"What do you have to say about this?" Lin Sanshui hastily asked.
Xie Zhou smiled and said, "Lin Sanshui, you look like an honest man, so I won’t hide it from you. These three plots are all good fields, but while the Great West River is usually calm, it can’t be avoided that during the rainy season the water level rises, affecting the surrounding fields. However, there is a benefit: irrigation is convenient, and it’s the cheapest option."
Lin Sanshui shook his head immediately.
As a farming family, they rely on the weather to earn a living. If the crops get flooded, the whole year is for nothing; no matter how cheap it is, he can’t want it.
Then Xie Zhou continued with the introduction, "There are two other places. The one closer by is most in line with your requirements, but nearby rivers and ponds are quite far, making irrigation inconvenient. However, it’s good land, and you could solve it by spending some silver to dig a few wells. The further one isn’t actually that far, has sufficient water sources, and there are no large rivers around, so no fear of flooding."
After the introduction, Xie Zhou closed the booklet, "Lin San, see which place you like, and we can go over and have a look, or discuss it further with the landlord."
Lin Sanshui thought it over for a long time and decided to abandon the plot close to the Great West River.
Yet, the other two plots—he was aware of the one closest to Taohua Village. It originally belonged to Landlord Wang from the neighboring village, but recently Landlord Wang’s son seemed to have gotten into gambling, so they wanted to sell the field.
The one he favored most was also this one, but the issue of water resources was a major problem.
Originally, Landlord Wang leased this land out for others to farm, just waiting to collect rent. As for how others irrigated, he didn’t care.
But Lin Sanshui intended to farm it himself; if he had to haul water over from distant places for all that land, it wouldn’t be a minor undertaking.
Digging wells was a good idea too, but one well costs two taels of silver. Purchasing seventy acres would almost exhaust his silver, and adding the cost of digging wells would mean building a house becomes just a dream. Read full story at novᴇlfire.net
The fifty-acre plot was actually not bad either; the amount of silver he had fits this purchase nicely, though he was concerned that the distance might make farming inconvenient.
"Brother Xie, let’s go and have a look at the fifty-acre one first. As long as it’s not too far, it should be fine!" Lin Sanshui finally made the tough decision.
"Alright, I’ll have the broker prepare the carriage," Xie Zhou said.
After Xie Zhou left, Gu Nian asked Lin Sanshui, "Dad, why not buy the seventy-acre one? It’s the closest to us. Although drilling wells costs some silver, six or seven wells for seventy acres should be enough, right?"
"It’s not about the wells. The silver in my hand was earned by you, and you know exactly how much there is, better than anyone. The house definitely needs to be built this year; if all the silver goes into buying land, what about building the house?"
He knew Gu Nian still had silver, but since he had already said it was for Gu Nian, he hadn’t intended to use this money.
If Gu Nian also plans to buy land, they could buy together and then split it. But this child had his eye on those few hills, and he didn’t even know the price yet, so he didn’t bring it up.
Gu Nian wasn’t worried about not making money; the space was full of ginseng and lingzhi, even aged ones, any one of which could fetch sky-high prices.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t take them out.
"Let’s go see the land first; if it doesn’t work, I can temporarily use my silver to buy the land. After all, there’s no rush for buying the hills." At worst, she’d find a way to make money afterward, or maybe first buy one or two hills; it shouldn’t cost too much silver, right?