Don't worry about traveling through time, she has an all-powerful senior sister to help her

"Mr. Chi's daughter?" The old man asking for directions instantly knew their identities.

Shen Lingzhu and her senior sister nodded at the same time, and then she twitched her nose slightly and said, "Are you from the wine shop?"

"Good eyesight, worthy of being Mr. Chi's daughter.

I am Gengjia Zuixian Liquor Shop in Laoquankou. Yesterday I heard that Mr. Shen had left the county town and returned home, so I came to visit him.

Please pass the message along, young ladies." The old man asking for directions was the owner of the winery, Old Master Geng.

After hearing his identity, Shen Lingzhu's first thought was: "My father owes you money for wine?"

Old Master Geng was slightly taken aback, then shook his head, but Senior Sister had already guessed: "Are you owed food?"

"This... how about we talk about it when we meet Mr. Shen?" The old boss nodded slightly. His son had paid Mr. Chi Er a deposit of 500 taels of wheat in the first month of the year, and it was agreed that he would be refunded or compensated after the grain arrived. However, he never expected that the Shen family would be raided and all the carts of grain would be taken away by the county government.

Shen Lingzhu knew from his expression that the number must be quite a lot. She almost admired Master Chi. If she didn't give birth to a son, she would feel sorry for all his troubles.

Well, now they couldn’t buy any vegetables. When the two of them led Geng Dongjia to the clan school, the uncle was talking to someone.

There were also groups of children coming to class, and for a while the clan school was filled with children's voices.

Some of them were familiar with Shen Lingzhu and her sister, so they would come up and say hello, but neither of them could remember each other's names and could only respond vaguely.

What was even more terrifying was that Shen Lingzhu did not recognize the two teachers at the first time, which caused the female teacher who taught needlework to frown and look at her frequently.

According to my eldest brother, this person is actually a great aunt in the clan.

I was just discussing with my aunt about letting them continue their studies.

Don't!

Shen Lingzhu no longer agreed that it was not appropriate for their family to live in the clan school.

Shen Huai, who was hosting Geng Dongjia, also hoped to find a safe place to stay as soon as possible.

The children are very curious and come to the side room where they are resting from time to time. If the accounts are not settled in a few days, more neighbors will probably come to look, which will really affect themselves and not allow the children to study with peace of mind.

Alas, the clan school is indeed not a suitable place to live, just as my second cousin said.

When Shen Lingzhu brought the tea, he just heard his uncle say, "Please rest assured, Mr. Geng, I recognize this money. Please keep the deed safe and pay it back as soon as you have any balance."

She glanced at the deed on the table, which was clearly stamped with a red seal with the words "Shen Chi".

"I absolutely trust Mr. Shen's character, so there's no rush regarding the money.

It’s just…” Shopkeeper Geng paused and continued, “Thanks to your business card, we saved a lot of trouble in transporting the goods.

The main reason I came this time is because a batch of goods was detained when it entered Baozhou. They said that the name card issued was a fake. Can you help me turn it around? "

Shen Lingzhu knew about name cards, which were equivalent to ancient business cards and were a symbol of the status of officials and gentry. They were probably used by Mr. Chi to sell or give to others.

As she thought about this, she quietly stood beside her uncle. He pondered for a moment before saying, "Don't use my name card from now on. I'll write a letter for you to take to the government office to find a Magistrate named Wang Xu.

If he is willing to see you, the matter will be resolved, if…" He paused.

Old Master Geng understood what he meant and stood up, bowing repeatedly, "Thank you for your concern, Master Shen. No matter what the outcome, Zuixian Distillery will not change its mind."

"Xiao Zhuzi, go borrow some pens and ink from Mr. Xia." Shen Huai instructed his niece beside him.

Shen Lingzhu did as she was told. Soon after the letter was finished, she also helped to seal it.

But just after seeing off Mr. Geng, and before he had time to ask Wang Tui Guan whether he was the one from Zhenwu Temple, someone else came to the door.

Fortunately, this time they were not asking for money, but the tenant farmers came to discuss when to pay the rent to my aunt.

But Mrs. Hu did not ask him to deliver it. She only asked him to sell the grain and pay her directly, even if the tenant farmer said that the price of grain was low at the moment.

Shen Lingzhu couldn't help but ask Mrs. Hu, "What's the current price of wheat? How much can fifty acres of grain sell for?"

"One stone is about three coins or a little more." Hu's dowry land did not pass through other people's hands, and the tenant farmers were directly responsible to her.

Shen Miaozhu quickly estimated: "It can only be sold for more than thirty taels of silver. In fact, after paying the summer tax, it may be less than thirty taels."

"So little? Wait, uncle has the title of Jinshi, so he can be exempted from taxes." Shen Lingzhu didn't know how much grain an acre of land could produce at this time.

When her aunt said that the yield per mu was two or three shi, she felt disappointed. Then she heard that officials and gentry were exempted from the labor and miscellaneous taxes on people and fields, but the grain produced by the fields, which is the land tax, must be paid.

Of course, the tax on people's land in this dynasty was extremely low, only three liters, three hectares and five spoons per mu.

Hu's explanation was so detailed that Shen Lingzhu didn't quite understand it for a moment, but it was impossible for him to expect to get rich by relying on his family's one hundred acres of sacrificial land.

However, the uncle pointed to the box he got from the second grandfather and told everyone, "Back then, your grandfather donated the hundred acres of land he was cultivating to the clan as sacrificial land.

But after many years, good land has become hard to buy, so my second brother bought more than 100 acres of mountain land as a sacrificial land for his parents.

This is the land deed and the fish scale map. The location is probably near the Seven Star Cave."

"Seven Star Cave, the mountains nearby are covered with nothing but trees, how can you farm there?" Shen Xianzhu opened the box and looked.

Shen Lingzhu and the other person also came over, but the atlas was so ancient that she felt dizzy. However, she could still make out the shapes of the mountains with trees marked on them.

"In other words, we now have nothing except my aunt's fields and more than a hundred acres of useless forest.

Moreover, there is not even a place where I can live in peace." She was almost crying.

Shen Huai pulled out another house deed from the box and said, "There is still a place to live. The mountain is not too far from our family's grave.

Your father, like the wealthy and powerful, built a few houses at the foot of the mountain so he could rest after visiting the graves."

When he thought of his second cousin saying that his second brother used the bricks and stones from the old house there, and he said that it was so that his parents could see their own house from time to time, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He continued, "Cook and eat, then go over there and clean up and stay for tonight."

"Go, don't forget to prepare some dry food for the two coachmen." For the first time, Mrs. Hu took the initiative to drive the children away from her.

As soon as the three siblings left the room, Shen Lingzhu said that their aunt must be discussing the sale of the land with their uncle.

Shen Miaozhu asked thoughtfully, "You said that the deed to the sacrificial land is in the hands of Second Grandfather, and that Great Aunt's thousand-work bed is at Third Grandfather's house.

Then who will have our mother's dowry?"

Shen Xianzhu knew: "It must be sent to your grandfather's house. I don't see any signs of your second uncle living there in the clan school, so I asked Mr. Xia privately.

He said that after the old house was demolished, his second uncle and aunt moved to Dahuangzhuang. They happily drove the donkey cart back and forth every day, and in their spare time they would stroll around Yishan with the wandering Taoist priests who stayed at the Qixing Temple.

Well, sir, it really makes others envious."

"Live in the father-in-law's house?!" Shen Lingzhu and her senior sister were full of disbelief. Indeed, in this era, men, except for the son-in-law, usually would not live in the woman's house.

This dad is really different!