Chapter 27: The Miserly Landlord Who Enslaves His Long-Term Farmhands

Half a wild boar sold at Fragrant Tower for one tael of silver and five hundred eighty wen. Old Pei also brought up the wolf cubs. “Brother Xi Jue…”

Xi Jue lowered his head and looked at Old Pei, who only reached his chin, and gave no response to the greeting.

Old Pei’s face carried a faint excitement. “I sent those two wolf cubs out last time. Aiya, my gift was one of a kind. They took a liking to it right away. Hahaha.”

“Oh,” Xi Jue replied coldly, not knowing why Old Pei was bringing this up. Whether he gave those two wolf cubs away or ate them had nothing to do with him. Still, he patiently listened for a while.

Who would have thought Old Pei would go on and on once he started? From giving gifts, he somehow rambled all the way to when he was a child. Even Xiao Cong grew anxious listening. He tugged Dou Ming’s clothes and said quietly, “Boss Pei, we still need to sell peaches, so we’ll be going first.”

“Huh?” Old Pei stopped talking, licked his dry lips, took a red peach from the basket, casually rubbed it on his clothes, and bit into it with a crunch. “Your peaches are really sweet. How much per jin?”

“Two wen per jin.” Xiao Cong thought for a moment, then added, “They’re all the sweetest peaches from the mountaintop, picked fresh this morning.”

“I’ll take them all.” Old Pei took another bite and praised, “They really are sweet.”

Xiao Cong smiled happily. He had not expected selling peaches to go so smoothly. Gathering his courage, he asked, “Will you want peaches tomorrow? I can bring another basket tomorrow.”

“Not tomorrow. These are enough for my family to eat for two days. Once we finish them, I’ll find you to buy more.” Old Pei smiled and patted the top of Xiao Cong’s head.

Xiao Cong covered his head and, shy all over, hid behind Dou Ming.

After leaving Fragrant Tower, they headed straight for the West Market.

Xiao Cong and Dou Ming sat beside the ox cart selling flower crowns. Qiu Sheng took Xi Jue to look at farm tools. They planned to reclaim wasteland and fertilize the fields soon, so they could still make it in time to plant a round of winter wheat.

Xi Jue’s enthusiasm was high, and a faint smile hung on his usually expressionless face. Even Qiu Sheng beside him could sense his happiness.

The two of them walked from the West Market all the way to the East Market, going into every blacksmith shop to ask prices. After comparing every shop on the street, they finally chose one with cheap prices and solid goods.

Qiu Sheng said to the blacksmith shop assistant, “Three each of hoes, iron shovels, and picks.”

“Four. Four of each,” Xi Jue suddenly said.

“Including Dou Ming, your family only has three people who can work. Why order four?” Qiu Sheng asked in confusion.

Xi Jue said, “Xiao Cong and Tuo Tuo can both work.”

Qiu Sheng widened his eyes and accused him, “They’re children. The work they can do is just helping carry things and picking weeds. They can’t do anything else. Last time, Tuo Tuo even struggled to carry an iron shovel. Xiao Cong is only eight, and Tuo Tuo is five!”

“They can work,” Xi Jue insisted. “Last time it was because the iron shovel was too long, and Tuo Tuo is small. This time, make the iron shovels smaller. Then they can both work.” He said to the assistant, “Make two sets smaller, suitable for children.”

This time, not only did Qiu Sheng think Xi Jue had gone mad, even the blacksmith shop assistant standing to the side to receive them thought Xi Jue did not seem like a normal person. Even the poorest families did not have five- and eight-year-old children carrying hoes to reclaim wasteland.

“Children that young really aren’t suited for farmwork.” The way the assistant looked at Xi Jue changed. Had this man bought those two children? Even calves were not worked like that.

This man was covered in patches, and he wanted to reclaim wasteland too, so his family was clearly poor. Running a shop, the assistant had seen all kinds of people coming and going. He had seen poor families, but he had never seen a family so poor that eight- and five-year-old children had to go down to the fields to reclaim wasteland.

Qiu Sheng dragged Xi Jue to the side and said quietly, “Xiao Cong and Tuo Tuo really are still young. If the two of them take good care of Yun Shan so you and Huaniang don’t have to worry, that’s already pretty good. If you make them go down to the fields, they really won’t be able to do much work.”

“They can work,” Xi Jue said very firmly. “The two of them also want to learn how to farm. Buy them farm tools.”

Qiu Sheng tried to persuade him, and the assistant tried to persuade him, but Xi Jue remained set on equipping both Xiao Cong and Tuo Tuo with tools. In the end, he paid a deposit of two taels of silver and agreed to pick up the goods seven days later.

