Chapter 121: Collecting Taxes

  In May, there's not much to do, and the villagers are relatively leisurely. The men who want to earn some silver go to the county town to do odd jobs; those who can't find work at home busy themselves making a few more bamboo baskets or willow baskets. The women weave a few pairs of shoe soles, preparing early to make two pairs of shoes, saving time and effort for when it's busy during the New Year and there's no time to do it. Weaving shoe soles is a very time-consuming and laborious task. The children catch fish and shrimp, set up a fishing net at night, and then sell them at the market. The little girls who don't have the strength go around picking wild celery leaves and cutting medicinal herbs to sell, which also counts as earning some income.

  When the news of Zhen'er collecting silver coins spread out, the village was once again bustling with excitement. Every household came to Zhen'er's home as if they were watching a rare spectacle.

  There are also times when the villagers would bring a basket of elm seeds, thinking that if they were given money, they would take it first, and if not, they would consider it a gift to the village people, accumulating personal relationships. After Zhen'er weighed them on the scale and gave them a few coins, the onlookers quickly ran back home, and these elm seeds really could be sold for money!

  The elm tree village's elm seeds are famous, but unfortunately, no one pays attention to them because almost every nearby village has a few trees growing here and there. This thing is not novel, except when they're first ripe, children eat them fresh, but by the end, basically no one eats them anymore. Although elm seeds taste good with white sugar, who would waste fifty cents per pound of coarse sugar on kids' cravings? And steaming or wrapping them in buns or dumplings to eat is too much trouble, not to mention wasting time and oil, except for a few families with spare money, who would bother?

  On the first day, they picked elm seeds. Zhen'er saw that the children had picked a lot, but didn't cherish them, and many elm seeds were scattered under the tree, which was a pity. Later, steaming wotou was also to see if it tasted good and could find business opportunities from it, who knew she really found one.

  She and Bai Zhi went to the baozi shop in the afternoon, and the boss said that the buns had been sold out early. He was selling them at a price based on the filling, without knowing how well they would sell. At that time, she and Zhen'er agreed on a deal: he would make 20 kilograms of dough for her every day.

  Zhen'er went to a larger wine house in the county town besides Baozi shop. He reported Yang's name, and the young clerk led them to see the boss.

  When the shopkeeper heard that they were selling elm seeds, he wasn't very interested at first. It was a cheap product and not suitable for a high-end restaurant. But when Zhen'er borrowed some from the kitchen and made a cold dish with the elm seeds, the shopkeeper thought it might be feasible. The weather was hot, and people liked to eat light and refreshing dishes, but they were tired of eating cold braised cucumber and cold braised amaranth. They wanted something new and fresh. This cold braised elm seed dish was both fresh and delicious, and customers loved it, making the shopkeeper happy. He also ordered some elm seeds from Zhen'er.

  Suddenly, there were two shops that wanted to buy silver coins, Zhen'er and Ye Jia, Ye Qiushu's house, Dazhuang's house, and Erniang's house. The amount of silver coins they had was about the same, but Zhen'er was afraid that if someone saw them selling silver coins, they would also go to the city to sell silver coins cheaply, which would ruin their business. So she came up with a countermeasure: she made an early announcement in the village that she was collecting silver coins.

  Although she had always wanted to keep a low profile, she wanted to make money, how could she be low-key? Zhen'er thought that it was better to just follow her and not greet the Zhou family, the more you want to avoid something, the more you can't avoid it. These days, she did a few things that had nothing to do with the Zhou or Yang families, just going to the wine house to discuss business, but she still had to borrow the Yang family's name, otherwise who would take her seriously? If she couldn't quietly get rich without anyone in the village knowing, then why not bring the whole village along to get rich together? It's better to share joy and wealth with others than to enjoy them alone.

  She earned three cents per catty of elm money, which was more expensive than the current medicinal herbs such as benefit mother grass and light bamboo leaves. Moreover, every household had this thing, so there was no need to go around cutting it, and it was safe, making everyone in the village very happy.

  Because it's not possible to sell all the elm seeds in one day, Zhen'er gathered all the households in the village who wanted to sell their elm seeds and negotiated with them to collect from one household each day. She also required that the quality of the elm seeds be guaranteed. After both parties reached an agreement, they even asked the village head to serve as a witness and signed a written contract. Zhen'er had thought this through carefully - after all, the elm seeds grew on other people's trees. If one day they changed their minds and refused to sell, or found out where she was selling them and raised their prices, it would be troublesome. It's better to sign a contract to be safe.

  The villagers' enthusiasm for the elm seeds had long since dissipated, and they had planned to give some to their relatives and friends as usual, but unexpectedly, they could now sell them for money. Only a few households with big hearts thought that if Jien, a young girl, could collect three cents per catty of elm seeds, they themselves could take them to the city to sell for an even better price, so they didn't sign the contract with Jien and even persuaded several familiar people not to sign the contract, among whom Ye Nangzi was the most.

  Ye Nangzi used to work in a workshop in the city and thought she was quite knowledgeable. When she heard that Zhen'er was collecting elm seeds, she was the most enthusiastic. When she heard that three cents per catty, her eyes lit up. She was the first to have ideas, and later she also persuaded several families who were relatively close to her not to sign a contract with Zhen'er. Zhen'er didn't say anything after hearing about it, but when they really hit a wall, they would know whether she had made money from the villagers or not. Moreover, she needed such people to pull back, otherwise, she would have to think twice before doing anything in the future.

