Chapter Eleven Buying Land

  Lin He said, "If not, anyway, no one in our family will raise this cow. You bring your grandson to my house to help me take care of it. When we need to do farm work, you can use the cow to plow the fields for us. When we go to the market, the cow can carry people, and when there's nothing to do, you just take good care of the cow. I'll give you 200 big coins as a monthly salary. The money from carrying people at the market is all yours. Your grandson is still young, bring him back home to play with my little brother, who is only three years old. We have an extra room in our house that's usually used for storing miscellaneous things, so you and your grandson can live there with us, eating and living together. However, we're just a very ordinary farming family, I hope you don't mind."

  The old man was so grateful that he burst into tears and hastily said, "Someone has taken in me and my young grandson, and we even get a monthly allowance. I'm so grateful, how could I possibly complain?"

  Lin He nodded and said, "Then let's just say it like that."

  The old man's surname was Qin, and Lin He's family called him Old Man Qin. His grandson was named Qin Junze, and they called him Little Jun. After riding in the oxcart for more than two hours, they finally returned home.

  Huang and Xiaobao saw a cow cart stopped outside the house, thinking that guests had arrived at home, they rushed out to take a look. It turned out that several children had returned. Huang saw that Dabao had come back, was surprised, and after being happy, he was also worried. Seeing them move so many things from the cow cart, his mouth opened wide enough to hold an egg.

  Lin He saw his mother like this, and just said "Mom, I'll talk to you later."

  Then he introduced Qin Lao Ye and Xiao Jun to Huang Shi. Huang Shi asked Da Bao to take San Ya and Xiao Bao to clean up the storage room, Qin Lao Ye and Xiao Jun also helped with the cleaning. Lin He returned to the house and told Huang Shi about what had happened, giving her the remaining 120 taels of silver on his body, which he had spent tens of thousands of today in bits and pieces.

  Then he told Huang about the situation of Qin Lao Han's family, and unexpectedly Huang was very enthusiastic. He asked about Qin Lao Han and Xiao Jun's well-being, and even moved an old quilt from his home to let them use it for the night, saying they could figure out a solution tomorrow.

  Huang's family planned to first make quilts, clothes and other items with the cotton. It wouldn't be too late to buy some more cotton in a few days. Anyway, it wasn't too cold yet. Since his daughter had kept Qin Lao Ye and his grandson, they should treat them as part of their own family. The situation of Qin Lao Ye's family was indeed pitiful.

  But now that Dabao is back, things are different. When Dabao was small and lived at home with his siblings in the same house, it wasn't a problem. Now Dabao is ten years old and Erya is seven years old, so they can't live together anymore. In ancient times, there was a saying that boys and girls over seven shouldn't share a bed, and although Dabao and Erya are siblings, they still can't live together. For now, the only solution is to temporarily arrange for Dabao to live with his grandfather Qin in one room, and we'll figure something else out later.

  At night, Lin Er Niu returned home and heard that his daughter's handmade doll had sold for a good price. He was indeed delighted and specially ran to the village wine shop to buy a few bottles of wine back. At night, he also drank a few cups with Qin Lao Die.

  At night before going to bed, Huang Shi said to Er Niu: "Don't you feel that Er Ya has changed a lot recently? She's become more clever than before and doesn't seem like the original Er Ya anymore?"

  Second Cow thought Huang was overthinking it. "It's just your daughter Er Ya, after all she's older now and understands things a bit better."

  Huang thought to herself, how could it not be her own daughter? She had indeed overthought things. The second ox wrapped his arms around Huang, his hands slipping into her undergarments, and began to move. Huang's face turned bright red as she blew out the oil lamp.

  Qin old man and his grandson moved in with Lin He's family, the old man often lamented that his family had gone through so many things, during this time they had encountered many cold eyes. As the saying goes "many add flowers to brocade, but few send charcoal in snowy weather" people like Lin He's family who are kind-hearted are not many, not only did they provide a place for the two grandfather and grandson to live, but also treated them as part of their own family, even the youngest child in the house, Xiao Bao, would address him with great politeness as "Grandfather Qin", never treating him as an outsider. Being able to meet such a family was finally a chance to end that wandering life.

  Lin He thought that her family also had some extra money, and she originally wanted to renovate the house a bit. But according to Lin He's words, it was simply tearing down the original house and rebuilding it from scratch. Er Niu and Huang Shi both opposed it, thinking that Er Ya was being too reckless. Although they had earned some silver, they couldn't spend it so carelessly. What if Lin He's toy dolls didn't sell well? The family would have to rely on this silver to make a living after all.

  There are many places at home that need to be spent on silver, Lin Erniu wants to buy some fields back. Now the fields in his own home are all rented out to others, and a large sum of rent is paid every year. It's just right to buy some fields back before winter comes, and take care of them during the winter. Next year, they can be cultivated by themselves. In any case, having their own fields means that even if there is no other income, the family will not go hungry next year. Buying fields is the best choice in this era.

  Lin He thought for a moment and also felt that it was, and agreed to take some silver money to buy land. However, the house really needed to be renovated, at least the courtyard wall, gate, and courtyard needed to be renovated. In addition, Dabao also needed a room of his own, best in the courtyard, add a house. The current courtyard wall was just surrounded by corn stalks, which was not safe at all and had no confidentiality. Everything could be seen clearly from outside the courtyard.

  In the past, this house was poor and white, but in the future, it will get better and better. However, there are some people with ulterior motives. Lin He wants to renovate the house to make it more solid, at least to make it more secure. Lin He knows that the last material used for building houses in this era is green bricks, which are similar to the red bricks of the previous life, but now they are green and larger, making them the most secure material for building houses.

  Like the Xia family's house, they used those green bricks to build their house, but the price was also the most expensive. If they were to renovate the wall with all green bricks, it would cost around ten taels of silver, not counting labor and other expenses. In the end, after calculating and calculating, there was still not enough money, so the whole family decided to maintain the status quo for the time being. If Lin He's toy dolls could sell for a high price again next time, they would renovate the house. Lin He also agreed. She was very confident that her toy dolls would definitely sell for a high price.

  The next day, Lin Er Niu began to take care of the matter of buying a field. In ancient times, all land transactions were done through middlemen. Lin Er Niu found a middleman in the village to help him inquire if there was anyone nearby who wanted to sell their field, and if so, to notify him. He also gave the middleman 100 taels of silver as a reward, explaining that this was a labor fee, and whether or not he succeeded, it would not be returned.

  Lin Er Niu only said that he was asking on behalf of someone else, and didn't say much more. Ya Huan knew about the situation in Lin Er Niu's household, and also knew that Lin Er Niu's family couldn't afford to buy land themselves. The Lin family was notoriously poor in the village, and in previous years they had struggled to get enough to eat. Wondering which family wanted to buy land, and how they could be so generous with their first offer, Ya Huan didn't press Lin Er Niu for more information, but instead promised to do his best to find out, and would notify him as soon as he got any news.

  This ancient field is a valuable thing, one mu of good land can be sold for six taels of silver, and the next point is also worth four taels. If you buy such a field back and raise it for two years to make it fertile, it can also become a good field. There is another type called sandy land, which cannot be cultivated, and only some sweet potatoes and other grains can be planted at ordinary times, all of which are worth two taels of silver per mu.

  Lin Hejia planned to buy ten mu of good land as his family's grain field first. Farmers who have their own fields feel that they have property, especially in ancient times when agriculture was highly valued. Lin He could understand this and did not object to the family buying land.