Chapter 38

Liu Tong took his two children up the mountain and went to the place they had been to yesterday. Although there might be few chilies left, there were still soybeans. They decided to go and see what they would get.

In fact, Liu Tong knew that there were still many chilies, but that they were deep into the mountain. However, the place was also the haunt of fierce beasts, very dangerous. Xu Ran knew nothing about all this, and Liu Tong didn’t want to tell him so. He was worried that Xu Ran would take the risk alone there. He decided to wait until all the chilies outside the mountain had been picked, and then he and Xu Ran would go up further onto the mountain to have a research.

Today, when Xu Ran was picking chilies, he found something else-garlic. It was easy to plant. He thus dug some garlic out with a branch and prepared to plant it at home.

Xu Ran planned to develop garlic products as well as chili paste. After all, garlic bolt tasted good, too.

It was just a pity that their family had finished picking the chilies in this place today, but they didn’t know where there were chilies to pick tomorrow.

Xu Ran sighed. He then asked Liu Tong, “Tongtong, do you know where there are more chilies?”

“There are still some further up in the mountain. I used to see them when I went hunting, but it’s too dangerous to go there alone. I have to go with you,” Liu Tong replied.

Of course Xu Ran cherished life, and one more person meant more security. He naturally agreed,

“Alright, let’s go in a few days. Let’s deal with these chilies and the soybeans first.”

“Well, Ran, I think we have now enough money to buy land. Let’s go to find the village head and buy some land tomorrow!”

“OK, ” Xu Ran replied. He knew that they really needed to do it quickly, because he was not sure if anyone else was as interested in the wasteland as he was.

“Also, we have to buy some chickens and ducks to raise. As for pigs, we will not buy them for the time being. And we’ll have to wrap the house up with the tarp paper I bought yesterday. It is getting cold, I am worried that you will all be frozen. In addition, we have to buy more quilts, too,”

Liu Tong kept on talking, while Xu Ran listened to him quietly. He knew his spouse was able to arrange everything properly.

Suddenly, Xu Ran stopped him, “Tongtong, I feel so lucky to have married you.”

That was what both he himself and the fool had in mind.

Liu Tong was quite good-looking actually. As a Ge’er, however,  in the eyes of the people in this world, he should be like a woman in modern times, gentle and delicate.

But for Xu Ran, if Liu Tong really looked like that, it would not be to his taste.

Xu Ran had been in this world for three months. They had both slept on the same bed every day. They had been busy all the time, and even their meals had become a problem. How could they think of other things? However, today, Xu Ran was passionate.

And Xu Ran didn’t intend to restrain himself. This was the man he wanted to guard all his life. As for Liu Tong, he naturally would not object to whatever Xu Ran did to him.

It was consensual, so everything between them made sense.

The next day, of course, Liu Tong got up late. Who had made Xu Ran suppress for so many months?

After getting out of bed, Xu Ran prepared breakfast happily, and then he cooked some porridge for Liu Tong.

After the meal, he taught Tangtang and Guoguo how to read. He then let them practise writing on their own, while he went out to find the village head.

“Tangtang and Guoguo, later when your daddy wakes up, tell him there is porridge in the kitchen. I’ll go to the village head to talk about buying land.”

“Got it,” replied the two kids who were so focussed on practising writing words that they didn’t even lift their heads.

At the moment, Xu Ran felt a sense of urgency.

He couldn’t care much. He immediately set out and closed the door behind him, after which he went straight to the direction of the village head’s house.

When he arrived, the village head and his family were all busy working on their grain-basking ground.

Xu Ran said hello with a smile, and then he talked about his business, “Village head, I came here today to ask you for help. I have some money in my hand and I want to buy that wasteland.”

“Oh, you’ve earned money so quickly!” The village head looked a little surprised.

Xu Ran grinned, “It’s all thanks to my spouse, who went hunting in the mountain and sold the preys for money. You also know the danger on the mountain. I can’t bear to allow my spouse to adventure in the mountain, but no way out. You know we are so poor and lack money, so I want to buy that land as soon as possible. I can plant some radishes and vegetables after I open it up. In this way, we can also survive the winter.”

The village head understood Xu Ran’s situation. He replied, “OK, after the Yamen come to collect taxes, I will go to the town and invite people to come and measure the land. The price of land is two taels of silver per mu. That’s it. You don’t have to worry about it. ”

“Thank you very much, village head,” said Xu Ran, smiling while giving him a tael of silver as a return.

The village head did not refuse, and he did spend a lot of time on the land issue.

In two more days, it would be October. Xu Ran believed that it wouldn’t be long before everything about the land was settled.

Before leaving, Xu Ran met the village head’s spouse, “Daddy Xu, have you finished the chili paste we sent last time? We still have some at home, and I’ll have my two kids send you some more.”

“Oh, Xu Ran! I’d like to tell you that because of the chili paste you sent to us, my children can have more food. Thank you so much. ”

“Daddy Xu, you are welcome. Then I’ll go back first. And I’ll send some more paste here.”

