Chapter 107

Chapter 107

When Shen Laoye mentioned buying land on Dunzi Island, Gu Ran was taken aback.

"If we buy the land and build our own houses, we won't need to rent from you anymore."

"This..."

Gu Ran thought about it and ultimately decided that selling the land was not appropriate.

She had bought the entire Dunzi Island, and if she were to sell even an acre or half an acre of land on the island to Shen Laoye, it would mean that the island would no longer be completely her own.

That’s not an option.

The entire Dunzi Island must remain fully and entirely her personal property.

"Shen Laoye, I bought this entire Dunzi Island, and from the start, I had no intention of selling it to anyone. Besides, if I sold the land to you, and others heard about it and came to me to buy land, would this island still be mine after many such sales?" Gu Ran said, "Therefore, the land on this island is not for sale, but it can be rented. Given your situation, Shen Laoye, I can offer a lower rent, and the duration of the lease can be as long as you prefer, how about that?"

"Shen Laoye, you are seeking refuge on the island, so if you rent the land, you can build houses and manage your affairs yourself. When the troubles have passed and you wish to leave Dunzi Island, you can sell the house back to me. This would be convenient for both your Shen family and for me, how about it?"

Shen Laoye thought for a moment and said, "It's rare that Gu Erniang has thought this through so carefully. Agreed."

"Which tangerine orchard has caught Shen Laoye's eye, and for how many years do you intend to rent?" Gu Ran asked with a smile, rubbing her hands together.

"Over there, I'll rent it for twenty years for now. If our Shen family ultimately stays in Xiaxi Village in the future, this courtyard on the island can serve as our separate residence." Shen Laoye said, "As for which specific pieces of land, could I take another careful look?"

"Of course, no problem."

In the end, Shen Laoye selected a living area demarcated in the forest behind the valley—near the caves where Gu Ran and the others had initially stayed when they first came to the island. Because there was a stream with fresh spring water near the caves, he chose two acres of land to build houses.

He decided not to build in the front of the valley for two reasons: first, to avoid interfering with the tangerine orchard operations and causing trouble for Gu Ran; second, the Shen family was accustomed to living in isolation to avoid the misfortunes that might befall them affecting others.

Previously, adapting to life in Xiaxi Village, they had also appreciated how each household's houses were spaced apart, allowing them to live their own lives behind closed doors, which suited them perfectly.

Shen Laoye planned to relocate the entire Shen family to Dunzi Island. The maids and guards would all be brought along, except for those who needed to remain in Xiaxi Village to manage the Shen family's properties.

As for the items in the large house, they would be left behind for the time being, and only essential items would be brought along.

Shen Laoye then signed two contracts with Gu Ran. The first was a land deed for renting two acres of land, at a rate of one tael of silver per acre per year, totaling two taels per year and forty taels for twenty years.

The second contract was a rental agreement for the large house, for two months, costing just two taels of silver.

Every little bit counts, right?

Gu Ran smiled as she accepted the signed contracts and pocketed the payment.

After giving instructions to his overseer, Shen Laoye said goodbye to the villagers of Xiaxi Village on a sunny afternoon, telling them he was embarking on a long journey. He then took a carriage to the county, where, in front of many passengers and merchants at the county wharf, he boarded a ship.

Of course, he eventually switched to a small boat arranged by Gu Ran and quietly made his way to Dunzi Island.

There was one exception, however: Shen Erlang.

He remained in the county's official school, continuing his studies. If anything unusual happens, he would serve as a lookout.

Shen Erlang was relieved to hear that he wouldn’t have to leave Xiaxi Village.

After the Shen family moved to Dunzi Island, they immediately began building houses on the rented land behind the valley using their maids and guards. Originally, Gu Ran had also planned to have Wu Sanbo build several more large houses and drying racks at this time, which would be needed in the future for drying orange peel, making citrus marmalade, or canned citrus.

However, starting construction now would disturb the Shen family, so it’s best to wait until they’re settled.

Therefore, Gu Ran put this project on hold, planning to wait until Shen Laoye's family moved into their new house—by then, she could also hire the Shen family's maids and guards to help with the construction.

There would be plenty of manpower.

With her plans well thought out, Gu Ran halted the construction but began considering a new plan: she wanted to build a road.

A road from Xiaxi Village directly to Wujiang.

And then, just like in Donglin Township, establish a ferry on the Wujiang.

This idea came from the recent incident when the county's bailiffs used an official boat to reach Xiaxi Village as quickly as possible, yet still had to disembark at the Donglin Township ferry and hire a donkey cart to finally arrive at the village.

If it weren't for Gu Ran having Pei Sixth Lady and Li Ji handle the assassin, and if Head Wu hadn't organized a group of village militia with Township Elder Weng, the Shen family could have been wiped out before the officials arrived.

The transportation in Xiaxi Village was far too inconvenient.

