latelenovela Chapter 40 Reclaiming Land
Chapter 40 Reclaiming Land
Zhao Taohua was overjoyed, knowing that the village chief had already signed the contract with Xiangping's great-grandfather.
Recently, some people in the village have gone to town to find work, while the whole family is stuck in the village, barely managing to dig up a few medicinal herbs a day.
Sometimes, if you're unlucky, you won't find a single plant.
Instead of doing that, it's better to go to town to work; at least you can earn a day's wages for a day's work.
Some people still stay in the village, going to the mountainside every day to dig for medicinal herbs.
Someone asked curiously, "Village chief, do you have any good news to tell us?"
Some people had already thought of this and asked, "Village chief, is this the path to wealth that Peach Blossom told you about, the one that will lead the whole village to prosperity?"
The village chief nodded with a kind look in his eyes:
"That's right. Peach Blossom has come up with another way for our village to get rich, and Uncle Xiangping has also helped us solve our worries."
Our village is often foggy and humid, which makes grain yields low, but it is suitable for growing some medicinal herbs.
Uncle Xiangping and I have visited all the local clinics and signed contracts, promising to buy the crops as soon as they are planted.
Everyone should plant diligently; you can sell your produce in three months. The net income per mu (unit of land area) will be at least 2.5 liang (unit of weight).
Everyone was shocked to hear that the net income per mu was only 2.5 taels?
Although it's not as lucrative as when they first started digging for medicinal herbs, where they could earn one or two taels or even hundreds of coins a day, two and a half taels is still equivalent to their income for a year in the past.
Someone asked curiously, "Village chief, what are we planting?"
Some people worried, "Village chief, the rice in my field isn't ripe yet!"
The village chief explained and calmed everyone down one by one:
"You can leave the rice in your fields for now. I went to Duting and asked. Our village has a lot of wasteland. You can clear it out and plant it yourself."
For the first three years, there will be no taxes or rent; you can plant for free.
It's like you clearing land and everything you grow belongs to you.
Everyone was initially delighted upon hearing the news, but then they all became dejected.
Because Zhao Family Village is surrounded by mountains, the wasteland is filled with stones of varying sizes.
And those tangled grass roots are buried deep underground; it takes a lot of effort to cut some of them.
How difficult it is to reclaim this wasteland!
However, some people still decided to clear land to earn this money. Once the land is cleared, everything grown on it for three years will belong to them. They don't have to pay taxes or rent, so why not?
Zhao Xiangping brought two kinds of seeds: perilla and motherwort. Regardless of which one you plant, you need two jin of seeds per mu (unit of land area).
Perilla seeds are more expensive, costing sixty coins per pound, while motherwort costs forty coins per pound.
Since everyone had made some money from digging medicinal herbs, they were willing to spend two pounds of seeds, usually buying one pound of motherwort seeds and one pound of perilla seeds.
After all, land reclamation is no easy task.
Only a very small number of people felt it was a pointless endeavor and didn't want to participate.
Squatting on the ground, Zhao Shenglin scoffed and spat out the grass stem he was holding in his mouth.
"What kind of path to wealth do I think this is? I have to clear land and sow seeds. What if they don't grow? Wouldn't that be a waste of effort and money on seeds?"
Zhao Shenglin curled his lip, his eyes full of disdain.
As he spoke, he kicked a pebble on the ground.
The pebbles rolled to the village chief's feet, as if echoing Zhao Shenglin's words.
The village chief frowned and scolded, "Where do you get something without working? Are you just going to sit at home and wait all day?"
When we were digging for medicinal herbs, I didn't see you dig for more than a few days. Now that everyone is clearing land to plant medicinal herbs, you're not actively participating either.
Peach Blossom has already calculated that there will be a heavy snowfall this winter. If you don't hurry up and save money to repair the house, how will you survive the winter?
Zhao Shenglin impatiently picked at his ear:
"Alright, alright, village chief, you can believe whatever you want, but I don't trust her at all."
She can only catch a few spirits and evil ghosts, and she can tell fortunes? And even predict events months in advance?
After saying that, Zhao Shenglin swayed his shoulders, whistled, and swaggered away amidst the helpless and disdainful gazes of the crowd.
Zhao Xiangping said with exasperation, "This lazybones only knows how to loaf around all day. He'll suffer in the winter!"
Seeing that everyone was buying a pound of seeds, Zhao Ershu and Qian Shi realized that with their abilities, they could only cultivate at most one acre of wasteland.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Taohua said, "No, Father and Mother, let's buy twenty catties of seeds, and ten catties each of perilla and motherwort."
what?
