Chapter 38: The Dust Settles, A Desire for the County Town!

"Daddy, you are so kind!" Daya looked at Li Feng blankly, then broke into a tearful smile. Her second brother was right; Daddy had truly changed.

"Let’s go, let’s head out!" Li Feng held the little girl's hand and stepped outside.

"Daddy!" A string of young boys spoke in unison as soon as he emerged. They stood in a neat row. On the slightly rough table lay a spread of corn cakes, thin porridge, and a dish of meat fried until there was barely any fat left.

Li Feng’s eyes lit up. "Who made this?"

"It was me!" Daya said in a low voice. "Yesterday, I saw that you didn't like food that was too greasy, so I rendered the fat out of the meat and used a little bit to fry the corn cakes. Please, have a taste!"

Daya felt a bit anxious after speaking. Back at the old house, she would never have dared to be so extravagant. Her grandmother strictly controlled the daily usage of oil, and she wouldn't dare waste any. Now, this was the first breakfast since they had separated from the family, and she wanted to make it delicious. Even if her father punished her, it would be worth it.

"Not bad, you've improved!" Li Feng patted Daya's head and praised her loudly. "From now on, you don't need to save money on food or clothing for me. Do you hear me?"

"You are all still growing. You need to eat well so you don't develop any underlying illnesses. Understand?"

"Yes!" the group of little ones shouted in response.

The village head, who had just arrived at the doorway, was so startled he nearly dropped the items in his hands. There was no helping it; after taking bribes from others, he had to do a good job. The village elder was truly something—insisting on sending him gifts while claiming they were from Li Feng. What could he do? He just had to ensure Li Feng’s business was handled properly.

Before dawn, he had taken his two sons to measure the land, divided the fields for the Li family, and then caught the first ox cart into town. He had gotten everything settled for Li Feng. If Li Feng’s house hadn't been at the end of the village, he wouldn't have been delayed until now. But... after working all morning, he was suddenly hungry. What had Li the Second made for breakfast? Why did it smell so good?

Swallowing his saliva and hiding his awkward expression, the village head knocked on the door. "Caogen, open up! I’ve come to bring you your household registration documents!"

Li Feng didn't react at first. It wasn't until Dagou stood up that he remembered: oh, he used to be called Caogen!

"Dagou, go open the door!" Li Feng commanded. "Erniu, go get another set of bowls and chopsticks!"

"You got it!" The brothers jumped up, one to open the door and one to fetch the utensils.

As the door opened, Li Feng stood up. The little ones put down what they were holding and lined up in a row. Even the greedy Wuniu restrained himself, though his gaze kept darting toward the dried meat.

"Uncle Village Head!" Li Feng called out.

"Grandpa Village Head!" the little ones chimed in as well.

"Yes!" The village head looked at the family, so formal and respectful, and smiled. He walked over to Li Feng. "I’ve come to deliver your household registration documents."

He handed the papers over. "From today on, your family is an independent household. You have no more ties to the old Li family."

"And here are the land deeds. These are the fields registered under your name. Take a look."

Speaking of the fields, he couldn't help but grumble inwardly about the rest of the Li family. The eldest and third sons had made a fortune, yet the second son had only received four mu of dry land and three mu of medium-quality paddy fields. What was he supposed to do with that? With their current grain seeds, a yield of three to four hundred jin per mu was the absolute peak, and that was only with excellent care and abundant water. Three mu of medium paddy fields would yield about six hundred jin of grain. After land taxes, how much would be left?

Currently, the Great Liang Dynasty implemented a ten-percent tax. That meant sixty jin of grain had to be handed over. And that was just the imperial tax law; there were also various levies imposed by the local county magistrate. Once all the taxes were added up, if they had three hundred jin of grain left from their harvest, they would be lucky. For a family of eight, three hundred jin of grain a year was nowhere near enough. Not to mention that after husking a hundred jin of grain, you’d only get about seventy jin of refined rice. Trying to live on two hundred jin of refined rice for a year was a joke.

Rural folk usually exchanged their grain for millet or corn kernels. Yes, Great Liang had corn. Corn kernels were large, easy to grind into flour, filling, and satiating—the best choice for farm families. The exchange rate between rice and corn was about one to three; one jin of rice could be traded for three jin of corn. Two hundred jin of rice could be traded for six or seven hundred jin of corn. By trading that corn for millet or older grain, one could scrape by.

