Chapter 85: Corvee

When Lu Lin came back, Liu Gui Yong and the other villagers had already left.

"You're in a good mood!" As soon as Lu Lin entered the house, he saw Chen Xiao Mi grinning at a basket of things in front of him.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded. " Uncle Liu and the Village Head of the Big Gulf Village were here. They sent us this basket as a thank you gift, they said they were so grateful to us. Look at the specialties, they remind me of home."

"Uncle Liu can do away with formalities with us. Was their village head here too?"

Chen Xiao Mi nodded. "The Big Gulf Village is very polite, too. He seemed to be very respectful to me, that was a new experience for me, Zhang Cheng, our Village Head only finds fault with me."

Lu Lin smiled, "Really? That's very good to hear."

Lu Lin had been to the Big Gulf Village a few times and had talked to their Village Head. He felt that their Village Head was very amiable, he had never put on airs when he talked to Lu Lin.

"Yeah, he is very approachable," Chen Xiao Mi said.

......

The news of sweet potatoes encountering poor sales had spread to Big Stone Village. The two villages were neighboring villages, many families in the two villagers were related by marriage.

People in Big Stone Village also knew that the sweet potatoes in Big Gulf Village were in excess of demand. Many people even expressed sympathy, but soon enough, they heard about the good news that the sweet potatoes in Big Gulf Village became popular.

The dried sweet potato chips made from Big Gulf Village's mini sweet potatoes was very delicious. Many people in town even visited Big Gulf Village to purchase from them, and the price of sweet potatoes from Big Gulf Village had gone up.

When people in Big Stone Village asked about it, they found that it had something to do with Lu Lin. It was Lu Lin who made the sweet potatoes of Big Gulf Village into dried sweet potato chips and promoted then as freebies, which made the sweet potatoes of Big Gulf Village famous.

Actually, there were a few families in Big Stone Village who secretly planted the new breed of sweet potatoes. Originally, these families were also worried, but now that the little sweet potato became popular, they were relieved.

There were still too many sweet potatoes in Big Gulf Village, so it was still difficult to sell them all. After thinking about it, Liu Tian the Village Head he called on the whole village to make dried sweet potato chips.

After Lu Lin heard about it, he bought a batch of dried sweet potato chips from Big Gulf Village and put them in the store for sale.

After the news spread, people in the village thought that Lu Lin was so capable. He had just afforded a livelihood to so many villagers with the greatest of ease.

Lu Lin had once again become the talk of the town, the villagers kept talking about him nonstop.

Tang could hear all kinds of flattery words about Lu Lin wherever she went. The villagers all made a living from the produce in their field, their primary concern was to sell the produce smoothly. Lu Lin had found a market for the slow-selling sweet potatoes, she was held in high esteem by the villagers than before.

Lu Lin had been in town the whole time and had he no idea that he had gained another round of considerable repute in the village.

......

Zhang Cheng said while puffing his pipe, "Lu Lin is really capable."

A while ago, Zhang Cheng met the Village Head the Big Gulf Village who wore an anxious look on the face, but he was bursting with happiness now.

The dried sweet potato chips from Big Gulf Village seemed very popular. Although it was a little time-consuming, it was much easier to store and sell. Some of them were sold to other towns. Many people in Big Gulf Village made quite a bit money.

It was said that many villagers had sent Lu Lin presents after they made money.

Zhang Jin nodded, "Yeah, that makes sense! If not for Lu Lin, it would be difficult for several families in Big Gulf Village to survive this winter."

"He's so capable, but it has never occurred to him that he is from our village and our villagers can really use his help as well. He's very considerate about the matters in the Big Gulf Village, he should think about our villagers before he thinks about the Big Gulf Village."

Zhang Jin thought to himself, 'Although Lu Lin is from Big Stone Village, but none of us was really friendly to him. What's more, many people in the village are now selling embroidery products to Lu Lin, he is helping us already. The women's embroidery skills in the village were not as great as the embroidery ladies in the town who specialized in doing this.

......

In Willow Town.

Chen Xiao Cai nibbled on the dried sweet potato chips and said happily, "This tastes good."

Shen Chi nodded, "Yeah! I've eaten dried sweet potatoes before, but they were not as sweet."

" It seems like Lin Gege hasn't visited us for a while," Chen Xiao Cai scratched his head.

Shen Chi nodded. " Last time Lin Gege visited us, he made sweet potato pancakes for us, that was so yummy."

Chen Xiao Cai nodded and said, " Lin Gege is such a great cook."

Lu Lin often cooked when they were back in the village, but he didn't cook much after they moved to town. However, if his brother had cravings for something, Lu Lin would still cook.

Chen Xiao Cai felt that many things that Lu Lin made were very novel and ordinary chefs couldn't make them.

......

After the people in Big Gulf Village started to sell dried sweet potato chips, the freebies in the commercial store looked less unique.

Lu Lin bought some prickly raw chestnuts, he made some Chestnuts Roasted with Sugar as freebies.

Lu Lin shared some with the workers in the store, asking for their opinions.

Chen Xiao Mai was effusive in his praise, he had been clapping so hard while he ate.

Qin Lang was also surprised by the taste, he shared a bowl of fried chestnuts with his brother Qin Ming.

" I didn't expect this prickly thing to be this yummy. We've encountered this thing before, remember? But we didn't know they were edible."

Qin Ming nodded and said, "Yeah, we've definitely seen them in the mountain before, a lot of them. If I knew this thing could be eaten, I should've picked them up and roasted them."

Qin Ming remembered that there were many chestnut trees near their cave, but they had no idea there were fruits inside the prickly shells. He had always felt that there was nothing to eat. It turned out that he was absolutely wrong. They had so much to eat, but he didn't know how to eat.

