Chapter 95: Chapter 57: Buying Land

That evening, the family gathered around the lamp to listen to Qingmu go over the accounts.

Qingmu held a piece of paper and said to his parents and Juhua, “I went to the village chief’s house to ask. Around our Little Qing Mountain, the better-quality wasteland costs seven taels of silver per mu, and even the lower-quality plots are four taels of silver. As for the cultivated fields, those are more than ten taels of silver per mu. I was thinking, we could buy some good land. After we clear it and farm it for a few years, the soil will be rich. We should also buy some of the lower-quality land to clear for planting Shanyu and corn. The Shanyu vines and corn stalks can be used to feed the pigs.”

Mrs. Yang said, “In that case, let’s buy a little bit of the good land and more of the cheaper land.”

Zheng Changhe quickly agreed, “Right! Besides, Shanyu and corn aren’t picky about the soil. They’re cheap crops and easy to grow.”

Juhua suggested, “When the time comes, why don’t we plant beans along the edges of the Shanyu furrows? Wouldn’t that give us an extra harvest?”

Zheng Changhe slapped his thigh and laughed. “Our Juhua thinks just like an old farmer! That’s a great idea!”

Everyone laughed. In the end, they settled on a plan: they would buy ten mu of good land and twenty mu of lower-quality land. The remaining money would be saved for building a house and hiring people to clear the land next year.

Qingmu then did some detailed calculations. He scheduled the land clearing for after the New Year, before the spring plowing began. The house construction would start immediately after the spring plowing was finished. Then he remembered that it rained a lot during that season, which made him hesitate.

Mrs. Yang said, “If it really comes to it, we can just wait until next autumn to build the house. We can make some adobe bricks ourselves and build a simple pigpen to use for now.”

Zheng Changhe said, “That won’t work. It’d be a waste of effort. Why don’t we hire some people to build a sturdier pigpen? Then, when we build the house next year, we won’t have to tear it down. Can’t we just keep using it? We should first decide where to build the house, plan it out, and reserve the spot.”

Qingmu agreed. “That could work. We’ll have to expand the pigpen eventually anyway. Planning it this way will make things less frantic and prevent us from scrambling later.”

The men of the family took charge of handling the subsequent matters.

When Qingmu spoke to the village chief about buying land, Li Gengtian kindly told him, “If you’re going to buy, buy more. You might not know this, but for the past two years, County Magistrate Hu has been in charge of our Qinghui County. He’s a good official. Not only is he efficient in handling matters for the people, but he’s also strict with his subordinates. Those bailiffs don’t dare to randomly demand money anymore. You have to understand, when the previous County Magistrate Gao was in office, if you bought a few mu of land without bribing the people in the government office with some silver, you could forget about getting the deed. They’d also skin you alive when collecting taxes. Have you seen the tax collectors demanding bribes these past two years? This County Magistrate Hu’s term is almost up, and it’s uncertain if he’ll still be the magistrate of Qinghui County then. You should hurry and take advantage of his time in office. Even if your family has to endure some hardship and scrimp and save, you should buy more land. It’s better to get it all done in one go than to waste money on bribes if you buy again later.”

This Li Gengtian was quite insightful. He was dedicated to helping the villagers and always spoke fairly, so the people of Qingnan Village all respected him greatly.

Seeing that he was giving him a kind pointer, Qingmu said gratefully, “Thank you very much, Uncle Li. I’ll go home and discuss it with my father.”

Li Gengtian said quickly, “Go on. This is a major issue, so you need to discuss it thoroughly. Your family is buying a lot this time, not like those who only buy two or three mu, which I could just handle for them. I’ll need someone to go with me to Qinghui County to get this done.”

Qingmu nodded in agreement.

Back home, he explained the situation to his parents. Mrs. Yang spoke up, “The way I see it, we should stick to our original plan. That much land is already enough to keep us busy. If we buy more, we won’t have enough money. And if we can’t farm it all ourselves, we’ll have to lease it out, but there aren’t many families in our village who rent land. If we hire people to farm it, that’s also a hassle. We’re already short on money, so making such a big scene would be unwise. The other villagers will surely start raising pigs next year too. When everyone has money, we can buy what we need along with everyone else. That way, we won’t stand out.”

Juhua silently praised her mother for being so thoughtful. ’That’s exactly what I was about to say! More money, more people, more problems. Before you even have a chance to enjoy the money you’ve earned, you’re busy all day managing endless troubles.’

Qingmu saw Juhua’s faint smile and knew his sister agreed with their mother. He asked, “Is that what you think too, sister?”

Juhua smiled. “Brother, we’ve only just started having a few good days, let’s not work ourselves to death. Let’s first farm this land well, build the house, tidy up the areas in front and behind it, plant some trees, and plant more vegetables in the garden. Then, let’s focus on raising pigs for a couple of years. By the time you get married and sister-in-law joins the family, we’ll have more people and more help. Buying more land then won’t seem so rushed.”

She was very content with this kind of life and didn’t want to make things too complicated.

Mrs. Yang said, “Exactly. Does the village chief not have money? Why don’t you see him acting like a big landlord? Right now, he’s completely focused on his son’s education. We’re farmers. It’s best for us to live a simple, honest life.”

Zheng Changhe said noncommittally, “Then let’s just buy less. I wouldn’t be able to manage it all if we bought too much anyway!”

Qingmu didn’t like the idea of dealing with a crowd of people either. But if they bought too much land, they wouldn’t be able to farm it themselves without hiring help. So he said, “Let’s do that, then. The village chief said one of us needs to go with him to the county government office to handle this. Dad, let me go with him.”

