Recruiting a son-in-law
The barren mountain in the manor is connected to the mountain range behind it. Fu Zhiqiao has already asked Wen Jiang to inquire about the price. She plans to buy the mountain next door as well, and then have the villagers cultivate it and plant various fruit trees such as peaches, pears, and plums to turn it into an orchard.
All the crops planted in the spring were flooded, and the villagers, who were already idle with no farm work to do, were naturally willing to take on this paid job.
And so, the quiet village became busy again.
After arranging everything, Fu Zhiqiao returned to the city. She needed to sort out the accounts of Taibai Wine Shop during this period.
I spent a lot of money buying grain before, and then made some money back by selling alcohol. There were also some other miscellaneous income and expenses that I need to sort out carefully.
The account books of the wine shop, winery, and Fuyun Pavilion were all in Yu Roulan's hands. Fu Zhiqiao locked herself in her study and spent a whole day sorting out all the account books.
Due to the floods, grain prices in Qingzhou fluctuated greatly. Fortunately, she had stockpiled a batch of grain before the price rose, which protected her costs. After donating a lot of grain for free, she finally calculated that the winery still made a small profit.
Fu Zhi Qiao was completely relieved.
However, she was not calm when she went to pay her taxes at the end of the month.
This year's taxes are double those of last year!
Fu Zhi Qiao learned that the reason why the taxes were heavier this year was because she had reached the age of fifteen. In the Great Wei Dynasty, people were considered adults at the age of fifteen, and adults naturally had to bear heavier taxes.
In other words, she now has to pay not only household registration tax but also personal income tax.
The household tax was alright; each household only needed to pay a few hundred coins per year.
But the high personal taxes were really too much for her to bear. Ordinary commoner girls were betrothed at the age of thirteen or fourteen, and would get married the following year when they reached the age of marriage. Noble ladies could stay at home for two more years because they did not have the pressure of taxes.
According to the laws of the Great Wei Dynasty, if a woman is over fifteen years old and still unmarried, her taxes will be doubled the following year. If she is still unmarried at the age of twenty-five, her taxes can be five times higher. The purpose of the court is to encourage people to marry and have children as soon as possible, so as to produce more offspring and strengthen the country's army.
The maximum tax is five times the normal amount, which means that half of her total income will have to be paid in taxes. This is without even taking into account the land rent tax. If we add the land rent tax under her name... tsk tsk tsk, this is just too uneconomical!
Is there any way to avoid high taxes?
Yes, it was possible. Having someone in your family who held an official position was enough. The emperor granted high-ranking officials and nobles the privilege of being exempt from taxes.
There was no other way to avoid taxes, as commercial and industrial taxes were an important source of revenue for the imperial court, and those who paid less or no taxes would be punished.
Once tax evasion is discovered, the imperial court will impose fines several times the amount or punish the tax evaders with fifty strokes of the cane, depending on the severity of the offense. In serious cases, all business income will be confiscated, and the tax evaders will be sent to the border to perform hard labor for a year.
Fu Zhi Qiao had nothing to say. The only way to reduce her taxes was for her to get married as soon as possible.
Only marriage can bring her personal tax burden back to normal levels; otherwise, she will continue to be taxed at double or triple the normal rate.
Currently, Taibai Wine Shop, Taibai Tower, and Fuyun Pavilion are all doing very well. Based on her current income, over time, the doubled taxes will reach a terrifying amount.
She's only been fifteen for a short time and she's already being fined double. Won't it be even higher next year and the year after? She'll be sixteen by this time next year, will the tax be tripled then?
Fu Zhi Qiao couldn't help but shake her head; her wish not to get married was completely shattered.
Time waits for no one, and she must start looking for a husband now, otherwise, she will face triple taxes next year.
After paying the taxes and returning home, Fu Zhiqiao was listless.
Yu Roulan rarely saw her daughter like this, and was startled. Could something have happened? She quickly asked with concern, "A-Qiao, have you encountered any difficulties?"
Fu Zhiqiao didn't say anything, but showed her the tax bill.
Yu Roulan immediately understood and cautiously probed, "Should we start making preparations?"
What preparations should be made?
Of course, we started preparing to help her find a suitable partner.
Yu Roulan put it very tactfully, and Fu Zhiqiao remained silent for a while before nodding.
Her physical age is still fifteen or sixteen. To expect a half-grown child to marry and have children is simply insane.
However, Fu Zhi Qiao did not really intend to get married. In her view, marriage was only a matter of necessity and a temporary measure.
Yu Roulan took it seriously, and the next morning she went to a matchmaker to find a suitable candidate.
Fu Zhi Qiao is a celebrity in Qingzhou. When Yu Rou Lan heard that she intended to find a good husband for Fu Zhi Qiao, matchmakers from all over came to her door. In this way, Yu Rou Lan obtained the list of eligible young men from the matchmakers.
“The young master of the Wang family is good-looking and comes from a wealthy family, but he has two brothers and two unmarried sisters. There will be no shortage of trivial matters in such a family, so let’s just forget about it.”
After flipping through two pages, I saw another one that seemed good: "The eldest son of the Huang family in the north of the city is also quite good. He passed the imperial examination and became a scholar before he even reached adulthood. Hmm? He has three concubines in his family. No, no, this young master Huang is quite talented, but he is also a womanizer. If you marry him, you might suffer."
Yu Roulan carefully compared the conditions of the young masters from various families, but after a long time she still couldn't find a suitable one. She then invited Fu Zhiqiao to come and choose together.
Fu Zhi Qiao was both amused and exasperated. "The matchmaker is really honest; she even wrote down these shortcomings."
