Watching his retreating figure, Shen Xiaoyan and the others behind him didn't know how to react.
Without a word, the group followed Lu Taobao, and soon they arrived at the place where the young cherry trees were planted.
These were the same young cherry trees planted last year. Since they were bought in two batches, they were separated. Not far from here, there was another patch of young cherry trees.
Together, the two patches of young cherry trees numbered no more than 20.
Although many more were planted this year, they would only bear fruit next year.
Even with the sacred spring water irrigation, these 20 young cherry trees couldn't defy nature. After all, the sacred spring water was diluted thousands of times with river water.
The trunk of each tree was only slightly thicker than Shen Xiaoyan's arm. Although the branches were lush, their horizontal spread was at most one meter, and their height was about the same as Shen Xiaoyan's.
Even from afar, a tree like this, laden with red and green cherries, didn't actually hold much.
Lu Taobao looked at the young cherry trees and swallowed. He asked Huo Fen for a basket and stood by a tree, beginning to pick.
Zheng Wei and Sima Han had already taken the children from Shen Xiaoyan and Yue Qingxin earlier when they saw them. However, Shen Xiaoyan and the two of them were still not idle, thinking that Zheng Jiang and Zheng He were already waving their arms, wanting to be held.
The final result was that Shen Xiaoyan and the other three each held a child and sat at a table a bit further away, chatting and laughing, while Zheng Wei ran back and forth with a basket, picking cherries.
After Lu Taobao picked three full baskets, he finally stopped.
Looking at Lu Taobao sitting there, rubbing his neck, yet still with a foolish smile on his face, Shen Xiaoyan and the others had already selectively ignored him.
Such a foolish look made it hard to believe that this was the same person who had just discussed business with them.
It wasn't until Shen Xiaoming returned from school that the group ate dinner together again, and only then did Lu Taobao bid farewell and leave.
Since Bai Fang appeared, Shen Xiaoming seemed to have matured a lot.
Previously, although he studied very hard, it was nowhere near the point of neglecting food and sleep as he did now.
Logically speaking, Shen Xiaoming was still young, had only been in school for a year, and it wasn't time for exams yet, so there was no need to try so desperately.
However, no matter how Shen Xiaoyan spoke, he would readily agree, but when he returned to the east annex room, he would still stay up late studying alone.
His diligence could only be described by Shen Xiaoyan with one sentence.
That was: he rose earlier than the roosters and slept later than the dogs.
This was absolutely not sarcasm, but Shen Xiaoyan genuinely felt pained that Shen Xiaoming, at such a young age, was trying so hard.
As for why he had become like this, Zheng Wei and Shen Xiaoyan had also discussed it.
It was that he wanted to grow up, become capable, and then uncover the truth of the past.
Shen Xiaoyan actually also really wanted to know where Zhen Wen Zheng went after leaving the Marquis of Baishan's manor, and whether he had found Zhen Lingrong.
However, the only people who knew about the events of that year, apart from Bai Fang who had already died, were Jiang Hong and Grand Princess Zande, who only heard things secondhand.
And it turned out that these two people knew very little and could not provide any useful information.
Therefore, finding the truth of that year was truly not an easy task.
However, she could not oppose Shen Xiaoming's actions.
After all, Shen Xiaoming was slowly growing up and had his own ideas.
In any case, she could only support and accept it.
The next morning, Lu Taobao sent over the required traditional Chinese medicinal materials, filling an entire cart.
In fact, Shen Xiaoyan had all these medicinal materials in her space, but she couldn't explain their origin. Moreover, all those medicinal materials had not been processed. If she took them all out for use after processing, it would require a great deal of effort. Therefore, Shen Xiaoyan simply bought the medicinal materials from Lu Taobao.
Batch production was needed, which would require special rooms.
Shen Xiaoyan discussed it with Zheng Wei and decided to use the rooms in the medicine garden.
The rooms were very new and were cleaned regularly. Apart from some tools, there was nothing else inside, which was perfect for their use.
Fan Yong instructed the young girls on how to process the various medicinal materials, and then he and his son would further process the processed medicinal materials.
As for Shen Xiaoyan, she would just watch for a while and then leave.
Firstly, she couldn't help much. Secondly, making talcum powder was not a very complicated task, so these people were fully capable.
In fact, Shen Xiaoyan's idea was to let them practice with these things first. Once these young girls learned more, became proficient, and became more familiar with medicinal materials, they could make other things in the future.
No matter the era, women's money was the easiest to earn.
Especially in this era, the blusher and powder used by the wealthy were naturally of the highest quality, but ordinary families could only afford ordinary blusher and powder.
Shen Xiaoyan often saw that stuff on Xu Xiao'e's face.
White powder applied to the face made her appear fairer and more radiant, but paired with her red lips, from a distance, she truly looked like a vengeful spirit who had just eaten blood.
Thinking of Xu Xiao'e's tear-streaked face, Shen Xiaoyan felt another wave of disgust.
In conclusion, making cosmetics and blusher and powder was a very good thing. As long as it was done well, she wouldn't have to worry about money in the future.
However, these things were still a long way off. For now, they should focus on making the talcum powder.
Besides the talcum powder, they also needed wooden boxes to hold the powder.
Although sold cheaply, they couldn't just use any wooden boxes to hold it, as this would make people feel it wasn't worth it.
The cheaper something was, the more exquisite its packaging had to be, so that the buyer would feel they hadn't lost out, but rather got a bargain.
Shen Xiaoyan and Zheng Wei had researched for a long time in the space last night, sketching, drawing, and revising before finally confirming the pattern for the wooden boxes.
The pattern didn't need to be too complicated; it should be easy to remember and recognizable at first glance the next time it was seen.
Therefore, the final choice was two cats.
That's right, two cats.
One black and one white cat, lying head to tail, looking cute and just hitting women's soft spots.
Shen Xiaoyan felt that, except for a very small number of women, no woman disliked soft, furry creatures.
Although there wasn't a word like "moe" yet, this picture would still make people's eyes light up.
There was no need to worry about the cost of engraving two cats on the wooden boxes, because the artisans of that time could easily engrave a hundred flower patterns on wooden boxes, so two cats would be even easier.
Zheng Wei had already taken the design paper to town to find someone to make 300 for them to use.
Before noon, Zheng Wei returned.
"How is it?" Shen Xiaoyan was playing with Ruan Ruan, who was shaking a rattle, when she saw Zheng Wei stride in.
"En, it's settled. Three li per piece," Zheng Wei said.
Shen Xiaoyan nodded, it wasn't expensive at all.