Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside-Chapter 153 Lu Laoer

Several families discussed and decided to buy the open spaces in front of and behind their own courtyards.

As for the three courtyards, Third Grandpa said: "My family will buy one."

He and his wife lived with Dashan’s family and didn’t buy a house; they needed to buy one, so when Fuyan’s family found one, they would also have a place to stay.

The remaining two courtyards were all taken by Gu Jinli’s house.

Gu Jinli wanted to make soy sauce, and his tofu business was expanding, so he needed one courtyard to be used as a workshop, while the other one was reserved to house Aunt Daya’s family once they were found.

Clerk Gao was efficient; he went from one family to another. Within 30 minutes, he got their house and land deeds processed.

At this point, Gu Jinli’s house now owned three old mud-brick courtyards, each occupying two acres. Processing the house and land deeds for these three courtyards cost twelve taels of silver.

His family bought all the open spaces in front and behind the three courtyards, which were about twenty acres in total and cost forty taels of silver.

Additionally, six acres of uncultivated land were being cleared, which cost six taels of silver. Adding up everything, his family spent a total of fifty-eight taels of silver.

This was not a small amount of money; if it were in the past, his family could not have come up with it at all, but with their tofu business making an average of three taels of silver per day over the past month, they now had more than a hundred taels of silver in savings, enough to afford this expenditure on houses and land.

Gu Jinli and Gu Dashan took out the cloth bags they carried with them, from which they retrieved two bags of broken silver and handed them to Clerk Gao.

Clerk Gao counted the silver and, after confirming the amount was correct, handed over the house and land deeds to Gu Dashan.

Gu Dashan, taking the house and land deeds, was overwhelmed with excitement—he too was now a property owner.

After the excitement, Gu Dashan hurriedly secured the house and land deeds close to his body, occasionally patting the inner pocket over his chest, fearing the deeds might disappear.

Clerk Gao then hurried to process the house and land deeds for the other families. Just as he finished, a noisy commotion approached from afar. Hearing this, Clerk Gao waved at them and said: "Follow me."

The families quickly followed Clerk Gao to a small side gate behind the Civil Affairs Office. Clerk Gao took out a bunch of keys and opened the small gate: "Go through here, pass through this small passage to the north back door of the county government office, where the Government Officials enter and exit for work. Someone from the Jiang family is waiting for you there."

"Thank you, sir." Third Grandpa and the others bowed to Clerk Gao, hurriedly entered through the side gate, and left the Civil Affairs Office yard, following the small passage to the north back door of the county government office where Scholar Shang was already waiting for them. Beside him stood two unfamiliar servants and a burly middle-aged man in a black robe with a wolf-fur belt, his face framed by a full beard.

This man was indeed Scholar Shang’s older maternal uncle, Jiang Qi.

Jiang Qi surveyed the group and fixed his gaze on Qin San Lang, asking: "Is this the young man from the Qin family?"

Scholar Shang nodded: "Exactly."

"Haha, looking at his stature, his waist, he indeed is a practitioner." Due to Lu Dezhu’s matter, Jiang Qi took a liking to Qin San Lang.

Hearing this, Qin San Lang grinned, his smile somewhat shy.

Scholar Shang said: "This is my older maternal uncle, the eldest in my father-in-law’s family."

The families hurried to greet Jiang Qi.

Third Grandpa asked Scholar Shang: "When we were in the Civil Affairs Office, we heard a noisy disturbance, it seemed like a group of people rushed to the Civil Affairs Office but were stopped by others. There won’t be any trouble, will there?"

He feared that the people of County Captain Jiang and County Magistrate Zou might start fighting.

Jiang Qi waved his hand and said, "Don’t worry, nothing will go wrong. This is the county government after all. Although the Zou family has local influence, the people from County Magistrate Zou wouldn’t dare to do too much. Otherwise, when the Lord County Magistrate and my father return, they will have trouble explaining themselves."

