Chapter 36: Buying the Mountain (I)

“Yeah!”

Still absorbed in the excitement of finding water, Li Zheng immediately gave Er Wang a playful flick on the head when he heard this.

“Usually, you’re not very bright, but now suddenly you’re smart!”

Er Wang immediately covered his head with both hands, “Li Zheng Uncle, are you praising me for being clever, or scolding me for being dumb? That hurt a lot!”

Li Zheng pointed to his own head.

“Can anything hurt more than my head?”

“However, what you said is indeed a bit tricky. Once others find out there’s a water source here, the nearby villages will all rush over to join in.

Then Zhao Fu Sheng, that old guy, will come looking for trouble again, and this time, I can’t let him have the upper hand!”

“Then let’s buy the mountain!”

Ye Xin Ran proposed.

“Buy it?” When Li Zheng heard this, his face turned pale. “Do you know how much this mountain costs? You want to just buy it?”

After grumbling, Li Zheng suddenly remembered that Ye Xin Ran had mentioned buying East Mountain earlier, so he smiled at her. “How about you buy East Mountain, and I’ll use that money to buy this mountain?”

“I don’t have the money!”

Ye Xin Ran’s face clearly expressed rejection.

“I can’t come up with that much money right now!”

“Well, then there’s really no way.”

Li Zheng’s excitement from finding the water source quickly vanished.

In fact, digging the water channel and bringing the water down the mountain weren’t issues. With so many people in their village, if everyone pitched in, they could get it done.

The only concern was that someone might interfere. After all, the mountain had no owner right now. If Zhao Fu Sheng saw the benefits and bought the mountain first, they’d get nothing.

“I’ll think of something. A few years ago, didn’t Zhao Fu Sheng have his eye on that large piece of land at the village entrance? If necessary, I’ll sell that land to him, gather some more money, and buy this Mi Lu Mountain.”

“Uncle Li Zheng, that’s not good! That’s the most fertile land in our village. If we sell it to East Gully Village, how will we produce any food in the future?”

“Exactly. The people from East Gully Village already look down on us, calling us poor. If we sell them that land, they’ll definitely treat us even worse.”

“So, what do you think we should do?” Li Zheng frowned deeply.

“How about we go back to the village and ask everyone to chip in? After all, everyone will benefit if the water comes down from the mountain.”

Someone suggested.

“Hey!” Li Zheng sighed deeply.

He knew the villagers’ situation all too well.

These past few years, with the crops failing, everyone had been tightening their belts, struggling to make ends meet. Raising 50 taels was already hard enough, let alone 200.

In the end, he said, “I can’t think of a good solution right now, so let’s head back for now. Er Zhu, you and the others move the rocks back, so no one notices. When I figure something out, we can come back and keep digging.”

The group returned in high spirits but left disappointed.

Before they even got home, Li Zheng had come up with a plan.

If worse came to worst, they would just dig anyway. If someone else bought the mountain, they could negotiate with the buyer about the water rights.

Even if he had to embarrass himself and go into debt, he wouldn’t just stand by while the crops dried up from lack of water.

Ye Xin Ran had no idea about Li Zheng’s thoughts. By the time she returned home, she had already come up with her own plan.

She knew that the village was poor, but she didn’t expect it to be this poor.

If they couldn’t come up with the money, the issue of water in the village would always be a problem, and whenever she wanted to plant something, it would be very inconvenient.

The best solution was for her to give up her original goal of East Mountain and buy Mi Lu Mountain directly.

But in this era, holding onto such a conspicuous place like Mi Lu Mountain might not be very safe. She still needed to rely on a powerful backing. The power of the 300 or so households in Yun Bian Village was much greater than her own.

Having made up her mind, Ye Xin Ran entered the space after the children fell asleep.

The herbs in the warehouse had been chopped into smaller pieces, and the valuable ginseng had been powdered. The only thing that could still be sold were the few pieces of “He Shou Wu” that hadn’t been processed yet.

She had thought about selling these “He Shou Wu” a few days ago, but at that time, she hadn’t been willing to part with them. Now, it seemed unavoidable.

She took the “He Shou Wu” from the space and placed them into her dowry box, thinking that if Li Zheng still couldn’t come up with a plan, she would sell the “He Shou Wu” to raise the money.

With her plan set, she no longer rushed.

She called a few children to wash mushrooms with her, preparing to stir-fry some mushrooms and meat for dinner.

The three little ones had never had cow tripe mushrooms. Seeing the plump mushrooms, they drooled while anxiously asking, “Aunt, I heard mushrooms can be poisonous and kill people. Are these mushrooms safe?”

“Of course,” Ye Xin Ran replied. “I know which mushrooms are poisonous and which ones are safe. As long as you follow me, you’ll be fine.”

“Aunt is so smart!”

“Yeah, Aunt knows everything!”

“She knows more than the teachers in the school!”

Mentioning the teacher, Ye Xin Ran looked at Chang Sheng’s feet. “Chang Sheng, your foot is almost healed. You can go to school tomorrow.”

“Really?” Chang Sheng was very happy.

“Great! I didn’t understand much of what Er Dan was teaching me. There are still several things I don’t understand. I want to ask the teacher about them tomorrow.”

“Mm, just be careful not to jump or run,” Ye Xin Ran reminded him.

“Okay!”

The stir-fried mushrooms that night were very delicious. Ye Xin Ran made a large plate, but it was eaten up completely. In the end, only a small piece stuck to the side of the plate, which Chang Ping picked up.

“Aunt, are you going to the mountain tomorrow? Take me with you, let’s go mushroom picking together!”

“Alright!” Ye Xin Ran agreed immediately.

After realizing that the mountain wasn’t as dangerous as she had thought, Ye Xin Ran had become bolder.

Children nowadays weren’t fragile flowers, and there was no need for her to keep them cooped up at home. Taking them to the mountain to learn about herbs and plants could be helpful in the future.

For the next few days, Chang Sheng went to school every day, while Chang An and Chang Ping followed Ye Xin Ran to the mountain to pick mushrooms.

While mushroom picking, Ye Xin Ran also kept an eye out for the herbs she wanted. However, apart from some cheap herbs like seven-leaf grass, there was no sign of the Ice Spirit Flower anywhere on the mountain.

Soon, five days had passed.

Li Zheng still hadn’t come up with a good way to raise money.

And the water shortage in the village became more and more apparent. He finally made up his mind and decided to lead everyone directly to the mountain to start digging.

At this point, Ye Xin Ran advised him, “Li Zheng Uncle, if you really can’t raise the money, I can sell my dowry to help everyone buy the mountain.”

“Really?”

Li Zheng had already removed the bandages from his head, and the wound was scabbed over, giving him a pitiable yet somewhat comical appearance.

“Really, but I have a condition. Li Zheng Uncle, would you like to hear it?” Ye Xin Ran said.