...
Year 3153 of the Great Qianlong Chang’s reign – Spring, February 17.
It’s been almost eight years since Wang Shouzhe crossed over.
This is a season of spring warmth and blooming flowers, when everything revives.
Dingpu Ferry.
A large ferry boat slowly docked at the Deepwater Port District.
As soon as the connecting bridge was laid flat, people orderly disembarked. They held a card in hand, passing through the checkpoint one by one.
The card was no bigger than a child’s palm yet finely crafted, resembling neither gold nor jade, exhibiting a faint purple hue under the sunlight.
Inside the card, a piece of card paper seed embedded, listing place of origin, na, age, and simple physical characteristics.
As long as the cardholder passed through the checkpoint, the fully ard gatekeepers would slightly inspect and then smile as they allowed passage: "Welco ho."
And the passerby would return with thanks: "Thank you for your protection."
However, those without a card needed to go through another checkpoint. That checkpoint was more crowded, with gatekeepers’ faces stern, scrutinizing each passerby, requiring them to provide a Daqian Governnt-issued travel pass. Without a pass, they would be imdiately deported.
Even those with a pass would be questioned by personnel about their background, purpose, and how long they intended to stay in Ping’an Town, etc. The interrogation was extrely strict, and if anything seed off, they would be imdiately deported.
After passing the interrogation, they were issued a thick paper card, warning them not to stay in Ping’an Town for more than a month, and were charged a handling fee of one Large Copper.
They could opt out, but then would have to return to where they ca from, paying themselves for the next ferry ride back.
On the ferry, a few people dressed as traveling rchants ford a small caravan. As they had horse carts with them, they were arranged to disembark last.
At this ti, a young traveling rchant in his twenties looked at this scene from afar and said: "Big brother, what is that faint purple card?" Clearly, it was his first ti coming to Ping’an Town for business.
Loaded on this group of rchant carts were goods like refined salt, rough salt, rough iron, rough copper, and other supplies, all bestsellers in Ping’an Town. Especially refined salt and rough iron, which were bought at high prices by blacksmiths’ shops and general stores almost imdiately after disembarking.
And from Ping’an Town, they would purchase items like snow sugar, rough cotton fabric, brocade patterned cotton fabric, and ordinary porcelain, all with relatively high prices. After a tough journey, they’d earn quite a lot.
"The purple card, huh." A forty-to-fifty-year-old older traveling rchant said with envy, "This is the identity card for local residents of Ping’an Town. Now Ping’an Town is not like before; outsiders wishing to migrate to Ping’an Town must purchase at least twenty acres of land and a house at once to be issued an identity card. With the identity card, they can freely enter and exit Ping’an Town."
"Wow, I’ve heard the land and house prices in Ping’an Town are very high now." The young traveling rchant said with envy. "Is it possible that even those lowly tenant farrs are also issued identity cards?"
"Watch your words." The older traveling rchant hurriedly stopped him.
But it was too late.
Several rugged n dressed in fine cotton cloth nearby glared at them: "What’s wrong with our tenant farrs, and where are we lowly?"
The older traveling rchant hastily apologized on behalf of the young man: "Sorry, sorry everyone, the young don’t know better. He didn’t know the current esteed status of the Ping’an Wang Family tenant farrs."
The high status originates from considerable inco and the Wang Family’s attention to them.
Currently, the average annual inco of Wang Family tenant farrs has exceeded the average inco of independent farrs in Ping’an Town by thirty percent. The only explanation for such an inverted result is that the Wang Family’s estate inco has beco very high, benefiting the tenant farrs in turn.
It’s known that independent farrs in Ping’an Town earn much more than independent farrs elsewhere because they cultivate the Wang Family’s Number Nine Seeds and enjoy the Spirit Insect Master’s discounted pest control rate.
Therefore, the high inco of Wang Family tenant farrs exceeds many people’s imagination.
Those few Wang Family tenant farrs didn’t bother to argue, casually continuing their conversation: "I heard the daughter of Old Zhang’s Family married an independent farr? I rember that girl worked at Silkworm Manor, right? Really don’t know what they were thinking, letting the daughter marry down like that."
"Does the family have fifty acres of good land? Is the boy also an apprentice blacksmith? If that’s the case, it’s rather a decent match."
"Lao Liu, I heard your family rented a storefront in the second phase of Zhuwei Mansion? Did you invest all the family’s years of savings?"
"Yes, correct, my third son has so talent in sewing and will graduate in two years. Opening a tailor shop, he can at least support himself. Our Lao Liu Family can’t be farming generation after generation, right?"
"What’s wrong with farming? Now, becoming a Wang Family tenant farr is not easy, requiring identity verification, skill assessnt, and a few years of work from the outer estates first..."
"That’s true, but having a tailor shop with a skill yields a good inco, and the storefront was a good investnt."
These tenant farrs talked about inco and investnt openly.
This scared the young traveling rchant, thinking these aren’t tenant farrs. Their confidence and tone felt like wealthy farrs from elsewhere.
And they even disdain marrying independent farrs?
"Is that Zhuwei Mansion’s storefront really expensive?" The young traveling rchant asked weakly.
"It’s alright, just over a hundred Qian Gold." Lao Liu said, "Put all the family’s years of savings into it, and borrowed quite a bit of debt too."
"That expensive?" The young traveling rchant was shocked: "That amount can buy over thirty acres of land in other towns; the Wang Family’s shop prices are too steep!"
User Comments
0 comments from readers