The Farm Life Of a "Fool"

Chapter 79

Fortunately, there were not too many different characters. After they got familiar, it would be easier.

Xu An etched these lines himself, which took a lot of effort and time. He couldn't read much, that was the point. Xu Ran explicitly requested that he engrave simplified Chinese letters, which he accomplished with some difficulty in response to Xu Ran's request. Xu Ran would not have provided the chess carving game to someone else if he hadn't done so.

Xu Ran left the errand of chess to Xu An, so he just needed to make some time to take a look here every day.

____

When Xu Ran returned home, he discovered the village chief waiting at the door, refusing to enter.

Xu Ran greeted him with a smile, "What brings you by, village chief?"

When he spotted Xu Ran, the village chief rose up and said, "Xu Ran, you should accompany me to town today to address the tax exemption issue. Yamen runners will arrive in the coming days to collect taxes."

Xu Ran rubbed his temples. He had forgotten about it. They had visited here around the same time last year to collect taxes! The land had been counted in, even though it was not yet tax season, therefore it was essential to address this as quickly as possible.

Xu Ran said to him, "OK, let's go now. I'll go and tell Tongtong first."

The village head waved his hand and said, "Okay, go. I'll wait for you here."

Xu Ran burst into the house, telling Liu Tong that he was heading to town to pay the tax exemption. He took the family's Xiucai certificate, as well as the landbook and title document. He then proceeded to the stable to lead Big Black out and begin setting up the cart.

Big Black had been working a lot lately, and it was virtually going to town every other day. When it was brought out again, it sneezed loudly at Xu Ran, expressing its displeasure.

Xu Ran gave it a slap. "Be calm. You don't have to come out when it snows."

Big Black lowered its head in grievance, and Xu Ran rubbed its head again, comforting it.

Xu Ran escorted Big Black out of the yard after the cart was put up. They ran to the town after he waited at the front gate until the village head entered.

When they got in Yamen, Xu Ran discovered that there were around 10 individuals in line for tax exemption, both young and old. They seem to have gotten the information.

Xu Ran waited patiently. It was very troublesome to get a tax exemption. He had to register all the farmlands under his name and record the time of buying one by one.

When it was Xu Ran's turn, the officer glanced at the time of him buying the last forty mu and couldn't help taking a second look. The village head stood beside him and said, "This is the situation, sir. This location had been carefully selected for a long time. Xu Ran, on the other hand, was studying for the Provincial Examination at the time and didn't have time to buy it. He couldn't come to town to pay for the title deed since he was busy once he returned, and his spouse was pregnant. That is why he is currently running late."

The village chief spoke cautiously and softly placed some silver into the officer's hand, causing the officer to stop questioning Xu Ran and allowing him to avoid further difficulty. "Thank you for your help just now, village head," Xu Ran said as he exited the yamen and gave the silver to the village head.

The village head waved his hand. "Not at all. I am the village head anyway and I should help you with this."

"Thank you anyway. It's noon now, so let's go for lunch before returning. How about the restaurant I invited you to last time? Let's go!"

Mr. Chen's restaurant was mentioned by Xu Ran, and the village chief remembered it. The village chief obviously remembered something when he heard Xu Ran's comments and accepted without hesitation.

Mr. Chen's restaurant was visited by Xu Ran and the village chief. Every time Xu Ran visited, he would take some silver with him. Mr. Chen was ecstatic because he rarely spent money in this town.

Xu Ran was at a loss for what to order. He simply requested that the shopkeeper prepare three or four distinctive meals, excluding potatoes, and that was sufficient for them. Mr. Chen's restaurant's chef was extremely talented in the kitchen. He would be at least a four-star chef in today's world.

Xu Ran also asked a pot of arrack for the village head to let him drink slowly.

They were talking about planting potatoes next year over lunch. It took almost two hours for this meal.

The shopkeeper quietly asked Xu Ran to send him potatoes while paying the bill. Xu Ran answered with a smile, "Mr. Chen, don't worry. I'll send them to you the next day. When winter arrives, there will be plenty of nice things in store for you."

Anyway, Mr. Chen was very happy as long as he heard something good, so he gave Xu Ran a discount on his meal.

They were both very happy.

As he walked out, Xu Ran noticed a familiar figure in the business across the street, who appeared to be Du Xin. The man had already entered that fabric shop when Xu Ran decided to take a closer look. The person vanished from Xu Ran's view.

He felt that he had misread it. After all, Du Xin had never mentioned that he had any relative here, and it was unlikely that Du Xin had come to see him!

Xu Ran shook his head, feeling that he was overthinking things. It was most likely someone with a similar figure He hadn't seen his face, after all. Xu Ran came to a halt in his thoughts. He immediately caught up to the village chief in front of him, and the two of them returned home.

Three days later.

Yamen runners struck the gong and went to the village to collect grains.

The gong would be struck whenever something significant happened in this era, according to Xu Ran. He did concede, though, that it was the most efficient means of informing everyone as soon as possible.

The yamen runners were ruthless when it came to collecting grains. Farmers must strictly hand in their grains. The days after handing in grains would be difficult for families with many people and a lot of land, much alone families with a lot of people but little land.

There was a lot of noise, but no one dared disobey or insult the soldiers.

Xu Ran's house was at the end of the village, and the yamen runners collected grains from the entrance of the village to the end.

When the yamen runners spotted Xu Ran's house, they smiled and muttered something. They had no idea that Xu Ran was actually Xiucai. They simply assumed that the family must be wealthy, based on the good residence, because they would be able to collect more grains, which would be beneficial to them.

On the other hand, Xu Ran seemed to have been waiting for this moment, the best time to show himself off.

Xu Ran brought out his Xiucai certificate and the tax exemption paper he had received a few days before in the yamen. "Nice to meet you, sir," he added with a smile.

Despite the fact that these yamen runners worked for the government, they had no titles, so when they found out that Xu Ran was a Xiucai, they became more courteous to him.

The two copies of documents were examined by the head yamen runner, who confirmed that they were genuine and returned them to Xu Ran. "Please accept my apologies for bothering you, lord. We're leaving right now because you don't have to pay taxes."

He then waved his hand to the people behind him, "Let's go".

Xu Ran bowed, "Goodbye, sir."

After the yamen runners left, Xu Ran strolled back to the house.

Thankfully, the villagers were busy counting their own grains today, and no one followed the yamen runners to join in the merriment, otherwise Xu Ran would have been envied by many people once more.

05.18.21