Old Lu waved his hand, telling the children to get ready and go to sleep. Then, several adults led the village chief and his wife to the main room to talk.

"I heard that your eldest and second sons are buying land recently, so I wanted to ask if it's true?"

The village chief was a straightforward person; he sat down and got straight to the point.

"Yes, we've been living here for several months, so we need some land so we can plant crops next spring."

Old Lu smiled and answered very sincerely.

Speaking of which, the village chief knew that the Lu family wanted to buy land, and had even asked him for help before, but no one in the village wanted to sell land, which delayed the process.

"Isn't the Qian family going to sell? Why doesn't your family buy it?"

The village chief was puzzled. Wouldn't it be better to have land in his own village?

“Village chief, my family has had a falling out with the Qian family, and the Qian family is not someone to be trifled with. Now that we have a business deal, who knows what trouble they might cause in the future? Besides, they’re asking for ten taels of silver per mu of land right off the bat—isn’t that robbery?”

Sun started by complaining, and then continued, "Besides, his family doesn't have much land, so buying it wouldn't be enough. Why don't we just ask in the next village? Compared to our Anping Village, the neighboring villages have more land."

The village chief nodded, but then, thinking about what he wanted to ask, he didn't know how to begin.

The village chief's wife, who had been cooking for the embroiderers in the workshop recently and had become quite familiar with the Lu family, spoke first: "We mainly heard about your family's plan to hire long-term workers. If you want to buy land and hire long-term workers, and pay them wages, our family can sell a dozen or twenty acres of land. It's a good deal, and I'm sure many people in the village would be willing. Land is convenient in the village, isn't it?"

Liu smiled, thinking that being close to the source meant she had a better chance of getting the moon, and the Lu family probably wouldn't go to such lengths.

They didn't consider whether it was worthwhile for the Lu family to do this. As long as it was worthwhile for them, that was enough. At this wage, working for the Lu family as long-term laborers would earn them more than farming themselves. Only a fool would refuse!

Upon hearing this, the Lu family understood. Not wanting to strain their relationship with the village chief's family, Sun very warmly took Liu's hand, addressed her as "Sister-in-law," and then said:

“We understand what you mean. Selling land is a good thing for our family. If you are willing to sell, we are willing to buy. But when it comes to hiring long-term laborers, we don’t just hire people from whichever family’s land we buy. When it comes to choosing people, we naturally have to pick the hardworking ones! I’m not saying that your children aren’t hardworking, I just want to make things clear to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings.”

"Yes, yes, we know that."

The village chief nodded repeatedly. Although they had indeed thought so just now, they were not afraid after Sun explained it clearly. His sons were all very capable, and any one of them could outshine the others in the village. Otherwise, how could he have been the village chief for so many years?

Originally, the Lu family didn't want to buy the land in the village, mainly because they thought they would be troubling the village chief with too many things. They could buy the land in the next village instead, so they wouldn't need to owe anyone a favor. But now that the village chief had come to them, they figured they might as well take advantage of it.

So, the eldest son of the Lu family told the village chief about the plans they had just discussed, and asked the village chief to help promote them in the village. He said that buying and selling was free and there was absolutely no coercion involved. There was only one requirement: the land sold by a family had to be contiguous. The best fertile land would be paid five taels of silver per mu, medium-quality land four taels of silver, and inferior land one to three taels of silver.

The original agreement was four taels of silver per mu of land, but after these few days of on-site investigation, it turns out that some people have ulterior motives and only want to sell their most barren and inferior fields for four taels of silver. Isn't this just treating people like suckers?

So the Lu family changed their strategy. They were willing to spend money on fertile and high-quality land, but they didn't hesitate to lower the price of inferior land.

The village chief listened attentively, afraid of missing any important information.

When the couple left, Mrs. Sun gave them five eggs, saying that she would trouble the village chief to help promote the product in the village. The couple declined slightly before leaving.

The next day, news spread throughout the village that the Lu family wanted to buy land and hire farmhands. In fact, they had heard about it from relatives in the neighboring village before, and they were very interested. However, considering the influence of the Lu family in the village, they did not dare to ask too many questions. After all, the Lu family had tried to buy land from the villagers before, but they had not agreed.

Now that they know they also have this opportunity, they are overjoyed. The Lu family is simply the god of wealth for their Anping Village.

Many families with many male members and a lot of land are very interested, especially those whose members are all capable, and they are not worried about not being selected.

However, some families who owned land but were rather lazy hesitated.

Every household gathered to discuss whether the deal was worthwhile or not. This commotion eventually reached the Qian family, who were waiting at home for the Lu family to come knocking on their door.

Qian Tieshu couldn't understand; had the Lu family gone mad?

"Master, why is the Lu family buying so much land? Even the best fertile land is only worth five taels of silver. Who would be willing to sell that?"

Li tugged at Qian Tieshu's sleeve, feeling inexplicably uneasy.

There was a reason why she dared to ask for ten taels of silver before. Their village was a large village directly under the jurisdiction of the county, with good roads and convenient travel, so the land was naturally valuable. Selling it for seven or eight taels was not a problem. The Lu family wanted to take it for five taels of silver and even wanted to hire them as workers. Wasn't that nonsense?

"Ha, that's what they say, but did they actually buy it? After all this fuss, they haven't spent a single penny. In my opinion, they just want to buy my land at a low price, that's why they came up with these underhanded tricks!"

The more Qian Tieshu thought about it, the more sense it made. When his family didn't want to sell the land, why didn't the Lu family pull these tricks? They must have been trying to force his family to compromise!

Compromise is out of the question; it's just a matter of who can outlast whom!

Qian Tieshu thought so, but Qian Daniu thought otherwise. He looked at his parents and thought they were two idiots.

"Even the village chief has been alerted. Do you still think this is a small matter? Not to mention others, even the village chief's family has reserved ten acres of land to sell. If the Lu family wants to live a good life in the village, do you dare to offend the village chief? Hurry up and find out the details. Otherwise, everyone else will be making a fortune while our family can't even afford to celebrate the New Year!"

As he spoke, Qian Daniu kicked the small stool on the ground in annoyance. Why are other people's parents so smart that they can make money in the first place, while his parents have been abandoned by others, yet they still think they are great?

He's become like this because of his parents!