The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 386 - 375: The New County Magistrate

Chapter 386: Chapter 375: The New County Magistrate

"Fifth Aunt Zhou’s family is poor because Fifth Uncle Zhou passed away a long time ago, and Brother Dayong and Brother Eryi used to be ill and needed a lot of money for treatment, so Fifth Aunt Zhou sold Fifth Uncle Zhou’s land, leaving only four acres,"

Manbao, having been raised by Junior Ms. Qian, knew all sorts of gossip like the back of her hand, which both Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang listened to with keen interest.

"When it was time for Brother Dayong to get married and he had no money, Fifth Aunt Zhou sold the remaining four acres to build a house and get a wife for him. Fortunately, at that time, Brother Dayong had his own allocated land," Manbao said, "But when it came time for Brother Eryi to get married, Fifth Aunt Zhou had to sell another four acres of land from Brother Dayong..."

Yang Heshu & Everyone: ...

Manbao chuckled and joyfully said, "At that time, the village chief even went to scold Fifth Aunt Zhou, saying they were lazy and only thought about selling land, nothing to leave for their descendants, and they would just get poorer and poorer. After that, Fifth Aunt Zhou didn’t dare to sell any more land, but life didn’t get any easier for them."

It was easy to understand the case with Lai Tou’s family, "He gambled. His family used to live better even than mine. I remember when I was very young, whenever we had our evening meal, the scent of their cooking meat would waft over, and then I would get so hungry. My mother would have my sister-in-law cook an egg for me..."

Manbao said, "He gambled without care for food or beatings, and in a little over a year, he gambled away everything they had. Then, he sold my little niece and even had his leg broken by the debt collectors. Now, whenever he has money, he still goes to Luojiang to gamble. I think relief food shouldn’t be given to him, but it should be given to his old man and his son."

Yang Heshu frowned; this was not an easy situation to handle.

"Brother Zhou Hu’s family," Manbao sighed.

Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang also sighed along.

Yang Heshu curiously asked, "What happened to their family?"

"Brother Zhou Hu’s family used to be quite wealthy, next to the village chief’s, they were the richest."

Yang Heshu had realized when Manbao mentioned the village chief scolding Fifth Aunt Zhou that she wasn’t from the village chief’s family. Could it be she wasn’t from the second wealthiest family either?

Yang Heshu asked, "Did he also gamble?"

"Brother Zhou Hu wouldn’t gamble. It’s just that Sister-in-law Hu had a difficult labor last year and still needs medication now. That alone has drained all their resources, alas~~"

"Alas~"

"Alas~"

Yang Heshu looked at the three children hanging their heads and felt that this Zhou Hu must have a good reputation in the village.

He mused, "A single illness can drive a relatively affluent family to ruin, huh."

"Exactly, that’s why my dad always says, there’s nothing worse than falling sick. If we ever dared to play by the river or get caught in the rain, we’d be in for a beating when we got back home."

Yang Heshu asked with a smile, "What’s your father’s name?"

Manbao perked up, gleefully saying, "My dad is Zhou Jin, we’re really poor, remember that, okay?"

Yang Heshu’s smile stiffened as he asked, "Why should I remember that?"

Manbao and Bai Shanbao exchanged glances and quickly said, "Nothing, nothing, just remember it, that’s all."

Yang Heshu rubbed his forehead and asked, "Have you guessed my identity?"

Manbao’s eyes sparkled as she asked, "Your identity?"

What was his identity?

Yang Heshu stared at Manbao for a while, seeing her bright eyes and lack of guilt, while Bai Shanbao also looked at him full of anticipation.

Only Bai Erlang seemed clueless.

He couldn’t help but laugh and said, "Nothing much, just the newly appointed county magistrate of Luojiang County."

He asked Manbao and Bai Shanbao, "Have you seen me before?"

He had been in office for twenty days now, and it was possible that Manbao and the others had seen him on the streets by accident.

To his surprise, Manbao shook her head and said, "Never seen you."

Yang Heshu looked at her doubtfully and asked, "So have you guessed my identity or not?"

"You’re definitely an official," Bai Shanbao said, "Besides officials and those about to become officials, who else would inquire about the welfare of the people?"

"Why must I be an official?"

Now Manbao spoke up, "You look like a scholar, a young and tender-skinned scholar at that. At your age, a scholar who is out and about is either an official or on a learned journey. If you were on a journey, you’d tell us openly. What’s with the excuse of being lost? Even if you took back roads from White Horse Pass town to the county seat, you couldn’t possibly end up here."

The main reason was that Yang Heshu acted too much like the character they had seen in a storybook titled ’Secret Visits in Disguise.’ Although it was a fictional tale, both she and Bai Shanbao thought the story was very interesting.

They had assumed everything in the story was made up because how could a noble person appear without a crowd of attendants, like County Magistrate Fu, for example?

Whenever Manbao saw him, he was always surrounded by many people, be they officials or his servants.

But the moment she saw Yang Heshu, Manbao felt not all officials were like County Magistrate Fu, just as not all people are alike.

It turns out the tales from the system were reliable after all.

County Magistrate Yang obviously wasn’t familiar enough with the local area and did not know why one couldn’t pass through here when taking a shortcut from White Horse Pass town to the county seat.

But...

He observed the three children for a while; they were all young. How mischievous must they have been to know all the shortcuts from the nearby villages to White Horse Pass town and the county seat?

He didn’t realize that Manbao, Bai Shanbao, and Bai Erlang had once had a wandering experience. They had pondered over the paths to White Horse Pass town, and having mingled with laborers for quite some time, they got to know all sorts of local details.

Hearing that they were lost and had found their way here, they had repeated all the routes they knew. Out of curiosity to discover unfamiliar plants, Manbao had even dragged Zhou SiLang to explore several paths, only to find no rare plants, though they did gather a lot of firewood.

Even Bai Erlang, who was the least willing to stray from the beaten path, had passively learned several routes. Of course, he wasn’t about to follow those shortcuts, preferring his own two feet and clear paths over places full of pits and overgrowth.

Bai Erlang glanced down at their shoes and pants, then added, "You surely didn’t take any backroads."

Even the child who seemed the dullest agreed, leaving Yang Heshu with no choice but to offer an embarrassed smile. Changing the subject, he asked the three of them, "I see you’ve hired quite a few workers; how big is this field of yours?"

Manbao stood on the wooden bed and made a sweeping gesture with her hand, "Beyond what you can see is also ours, a total of one hundred twenty acres, and the mountain behind us as well."

Yang Heshu glanced at the mountain behind them, noticing its dense trees and thick underbrush, and couldn’t help asking, "Did you buy this mountain from the Chief? What’s the use of owning it?"

"We didn’t buy it, it’s Zhou SiLang’s allocated land."

Yang Heshu opened his eyes wide in surprise and asked, "Allocated land, but, but why a mountain like this?"

Manbao looked at him as if he was the strange one and said, "What else should allocated land be if not a mountain? All the allocated land in our village is mountainous. See that patch of mountain over there? Most of our village’s allocated land is there. My dad, my eldest brother, and Second Brother got the best ones, located in or near the village. Third Brother and Silang got the worse end, with land so far away. When it comes to Fifth Brother, I bet he’ll be allocated land near Dali Village."