Chapter 9 Poll Tax
"Do you want to go ice fishing?" Lu Qiniang looked at the fish in the bowl, eager to try. "It's the end of the year now, fish are very valuable."
"Forget it, it's not cold enough. If you get sick from the cold again, you won't even have money to buy medicine." Erya said with a pout.
Lu Qiniang: “…”
Too.
Doctor Hu said that she couldn't stand the cold.
"If you ask me, just go to the Xiao family and ask for money." Erya said again.
Lu Qiniang looked at Daya's face and glared at her.
Erya lowered her head and muttered softly.
"Mom, my jade pendant..." Daya said softly.
"No!" Lu Qiniang interrupted her, "That's the only thought your mother left you. You have to keep it."
She raised Daya until she was eight years old, when suddenly someone came and said he was Daya's uncle.
She didn't fight with her for Daya, but just left a jade pendant for Daya, saying it was her mother's relic.
Lu Qinniang was not very knowledgeable and could only say "It's very beautiful" to the jade pendant.
She didn't know whether it was valuable or not, she only knew that it was left by Daya's mother and had to be kept for Daya.
Erya was envious and jealous: "Why didn't my mother come to find me? Maybe I was born rich and was stolen away by someone..."
She had thought countless times that she was a princess or a lady from a noble family who was forced to live among the people.
Lu Qiniang knocked her with chopsticks, "Hey, it's not dark yet, wake up and stop dreaming!"
Erya curled her lips and snorted.
San Ya grunted and worked hard to eat.
The fish is delicious.
Lu Qiniang was afraid that she would get stuck by a fish bone, so she carefully helped her pick it out.
"Mom, where is the silver gourd around your neck?" Daya suddenly asked.
Lu Qinniang paused while picking out the fishbone, then said nonchalantly, "It's that father who changed."
Another arrow hit the knee.
It seems that this family really paid a great price for him.
Daya's marriage was ruined, Erya lost her clothes, Sanya had no meat to eat, Lu Qinniang lost her money, and was even gossiped about...
"Eat, hurry up and eat." Lu Qiniang changed the subject, "After dinner, I'll go out and see if there's anyone who needs odd jobs."
Without capital, you can only put in some effort.
"Mom, don't go. You're not well yet." The three daughters disagreed.
Lu Qiniang said, "It's okay."
Isn't the purpose of life to work?
As long as the sky doesn't fall, we have to do it.
Xiao Yan asked, "Do you have the Four Treasures of the Study?"
He wanted to try and see if he could still write.
Although his body was weak, he could still hold the pen and perhaps give it a try.
If possible, copying books is a profitable business.
He had no time to lament his fate. He seemed to have suddenly integrated into this family that was struggling to make ends meet and began to worry about his livelihood.
"No." Lu Qiniang said unhappily, "I can't even afford to eat, how can I afford such a precious thing?"
Xiao Yan heard this and said, "Forget it then."
He thought of other ways.
Lu Qinniang had no luck in finding odd jobs. She hadn't found anything for three days, and the whole family was in a gloomy mood.
Although we haven’t gone without food yet, the porridge is becoming thinner and thinner.
Xiao Yan felt like his stomach was full of water.
But that’s nothing.
It never rains but it pours.
After dinner that day, the family discussed ways to make money again without success. Lu Qiniang said, "Let's go to bed early to save some lamp oil."
As a result, at this time, the village head came.
"Uncle Wu, what brings you here?" Lu Qiniang smiled and invited him in.
The village head glanced at Xiao Yan who was lying on the kang.
He used to be good-looking, but now he is a sickly person who can only lie on the kang and be taken care of by others.
"I'm not talking about you. Your life is already hard enough, and now you buy a sickly child. Do you think your life is too easy?" The head of the village sighed.
Lu Qinniang smiled and said, "It's okay, it's okay. I'll be fine if I tighten my belt. If you have anything to do, just ask someone to call me over. You don't have to go there in person."
The village head said, "You're still laughing. You don't know, you've been sued."
"Ah?" Lu Qiniang was shocked. "Is it illegal to buy a husband?"
That's not right. She bought her husband from a government official.
Officials can't fight with other officials.
"It's not illegal, but it makes people jealous." The headman said unhappily.
Lu Qiniang: "...What's there to be jealous about? Even if someone is jealous, they should go and buy it! It's not a very expensive thing. Five taels of silver can buy a living person."
The "bastard" pretended to be dead on the kang, not saying a word.
"Weren't you in the Zhou family before? They all said you made a lot of money. Everyone smiled in front of you, but secretly their eyes were red with envy."
"But I got sick and spent all my money, so I was driven back by the Zhou family, as you know." Lu Qiniang said, "Besides, even if I had money, do they think they can rob me just because they're jealous? Tell me, who is so despicable, gossiping about the widow behind my back, and aren't they afraid that my brother He Yao will take them away!"
Brother Heyao?
Xiao Yan couldn't help but wonder, is this her late husband?
It sounds a bit like the name of a scholar.
"Don't ask that. Anyway, they're suing you now, saying you have an extra person in your family and didn't pay the head tax."
Lu Qiniang: “…”
How could she have forgotten this?
As long as you were alive you had to pay a head tax, 500 coins per person per year, and as long as you could breathe you had to pay it.
Those who could not pay had to sell their houses and land. If they had nothing to sell, they had to sell themselves into slavery.
After selling oneself into slavery, one's property is handed over to the master.
"Uncle Wu, the Chinese New Year is just a few days away. Can we wait until next year? Please be flexible." Lu Qinniang negotiated in a gentle voice.
"If I had the final say, what else would I say? The problem now is that they've already sued you and are watching you closely! How can you ask me to be flexible?" The village head said, "Hurry up. Five hundred coins isn't a lot. Just give it to me."
"I really don't have any." Lu Qiniang smiled bitterly. "Even if I searched every rat hole right now, I wouldn't find 500 seeds."
"You don't have any money, and you're still trying to buy someone!" The village head glared at her. "You're being targeted. If you don't pay this money, you might even lose your house."
"Please give me two days and I will find a solution." Lu Qiniang said.
"Okay." The village head said with an unhappy look on his face, "Just listen to me and sell the person quickly."
“It can’t be sold.”
Who would buy someone like Xiao Yan?
Whose family needs ancestors to serve them?
"Then why did you buy it?" the head of the village glared at her.
"Everyone has their own difficulties." Lu Qinniang smiled bitterly.
"You'll have to find a way to get the money together," the village head sighed again. "I have some good news. I'm going to tell you this first, but don't tell anyone else."
"You say what you want! I'm keeping my mouth shut, don't worry, don't worry!"
Lu Qiniang felt that she had been possessed by bad luck for the past year and urgently needed good news to cheer her up.
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