TATLC Chapter 85 — Corvee

When Lu Lin came back, Liu Guiyong and his fellow villagers had already left.

“You’re in a really good mood!” As soon as Lu Lin entered the house, he saw Chen Xiaomi sitting in front of a basket full of things, his face beaming with joy.

Chen Xiaomi nodded. “The village head of Dawan Village and Uncle Liu came by. They brought some things to thank you for helping sell their sweet potatoes. Look, everything here was sent by their village.”

“Uncle Liu is too polite, and the village head of Dawan Village came too.”

Chen Xiaomi nodded again. “The village head of Dawan Village was very polite.” The other person seemed to respect him a lot. Chen Xiaomi had always been looked down on by people, so it was rare for him to be respected.

Lu Lin smiled. “Really? The village head is a good person.”

He had been to Dawan Village several times and had interacted with their village head a few times. He found him to be a down-to-earth and approachable person.

“He doesn’t seem to put on airs at all,” Chen Xiaomi remarked.

The news about Dawan Village’s sweet potato surplus problem had also spread to Dashi Village. As neighboring villages, many families in Dashi Village had marriage connections with Dawan Village.

Dashi villagers also knew about Dawan Village’s sweet potato surplus problem. Originally, they heard that Dawan Village’s sweet potatoes were too small to sell, and many people expressed sympathy. However, soon everyone heard that Dawan Village’s sweet potatoes had become popular.

The sweet potato strips made from Dawan Village’s sweet potatoes were very delicious. Many people in town specifically picked the small sweet potatoes from Dawan Village to buy, and the price of Dawan Village’s sweet potatoes went up.

After asking around, people in Dashi Village discovered that the matter was actually related to Lu Lin. It was Lu Lin who made Dawan Village’s sweet potatoes into sweet potato strips and gave them out as free gifts, which made Dawan Village’s sweet potatoes famous. That’s why Dawan Village’s small sweet potatoes suddenly became in high demand.

In fact, several families in Dashi Village had secretly followed Dawan villagers and planted small sweet potatoes. Originally, these families were also worried, but now that small sweet potatoes were in high demand, these families felt relieved.

Dawan Village still had too many sweet potatoes, and it was still somewhat difficult to sell them all. After thinking it over, the village head called on the whole village to make sweet potato strips for sale.

After Lu Lin found out, he directly bought a batch from Dawan Village to sell in his store.

After the news spread, everyone in the village thought Lu Lin was amazing. Dawan Village’s sweet potato surplus problem was solved just like that, so casually.

For a while, talk spread in the village that Lu Lin was indeed someone who had made it in town and had become successful.

Wherever Tang went, she could hear villagers praising Lu Lin in all sorts of ways. In a community where everyone depended on the land for their livelihood, a surplus of crops was a serious issue. The fact that Lu Lin had solved the problem so easily elevated his status in the villagers’ eyes to new heights.

Lu Lin had been staying in town and had no idea that he had become famous in the countryside again.

At the Zhang’s

Zhang Cheng took a drag from his pipe. “That Lu Lin kid has really grown capable.”

Not long ago, Zhang Cheng met the village head of Dawan Village, who was still looking worried and troubled. But now he was beaming with joy.

Dawan Village’s sweet potato strips seemed to be very popular and had already sold a lot. Although making sweet potatoes into sweet potato strips was more troublesome, after making them into sweet potato strips, they sold much better. Some were even sold to other market towns, and many people in Dawan Village had earned a decent profit from it.

It was said that after many people made money, they sent things to Lu Lin.

Zhang Jin nodded and said, “Yes, if it weren’t for Lu Lin, several families in Dawan Village would have had a hard time getting through winter this time.”

“He’s so capable, but he doesn’t help out the people in his own village. He cares about Dawan Village’s affairs but doesn’t think about where he came from.”

Zhang Jin thought, Although Lu Lin was from Dashi Village, didn’t he have a hard time here? Besides, many villagers were already selling their embroidery to Lu Lin. The embroidery skills of the village women were still inferior to the professional embroiderers in town. The fact that Lu Lin bought from the villagers was probably mostly out of consideration for them being from the same village.

Liu Town

Chen Xiaocai looked at the sweet potato strips and said happily, “This tastes pretty good.”

Shen Chi nodded. “Yes, the sweet potato strips I’ve eaten before weren’t as sweet as these.”

“Brother Lin hasn’t come for a while,” Chen Xiaocai scratched his head.

Shen Chi nodded again, “Last time Brother Lin came, the sweet potato pancakes he made were really delicious.”

Chen Xiaocai agreed, “Brother Lin’s cooking skills are really good.”

Back when they were in the village, Lu Lin often cooked. Later, when they moved to town, he didn’t cook as much. However, if his big brother wanted to eat something, Lu Lin would usually make it.

Chen Xiaocai felt that many of the things Lu Lin made were very novel, things that ordinary cooks couldn’t make.

After people from Dawan Village started selling sweet potato strips, using sweet potatoes as free gifts in the store lost some of its novelty.

Lu Lin collected some chestnuts and made them into sugar-roasted chestnuts, planning to use them as freebies.

After making the sugar-roasted chestnuts, Lu Lin found several people to try them.

Chen Xiaomai was very supportive of the sugar-roasted chestnuts and kept clapping while eating them.

Qin Lang and Qin Ming shared a bowl of roasted chestnuts.

“Lin-ge, I never thought the stuff inside these spiky balls could be so delicious. I’ve come across these before but had no idea they were edible. What a waste.”

Qin Ming nodded and said, “I’ve seen them too, plenty of them. If only I had known they could be eaten, I should have picked them all up.”