Zheng Changhe disagreed. “Won’t that get in the way of your studies?”

Qingmu looked up at his father. “It’s fine. I’ll ask the tutor to help me catch up when I get back. I want to go to Qinghui County to see what it’s like.”

Juhua smiled knowingly and said to her father, “Dad, let Brother go. Since he’s educated, he should go out and see the world, broaden his horizons a bit.”

Qingmu smiled at his sister. ’She’s the one who understands me best. She knows what I’m thinking.’

Hearing this reason, Zheng Changhe said quickly, “Alright! You go, you go! Be careful. Being away from home isn’t like being here. We may be poor, but it’s safe. City people aren’t as honest as us country folk.”

Juhua chuckled softly. ’It’s not like city people are tigers!’

Once the matter was settled, on one of Qingmu’s school holidays, Village Chief Li Gengtian took Zheng Changhe and his son to mark out the plots of land they wanted to buy. It wasn’t far from Juhua’s home, just over a li away.

Juhua went to take a look as well. It turned out that Little Qing Mountain ran from northwest to southeast. Juhua’s family lived in the middle, and the twenty mu of lower-quality land were to the southeast of their home. The other ten mu were near Jing Lake—that land was to be cleared for paddy fields.

Looking at the large stretch of wasteland by the mountain, Juhua smiled and thought, ’We have our own land now. This is private property. I want to live here until my hair turns white. Of course, there can’t be any wars. Otherwise, in the chaos of battle, nothing can be saved.’

Two days later, it was time for Qingmu to go to Qinghui County with the village chief.

He asked Juhua, “Juhua, is there anything you’d like me to buy?”

’What should I ask for?’ Juhua thought. ’Brother is only carrying a little bit of silver, so he can’t afford anything too fancy, and it’s not like I’m interested anyway. I saw plenty of things in my past life, after all. What I lacked most were these kinds of green, pollution-free foods and clothes, which I’m thoroughly enjoying now.’

’Oh! It’s just that the variety of food is a bit limited. We have all these great ingredients, but there are so many things I don’t know how to make. I can only cook simple farmhouse dishes. In that case, I’ll have him buy some pastries for me to try. The pastries here definitely won’t have any artificial coloring, flavoring, or preservatives.’

So she said to Qingmu, “Brother, just buy some nice pastries for me to try. Also, go to the market and take a good look around. See if you can find any good seeds for things we don’t have here, and buy a few. Now that we have land, we can plant lots of different things.”

Qingmu nodded in agreement and asked, “Don’t you want to buy some nice fabric to make clothes?”

Juhua smiled. “Brother, these cotton clothes are comfortable. If I wore fine silk, I wouldn’t be able to sit comfortably, I’d have to stand up perfectly straight, and washing it would be a huge pain. Isn’t that just asking for trouble? I like to move around, and if I wore clothes like that, I couldn’t do any work or even go to the vegetable garden, which is my favorite place to be. That stuff isn’t for us farmers. It’s just a waste of money.”

Qingmu couldn’t help but smile too. He thought the same thing.

They were country folk, used to a simple life. To them, those fine things were pretty to look at but completely impractical. Of course, not everyone thought this way. Liu’er’s mother, for one, certainly thought differently.

At this thought, he recalled the sight of Liu’er crying, her face streaked with tears like a pear blossom in the rain. A heavy feeling settled in his heart. ’Sigh! Juhua was right. It’s truly her misfortune to have a mother like that!’

The night before Qingmu left, Juhua helped him sew a hidden pocket into his undergarments and put some silver inside, saying it was a fallback in case anything unexpected happened.

Mrs. Yang praised her for being meticulous and thinking of everything. When you’re away from home, your safety is the most important thing.

And so, the couple began nagging him with a long list of instructions, clearly very worried. It was a half-day boat ride to Qinghui County, after all. Unless it was for something important, which of them country folk would waste money on such a trip?

Juhua quickly cut her parents off. ’If they keep going, the sun will be up.’ She said, “Dad, Mom! Brother is very smart, he’ll be fine. Besides, isn’t the village chief going with him? The village chief is a man of experience. And didn’t he say that Qingmu could stay with him at his sister’s place in the city? What are you still worried about, Mom?”

The two of them finally fell silent. Then they started wondering what would be a suitable gift to bring for the village chief’s sister.

Juhua said, “What should we send? Something they don’t have in the city, of course. Can we farmers afford to give expensive gifts? Let’s just have him bring two large jars of that spicy cabbage. I guarantee Changyu’s aunt will like it.”

Mrs. Yang thought that made sense. Li Gengtian would probably bring his sister ordinary country produce anyway. Only this spicy cabbage was something no one else had, a rare treat.

So, the next morning, Qingmu set off carrying two large jars of spicy cabbage.

The sky had been clear for several days, and the snow had long since melted completely. But the weather had grown even colder. Braving the bone-chilling wind, Zheng Changhe walked Qingmu to the village entrance, where he earnestly and repeatedly asked the village chief to look after his son.

Li Gengtian couldn’t help but laugh. “I say, Brother Changhe, it’s not like I’m going to sell your son, am I? What’s there to worry about with Qingmu following me?”

Zheng Changhe just chuckled sheepishly.

Mrs. Yang, however, accompanied them all the way to the docks at Erli Village before turning back.

A mother worries when her child travels a thousand li; this was only a few hundred!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep