji so nervous that his breathing became erratic, Qin Yao sighed softly, pulled him up, patted his arm, and said:

"Don’t think of her as thePrefect’s Wife; just consider her your junior brother’s aunt. We’re not asking for favors, just paying a courtesy visit before the New Year to drop off a gift, and to explain where we took your junior brother."

In this world, the only people who will unconditionally help you are your parents.

Others, if they’re eager to help, there must be bigger traps waiting for you to fall into.

So, before asking for favors, consider what you can offer in return.

But if you have no ulterior motives, aren’t looking for shortcuts, and are stable at your core, you naturally won’t panic.

Liu Ji watched Qin Yao enter the bedroom, took a deep breath, and indeed, thinking less made him less anxious.

The next day, Qin Yao personally went with Liu Ji to the Lotus Courtyard to confirm the departure date of Qi Xian.

To avoid the difficulty of traveling in the heavy snow later, they planned to leave on the third day of the twelfth lunar month.

This left Qin Yao with only two days to prepare, and figuring out what to prepare as a New Year gift really gave her a headache.

In the village, when visiting other houses, taking some candies and meat strips was enough. What was sent to Landlord Ding was merely some farm-fresh fruits or snacks, chickens, or ducks.

In the social gift-giving nuances of Sheng Country, there weren’t many memories in Qin Yao’s mind, so she had no choice but to ask Liu Ji to inquire with his senior brother and teacher.

Knowing Qin Yao was preparing a New Year gift for his aunt, Qi Xian didn’t waste words of politeness about not needing it. He simply wrote Liu Ji a list.

Then Gongliang Liao supplemented it, as these encounters were rare for Qi Xian. Now he’s in the ancestral land, but his parents in the Capital will help prepare the New Year gifts for each family to be sent from the Capital.

To avoid being late, the steward responsible for the gifts generally had to set off by mid-November to return to the Capital by the year-end.

The gift specification list eventually handed to Qin Yao was comprehensive from top to bottom, so complete it could be compiled as a reference for gift-giving.

"Your teacher and senior brother are quite good." Qin Yao was satisfied with the list, reminded Liu Ji to arrange the substitute teaching matters for the literacy class, making sure that their departure wouldn’t cause a halt in the class.

Liu Ji, of course, knew that and indicated that Qin Yao could be at ease, he would arrange his matters properly.

However, making the arrangements wasn’t easy, for no other reason than the sheer number of students he had taken in!

Qin Yao didn’t care how he arranged it; she knew the gift list’s specifications, but there were still many considerations in actually preparing it.

Among noble families, gifts often included tea leaves, leather, cloth, mountain delicacies, and rare medicinal materials. If there was a farm, fresh fruits might be prepared too, but these were just embellishments; the former items were the main focus.

Just looking at the 280 taels of silver in her savings, Qin Yao knew she shouldn’t pretend to be wealthy with these centerpiece items.

Country fresh chicken eggs, chickens, and ducks were still a novelty, so Qin Yao bought two baskets of eggs and four chickens from Granny Wang.

Transporting live animals is troublesome; four chickens were already Qin Yao’s limit.

As for fabric and leather, others had better than what she could buy, so Qin Yao didn’t plan to add more clutter.

While considering whether to go to the county to buy two cans of premium tea as key items, she overheard workers from Lower River Village in the cafeteria excitedly gossiping about how the Yang Family Brothers had hunted good game.

Qin Yao’s interest piqued, she hurriedly asked, "Did the Yang Family Brothers go up the mountain this year?"

The workers, seeing it was her, all greeted Manager Qin and made room for her to sit.

A worker from Lower River Village replied, "Yes, they went up the mountain twice this year. The first time they didn’t get anything good, but they returned yesterday and reportedly hunted two deer and picked a sizable cluster of Lingzhi."

Deer are valuable, with useful skins, antlers for medicine, and delicious meat among other wild game. Moreover, wild Lingzhi, while not exceptionally expensive, is hard to find, priced but unavailable.

Qin Yao immediately stood up, "Then I must go and see!"

Just troubled about the New Year gift, here came the perfect opportunity, not wanting to miss it, Qin Yao hastily rode to Lower River Village.

At Yang Da’s place, the men had taken the deer to town, so Qin Yao quickly rode to catch up, intercepting the brothers halfway.

"Miss Qin, what are you doing?" the intercepted Yang Da Brothers asked in confusion.

They didn’t think Qin Yao, who could fight tigers, would be interested in their two deer.

It’s cold, so dead deer can be stored indefinitely, but if taken to the Prefecture, they’d undoubtedly lose flavor. Qin Yao said, "I want to buy the two pairs of antlers and the Lingzhi you collected."

The brothers were stunned for a moment, then laughed, with Yang Da teasing, "Your sources are quite accurate."

Qin Yao also laughed, "Of course, considering the number of laborers from Lower River Village at my factory."

"Alright, enough talk. Cut them for me, so as not to delay your trip to town," Qin Yao urged.

If someone else came, the brothers might have refused due to inconvenience, but since it was Qin Yao, a short delay was fine.