Qin Ming remembered that within his father’s territory, there were several chestnut trees. He used to always feel like there was nothing to eat, which was really a big mistake. It wasn’t that there was nothing to eat, he just didn’t know how to eat it.

Qin Lang thought that if he had time to go back to the mountains, he would definitely get more good stuff.

Watching Qin Lang and Qin Ming’s wide-eyed amazement, Lu Lin couldn’t help but smile. Their store was probably going to be popular again. Chen Xiaomi used to be a hunter and knew several people in the same trade. Qin Yi was a mountain dweller. These two people told several mountain dwellers about buying chestnuts, and they all readily agreed. Hunters and mountain dwellers had little income, so Lu Lin’s willingness to buy chestnuts also gave them another source of income.

Before long, a large quantity of chestnuts was delivered to Lu Lin. He made some sugar-roasted chestnuts to give out as free gifts.

Sweet potato strips were very common, but sugar-roasted chestnuts were something entirely new. Many people in town had never seen chestnuts, and while villagers had seen them, they had no idea these things were edible.

Being able to eat something they had never seen before was a novel feeling for many people.

After sugar-roasted chestnuts appeared as free gifts, there were even cases of people coming to buy things just for the free gifts.

Yang Hengzhi looked at Lu Lin and said, “Lu-shao, your store’s free gifts are really popular!” The sweet potato strips from a while ago solved Dawan Village’s sweet potato surplus problem in one go, and now the sugar-roasted chestnuts were causing a stir.

Lu Lin smiled and replied, “I have to thank everyone for giving me face and supporting me.”

Yang Hengzhi looked at Lu Lin. “Sell me some chestnuts.”

“Sure!”

Yang Hengzhi was a bit surprised that Lu Lin agreed so readily, but his excitement faded when he saw the small bag Lu Lin handed him. “Only this much?”

“We don’t have much of these, and we still need to keep some for gifts, so I can only sell you a little,” Lu Lin explained apologetically.

Yang Hengzhi grumbled, “Fine, then.”

The sugar-roasted chestnuts at Huaxia Shop had also become very popular recently. Many students at the academy bought things at the store just for the sugar-roasted chestnuts. During gatherings among scholars like Yang Hengzhi and his peers, whoever could bring out a small bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts would have a lot of face.

After the Lu family sold their grain and deducted taxes and wages for hired help, they were left with less than ten taels of silver.

Wang looked at the silver in her hand and said, “This year was supposed to be a good harvest! How come I feel like the crops in the fields didn’t grow very well!”

Old Man Lu sighed. “This land needs to be carefully tended. If you don’t fool around with it, it won’t fool around with you. There’s no one to water and fertilize the fields, so naturally they won’t grow well.”

Manure water was the best for fertilizing the land, but it was too dirty. No one in the family was willing to do such work, let alone think about using wood ash as fertilizer. Usually, no one thought to water the crops in the fields or weed them, so how could they grow well?

Wang gritted her teeth. “Both daughter-in-law and granddaughter-in-law are about to give birth. Hiring a midwife will cost money again.”

Old Man Lu shot her a warning look. “What are you thinking? We can’t skimp on that expense!”

Wang smiled awkwardly and said, “What kind of person do you think I am?”

Old Man Lu sighed. He couldn’t shake the feeling that life was poorer than before. The family was never peaceful either. His eldest and youngest sons quarreled every day, and the daughters-in-law were no better. He had aged a lot during this period.

After the autumn harvest, another piece of bad news came from town. The government were conscripting laborers for corvee service.

The village grew gloomy at the news.

Lu Lin was in town and got news relatively quickly.

He learned that this round of conscription was mainly for building bridges and repairing roads. It wouldn’t take long, about twenty days. Those who didn’t want to go could pay to exempt themselves.

When the conscription order reached the village, it caused gloom throughout the village.

The government stipulated that families with two to three able-bodied men between twelve and fifty years old needed to send one person, and families with four able-bodied men needed to send two people. To be exempted, they had to pay one tael of silver.

Chen Xiaomi had already separated from his family, so their household also needed to send one person. Lu Lin planned to pay one tael of silver for exemption. For Lu Lin, whose wealth was approaching one thousand taels, one tael of silver really wasn’t much.

But while one tael was nothing to Lu Lin, it was a significant amount for the villagers. Many poorer families had no choice but to send a man to serve.

The conscription stirred up anxiety in the village.

Many people crowded into the village head’s house, creating a noisy scene.

Actually, being village head wasn’t a very good position either. For things like corvee labor, the village head had to assist the officials in handling it, and if he wasn’t careful, he would earn resentment.

The labor conscription also affected the Lu family. With three able-bodied men, they had to send one. Lu Chengyu was a scholar, so naturally he couldn’t go. So if someone had to go, they could only choose between Lu Ming and Lu An.

Neither brother was willing to go. Corvee labor was very hard work, and if they weren’t careful, they could work themselves to death. But if they didn’t go, they would have to pay one tael of silver.

Old Man Lu sighed. “Let’s pay money to be exempted.”

Wang grumbled, “We barely have any silver left as it is, and now another tael is gone.” She couldn’t help but think of the second branch of the family. If they were still here, they wouldn’t need to hire help for the fields, and they could send the second branch for this corvee labor.

“We can’t very well let the Laoda or Laosi go for corvee labor when the family is about to have new additions,” Old Man Lu felt that even if he ordered his two sons to go, neither would be willing, and it would just cause another commotion.

Wang hesitated, “Since Laosi lost his job in town, things have been tight lately.” The older she got, the more she clung to money. “This service is only twenty days.” This was equivalent to fifty wen per day, and it wasn’t easy to find work that paid fifty wen a day!