Chapter 9
When Wang Ying returned from the front yard, Chen Qingyan was already awake. He said with a stern face, "Second Uncle's family has come to borrow money again?"
"Hmm, you're still up so late?"
"I was woken up by the noise."
Seeing that he was uncomfortable lying flat, Wang Ying reached out and added a pillow behind him.
"Th...thank you." As the two drew closer, Chen Qingyan's cheeks flushed slightly. Fortunately, the room was dimly lit by candlelight, otherwise he would definitely have been teased by him again.
Wang Ying: "Your second uncle is really shameless. He came over and asked to borrow five hundred taels of silver. I said a few words, and he acted like an elder and wanted to help your father punish me."
"Outrageous! How dare he!" Chen Qingyan slammed his hand on the bed in anger.
“What wouldn’t he dare to do? He even said that after you die, he’ll sell me into a brothel so I’ll never be able to turn my life around. If we hadn’t reported him to the authorities, he might have turned our house upside down today.”
Chen Qingyan's chest heaved with anger. He had only known that his second uncle was unreliable before, but he never expected it to be to this extent. He immediately got up and was about to go out to argue with him.
Wang Ying quickly pressed him down, saying, "You can't even walk, you should rest."
"Cough cough cough, you take me in a wheelchair... I want to go to his house and ask him in person, cough cough cough... How can an elder cough cough cough... say such a thing? It's utterly shameless!"
Wang Ying quickly brought him water and helped him suppress his cough.
"He dares to be so arrogant because he sees you seriously ill in bed, with old people and young children at home, and no one to rely on."
“If you really care about your family, then take good care of your health. I think he will hate us for not lending him money this time, and who knows what kind of trouble he might cause in the future.”
After calming down for a while, Chen Qingyan said, "You're right. I was too narrow-minded in the past. I always felt that if the path of the imperial examination was cut off, there would be no hope. But I never considered the situation of my family. Wang Ying, thank you."
His words were spoken with such seriousness that Wang Ying felt a little embarrassed. She scratched her head and said, "It's good that you can think positively. It's getting late, you should get some rest."
He was still thinking about the wheat in the experimental field, which should be ready for harvest today.
During this period, Wang Ying discovered a pattern: the flow of time in the experimental field was different from that outside.
He didn't notice it at first, but on his last few visits, he discovered that the wheat, which was supposed to take another month to mature, had already entered its ripening stage ahead of schedule.
This surprised him. Did it mean that wheat that could be harvested twice a year in the field could be harvested three, four, or even more times a year in the experimental field?
Or you could bring some vegetable seeds with you and plant them all year round?
After blowing out the candles, Wang Ying lay on the bed, preparing to enter the experimental field, when Chen Qingyan's voice rang out again.
Do you want to know why I can no longer take the imperial examinations?
"Say it if you want, or it's okay if you don't." It's definitely not a good thing for someone to change their personality so drastically. Although Wang Ying was curious, she couldn't bring herself to reopen old wounds.
Chen Qingyan paused, then sighed softly, "Go to sleep."
*
The next morning, Wang Ying was called to the front yard by her mother-in-law as soon as she woke up.
Upon arriving at the main room, Li took out the account books from previous years and handed them to him.
"Can Ying'er understand it?"
Wang Ying nodded, "I know a few characters, so I can understand it."
He flipped through the previous years' account records and found that the income and expenditure were basically balanced, with some money left over each year. However, there were no records from March of last year, after Chen Qingyan failed the imperial examination.
"Where did it end?"
Li explained quietly from the side, "Yan'er was seriously ill at the time, and I had no mind to care about these things, so I simply forgot about it..."
Chen Qingyun had never learned bookkeeping, and the mother and daughter managed the family's life in a haphazard way.
Wang Ying put down the account book and counted the money in the house. Not counting the money that Master Chen had borrowed, the house now only had six strings of cash left.
"Is that all?"
Li and Qingyun nodded.
Wang Ying felt a headache coming on.
Qingyun whispered, "There are still quite a few things in the storeroom. If we don't have enough money, we can pawn them."
"Let's go check the storeroom first." Wang Ying, carrying the keys, led Li Shi and her second sister to the Chen family's storeroom.
The so-called warehouse was just an empty room that no one lived in, with seven or eight boxes and cages inside.
"These boxes contain cloth. If you run out of money, you can just pawn them at the pawnshop in Xiguan," Chen Qingyun explained from the side. It seemed she had pawned them more than once.
Wang Ying squatted down and counted them: there were six bolts of coarse cloth, thirteen bolts of fine cloth, three bolts of silk, and one bolt of brocade.
I've learned a little about the prices of goods in this dynasty these days. A bolt of ordinary coarse cloth costs about 300 wen. A bolt of cloth is 40 feet long, which is more than 100 meters, enough to make several sets of clothes.
