Chapter 278: The Peasant Girl’s Splendid Manor
Chapter 278: A Farce of Buying a Shop (Part 7)
Since she had made up her mind to buy the Zhang family's shop, Mo Yan had to keep an eye on their movements. However, she couldn't be in the city every day, nor could she personally watch over the situation. She would need some help with this matter.
So, she went to Huixian Residence and found Xiao Zhu, hoping he could find a reliable person to keep an eye on things.
It wasn't a difficult task, and Xiao Zhu readily agreed when he hear about it.
Mo Yan quickly expressed her gratitude and handed him ten taels of silver from her purse. Five taels were for Xiao Zhu's help, and the other five were to be given to the person who helped. After the job was done, an additional five taels would be given.
Xiao Zhu refused to accept the five taels for himself no matter what. In the end, Mo Yan pretended to be angry, saying she would find someone else if he didn't take the money, which made him reluctantly accept it.
Back home, neither Mo Yan nor Li Zhong told Li Xiu about the Zhang family's situation. It would only add to her worries and remind her of the painful past.
In the blink of an eye, it was the end of September. After a rainstorm, the temperature had dropped significantly, and one had to wear thin cotton coats and pants to keep warm.
After more than half a month of digging, the small pond in the Mo family's yard was finally finished before the rain. The pond wasn't large, about an acre in size, with a depth of three meters. They had surrounded the pond with the excavated mud, making it about four to five meters deep. Once the channel from the spring to the pond was dug open, water gushed into the pond, quickly filling it up.
After the pond was dug, they began clearing the land. The low-lying areas were mostly filled with water-loving plants, which weren't too difficult to clean up. However, these water plants had well-developed root systems and strong reproductive abilities. It was now winter, so once they were cleared, they wouldn't grow back until spring. Regular cleaning would be needed to prevent them from competing with crops for nutrients.
The purchased 120-acre sloping land was also being cultivated. They had turned the sloping land into a series of terraces, like steps. Both Li Zhong and the people helping with the cultivation didn't understand what Mo Yan was planning.
Li Zhong asked twice, but seeing that Mo Yan didn't want to say, he stopped asking. However, many people in the village kept asking, suspecting that the Mo family had another plan to make big money, which made Mo Yan somewhat distressed.
It wasn't that she didn't want to say, but even if she did, no one would believe her. Neither the original residents of Liuyang Village nor the refugees from various places had heard of terraced fields before.
If she rashly revealed her plan, it would only lead to more questions. It was better to wait until the terraced fields were built and let them see for themselves.
If it hadn't been for the discovery of the spring, Mo Yan wouldn't have thought of buying the sloping land and building terraced fields.
Building terraced fields wasn't something that could be done on just any sloping land. First, the slope had to be suitable, generally not exceeding twenty-five degrees, to prevent soil erosion. Secondly, irrigation and sunlight were crucial, or good crops wouldn't grow.
The sloping land she bought didn't have tall mountains or forests blocking the sunlight, and now with the spring water for irrigation, there were no problems. The slope was about twenty degrees, which was very suitable for building terraced fields. It would be almost impossible to find such a good location elsewhere.
...
When Xiao Zhu hurriedly came to the Mo family's house to tell Mo Yan about the situation with the Zhang family's shop, Mo Yan was busy cutting new clothes from the hides Lin Yong had tanned before.
Seeing him, she knew that there was news about the Zhang family. To avoid Li Xiu overhearing, she quickly brought him to the study.
"Xiao Zhu, is it true that the Zhang family is selling their shop?" After waiting for so long without any news, she thought the Zhang family would stubbornly refuse to sell the shop!
Xiao Zhu nodded and said, "Recently, the Zhang family has been contacting friends in the business community, wanting to sell the shop to raise money for other ventures. However, those friends see that the Zhang family is in decline and are offering a very low price. Zhang Fugui thinks it's too little and doesn't want to sell."
Mo Yan wasn't surprised by this situation at all. In the business world, interests were paramount. Now that the Zhang family was in trouble and there were no profits to be made, those so-called friends could only squeeze the last drops of oil from them.
"How much money does Zhang's family want for the shop? And how much are those friends offering?"
Xiao Zhu held up four fingers. "Zhang Fugui said he wouldn't sell for less than this amount, but his friends are offering at most two thousand five hundred taels."
Mo Yan frowned, silently calculating how much silver they had left.
Initially, they had earned three thousand five hundred taels from selling vegetables, received a thank-you reward of one thousand five hundred taels from saving Xiao Ruiyuan twice, and received over six hundred taels in compensation from Yan Junyu. In total, they had five thousand six hundred taels.
After spending one thousand seven hundred taels on building the house, nearly two hundred taels on buying land, and nearly one hundred taels on her father's education, they had spent a total of two thousand two hundred taels. Subtracting these expenses, they had only three thousand four hundred taels left.
After this calculation, it seemed like they didn't have enough money to buy the shop...
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