Chapter 30: Troublemaker
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Zhou Xiaoli glanced at Wei Chiyu, and the two of them walked over to look at the map on the table.
“Our Boyu Village has a large population. The village does not have any more land to use to build houses. The new lands suitable for building houses are basically at the front and back of the village.” Zheng Heping continued.
Zhou Xiaoli looked at the map for a while and finally chose a piece of land at the village entrance. “This one then.”
Zheng Heping looked over and nodded. “Yes, this piece of land is fine. This piece of land is not a wasteland so it’s convenient to deal with, and it’s not remote.”
Then, he said, “However, there should still be crops planted in this field for now. You have to wait for the current owner to vacate the land before you can build a house on it.”
Zhou Xiaoli nodded, indicating that she understood.
The village’s lands for building houses had to be calibrated every three years. For the villagers who were using the land then, they would also get a share of the money should it be purchased by others to build houses.
After Zhou Xiaoli confirmed which plot of land she wanted, Zheng Heping looked at Wei Chiyu and asked, “Chiyu, which piece do you want to pick?”
Hearing this, Wei Chiyu stretched out his finger and pointed at a location on the map. “This one.”
The place he pointed at was next to Zhou Xiaoli’s plot.
The village chief immediately nodded. “Alright, since you’re neighbors, you can take care of each other.”
Then, he took out two credentials from the table. “One piece of land costs four taels of silver. These are the credentials. After paying, you have to take the credentials to the Mayor to sign the deed transfer.”
“However, it just so happened that I have something to do at the Mayor’s house today. I’ll help you bring this over then.”
Zhou Xiaoli quickly thanked him. Then, she thought of something and asked, “Village Chief, how big is the land?”
Zheng Heping: “It’s half an acre.”
“Oh.” Zhou Xiaoli asked again, “Can we buy more, like an acre or something?”
Zheng Heping smiled. “Of course not. The Imperial Court has already planned the size of the land meant for homes in the rural areas. It can’t exceed half an acre.”
“Oh, is that so?” Zhou Xiaoli felt a little regretful. Half an acre of land was pretty big, but Zhou Xiaoli had wanted to grow more things in the yard.
As she spoke, Zhou Xiaoli handed four taels of silver to the village chief and asked, “How much is an acre of land?”
The village chief said, “Well, that depends on the type of land. The price of an acre of dry land is between 20 and 30 taels. If it’s a paddy field, it’s expensive. An acre of that would be between 50 and 80 taels.”
Zhou Xiaoli nodded. “Alright, I understand. Thank you, Uncle.”
“There’s no need to stand on ceremony with Uncle.” The village chief smiled and placed the credentials and transfer receipt on the table. “Just stamp your handprint on it.”
...
After the procedures were completed, the two of them left.
At this moment, Liu Yan returned after sending the two of them off. She could not help but to ask, “You’re going to the Mayor’s house today? Why didn’t I hear you mention it before?”
Zheng Heping smiled.
Liu Yan instantly understood that her husband was going to make a special trip. She immediately smiled and said, “Alright, I’ll prepare a gift bag for you.”
—
On the other hand, Zhou Xiaoli and Wei Chiyu coincidentally bumped into Lin Xiujuan who was going to do her farm work, right after they left the village chief’s house.
The moment Zhou Xiaoli stepped out of the village chief’s house, a lady sitting at the side of the road immediately looked up.
She sighed and said, “Look, look. I heard this morning that the daughter of the eldest son of the Zhou family brought gifts to curry favor with the village chief. So it’s true.”
As she spoke, she saw Lin Xiujuan standing at the side and clicked her tongue. “The Zhou family is really lucky! Do you know that many people in the village went up the mountain today? They all want to be as lucky.”
“Hehe, it’s not that easy to get lucky. If you ask me, I think we might as well go to the field and do our work. Don’t you think so?”
When she heard that Zhou Xiaoli had gone to curry favor with the village chief, Lin Xiujuan started to grumble in her heart again. She was no longer in the mood to chat. After saying that she had forgotten to bring something, she turned around and went home.
In the Liu family, Liu Liangcai, who was about to leave, saw that his wife had returned home with a dark expression. He asked, “What happened to you?”
Lin Xiujuan slammed the shovel on the ground and pursed her lips. “You didn’t see it. The person from next door had just delivered gifts to the village chief’s house!”
Hearing that it was because of this matter, Liu Liangcai didn’t think to take his wife seriously. “Hey, I thought someone did something to you. If she’s looking for the village chief, she must have done so because she needed to do something.”
Lin Xiujuan shoved her sleeves down and sat down. She snorted. “You’re really taking it easy. Do you know what Brother Kun’s mother said about us yesterday?”
“She said we’re stupid. We gave them a place to stay and even did work for them. In the end, we got less than half a pig. What should we be so happy about?”
“When they came back from the county yesterday, they bought a lot of things. Why didn’t they send some to our house!...”
Only then did Liu Liangcai realize what was bothering his wife. He placed the straw hat on the table and said, “Oh, I was wondering what was wrong with you. So you’re complaining that they didn’t give you enough!”
Lin Xiujuan, whose inner thoughts had been exposed by her husband, paused for a moment. Her confidence level dipped a little but in the end, she insisted on her viewpoint. “It’s true that they didn’t give us much to begin with,” she weakly muttered.
Liu Liangcai almost laughed out loud out of anger. “You’re really an old turtle.”
Lin Xiujuan’s expression turned ugly after being scolded. Just as she was about to flare up, Liu Liangcai hurriedly said, “Don’t get angry. I’ll count it out for you. First of all, I took in Big Brother Zhou’s family but that was because Big Brother Zhou had saved my life first. According to you, it’s a super important favor. We’re even then.”
“Then let’s talk about the wild boar. Hunters would pay about 60 copper coins for us to help them slaughter the pig. What’s more, I didn’t do it alone but let’s still count as 60 copper coins. As for the part of carrying the wild boar down the mountain, the Wan family usually pays 40 copper coins a day for manual labor.”
“You helped to wash the pig offal, I’ll give you 20 copper coins at most. That’s only 120 copper coins. The price of wild boar meat is much more expensive than a domestic pig. Even if we were to take a discounted price of 35 copper coins for half a kilogram, Little Li gave us meat that weighed almost 50 kilograms. How much do you think that would be?”
After this analysis, Lin Xiujuan didn’t dare to say anything.
“Even with that, you’re still not satisfied?” Liu Liangcai was a little puzzled. “Aren’t you usually quite good at calculating? Why didn’t you calculate it for yourself and was instigated by others instead?”
“Brother Kun’s mother is the same. Why hadn’t I heard any news from before that she was such a troublemaker? If she’s indeed a troublemaker, I have to reconsider Yuanyuan’s marriage carefully.”
Lin Xiujuan, who had just realized that she was in the wrong and lost her air of arrogance, was immediately unwilling when she heard that she had potentially ruined Liu Yuanyuan’s marriage.
“Dad, what nonsense are you talking about? Brother Kun is such a good marriage partner. He’s a known prodigy at such a young age. In the future, he will take the imperial exams and become a scholar!”
This is a very good marriage that is rare to come by. If my eldest sister wasn’t from the same village as the Chen family and helped to matchmake, would you have such good fortunes to have an imperial scholar as your son-in-law? You actually want to reconsider it? What are you thinking? Your brain must have been kicked by a donkey!”
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