Yu Changhe and Sun Fengshou asked around at the village entrance to find out the location of the Village Chief’s house in Taohua Village, then drove to his house.
The Village Chief of Taohua Village was surnamed Qi, named Qi Baocang, an old man nearing sixty.
Yu Changhe took out the residence documents, explained their purpose, and Qi Lizheng immediately introduced him to two suitable plots of land for residence.
The two plots were one at the east end of the village, and one in the center of the village.
The center had a dilapidated thatched house. From the degree of decay in the collapsed wooden frame, it was clear the house had been collapsed for many years.
Qi Lizheng said that an old widow without children used to live there. As she grew older, she passed away some years back. After the house was left uninhabited, rainwater eroded it until it collapsed.
Qi Lizheng gestured from east to west, describing an approximate area, "From here... to there, it’s all included. Do you think this place will work?"
Yu Changhe wasn’t very satisfied, "This place is a bit small..."
Sun Fengshou said to Yu Changhe, "Brother-in-law, I think this place is quite good. How about I build my house here?"
Yu Changhe said, "You won’t build next to us?"
Sun Fengshou scratched his head, "We all live in the same village, does it really matter if we’re next to each other?"
Yu Changhe nodded, understanding Sun Fengshou’s reasoning.
Qi Lizheng then took them to the east end of the village. This area was open and adjacent to the foot of the mountain, allowing for any size of construction.
Qi Lizheng pointed to two nearby families, "This area is somewhat remote, with just these two families. One’s surname is Li, the other’s is Ding."
Yu Changhe walked around, roughly measuring the area with his steps, then asked Qi Lizheng, "From the edge of the road to the rock face over there, how much Silver Coin?"
Qi Lizheng’s bean-like eyes widened instantly, "What?"
Though Yu Changhe had brought quite decent gifts upon entering his home—white sugar, tea leaves—and they arrived by horse-drawn carriage, appearing well-off, Qi Lizheng was nonetheless startled by Yu Changhe’s grand gesture!
Qi Lizheng doubted his ears and sight, thinking he heard wrong, "Say it again!"
Yu Changhe gestured once more and said loudly, "From here to below the rock face, I want it all. How much for the land?"
This time, Qi Lizheng heard clearly. This person truly wanted to buy such a large plot. But what was that much land for?
How big was the house going to be? Did the family have that many people?
Yu Changhe’s approach left Qi Lizheng a bit bewildered.
Qi Lizheng stroked his long beard, persuading Yu Changhe, "You haven’t been close to it. You don’t know, the area towards the back is full of rubble. Clearing it will be troublesome...
Even if you clear away the stones, the land itself is hard and unfit for growing crops, even for a vegetable garden. Honestly, the land is not very useful..."
Yu Changhe said, "We’re not planting anything. We want to build a workshop there in the future."
His daughter mentioned planting chili peppers, opening a workshop, and making hotpot base ingredients.
Qi Shanhe’s eyes lit up at the mention of opening a workshop.
Opening a workshop would require labor, and surely, they would employ people from Taohua Village. What a good thing!
Once the workshop got established, the village folks would have an additional source of income.
In recent years, the court increased taxes, recruited labor and soldiers, and life in their village had become quite difficult.
Qi Shanhe immediately called over his youngest son, who had been with him the entire time, "Hurry back and call your older brothers over to measure the land!"
Qi Shanbao complied and ran off quickly, returning shortly with his three older brothers.
"Measure the land!" Qi Lizheng shouted, and his sons immediately positioned themselves at opposite corners.
"You walk that way, you walk this way..."
It took them over an hour, repeatedly pacing back and forth, to finally determine the area to be just over thirty mu.
Qi Lizheng looked at Yu Changhe and said, except for the residential land being a bit expensive, calculated at six liang per mu, the other land is worthless, just toss in a little money as a gesture.
Yu Changhe noticed that Qi Lizheng wasn’t giving a precise price for the land, leaving him to decide, realizing that Qi Lizheng was deliberately trying to befriend him.
In the end, with the central village plot included, Yu Changhe gave a hundred liang.
Qi Lizheng didn’t expect Yu Changhe to refuse to take advantage, even paying for the mountainous land at one liang per mu.
In the past, the mountainous land also went for one liang per mu, but it hadn’t been sold for years.
Nobody bought it. Why would anyone buy it? You couldn’t grow crops there. Who had extra money to spend idly?
Actually, however many mu the mountainous land was sold for was in Qi Lizheng’s hands. As for going to the Government to formalize the deed, that was just procedural; the Government wouldn’t send anyone to measure the exact size, nor check the sale price.
After realizing Yu Changhe was not someone to take advantage, Qi Lizheng’s affection for him increased dramatically.
While leading Yu Changhe to measure agricultural land, he loudly instructed his sons, "Take big steps..."
Then, he looked back at his youngest son Qi Shanbao, "You don’t need to measure, your legs are short..."
I’m already sixteen, I’ve grown enough, where are my legs short?
Yu Changhe also bought ten mu of land, and those ten mu were scattered in different locations.
The land was overgrown with weeds and needed to be cleared by themselves. Once cleared, it needed nurturing.
Taohua Village had many people but little fertile land. Anyone wanting to farm had to buy barren land and develop it themselves.
This kind of barren land was cheap, at two liang per mu, and as such lands needed nurturing, for the first three years the cleared land was exempt from tax grain.
The deed stated ten mu, but the land Qi Lizheng allocated to Yu Changhe far exceeded ten mu.
After Yu Changhe and Sun Fengshou paid for the land, they drove with Qi Lizheng to the Government, securing the land and house deeds that very day. Check latest chapters at 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✦𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✦𝓷𝓮𝓽
Yu Changhe also invited Qi Lizheng to stay for lunch, later driving Qi Lizheng back to Taohua Village.
When leaving, Yu Changhe gave Qi Lizheng two bottles of white wine at Taotao Residence. Over the course of the day, Yu Changhe and Qi Lizheng had grown as close as old brothers, feeling as though they had met too late in life.
At night, Yu Changhe took out a parcel containing two deed papers for Sun Fengshou, naming him on the land and house deeds.
Out of the ten mu of land, Yu Changhe gave five mu to Sun Fengshou. Both Grandma Sun and Sun Fengshou accepted it tearfully and gratefully.
Sun wiped her old mother’s tears, "Mother, once the house is built, I’ll find a matchmaker to arrange a wife for my brother. Maybe in a few years, you might have two more big grandsons!"
Overwhelmed by Sun’s words, Grandma Sun embraced Sun and wept.
In the following days, Yu Changhe and Sun Fengshou began driving the carriage back and forth to Taohua Village non-stop.
Sun Fengshou was responsible for hiring people to clear the land and cultivate it, while Yu Changhe took care of purchasing timber for building houses and blue bricks.