Hence, she thought of building a ferry.

Wasn't the Donglin Township ferry built after Mr. Liu made his fortune from tangerines?

Although last year she spent almost all the money she earned on building a ferry and houses on Dunzi Island and ordering a small cargo boat, which was why she needed to make some money from Shen Laoye.

But now, with a substantial reward from Shen Laoye and the fresh forty taels of silver she just earned, she could afford to hire people to clear a road through the Great Yu Mountains to the Wujiang and build a ferry.

Once the road is built, it will make travel easier for the villagers, and she could also take the ferry from Xiaxi Village to Dunzi Island, without having to detour to the Donglin Township ferry.

Of course, there was still the matter of figuring out how to build the road and how to cross the Great Yu Mountains in the shortest distance.

Gu Ran immediately sought out Pei Sixth Lady to discuss this plan.

"Build a road? Through the miasma forest?"

Gu Ran nodded vigorously, quickly grabbing paper and a brush. Based on her years of experience traveling through the Great Yu Mountains, she sketched a route through the forest.

"We'll find the shortest route and don't need to build anything too fancy. Just like on Dunzi Island, we'll start paving from the front of that patch of forest. Once we enter the shallow forest, we'll level any bushes and thorns, and cut down any trees that are in the way. This straight path should take less than half an hour by donkey cart. Isn't that more convenient than going to the Donglin Township ferry?"

Pei Sixth Lady looked at the route Gu Ran had drawn and pursed her lips. "It's possible, but we'll need to hire workers for this, right?"

"It's the farming off-season, so we can ask the villagers to help pave the road and cut the trees," Gu Ran nodded. "Of course, we'll need to ask Head Wu first."

When Head Wu heard that Gu Ran wanted to build a road through the miasma forest to reach the Wujiang and construct a ferry, he was stunned for a moment, then looked at her with admiration. "Erniang, this is a great idea!"

Wasn't the large market by the Donglin Township ferry built from nothing?

That area used to be wild forestland, but once the ferry was built and more people gathered, the market formed.

If Xiaxi Village had a direct road to the Wujiang with a ferry, wouldn't it gradually attract more people and help the village thrive like Donglin Township?

"But the road will have to be built through the miasma forest, and even if we're not afraid of the larger or smaller animals coming out of the forest, we still have to worry about the miasma," Head Wu said.

"Village Head, I don't think that's a big problem," Gu Ran replied.

As someone well-traveled in the village, Gu Ran felt confident enough to explain the cause of miasma to Head Wu. Finally, she added, "Once the road is open, the airflow will reduce the chances of miasma forming. If we're still concerned, we can remove the rotting carcasses in the nearby forests, thin out the trees to allow more sunlight, and fill any marshy areas to reduce the primary causes of miasma. Didn't I cultivate a tangerine orchard on Dunzi Island? The reduction of miasma there is proof that this works."

Mentioning Dunzi Island immediately convinced Head Wu.

It hadn't been long since Gu Erniang bought Dunzi Island and started planting tangerines.

Not only had she grown so many tangerines, but people from the village were also eager to work on her island.

"Alright, since you, Erniang, have made up your mind, I will of course support you in building this road." Head Wu was so excited that he rubbed his hands together vigorously for the first time, his face beaming with joy. "I'll help you find people for the road construction. Also, once the road is built and the ferry is completed, it will benefit us folks from Xiaxi village. Therefore, it wouldn't be right to let you bear all the expenses. In short, just like with the windmills, everyone should contribute, whether it's money or labor."

Thus, with Head Wu's call, the idle men and women in the village learned about Gu Erniang's proposal to build a road. With the precedent of Donglin Township's ferry, the villagers weren't thinking about the village's prosperity. However, they did think about how the road and ferry would make traveling more convenient for them, so they didn't oppose the plan.

Moreover, Gu Erniang had become quite influential in the hearts of the villagers.

After all, ordinary folks just want to live a good life, right?

And what do you need for a good life?

Money.

When Gu Erniang first came to Xiaxi village all alone, she managed to save enough money in just over two years to buy an island.

She even planted orange trees on the island and sold many oranges.

Families with sons working on Dunzi Island were envious, and those without were equally jealous.

How could Gu Erniang be so capable? How could they become as capable as her?

Not to mention, not long ago, she spent money to treat them to a feast, all to save their lives!

So, influenced by these two factors, everyone unanimously agreed to support Gu Erniang's idea. They were all in.

Of course, they would! After all, they might even earn some wages!

As for the danger of cutting trees in the miasma forest, they weren't too worried.

They had Gu Erniang!

If Gu Erniang was asking them to enter the miasma forest, she must have prepared a foolproof plan, right?

Yes!

Before the construction began, Gu Ran and Pei Sixth Lady made many masks specifically for the villagers who would be cutting trees and building the road in the miasma forest.

