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nChapter 56 : Hamlet (2)

nWalking towards the fields, Steward Chen pointed to a piece of paddy field and said, “Miss, the best-growing piece is the superior paddy field, and the second is the medium paddy field.” As he walked along Yuxi, he told her how to tell the difference between good and bad paddy fields, and also the differences between them.

nSince Yuxi stayed in a hamlet for more than a year in her previous life, she also knew a little about farming, so she could not help asking Steward Chen a few questions on farming.

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nThe works in the farmstead were the only thing that Steward Chen could handle quite well, so naturally, it was unlikely for him to be baffled when being asked a lot about them. He answered all of Yuxi’s questions in detailed, and saw Yuxi nodded, showing her understanding of his answers.

nSteward Chen felt strange. Miss had been staying in the boudoir most of the time, so, how could she know a lot of things about farming. He mustered his courage asking, “Miss sure knows a lot.”

nYuxi knew what Steward Chen was wondering about and responded with a smile, “I know all these from books. It’s only armchair strategist (Chinese idiom : people who engage in idle talk, but are unable to act on their high minded theories. There is a true story behind the idiom. You can click the idiom to read it in English). It can’t compare with the experiences handed down from ancestors.”

nSteward Chen felt relieved as it turned out that Yuxi just read about it from a book. “This book is indeed a good. It even talked about farming.”

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nYuxi just smiled, without responding to Steward Chen’s words.

nIt took half an hour for them to see all the rice fields, and then they made their way to the foot of the mountain. On the road, Yuxi asked Steward Chen regarding the field rent, “How much is the field rent here? Is it fifty percent of the profits?” Even large families in the capital rented their land by fifty percent of the profits earned by the land yields. Usually, they would collect half of the land income, but there were also exceptions. Here, for example, if it was collected according to fifty percent, it was absolutely impossible for a steward to live in such a good house. Yuxi did not want to make special concessions on land rent, however she also not willing to exploit tenants by increasing their burden either.

nSteward Chen nodded and said, “Previously, the Lu family rented the land for sixty percent of the profits earned by the yield sales. Since yield per mu (a traditional unit of area, equal to 60 square zhang 平方市丈, and equivalent to 6.667 ares or 0.165 acre) is high, even when the tenants are charged with high percentage, they still have more than enough profits to be shared with their families.“

nYuxi said, “I’m not going to follow the Lu family. I’m going to follow the norm, which is an equal distribution of profits between renter and tenants.”

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nSteward Chen was an honest and sincere person, so he was very protective of Yuxi’s interests. “Then, Miss, we will receive less income.” If the rents were collected according to Yuxi’s method, it was equivalent to a ten percent reduction in income. In fact, even if they just followed according to Lu family’s method, the tenants would not also have any objection.

nLooking at the rice fields, Yuxi said, “I don’t need that much money.” When she lived in a hamlet in her previous life, she saw the poor life of those tenants, and she was powerless to do anything. Now that the property was hers and she had the right to decide, she tried to make her tenants’ daily life as good as possible. Of course, this had to be within the reasonable range. If she gave too much mercy, then it couldn’t be considered as grace, but instead showed that she was still young and easy to be fooled. Everything had to be in order.

nWhen Steward Chen saw that Yuxi had already made up her mind, he also had no more objection on the matter.

nThe group of people soon arrived under a jujube tree. At that time, when Yuxi bought this piece of land, she was told that there was a big jujube tree and a chestnut tree. Looking at the sparse jujube trees here, she asked, “How many jujube trees are there?” At that time, when she bought it, she felt that there must be some water supply around the area. Instead, she saw that the hundreds of jujube trees had became jujube forests. Sure enough, the statement she had been told were all an exaggeration.

nAlthough Steward Chen had not been here for a long time, he was already very familiar with the place. After listening to Yuxi’s question, he answered, “There are a total of sixty-five jujube trees here.”

nYuxi finally knew that the Lu family had reported an unreliable figure. To cheat the buyers, they even reported the value of the land as five times more than it actual value. They really wanted money that much that didn’t even feel that shameful when they told the lie. “Then, how many the chestnut trees are there?”

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nSteward Chen said, “There are one hundred forty-six chestnut trees in total. Miss, besides the chestnut trees and jujube trees, there are also quite a few fir trees on the mountain. They all grow well and can be sold for a lot of money after a few years.” He thought that it was a good deal for Miss to buy this mountain forest.

nYuxi didn’t put much hope on this. Even if there were Chinese fir, there wouldn’t be many. She casually asked, “How many are the Chinese fir?”

nSteward Chen seriously said, “Well, there is a large area. I roughly estimated that there are tens of thousands of them. These fir trees are all grow well and can be cut down in ten years at most.”

nYuxi didn’t see this coming. Only regarding the fir trees that the Lu family didn’t give a false report, so, she didn’t lose too much…at least.

nThe sun was high in the sky and Yuxi felt so hot that she was wet all over. Zijin cautiously said, “Miss, it’s too hot, let’s go back!” She worried that Miss would suffer heatstroke if she didn’t hurriedly go back.

nYuxi nodded and said, “Then, let’s go back!” There was a miasma on the mountain and nobody dared to go up anyway.

nThe group of people immediately walked back down to the foot of the mountain. When Yuxi looked at many wasteland nearby, she asked Steward Chen again, “Why don’t these wasteland be used?” This type of land could be used to grow crops such as peanuts.

nSteward Chen replied, “There are many wild dirty swines at the foot of the mountain. I’m afraid they will spoil the plants that I’m planted.”