Qin Lang thought to himself, 'If I had time to return to the mountain, I would take a few baskets with me and fill them with specialties for Master Lin and Master Mi.'

Seeing that Qin Lang and Qin Ming getting so excited about the chestnut, a smile crossed Lu Lin's face. He had a hunch that chestnuts would definitely win people's heart next.

Chen Xiao Mi used to be a hunter and he had several hunter friends from the neighboring towns. Qin Yi was mountain people. The two of them talked to the people in the mountains about purchasing chestnuts. The hunters promised they would deliver chestnuts to them with alacrity, they were all struggling villagers with limited means, they were grateful to Chen Xiao Mi for purchasing chestnuts from them.

Soon, a large number of prickly chestnuts were delivered to Lu Lin. Lu Lin made some roasted chestnuts with sugar as freebies.

Dried sweet potato chips was common. Sweet chestnuts were different. Many people in the town had never seen them without the hard and prickly shells. People in the villages had seen them, but they had no idea that chestnuts were edible.

Being able to eat something that they had never eaten before was a novelty feeling for many people.

After the roasted chestnuts with sugar appeared as freebies, some people would come to the store just for the chestnuts.

Yang Heng Zhi looked at Lu Lin and said, "Brother Lu, the freebies in your shop is really popular!" A while ago, the dried sweet potato chips had suddenly solved the most urgent problem in the Big Gulf Village.

Lu Lin smiled and said, "I need to thank everyone for support us."

Yang Heng Zhi looked at Lu Lin and said, "Can I buy some chestnuts?"

"Sure!"

Yang Heng Zhi was a little surprised when Lu Lin said yes. And he was a bit discouraged when he saw Lu Lin taking out a small bag of chestnuts.

"Young Master Yang, I didn't make much today and we have to use them as freebies for other customers. I'm sorry I can only sell this much to you," Lu Lin said with an apologetic smile.

Yang Heng Zhi said sullenly, "Okay."

The chestnuts in Sino Commercial House had captured people's heart. There were many students bought dolls in the store just for the freebies.

When Yang Heng Zhi and other students were gathering after school, a small bag of roasted chestnuts with sugar had become a status symbol.

......

The Lu family sold the grains from the Autumn Harvest, after they deducted the taxes and the help's wage, only less than ten taels of silver was left.

Grandma Lu looked at the silver in her hand and said, "This year is a bumper harvest year! How come we didn't end up with much grain?"

Grandpa Lu sighed, "No pain no gain! If you take good care of the field, the field won't return you with a good harvest. No one has fertilized or watered the field! And now you are asking me why we don't have much produce this year!"

Fertilizing was the most important process in nourishing the field, but it was very unpleasant. No one in that family was willing to do such dirty work. As a matter of fact, no one had even watered or weeded the crops.

Grandma Lu gritted her teeth and said, "Our daughter-in-law and granddaughter-in-law are both about to give birth. We'll have to pay for midwife!"

Grandpa Lu glanced at Grandma Lu and warned her, "What are you thinking? Don't you dare think about saving money on big maters like giving birth!"

Grandma Lu smiled awkwardly. "No... I'm not thinking about that..."

Grandpa Lu sighed. He felt that life was worse than before, and it seemed like his family had always been in a turmoil. His eldest son and youngest son argued every day, and so was his daughter-in-law with his son. During this period of time, Grandpa Lu had aged a lot.

......

After the autumn harvest, another bad news came from the town, the government was about to levy corvee.

The whole village was in miserable and gloomy atmosphere since the news.

Lu Lin was more well-informed about the news since he lived in town.

The corvee this time was mainly to repair the bridge and the road. The corvee was about 20 days, you could pay one tale of silver for an exemption if you don't want to serve as corvee labor.

According to the rules, each household with three men aged from 12 to 50 needed to provide one person as corvee labor, household with 4 men aged from 12 to 50 needed to provide two. The household could pay one tale of silver for each exemption.

Chen Xiao Mi had already lived separated, they needed to provide one considering they had Mi, Cai, Lu Lin three men of the right age. Lu Lin decided to pay 1 tale of silver for the exemption, 1 tale of silver was nothing for Lu Lin who had over 1,000 taels.

One or two taels of silver was nothing to Lu Lin, but it was an enormous figure for most villagers. The poor villagers had to resign themselves.

......

Fear spread quickly through the village.

Quite a few people visited Zhang Cheng the Village Head to discuss this matter.

Actually, being the Village Head was a hard job. Zhang Cheng needed to assist the officials for levying corvee. That was a very delicate position to be in, a lot of the villagers would complain.

The corvee matter had affected the Lu family. There were three men of the right age in the Lu family. Lu Cheng Yu was a Tongsheng, so naturally he wouldn't go. Therefore, it was going to be Lu Ming or Lu An.

Neither of the two wanted to go. Corvee labor was daunting, there were people who was exhausted to death every year.

Grandpa Lu sighed and said, "Let's spend 1 tale of silver for an exemption."

Grandma Lu said sullenly, "We don't have much money at home, and now we need to spend one more tael." Grandma Lu couldn't help but recall the time when her second son was still alive. If her second son were still alive, there was no need to hire help in autumn harvest or to spend money for exemption, she could force her second son to do it all.

"Lu An's wife is about to give birth, we cannot send him, if we send Lu Ming, I'm sure he will make a scene!" Grandpa Lu hated to spend money, but what he hated more was drama.

Grandma Lu hesitated and said, "Our financial situation is pretty bad since An was fired, one tale of silver doesn't sound much, but we don't have as much income as we used to."

Grandma Lu became stingier as she grew older, she narrowed her eyes and she made up her mind that she was going to make every attempt to convince Lu An.