Qin Xiaozhou has been extremely busy these past few days. Fortunately, Zhao Fang is looking after the Yifanfengshun store. Jinghe, Jingyue, and the two newly bought old women are all honest people. They are also grateful to her for saving them from dire straits, so they have not been lazy in their work.
Since Lu Yan had to help collect money at the counter, Xiao Si had to stay behind the counter. Lu Yan learned a lot of characters from Qin Xiaozhou from time to time, and her personality became more generous. She was also good at remembering people by their faces; she could remember someone after just one meeting, and this came in handy now.
Xiao Si had grown much bolder, but he didn't dare to run around in the shop. He sat obediently on the stool, watching Lu Yan with longing eyes. He loved the sound of copper coins ringing, and whenever Lu Yan collected the coins and threw them into the cabinet, making a clinking sound, he would clap his hands and laugh happily.
The chubby little baby was loved by many ladies and young women in the shop. A young woman who was not yet twenty and a regular customer was particularly fond of the baby. She stood in front of the counter for a while before finally speaking, "Little girl, may I hold your little brother?"
She had been married for three years without giving birth, which worried her family and herself. She prayed to the Goddess of Fertility many times, but to no avail. The elders said that holding more babies would help her conceive, a practice called "borrowing a child to help her conceive," but there were no one in the family who could hold a one- or two-year-old child.
This lady was a concubine of the Shen family, as Lu Yan knew. However, her elder brother, sister-in-law, and mother had all told her younger brother not to let strangers hold him, or he would be taken away and sold. Although this concubine of the Shen family often came, she dared not take her younger brother out.
Just as they were at an impasse, Shen Panyun came down the stairs. "Ninth Aunt, you're too impatient. Besides, that's someone else's child. Who would hold it for you? Hurry up and leave, or you'll get scolded."
Ninth Aunt left with Shen Panyun with regret.
Lu Yan secretly breathed a sigh of relief and took the opportunity to touch her little brother's face. In the past few months, her little brother was like a completely different person. At the beginning of the year, he was still thin and small, but now he is chubby and cute. He is soft and warm to hug. It's just that it's hot to hug him in this weather, so she puts him in a special chair. In winter, she wants to hug her little brother, who is like a little stove, to sleep.
After returning home, Lu Yunfeng planned the location of the house, which was in the middle of the old house and Qingzhugou. He took a string of meat and the original land deed for the wasteland to the village chief's house. Although it was his own land, farmland, wasteland and foundation were different. If he wanted to build a house, he would have to go to the county government office to change the file.
Some fertile fields are not allowed to be used for building houses, while there are no explicit regulations on wasteland, but there are still some tricks involved, and the village chief has to handle them.
Lu Yunfeng knew the rules, so he first went to the village chief's house to explain the situation.
The village chief nodded. “Your family should build a house. That old house was built by your grandfather decades ago. It’s not safe for seven or eight people to squeeze into two old mud houses. If there’s a lot of rain in the next few months, I’m afraid it won’t last long. How big should you build?”
Lu Yunfeng thought about the house design Qin Xiaozhou had drawn and estimated, "About three acres."
Qin Xiaozhou said that the family will grow larger in the future. The second son will get married and have children, and the fourth son will also get married and have children in a dozen years. Even if they become successful and don't live at home often, there should still be a place for them to live. Also, even if Xiaoyan and her aunt get married, they will still visit relatives and go back to their parents' home, so there should still be a place for them to live.
Lu Yunfeng was quite surprised when he heard this. The village was poor, and no family would leave a room for their daughter after she got married. Many families were eager for their daughters to get married so that they could have some space in the house after receiving their dowry.
He laughed and said, "Okay, then build a bigger one, and build more rooms."
At this moment, the village chief coughed violently. He was choking on the smoke. He had smoked all his life, yet he was choking on it, which showed how surprised he was. Thinking he had misheard, he asked again, "How much?"
Lu Yunfeng said, "We need to convert the three acres of wasteland at the foot of the mountain into foundations for building houses."
Wangjia Village has a population of over three hundred people in about sixty households. More than ten years ago, during the war, over seventy able-bodied men went from the village to join the army, but only about ten returned. After the war subsided, the imperial court allocated seven households to Wangjia Village to compensate for the displaced population. Land in the village is limited; even the wealthiest families only have half an acre to build houses, and the poor have to sell their land. Now, the Lu family actually wants to be granted three acres of land?!
“Dayun, this wasteland is cheap, but to convert it into a foundation for building a house, it will cost a lot of money for three acres. If the land deed is changed from wasteland to a foundation, a house must be built within a year. You can’t grow crops, or you will be fined.”
A plot of land can cost three taels of silver, while a plot of wasteland doesn't even cost one tael.
The imperial court was strict in its management of land and in its taxation of land, fearing that the people would change land deeds in secret and cultivate the land to grow grain. Taxes were collected according to the land area, and no taxes were collected on the grain grown on the land. This was the earliest method of tax evasion. Later, the imperial court began to investigate more strictly, so in the last two years it has become difficult to change land deeds. It is now required that there be a house on the land and grain grown on the land, and that the land not be left idle or abandoned.
If there are any idle or abandoned fields in the village, a fine will be imposed.
Lu Yunfeng nodded, "I know all that. These past few days have been the end of the spring harvest, and there are still three to five months until the autumn harvest. I want to take advantage of this free time to build the house."
That's how houses are built in the village. They're built during spare time because most of the laborers are villagers. They only go to work after they've finished working in the fields.
Building a house is a big deal. The next day, the village chief and Lu Yunfeng went to the county town together. The person in charge of handling house and land deeds in the yamen was Zhao Jinlong, the younger brother of Madam Shen, Zhao Hanping. He had studied for a few years. Later, when Zhao Hanping married into the Shen family, she begged Shen Baishan to find him a position in the county yamen.
He still remembered Lu Yunfeng. Initially, Zhang Yazi brought him to sign the house deposit, and later he actually came to transfer the house. The house became a shop and became famous. Later, he bought four more people. In just two months, he gained a foothold in the county town. He was a genius. Now he was very polite to him.
Having handled so many transactions without giving Zhao Jinlong any trouble, Lu Yunfeng treated him and the village chief to lunch at a restaurant, a way of making friends.
After eating, Zhao Jinlong returned to the yamen to continue his duties. Lu Yunfeng took the village chief to the shop. The village chief had been to the county town quite often and knew a bit about the situation there. Moreover, there was an academy at the end of this alley where those who passed the preliminary examinations would study to take the imperial examinations. His son had been studying at that academy for the past few years.
Looking at the shop and its packed seats, the village chief was utterly astonished. He knew the Lu family owned a shop in the county, but no one had told him it was located in this alley, much less that it was such a large shop!
After looking around the yard, it took him a long time to finally say, "You and your wife are capable."
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