Chapter 26: Four Coins per Pound
Xu Zhichun smiled and said, "We have already discussed it. Please let the village head speak."
"well!"
Xu Zhichun smiled and talked about buying land again.
Liang Lizheng was taken aback. He couldn't help but look at her and said, "Have you made up your mind? If so, then buy it. The price of wasteland is two taels of silver per mu. You must reclaim it within a year after buying it. Otherwise, it will be taken back. Starting next year, you will have to pay taxes, twenty wen per mu or ten catties of dried soybeans."
"Just soybeans, nothing else?"
"This is the government's rule. You only need to do soybeans or pay."
Xu Zhichun smiled and said, "Then I'll buy it. Please help me measure it."
Liang Lizheng was very happy: "Okay, aren't you going to dig konjac this afternoon? I'll go measure it and take a look at it. It's behind your house. I'll go in the evening and I can go into the city to get the title deed for you tomorrow."
Xu Zhichun hoped it would be as quick as possible: "Thank you, Mr. Lizheng."
Liang Lizheng waved his hand: "Why are you being so polite!"
Aunt Liang couldn't help but pull her youngest son and daughter-in-law aside and quietly asked, "How much did you earn today?"
After hearing them whisper a number, Aunt Liang murmured "ouch" and covered her chest. She couldn't take it anymore. Her heartbeat accelerated again, beating violently like a drum.
She smiled widely and said, "You guys go and get busy, you guys go and get busy, you don't have to worry about anything at home, okay."
Liang Mingliang grinned: "Okay, Mom!"
Zeng Xiaoyan was a little puzzled: I don’t quite understand what you mean, mother. When have we ever worried about family matters?
Liang Lizheng was banging the gong, and soon the villagers gathered under the big locust tree as if they were familiar with the place.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know. I haven't heard anything happened."
"Hey, why don't you go under the big locust tree and find out? The village head wouldn't just beat the gong for fun."
"That's true."
Seeing that most people had arrived, Liang Lizheng stood on a high place, raised the gong and knocked it three times with "Ding! Ding! Ding!" The villagers who were chattering below consciously stopped talking slowly, and each of them raised their heads slightly and looked at Liang Lizheng in unison.
Liang Lizheng smiled and said, "Everyone is quiet now. Now that everything is quiet, I can talk about business. It's good news. Minglang's wife Xu, Qitian's wife, and our third wife are doing some small business to earn some hard-earned money. They came to me today and said they were too busy. Everyone knows about the lantern fruit on the mountain, right? They need the seeds inside the lantern fruit. If you have time, you can go up the mountain and pick them and sell them to them. They only want the seeds inside. When selling, make sure they are clean and don't mix in weeds or dirt. They collect them every evening and sell them for four cents per pound."
ah?
The villagers burst into chatter.
"Lantern fruit? Is that the lantern fruit I know? Isn't that something children play with? Can it really be sold for money?"
"The head of the village said it's definitely possible. Four cents a pound, that's a lot."
"Li Zheng, Li Zheng, is it really four cents a pound? I picked them."
"Haha, I know a place no one else knows about. There's a huge field of jackfruits. I'm going to pick some later!"
"Shh—keep your voice down, kid."
When I heard that lantern fruit could be sold for money, I realized that it was four cents per pound. Four cents, an egg only sold for one cent, but a pound of wild things in the mountains could be sold for four cents.
If you're diligent and lucky, you can pick three or four pounds a day. That's a lot of money, like raising a lot of laying hens.
Everyone became more and more excited as they talked.
Liang Lizheng said loudly: "Of course it's true. We will take as much as we can. If we don't take it, we will definitely tell everyone a day in advance. Don't worry."
"Okay, okay, with the headmaster's words, why should we worry?"
“Yes, yes!”
The impatient and clever villagers were no longer excited. They quietly left the crowd and went home to get baskets, baskets, and small sacks, taking their naughty but good climbing children with them, and took action.
If you are lucky, you can earn ten or even more than ten cents in half a day.
Some people are like reincarnated gossip spirits, asking questions without hesitation, regardless of whether it is appropriate or not.
"Village head, what do the Xu family do with these kiwifruit? Do they cook them with the taro?"
"Yeah, how can we eat this? Should we stir-fry it or cook it into porridge? Tell us."
"That's right. We don't know how to do it either. We just want to figure out what's going on. We don't want to make something poisonous and harm others. What will we do if we are implicated?"
"Don't mention it, I'm really nervous now."
"Oh, I was saying it, how can money be so easy to make? Anyway, I won't make this money. Don't get into trouble and get implicated. It's not worth it."
Liang Lizheng is very experienced in dealing with those old-fashioned and double-faced people in the village who have unique and different ideas.
Liang Lizheng didn't respond to any of the nonsense, saying only, "It's everyone's own free will. If you're happy to do it, do it. If you're not happy, don't do it. That's all. Let's go."
Liang Lizheng was always like this. Those who didn't get any information were disappointed but helpless.
No matter what they say or what they think, there are many people picking lantern fruit, so they are not in any trouble.
Xu Zhichun and Aunt Zhu'er had originally planned to pick kiwifruits in the afternoon. However, countless villagers suddenly appeared in the mountains to pick kiwifruits. They thought together and decided to go dig konjac and let the villagers pick the kiwifruits.
They can afford four cents per pound.
With four of us digging the konjac, it was much easier and more efficient. We decided to dig up the portion we'd be using the day after tomorrow.
Liang Lizheng came over in the afternoon to measure the land. Xu Zhichun now had a total of fifty-three taels of silver and more than two hundred coins in her hand. The wasteland was two taels of silver per mu, so she decided to spend all the fifty-three taels of silver.
The head of the village measured the area and made a detailed description of the boundaries, recording it as twelve acres, but in fact there were about fifteen acres, which meant she was given three acres more.
Wasteland is not valuable, so usually more is given after measurement.
Later in the afternoon, we measured the slope behind the yard, which was actually about 15 mu, but Liang Lizheng recorded it as 14 mu.
A total of fifty-two taels of silver were spent, and the expenses for processing the land deeds and paying bribes to the yamen clerks totaled about four cents. When you calculate it this way, the fifty-three taels of silver were almost spent, leaving less than one tael.
But Xu Zhichun was very happy, as he actually got 30 acres of land, which was a good deal.
What does it matter if I don't have cash today? I'll have it tomorrow.
That evening, villagers who had picked the lantern fruit came one after another to sell them.
Zeng Xiaoyan, Aunt Zhu'er, and Liang Mingliang stayed to help with checking, weighing, and paying. It was a bit messy at first, but soon everything became organized.
Everyone is very eager to make money. In one afternoon, if three or four people from the family go out, they can pick four or five kilograms and earn twenty cents at once.
The least you can get is half a pound, and you can get two cents.
After receiving the heavy and slightly cool copper coins, the villagers finally felt that they had really made money and their faces were full of smiles.
The child was so happy that he jumped three feet high: "I made money! Haha! I really made money!", "Me too, me too, I made money too, my mom said I can have eggs for dinner.", "Then I want to have eggs for dinner too!"
Those who didn't make any money but still came to watch the fun couldn't help feeling a little jealous and curled their lips to show their disdain.
Aunt Hua, the famous gossiper in the village, turned her mouth up like a catfish and shouted loudly: "What do you want so many lantern fruits for? Why are you keeping it a secret and not telling us anything? Don't you really want to hurt me?"
(End of this chapter)
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