Chapter 45 Chapter 45 Evil intentions...

Xiao Xun?

Didn't Xiao Xun die? Li Cuihua saw with her own eyes that Sun and Xiao Dashi built a cenotaph for him. He was not buried in his family yet, but another plot of land was chosen in the back mountain of Xiaojia Village. It has been several months. Could it be that this letter was written before he died? Then why was it sent back only now?

Li Cuihua's hands trembled as she took the letter. It was terrifying to think a dead person could write a letter. She didn't dare ask any more questions, and she had a vague suspicion that the messenger, anxious to deliver the next letter, had confirmed that Li Cuihua would deliver it, then mounted his horse and rode away.

Li Cuihua took her grandson back to the house and asked her daughter-in-law to look after him first.

The daughter-in-law pulled the child over and asked curiously, "Mom, who were you talking to just now?"

Li Cuihua said vaguely: "No one."

She took the letter back home, opened it, and examined it carefully. Inside was a piece of letter paper and a five-liang silver note. Li Cuihua put the note away and then read the letter. However, she couldn't read, and couldn't even tell the difference between the top and the bottom. After a long time of searching, she still couldn't understand it. She decided to wait until her son came home in the evening.

She wondered, Xiao Xun had sent the letter back, could it be that he wasn't dead? A cenotaph had been built, and although Xiao Xun's body wasn't found, all those who died in battle were buried there. Li Cuihua looked at the letter, unsure who to ask.

If Xiao Xun really wasn't dead, we'd know everything just by asking.

Li Cuihua planned to wait until her family came back. After the autumn harvest, her two sons went to the county town to find work.

She had three sons, many of them. She was so proud of herself at the time that she even wanted to send them to school to become the top scholar. However, the eldest and second sons were both very slow and dropped out after less than a year. The youngest son was very motivated and attended the village private school for three years, but his studies were not good and he didn't continue.

But she could recognize words and read a letter. Because she could recognize words, she earned more than others when working in the county town and was more clever. Li Cuihua was always proud of this.

Wait until my son comes back and see what’s in the letter before we talk about delivering it.

Li Cuihua had no intention of delivering the letter at the moment. The Xiao family had moved away long ago, and she didn't know where to move to, so where could she deliver it? Yu Xinghua knew about it, but she had also moved away a few days ago. The two families were wary of her like a thief, and they still wanted her to run errands to deliver the letter.

They went to the county town to live a good life, so no one thought about her.

If the letter contained any bad news, Li Cuihua would inquire about it and tell the news. If it was something else, she would wait until she returned to the village and felt better before telling the news.

As for the fact that it is not good to read other people's letters, Li Cuihua doesn't care about it. The letters are with her. If she had known this earlier, she should not have moved out. Who can she blame?

In the evening, when Li Cuihua's two sons came back from outside, she pulled the younger son into the room and took out the letter, "Look quickly, what's written on it!"

Her son squinted his eyes and read it under the lamp for a long time. The more he read, the colder his back became. After reading it for a while, he turned his eyes away from the letter and said, "Mom, isn't Xiao Xun dead? How can you send a letter?"

Li Cuihua hurriedly asked, "What did the letter say?"

Her son swallowed, looked at Li Cuihua twice and then at the letter, "Mom, do you believe it?"

Li Cuihua said, "What else could it be? Tell me what you wrote."

"Xiao Xun reported home that he's safe. The letter was written over a month ago. Could it be that Xiao Xun has turned into a vengeful ghost? He can't come to our house, mother. Throw away this letter!"

Li Cuihua snatched the letter, nearly pulling the corner off. She smoothed the paper and cursed in a low voice, "You're really stupid, pretending to be stupid. Xiao Xun is definitely not dead. Why are you scaring people with ghosts and evil spirits?"

His funeral was held more than a month ago, and it was three months ago.

After saying this, Li Cuihua gritted her teeth. Xiao Xun was not dead. The Xiao family had double the good fortune. They moved, their daughter-in-law was pregnant, and their son was fine. God was really good to the Xiao family.

Li Cuihua's son was also stunned. The mother and son looked at each other and wondered what to do with the letter.

Li Cuihua hasn't figured it out yet. If Sun Xiuying and Xiao Dashi were so depressed because of Xiao Xun's death that they even lost their lives, and after all the fuss Xiao Xun turned out to be fine, she would still be able to laugh.

The son he picked up for free was so sad for him, but in the end the son was still alive.

Otherwise, if Lin Qiuran beat the child, when Xiao Xun came back and saw that the child was gone and the parents were dying, she could still laugh at the joke. But now the Xiao family has moved to the county town and brought Yu Xinghua with them to become rich.

We are all neighbors, why don’t you think about their families?