Thus, the road construction project in Xiaxi village started with great enthusiasm.

At first, only those working on the road dared to enter the miasma forest. But once the road was partially built and people saw that those going in and out daily faced no danger, others from the village also plucked up the courage to take a stroll in the forest: it's scary to enter the miasma forest with few people, but with many, there's nothing to fear!

As a result, more and more villagers dared to enter the miasma forest after the road was completed.

While the folks of Xiaxi village were busily constructing the first road since the village was founded, a guest traveled a long way to this remote mountain village to find his uncle.

Well, this guest was Li Si, and naturally, the uncle he was looking for was Li Ji.

When it was confirmed that he was looking for Li Ji, the villagers led Li Si to Gu family’s small cottage to find Gu Erniang.

These days, Li Ji basically stayed on the island. Since Gu Erniang was Li Ji's employer, who else would he look for?

Thus, Gu Ran met another old acquaintance.

"Oh, it's Officer Li Si!"

"You, you, you..." Li Si was astonished upon seeing Gu Ran, "You, you, you, aren't you the lady who broke the female bandit's leg, such a formidable woman?"

"Now I'm your uncle's employer, aren't I even more formidable?" Gu Ran said with a sly smile.

Li Si opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing, nodding vigorously. "By the way, where's my uncle? He works as a laborer for you, right?"

"I’m heading to the island anyway, so I can take you with me!"

"What island? Is Uncle on an island?"

Of course, Li Ji was already on the island.

After being hired by Gu Ran, Li Ji gave up his rented room at Wu Sanbo’s and moved straight into the large cottage. Once the small cottage outside was finished, he moved out there.

Since he was single in Xiaxi Village and had a steady job on Dunzi Island with room and board, he rarely went back to Xiaxi Village.

The last time he went back was to team up with Pei Sixth Lady to take down an assassin from the Heaven Rank First bandit group. Of course, for that, he also received a generous reward from Master Shen.

You’d think that after getting rich, Li Ji could’ve quit and found something else, but he didn’t.

He kept patrolling and guarding the tangerine orchard, working just as hard as ever.

Today was no different. After patrolling the tangerine orchard, he nearly did a double-take when he saw his nephew waiting for him.

"Four-dog?"

"Uncle, it's me, uncle!" Seeing his uncle, Li Si's eyes turned red, on the verge of tears.

Li Ji led Li Si to his room and offered him a seat, waiting until he had rested and recovered before asking about other matters.

"Why did you come to Jianzhou? Are you escorting prisoners?"

Li Si nodded.

"I fought hard to get this opportunity to escort prisoners to Da Mao City, and I thought I'd take the chance to visit you, uncle, and see how you're doing..."

Li Si wiped his eyes and looked around the room, thinking that he’d expected Uncle to be miserable in some godforsaken place, but it seemed like he was doing okay.

"Uncle, you don't know. Ever since you had that incident, I've been oppressed in the government office, unable to do anything properly. Even when I got something done, they’d always find something wrong with it."

Originally intending to comfort his uncle, but seeing that his uncle was doing well, Li Si completely forgot his original purpose and instead vented his frustrations, "And that Feng family, I'm completely suppressed by that group led by Magistrate Feng in the office. Even those who used to be close to you don’t end up well, it’s really tragic."

"And the Feng family has been particularly targeting our family. From time to time, they come to our place to make veiled insults. When we go out, we have to avoid the Feng family members."

As he spoke, Li Si’s eyes welled up again. "Uncle, you don’t know. After all this, our Li family has less and less of a way to survive in Zhengzhou."

Li Ji fell silent.

"There's... also..." Li Si wiped his eyes and glanced at Li Ji, suddenly hesitating. "Um, my aunt, she... she has remarried."

Li Ji's expression darkened, clenching his fists, closing his eyes, then relaxing. "She remarried. What about Song Ge'er?"

Song Ge'er is your cousin—Li Ji’s only son.

"Song Ge'er is our Li family's son, so he naturally stays with us."

"That's good." Li Ji looked up at Li Si. "How many days can you stay?"

"Not many, I have to leave tomorrow."

Even without official duties, city officials escorting prisoners must return to their original post within a designated time.

"Then after you return, resign from that official job and come to Jianzhou!"

Li Si's eyes widened.

"Even if you stay in your current position, there's no future for you. Why keep a job when Feng Tongpan holds power over you?"

"Resign from your post, bring Song Ge and your parents, as well as your grandparents, and come to Jianzhou."

Li Ji made this decision instantly.

There was no way he could go back to Zhengzhou. As an exiled convict in the Min region, though he had regained his good standing after helping eliminate the assassins, he was still confined to the Min region and not allowed to leave freely.

Otherwise, the whole purpose of the government's exile of criminals to the Min region to boost the local population would be wasted.

Since he couldn't leave, then his family should come to Jianzhou instead.

