Chapter 86

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As Xu Ran announced to hire long-term workers to open up his family’s barren fields, the whole village knew that they had just bought ten mu of farmland. Although those fields were inferior and deserted, they were large in area. All these became the chatting topics in the village after dinner.

No one from the Xu Family came to make trouble for Xu Ran this time because they hadn’t settled the problem inside their family.

Last time Zhang Yue announced in public that he would divorce Xu Cheng, and this was really what he meant.

However, to divorce sounded not good, let alone be a Ge’er, who mentioned it first.

Of course, the Xu Family would not agree with it. After returning home that day, Zhang Yue wanted to go back to live in his dad and daddy’s home. The Xu Family didn’t agree with it, and even locked Zhang Yue at home to prevent him from going out. Even his children were not allowed to see him. Zhang Yue had tried to escape several times, and every time he was caught and beaten by Xu Cheng. Elder Daddy Xu’s abusive words were intolerable to the ear.

Zhang Yue felt that his life was worse than death. When he was lying in bed, he began to regret his decision, but every time Xu Cheng hit him, he was more determined to leave the place.

His freedom was restricted so he couldn’t go out. Thus he could only endure everything in the family. Still, Zhang Yue believed that he would leave this place. No matter what, even if he died, he would not die here. He concluded that the most regretful thing in his life was to marry Xu Cheng.

In order to prevent Zhang Yue from escaping, the Xu Family would have one of them watch him at home every day. Naturally, they were now not in the mood to make trouble for Xu Ran.

As for Xu Ran’s two uncles and their families, there was no need to mention them. The whole village knew that they had broken up with the Xu Family back then. As long as the Xu Family didn’t have any contact with them, they had no excuse to come around.

Therefore, this time everything went exceptionally smoothly.

In the end, Xu Ran got ten long-term workers at home and told them about the distribution of the 10 mu of land.

“It’s like this. This ten mu of land needs to be cultivated quickly, so I plan to divide the fields. Each household has one mu. I will pay 300 pence for each mu of land. You have to do all the work on the land from the beginning to the end. Whoever finishes the work first will get the money first. What do you think about it?”

300 pence was a great temptation, and many people agreed on the spot, but there were still a few shrewd ones,

“Xu Ran, what do you mean by doing all the work on the land from the beginning to the end?”

Xu Ran knew they would ask about it so he smiled and replied, “Actually, I plan to plant fruit trees in the fields. You are first responsible for plowing the field, and then digging holes in it. You can leave the rest work to your Ge’ers to complete. Let them plant the seedlings and spread fertilizer. Next, if we need to do weeding and fertilizing, I will pay you additional money for it. Do you think this is feasible?”

To work on one mu of land could help them earn 300 pence in total. And it only took a few days, within which they could earn more than what they got after working for one or two months outside. Since they were long-term workers, they naturally had no objections about this offer.

After everyone agreed, Xu Ran added, “I won’t cover the food here, but I’ll pay another 50 pences for each family so that you can eat at home yourselves!”

“No problem.”

“No problem.”

“Xu Ran, you are so generous. Don’t worry about the work in the field! We’ll settle everything for you. ” All the workers were satisfied.

Xu Ran felt pleased with the responses from the workers and answered smilingly, “Then thank you, everyone.”

Up till now, all the fields had been farmed out, and the ash for fertilizer was being produced. Now everything was ready except for the strawberry seedlings which were in urgent need.

Xu Ran planned to go to the town again to pay a visit to Zhuo Yun, and deliver chili paste to Mr. Chen by the way.

Last winter, they had made a lot of chili paste, which could last for a while. Liu Tong had also planted a lot of chili in the field near the house. As long as the chili grew well, it could help support their chili paste business.

Xu Ran found that the crops he planted were not up to the time of other people’s, and he was not sure whether it would work or not.

But the seeds had been planted, and they could only know the results in the harvest time. If it would not work, they could have a change according to the season! Xu Ran consoled himself silently.

On the twenty-fifth of the first lunar month, Xu Ran went to the town with chili paste on his back. He told Mr. Chen that he couldn’t send more chili paste for a while. Seeing that he had delivered a lot this time, Mr. Chen didn’t say anything and just asked him to come after he finished his work.

Xu Ran then went to the Zhuo Mansion, but he was told that Zhuo Yun and Qin Shuwen had gone to Qin Family. Xu Ran could guess why they went there. He didn’t stay there long but just let the shopkeeper say hello to Zhuo Yun.

On the way back, he happened to meet Xu An. There was another person beside Xu An, but Xu Ran didn’t know him. He was probably not from the Xu Village.

Xu Ran ran a few steps forward to greet Xu An, “Xu An, are you going back from town?”

Xu An turned back to see Xu Ran and stopped to wait for him. He said when Xu Ran got nearer, “Yes. You see a few days ago, Liu Tong came to ask me to find someone specializing in building houses. I was so lucky that I bumped into this acquaintance of mine, who happened to be from a construction team. I thus brought him to talk to you. Here, this is the person beside me, surnamed Li.”

Xu Ran took a glance at the foreman and then greeted, “Hello, Mr. Li. My name is Xu Ran. I’m from the same village as Bro Xu An’s.”

