Chapter 441: Checking Out Land
Editor: Atlas Studios
Within two days after Mu Yangling took over Fan Zijin’s business, she started to get people to inquire about the farmsteads outside Lin’an City. Regardless of whether they were big or small, good or bad, they were all brought over for her to see.
This was because she suddenly realized that their expenses were very high. Qi Haoran went out every day, and would either drink and ride horses with his former friends or run around the streets. She also took the opportunity to help Li Jinghua inspect the shops.
The banknotes in the box were depleting quickly. At this rate, all the money would be gone in less than half a year.
Mu Yangling didn’t know what Qi Haoran was doing, but she guessed that it had something to do with Qi Xiuyuan’s matter, so she didn’t ask.
Though she didn’t ask, she had to earn money.
Fan Zijin’s businesses looked good now, but to earn money, it would take at least two months to breakeven on the costs before they could officially turn a profit.
However, she could not rely on Fan Zijin for money anymore, so Mu Yangling decided that it was best to buy some farmland before spring plowing.
In business, she could only manage the account books and did not have any good ideas. However, she had many ideas about farming. Moreover, it was very sustainable. Since she wanted to earn money, she naturally had to choose what she was best at.
Mu Yangling changed her clothes early in the morning and went out. When Madam Xu saw her, she smiled and asked, “Sister-in-law, are you going to Fortune Restaurant again?”
Mu Yangling stopped in her tracks and nodded with a smile. “Second Sister-in-law, are you going out too?”
Madam Xu forced a smile and said reluctantly, “I’ve made an appointment with the madams to go to the jewelry store to look at jewelry.”
“In that case, have a good shopping trip, Second Sister-in-law. I’ll leave first.”
Madam Xu opened her mouth, wanting to suggest they leave together. However, when she saw Mu Yangling’s cold expression, she was not thick-skinned enough to suggest it.
Seeing Mu Yangling leave, Madam Xu felt as if a rock had been stuck in her heart. She turned to the servant girl and said, “Go and tell Madam that Fourth Madam has left and I couldn’t stop her.”
Although she was also jealous of Madam Li and Madam Mu, Qi Haoran was very domineering. She felt that since the two sides were already living separately, there was really no need to provoke them anymore. Anyway, her father-in-law was on their side.
Moreover, Qi Xiuyuan and Qi Haoran were both in the military, unlike Second Master and Third Master who were taking the Imperial Examination. Even if they weren’t a happy family because of their conflict, they could just coexist peacefully. She saw no need to provoke them all the time.
However, she had no choice but to listen to her mother-in-law’s orders. Madam Xu could guess that her mother-in-law had taken a fancy to their money.
The Qi family could only be considered a middle-class family, and her father-in-law had been an imperial censor for almost ten years. Although he was not pure and flawless as an official, he was still considered honest and did not accept a single cent that he should not have taken. Therefore, the Qi family was really not rich. If it was in the past and everyone lived like this, they would not have had any complaints.
But things had changed now that Madam Li and Madam Mu were here.
Firstly, Madam Li was a daughter of an aristocratic family. Even if her maternal family had fallen into difficult times, she still had plenty of good stuff. Just the different jewelry she wore every day was enough evidence of that. In addition, some of the fine fabrics she owned could not even be bought with money. Even though she had only been in the capital for a short time, she had already surpassed them and entered the upper-class society.
It had to be known that they had always only interacted with middle-class families of the same rank. They had never been invited to banquets like that hosted by the Shu family and the Yuan family. Even the Yan family, who had always been famous for their noble status, had also sent an invitation to Madam Li.
One had to know that Grand Tutor Yan was one of the three Dukes. He was one of the rare few who could point at the Emperor’s nose and scold him. In the past, the Qi family could not even get anywhere near the Yan family’s door.
It would be fine if just Madam Li was like this. But as it turned out, Madam Mu, who Madam Xu had thought was a country bumpkin, wasn’t much inferior. Although she did not wear much jewelry, the few pieces she did wear were extremely exquisite. Now, she was even helping Fan Zijin manage his business.