The village head kept these thoughts to himself. He couldn't say them aloud. Even if Li Feng had separated, he was still a member of the Li family. Criticizing someone’s parents to their face was not the behavior of a gentleman.

"Alright, the documents are delivered. I’ll be heading back. When you have free time, take Dagou and Erniu to the fields to check on them and tend to them. Don't let the bugs take over!" After saying this, the village head turned and walked away with his hands behind his back.

"Uncle Village Head, you haven't had breakfast yet, have you? Why not stay and have some?" Li Feng invited.

The village head waved him off. "No need. No one's grain falls from the sky. I'll go home and eat."

Seeing this, Li Feng didn't press him, but he thought to himself that he would take a trip to the mountains, exchange some items from his system, and send some to the village head, the village elder, and his cousins.

Watching the village head leave, Li Feng turned back and greeted the little ones: "Don't just stand there, let's eat!"

While Li Feng’s home was filled with warmth and joy, the old house was shrouded in gloom. Li Wang sat on her bed, looking at the household registration documents in her hands, her fingers tracing the words. She couldn't read, but she knew there were far fewer characters on these papers than before. In the past, their Li family had been a prominent household in Li Village, and their single registration document had been packed with names—so many that you couldn't count them at a glance. It was nothing like this thin, sparse piece of paper.

"Old man, do you think we did the wrong thing?" Li Wang felt a sour ache in her heart. "If we hadn't separated, we wouldn't have drawn so much attention, and the silver might have been saved!"

"What's the use of saying that now!" Li Dashan felt a pang of regret as well. Before, when they hadn't separated, he didn't think much of it, but now that they had, he felt empty, as if he had lost something. But then, he reconsidered and felt relieved.

Separated is separated! Anyway, they were moving in with the eldest. The eldest had a trade and was about to enter the Ministry of Works to work for the imperial court. Combined with his own private savings and the annual filial contributions from the second and third sons, he wouldn't starve.

He reached out and took the new land deeds from Li Wang. Looking at the land ownership and the size of the plots, Li Dashan felt a tightness in his chest. He had finally seen the ancestral property growing, and now it had all gone back. He only had five mu of top-quality paddy fields left in his hands. By his calculations, he had actually lost a few mu!

"I’m planning to lease out the five mu of paddy fields. What do you think?" Li Dashan said. "The rice is already planted. We can lease it to tenant farmers. Once they harvest, we give them a few dou as payment, and after paying the taxes on the rest, we can still sell it for a good price! Then we can collect rent on a three-to-seven or four-to-six split. What do you think?"

As he talked, Li Dashan suddenly put the documents away. "Forget it, I can't explain it to you anyway. We'll just do it that way. When the eldest comes back, I'll have him take me to the village head’s house so he can pick out some honest and capable tenants for us to lease our fields to!"

"Are we not staying in Li Village anymore?" Li Wang asked.

"Why stay here?" Li Dashan said indignantly. "The eldest is going to the county seat soon. With the money from selling the land, we might even be able to buy a house in the county. We've worked hard for half a lifetime; shouldn't we be able to enjoy some comfort with our son? What, do you want to keep getting tangled up with the second son’s family? He’s a fierce brute, and now he has very little land. With a family of eight, they'll probably starve to death sooner or later! What future is there for a farmer? Look at me—if I hadn't tightened my belt to raise two successful sons, how could our Li family have changed its standing? You can stay if you want, but I'm going to the county with the eldest, and I'll have a doctor there look at my leg! We haven't seen our two grandsons in a long time, either. They said they would be filial to us—they need to be given a chance to show it, right?"

Li Wang was persuaded by Li Dashan. The most important thing was that she also wanted to go to the county seat to see the world. She wanted to see how the county differed from the village. Did people in the county eat white rice at every meal? Was there a constant supply of chicken, duck, and fish? Thinking this way, Li Feng was immediately pushed to the back of her mind. "Alright, we'll go to the county with the eldest!"

However, a moment later, Li Wang became melancholy again. "Do you think the third son and the eldest will blame us? Such a large sum of money, gone just like that. If we follow them to the county, won't the eldest look down on us?"

"You still have the nerve to bring that up!" At the mention of this, Li Dashan was furious. "They couldn't accomplish anything and ruined everything. Such a large sum of money, just gone! If I had earned that money one penny at a time, I would be ready to be buried!"

"Tell me," Li Wang said suddenly, "do you think the second son did it?"