As soon as the Second Lang’s wife finished speaking, Song Wei immediately understood her intentions.
The previous guarantee letter witnessed by the village head and the clan leader only stated that once Song Wei passed his scholar exams, he would freely allocate land to the village people without any benefit to himself.
The premise of the guarantee letter was that Song Wei would become a scholar.
But now, he was just a scholar with eighty acres of tax-exempt land under his name.
Logically, these eighty acres could be used to allocate land to others and collect tax.
Second Lang’s wife wanted to seize the land the third household planned to rent, sell it at a high price, have the buyer register the land under Song Wei’s name for tax reduction, and then she would come forward to collect tax.
In this way, she could profit from both ends for each acre of land.
Wen Wan shook her head. No wonder they say like mother, like daughter.
Second Lang’s wife’s crafty, opportunistic nature was exactly like her mother, Mrs. Tian Zhang.
If the husband wanted to allocate land, the word would have spread long ago; would it have waited until now?
Sure enough, even before Song Wei could speak, Granny Song chimed in, staring at the Second Lang’s wife with a half-smile, "I advise you to give up that idea as soon as possible!"
"Mother, I’m just thinking, those fields from the Third Lang’s family are quite productive, it would be a pity to rent them out. As the saying goes, fertile water shouldn’t flow to outsiders—a family should keep the benefits to themselves, right?"
Seeing Second Lang’s wife’s stubbornness, Granny Song stopped being polite and cut straight to the point, "Don’t think I don’t know your little schemes. If all the fields from the Third Lang’s family are given to you, you’ll turn around and sell them to your own family for some benefits, allowing people to register the land back here and gain another benefit. When people in the village hear about it and demand the guarantee letter, questioning why the four hundred acres aren’t taxed but the eighty acres are, you’ll just push all the blame onto the Third Lang? Are you about to benefit from all sides while our Third Lang is nobody?"
"Mother, you’re going too far, aren’t you?" Second Lang’s wife hurried to defend herself, "I honestly didn’t mean it that way."
"Truly didn’t mean it that way?"
"I dare swear to the heavens, it’s nothing like what you think."
"Fine." Granny Song relaxed her tone, "If you want, take all of it, but I must say this in front of the whole family, for the Third Lang’s fields, you may only farm them yourselves, not rent or sell. If you dare to sell even an acre, forget about your family’s tax exemption on those dozen acres."
That much land, it would be impossible for the two of them to manage even if they split themselves in two!
Song Erlang knew his mother was too sharp to miss any calculation. With his wife’s little tricks, against such a mother-in-law, she could only expect trouble.
Caught off guard and thrown into a pit by her mother-in-law, the Second Lang’s wife felt uneasy. Thinking it over, she realized that the Third Lang’s fields were a hot potato, not something she could really take over, or her mother-in-law would certainly cause trouble later.
Taking a deep breath, the Second Lang’s wife lowered her voice and changed her tone, "Originally, I wanted the Third Lang’s fields to plant more crops to save up for our son. But after you mentioned it, I suddenly saw it clearly, with all the work in the fields, I really couldn’t take it over; better to let it be and forget what I said earlier."
Granny Song looked at her in surprise, "What’s this, are you pregnant? And with a son?"
"Not yet," Second Lang’s wife blushed, "Actually, I’m following a folk remedy for health, my mother says it won’t be long before I conceive a son."
"Your mother’s quite something then. I guess even the Childbirth Goddess would have to give her a thumbs up."