But even though Madam Xu was jealous, she was unwilling to provoke them.
Judging from Qi Haoran’s attitude towards his father-in-law, the two brothers probably did not care too much about this father of theirs. If she angered them, her father-in-law would be fine since he was after all their father, but her husband did not have close brotherly ties with them. Considering one was a second-grade feudal official, and the other was a High Scholar, it was obvious who would win.
Hence, Madam Xu always subconsciously humbled herself when facing Madam Li and Madam Mu.
Mu Yangling left the Qi Residence and went straight to the restaurant. After changing a carriage in the restaurant, she left the city through the back door. This time, she was going to check out a farmstead outside the city.
The agent who introduced them was riding a donkey at the side. After Mu Yangling got off the carriage, he hurriedly ran up and said, “Madam, look at this area. It’s a total of 20 acres, all high-grade land.”
Spring said unhappily, “This is too small. Didn’t they say that there’s a farmstead? How can we build a farmstead on just 20 acres of land?”
The agent smiled apologetically and said, “Miss, you might not know this, but this farmstead is built halfway up the hill. Look over there.”
Spring widened her eyes and said, “Isn’t that a mound of soil? It’s actually a hill!”
Spring could not be blamed for being surprised. There were many hills in the south, and this one was a small hill. There was only a straw hut built halfway up, and the land surrounding it was the 20 acres of land he had mentioned.
The agent said embarrassedly, “Miss, although this hill is small, the harvest is actually pretty good. The previous owner planted fruit trees there and has been reaping good harvests every year.”
“But where we came from, we buy land by the few hundred acres. This is only 20 acres. Isn’t that too small an area? We want to build a big farmstead,” Spring said unhappily.
The agent carefully took a look at Mu Yangling’s expression and said, “Miss, this is Lin’an City. It’s different from the North. Not to mention Lin’an City, even the fields in Jiangnan are expensive, so it’s very rare for them to be sold in large areas. That is, unless a rich family encounters a calamity and wants to sell their family assets. But even if we encounter it, we won’t have the ability to acquire it. It’s already not bad to be able to chance upon this opportunity where they’re selling all 20 acres at once.”
The agent explained, “You have to know that only retail investors are selling their land now. It’s just one acre, two acres at once. It’s very difficult to gather the plots of land together.”
Mu Yangling walked along the ridge for a while before squatting down to pick up the soil in the field and crushing it. It was soft, gray, and black. This land was indeed of good quality.
Mu Yangling clapped her hands and stood up. She asked, “How much are they asking?”
“14 taels of silver per acre,” the agent immediately replied.
Speechless, Spring and Rain looked at each other. This was too expensive. In Hanzhong Prefecture, they could buy an acre of high-grade land with just four taels of silver.
Mu Yangling’s heart was also bleeding. This was really too expensive, especially when there was a comparison.
However, she also knew that land in Lin’an was expensive. She thought for a moment and said, “It’s too expensive. Think of a way to bargain down their asking price. Last time, someone told me that some retail investors are only asking for 12 taels per acre.”
“Madam, but these 20 acres are connected. Look, that small river forms a semicircle around this piece of land…”
Smiling, Mu Yangling said, “To me, whether the seller sells one acre of land or 20 acres of land, they’re retail investors to me. Perhaps it’s because I’ve lived in the north for too long. Unless it’s more than 100 acres of land, it’s still a retail investor to me.”
The agent choked. There was so much land in the north?
Spring immediately said, “Don’t doubt her words. My madam’s family’s dozens of hectares of land are all connected. When you look over, all that land belongs to her family. Now that we suddenly see such a small piece of land, even if we know that it’s because the land in Lin’an is rare and expensive, we can’t change our mindset for the time being.”
Rain continued, “Moreover, that doesn’t justify costing two more taels of silver per acre.”