By the time Lu Yuan woke up, it was already past two in the afternoon.

The afternoon was always so quiet.

The room was silent.

When Lu Yuan opened his eyes, there was no one else in the bed.

Neither Aunt Zhao nor his other wife was there.

Come to think of it, the two of them had been there when Lu Yuan first lay down.

Just like putting a child to sleep, they had chatted for a little while after lying down before Lu Yuan was out like a light.

He had been simply exhausted, and besides, it was cold outside.

The room was warm, and with nothing on his mind, he had naturally fallen asleep very quickly.

After getting out of bed, he GULPED, GULPED down two large glasses of water, then went to glance at Aunt Song’s bed.

Aunt Song wasn’t there either.

A groggy Lu Yuan was wondering whether he should go back to sleep or do something else,

when he glanced out the window. Hey!

’Isn’t that Third Uncle’s little girl?’

He quickly threw on his clothes and went out the door.

Before Lu Yuan could even speak, the little girl recognized him and said sweetly,

"Hello, Uncle~"

Lu Yuan grinned and waved the little girl over.

The little girl trotted over, and Lu Yuan picked her up, smiling as he asked,

"Where’s your grandpa?"

The little girl pointed to the main house in the central courtyard and said,

"In there~"

’Huh?’

’Why is it so quiet in there?’

Carrying the little girl, Lu Yuan walked up to the main house and finally heard people talking inside.

The people inside were all speaking in hushed tones.

It wasn’t that they were sharing secrets, just normal idle chatter.

They had probably lowered their voices because Lu Yuan was sleeping, afraid of waking him.

Hearing this, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but smile wryly.

’They’re being too careful. It’s not necessary.’

The main house was quite a distance from the East Wing, after all.

Lu Yuan pushed the door open and walked right in.

The room was filled with people.

Never mind the three women of his own household.

Basically all of Third Uncle’s family had come.

There was Third Uncle and Third Aunt, Third Uncle’s two daughters, his two sons-in-law, plus a few children.

As soon as Lu Yuan entered, Third Uncle’s family quickly stood up to greet him.

Lu Yuan just smiled and waved his hand, but before he could say anything,

a small child held in the arms of one of Third Uncle’s daughters looked at Lu Yuan and said in a high, childish voice,

"It’s the County Magistrate~"

Lu Yuan froze, then immediately looked at Song Meiqin and said,

"Hey~

Weren’t we supposed to be the ones to tell them?"

But Song Meiqin just pursed her lips, smiled, and shook her head.

"It really wasn’t me who said it. The news about you spread all over the city today.

This morning, a whole bunch of shopkeepers came by with gifts to pay their respects to the new magistrate."

Lu Yuan blinked as he listened to Song Meiqin.

’This news certainly travels fast.’

’I just got back from the Provincial City.’

But it wasn’t that surprising. The flow of people between the major cities was so frequent these days.

If there was any news in the Provincial City, Taiping City would find out within a day or two.

Especially since Lu Yuan’s newspaper now offered bonus rewards for big news.

If a story was chosen for the front-page headline, the reward was a straight three taels of silver.

What did three taels of silver mean? It was almost a city dweller’s entire yearly income.

Now, all of Lu Yuan’s delivery drivers and the like acted like the Jinyi Guard, digging for news every day.

After Lu Yuan sat down, everyone chatted for a while.

He finally found out why Third Uncle’s family had come.

To put it simply, they wanted to get two tricycles.

As had been mentioned, tricycles were all the rage right now.

Even used ones were being sold for exorbitant prices on the street.

Whenever a shop in Taiping City got a new shipment, an incredibly long line would form at its entrance.

There were even professional line-standers.

They would start camping out by the door several days in advance, waiting to buy one.

Third Uncle wanted two tricycles for his two sons-in-law.

He had seen other people making money with tricycles.

So, they wanted to get in on the action as well.

Making deliveries nowadays was much more profitable than farming.

Third Uncle seemed quite embarrassed, as he was an elder coming to ask for something.

His face was full of awkwardness as he spoke.

But Lu Yuan felt even more embarrassed than Third Uncle.

After all, Lu Yuan had said before that after he took care of Second Uncle, he would take care of Third Uncle.

But then one thing had led to another.

’I can’t believe I actually forgot all about Third Uncle and his family.’

Lu Yuan immediately looked at Third Uncle’s family and said,

"You won’t need to do deliveries. Now that you’ve brought it up, it’s made me think of something else.

The Zhao Family is about to form a transportation team. When the time comes, have your two sons-in-law come over and help out.

They can be dispatchers."

The chamber of commerce in Taiping City belonged to the Zhao Family.

However, the chamber of commerce wasn’t the Zhao Family’s main source of income.

So they hadn’t put much effort into it before.

But now, since the Zhao Family wanted to transform their business and reduce their reliance on the Spirit Stone Mine,

they naturally had to develop the chamber of commerce properly.

And now that they had tricycles, transportation had become much more convenient.

A transportation team was necessary.

Having Third Uncle’s family members join the transportation team didn’t mean they would be in management.

After all, Third Uncle’s family were all country folk; what would they know about management?

Even for close family, he couldn’t just assign positions blindly.

However, being a dispatcher was fine.

Figuring out how many vehicles to send to this city today, and how many to send somewhere else tomorrow...

That was all easy enough to handle.

Besides, it was a position with some status.

They were Third Uncle’s family, after all, which made them family to Lu Yuan.

When arranging a job for them, he certainly couldn’t just give them anything.

Otherwise, with the whole of Taiping City practically belonging to the Zhao Family now, what couldn’t Lu Yuan arrange for Third Uncle?

But it would be too inappropriate to just arrange a menial labor job for them.