The fierce peasant woman is busy farming

He suddenly wanted to find his old friend.

Playing chess, drinking, chatting, and appreciating flowers...

I wasted the first half of my life, missed so many good things, and lost so much wonderful time.

Old man Cui left without hesitation, leaving a letter behind and taking only an old servant with him, and quietly came to Liangcang Town not far from Beijing.

Unexpectedly, when I arrived here, I found out that my old friend had passed away due to illness a long time ago.

Some of his family members have passed away, and some have moved away, leaving only an empty house. Only every few years would distant relatives come back to worship their ancestors and visit the old house.

Mr. Cui cried bitterly and went to his old friend's tomb to pay tribute to him.

He thought about it and decided to move into his old friend's old house.

Two rooms were cleaned out for living, and the rest were left untouched.

It is indeed not a good idea to move in without the owner's consent.

Someone came to drive him away, so he went to find the village chief and the patriarch of his old friend's family.

His follower Cui Da went to the county to meet the county magistrate, and after some words, they all agreed.

Asking them to keep their identities secret, Old Man Cui promised to donate ten strings of cash to the village ancestral hall, one hundred books, and to write an inscription and a plaque for the gate of the county government.

Just think of it as rent. This price is enough to live in the inn for a few years.

Books are precious and rare, and some books cannot be bought even with money.

Everyone got what they wanted and everyone was happy.

Cui Renjie stayed there.

He wandered around every day, looking for people to play chess with, chat with, and eat at the market. He was very happy.

Today's harvest was quite fruitful. I got to eat the whitefish I had been craving for.

He also accepted a good apprentice.

Zhou Yue and the others didn't know Cui Renjie's identity.

But knowing that the other party is a big shot and now Xuan Mo’s teacher, he must respect him.

Cui Renjie didn't expect that he could find a good apprentice when he came to his old friend's hometown.

The law of good karma should be made clear.

Xuan Mo became a disciple and sat on a small stool beside the stall with his teacher, chatting in low voices.

Soon another wave of people came to the market, but perhaps since no one ate breakfast, business was better in the first half of the morning.

At noon, everyone had lunch before going to the market, so fewer people were willing to buy fish in the second half of the afternoon.

After a while, Cui Da came over with a box of things.

Xuan Mo saw it from afar and hurried over to take the box, but the box was so heavy that he almost dropped it.

Seeing the white-haired Cui Da lifting it so easily, I thought it was not heavy.

Xuan Mo smiled awkwardly, then quickly picked it up and put it on the small stool next to Cui Renjie.

Cui Renjie twirled his beard, smiled, and nodded imperceptibly.

He pulled the box over, opened it, and showed Xuanmo a set of pens, ink, paper and inkstone inside.

"This is a gift for you. I came here in a hurry and didn't bring anything with me.

This is the only set I have collected. I have always carried it with me and never wanted to use it. Now I have finally found a good place for them.

As your teacher, I hope that the good wind will help you soar into the sky."

Zhou Yue hurriedly said: "You are just a kid, don't waste such a good thing.

You can keep it for your use."

"It doesn't matter. This child is worth it. He is a good seedling."

"Thank you very much, Master. We will visit you again next time and present a thank-you gift."

"Thank you, teacher!" Xuan Mo bowed again.

"No need to be polite. We are master and disciple, no need to be polite.

I live in the first alley, at the first gate, on the east street.

You don’t need to prepare too much as a thank-you gift to your teacher, just some food will be enough.”

Zhou Yue could see that Mr. Cui was an old gourmet who knew how to eat.

We need to prepare more mountain game for him to taste.

The market was over, and after saying goodbye to Old Man Cui, everyone headed back.

When they were almost at the village, Yuan Mo suddenly remembered that the dry forest the village chief had mentioned was in the mountain over there.

It would be better to go home early today and take mother to see that place.

Let others go home to cook and rest first.

Zhou Yue followed Yuan Mo up the mountain to see the land.

After walking for a while, they finally reached a hillside. Yuan Mo pointed to a forest in the distance and said:

"Mom, this piece of land is our original dry land, called Xishuao. You have been here twice since you woke up. Do you remember it?"

"Yes, I remember that the crops grown in the dry land were beans, millet, peanuts, sweet potatoes and other grains."

"Yes, these are the only things you can grow on dry land. We have to rely on God for our livelihood."

“What is the production volume?”

“I haven’t calculated the exact amount, but our family only has this piece of land, and we produce dozens of kilograms of soybeans, mung beans, red beans, and black beans every year.

Several kilograms of sesame seeds and dozens of kilograms of peanuts are all used to extract oil.

There were several hundred kilograms of sweet potatoes, most of which were eaten, and some were fed to pigs.

Our pigs mainly rely on sweet potatoes, rice bran, and vegetable leaves to gain weight in autumn and winter."

Such a large piece of land, and so many people working hard for a whole year, only produce such a small amount.

The people suffer, and the farmers suffer the most.

"Mom, over there, where the water is flowing, is the land that the village chief mentioned, the one he wanted to sell to our family for nine taels of silver."

Yuan Mo pointed to the forest farther away and tried to show it to Zhou Yue.

"Oh, including that place?"

Zhou Yue pointed to a gentle slope.

She remembered that the gentle slope was where she woke up injured.

She seemed to remember that there was a ginseng tree on the cliff.

Although she didn't know how to tell the age of ginseng, she didn't know the price of ginseng in this world.

But I heard the clerk in the town's pharmacy say that Panax notoginseng is comparable to ginseng, and later he said it is comparable to gold. I guess the price of ginseng should be quite high.

Not to mention such a large piece of mountain land, if we manage it well and produce a little from planting and breeding, we can also earn a lot of money every year.

Just for that ginseng, it's worth buying the land.

"Also, Brother Yuan, where is the farthest point? That mountain?"

Zhou Yue asked as he looked at the mountain behind the water flow in the distance.

"I don't know. I have to ask the village chief. Mom, do you want that side?

I heard that the mountain is deep in the mountains behind. This side of the mountain belongs to our village, but the other side is unowned land.

Going further west, we will reach Shanxi.”

“What does terra nullius mean?

So where do we belong here?"

"Unowned land does not belong to any village but to the imperial court. If you want to buy such land, you have to go to the county and find the county magistrate to buy it.

We are in the Hedong area."

"Oh, Hedong...

I see water flowing down there, maybe there is a water source on that mountain."

"Oh, you mean the water curtain?

It’s just after summer so there’s water now. It will freeze again in winter, but there will be much less water.

But in the spring and early summer, there’s no water.”

"Oh, when it's drier, there's less water? Where does the water go?"

“I don’t know, the mountains over there are too high and the road is too long.

This is the mountain road. It looks not far away, but it will take us two hours to reach the water curtain.

This is also the reason why the land has not been sold.

It takes half a day to get there, and by the time you get there you're hungry and it's time to go home, so you can't work.

It’s farther away than the scorpion tip at my second uncle’s house.

So even though there is water there, everyone thinks it is too far and doesn’t want to buy it.”

"Oh, where does the water from the waterfall and the curtain of water go?"