allonlinenovel Chapter 14 Buying Land
Chapter 14 Buying Land
The farce of dividing the family property finally ended like this: both sides signed a letter of severance in the presence of Uncle Lin, and the villagers who had come to watch the spectacle dispersed, going home with much discussion. Who knows what they will talk about in the future, over tea or after meals, about the Lin family's farce.
Uncle Lin was extremely disappointed in his younger brother and sister-in-law, and left in a huff.
Lin's father's initial wish was fulfilled; he did indeed separate the family, but the process broke his parents' hearts.
Having severed ties with his parents, and now only having his wife and children by his side, life should have been a little easier, but the matter of Fu Bo still weighed heavily on his mind.
Lin Yu was told by Lin Yan to stay quietly in the house and not get involved. Now that his parents and sister were inside, he was initially happy to hear that the family had been divided, but when he learned that Old Man Lin hadn't given anything to the eldest son's family, he exclaimed, "What?! Isn't Father his son?! They're going to kick us out!"
“Because it’s not considered a separation of families, it’s a complete break, and my parents won’t have to support my parents anymore!” Lin Yan added.
Lin Yu initially felt the division of the family property was unfair, but upon hearing that he wouldn't have to associate with Old Madam Lin anymore, he thought it was a good thing. "Hmph, that's fine too. Who wants their things? It's better not to associate with them! Sister, should we run away? We definitely can't pay back a hundred taels. What if those people catch us!"
"Don't worry, I know that person!" Lin Yan winked at Lin Yu.
"Sister, could it be that..."
"Shh~" Lin Yan looked at her parents and gave her younger brother a hand gesture.
Lin Yu quickly shut his mouth. So there was no debt after all. Wasn't that even better?
The members of the eldest son's family had barely entered the house when Li Shi shooed them out: "Hey, this house wasn't allocated to you, so hurry up and move out!"
"This room can be turned into a study for Jie'er, so he can study there in the future." Li Shi looked at the main house with delight and imagined the future.
"You're not allowed to take any of the furniture in here!" Li said, raising her chin as she looked at Lin Yan. "You little brat, you dared to hit me! If you can't pay back the money, you can expect to be sold into a brothel!"
"So what if I hit you? Go ahead and hit me back if you dare!" Lin Yan tilted her head, smiled, and said softly, "But if you keep babbling here, I'm going to put my foot on you again! Hmm?"
Remembering how she had been kicked away, Li felt a pain in her chest and unconsciously started to walk out, saying, "Hmph, I'm not going to say anything more to you, just move out!"
After Li left, Lin Yu said, "Where will we live if we move out?"
"I'll go ask the village chief if there are any vacant plots of land for building houses," Lin's father said, pulling himself together to consider the livelihood of his family.
Upon hearing this, Lin's mother rummaged through the bottom of the clothes trunk and found a small cloth bag. She picked it up and opened it, inside which was a pair of gold bracelets. They were given to her by her family when she got married. Over the years, no matter how difficult life was, she never pawned them. She only took them out to ask for a doctor when Lin Yan was sick, but she put them away again after Lin Yan woke up.
Now that the family truly has nothing left, she took out the bracelet as a temporary measure, hoping to find a place for Lin's father to stay. The whole family, young and old, can't be left to sleep in the open. Other things can be discussed later.
"Father, I'll go with you!" Lin Yan got up and followed.
"Father, Sister, you must choose a place far away from the Lin family!"
…………
Lin's father went to the village head's house to explain his purpose. The village head of Gezhuang Village was named Ge Gensheng. The Ge surname was a large one in the village, with dozens of households. He had also heard about the Lin family's division of property and felt sorry for Lin's family. When he heard that Lin wanted to buy a house plot, he spoke very kindly:
“Now that you’ve separated your households, you can indeed buy a separate plot of land for your own home. There are quite a few plots of land available in the village now. But they’re either never been used to build houses, or they’re dilapidated houses that have been uninhabited for a long time. You’ll have to build your own houses.”
"But since you're in such a hurry to move out, let me think about finding a place where people can live..."
"...Things are better now. The old bachelor who used to live in the north of the village has no descendants. There's an empty little house there now. Why don't you and your family stay there for a while?"
Lin Yan thought to herself, "The north side is close to the Lin family! If Li Shi sees that my family lives there, she'll probably be gossiping about me every day." The Lin family is just north of the village, so it's better to stay away. I get annoyed whenever I see them.
Sure enough, Lin's father spoke up: "Are there any other places?"
“There’s a thatched hut over there on the other side of the mountain. Two hunters stayed there temporarily before. The land still belongs to the village. The hut is empty. It can be repaired and people can live there. It’s also close to the river. You can stay there for now and move out after the house is built.”
"Backed by a mountain, that's great!" Lin Yan's heart skipped a beat. A place with mountains behind it would definitely have a rich aroma of vegetation, which would be beneficial for her to recover her superpowers, and her superpowers would be able to play a greater role.
"How much for land near the mountain?" Lin Yan asked.
Village Chief Ge: "Land near the mountain is cheap, but it's a bit far from the village. However, it's best not to live there permanently. Although I haven't heard of any wild animals coming down there in recent years, it used to be a problem. Also, it's far from the village, so there's no one to look after you. You can stay there temporarily, but I wouldn't recommend buying a plot of land there. It's best to choose a plot of land in the village."
"Village chief, is the land on that mountain for sale?"
"They can sell them on the mountain, and they're cheap, only 200 wen per mu. But you can't grow crops on the mountain. They're not really useful. Nobody in the village wants them."
"Yan'er, you want land on the other side of the mountain, is it because you want to be far away from home?" Lin's father was a little puzzled, seeing that Lin Yan was quite eager to understand.
"Not only that, the environment over there is great! Besides, you can't grow crops on the mountain, but you can grow other things!" Actually, Lin Yan has wood-type abilities, so she can grow whatever she wants on the mountain, but it's not too strange.
"If you're interested, you can go take a look before making a decision. Once you've decided, you can come back to me to complete the formalities." The village chief still wanted to dissuade Lin Yan from buying land on the mountain.
"Yan'er, let me take you to take a look first. If you like a place, we'll buy it there!" Lin's father doted on his daughter and reached out to pat Lin Yan's head.
The place the village chief mentioned is in the southeast corner of the village. Further east are mountains, and a river flows from east to west through it. It's the river where the villagers wash their clothes, but the mountainous areas are all upstream.
The mountains closest to the homestead are not high, merely hilly terrain. Further on are steep, high mountains. According to the village chief, beyond those mountains lies the territory of another country, the Great Ye Kingdom. Because a princess from Great Ye married into Great Liang more than a decade ago, Great Ye and Great Liang currently maintain a friendly and cooperative relationship.
That place was indeed quite far from the village. It took Lin's father and Lin Yan half an hour to walk there. They followed the river to the thatched hut that the village chief had mentioned.