Buying the Mountain

T/N: Chapter (2/3) sponsored by Madam Daim! Thank you so much for sponsoring!

Du Xiu Heng only slept at home for one night. The afternoon of the next day, he immediately returned to school. Originally, he wanted to go find Cui-shi to argue, but got stopped by Du Xiao Li, saying that someone like Cui-shi can’t be reasoned with. Furthermore, she also secretly retaliated back. Thus, Du Xiu Heng finally dropped the issue.

When Du Xiu Heng was leaving, she had him take some grapes with him to school. Some for the scholars, and some for the other students, letting him get along well with the people around him as much as possible.

In the following two days, Du Xiao Li ate her meals at Niu Jing’s place. And during the day, she would flip through the medical books in his house. Slowly, she also discovered some things that were different from her past life. Especially the names of some medical ingredients, there were very large discrepancies.

Du Xiao Li had already reduced her reading speed as much as possible, but Niu Jing and the others were still shocked by her speed. Leng Er even ran over to ask her, if she really read it all in, saying if she didn’t understand, no need to pretend. In the end, he got kicked out by Du Xiao Li.

This day, after Du Xiao Li watched Niu Jing finish examining Han Ming Yi’s body, she let him accompany herself to go find the village chief.

“What are you looking for the village chief for?” Niu Jing asked.

“I want to buy that piece of land in the mountains under my house, that’s why I’m going to go ask the village chief how to do it.” Du Xiao Li answered.

She previously looked over the soil on that mountain they lived on. The corn and wheat that’s commonly planted here both weren’t suitable for it, and the terrain was also unsuitable for farming. But if it was used to plant tangerines, it was completely feasible. Or, it can also be used to plant grapes. As long as it was not something that needed the fields to be plowed every year, it was fine.

Their land were forcibly bought by their eldest aunt’s family at a low price. She and Du Xiu Heng didn’t have land, so she needed to go buy some.

Niu Jing took Du Xiao Li to Li Ming Fu’s house. Li Ming Fu listened to Du Xiao Li explain her purpose in coming and went silent for a while, saying: “Xiao Li, I know you and your brother have a hard time getting by and want to buy some land, but that mountain isn’t suitable for farming. Even if you buy it, it’s still useless. This is just pointlessly wasting money! How about you consider other places?”

The land prices here weren’t cheap, especially fertile soil fields. For Du Xiao Li right now, buying a mountain was more worthwhile than buying a field.

“Thank you chief for your good intentions, but big brother and I only have that bit of money right now, so we’ll just buy those two deserted mountains.” Du Xiao Li said. She originally wanted to buy one mountain, but thinking for a moment, those two mountaintops were connect. If she buys both, then in between the mountains, she can dig a pool.

“But even if you buy it, you still can’t plant farm crops.” Li Ming Fu still tried to dissuade Du Xiao Li.

“I know. I’m not using it to plant farm crops either.” Du Xiao Li said.

“Chief, why don’t you just agree to it. This child is one with ideas.” Niu Jing urged from the side.

“Ai, then alright.” Seeing that even Niu Jing was helping her, Li Ming Fu could only agree. “Those two deserted mountains, no one has ever wanted, thinking that even if it was distributed out, it still can’t be used to plant food, so it has been empty this whole time. If you want them, then we’ll count one mountain for fifty taels of silver. You give me the money, and the remaining procedures that needs to be handled in the county seat, I’ll go help you take care of. If you don’t have enough money, I can pad it for you first.”

A hundred taels!

Du Xiao Li felt a little heartache. After all, she currently only has two hundred taels of silver. But thinking that she was buying two whole mountains, she also felt it was still acceptable.

“Then I’ll be troubling you chief.” Du Xiao Li took out an ingot of a hundred taels of silver to give to the village chief.

“How do you have this much money?” Li Ming Fu asked in astonishment.

“I borrowed from grandpa Niu.” Du Xiao Li sweetly smiled, completely unable to tell that she was lying.

Niu Jing, who was to the side, didn’t expose her either. Because he knew that Han Ming Yi had given her two hundred taels of silver.

“Since you have money, then two days later, when I go to the county seat, I’ll have the formalities taken care of for you.” Li Ming Fu had the money stored away and said.