Li Cuihua had once seen from afar that the Xiao family's stall was doing brisk business, and the Li family's was right next door. She hadn't gone in that time, but she had heard that the Xiao family had bought a house in the county town, not rented it. Even Yu Xinghua had joined them, claiming it was to help them find a wife for their son.

This time Xiao Xun didn't die, and the family was reunited. After he came back, the family became richer and a child was about to be born, which was a double blessing. If Xiao Xun made another contribution, how could all the good things fall on the Xiao family?

Li Cuihua couldn't help but look at herself. She had many sons, and her sons' children also had many mouths to feed. In all these years, she had never lived in the county town. When she occasionally went to the county town to buy things, she didn't always take an ox cart.

In the past, she had laughed at Sun for marrying badly, her husband being useless, and unable to have children. As a result, Li Cuihua couldn't swallow this.

How could the Xiao family be so lucky that this letter could not be delivered. I don’t know when Xiao Xun will come back, so delivering the letter now will only make the Xiao family happy.

Before Li Cuihua's son had time to think too much, he just muttered: "This is great. The autumn harvest has just ended and the land tax has been paid. As a result, Xiao Xun came back. The Xiao family picked up money for free."

At the time of the autumn harvest, some kindhearted people in the village felt that the Xiao family's two elders, one pregnant, were too busy to handle the harvest, so they helped the Li family harvest the grain for the Xiao family. Three acres of land? How lucky!

Li Cuihua's family has a lot of land, but there are too many people and too many mouths to feed. The children are old enough to eat the adults' food, and they are exhausted from the autumn harvest. The 30% land tax is too much for the family, like a mountain.

The Xiao family should have handed over 300 kilograms of grain, which was equivalent to two taels of silver. The Xiao family got this money for free, but they also had to pay taxes to run a business. The Xiao family must have made a lot of money from setting up stalls these days, so how should they account for the underpaid taxes?

Although the tax money didn't cost them, if others took advantage, wouldn't that be equivalent to them being at a disadvantage? They still paid their taxes honestly, although some stale and moldy grain would be mixed in.

Li Cuihua's son, Xiao Wei, also had the surname Xiao, and he was a bit confused. He felt it was unfair. If he had really died, he would have been exempted from taxes for five years, but he wasn't dead.

Why?

Li Cuihua was completely stunned. She looked at the letter in her hand and hesitated. If she sent the letter to the Xiao family, she would be happy. But if she didn't, the Xiao family would sooner or later know that Xiao Xun was not dead, and he was exempted from taxes.

Why does the Xiao family always get the advantage?

How should the small stall pay the money? How much grain did it collect at that time? How much land tax should it pay? How much money has it earned in total now? How do you calculate all this?

Li Cuihua felt that it would be too cheap for them if they were just compensated with the money.

Li Cuihua hadn't been to the county town for a long time and didn't know that the Xiao family had opened a shop. She said, "I can't throw this letter away. I'll go to the county town tomorrow to check it out."

Originally, Li Cuihua wanted to hide the letter, but keeping it secret would be better for the Xiao family.

We absolutely can't let this go. Besides, when Xiao Xun was buried, every household gave gifts. Even if each family only contributed a few coins, it was still money. Now that the person is fine, their money is no longer money, and this money must be returned!

Li Cuihua's mind and eyes were full of money. She felt that the Xiao family might have known for a long time that Xiao Xun was not dead, but they hid the fact and even exempted the land tax. Such people must be arrested!

Li Cuihua didn't sleep all night, thinking about this matter over and over again.

She didn't let her son tell other family members about this because there were many people in the family. If the news got out, the Xiao family would definitely be happy to know about it, and they might even ask for the payment of the tax.

The next morning, Li Cuihua took a ox cart to the county town. Her two sons had gone out early to work, so she went to South Street first. The Xiao family stall was gone, and only Yu Xinghua and her son were left selling sauce cakes.

Li Cuihua thought that the Xiao family's business was going to fail, but before she could be happy, she heard that the Xiao family had opened a shop.

Li Cuihua rushed to the Xiao family restaurant and was shocked by the scene there.

This street was wider than South Street and quite crowded. On the left was a two-story teahouse called Yuxiang Teahouse, and on the right was a jewelry store called Jin Ruyi. Xu Yuanheng had really put a lot of thought into choosing the shops. One of the two-story shops had a good location, while the other had affordable prices and a good location. In short, he had considered everything.

But Li Cuihua didn't know all this. She only knew that there were a lot of people. She also saw Xiao Dashi moving things inside from afar.

Xiao Dashi is completely different from before. In the past, Xiao Dashi was quiet and honest farmer. But today he looked very different. He was dressed well and told the delivery person where to put the things, like an official.

By noon, guests were coming in and out, and Li Cuihua also met a few strangers.