"I have to be honest. They took a lot of my referral fees. Besides, my precious daughter isn't someone anyone can marry."
Yu Roulan flipped through the picture album, not letting any flaws slip by. Fu Zhi Qiao was the apple of her eye, and she dared not be careless in matters of marriage.
Fu Zhi Qiao's eyes darted around as she interrupted Yu Rou Lan, "Mother, can't I decide my own marriage?"
"You haven't given up on the prince yet?" Yu Roulan's expression turned strange. "A Qiao, it's not that I want to break you up, but his family is really not one we can afford to mess with."
"Mom, where did you get to?" Fu Zhiqiao blushed. She had been too lucky before, thinking that Yu Roulan wouldn't find out about their relationship. But the fact that Xie Zhuo frequently climbed over the wall to see her couldn't be hidden from Yu Roulan's eyes at all.
"Don't worry, I have nothing to do with him anymore."
Yu Roulan was somewhat incredulous at her words, but her tense shoulders slowly relaxed. "So, do you have someone else in mind?"
Fu Zhi Qiao: "..."
Why do you say she's like a womanizer?
"Of course I want to take my own destiny into my own hands," Fu Zhi Qiao thought to herself. "Mother, I will make the decision about the marriage. Just wait for a good son-in-law to come to our door!"
"You want to find a son-in-law to live with you?" Yu Roulan's voice suddenly rose.
"What's wrong with having a son-in-law live with his wife's family? Didn't Father also consider having a son-in-law live with his wife's family?"
"But...but..." Yu Roulan didn't know how to react for a moment.
Fu Zhi Qiao grasped her hand, "No buts, Mother. With my wealth, do you think I'm afraid of not finding a suitable husband? I will definitely keep my eyes wide open and find you a good son-in-law!"
Yu Roulan stared at Fu Zhiqiao for a while, remaining silent. She knew her daughter had a strong sense of self, but she didn't want to make her own decision about having a son-in-law live with her.
*
Late at night, Fu Zhiqiao lay in bed, unable to fall asleep at all.
If Xie Zhuo finds out that she is going to marry someone else, he will definitely try his best to stop her. So she has to finalize the marriage while he is away. But she can't just conjure up a man out of thin air, so she has to think of other ways.
The quickest way to find a husband is through blind dates.
She had already looked through the list of names the matchmaker had given her; they were all from wealthy or scholarly families. Why would such people be willing to become live-in sons-in-law?
Fu Zhiqiao turned her gaze to the students from impoverished families.
For students from impoverished families, she is truly an excellent choice.
First, she is wealthy and can provide the financial and material resources needed for his studies, allowing him to focus on his studies without any worries. Second, she doesn't mind him spending her money, so he can concentrate on his studies at home while she focuses on earning money outside, without interfering with each other's lives.
She worked so hard to build her career to what it is today, it's impossible for her to just return to the home and become a housekeeper and mistress just because she got married.
Therefore, her target son-in-law was a well-read, cultured, and impoverished scholar.
If she's lucky, and the other person passes the exam and gets a minor official position, then she won't have to pay any taxes for the rest of her life.
Fu Zhiqiao became more and more excited as she thought about it. Sure enough, it was right to use the mindset of finding a business partner when looking for a husband!
The frequent visits of matchmakers to the Fu family's home caught everyone's attention. Some busybodies secretly approached Wang, the matchmaker, to ask what was going on. Wang frankly told them that she was looking for a husband for Mr. Fu.
Within half a day, the news of Fu Zhiqiao's search for a husband spread like wildfire throughout the city.
That's Boss Fu! Young, beautiful, intelligent, rich... In short, Boss Fu's advantages are too numerous to list, and there are quite a few people in the city who are interested in her.
Soon, Fu Zhiqiao's plan to find a son-in-law to live with her family became the hottest topic of conversation in Qingzhou City. Many men of average means but who considered themselves talented and good-looking came to the Fu family to show their favor, and some even asked matchmakers to come and propose marriage. The threshold of the Fu family was almost worn down by matchmakers.
In just one day, the list of names delivered to her for selection was already piling up like a small mountain.
After looking through a few lists, Fu Zhiqiao lost patience. These people were either uneducated or only after the Fu family's wealth. After flipping through two lists, she found no one who caught her eye.
Casting a wide net is like looking for a needle in a haystack; it seems we should narrow down our search.
When Matchmaker Wang came to visit again, Fu Zhi Qiao tossed her a purse, saying, "As long as you do your best, you'll be well rewarded."
"Alright!" Wang the matchmaker casually weighed the item in her hand, her eyes crinkling with laughter. She had already received a large red envelope before even completing the task. If she had facilitated Boss Fu's marriage, her reputation as a skilled matchmaker would have resounded throughout the entire Qingzhou City!
Matchmaker Wang cherished this opportunity.
Although Boss Fu offered a generous reward, finding the right person wasn't easy.
Being poor is not a problem, but one must be talented, of good character, and handsome. One cannot be too short, nor gamble or be a womanizer... Boss Fu has quite a few requirements. Matchmaker Wang scratched her head, it seems she will have to use her secret connections.
Fu Zhi Qiao didn't have any special requirements regarding her future husband's appearance, but he absolutely couldn't be an ugly man. So she added a condition to her criteria for finding a husband: she would give priority to finding someone with a handsome appearance.
After all, her last crush was Xie Zhuo.
Having experienced the extraordinary beauty of Xie Zhuo, ordinary people cannot catch her eye.
Although this marriage selection is a task, she doesn't expect her future husband to be as good-looking as Xie Zhuo, but he can't be too ugly either.
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