“Thank you chief.” Du Xiao Li once again thanked him, and then left with Niu Jing.

Not even two days later, while Du Xiao Li cleaning the courtyard, Li Ming Fu had the land deeds for the two mountains brought over. As Du Xiao Li held the land deeds, she felt that she was also someone with roots here now.

“Silver, we now have land. When autumn comes, we’ll be able to have the tangerine trees transplanted over. In the future, whoever comes to steal our tangerine, just bite them, hahaha….” After Li Ming Fu left, Du Xiao Li spun circles in the courtyard while holding Silver.

“Woowoo–” Silver softly called out, seemingly like a reply.

“You injury is almost healed too. Let me take down the bandage for you, then I’ll take you to the mountains to play for awhile, okay?” Du Xiao Li sat down holding Silver, slowly removing the bandages on its leg. Although the bald spot right now was a bit unsightly, the wound was still considered mostly healed.

Du Xiao Li took the land deeds inside the house, and had them properly stored away. Afterwards, she put on the back-basket, and strapped on her newly made satchel, with her dagger and silver needles placed inside, taking Silver out the door towards the mountains.

“Silver, quickly run!”

“Silver, if you can’t catch up to that pheasant, then we won’t have meat to eat tonight!”

In the forest, Du Xiao Li directed Silver to run everywhere. Because of the injury on its hind leg, Silver hadn’t walked much in over half a month, and now that it regained itself, it happily ran around in the forest, startling the birds in the mountain to fly in all directions. Later, it even caught a pheasant for Du Xiao Li. In order to train Silver’s wild nature, she let it eat the entire pheasant.

Afterwards, Du Xiao Li saw some medical herbs, and thus let Silver go play by itself, while she herself squatted there digging medical herbs. Unexpectedly, a while later, Silver brought back another pheasant for her.

“Awoo–” Silver had the pheasant placed on the ground and called out to Du Xiao Li. Different from the cries from before, this was a cry belonging to a wolf.

“Awoo–” Silver seemed to be very happy and cried out again.

Du Xiao Li saw that the corner of Silver’s mouth still carried blood, and accompanied by its cry, it further appeared full of ferociousness. But she wasn’t scared, because Silver’s gaze towards her had a kind of dependence and fondness. After she finished digging up the medical herbs, she plucked two very big leaves, and had the pheasant wrapped up and placed at the very bottom of her basket. Afterwards, she took Silver back home.

Silver would run up ahead, turn around and see that Du Xiao Li was still really far behind, and run back again, circling around her, amusing Du Xiao Li to burst into laughter.

The following days, as long as Du Xiao Li went into the mountains, Silver thus would catch some wild animals back. Sometimes it was pheasants, sometimes wild hares, and sometimes it would even catch some turtledoves and whatnot. However, mainly it was still just pheasants and wild hares, because those kinds of birds that flew in the sky couldn’t be caught every time, needed to try one’s luck.

Sometimes, when there were quite a lot of wild game, Du Xiao Li would also give some to Niu Jing and the Shi family brothers. Learning that these were all caught by Silver, Leng Er even greatly praised it once.

Of course, Silver only gave Leng Er a silver colored b.u.t.tocks.

Coming back from Niu Jing’s house, Du Xiao Li stood below the mountain, seeing that the two mountains, aside from weed, didn’t have anything else. She needed to find someone to come have these weeds eliminated. Right now, wheat has already finished harvesting, and the harvesting season for corn still hasn’t come yet. It was currently the most idle time for the villagers.

As the thought came to mind, she immediately took action. The next day, Du Xiao Li went to find uncle Shi and his brother, asking them to help her go weed the mountain, and while they’re at it, also have the earth tilled. Then, according to her instructions, dig a fifty to sixty centimeter hole every few distance. Each day, she’ll give every man fifty copper coins, and every woman thirty-five copper coins.

When Shi Da heard that Du Xiao Li had bought those two mountains, he said a few words to her, but still went to help her find people, and very soon, he found quite a few people.

The early next morning, quite a few villagers brought their own hoe to Du Xiao Li’s house.

T/N: I was serious about Silver replacing Du Xiu Heng’s screen time.

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