Chapter 62: Four Stones Four 1/2

Zhou Cunzheng’s lips moved, but he couldn’t find words to speak.

How absurd!

Lives were lost on the battlefield, yet because their deaths couldn’t be confirmed, the elderly and weak in the families were still required to pay taxes.

How could he even articulate such absurdity?

The villagers who had followed Mr. Chen over were utterly confused. “What does this mean? Is Dashan’s nephew still alive?”

Mr. Chen sat heavily on a half-finished stack of hay, tears streaming down his face. “It’d be good if they were alive! But even when they’re gone, we still have to pay taxes. What kind of world is this? What kind of world is this?”

Mrs. Chen was so infuriated that she felt dizzy, and swayed backward, but was caught by Sang Lou and Qin Fangniang.

The situation on the drying ground became even more chaotic, with cries and curses suffocatingly desperate compared to before.

Zhou Cunzheng watched the scene, his lips seemingly glued together, trying to speak several times before he finally managed.

But what could he say? What could he do?

Standing there in silence, listening to the cries and curses all around, Zhou Cunzheng closed his eyes.

“Neighbors, let’s all go home for now. We’ll talk about the tax matters tomorrow.”

Yes, let’s wait till tomorrow. He couldn’t make any promises. He could only say this useless sentence.

Zhou Cunzheng clenched the register in his hand and turned to stride out of the village.

His wife hurried to catch up with him when she saw him. “Where are you going?”

Zhou Cunzheng shook his head. “I’m just going out for a walk.”

That “walk” lasted until night fell, and he still hadn’t returned. His whole family was frantic, with the sons pairing up and setting out with torches to search for him.

On the road leading back from the county, Zhou Cunzheng met his eldest and third sons, who were returning from the city. He was still holding the same register from the afternoon.

The two brothers were overjoyed and called out to him, “Dad, where have you been all afternoon? It’s so late, everyone at home is really worried. They’re all out looking for you.”

Zhou Cunzheng’s mood was low, but he nodded. “Let’s go back.”

Back home, his wife heated up dinner for him and brought it to him, but he shook his head and didn’t touch it.

His wife sighed. “What can you do, Village Head? You talk like a Village Head, but what’s the difference between you and the others in our village? Come on, have some food.”

But Zhou Cunzheng still shook his head. “I can’t eat. Just leave it.”

His wife sighed again. “Did you go to see Wang Liu this afternoon?”

Zhou Cunzheng finally looked at her and nodded.

“How did it go? Did you meet the old master of the Wang family?”

“I did, Wang Liu took me to see him.” He shook his head again. “But even he said there’s nothing he can do. The pressure from above to deliver grain is very intense, the orders come directly from the top, and our village’s situation is just one of many in the county. The county magistrate won’t loosen his grip on this matter.”

“But there’s no one handling things like this.” Mrs. Chen’s shoulders slumped as she sat down nearby. “They said at the beginning of the year that they’d collect taxes for this autumn in advance. Many families in the village haven’t had a decent meal in over half a year. The grain has just been harvested and hasn’t even been stored yet, and they’re already asking for next year’s taxes. It feels like tightening a belt so much that it’ll last till next autumn, doesn’t it?”

“If we knew we’d be hungry for a year and a half from the start, it would be one thing. But now, everyone thought they could at least have three good months to eat comfortably next year. With this sudden blow, nobody can bear it.”

“And furthermore, having to pay taxes even when someone dies, where can we go to reason with that?”

“All afternoon today, there hasn’t been a moment of silence in the village.”

Crying for the sons and daughters lost to death.

Zhou Cunzheng hadn’t spoken for a long time. He dared not utter that sentence.

He was afraid, afraid that even next year wouldn’t be the end.

Taxes could be collected half a year in advance, a year in advance, and they’d dare to collect two years in advance.

Zhou Lizheng felt that the lights tonight were exceptionally dim. A flickering oil lamp swayed in the wind, casting shadows on the wall like reluctant spirits wailing. He walked to the doorway of the main hall, gazing at the night sky outside the courtyard, feeling the night oppressively suffocating.

…

Equally suffocated was Sang Lou, who had returned home a long time ago.

In the afternoon, several families were sitting together when Shen An arrived. Before Sang Lou returned home, the vendors who had set up stalls had come to their senses, determining the number of tofu they would sell the next day. Thinking that Sang Lou also had to pay taxes, and that she still had to pay for Shen Lie, who had already passed away, eighty percent of them paid in money, while the remaining twenty percent paid in soybeans.

But Chen Youtian changed the amount he had originally planned for lunch, reducing it to ten pieces of each type of tofu. To be honest, they didn’t even need to carry a basket; it was the kind of thing Chen Laotai could sell with just a basket.

Starting tomorrow, it would be difficult to do business in this countryside.

After returning home, Sang Lou did nothing but gather leaves from the fairy tree and dig up konjac tofu. When she was at the Chen’s house, she had already asked everyone how taxes were collected based on their situation.

According to the household registration documents issued by the village head, the Shen family’s main house was classified as a lower-class household, with a household tax of four dou.

Shen Lie, who had been officially declared dead by the government but was still considered alive because he had turned eighteen, had become a laborer, with a labor tax of two stones.

Her and Shen An’s contributions together amounted to one middle-class laborer and two minor laborers, totaling two stones.

So, if she didn’t want to be sent away for forced labor, Sang Lou had to come up with four stones and four dou in taxes before September fifteenth.

Four stones and four dou, seventy cents for a stone of grain, oh, I’ve heard the price has already gone up. The grain price at the grocery store in Sanli Village is now seventy-seven cents per stone.

Four stones and four dou, three thousand three hundred and eighty-eight cents, if the grain price doesn’t rise again before September fifteenth.

Over three thousand cents, in less than half a month’s time, left Sang Lou feeling bewildered. She didn’t dare to do anything else in the afternoon; she just dug up konjac and asked Mrs. Chen for some seasoning, then went home to start working.

Just entering September, the nights in the mountains had already cooled. Sang Lou waited for the konjac tofu to solidify, then took the opportunity to make fairy tofu.

But today, as she worked, her thoughts were elsewhere. Not only did she have to earn over three thousand cents in just a few days, but what worried her the most was the sky outside. She feared it might change.

Since she had to start making tofu at four in the morning, she had gone to bed early. However, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep. When she finally fell asleep, she was caught in a nightmare of chaos in the world, spending the whole night trapped in it, fleeing, fleeing, and still fleeing.

When the rooster crowed outside, Sang Lou woke up drenched in cold sweat.

Seeing that it was still early, she breathed a sigh of relief, relaxed a bit, and hurriedly got up to go to the kitchen, lighting the oil lamp to prepare to grind the beans.

Before she could start grinding the millstone, both Shen An and Shen Ning had already gotten up. The siblings came over quickly. “Sister-in-law, let us grind the beans.”

The two took turns grinding the beans.

Since last night, the two siblings had been unusually silent, always eager to work, which became even more apparent today.

Sang Lou glanced at the two siblings, sighed, and said nothing.

Shen An had been paying attention to Sang Lou’s expression all along. Seeing her like this made him even more nervous. Unconsciously, he clenched his teeth, and the corners of his mouth were slightly sore from biting. He lowered his head, trying hard to do the work better.