Madam Qian quickly advised, "Tao Hua, those are seeds for ten acres of land. How can we possibly cultivate them?"
In the past, when she and Ershu were separated from the Zhao family's old house by Grandma Sun, they did consider clearing wasteland and farming some land themselves.
However, the barren land was as hard as iron. When a hoe was struck, only a shallow white mark was left, and the impact made the person's hand go numb and their arm ache.
If she hadn't heard the village chief say that she could earn at least 2.5 taels of silver per mu, she wouldn't have had the idea of reclaiming the land.
But Peach Blossom actually asked to clear ten acres of wasteland?
Zhao Ershu also advised, "Taohua, you've never cleared wasteland before, so you don't know how hard it is to do so."
"Mom and Dad, have you forgotten about the argumentative person in our family?"
The troll has a muscular physique, making him perfect for doing these kinds of physically demanding jobs.
Zhao Ershu and Qian Shi were both dumbfounded.
Ever since the nitpicker came to the house, whenever Zhao Ershu needed timber, he would cut down the trees for Zhao Ershu and carry them home.
Because of his presence, he has done a lot of heavy physical work for the family, and now he is the one who cuts the firewood for the family.
Thinking about this, the two suddenly realized that it was reasonable for Tao Hua to buy twenty catties of seeds.
“Alright, let’s listen to Tao Hua and go buy twenty catties of seeds!” Qian said.
Just as Zhao Taohua was waiting for Qian Shi and Zhao Ershu to go buy seeds, Zhao Shengxiang suddenly walked over with a grin and whispered to her:
“Peach Blossom Sister, Yang Fengshou’s family sent Matchmaker You to my house to propose marriage, and they even gave me a pair of big white geese, which are now being raised in my chicken coop!”
Zhao Taohua turned her head and congratulated, "Then I must congratulate Sister Xiangxiang on marrying her ideal husband."
Zhao Shengxiang lowered her head shyly: "It's still early. The formalities of marriage and betrothal can't be rushed, but things are pretty much settled."
The Yang family was quite well-off, and Zhao Shengxiang was very satisfied.
Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she leaned closer to Zhao Taohua's ear and said:
"My mother heard from Matchmaker You that Zhao Lianhua is a bad person."
Moreover, it wasn't just Matchmaker You who said so; even people outside our village know that Zhao Lianhua is wicked and has bribed a fool to ruin our reputation everywhere.
Zhao Taohua was surprised; the spread was so fast?
As far as she knows, some people in the village still believe Zhao Lianhua, thinking she's just a fool talking nonsense.
Could it be that someone is stirring things up?
……
The Zhao family's old residence.
Zhao Lianhua has been locked up at home and scolded for three consecutive days.
After scolding Zhou, Old Lady Sun scolded her, and after Zhou scolded Zhao Feng, Old Lady Sun scolded him.
Zhao Feng stamped his foot in frustration: "My marriage with Caixia is about to be finalized, but because of you, the Zhang family wants to raise the bride price by another two taels."
Zhao Lianhua rolled her eyes inwardly: If Zhang Caixia really liked you, she wouldn't be demanding such a high price.
Zhou continued to scold, "Do you know how long it takes the whole family to earn two taels of silver?"
Now, your marriage to the Yang family has fallen through, and it's difficult to find you a spouse anywhere in the village.
The ten taels of silver that were rightfully mine have now vanished!
They're flying to Jiang Yanqiu's house!
Zhou was so angry she was about to explode.
This time, Zhao Lianhua couldn't help but reply, "That's not my fault either, it's all that jerk's fault."
"If he hadn't possessed me, why would I have argued with Matchmaker You? How can you blame me?"
Grandma Sun, sitting in her chair, slammed her hand on the table and scolded, "Isn't this your fault?"
Tell me, why did you go and provoke that little rascal, Peach Blossom?
Neither your uncle nor I got the better of her. Do you think she wouldn't see through your little tricks?
In my opinion, she went out that day holding that long stick of argumentative talker on purpose!
As Grandma Sun spoke, she gave Zhao Lianhua a sharp look, which made Zhao Lianhua shrink back in fright.
"If you hadn't spread rumors about her and the jinx, perhaps she would have shown mercy and covered for you."
Now, it's a done deal that your malicious intentions have attracted a troll, and what's more, the troll is a man who's been hanging around Peach Blossom's second wife's house all day.
I wonder what the villagers will say about you behind your back!
The more Grandma Sun talked, the more afraid Zhao Lianhua became.
The handkerchief was almost torn to shreds in her hands; she was on the verge of tears as she said:
"Grandma, what am I going to do now? Am I going to never get married?"