Qiu Sheng pitied Xiao Cong and Tuo Tuo, and he felt unhappy. What was this supposed to be? Those two were so small. It was not as if the family could no longer survive. The money Xi Jue and Dou Ming earned from hunting every day could match what a farming family earned in half a year, so why make such young children suffer?

Xi Jue was even their real father, wasn’t he? He looked like a decent person, but toward the three older sons, he never seemed like a father. Instead, he was like a miserly landlord enslaving long-term farmhands. Only Yun Shan was his son? Were the others not his biological sons? Would they not support Xi Jue in his old age in the future?

“Why are you unhappy?” Xi Jue had obviously noticed Qiu Sheng’s mood. Qiu Sheng talked a lot, and a situation where he walked an entire street without saying a single word had never happened before.

“I’m angry at you!” Qiu Sheng poured all the words out in one breath. “Xiao Cong and Tuo Tuo are children. How can you make them go down to the fields to reclaim wasteland? Xiao Cong isn’t even as tall as an iron shovel.”

Xi Jue said, “That’s why we need to buy small ones. Suitable.”

Qiu Sheng choked with anger. “That’s not what I’m talking about. They’re children! Children! Aside from Yun Shan, you don’t cherish the other three at all.”

Xi Jue thought in his head for a while, then slowly said, “Yun Shan is small. They’ve already grown up.” Even the youngest, Tuo Tuo, was already a hundred years old.

“How have they grown up? Tuo Tuo is only five. Five-year-old children in the village are still peeing in mud and playing with it. Whose child that age follows people down to the fields to reclaim wasteland?” Qiu Sheng was furious. Xi Jue seemed just like a stepfather too. No wonder the old saying went, once there was a stepmother, there was also a stepfather. Although Hua Qi seemed like a decent person, Qiu Sheng had seen how she treated the children. It could not be called especially kind, though she had not withheld food from them either.

Xi Jue frowned. Human cubs did not work when they were little?

By the time the two of them reached the West Market, Qiu Sheng was still scolding Xi Jue. Xiao Cong overheard a little and hurriedly defended Xi Jue. “Uncle Qiu Sheng, Tuo Tuo and I were the ones who asked Xi Jue to help buy little farm tools. We want to go down to the fields with everyone.”

Qiu Sheng paused, touched Xiao Cong’s head, and said, “Xiao Cong, tell me the truth. Did you and Tuo Tuo really want to go down to the fields yourselves? Huaniang and Xi Jue didn’t force you? Don’t worry. If something is wrong, tell Uncle Qiu Sheng. Uncle Qiu Sheng will definitely help you.”

Xiao Cong raised his little round head and opened his round, bright eyes as he said, “It really was Tuo Tuo and me who wanted to go down to the fields. We want to learn how to farm and grow grain for Yun Shan to eat.”

Listen to what Xiao Cong said. Go down to the fields and grow grain for his little brother to eat. How sensible Xiao Cong and Tuo Tuo were! Wasn’t this all caused by Xi Jue and Hua Qi’s favoritism? No child in the village was as sensible as Xiao Cong and Tuo Tuo. Usually, they helped look after Yun Shan, and even when they went up the mountain to play, they did not forget their little brother. The more Qiu Sheng looked at Xiao Cong, the more tender pity filled his gaze.

Not a single one of the five flower crowns Xiao Cong had brought that morning had sold. He scooped some water from the bucket and sprinkled it over the flower crowns, then gathered his courage and called out, “Flower crowns, flowers picked from the mountain, one wen each.”

Although Xiao Cong had mustered up the nerve to shout, to Dou Ming’s ears, the sound was not much louder than Xiao Cong’s usual speaking voice.

Dou Ming said, “I’ll do it.” He took a deep breath and raised his voice. “Flower crowns! Selling flower crowns! One wen each!”

Just like the first time Dou Ming had shouted to sell firewood, everyone on the whole street turned to look at him. Dou Ming continued calling, “Selling flower crowns! One wen each!”

After he shouted several times, a little girl with two braids ran up in front of them. The little girl had a round face and a big fleshy nose. She clutched a copper coin in her palm and said like a little adult, “I’ll buy one.” She stretched out her finger and pointed at the flower crown with the most flowers. “I want this one.”

Xiao Cong hurriedly handed the flower crown over, accepted the copper coin, and happily passed it to Xi Jue.

After that, no matter how Dou Ming kept shouting, people came and went on the street, but no one else stopped in front of their stall. The remaining flower crowns were probably not going to sell. Xiao Cong put the flower crowns back on the cart, and the group drove the ox cart home.

