“I think it’s better to buy land first. At least with land, we can grow our own grain. Mother won’t have to work so hard doing small business!” Jiang Yaojie pointed to his chin as he thought.

Jiang Ling smiled wryly after hearing this. Although she had never done farm work, she knew that farming was much harder than running a small business. In ancient times, unlike in modern times, there was not much mechanization, and everything depended on one's own two hands.

However, Jiang Ling respected Jiang Yaojie's opinion and continued to ask, "Yaojie, how many do you think we should buy?"

Jiang Yaojie thought for a while before saying to Jiang Ling, "Ten acres of land? What do you think, Mother?"

Jiang Ling didn't answer him after hearing this, mainly because she herself wasn't quite sure how many acres of land to buy. Thinking of this, Jiang Ling said, "Yaojie, go and rest first! Tomorrow we'll go to the village chief and ask him how much is appropriate to buy!"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yaojie nodded, turned around, and went back into his room.

Jiang Ling glanced around to make sure no one was there, then quietly opened the online store from a corner. The questions from the day before were still on her mind. Although she didn't have the money to buy a storage locker right now, she still felt it was necessary to improve the security of her home.

Looking at the dazzling array of goods, Jiang Ling studied them carefully for a long time before finally buying a high-powered electric shock ring and a remotely controlled alarm.

Jiang Ling plans to install this alarm on the door and turn it on every night. Whenever a stranger pushes the door open from the outside, the alarm will emit a super loud sound, giving the intruder a big fright.

After installing the alarm, Jiang Ling tiptoed into bed.

The next morning, Jiang Ling turned off the alarm and took Jiang Yaojie to the village chief's house.

The village chief looked at Jiang Ling with some surprise. He opened his mouth to ask, "Jiang, is there something you need?"

“Village Chief, I’d like to buy some wasteland. I mentioned it to you a while ago, but I didn’t have any money, so I put it on hold for the time being. Now that the magistrate has given me some silver, I have the money to buy land. But how would a peasant woman like me know how much land is appropriate? So I’ve come to ask the village chief,” Jiang Ling said.

When the village chief heard that Jiang Ling had come to him about buying land, he breathed a sigh of relief and his expression relaxed a bit. The village chief's eyes darted around and he said, "Around twenty mu will usually be fine. There's a piece of wasteland at the foot of the mountain with twenty mu of it. What do you think?"

Jiang Ling carefully recalled the location of the wasteland that the village had mentioned. Although it was a bit far from where she lived now, it was close to a water source. Jiang Ling also vaguely remembered that there seemed to be a vast plain behind the wasteland. It wouldn't be a bad thing to settle down there as her new home.

Jiang Ling nodded and said to the village chief, "Alright, let's buy those twenty acres of wasteland as the village chief asks. How much money do you need, village chief? I'll go back and get the money for you."

"Just as we agreed before, I'll charge you eight copper coins per acre of wasteland. But don't rush, wait until I've drafted the land sale notice, and then we need to get it stamped by Magistrate Duan!" the village chief said.

After listening, Jiang Ling nodded, exchanged pleasantries with the village chief, and then left the village chief's house with Jiang Yaojie.

"Yaojie, one mu of land costs eight copper coins. How much silver do we need for twenty mu of land?" Jiang Ling asked deliberately on the way back.

"Ah, this... Mother, wait a minute! One mu of land costs eight copper coins, two mu of land costs sixteen copper coins..." Jiang Yaojie began to frantically count on his fingers.

Jiang Ling witnessed this scene and shook her head helplessly. It was a question that even an elementary school student could answer, but Jiang Yaojie couldn't figure it out even after calculating for a long time. At this moment, Jiang Ling really wanted to tell Jiang Yaojie that a total of one hundred and sixty copper coins were needed.

But Jiang Ling held back. She guided Jiang Yaojie, saying, "Yaojie, two mu of land is worth sixteen copper coins. What about twenty mu?"

"Twenty mu? Mother, wait a minute, I'm calculating... Oh no... I forgot how much I had calculated before..."

Jiang Ling overheard Jiang Yaojie's mutterings clearly. Seeing Jiang Yaojie scratching his head in frustration, Jiang Ling felt that hiring a tutor was an urgent matter.

Before Jiang Ling and Jiang Yaojie even reached their doorstep, Jiang Ling saw a figure pacing back and forth in front of the house, looking quite anxious.

"Mother..." Jiang Yaojie tugged at Jiang Ling's clothes and whispered a reminder.

"Don't be afraid, it's daytime now, everything's alright!" Jiang Ling comforted Jiang Yaojie, but her own heart began to pound.

Jiang Ling led Jiang Yaojie over cautiously, and when she saw the face of the person standing at her door, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Brother, what brings you here?" The person pacing at the door was Jiang Ling's third brother, Jiang Zhishan.

Upon seeing Jiang Ling, Jiang Zhishan pulled her close and whispered, "Sister, you should quickly take the children and go to safety!"

Jiang Ling frowned and stared at Jiang Zhishan in confusion. Jiang Zhishan continued to explain, "The news that Magistrate Duan gave you fifty taels of silver yesterday has spread throughout our village. Mother insisted on coming over to ask you for the silver."

"You want money?" Jiang Ling was speechless. It seemed that Jiang Ling really needed to find a safe place to put the money, since there were too many people eyeing money these days.

"Why do we need money?" Jiang Ling asked, barely suppressing her anger.

"I...I'm sorry, big sister, this has something to do with me!" Jiang Zhishan said with her head down and an apologetic expression.

"With you?" Jiang Ling tried hard to recall the original owner's and Jiang Zhishan's memories, but couldn't find a single clue.

"There are still six months until the exam. We need money for the journey. As you know, eldest sister, I've spent a lot of money on my studies over the years. Mother has borrowed from all the relatives around us, but we still can't raise enough money for my exam. I was thinking of waiting until next year, but then the news of you being rewarded by Magistrate Duan spread. If it weren't for my second brother stopping me, I think Mother would have come over by now!"

“Big sister, look, ever since you married into this family and divorced Lu Youren, I, as your younger brother, have never stepped forward. Now, this is all I can do to help you. It's because I'm incompetent and can't help you…” As he spoke, Jiang Zhishan’s eyes looked a little red.

Upon hearing Jiang Zhishan's words, Jiang Ling felt a mix of emotions, like a jumbled mess of flavors. Just as she was about to ask Jiang Zhishan how much silver he needed, a sharp, piercing, and somewhat aged voice reached her ears.

"Zhishan, what are you doing here?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhishan trembled. Jiang Ling and Jiang Zhishan looked in the direction of the sound at the same time, and saw Old Madam Jiang appearing in front of them, panting heavily, with Jiang Zhitang following behind her, equally panting.

“Mother! Let’s go… let’s go home! This is Lujia Village…” Jiang Zhitang said while stopping Old Mrs. Jiang.

"Shut up! This is none of your business!" Old Mrs. Jiang shouted in a strong voice.

Jiang Zhitang looked at Jiang Ling with a similar sense of guilt, repeatedly gesturing with his eyes for Jiang Ling to hide quickly.

Jiang Ling, however, did not take it seriously and simply stood there waiting for Old Madam Jiang's "baptism".

"Give me the money!"

As Jiang Ling expected, after seeing Jiang Ling, the old lady Jiang bluntly uttered two words.

"No!"

Jiang Ling rolled her eyes at Old Madam Jiang.