Chapter Fifteen: A New Approach

Shen Zhiyi's words made Lu Jingbai's eyes light up, and he asked eagerly, "What is it? Please enlighten me, Miss Shen."

She dropped her pretense and exclaimed, "Shocking! They're giving away land for free!"

After speaking, Shen Zhiyi looked at Lu Jingbai with a confident expression, her slightly raised chin carrying a hint of smugness, and said, "How about it? Did you immediately point out the core issue? At the same time, it will also arouse other people's curiosity. Then write down the land reclamation content that Lord Lu told me before, plus... six years without paying taxes! Free land, why don't you come and claim it!"

"Such things are sure to attract attention, and they are easy to understand and will spread by word of mouth without any problems," Shen Zhiyi said with great experience.

After all, only by truly understanding can one speak accurately.

Even sensational headlines and content can grab attention, no matter how outlandish they may seem.

Lu Jingbai fell silent, a dark glint flashing in his eyes. After careful consideration, he said, "Alright!"

By the time Lu Jingbai realized he wanted to praise Shen Zhiyi, she was nowhere to be seen. He looked at Xuan Yan, the black-clad servant standing not far away, and asked, "When did Miss Shen leave?"

“It’s been half an hour,” Xuan Yan replied in a low voice. “Miss Chen spoke to you, but you ignored her.”

Once Lu Jingbai is immersed in his own thoughts, he can't hear anything else, a situation that greatly troubles him, otherwise he wouldn't...

"Very well," Lu Jingbai said softly.

"Miss Shen also said that she would regularly gather the village chiefs together to discuss His Majesty's decrees, and then the village chiefs would inform the villagers, so that the decrees would reach the villages," Xuan Yan relayed earnestly.

"Why are you only talking about something this important now?" Lu Jingbai said coldly. He then got up and walked towards the carriage, took out a pen and ink from the carriage, and wrote down his thoughts on the paper by the moonlight.

The next day, the sky was clear and bright, as if it had been washed clean.

Shen Zhiyi had a good night's sleep. She patted the straw bed beneath her, and after confirming that the heated kang was well-made, she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep on this bed for much longer.

From straw beds to heated brick beds, what an obvious improvement!

She got up and washed up in a cheerful mood, but she still couldn't get used to just rinsing her mouth while "brushing her teeth." As for using salt, she thought about the hundred-odd coins in her savings...

It's still bearable.

After watering the vegetable garden, I took a walk around the village's wasteland as exercise, and the morning was over.

She had originally thought that Lord Lu would come to her to continue questioning her about the peanuts, but he was nowhere to be seen, so she decided not to wait any longer.

Shen Zhiyi walked towards the village entrance and met Tang Huaya on the way. She told her about her plans for the day and then hitched a ride on an oxcart to the county town.

The car was moving slowly, and the people inside seemed preoccupied with their own thoughts, showing no inclination to chat.

"Hey, you guys don't know yet!" Shen Zhiyi took the initiative to start the conversation, using a surprised tone to attract their attention, and continued, "The county magistrate has posted a notice for land reclamation..."

Before Shen Zhiyi could finish speaking, the woman gave him an "Oh, I see" look, then said listlessly, "Oh, this matter was posted a long time ago. In a year like this, to persuade people to clear land is just making them starve!"

The woman rolled her eyes in displeasure.

Shen Zhiyi feigned surprise at the opportune moment, which made the woman extremely smug. As if to regain the upper hand, she hurriedly said, "Then you probably don't know that this time, the land reclamation registration is tax-free! And it's a six-year tax-free period!"

As she spoke, she exaggeratedly made a "six" gesture and added, "Reclaiming land now is simply a win-win situation!"

Everyone was startled, even the old man driving the cart couldn't help but listen closely.

"Tch, I don't believe it! If there were such a good thing, someone would have gone to clear the land long ago, how could it have waited until now! Besides, those old men haven't made a move either, it must be fake." Someone firmly retorted.

“How could I lie about something this big! If you go to the yamen to ask, the lie will be exposed. Besides, I often ride in the old man's oxcart. There's no point in telling a lie like this.” Shen Zhiyi analyzed for them earnestly. “As for those gentlemen… hehe.”

Her smile held a hint of something unspeakable as she teased, "The reason the officials don't go and reclaim the wasteland is because the county magistrate wisely set the conditions! So they can't, and they don't want ordinary people like us to do it either."

Amidst the silence, everyone was weighing the truth of the matter. Shen Zhiyi then said, "Think about it, doesn't this make sense?"

They may not be highly educated, but they have their own ways of surviving. They explain things clearly and thoroughly, and some people can always understand.

One person does it, two people do it... and then it can motivate even more people to do it.

After finishing the topic, Shen Zhiyi said no more, letting them think about it carefully and deeply, for fear that they would forget it after hearing it.

The oxcart continued its slow, leisurely journey, but the hearts of those inside grew even heavier with worry.

What prompted them to think deeply was that Shen Zhiyi got off the bus after arriving in the county town, walked around several alleys, and came to one of the side alleys. As soon as she stepped in, she could smell a foul odor.

At the time, I only asked which alley the three lived in, but it was pitch black at first glance because the light was blocked by the high walls on both sides, as if the place was deliberately separated.