  They agreed to pick mulberry leaves one by one, but Zhen'er mentioned that they had already made arrangements with the Ye family, Seventh Uncle, Er'niang and Dazhuang's family. This was also a precaution in case something unexpected happened in between, so there would be a backup plan.

  Among these families, the Ye family and Seventh Uncle's family are easy to talk to. They are quite close to Zhen'er, just like their own family members. Besides, before they couldn't sell the elm trees for money, but now that Zhen'er is here, it's like picking up money, so they all let Zhen'er decide everything.

  Dazhuang's family was quite well-off, they were hunters and sometimes his father would take him and his brother to the mountains to hunt, so their family was relatively wealthy, at least they had a lot of meat to eat and all the children in the family grew up strong and healthy. It was said that Zhen'er wanted to save the elm money from their house until last, without saying anything else, let Dazhuang talk to Zhen'er.

  Among these families, Erniu's family was a bit troublesome. Her father heard that Zhen'er wanted to collect their family's silver money in the end, and his face didn't look good at the time, thinking that Zhen'er looked down on them. Moreover, it's more reassuring to have the silver money in one's own hands, what if Zhen'er changes her mind halfway and doesn't want to collect the silver money? He felt a bit uncomfortable and was prepared not to sign the contract with Zhen'er at first, but later Erniu thought deeply and persuaded him, and they told Zhen'er about this matter again. Zhen'er signed the contract with them first before it was settled.

  Zhen'er felt a bit helpless looking at Er Niu's father, such a clever girl like Er Niu having a father like him was really a waste.

  After settling the matter of collecting the elm money, Zhen'er was exhausted and couldn't take it anymore. Moreover, her body had been injured from the start, so on the second day when she got out of bed, she felt somewhat weak and listless. She barely managed to eat some food, then went with Bai Ju to weigh the elm money, and after returning home, she collapsed onto the bed without even having the energy to get up again.

  Ye Baiji had Ye Lao's pulse taken and knew she was fine, so he felt at ease. Zhen'er thought of sending Yu Qian to the county town as soon as possible, so she asked Ye Baiji to find Da Zhuang and have him harness a cow cart to send Ye Baiji to deliver Yu Qian.

  Zhen'er had originally wanted to find Su Mu, but recently Du Yun's belly had grown bigger and the symptoms of her late pregnancy had started to appear. She was basically vomiting everything she ate, and seeing her throwing up with a big belly made Zhen'er unable to bear it. The Mao family was also worried sick, and Zhen'er didn't dare bother them at this time either.

  To be honest, since Ye Luyuan went to the county town as an apprentice, Zhen'er and Ye Baiji have been having a hard time doing things. There is no longer that big brother who would immediately appear in front of you whenever you need help, busy running around. However, they know that Ye Luyuan being able to become an apprentice is a good thing, and they are truly happy for him in their hearts. Of course, they won't hold him back because of these small things, so they can only slowly get used to it.

  Dazhuang often helped his father deliver mountain goods to the city, and his driving skills were even better than Yelu's. As they walked on the bumpy road, Ye Baiju didn't feel any bumps at all, and she felt very comfortable in her heart, praising Dazhuang again and again. Because Ye Baiju was a bit older, Zhen'er was afraid that she would go to the city with Dazhuang and cause gossip, so she let them bring Huizi along, which also served as a chaperone.

  Zhen'er took the medicine, lay down and slept again. After waking up, she felt much better, her spirit was also lifted, but her body still felt lazy and didn't want to get out of bed. So she picked up two travelogues from under her pillow and started reading them.

  Those two travelogues, the one bought from the bookstore focuses on writing poems and expressing emotions, with beautiful language and sentences. It's clear that it was written by a frustrated and unsuccessful poet, as the whole book is filled with poems, even describing what they ate for breakfast in verse, without any substantial content. Reading it made Zhen'er feel annoyed.

  The travelogue bought from that person is more practical, with some descriptions of local culture and customs, using simple language and easy to understand. Zhen'er likes this book a lot, having read it many times, and can even recite a few lines about the local customs.

  She had carefully considered the location of Yushu Village and Qi's Village in this book, these two villages are located in different counties of different states, to say distance, it is indeed a bit far, even by horse-drawn carriage, it takes more than ten days to arrive. And the most direct connection between the two villages is that mountain that Zhen'er and Hu'zi crossed.

  The mountain written in the book is called Dapeng Mountain, stretching for thousands of miles and spanning five states. Chu State and Su State are on both sides of Dapeng Mountain, with Su State located at the northeast corner of Dapeng Mountain and Chu State at the southwest corner. The two villages closest to the mountain are Qijiazhuang and Yushu Village. Zhen'er walked from Qijiazhuang to Yushu Village, crossing from the middle of the mountain, so the journey was much shorter, taking only a few days.

  The book didn't say if anyone had crossed that mountain, but Zhen'er thought that even if someone did, it would be a miracle. The mountain was so big and anything could happen inside. There must not be many people brave enough to cross the mountain. But she firmly believed that she and Huozi had crossed the mountain with minimal harm, and it was definitely because her parents were blessing them from above. They wouldn't want their siblings to die miserably in Qijiazhuang either, so they would continue to bless them until they found a place where they could live a peaceful life again.

  Zhen'er was staring blankly at her book when she heard Ye Baiji's scolding voice from outside: "What are you doing here?"

  Also, thank you osmile and Lan Niao Fei for your pink votes~~~.