Transmigration: A Farm Girl’s Brocade
Chapter 280 - 181 Resolving the Disasters_3

Chapter 280: Chapter 181 Resolving the Disasters_3

Wenhua County, adjacent to Green Spring River, is connected to the Jingxiang Canal. A boat departing from here can enter the Jingxiang Canal after a five-day journey, and then traveling nearly half a month northward, one can reach Capital City. Heading south to Xiangyang, entering the Qian River, one can reach Jiangnan.

Qian Yixiu felt somewhat perplexed; the Changjiang River, which has nurtured the descendants of China since ancient times, was apparently not called the Changjiang River here. Here, the Qian River seemed a bit like the Changjiang River.

Qian Yixiu gazed at the surging Hong River, thinking that once her family became wealthy, they would build a wharf here, making the transportation of goods much more convenient. The Hong River was a tributary of the Green Spring River, meandering its way to Wenhua County before flowing into the Green Spring River. With a wharf built here, travel to the provincial capital, Capital City, Xiangyang, and Jiangnan would all be much faster. She hadn’t expected the water transport of this alternate era to be so developed, with the construction of the Jingxiang Canal that connected the south and the north.

This era diverged from the historical flow of her previous life, yet the development trend and civilization before the Jin Kingdom were extremely similar, yet not entirely the same—it was completely chaotic. Qian Yixiu racked her brain but could not make any sense of it.

The lotus root harvest was abundant, causing envy, jealousy, and hatred among villagers like Wang Lizheng. Especially for Wang Lizheng, who had sold so much good land cheaply through his own hands, and yet did not buy a single acre for himself—his heart was bleeding.

If it had been anyone else, they would definitely try to squeeze some ponds out of them. But the Qian family was not someone he could afford to provoke now. Mainly, he was afraid of Qian Sangui. Otherwise, he would definitely have tried to get five acres of pond from both Qian Dagui and Qian Ergui.

Qian Dagui and Lady Wang were very happy. They had not expected that growing lotus roots would yield more profits than a year of farming the fields. The key point was that the lotus ponds required less investment, costing only twenty-two taels of silver to buy fifteen acres. The wages for digging the ponds weren’t much either, totaling thirty taels of silver. This was only equivalent to the cost of four acres of paddy fields, yet the output was much more than that of four acres of paddy fields.

Qian Dagui regretfully said, "Hearing from my third brother, the land further west isn’t good, otherwise we could have bought more land for ponds."

Lady Wang snorted, "If we had known, we should have bought more last year instead of letting outsiders like the Wan family benefit from it."

Qian Dagui frowned, "Woman, you’re saying that again. That Wan family is the family of the third brother’s child-in-law; it’s only natural for the third brother to support them."

Lady Wang said, "No matter how close a family by marriage is, can they be closer than brothers?"

Qian Dagui said, "You think every in-law is like the ones we picked, giving us constant headaches? When people get along well with their in-laws, they can indeed be as close as brothers. That way, our daughter won’t be wronged when she marries over."

Whenever the topic of in-laws came up, Lady Wang would start sighing. Unexpectedly, among the daughters of the Qian family, it was Auntie Xia, who seemed the least conspicuous, who had the most fortune.

Qian Ergui and Lady Tang regretted it even more, wishing they had bought more land.

Qian Ergui complained to Qian Manhe, "Why did you only let us buy ten acres at that time? We should have bought twenty acres."

Lady Tang said, "Why is our head of the family blaming our son? If you ask me, it’s the third uncle’s fault; knowing that this land was good for lotus cultivation, he should have encouraged us to buy more. Instead, outsiders benefited, and now the Wan family has bought twenty acres—it’s a pity."

Qian Manhe frowned and said, "Mother, you’ve offended everyone with your words, and now you’re talking nonsense. How can we blame third uncle for this? If third uncle and third auntie hear this, they will be upset again."

Lady Tang hurriedly said with a smile, "Mother isn’t foolish, I wouldn’t talk about this carelessly outside."

That afternoon, Qian Sangui and Su Siwu, carrying meat, went to the main house. Lady Wang laughed, "Why has third uncle come with meat again? We can’t touch this meat, third uncle can take it back when he goes home this evening. We’ve earned money following third uncle to grow lotus this year, so we should host today’s wine. I’ve already bought the meat and fish, and I will prepare a few more dishes with Sister-in-law Lu, so father-in-law and you brothers can enjoy several cups more."

In early September, Zhang Yang came to Guiyuan to buy withered lotus leaves for medicinal purposes. He also brought big news from Xishan County Town.

A few days ago, Magistrate Wu’s wife and daughter-in-law, while on their way to Xiding Mountain Daci Temple to pray for a child, were startled by a horse. Both mother-in-law and daughter-in-law rolled down the cliff, with the daughter-in-law breaking her leg and Madam Wu dying on the spot.

Qian Yijin felt a surge of pleasure and said, "Deserved, it’s truly divine retribution."

Wan Dazhong was also there eating, and he laughed, "With that tigress dead, Magistrate Wu must be happy, and now Hua Wuxin can finally be brought back home."

Zhang Yang said with a smile, "She was brought back yesterday, and they even set up a drinks table, calling it a ’joyous event’."

Qian Sangui scoffed, "It’s not like his own parents died, and yet he calls it a ’joyous event.’ Such an officer with bad morals should be removed from his post."

Zhang Yang said, "Hua Wuxin’s pregnancy can no longer be hidden, but Madam Wu wouldn’t allow her to enter the residence while alive. She even threatened that if Hua Wuxin dared to enter, it would cost her two lives. Neighbors are gossiping, saying that Magistrate Wu hated his wife for being fierce and jealous, so he arranged this plot to kill her."