Chapter 2
Fu Wenyu was going to the village chief's house.
Fujia Village is a large village with more than 100 households.
Except for a few people with different surnames, the rest are surnamed Fu. Therefore, the village chief of Fujia Village is Fu Wencheng, the patriarch of the Fu family, who is more than 20 years older than Fu Wenyu.
Of course, the identity of the patriarch is only one of the reasons why Fu Wenyu found him. The most important thing is that Fu Wencheng's eldest son is studying in the county town and has passed the Tongsheng exam. He will take the Xiucai exam in the next two years.
The way Fu Wenyu thought of to earn extra food is related to the patriarch's son.
The patriarch's house arrived soon.
Compared with the Fu family's house that was not full when entered, the patriarch's house is much larger. Seeing Fu Wenyu coming, the patriarch and his wife were very surprised.
"Wenyu, why are you here?"
"Brother Wencheng, sister-in-law." Fu Wenyu greeted the couple, and then said to Fu Wencheng: "I came here because of the land. I want to ask Brother Wencheng to help rent out the land at home."
Fu Wencheng suddenly realized.
The Fu family has sacrificial fields, which were rented out to families with more people or less land in the family for cultivation in previous years. The income is divided into three parts, one for paying taxes, one for the village, and one for themselves. Fu Wenyu wants to rent out his own land like sacrificial fields, and live on the rent in the future.
This is indeed a good idea.
As for why Fu Wenyu came to him, Fu Wencheng also thought of the reason, because he has always been in charge of the sacrificial fields, and he is the only one who knows which family in the village wants to rent land. And he also thought of a hidden reason, thinking that Fu Wenyu was probably heartbroken by the previous division of the family, and didn't want the third uncle and others to intervene.
Thinking of this, Fu Wencheng understood, and he nodded and said, "Okay, leave this to me."
"It just so happens that the land is now empty, and it's almost time for autumn plowing. The sooner you rent it out, the sooner you can receive the rent, and the family that rented your land can plant the seedlings the sooner."
Seeing that he agreed, Fu Wenyu added, "Brother Wencheng, I want to collect half of the rent first. There is not enough food at home, and the remaining half can be paid next year."
Fu Wencheng readily agreed and said, "Okay, then I'll pick a suitable family for you."
"Well, Uncle Qingtian at the head of the village has three sons and two daughters, and there are eight people in his family. A while ago, he told me that his family couldn't make ends meet, and he wanted to rent a few more acres of sacrificial land, but the sacrificial land in the clan has been counted, and I'm in a dilemma. I think it's better to rent your land to them, and as for the rent you want, the clan will first pay it, and then pay it back in autumn harvest."
"Uncle Chuntian's family is honest and won't bully you."
Fu Wenyu had no objection.
He certainly can't farm, and if he doesn't farm, who can he rent it to? And with the clan leader as the middleman, there is no need to worry about others not giving food, unless the other party doesn't want to stay in the village.
"Brother Wencheng, actually I came here for another thing today."
Fu Wenyu pretended to be embarrassed and said, "My father left some books. I have carefully read them these days. Some of them are from my father, but there are also a few books left by my grandfather."
Fu Wenyu took out the two books he brought with him, and then explained, "Those books are similar to these two, and they are all about the imperial examination. I heard my father say before that they are either for the examination of scholars or for the examination of juren, but no matter which one, I can't use it now."
"So I thought that if anyone in the village wants to borrow it to copy, they just need to give some food. It's inconvenient for me to go out now because I am in mourning, so please ask for me, brother Wencheng."
There is a village school in Fujia Village. Families will send suitable children to study, but not everyone can take the road of imperial examination. Over the years, there are three other people besides Fu Qingshan.
The son of the clan leader is one of them.
Fu Wenyu came today to ask if they need books. As long as he gives some food, he can lend out the books collected by his grandfather and Fu Qingshan.
In this way, he gets food and gets the favor of others. And those who need books get the opportunity to read and copy books, which is a win-win situation.
Of course, in order to avoid the tragedy of meat buns hitting dogs and never returning, he first found the clan leader Fu Wencheng, and then pointed out that he would only lend it to people in the village.
In this case, the chance of an accident is very small.
Fu Wencheng didn't think as much as he thought.
He also read books and was a classmate with Fu Wenyu's father Fu Qingshan for a while. He had also heard of the books that Fu Wenyu mentioned, which were helpful for the examination of the scholar, but he didn't expect that Zhou Xiucai would be left to Fu Qingshan after his death.