Jiang Qi continued, "Lu Dezhu has been kept under surveillance by Old Yang’s men. After dark, Old Yang’s men will escort him through the back door into the bailiff’s area, and his matter won’t implicate any of your families."

Third Grandpa and the others were very pleased to hear this. It was good news. They were peasants who just wanted to honestly farm their land and live peacefully without getting involved in any disputes with officials.

After Jiang Qi finished speaking, he looked at Qin San Lang, "The matter with Lu Dezhu was handled very well by you."

He then asked him, "What have you been doing at home? Have you ever thought about working at the government office?"

Qin San Lang shook his head, "Thank you for your kind offer, Uncle Jiang. My family has just settled, and there are a lot of chores to take care of. My grandfather is also getting old. I plan to stay at home to help out for the next couple of years and haven’t thought about leaving."

Jiang Qi said, "You are a dutiful person. But there’s no need to rush your decision. Go home and discuss it with your grandpa. Who knows, he might agree to let you work at the government office."

Officials have great power and high status, and peasants dream of working at the government office. Jiang Qi thought that even if Qin San Lang’s grandfather had to push him, he would push San Lang into the government office.

Qin San Lang smiled, "Then I’ll go home and ask Grandpa. If he disagrees, I hope Uncle Jiang won’t blame me."

Hearing this, Jiang Qi was even more pleased with Qin San Lang. This young man was not just naively honest; he knew how to speak and handle affairs.

Scholar Shang looked ahead at the alleyway and said, "Uncle, we should head back now. The men from County Magistrate Zou are still furious, and it’d be better if they did not see us."

"Alright, you go ahead," Jiang Qi told the two servants beside him, "Hu Zi, Ah Liu, escort the gentry home. If anyone dares to trouble them, you know what to do."

"Don’t worry, sir, we will not let those dogs bully our gentry," said Hu Zi and Ah Liu, both strong men in their nearly thirties who had military experience and were capable of protecting others.

Jiang Qi nodded, and Hu Zi and Ah Liu took Scholar Shang and the others out of the alley and onto two mule carts, heading towards the city gate.

One cart belonged to Scholar Shang’s Family, and the other to the Jiang Family. As Old Luo was not present, Hu Zi and Ah Liu drove the carts. It didn’t take long before they reached the city gate.

At the city gate, when Hu Zi saw two servants from the Lu family, knowing they were specifically waiting there, he smirked at them, cracked his whip, and charged out of the city gate.

After running for a bit over 15 minutes, they saw Old Luo and Ah Jiu and picked them up before heading toward Qingfu Town.

...

At the Lu family’s home, Widow Qiu was massaging Lu Laosan’s back: "Third Master, rest assured. Those families from Qin, Gu, and Luotian would never expect us to pull such a clever trick. Once Lu Dezhu returns with their house and land deeds, we’ll have Lu Dezhu take some men and evict them. It’s getting dark soon, and they’ll definitely have to spend the night outside."

Widow Qiu gave a sinister smile, "Those families have some older daughters. We’ll have Zhang Niu take some men and cause trouble where they are staying. This will ruin the reputations of those daughters. Then, you’ll have your revenge."

"Serve them right! How dare they oppose me? They deserve to suffer like this!" Lu Laosan, while munching on dates and humming an opera tune, was delighted at the thought of Lu Dezhu’s return.

However, he didn’t wait for Lu Dezhu, but instead his second elder brother arrived.

Lu Laoer returned to Da Feng Village late at night and, upon seeing Lu Laosan in the study, immediately slapped him across the face twice.

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Lu Laosan’s cheeks swelled from the slaps, jolting him awake. Seeing Lu Laoer, he angrily said, "Second Brother, what are you going crazy for?"

Lu Laoer shouted, "I’m going crazy? If it weren’t for your rotten idea, would I be going crazy? It’s all messed up! Lu Dezhu is missing, and our Lu family will have to suffer tremendously again!"