The Spirited Daughter-in-law and the Mountain Man
Chapter 1079 - Chapter 1079 1078

Chapter 1079: 1078 Chapter 1079: 1078 Xiao Yishan glared at her, “You mustn’t accept it.

The Fang family is also struggling, with a large household to feed, all relying on tenant farming for a living.

Their harvest from the fields isn’t much either.

Baoping, take it back.”

“People already brought it over…” Li Rong’er hadn’t had meat for several days.

The game Xiao Yishan hunted was sent to the two “white-eyed wolves” next door, leaving only a little, which was eaten days ago, and the rest was sold for taels.

And he hadn’t had much luck with his hunting lately either.

Xiao Yishan’s face looked displeased, “As a woman, you always want to take advantage.” He snatched the vegetable basket and handed it back to Fang Baoping, “Take it back.

There’s no problem with the renting of the fields, we can sign a lease later on.”

“That’s settled then,” Fang Baoping said and took the pork and eggs back with him.

His family was so poor that even sparing a bit to give away made his wife fret for half a day.

Next door at Xiao Yuchuan’s house, villager Zhao Wu came over, also to rent land.

Xiao Yuchuan suggested, “Rent the fields under my fourth brother’s name.

Either way, we’ll just leave our own fields uncultivated for now.”

Zhao Wu said, “I originally rented land from Wealthy Wong, but now your family has purchased it and it has been allocated to Chuan, your name.

I was planning to continue renting the original five acres.

Renting from Qinghe works the same for me.”

After agreeing, Zhao Wu signed a lease contract with Xiao Qinghe.

In the following days, more people came to rent land, and all the fields under Xiao Qinghe’s name were rented out, with the agreement to give half the harvest as rent when the crop was in.

If the land was rented but not cultivated, then it would be converted into taels to compensate the employer’s loss.

While Xiao Yuchuan’s fields remained unrented, Xiao Yishan and Xiao Qinghe’s fields were quickly snapped up by existing tenants, and other families who couldn’t find land to rent had to look elsewhere.

Su Qingyue was aware that in ancient times, productivity was extremely low, and the food production wasn’t nearly as high as modern hybrid rice yields.

Hybrid rice could yield around 1200 jin of rice per acre, but the current yields were only about thirty percent of that.

After threshing and hulling, another twenty percent of the hulls needed to be removed, which not only was a hassle but also reduced the food supply.

From about 400 jin of grains per acre after removing the hulls, only about 300 jin of rice remained.

After giving up fifty percent as rent, one would have to toil on an acre for an entire year to barely have 160 jin of rice.

Those who rented fields were poor, with just one acre barely enough to feed a single person.

Only if the fields belonged to one’s own family could there be a little surplus food.

Families with several mouths to feed were then in tight need of food.

Hence, rice was sold at a high price, at seven cents per jin.

Even brown rice, which was broken and had bran, cost five cents, and many families couldn’t afford it.

Based on the current market price of rice and production, one would need to work for seven or eight years without eating or drinking to be able to buy an acre of land.

It is no wonder then that even though the second brother disfigured his face, with over thirty acres of farmland and a new house, there were still women eagerly seeking to marry him.

In the past few days, even Fourth Brother, who had bad legs and found it difficult to walk, was approached by matchmakers inquiring if he wished to have a wife matched for him, as there were girls willing to marry him.

Fourth Brother tactfully declined, and the few matchmakers in the village, thinking he was probably set to marry Miss Tao, simply asked and did not come again.

If the village matchmakers knew that the marriage between Fourth Brother and Miss Tao wasn’t happening, surely the ones who came proposing marriage would be endless.

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After all, Fourth Brother was now considered a wealthy household in the village.

The morning sunlight warmly shone on the windowsill.

That day, Su Qingyue and Xiao Yuchuan got up early, had breakfast, and then prepared to go to town.