Wan Niang and her mother and children came early, so Li Cuihua did not see them, but she saw Lu Fan, the waiter of the shop, and a newly hired shopkeeper named Shi. They were paid one or two taels of silver a month and were in charge of bookkeeping and occasionally serving food. They were the ones who were more capable and had to do more work.

All of them have been screened by Zhao Guangcai, and his life experiences have been told to Lin Qiuran, so he can use them with confidence.

Lin Qiuran spent half a tael of silver to find these two people, and this was not just their wages, but was specifically for Zhao Guangcai.

Although it cost money, it was better than recruiting people by posting a notice. He didn't know what kind of people to recruit, so Lin Qiuran was willing to let Zhao Guangcai find them.

Lin Qiuran planned to see how business went. If he couldn't handle it, he'd hire another one. Compared to the money he was making, the monthly salary was still small, so hiring someone would make things easier at home. After all, Lin Qiuran didn't just cook. He also had to make spices after the spices sold out, brew rice wine, and prepare some handy seasonings and marinade packets, all of which took up his time.

With Shi and Lu Fan around, the front-of-house work was much easier. Sun could help out in the kitchen, which also made Lin Qiuran's job easier.

Now Sun can make braised pork, but Lin Qiuran still has to prepare the spice packs and season it. Sun tried once, following the same steps, but the result wasn't as delicious as Lin Qiuran's. Sun didn't understand, but Lin Qiuran did.

She knew how to cook, but Sun didn't. She always lifted the lid to check the food. If other parts were not as good, the taste would naturally be worse.

Just take it slow, Lin Qiuran encouraged, saying that what Sun cooked was already delicious.

Sun was also very happy. She wanted to learn a few more dishes, not only for the shop, but also so that Lin Qiuran could eat better during her confinement.

But the two of them were good at cutting vegetables, but they were not good at stir-frying. The heat was not high enough, and the seasoning was not just right, so the taste of the food was very different.

So it was Sun and Wan Niang who did the odd jobs, and Lin Qiuran was the head chef. When she was free, Sun would go to the front to help out, as she couldn't sit still. So, in total, there were six people working in the shop, and an extra chef to cook was just right.

Today is the fourth day of opening. The shop no longer provides free rice wine, but there are still many customers coming.

The Xiao Family Restaurant offered discounts and even gave away gifts to regular customers. Plus, the food tasted good and was reasonably priced. After all, people who ate at a restaurant only compared their food with other restaurants, not with street vendors.

You can sit down and eat without having to wash dishes. Someone will serve you the dishes and rice. After you finish eating, you can just wipe your mouth and leave. If you still think this is too expensive, then other restaurants and hotels will have no business.

Lin Qiuran priced the restaurant menu a little differently from other restaurants, but not too much, otherwise it would easily cause trouble.

The guests were all happy. After eating, they left the meal, paid for it, and planned to come back in a few days.

At noon today, Li Cuihua hid behind a tree and counted how many customers there were in the restaurant. She couldn't bear to see the Xiao family doing so well, so she counted several people who came in together as one table of customers.

After counting for the whole afternoon, Li Cuihua was shivering with cold outside. She counted that there were nineteen tables of guests at noon. She didn't go in, so she didn't know the price of the food in the restaurant. She had never eaten in a restaurant, so she didn't know how much it would cost to have a meal here.

Li Cuihua gritted her teeth and calculated that each table would cost fifty cents, which would be about one or two taels of silver for nineteen tables of guests.

This is just at noon, they must still be doing business in the evening.

That day, they could earn two taels of silver. Even if they had to pay for capital, rent, and the wages of hired workers, the Xiao family would have to make half of it. Earning one tael of silver a day, one tael of silver!

Li Cuihua has a large family. Her eldest son has joined the army, and the others work hard. They live frugally throughout the year and can only save a dozen taels of silver. This is considered a lot. No family in Xiaojia Village can compare with hers.

But tell her today that the Xiao family can earn one or two taels of silver a day!

Although Li Cuihua was unwilling to believe that the Xiao family earned a lot, it was a restaurant after all. Perhaps a table of food cost more than fifty coins. They must have earned several taels of silver a day, which would be dozens of taels a month.

Li Cuihua felt a sore tooth, not knowing if it was from the cold or what. She wanted to report it to the government, saying that the Xiao family knew Xiao Xun was alive and still refused to pay taxes. This was a serious crime!

The Xiao family would definitely be arrested, but Li Cuihua didn't know where the government was. She was an ordinary citizen and always lived in the village. The farthest place she had been to was the county town. She was a little scared to go to the government alone to report.

Li Cuihua decided to wait for her son first, and then report to the police after Xiao Wei finished his work!

It gets dark early these days, so by the time Xiao Wei finishes his work, it's already completely dark. Li Cuihua told him about the Xiao family's shop, "They must have made a lot of money these days!"