The foreman seemed to have an education of a sort. He responded to Xu Ran with a smile, “I know. Xu An has told me about you. Let’s go to your house and see what kind of house you want to build.”

“Okay, then let’s go while talking about it.”

The three of them chatted as they were walking on the way and they soon reached the Xu Village.

Xu Ran told Foreman Li that he wanted to build a brick quadrangle dwelling house of two floors. For this, Foreman Li estimated that the total cost of the construction would be 400 taels of silver at the least. If they wanted to add more items to the new house and make the life of the workers undertaking the construction task better, they would have to spend tens of taels of silver more.

As the budget was within 500 taels of silver, Xu Ran didn’t say anything further about it.

What troubled Xu Ran at the moment was that he had no idea where he could get those bricks needed for the construction. They didn’t find anything of the kind in the village. He and Liu Tong had researched a few more villages around and got nothing. They could only find bricks in town, but they were so far apart. How many days would it take for them to move all the bricks back?

Xu Ran told about his worries, and Foreman Li immediately vouched for it, “Bro Xu, don’t worry about it! We often work in the town, and some people who don’t want to take the trouble would also contract all the projects to us. We know where the bricks are sold, and we can let the brick kiln people deliver the bricks with horse-drawn carriages. The problem is that it’s a long way to go, and the freight fee has to be calculated.”

“How much will the bricks cost?” Xu Ran asked.

“This depends on how much you’ll buy. At least three pence for a brick. The price is in the range of three pence for a brick, five pence for two bricks, or sometimes we may even get one at twenty pence. As for the specific quantity of bricks required, I can make the decision after going to see the sizes of the bricks, ” said Foreman Li.

“Alright, let’s go and take a look then.”

After arriving at the village, Xu Ran did not go home. Instead, he took Foreman Li and Xu An to the construction site directly.

Xu Ran drew a big circle on the land there and told Foreman Li that all that area would be built with bricks instead of any other materials.

When Mr. Li saw such a large area and had to build a house of two floors, he felt that 400 taels of silver was not necessarily enough!

Xu Ran didn’t think money was a problem. He believed money could be earned, but since he wanted to build a house, he had to build it well.

Foreman Li said to Xu Ran, “Bro Xu Ran, from the current situation, you can buy those bricks at the price of two pence for each. Let me talk to the boss of the brick kiln. His is a private kiln, so I believe we can reach an agreement on the price.”

Xu Ran knew about the private brick kiln. Those who could run a kiln on their own were either rich or had a background. Their products’ quality was also good, so Xu Ran nodded and thanked the foreman.

After seeing the construction site, Xu Ran took Xu An and Foreman Li to his home.

It was almost noon. Before Xu Ran went out in the morning, he had said that he would come back for lunch. At the moment, Liu Tong was busy working in the kitchen. Tangtang and Guoguo were not at home, nor were they seen behind the house. Xu Ran guessed that they should have gone to cut the grass.

When there was someone at home, the door to their yard was usually half open and unlocked. Xu Ran led the guests in and called out at the kitchen, “Tongtong,  we have guests here. Please get three bowls of water for us.”

“Yes, coming,” Liu Tong’s voice came from the kitchen.

Although it was spring, it was still very cold. Xu Ran felt it was not good for all of them to sit outside, so he led the guests into the guest room.

There was a brazier in their guest room, burning the charcoal taken from the stove when cooking. Xu Ran had seen other people do this in his previous life, so he came up with this method.

However, as there was no one at home today, Liu Tong didn’t light up the brazier.

After entering the guest room, Xu Ran first seated Xu An and Mr. Li well, and Liu Tong quickly came out to serve them water.

Then he turned to light up the brazier.

Each of them three drank a bowl of hot water to keep out the cold. At the moment, the brazier was burning, and they began to feel warm.

Before they could begin with their talk, Liu Tong came to tell them that dinner was ready. He then went to find Tangtang and Guoguo.  Xu Ran began to set the big table. Xu An was used to this kind of habit in their family. Foreman Li, however, was the first time to see in such a family that a Ge’er would order his husband to do housework, while Xu Ran would not complain at all, and he managed the work very skillfully.

There was wine at home, and Xu Ran knew that as manual workers, they liked to drink wine. Thus, he got some wine ready, warmed it up and added some brown sugar inside.

The table was covered with delicious food, and there was also wine on the fire. The treatment was really good. Definitely, this was a generous family. Foreman Li believed that if he took over the construction work from Xu Ran, the group of them would surely enjoy a good life during this period of time.

Just as Foreman Li was dreaming there, Liu Tong came back with the two children, who just looked the same as two peas.

Seeing Liu Tong, Xu Ran introduce him to the guest, “Mr. Li, this is my spouse, Liu Tong. These two are my children called Tangtang and Guoguo. Tongtong, this is Mr. Li, the foreman. Bro Xu An helps us find Mr. Li in the town. He came over to take a look.”

Liu Tong said hello to Foreman Li and asked the two children to call him Uncle Li. The two children politely as requested, and then they were taken to wash hands and got ready for the dinner.