"Without a job, if we all come here, what will we live on?" Li Si hesitated.

"Don't worry about that. Once your parents and grandparents are here, I'll be able to arrange work for them and even buy a large house."

He now had a sum of gold he could never have earned during his many years of service in the Zhengzhou government, along with a well-paying position. The Li family moving here would be well provided for with a place to live.

Moreover, the Li family wasn't made up of lazy or incompetent people. They wouldn’t have trouble finding work.

Li Ji still owned twenty acres in Xiaxi Village, which he had rented out to the local villagers to grow rice, following Gu Erniang's example.

If it came to that, they could reclaim the twenty acres and have his brother and sister-in-law farm in Xiaxi Village. After all, they were originally farmers.

"Hey, uncle, are you serious?"

"Do you think I've ever said anything false?"

As he spoke, Li Ji reached under his bed, fumbled around in a jar, and pulled out many ingots and silver coins, stuffing them into Li Si's hands. "Take these, use them for your journey from Zhengzhou to Jianzhou. Hire two guards from an escort service to accompany you, and it's best to travel by water route; it's faster."

Li Si grinned, holding the stack of silver. "Hehe!"

"Uncle, have you made so much money here?"

"Ah!" Li Ji thought for a moment, then pulled out a gold ingot to show Li Si.

Li Si's eyes widened in amazement.

"Go back and tell your family and grandparents that if the entire Li family moves here, the gold I've saved can buy a large house and property, ensuring everyone lives comfortably."

"Yes, yes, uncle, don't worry. I'll make sure to tell them when I go back." Li Si was delighted, completely forgetting the frustration he felt when he first came to Jianzhou. His expression brightened.

You can really make so much money here?

Uncle has only been here a short time and already made gold.

He needed to hurry back, move his entire family here, and then, just like his uncle, start accumulating gold in this place.

The next day, Li Ji personally saw Li Si off at the ferry, all the way to the port in the prefectural city, spending money to buy him a ticket so he could travel by water and become familiar with the route for his next trip to Jianzhou.

Back on Dunzi Island, Li Ji went to see Gu Erniang.

Gu Ran's visit to Dunzi Island was firstly to sun-dry orange peel under the good weather, secondly to think about what other products could be made from oranges to sell in the northern region, and thirdly to improve the orange tree variety.

During the last bountiful harvest of oranges, over thirty orange trees produced fruits that looked good but didn't taste good.

So, at the beginning of this spring, Gu Ran planned to find a way to improve these orange trees and also the wild orange trees they first saw when they arrived on the island.

How to improve them?

In early spring, Gu Ran dug up all forty-five orange trees and transplanted them to a designated experimental plot on another hillside. She planted them in four rows, with nine trees in each row, while the fifth row contained eight wild orange trees. Each row of orange trees was labeled with a corresponding symbol.

Now that the orange trees have grown well, it's time to start the grafting process.

Gu Ran grafted the first row with early-maturing branches, the second row with late-maturing branches, the third row with branches from young saplings, and the last row with branches from the red orange tree she had transplanted near the cottage.

For the wild orange trees, she grafted them in pairs, using the same classification. After grafting, she hung signs on the trees to indicate the type of graft. This way, when these fruit trees bear fruit in the future, it would be easier to assess whether the grafting had resulted in positive or negative changes.

The grafts can take different amounts of time to integrate with the trees. Some show results in the same year's harvest, while others may take one or two years to show effects, even if they were grafted in the same year.

Once the grafting is complete, all that's left is careful care. It will only be known at harvest time whether the fruits produced by these orange trees have been improved.

Gu Ran has come to the island to check on this batch of grafted orange trees.

During grafting, it is essential not only to ensure a perfect fit between the scion and the rootstock but also to pay attention to the environment and care for them meticulously to ensure a high survival rate of the grafted seedlings. Otherwise, all the previous hard work would be in vain.

Gu Ran's grafting skills were learned from her parents, and her technique is barely passable. Some time ago, when doing this work, Pei Sixth Lady only assisted and did not let her actually perform the grafting.

Now that everything has been grafted, she naturally feels more at ease taking care of them herself.

Gu Ran checked each orange tree, and seeing that they were in good condition, she was just about to leave the experimental field when she saw Li Ji walking towards her.

"Oh, Uncle Li, have you seen off your good nephew?"

Li Ji nodded. "Second Miss, can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"You had Wu Sanbo build a small cottage outside the tangerine orchard, right?"

"Yes!"

Since it's not convenient to build near the large cottage at the moment, Gu Ran had Wu Sanbo start with the cottage outside the tangerine orchard.

She also took the opportunity to plan for future business, primarily catering to regular buyers with their waitstaff, and considering what kind of shops they might build.

"Can you reserve a small cottage for me to rent?"

Gu Ran was stunned. "Ah?"