Chapter 42 "From this day forward, your name..."
"From now on, your name will be Er Ya." Zhu Mingyue was quite satisfied with the bird name she had given it and immediately shouted, "Er Ya!"
"quack!"
Zhu Mingyue: "Er Ya!"
"quack!"
Zhu Mingyue: "Er Ya!"
The large bird, with its two claws together, head held high and chest puffed out, cried out in a strong voice, "Caw! Caw! Caw!"
The loud voice echoed throughout the courtyard. Li Zhengyang, who was slowly making his way to the Xie family's house with a big pancake in his mouth, picked at his ear and couldn't help but wonder: What's going on? Does the Xie family raise ducks?
Zhu Mingyue nodded repeatedly, patting the non-existent snake's shoulder: "Not bad, not bad, a good prospect." It would be even better if he stopped scaring him with snakes.
Where no one could see, Xie Pei stood with his back to the man and the bird, his lips twitching slightly.
Zhu Mingyue brought a piece of raw meat and placed it near Er Ya's mouth.
To his surprise, the big bird pushed the meat out of his hand with its beak, flapped its wings and flew to the roof, standing on one leg. He followed it into the yard and looked up to see that the bird had already closed its eyes and fallen asleep.
It seems he ate his fill on the mountain before coming back, which saves him trouble. At least he knows to feed himself to save him money.
"Xie Pei! Ming Yue! Are you home?"
A knock sounded at the door, and it was Li Zhengyang who spoke.
"You're here!" Zhu Mingyue hurried over to open the door.
As Li Zhengyang entered, he stared directly at Er Ya on the eaves. Startled, he instinctively swallowed the biscuit in his mouth, only to have his neck stretched out in pain.
Zhu Mingyue turned around and saw that Er Ya had already woken up. At this moment, she was staring at Li Zhengyang with sharp eyes, her gaze no different from that of someone looking at prey. Her wings were even half-open, indicating that she had already entered battle mode.
Zhu Mingyue waved her hand at it and said, "Er Ya, this is a guest. Don't bother him."
Er Ya cackled twice in response, then closed her eyes and continued sleeping.
Li Zhengyang pounded his chest, took the cold water handed to him and drank several mouthfuls to calm down. He pointed at the bird with a look of horror and said, "I'm not seeing things, am I? This is a bird?" He was wondering why there was a duck-like sound when he clearly remembered that the Xie family did not raise ducks. It turned out that it was a bird that could only make duck-like sounds.
Zhu Mingyue replied, "That's right, it's a bird."
"Ducks quack, so do birds?"
Zhu Mingyue's expression froze for a moment, and when she replied, her tone was somewhat forced: "Why can't birds cackle anymore? They're very clever; maybe they learned it on their own!"
Li Zhengyang had never seen anything so novel before, and he secretly planned to tell his family about it when he got back.
But he had important business to discuss, so he looked away and asked, "Is Xie Pei home?"
"Yes, come with me to the backyard."
Seeing that both of them were there, Li Zhengyang spoke up: "My father asked me to inform you that Li Zhu'er's family is preparing to sell land again, at a low price."
Zhu Mingyue asked eagerly, "Fields or vegetable garden?"
Li Zhengyang: "Sell everything! Sell the vegetable plots, sell the farmland. The farmland is seven taels per mu, totaling three mu. The vegetable plots are two taels and seven hundred cash."
Zhu Mingyue thought to himself that the Li family had sold the goods cheaply this time, and the price suited his taste perfectly.
"Brother Li, please wait a moment," he said, then ran back to his bedroom and took out his money box.
"Two hundred coins...one tael...three taels...four taels and seventy coins." After counting to the end, Zhu Mingyue put down the box and sighed regretfully.
His shop wasn't unprofitable; on the contrary, he made more than double what he used to make selling steamed buns at a stall. However, he hadn't paid in full when he bought the shop, and he still owed the original owner a considerable amount of money. He wasn't one to be in debt, and the thought of being in debt weighed on his mind, so the first thing he did after making money was to pay that person back in full.
Xie Pei had also earned a considerable sum from hunting in the mountains, all of which he entrusted to him for safekeeping. He and Xie Pei usually tried to save as much as possible, and they were reluctant to spend a single penny of their savings, using it all to pay off debts.
Fortunately, by the end of last month, the last payment was made, and he successfully obtained the deed. From then on, the shop belonged entirely to him and Xie Pei.
While it's true that being debt-free is a blessing, it's also true that you only realize how little money you have when you need it. Zhu Mingyue really doesn't want to experience that feeling of being unable to get what you want when you're at your poorest.
Clutching a little over four taels of silver, Zhu Mingyue left with a bitter face, walked up to Li Zhengyang, spread her hands, and said bluntly, "I only have four taels of silver."
Xie Pei, who had been silent, suddenly reached into his pocket and placed the item in his hand: "Five taels."
Zhu Mingyue looked closely and saw that she had an extra tael of silver in her hand, which Xie Pei had contributed.
Li Zhengyang scratched his chin twice: "Five taels is definitely enough to buy vegetables."
Zhu Mingyue was speechless. Sometimes he really wanted to crack open Li Zhengyang's brain to see what was inside. Five taels was certainly enough to buy a vegetable plot, after all, he had just said that the plot only cost two taels and seven hundred coins.
He didn't take so much money just to buy a vegetable plot. He wanted to buy land! Land!!
He blinked, a sly glint in his eyes: "To tell you the truth, Brother Li, I not only want to buy a vegetable plot, but also a field."