Li Cuihua's eyes were fierce. She was in the county town all day, and the Xiao family restaurant would also be busy in the evening.

Today is the 19th day of the lunar year. The Xiao family has been selling vegetables for three months and I don’t know how much money they have saved.

Xiao Wei also frowned, and his face, like Li Cuihua's, showed surprise and a bit of greed. But Xiao Wei thought for a moment and said, "Mom, there shouldn't be anyone in the government office right now. Otherwise, we can talk about it tomorrow."

Li Cuihua said, "Okay, come over early tomorrow morning. The tax money should be spent on the people. The Xiao family has embezzled all of it."

Xiao Wei nodded, "We should report this to the police, arrest them, and make them return all the money."

But he thought again, reporting to the police might not be of any use. He hesitated and said, "Mom, the letter was only delivered yesterday. Is it useless to report to the police now?"

Xiao Wei thought about it and felt it was useless.

The news of Xiao Xun's death had been spread by the village head, and the reduction in taxes was also the intention of the imperial court, as evidenced by a sealed document. He remembered that during the autumn harvest, officials from the county came to collect the land tax, and the village head had shown the document to the officials. He had also heard the village head tell them that Xiao Xun had sacrificed his life for his country, and the imperial court had exempted him from taxes for five years.

If they report the case to the police, they must hand in the letter to prove that Xiao Xun is not dead. But Xiao Wei saw in the letter that it said that money had been sent, and the money was kept by his mother. Li Cuihua has always been partial to her, so the money must have ended up in his pocket.

If you report it to the police now, you will get nothing.

Besides, as for the letter sent yesterday, Xiao Xun was able to send it back. I think the mistake was not his fault, but the court’s.

The Xiao family's fault is not theirs. Even if they report it to the authorities, the most the government can do is ask the Xiao family to pay the tax, or maybe they don't even have to pay it.

The Xiao family was happy that Xiao Xun came back alive. They were busy for a long time, going to the county town and reporting to the authorities, but the result in the end was similar to delivering the letter to the Xiao family.

If the county magistrate finds out something is wrong, he might even be beaten with a stick.

Xiao Wei was also afraid of the officials. He grabbed Li Cuihua's arm and said, "Mom, we can't go tomorrow."

Li Cuihua was anxious. "How can we not go? Let the Xiao family continue to do this. They make money every day and don't have to pay taxes. Why?"

Xiao Wei smacked his lips and said, "I didn't say I wouldn't report it to the authorities, but we can't do it now. Mom, think about it, her family used to set up a street stall. Setting up a street stall is not considered business. At most, they paid a stall fee. Who knows how much money they made? Look, they opened a shop and did other things, and they spent it all. But running a shop is different. They definitely have to pay taxes."

No one cares about small businesses, but someone will take care of a shop.

Xiao Wei said, "Didn't you say that the business has only been open for two or three days? There's no point in reporting it to the authorities. The compensation is just a small amount. Maybe there's no need to compensate them at all. The letter just arrived, and the Xiao family doesn't know about it. We've been busy for so long, but it's all in vain. Why not wait and go to the county town tomorrow to tell the Xiao family that Xiao Xun is still alive."

Li Cuihua didn't understand. "What's going on? Why didn't you report it to the police? And you told..."

Li Cuihua and her son were walking on the way back to the village. It was a bleak night. After the arrival of autumn, all the leaves on the trees on the roadside had fallen off. They were exposed to the sun and blown by the wind. When the two of them stepped on them, the leaves made a crunching sound, which was quite creepy.

In the darkness of the night, Xiao Wei looked horrified. He coughed and said, "Mom, I didn't really tell them. You said they wouldn't believe it. If you want the Xiao family to go to jail, the only way is that the Xiao family knows that Xiao Xun is alive and refuses to pay taxes. There's no point in reporting it to the authorities now. We can find someone to spread the word that Xiao Xun is still alive. The Xiao family won't believe it and won't pay taxes. The more money we make, the heavier the fine will be. We will be rewarded for our meritorious reporting. We can just say that we delivered the letter and the Xiao family deliberately lost it."

Who knows who lost the letter? We only know that the Xiao family deliberately refused to pay taxes, and they might even be punished.

This time Li Cuihua understood, but she was afraid, "What if Xiao Xun comes back one day?"

Xiao Wei said, "That's perfect. We don't even have to report it to the authorities. Even if others don't care, we can still file a complaint."

Li Cuihua felt uneasy, "But what if they find out about us?"

Xiao Wei said: "What are you afraid of? It's them who don't pay taxes, not us. Spread the word in the village. Don't worry, everything will be fine."

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Author's words: Li Cuihua: People don't feel tired only when they do bad things.

Li Cuihua: Although I am a villain, I have to pay taxes