“OK, take your time, Xu Ran. ”

On the way back, Xu Ran suddenly thought of corn, which he had never seen here in this era. He wondered that the corn was the most productive crop, but how could it not be seen here?

But he thought that even though there was no corn here, there might be in other places. He decided to get some seeds first and plant them by himself, after which he would lead others to get rich together!

He also thought of sweet potatoes and potatoes. Since there were potatoes in the mountain, there must also be sweet potatoes. It seemed that he could pay more attention to it when he went up the mountain next time.

When Xu Ran returned home, Liu Tong had already got up and was busy airing chilies. However, Tangtang and Guoguo were still learning those words attentively. Xu Ran saw it and planned to buy some writing brushes, inkstones and paper when he went to the town next time. In addition, he also wanted to buy some books for heimself because he had to prepare for the imperial examinations.

Although he still owned the original’s memory, he didn’t read much actually. Besides, what he had learnt was not exactly the same as what it was in this era. At best, he was only able to read.

It seemed that not only did he need to buy a lot of things, but also he had to work very hard!

However, all these things needed to be done gradually. Xu Ran temporarily put aside all the plans in his mind and ran to Liu Tong for help. This time, they got much more chili than the last time. It seemed that they needed to take quite some time to deal with it.

During the two days at the end of September, Tangtang and Guoguo went out to play with Dahu and several of the village head’s children. Xu Ran was busy airing chilies and beating soybeans, while Liu Tong picked up the needles and thread and began to make clothes.

Seeing Liu Tong sewing clothes with a needle and thread, Xu Ran couldn’t help but curl his lips. He was still not used to watching a man taking a needle and thread. He didn’t know whether this was a manifestation of sexism.

Of course, he didn’t say anything. He knew Liu Tong was working hard for the family. Moreover, he knew Liu Tong had been working in the field since he was a child. Although he knew how to sew, his technique was really poor. Xu Ran couldn’t bear to laugh at him.

Two days later, Yamen runners brought tools and carriages to the village to collect the taxes. The whole village was bustling with noise and excitement. However, more villagers were crying. Although the harvest this year was good, most of them couldn’t afford to buy any more fields. The rice they had got in was just enough to feed the family, but now they had to hand in half of it as taxes. If they ran into a bad situation next year, they could only wait for their deaths.

Taxes, military service and labor were always the things ordinary people hated most but had to obey, because they lived at the bottom of society, and they could only be exploited in this era of cannibalism.

Xu Ran understood that if he wanted to get ahead, he could only try to enter the official rank by examination, or work hard to establish his own family property.

Their family had no land, so they didn’t have any taxes to pay. However, he still collected all the chilies and hid them in the cellar they had dug before. There was only little chili paste at the bottom of the jar, because most of them were delivered to the reastaurant owner, Mr. Chen. This method was something Xu Ran suddenly thought of, in order to prevent the Yamen from coming in and searching their room.

However, their luck was not so bad. When the officials saw that they lived in a bamboo house, they left without even entering the door.

Xu Ran breathed a sigh of relief. It was really not easy to live in this era.

This also strengthened Xu Ran’s determination to take the test for a scholarly honour or official rank .

…

Only after the taxes were collected did Xu Ran and Liu Tong carry the chilies out of the cellar and grind them into flour, and the soybeans were also made into chili paste.

With the previous experience, it was much easier for them this time to produce chili paste.

It took them two days to finish grinding all the chilies. Xu Ran was about to go to the town to buy oil when the village head came, saying that someone would come here to measure the land today.

So Xu Ran’s mission to the town was postponed again, which had been handed over to Liu Tong.

The arrival of the Yamen was a big event for the villagers, so there were a lot of onlookers. Xu Ran had covered the stonemill with bamboo pieces earlier, making it look like a pile of unwanted firewood, so as not to attract others’ possible attention.

Xu Ran didn’t buy anything for the officials who came to work, but secretly gave them two taels of silver. Such a smart person naturally was favored by the officials. Thus, when they measured the land, they gave more land on purpose.

Finally, Xu Ran successfully bought the land of 30 mu in total before  and behind his house, at a cost of 60 taels of silver. This really made people in the village jealous, and even the village head did not expect that Xu Ran could afford so much money for the land.

It was known that Xu Ran was a scholar and he had been a fool for so long. Although he seldom got close to others in the village, he had offended few people there either up till now. Therefore, no one would doubt about the origin of their money. In addition, the villagers all knew that Liu Tong could hunt. No matter what, Xu Ran also said to the public that they not only hunted, but also found some herbs to sell and made some money from it.

These words roused many thoughts in the villagers’ minds.

Xu Ran felt lucky that they didn’t need to go up the mountain these days, or they might be met by other villagers while they were picking chilies, which would be really hard to explain.

Around here, chili had always taken as a seasoning only. All the chilies  sold in the town were from other places. Therefore, people in the village just grew their own chilies and ate them in small quantities. And those chilies growing in the mountains had never been noticed by the villagers.

Therefore, Xu Ran was not worried that someone would go to pick those chilies high in the mountains.

The only trouble was that the 30 mu of land they bought had made a big splash in the village. It seemed that they should be on guard in the future.