Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 777 - 397: Moon Appreciation and Ancient Tales_2
Under the bright moon, the clear night sky had only a few wisps of clouds, which resembled thin gauzy silk spreading out and unable to hide anything. Instead, it made the stars and moonlight seem even more serene and beautiful.
Lian Manman took a knife, picked out a piece of each type of mooncake filling, and cut them into tiny bites, arranging them on a large plate to share with everyone. That way, everyone could taste as many different mooncakes as possible.
Having sliced the mooncakes, Lian Manman then went to break apart a pomegranate. She had entrusted Shopkeeper Wu to buy it in the county town; it was large, each one weighing six or seven taels, filled with numerous seeds and abundant juice, and tasted sweet.
Xiao Qi sat next to Lian Manman, sharing a pomegranate with her.
"Sister, is there really a Chang’e and a Jade Rabbit on the moon?" Xiao Qi asked Lian Manman.
"That, there should be... I guess," Lian Manman replied thoughtfully and hesitantly.
"Ah..." Xiao Qi then gazed up, staring unblinkingly at the moon in the night sky.
"...The other day, when I was coming down from the mountain after work, I saw Woo Ergou and Woo Sangou," Lian Shouli was speaking with Lian Shouxin, "Their families have begun to harvest too. They’re harvesting peanuts from the fields near Nanshan. Woo Ergou saw me and insisted on talking. He said the crops weren’t good this year... talking about worms in the peanuts and said it would be good to get even half of last year’s yield."
"They both said that?" Lian Shouxin frowned slightly, "Aren’t they spouting nonsense? The peanuts were taken care of so well this year. Remember when we harvested the peanuts from my six acres of land? Didn’t we see how well those peanuts grew? How could there be any worms?"
"That’s what I told him. He said after we took back the land, somehow the peanuts began to wither and got worms," Lian Shouli said.
"What are they trying to pull?" Lian Shouxin’s frown deepened.
"What else could it be," Lady Zhang, who overheard the conversation, chimed in, "It’s just them saying their harvest is less so they can pay a smaller share of the rent to the Upper Room when the time comes."
This year, Old Master Lian had entrusted the land to the Woo Family Brothers, with the agreement that they would pay rent based on the actual yield, after deducting the provision for Lian Shouli’s family. If the total yield was low, then the rent the Woo Family Brothers had to pay Old Master Lian would naturally be less.
"Just the other day, Jiang San’s Wife confided in me while in West Village. She asked why our Old Master would rent out the land to them, those people are utterly deceitful, on a single trip down the street where they live, a chicken that runs into their property never makes it out again. When confronted, even though witnesses confirm they caught the chicken, they still deny it," Lady Zhang added.
Old Fourth, you probably don’t remember this well. In the past, when our family rented out land, it was to their family. I recall their payment of the rent never being prompt and they would always complain of poverty, either due to drought or flood; always some excuse. Those years, our family barely collected any rent," Lian Shouli reminisced. Lian Manman had never heard this old tale of the Lian Family, so she turned her head and listened intently. The other children’s attention was also drawn to the story.
"Later, our money slowly dwindled, and the land rent decreased, so Dad took back the land for us to cultivate ourselves. Because of that, their family tricked ours out of several bags of grain. They claimed that since our family had taken back the land, they were going to starve or something. Back then, Ergou and Sangou’s father was alive by the name of Woo Laokang, and it was him, together with his sons, who came to our house to take the grain."
Lian Manman listened with rapt attention; she couldn’t believe there had been such incidents. The Woo Family was capable of such petty acts, and the Old Master had been so gullible.
"I barely remember it now, but now that you mention it, Third Brother, it’s coming back to me," Lian Shouxin said.
"How does that make any sense?" Lian Manman couldn’t help but say, "The land belonged to my granddad, and if he wanted it back, couldn’t they just lease land from someone else? How could that possibly lead to starvation, let alone demand grain from my granddad?"
"They were just being shameless," Lady Zhang replied.
"If they paid less in rent, could my granddad not have known and let them get away with it?" Wu Lang asked. Given Old Master Lian’s shrewdness, he shouldn’t have been fooled easily.
"What didn’t your granddad know? He just had a soft heart," Lian Shouli explained, "Their family was poor, and whenever it was time to pay the rent, they’d drag along their wife and children to plead poverty to your granddad, kowtowing to him. Your granddad felt sorry for them, so he’d turn a blind eye."
"I’m starting to remember a bit now. Back then, their family even tried to form some kind of kinship with ours, calling us close and dear. But later, after we took back our land to cultivate ourselves, they stopped coming around, and when we did encounter them, sometimes they’d speak, sometimes they wouldn’t," Lian Shouxin continued.
"I think I’ve also heard the old folks in the village say that their family was very poor, that the mother of those two brothers didn’t even have trousers to cover her ankles," Lady Zhang added.
"With their family like that, why would my granddad rent the land to them again? Aren’t there others in the village who could rent it?" Lian Manman asked, puzzled.
"It seems they knew your granddad wanted to lease out the land, so they stopped him on the road and knelt down to beg for mercy," Lian Shouxin responded.
"Oh..." Lian Manman expressed, her voice heavy with implication.
"Your granddad, he has that kind of good nature. He must have seen their pitiful state and just softened up and agreed," Lady Zhang whispered to Lian Manman.
"Considering how well they can scratch up benefits for themselves, their life should have improved over the years, right?" Lian Manman asked.
"Improved? It’s not much different from before," Lian Shouli replied.
"Third Brother, about this matter..." Lian Shouxin asked Lian Shouli, "Shouldn’t we do something?" They couldn’t let others fool the Old Master.
"What can we do? How should we do it?" Lian Shouli scratched his head, asking Lian Shouxin in return.
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Here’s the first update. I’m asking for your votes.
There will be a second update tonight.
P.S. When making leek pockets, if you add cornmeal to the white flour, the fried leek pockets have a softer and more delicious crust than those made with pure white flour. This is a discovery Ruoyan made in an attempt to increase the intake of coarse grains. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for it on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