Fine cloth costs one tael of silver per bolt, while silk is even more expensive and unavailable; you can't buy it even if you want to in town. These bolts of silk must have been left over from before.
The price of cloth will decrease if you pawn it. A piece of coarse cloth can be pawned for a maximum of 200 coins, while fine cloth can be pawned for 700 coins. In the end, you will lose a lot of money.
The other boxes contained two large sets of porcelain. These porcelain dishes and bowls were used for important events in the family, such as when Chen Qingyan got married a few days ago.
Porcelain is expensive, but it cannot be pawned; it is the face of the family and cannot be easily touched.
There was also a box containing writing brushes, inkstones, and ink sticks. Li explained, "These are all sent back by my fourth uncle, who is an official in another city, every year. Yan'er and Song'er need them for their studies, so they can't be touched."
In this era, writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones are even more expensive, beyond the reach of ordinary people. This box of items is the most valuable thing in the entire warehouse.
After taking stock of the warehouse, Wang Ying had a general idea of the situation. At present, the Chen family's fixed assets were around one hundred taels of silver. He didn't want to touch anything in the warehouse for the time being, and the only money he had on hand was six strings of cash.
"How many people are in our family?" Wang Ying took out a pen and ink and began to register.
"Besides my mother and my two siblings and me, there were eight servants."
Chen Qingyun counted on her fingers, "Uncle Chen who serves my eldest brother, Aunt Tian who takes care of my mother, Xiao Cui in my room, and Qiu An who takes care of my third brother. Aunt Chen in the kitchen, Brother Liu who is in charge of purchasing, Old Man Tian who raises livestock, and then there's Xiao Linzi in the gatehouse."
These servants also receive wages, totaling about one guan per month. The main expenses are food and drink, and even with some frugality, it still costs five guan a month. Chen Qingyan also needs medical treatment and medicine, so let's say three guan, not even counting favors from others.
It's only when you're in charge that you realize how desperate your household has become—you're practically robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Li saw his predicament and said, "In another month, the tenants on the estate will have to pay their rent. That grain can be sold for seventy or eighty strings of cash."
It's mid-June now, and the wheat harvest season is over. Every year, tenants wait until the wheat harvest is over, pay the government tax first, and then hand over the grain to the landlord. Often, what they have left is only enough for a year's food and drink.
What kinds of grains do we grow on our farm?
Li was stunned. "It's nothing more than millet, wheat, sorghum, and the like."
"How much is the harvest each year?"
"These things used to be managed by the master..."
Wang Ying sighed, "Fine, I don't know anything about this. I'll go to the estate tomorrow."
“I’m going too!” Chen Qingyun said, her eyes sparkling.
"Alright, let's go take a look together, so we won't be fooled by the people below."
Wang Ying went to the estate not only to check on the crops in her own fields, but also to find a plot of land to test whether the seeds she had brought could be planted. If they could be planted, the wheat yield would increase significantly.
It's important to know that wheat seeds in this dynasty had not yet been artificially cultivated. People used the most primitive method of water bleaching and seed selection, resulting in shockingly low yields per acre.
Take the original owner of this body as an example. The Wang family had eight mu of fertile land and six mu of low-lying land. So-called fertile land means flat and relatively fertile land. Even if it is fertile land, one mu of land can only yield three shi of grain per year.
This is only in years with favorable weather. If there is drought or flood, it would be considered a great harvest if an acre of land could yield one shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain. Otherwise, the entire crop would be lost.
As for the fields, they were all remote hillsides and slopes, where water couldn't be retained, resulting in even lower grain yields. They mostly grew beans for their own consumption. I imagine the Chen family's estate was probably in the same situation.
*
The next day, Wang Ying got up early and changed into a dark-colored outfit that was more durable and resistant to dirt. She was going to work in the fields today, and dressing too warmly would easily tear her clothes.
Chen Qingyan woke up quite early, changed her clothes, sat in her wheelchair, and had Uncle Chen push her to the outhouse.
He returned shortly after and said, "I heard you were going to the estate?"
"Hmm, take a look at the land at home."
"Thank you for your help..."
"It's not troublesome, but I don't know what the people on the estate are like, or how easy they are to get along with."
Chen Qingyan said, “When I was little, I went to the farm with my father a few times. The farm manager was a trustworthy person. He was also surnamed Chen and was a distant cousin. Years ago, there was a drought, and his family fled from Li County. At that time, my grandfather took them in because he felt sorry for them and left them on the farm.”
“My father passed away these past few years, and I’ve been busy with the imperial examinations, so I haven’t had time to go. It’s been three or four years since I last went. If it weren’t for my poor health, I should have gone with you today.”
"It's alright, Xiaoyun and Aunt Tian will come with me."
"Be careful on the road, and come back early."
"Okay, eat more at home, don't make yourself dizzy again."
Chen Qingyan awkwardly turned her head away; this person really knew how to bring up the most sensitive topics.
A note from the author:
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