Intending to ask at a nearby house, Shen Zhiyi vaguely saw a figure walking out of it. She stepped aside to let him pass, and suddenly heard a familiar voice: "Sister!"

"Three heads?" Shen Zhiyi asked in surprise. Only after the person emerged from the shadows was she completely certain. She saw that the three heads were wearing dirty clothes with obvious shoe prints on them. "Where are you going?"

"Go wash clothes by the river." The three-headed man clearly didn't want to talk about it further, and instead asked, "Is there something you need me to do, sister?"

"Are you still wiping the stone slabs for Master Mu?" Shen Zhiyi asked.

After hesitating for a moment, San Tou decided to tell the truth: "No, there isn't any left."

After careful consideration, Shen Zhiyi understood San Tou's current predicament. Although he had earned ten days' worth of money, he had lost his long-term "job".

She didn't dwell on negative emotions and quickly changed her mindset, asking directly about what she wanted to know: "Do you know anyone in this county who works as a chamber pot scavenger?"

"Night fragrance?" The three-headed creature looked puzzled.

Shen Zhiyi explained "night fragrance" in a simple and unpretentious way. After all, the fertilizer she had piled up was almost used up when the whole village was reclaiming the land. If there was no new fertilizer to replenish it, the chili peppers would not be able to keep up with the growth.

“No.” The three-headed man shook his head, his brows furrowed as he pondered. He added, “The remnants on the street are trampled on at will. Once they’re compacted, they won’t splash up, and they won’t harden over time either, so nobody cares about that.”

“However, some people who travel from the countryside to the county town will bring back the waste from their own livestock; they don’t specifically collect it on the street. As for how those gentlemen dispose of night soil, I haven’t seen it,” San Tou said earnestly. “We just find a side alley to relieve ourselves.”

As he finished speaking, the three-headed man's voice trailed off, his face turning bright red, realizing that his behavior might not be appropriate.

"So it wasn't there before?" Shen Zhiyi murmured, perhaps because the three of them didn't have a wide circle of contacts and couldn't know some information. "Then are you willing to do this?"

"Hmm? Collecting...night grime?" the three-headed creature asked with a strange expression. "Who would need this?"

“Me!” Shen Zhiyi chimed in, seeing the three heads’ speechless expression, and then said, “The fields need fertilizer, so the night-blooming jasmine will have a place to go! But I didn’t expect that there wouldn’t be one in the county town… We need to think about it carefully before we put it into practice.”

"If it works out, would you be willing to do it?" Shen Zhiyi asked seriously. "It might be more profitable than singing folk songs back then."

The three heads fell silent. Shen Zhiyi didn't urge them either, but kept refining the plan in her mind, trying to present it to the magistrate with a reasonable and well-founded argument.

"Can we go with them?" the three-headed man suddenly asked, adding anxiously, "The ones we went with last time."

“Of course you can! This is not something you can do alone. Both collecting and transporting are very hard work, so you need to make it clear to them.” Shen Zhiyi patiently guided him, “Once you take on a task, you can’t give up halfway.”

“I know, sister,” San Tou replied with a serious expression.

Shen Zhiyi couldn't help but raise her hand to pat San Tou's head, but remembering what Grandma Qin had said about "growing up into a big girl," she quietly withdrew her hand and smiled, "I'll give you three days, and I'll come to find you at this time."

"Okay." The three-headed man smiled shyly, but felt a sense of disappointment in his heart. He had thought he would be patted on the head.

"Then I'll be going now." After saying goodbye, Shen Zhiyi turned and left gracefully.

There weren't any major changes in the county town. The only thing on my mind was the price of grain, which had risen by three wen compared to before. Moreover, the price of grain had increased across the entire town at the same time, which could only mean that the person behind this had some information sources unknown to ordinary people.

Rising food prices are not a good sign.

Although Shen Zhiyi had some worries, they were not something she could solve, so she might as well focus on what she could do in the present.

As soon as Shen Zhiyi got into the oxcart, the old driver said softly and kindly, "Young lady, it's better to lie less when you go out. It's not good for your reputation."

"Hmm? Is the old man talking about the land? Who did you ask?" Shen Zhiyi asked.

"It's in the yamen..." The old cart driver was interrupted by a loud female voice before he could finish speaking: "She's talking nonsense! Officer, arrest her!"

The people standing in front were the woman who had spoken to them on the oxcart earlier, and the two yamen runners standing beside her; both of them looked menacing.

A thuggish-looking constable stepped forward and roughly tried to pull Shen Zhiyi down, but she spoke first: "Wait! Even if you're going to arrest me, you should have a reason!"

"Hmph, what reason do we need to arrest people!" one of the constables said disdainfully.

Since they were acting so arrogantly, Shen Zhiyi had no intention of practicing martial ethics. She glanced at the people around her, her gaze landing precisely on the group of scholars in Confucian robes, and shouted at the top of her lungs, "This is outrageous! This is lawless! Under the clear sky, the constables are arresting people arbitrarily without any investigation! Although I am a peasant girl of lowly status, I know what kind of talk a woman would have if she were in jail! I'd rather just kill myself right now!"

As she spoke, Shen Zhiyi bumped into the group of scholars, thinking that surely there must be one who was kind-hearted.