"Miss Yan, these two deeds need to be taken to the prefectural capital for filing. I've completed the formalities here. You can come back after the new year to get the deeds. This land already belongs to you. From now on, you can do whatever you want with it."
The Chief Clerk breathed a sigh of relief, Chun Xiao breathed a sigh of relief as well, and Chief Chen, who was standing beside him, breathed an even greater sigh of relief.
"Master, I wonder when we will go to erect the boundary marker."
"If you're in a hurry, you can go tomorrow."
"Then let's go tomorrow. I can go with you and take a look at the arrangements."
"Well, then come over tomorrow at noon and go with our yamen runners. We'll take you along."
"Thank you, Master Chief Registrar." Chun Xiao turned and bowed to Chen Tingzhang again. "Thank you for today, Master Chen Tingzhang. I hope you will take good care of me in the future."
"No problem, no problem." Chen Tingzhang's face was now as happy as a flower. "If you want to find me, just come to me."
"Then we'll go back first." The two of them politely walked out of the county government gate, but as soon as they came out, they saw the anxious Xingfu.
"Miss!" Xingfu saw them running over, almost crying. "Why did you just come out? I waited for a long time but didn't see you. I thought something happened to you. I asked the yamen runners at the door, but they ignored me. If I asked too many questions, they would beat me. I was scared all night, and finally I see you. Are you okay?"
"I'm sorry, we were delayed for too long yesterday while looking at land in the town below. The Chief Clerk arranged for us to stay overnight in the town and return today. We're fine, the land has already been bought."
"So fast?" Xingfu wiped his eyes. "So fast?"
"I think it's too fast." Shuwen frowned. "Aunt, my father and second uncle gave us a total of 1,600 taels. Now 1,485 taels are gone. Now there are only 115 taels left. I'm afraid this money is not enough to build a manor?" Shuwen wanted to show his skills, but the money seemed to be insufficient.
"What are you afraid of? If it's not enough, I still have my aunt. I'm not afraid that your father won't pay me back the money he borrowed from me. We already know the terrain of your place. Today we will work out how to build it. Tomorrow we will meet with Chief Chen and ask him to find craftsmen and outsource the materials. The township government won't cut corners. Let's go back to the inn and talk about it."
The three of them went to the bookstore and bought a set of commonly used study utensils. When they returned to the inn, they closed the door and began to make a construction plan for the farm for Shuwen.
Chunxiao meant to build it according to the structure of the Lucun village, but with a few more rooms. It didn't need to be as beautiful as theirs, as that would require a lot of wood. Just a simple brick and tile structure would be enough. It would be best to have a small courtyard with a large warehouse in the main yard, and then a large courtyard on the side, with more than ten or twenty rooms for the workers to live in.
"Aunt, are the vegetable garden and cattle pen built behind the courtyard?" Shuwen looked at the blueprint drawn by Chunxiao and pointed to the back of the house.
"Well, build it at the back. The cattle pen needs to be bigger, so it can hold 10 cows or more."
"Do we need to fence off all 200 acres? Building a fence will cost a lot of money. We need to hire cattle, people, and tools for the farm. Aunt, this can't be done without several hundred taels of silver."
"We still have to buy what we need. It's all initial investment, so let's take it easy. We have to build the house first and hire the people first, otherwise we won't have a place to live after we buy it. When we hire people, we can agree to bring our own tools. You forgot one thing, remember to dig a few more deep wells."
Shuwen lowered his head and said, "Aunt, one well costs 20 taels, and we need to dig a few more. The money we have is being spent like water."
"I've already told you not to skimp on what you need. I can still lend you a few hundred taels of silver. Just think about it, with my place like that, how much should I spend?"
"Aunt, do you have enough money? According to my calculations, your place will cost more than a thousand taels."
"There's nothing I can do. As the saying goes, you can't save what you should spend."
Several people discussed and revised together until dark. Chunxiao didn't sleep well yesterday, so he was particularly sleepy today. He went to bed early after dinner. He slept soundly and it was already dawn when he woke up.
"What time is it?" She lifted the quilt and put on her coat, and Xingfu came over to comb her hair.
"It's still early, not even the hour of Mao yet." She knew she had to go to town today and check out of the inn, so she had already packed her luggage.
"I forgot to ask you yesterday what the name of the town you lived in was. It's not such a coincidence that it happened to be Luojia Town, right?"
Xingfu shook her head and said, "No, it's not Luojia Town. It's probably too far away from Luojia Town. My place is called Wuying Town." She had never heard of Luojia Town before.
"Wuying Town?" Chun Xiao muttered to herself, taking note. "Then is there anyone else from your mother's family?"
Xingfu paused while combing her hair. "They also bought me to Zhangjia Village. We haven't had any contact since I got married."
Yes, if the girls’ families were not so weak, how could the boys’ families dare to sell them so easily? It seems that the first half of their happy lives must have been very miserable.
A few people hired a car from the inn and went to the county government, and followed the yamen runners to Luojia Town.
The yamen runners were originally going to mark the boundary, and their destination was the same as hers, but it was already the early afternoon when they arrived there. More than a dozen people split up, registered on one side, and then got on a carriage to go to another place. Chunxiao was drawing a map on the side. Above their feet was a tall mountain rising from the ground, like a barrier.
The yamen runners worked together for more than an hour to get all the boundary markers in place. It was getting dark soon, so the runners rushed to the township government. Chunxiao and the others had originally planned to stay at the inn in the town, but Chief Chen insisted that she stay at the township government. It happened that she also had something to discuss and help with, so she took the opportunity to stay.
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