Li Zhengyang was shocked. "What else do you want? Why don't you just say it all at once?"
Zhu Mingyue's eyes lit up: "Really? Then I can say it," he turned his head to look at Xie Pei and then at Li Zhengyang, pursed his lips slightly as if a little embarrassed, and said: "I want to buy as much land as there is."
After speaking, seeing Li Zhengyang's calm expression, he tentatively asked, "Brother Li, do you have a solution?"
Li Zhengyang nodded: "Yes."
Zhu Mingyue looked at him expectantly, ready to listen attentively, but the next thing he said was: "Go wash up and go to sleep, you can have anything in your dreams!"
He wanted both the five taels of silver and the money. Even though he had a soft spot for Zhu Mingyue and thought she was beautiful, kind-hearted, and very lovable, he still thought Zhu Mingyue's actions were wishful thinking.
Zhu Mingyue was dumbfounded: ...Is it too late for him to say now that he didn't mean that?
Xie Pei stepped forward, lowered his eyes, and said calmly, "Five taels as a deposit, please trouble the village chief to delay it for a few days."
Zhu Mingyue nodded in agreement, "Yes, yes, that's exactly what I meant!"
Li Zhengyang sighed and said, "That's more like it. I thought you wanted to exchange five taels for someone else's land."
Zhu Mingyue pursed her lips, thinking to herself that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Seeing his mischievous and playful expression, Li Zhengyang found it amusing that he didn't hide his thoughts on his face. After thinking for a moment, he couldn't help but explain, "Don't feel like you're being taken advantage of. This price is really not expensive. I heard that not long after the news about the Li family was released, someone went to their house. Perhaps the price hasn't been agreed upon yet, so my father asked me to come and tell you."
"Your father is so kind. Please thank him for us," Zhu Mingyue said gratefully. The gift they gave back then was definitely worth it. Luckily, the village chief hadn't forgotten about it and informed them as soon as he heard the news, otherwise he wouldn't know about it now.
"Of course," Li Zhengyang waved his hand dismissively. Just because Zhu Mingyue always called him "Brother Li" sweetly whenever she saw him, he had to take it to heart.
Li Zhengyang left, and before leaving, he listened to Zhu Mingyue's words and took the five taels of silver with him.
Zhu Mingyue was thinking that he and Xie Pei had a considerable grudge against the Li family. Since that day, he had actually given up the idea of buying the Li family's land. Anyway, he wasn't short of time. However, land in the village was scarce. Every household regarded land as a treasure. They couldn't even buy land in time, let alone sell their own land.
Zhu Mingyue waited and waited, her heart almost withering away, but she still couldn't hear any news about someone selling the land.
Upon hearing the news that the Li family had started selling land again, Zhu Mingyue no longer cared about saving face and automatically forgot about the flag she had previously set.
This land is worth seven ounces per mu! If you miss this opportunity, you'll never find it again.
However, he couldn't possibly go to the Li family to negotiate. Even though the Li family was short of money, they would definitely sell the land to him as long as the price was right. If he didn't want to go, Xie Pei would be even less likely to go.
After much thought, it would be better to have Li Zhengyang act as the middleman, so that the two sides, who dislike each other, wouldn't have to pretend to be nonchalant and sit down to discuss business.
Li Zhengyang had just left the Xie family's house. Instead of heading home, he turned at the intersection and swaggered off to the Li family's house with five taels of silver in his pocket.
Li Zhu'er's leg has almost recovered over the past few months, but she can still be seen limping when she walks a little faster. The doctor said there is no cure and she will have to live like this from now on.
Li Zhu'er couldn't accept that he would be crippled from then on. At first, he made a huge fuss, which distressed his parents. They said that once his leg was healed enough that it wouldn't be so noticeable, they would spend money to find him a wife. This time, they meant it and wouldn't lie to him.
Li Zhu'er dreams of sleeping with his sweet and soft wife, so naturally he has to work hard to heal his leg.
When Li Zhengyang arrived at his doorstep, Li Zhuer was practicing walking briskly after throwing away his crutches.
"Brother Piglet!" he shouted.
Li Zhuer and the village chief's two sons were not on the same side and were not familiar with each other. After not seeing each other for a long time, he was slightly stunned when he saw Li Zhengyang, but he quickly realized who this was.
However, he was clearly not interested in who the person was, turning his head away and ignoring them as if he hadn't seen them at all.
Li Zhengyang didn't care when he saw this. He knew Li Zhuer a bit. He usually associated with a few lazy good-for-nothings who liked to encourage him to do petty theft. He couldn't tell right from wrong, and he would treat anyone who advised him to do good as a bad person. Among these so-called bad people was his father, the village chief. So Li Zhuer didn't give him a good look either.
His parents happened to come out of the house and, seeing him, warmly invited him in, offering him a seat and pouring him tea.
Li Zhengyang had already drunk a ladleful of cold water at Zhu Mingyue's place and was quite full. He sat down and, without even drinking tea, went straight to the point: "Uncle Li, Auntie, you probably know why I've come. I won't beat around the bush. Your land..."
"Sell! We'll sell!"
He was interrupted by Li Zhu'er's mother halfway through his sentence.
His mother was so anxious that her face trembled violently as she shouted, "We'll sell as long as the money is there."
"Xie Pei's family buys, and you're selling too?"
Neither of them seemed to have expected this. Upon hearing this, they exchanged a glance, and in that instant, as if they had discussed it with their eyes, they said in unison, "Sell!"
“However…” Li Zhu’er’s mother continued.
Li Zhengyang frowned and squinted, wanting to see what she was up to.
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