Chapter 360: The Softest Person

Zhulan explained, "You will get married in the future, and I hope that the girls around you all have families. At least Dashu will get married with you, and her family will still be in my hands and dare not betray you. Or I will not leave the Wan family, but give the whole Wan family to you, and you can keep it yourself."

She was really worried about the three newly bought girls, especially Li Qiu who voluntarily sold herself at the age of ten. She really threatened her family. Li Qiu was the most likely to betray. Zhulan thought, no wonder the big families in ancient TV dramas all liked to have children at home!

Xue Han was taught, "Mom, why didn't you buy all the servants in the family, and bought a few for Li Qiu?"

Zhulan smiled, "Let's not talk about how many servants from a family can be bought. The house can't be full of servants from the same family. Mother is also on guard against them, lest they marry each other and join forces to fool us in the future. They buy some servants and maids. These servants and maids can only rely on their masters and will be the most obedient. There are two kinds of voices in the house. You must remember that everything must be balanced. If you want balance, you need checks and balances. There is a lot of learning here. Mother will slowly teach you in the future."

Li stood aside and listened for a long time, her mind was confused. What checks and balances, what marriage and alliance, she was confused. Forget it, she didn't want to think about it anymore, she just listened to her mother.

Li said, "Mother, I am going back to the courtyard with the silk flowers. I want to go to the market with the head of the household. We lined up to get food yesterday, so I want to see if there are any people in the market today."

Zhulan, "Go ahead."

When Zhulan was left alone, she divided the family's money, leaving 5,600 taels for household expenses as a family asset, and kept the remaining 7,000 taels.

I asked Zhou Shuren yesterday, the wasteland is not included in the 200 acres, so she decided to buy only 20 acres for family use, and the rest will be mountain land. The boss doesn't need to go today, just hand it over to housekeeper Ding.

Butler Ding has more experience than Boss Zhou. It took him less than two hours to buy all the mountains and fields. He was delayed on the way out of the city to look at the mountains, otherwise he would have returned faster. He bought 180 mu of mountains, which was considered a free gift, for a total of 216 mu, 15 mu of dry fields and 5 mu of paddy fields. There are few paddy fields in Lizhou City and they are expensive, one mu costs 13 taels of silver. Dry fields are cheaper than those in the northeast, one mu of good land costs 4 taels of silver.

The purchase of the land, including taxes and the cost of exchanging the deeds, cost almost four hundred taels of silver.

The eldest brother and his wife came back around noon. Zhulan frowned, "Why did you come back so late? Steward Ding has been back for almost half an hour after buying the land."

If there weren't so many people following her, she would have thought something had happened.

Zhou Laodao said, "Mother, there are people selling wild vegetables and fish in the market today. I think there are too few. A few kids selling wild vegetables said they had more at home. We felt sorry for them and said we would take them all. But it would take time for the kids to walk back. Li and I couldn't bear it, so we took them back when we had a carriage."

Li continued, "When we got to the village, many people came to ask if we wanted more wild vegetables after knowing that we were here to buy them. I remembered that we bought wild vegetables every year to dry in the winter, so we stayed to collect them, which delayed us for quite a while."

Zhulan looked at the eldest and Li. They were the most compassionate couple in the Zhou family. "How much did you buy?"

Li grinned. She knew her mother-in-law wouldn't be angry. "Mom, I bought two carts. I also told you that I'll have someone pick the wild vegetables."

Zhou Laoda added: "Mom, I bought it at two cents a pound, and I bought more than 300 pounds."

Zhulan, "......."

This means we have bought all the wild vegetables from several nearby villages!

Zhulan waved her hand, "Don't pile them up after you buy them. Dry them quickly before they get rotten."

Li left quickly, "Mom, I'm going to go get some sun now."

At noon, there were more wild vegetables and fish on the Zhou family’s table. The fish were quite big, and the people risked their lives to catch them in the river in order to exchange them for silver.

In the afternoon, Zhulan changed her clothes and took a horse carriage to see the mountain land she had bought. The mountain land was close to Lizhou City. The wild vegetables on the mountain had been dug up long ago, but there were still some vegetation. The mountain land of more than 200 acres was really not small.

Boss Zhou looked at the mountains in front of him and asked, "Mom, are these two mountains ours?"

Zhulan, "Yes."

Boss Zhou was worried again, "Mom, there are too many hills here? Are we going to grow sweet potatoes and potatoes?"

In Boss Zhou's impression, only sweet potatoes and potatoes are grown in the mountains.

Zhulan could imagine what the orchard would look like, and smiled as she said, "I plan to plant apple trees on the mountain near the top of the mountain, and plant some watermelons on the lower part of the mountain. After the watermelons are harvested, I will plant winter wheat."

Boss Zhou took a deep breath. With such a large piece of mountain land, many fruit trees could be planted. "Mom, we should buy a lot of fruit trees!"

Zhulan saw that there was something in the center of the earth, and said with a smile: "Of course, after the fruit trees are planted, the mountain land will be handed over to you. Lichun will follow you, don't let me down!"

The only thing Boss Zhou could show off was farming, but he had never won an apple tree or a watermelon. He felt a little uneasy for a moment. It was also the first time he had managed such a big household matter, and he had no idea what he was doing.

Zhulan saw that Boss Zhou was not confident and that he still needed to be trained hard. "I'm not asking you to do it yourself. Can't you just pay someone to do it?"

When Zhou Laoda heard about this, he realized that since he became the eldest of the Zhou family, he had become more and more adept at spending money. He was really good at spending money. "Mom, I will definitely take good care of the mountain land."

Now that they have land, Zhulan's family needs to hire a lot of people. The family has brought a lot of food, and Zhulan is also prepared to pay them half food and half silver, which can also help Zhou Shuren relieve some of the burden.

In the following days, not only Zhou Shuren was busy, but Zhulan was also busy. She calculated how many fruit trees to buy, how many people to hire, and how to dig an ice cellar at home. Butler Ding and Boss Zhou were sent to Chuanzhou to select fruit trees and hire fruit farmers.

By the time the batches of fruit trees were shipped back from Zhulan, it had already been ten days since the Zhou family arrived in Lizhou City.

Zhou Shuren had already started the work of building roads and digging ponds. People were working everywhere outside the entire Lizhou city, and the city of Lizhou had become initially stable.

After Zhulan's family dug the ice cellar and hired nearby people to plant fruit trees and fields, Zhulan was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. At night, she said to Zhou Shuren, "You said we have been in Lizhou City for almost a month, why didn't any official wife invite me?"

(End of this chapter)