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Chapter 213: Purchasing Homestead Land
🕑 Added 2024-09-19 06:19:03 +0000 UTCUpon hearing the village chief's words, the villagers unanimously agreed that they preferred the latter option.
Village Chief Du continued, "If we want our village to thrive long-term, we must avoid dishonest practices. We know our land well, and thanks to the presence of the Immortal Sect, we can now sell our produce at city prices without even leaving the village. That's already a great blessing.
"We must remain grounded and avoid making money by cheating others. In Shushui Village, we don't engage in such unscrupulous behavior. If we all work hard together, better days are surely ahead!"
"That's right!"
"Well said, Chief!"
"We'll follow the village chief's lead!"
With Village Chief Du’s guidance, every household gave up the idea of setting exorbitant prices and focused on running their small businesses honestly.
As more and more tourists arrived, the scope of Shushui Village's activities began to expand. Many visitors, traveling in groups, found that a single day wasn’t enough to fully enjoy the area, and some even wanted to explore the surrounding mountains and waters. Some tourists chose to stay overnight in the village.
Seeing this, Liu Yunan had an idea. He gathered his mother, Tietou, Lin Yun, and others of the same age. After the villagers had gone to bed, they worked quietly to beautify the village.
They ventured into the northern mountains, gathering a variety of vibrant flowers and unique plants. Using spiritual energy, they carefully transported them back to the village. Under Yang Jinshu's guidance, they planted these flowers in an aesthetically pleasing manner. They also brought back moss-covered rocks and arranged them to create small, picturesque scenes.
Perhaps due to the presence of the spiritual vein, the northern mountains now boasted many beautiful flowers and unusual plants. When Liu Yunan and his friends had previously roamed the mountains with Lin Xiao in search of food, they hadn’t noticed such a rich variety of flora.
The next morning, both the villagers and tourists noticed the changes in the village. It wasn't long before someone exclaimed, "The immortals have used their magic!"
Word of this soon spread, first to the county and then to the provincial capital.
A few days later, an outsider came to the village. He approached the village chief and purchased a large plot of land for a homestead, as well as a large piece of wasteland near the village.
Although this wasteland wasn’t very close to Shushui Village, it was the best he could get, as no one in the village was willing to sell their cultivated land. So, he had to settle for the next best thing—buying wasteland and hiring workers to clear it.
This man was none other than He Siyou, the father of the only female student at Sun Yigao’s private school, whom everyone referred to as He Boss. As a merchant who had spent years traveling for business, He Boss had accumulated significant wealth but had rarely spent time with his wife and daughter.
Now that his daughter was attending school, and the school was located in a village rumored to be home to immortals, he decided to move his entire family to Shushui Village. He planned to hand over his business to his nephews and become a small landowner in the countryside with his wife and daughter.
He Boss’s decision wasn’t solely based on rumors. His daughter had told him about her experiences at school. She mentioned that they couldn’t hear any noise from outside during lessons. Once, when she needed to use the restroom, she saw a small cat outside and wanted to play with it, but found that she couldn’t move past the school’s gate.
At the time, she had been curious and a little scared, worried that she might never be able to leave and see her parents again. However, when school was dismissed in the afternoon, she found that she could walk out without any problems.
Hearing this, and considering the recent rumors spreading through the county, He Boss concluded that the school must have been protected by some sort of immortal spell, preventing noise from entering and ensuring no one could leave during lessons. This only solidified his decision to settle in Shushui Village.
Other students from outside Shushui Village also shared their experiences when they returned home, but none of their families had the courage to uproot their lives and move to the village. However, the wealthier families did purchase small plots of land in the village, planning to build small estates in a place rumored to be blessed by immortals.
As the influx of people grew day by day, Liu Yunan noticed some issues—namely, that the road leading to the village was too uneven. He was about to gather a few of his brothers to smooth out the road when he heard that several prominent families from Anqun County were offering to fund the construction of a proper road to Shushui Village.
These families acted quickly, submitting their proposal to the county office. County Magistrate Wen Keming, eager to approve anything related to the village, swiftly gave his approval.
Before long, the rough path leading to Shushui Village was transformed into a smooth, wide road.
Following this, these prominent families from Anqun County arrived in Shushui Village and purchased homestead plots from Village Chief Du.
However, Shushui Village was originally a small and impoverished place, so there weren’t many homestead plots available. The few remaining plots had already been snapped up by early buyers. As a result, these families had no choice but to settle for land on the outskirts of the village.
Although they considered pressuring the villagers to sell or exchange their homestead plots, the villagers, for some reason, seemed united in their refusal, regardless of the price offered.
Whenever one of these families hinted at coercion, the villagers would subtly mention how someone from the Immortal Sect on the mountain was their neighbor, or how another immortal was a childhood friend of their grandchild, or how yet another was a close brother.
In the end, the prominent families from Anqun County didn’t dare make a move. They quickly purchased the remaining plots on the outskirts of the village, fearing that if they waited any longer, even those would be gone.
This strategy had been devised during a private meeting between Village Chief Du, Clan Leader Hu, and several of the village elders. Their families had lived in the village for generations, and their ancestral halls were located here, so they couldn’t allow the homestead land to be sold off to outsiders.
However, if only some families sold their land while others didn’t, it could create resentment. Therefore, they decided that no one in the village would be allowed to sell their land. Anyone who did so would be expelled from the clan and have their ancestral graves relocated!
The village leaders went door to door, explaining the reasoning behind their decision. They emphasized the importance of unity and the potential consequences, and with the added pressure of expulsion and ancestral grave relocation, they managed to quell any thoughts of selling.
Although the villagers couldn’t sell their homestead plots, they were more than happy to take on construction and land-clearing jobs for these prominent families, as the pay was quite generous.
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