Xiu Niang carried a basket, said goodbye to her parents, elder brother, and sister-in-law, then hurried home. After staying at her maiden home for so long, she did not know whether Chun Hua at home had woken up.

Across the courtyard wall, she heard the thump, thump, thump of bones being chopped in the yard, and Xiu Niang thought Qiu Sheng and the others had returned. Only after entering the courtyard gate did she realize Huaniang was the one chopping bones.

“Where’s Chun Hua? Has she woken up?”

Hua Qi pointed at the room and said, “Tuo Tuo is taking Chun Hua and Yun Shan to sleep in the room. I haven’t heard any crying.” He tapped the little bones on the table with the back of the knife. “Pig Fright Bone. Give one to each of the two children too.”

“Ai.” Xiu Niang agreed happily.

Tuo Tuo heard the movement and poked his head out from under the window, smiling as he called, “Xiu Niang, you’re back.”

“I’m back.” Xiu Niang answered, went into the kitchen, set down the basket, and lifted out the small half-bag of glutinous rice inside. Her mother knew she loved eating glutinous rice and had specially saved it up for her.

At the bottom of the basket, there was still one string of coins. The red cord stringing the coins together was so dirty it had turned black, and there was a dead knot tied at the end.

Xiu Niang remembered that this was the red cord she had used to tie her hair when she was a child. Every single wen on that red cord had been saved with great difficulty by her parents, elder brother, and sister-in-law over so many years.

Her family had fled famine from the south and settled in Dongwang Village with nothing at all. At first, her father went up the mountain to cut thatch and built a thatched hut himself.

Later, after they saved a little money, they built three mud-brick rooms. Within two years, her eldest brother married. Then her little nephews were born one after another. Everywhere needed money. Her maiden family had never managed to save any spare money.

This time, when she went back to borrow money, her mother said the family only had three taels of silver saved. They would keep two taels for themselves and lend one tael of silver to her.

Xiu Niang put on an apron, turned back into the yard, and, carrying the string of coins, said to Hua Qi in embarrassment, “I’ll pay back another tael of silver. I’ll still owe five taels.”

After thinking for just a moment, Hua Qi knew Xiu Niang had gone back to her maiden family to borrow money. He put down the knife and teased Xiu Niang for the first time. “Are you trying to pay off the money as soon as possible so you can drive out all of us big eaters?”

“What kind of talk is that?” Xiu Niang put the money beside the small table, patted her apron, and joked, “Even if I drove you out, Huaniang, you wouldn’t leave.”

“That’s true too.” Hua Qi smiled. They still had to cling to Qiu Sheng and Xiu Niang to learn how to farm.

They really were not anxious about the money. Aside from not being able to change back into their original forms, everything else in Xiu Niang’s home was very comfortable.

“I told you, there’s no hurry. If we don’t have money to build a house, we’ll just keep clinging to your family. What are you so anxious for?”

He had once seen a family turn against one another for money, and he had also seen people repay kindness with enmity because of money. Hua Qi was worried about Xiu Niang and Qiu Sheng. These two humans were very kind, and he did not want them to change their nature because of money.

“I know, I know.” These words made Xiu Niang feel extremely comforted.

“Don’t just keep agreeing that you know.” Hua Qi said with dissatisfaction, “You agreed last time too. So why did you still go borrow money this time? Owing here or owing there, it’s all owing. Why bother taking an extra turn?”

Xiu Niang smiled. How could that be the same? She and Xi Jue’s family had only known each other for a few days. How could she keep dragging it out and owing them?

“Xiu Niang.” Hua Qi put down the knife and said solemnly, “You have to take this in. We’re still eating your family’s rice and flour for free. Eh?”

Hua Qi looked at the little ginseng spirit poking his head out from the window. “I told Xi Jue to buy rice and flour. Why didn’t he buy any?”

Tuo Tuo remembered that there really had been such a thing, and he had been the one to tell Hua Qi about it. “Did he forget? Have Xi Jue go buy some tomorrow.”

Before, when the family still had some spare money, Xi Jue’s family eating some rice and flour had not bothered Xiu Niang that much. Now the family only had around a hundred copper coins left, and after this batch of rice and flour was eaten up, she did not even know how they would buy more. She only listened from the side and said no polite refusal. She really could not say any polite words about this!

Hua Qi picked up the knife again and asked Xiu Niang, “How big should the meat be cut?”

“The meat needs to be minced fine, chopped into paste. I’ll wash these two little bones first and set them out to dry. Once the smell is gone, Yun Shan and Chun Hua can wear them.”

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