Chapter 77: Raising the Price

These five people are all excellent bricklayers and master craftsmen.

The wages are much higher than those of ordinary laborers, costing two hundred coins per day.

Wen Yan thought for a moment and said, "I'm in a hurry. The faster the house is built, the better. I'll hire some more laborers, but they'll still have a hard time. I'll pay them 300 wen a day. Can you ask them if they're willing to do it?"

"Working in this industry is already hard work. They just worry about not getting paid for their hard work. If you can pay them half the wages, they will be overjoyed."

Wen Yan gave them a few more instructions and then reminded them that they had worked hard coming here early in the morning, and that they should take a rest first and go to her house for dinner when the time came.

After finishing their business, Wen Yan and Aunt Liu left.

Wen Yan asked Aunt Liu to take a detour and ask Aunt Li if she was willing to come over to help with cooking.

Of course Aunt Li was unwilling.

She liked Wen Yan, and she was happy to come even if it was just to help, not to mention that she was paid fifty cents a day.

After asking how many people were having dinner today, he immediately took a bamboo basket and went to his own field to pick a basket of cabbage, taro and radish.

He took it to the well at the entrance of the village and washed it clean before carrying it towards Wen Yan's house.

After Wen Yan arrived home, she asked Hui Niang to arrange for Aunt Liu and Aunt Li to cook, and then she took Pei'er to the home of Clan Leader Ying.

Ying Zhixue snorted in displeasure when she saw Yan taking Pei'er with him wherever he went.

Fifth Granny's lifeless eyes turned towards this side.

After a while, Wen Yan and the others arrived at the home of Patriarch Ying.

When Chief Ying saw Wen Yan, he forced a smile on his worried face: "Wife Zhilin, why are you here?"

Wen Yan saw his expression and asked curiously, "Grandpa Clan Leader, why do you look so bitter and resentful? What happened?"

The clan leader sighed, "A few days ago, the county government called me over and asked if any villagers had bought the back mountain. If not, they would sell it to a wealthy family from the capital.

I'm not afraid of anything else, except that they might cut off the spring flowing down from the mountain behind me."

The chief's wife brought them tea and sighed, "Our village is located on high ground and has deep underground water.

Drinking from mountain spring water and washing with water from the well at the entrance of the village are barely enough.

If they cut off the spring, we will be short of water in the future."

"I've asked the county government for five days to negotiate, but it's set to expire tomorrow. Our village's landlord hasn't shown any interest in buying it either. Now we can only pray that the new owner of the mountain behind us is kind and generous and won't embarrass us with the mountain spring."

"My old man was so worried about this that half of his hair turned white in just a few days."

After Wen Yan heard what the two elders said, she pursed her lips and chuckled: "You don't have to worry."

Afterwards, Wen Yan talked about building a house and buying mountain land: "I'm going to buy both anyway, so I'll buy the piece where the mountain spring passes by as well."

Wen Yan made buying mountains and land sound as easy as buying cabbage.

Patriarch Ying gritted his teeth when he heard this.

He has no objection to buying land and building houses.

As for buying the mountain, he quickly advised: "It's good that you have money to buy land, but why do you think of buying the forest on the back mountain?

Those woods only have pine trees and produce nothing at all.

If you have money, why not buy some good farmland and rent it out every year to collect rent? It's better than buying a barren hill.

You can’t mess around with money just because of me.”

Wen Yan said: "Chief, our purchase of the mountain is indeed useful. Ying Zhilin also knows it."

"That mountain is full of pine trees. What use are they? Besides cutting them up for firewood, what else can they do?"

Wen Yan said, "I want to open an ink-making workshop, and I need a lot of pine trees, so I want to buy all of that piece."

Patriarch Ying stood up in surprise.

"What did you say? Wife Zhilin, you can make ink? The kind of ink that scholars use to write?"

The cheapest ink stick costs several hundred coins each.

A slightly better one would cost a few taels of silver.

Wen Yan actually knows this skill!

Patriarch Ying's hands were shaking with excitement.

Wen Yan did not answer, but asked in return: "So, clan leader, we want to buy this mountain..."

"Buy! I'll go to the county town myself tomorrow and buy the land you want."

Clan leader Ying rubbed his hands excitedly and immediately took out a feng shui map of Songshan Village from the kang cabinet.

He took out another piece of charcoal from the stove and marked the location of the spring.

So she asked Wen Yan to mark out the place she wanted.

Wen Yan circled all the hilltops with the mine and the spring, and also circled a piece of land to the left of Grandma Wu's house: "I want to buy these five acres of land to build a yard and a workshop."

Chief Ying looked at the land and frowned, "One and a half acres of it belong to the old Ying family. They may not sell it."

Wen Yan thought about it and moved to the right.

“These are medium-sized fields, and the owners may not be willing to sell them.

Why don't you take a look at the east end of the village? There are several plots of land with a wide view, which is very suitable for building a house."

Wen Yan took a look.

This residential land is at the east end of the village. The terrain is indeed good, but it is too far from Grandma Wu's house.

"Fifth Grandma is nostalgic and may not be willing to move to a new place. I can only trouble you to help me think of a solution. The price is negotiable." Wen Yan said.

If she can solve the problem with money, she doesn't want to spend any more effort.

It's only four or five acres of land.

Medium-sized land costs four or five taels per mu, and doubling it would only cost ten taels. It would cost forty or fifty taels of silver to buy all of it.

The clan leader saw that she was unwilling to build it at the east end of the village because of Fifth Grandma.

He was touched.

I feel that Wen Yan, although he grew up in a wealthy family, is a very filial child.

I became more patient with her.

He explained, "It's not about the money. We farmers value our land more than our lives. It can be passed down from generation to generation."

No one is willing to sell unless their lives are at stake."

Wen Yan thought for a moment and said, "How about this? I see there are a few pieces of prime land for sale here. I'll buy them and trade them for medium-quality land. I'll give them one or two taels of silver per mu as compensation for the grain grown on the land."

Wen Yan proposed a solution.

Clan leader Ying also thought about it seriously and said, "They will definitely agree to exchange the medium-quality fields for the high-quality fields."

"I want the workshop to be built as soon as possible. It will definitely require a lot of masonry workers.

You should know that Lin Yixin only reads books of sages, and I was a newcomer and didn't know much about the village.

When we're recruiting, please help us check the candidates, Chief."

Wen Yan told him the number and conditions for recruiting.

There were thirty or forty laborers building the house.

Ink makers need to be extremely careful.

First recruit ten people, half of them men and half of them women. The women should be dexterous and the men should be strong.

Whether to recruit within the clan or outside the clan is decided by the clan leader.

The clan leader understood that Wen Yan was giving him power, asking him to do favors and establish his prestige.

It feels so good to be trusted by promising juniors!

Chief Ying suddenly became excited and immediately went from house to house to ask about the land exchange.

Wen Yan thought about it and followed him.

Things started out well.

When the three families in front heard that Yan wanted to exchange his superior land for their medium-quality land and give them one or two taels of silver as compensation, they agreed without hesitation.

Clan leader Ying asked them to go with him to the county town tomorrow to complete the household transfer procedures.

Until the last one, they hit a big snag.

The other party actually raised the price.