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nYuxi actually knew about wild boars would destroy foodstuffs, “If there is wild boar in our business, find some people to hunt it down. It is better to plant this wasteland than to waste it.”

nSteward Chen hastily nodded, “This old servant will arrange it.”

nAfter Yuxi’s mind made a big round turn, she finally could guess where the land stood. When she returned to the big house inside the hamlet, she saw Mama Fang and Steward Meng were waiting for her in the courtyard.

nYuxi specially called Mama Fang and Steward Meng to come over to negotiate with Steward Chen about planting crops.

nBaozi (steamed stuffed bun) shop and grocery store needed a lot of things, and they usually bought them. Since Yuxi bought the land property, she had sent people directly to pick up all the things that the baozi shop needed, such as melon seeds, peanuts, food and various kinds of vegetables that the grocery store needs. However, both Mama Fang and Steward Meng felt that if the farmstead was properly used it would save the operational costs of the shop and store.

nYuxi changed her clothes and said to them as if they had something to say to her, “Let’s talk after lunch.” It was noon now. She needed to eat her lunch at this point.

nLunch was very rich. There were it braised chicken with mushroom, braised fish in brown sauce, steamed spareribs with glutinous rice, steamed eggs, and several farm dishes, which set a full table.

nIn Yuxi’s previous life, she had lived in a hamlet of the Jiang family for more than a year, and she somehow had no misgivings. Despite at that time, she only ate two bowls of rice and a lot of vegetables.

nAfter lunch, Mama Fang and Steward Meng discussed with Steward Chen on kind of crops to plant.

nSteward Chen acted cautiously. Instead of blindly agreeing to the request of Mama Fang and Steward Meng, he told them the actual situation to show which crops could be planted, such as peanuts and sunflowers, but some crops could not be planted, such as sesame and other types of farm plants.

nYuxi listened nearby and did not interrupt them. The reason why she readily promised Mama Fang to open a grocery store at the beginning was that she knew about many kinds of fresh food, such as bacon, sausage and pickles, which would circulate in the capital several years later. She had the advantage to sell them at a good price. On this trip to this hamlet, she was originally prepared to let tenants raised some pigs, and then turned them into make bacon and sausages at the end of the year. However, when she heard Hongshan told her that the Old Madam thought she had good luck, she became alert. If she took over the hamlet and then suddenly started to provide food, she might arouse suspicion. As the saying goes, there were evil spirits when things went wrong. Proper luck was enviable, but too much luck would arouse suspicion.

nYuxi now had a baozi shop and a grocery store, plus the farmstead. She couldn’t spend so much a year because she couldn’t earn more than a thousand taels yearly. There was no need to take risks for just this little much of money. It was not cost-effective. After thinking about it, she gave up making sausage and bacon.

nThe three people discussed for more than half an hour before finally reaching an agreement. Yuxi had been listening in and did not interrupt. She, as the host, was actually equivalent to a witness for the agreement.

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nAfter the three people had finally negotiated, Yuxi said, “Although all the three shops are mine, you still have to pay the same price for your goods as you did before even when the goods are coming from this hamlet.”

nSteward Chen didn’t understand. These three properties were all belonged to Miss. She even requested the money earned by the hamlet to be returned to her. By doing it that way, it would be quite troublesome for him to do so.

nYuxi had an excellent impression of Steward Chen and found him to be a down-to-earth kind of person. She also did not feel it was too troublesome for her to explain what she really meant, “Although these three industries are all mine, if you don’t separate the accounts, there will a quite big kind of mess and I will not know how much money each of you have earned.” If financial affairs of the three properties were not separated, then everything would definitely be in a total mess.

nSteward Chen still didn’t understand.

nYuxi smiled and said, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. You just do as I say.” Honest people had their own advantages.

nWhen Meng Xiaofeng listened to Yuxi’s words, he secretly felt quite apprehensive. He didn’t expect that Miss could think this clearly, “I will listen to Miss, then the store will settle accounts with the hamlet once a month.”

nYuxi nodded and said, “The same goes for the baozi shop. In the future, separate accounts will be set up and I will look at them at the end of the year.” She trusted her Mama, but since they were all doing their own things, she had to treat everyone equally favourably (Chinese idiom : not to discriminate between people), regardless of their close relationship.

nMama Fang’s face froze in an instant, not because she felt dissatisfied with Yuxi’s request, but because she did not know how to write and how to make accounts. Only that, since they in this occasion, she would not dare to lose Yuxi’s face .

nLooking at the sky, Mama Shen came in and urged Yuxi to hurry back. Otherwise, she would be the first one to be punished by the Old Madam.

nYuxi looked at Mama Fang and others. Then said, “You all go first, I have something to say to Steward Chen.”

nAfter everyone went out, Yuxi turned to Steward Chen, “Steward Chen, my aunt chose you to take care of the hamlet for me. I also trust you. As long as you are doing good, I will not mistreat you. But if you mess up, then don’t blame me for being merciless.“ She had a good impression of Chen Steward, but it was not easy for her to look at his eldest daughter-in-law. She thought it was necessary to knock some sense to Steward Chen’s mind regarding his eldest daughter-in-law.

nSteward Chen hastily said, “Don’t worry, Miss, I will definitely take a good care of the hamlet.” He would certainly work hard, otherwise, losing this job would make it difficult for the future marriages of his two younger sons.

nYuxi felt helpless. Honest people had their own good side, but this reaction was too slow, but some words were not good enough to point the problem out. Enough was enough. Her performance today was already out of line. Now it was time for her to sit back and took it easy.

nWhen Yuxi left the house and prepared to go back home, she looked at the three people who managed her properties and said, “If you have a discussion with each other in the future, let me know the result of your discussion.”

nThey nodded their heads.

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