"What reward? Didn't you hear? It's wages, paid in advance! Not only that, but they only take 10% of the 10 mu of land! That's even lower than the tax, so you'll get 70% in your pocket. My God, it's really worth being a lackey."
"Speak more politely. What 'lackey'? He's Manager Li now. I'm so envious. If I had known, I wouldn't have rushed home for dinner after delivering the grain. If I had been waiting there, I would have exposed Sun's scheme too."
"It seems Li Changtao is about to make a fortune. Not only does he only take 10% of the profits from 10 mu of land, but he also gets 3 taels of silver every year. No matter how extravagant he is in spending money, he can save up 4 or 5 taels a year. In 10 years, that's 40 or 50 taels. Oh my, you don't know until you calculate it, it's terrifying."
"When you calculate it this way, it's not like renting land at all; it's practically like farming your own land. It's like Landlord Yan gave him ten acres of land! Good heavens, he only takes 10% a year. If the harvest is good, it's negligible..."
“Sun Duomiao has suffered a huge loss. He offended Landlord Yan, and he probably won’t be able to rent land with such a low commission next year.”
The villagers lowered their heads slightly, their gazes fixed on Sun Duomiao's family sitting on the ground.
They were full of schadenfreude.
Where was the sympathy she had shown just moments before?
"No, this is too much, Landlord Yan. Take the money back. How can you accept wages for doing no work?"
Li Changtao stared at Yan Xia in disbelief. His muscles stiffened, his body tensed, and his heart pounded. Although he did want to rent 10 acres of land and become the manager, since he would receive three taels of silver a year, he couldn't get the money before he had even started working.
Yan Xia had her hand raised for quite some time, but he didn't take it.
"Alright, take it. I don't like people who dawdle. Now that you're my manager, stand tall from now on. If anyone dares to say anything to you, just yell back! Of course, those who haven't rented my land, don't yell at them, or they might beat you up, haha. Alright, put it away. You'll sign and put your fingerprint on it with me later, and that'll be the end of it."
Yan Xia's arms were a little sore, and she placed the silver coins heavily in Li Changtao's palm.
They also didn't forget to give a couple of words of advice.
She promoted him not to repay the kindness of speaking the truth, but because this incident made her realize that she had indeed been too optimistic about people's character. Without rules, there can be no order, and she needed to find a loyal and honest manager to keep an eye on them to prevent any future trouble.
Li Changtao is the right candidate.
Since things had come to this point, Li Changtao had no choice but to accept the money.
He tucked the three taels of silver into the inner pocket of his chest, pressing it carefully. Judging from his frightened appearance, anyone who didn't know better would think the silver could grow legs and fly away. Li Changtao's face was calm, but his dazed mouth and disordered breathing still betrayed his joyful mood.
Sun Duomiao, sprawled on the ground, was grinding her teeth to dust. She lowered her head slightly, but her eyes slanted upwards. If you looked closely, you could see that her gaze was fixed on Yan Xia. Her brown pupils were cloudy and fierce, but unfortunately, no one paid any attention to her.
"Mom~ I'm home~"
While everyone was still discussing Yan Xia's generous gesture,
Jin Lu led several officials and walked quickly toward them.
Sun Duomiao turned pale with fright.
She was so focused on teaching Li Changtao a lesson that she forgot to have her sons stop the brat.
what to do....
Sun Duomiao tried to escape in the chaos.
But she had only stood up and taken two steps when Yan Xia grabbed her.
"Officer Zuo—this old woman rented my land, agreeing to pay 30% of the harvest as grain. But seeing that it was my first time harvesting and I wasn't very familiar with the process, she tried to cheat me, stealing 200 catties of rice from each mu of land. Please, do justice for me!"
Yan Xia's voice was extremely loud.
The head officer was Zuo Li.
Because they frequently bought pastries from her shop, the two became acquainted.
He walked up to Yan Xia, looked at the old woman she was holding, her cheekbones were high and protruding, her eyes were sinister, and her face was thin and fleshless.
He's a ruthless person.
"Oh? Manager Yan said that this is indeed true?"
Zuo Li looked fierce, and he hadn't shaved for quite some time, making the scars on his face look particularly frightening.
These words were spoken to Sun Duomiao.
"No, that's not true, Your Honor! How could we dare? My family only produced about 400 catties of grain. They must have misremembered, so they took less when they handed over the grain. We'll make up the difference. This landlord Yan clearly has plenty of money, so why is he trying to harm us like this? We've suffered enough. Our whole family fled here and finally managed to settle down, but before we could even have a good life, we've been falsely accused of not producing 500 catties per mu. We really didn't!"
Sun Duomiao secretly rejoiced. Fortunately, the cellar she had just dug under her bed wasn't big enough to hold more than five bags of rice. As a result, the rest of the grain was stored in the storeroom. If she could just complain, beg for forgiveness, and act pitiful to make up for the missing grain, the matter would be over.
And her family will also get 500 jin of rice for free this year.
"Alright, search the house."
He's ruthless and doesn't talk much.
Zuo Li glanced at him only once before ordering his men to escort the entire family toward Sun Duomiao's house.
Zhang Lizheng had to go along too, since he was the one in charge of the village.
If a thief were to appear in the village, he would not fare well either, and would lose face in front of others.
He followed behind the crowd with a solemn expression. Because of his bad legs, he walked with a limp. Li Changtao couldn't bear it, so he continued to carry the village head on his back, just like when he came over, and carried the village head to Sun Duomiao's house.
“Sir, the remaining rice is in the storeroom. We forgot to take it when we delivered the grain. This is not stealing, we didn’t steal it. Son, go and bring the grain out.”
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