If Fu Wenyu wanted to sell, he probably wouldn't be willing to buy all of them, but now Fu Wenyu said that as long as he gave some grain, he could borrow it to copy a copy. Fu Wencheng was immediately tempted, after all, his son would also take the exam for a scholar in a few years.
Fu Wencheng immediately said: "Then Wenyu, how much grain are you going to collect?"
Fu Wenyu said: "At least one stone, or three hundred coins."
One stone is 150 catties, and the market price is about three hundred coins. Don't think it's a lot, because an adult man eats three to four stones of grain a year.
According to the original owner's memory, if the weather in Fujia Village is good, the yield per mu is about two stones, and only four stones a year. The grain he can get from renting out his four acres of land in a year is about this number. It is impossible for a family to have enough food every day. And if two or three books can be borrowed a year, the three people will not starve to death.
So he brought two books out.
Fu Wenyu felt that the price he proposed was not expensive, because if the books he just mentioned were bought separately, each one would not be less than two taels of silver. The reason why he did not propose a higher price was, of course, because he was from the same village after all, and if he continued to study in the future, he would also need a channel to ask for advice.
If he lent the books at a low price today, then if he wanted to ask someone for advice tomorrow, they would not be embarrassed to refuse.
As for whether others would think that copying books cost money, and thus have a bad impression of him, thinking that he was stingy or something. Fu Wenyu felt that the people in the village should have seen his family's situation and would not care about it. Besides, a family that could support their family members in the imperial examination would not be unable to come up with such a small amount of food.
Sure enough, after hearing the price, Fu Wencheng agreed without thinking.
He had plenty of food at home.
Seeing that Fu Wenyu really brought back food after going out, Zhou cried with joy.
"Wenyu, you have really grown up."
"Mom was thinking before, I would do more embroidery and sell it, and then buy some rice."
"I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it..."
Fu Rong was also very happy. She reached out and grabbed a handful of slightly yellow rice, raised her face and said, "Mom, let's eat dry rice tonight, not porridge."
Zhou wiped her tears, "Hey!"
Fu Wenyu also laughed, "Mom, our family rented the land to Uncle Chuntian, and the clan leader said that half of the rent will be delivered tomorrow. In addition, the clan leader helped to ask, and the other two people in the village who are preparing to take the exam for scholars also plan to borrow our books to copy, so they will send food one after another."
"We don't lack food at home."
"You and your sister shouldn't stay in the house doing embroidery all the time, go out more."
With these grains, their family can have enough food this year. And next year he will definitely have found a way to solve the family's difficulties, and it may not even take a year.
Zhou agreed and cooked a full pot of rice that night, and then the family had a long-lost full meal with pickles and other green leafy vegetables that could be found at this time.
Then Fu Wenyu, who was full and satisfied, sat at the table.
He was thinking about what to do in the future.
Although Aunt Fu had bad intentions, she said something very reasonable today.
That is, the original owner had been studying with his father since he was a child, and he had little time to go to the fields, so he was not a material for farm work. And the rest of the family, whether Zhou or Fu Rong, had never farmed. If there were no other ways to make money, their family would definitely have a hard time in the future.
So now there are three paths in front of Fu Wenyu.
First: Farming.
Cross this one out!
Farming is impossible.
Second: Reading.
This one is pending.
Fu Wenyu wanted to continue studying, because it is well known that scholars had a higher status in ancient times. If the original owner had passed the imperial examination like Fu Qingshan, then this unfair division of the family would not have happened at all.
So if you want to improve your social status, you still have to study.
But you need money to study, and he has no money now.
So the only thing Fu Wenyu can do now is...
Third: write novels.
Writing novels, or writing storybooks, is the way Fu Wenyu thought of to make money.
This is his old business.
Fu Wenyu wrote melodramatic novels in modern times, and his representative works include "The Domineering President: Don't Try to Escape with Your Pregnant Wife", "The Sky is Blue, the Earth is Blue, I Miss You, My Blue", "The Prince's Escaped Little Coroner", etc.
As for why a man like him would be so shameless as to write melodramatic romance novels on a green website...
Don't ask, the answer is that a takeaway meal costs twenty or thirty.
Of course, before writing melodramatic romance, he also tried to write serious articles. For example, a long masterpiece that was serialized for one year, three months and fifteen days - the interstellar fantasy martial arts article "Sacrifice to the Heaven".
Fu Wenyu spent a lot of effort on the book "Sacrifice to Heaven". The background introduction, human geography description, various forces, martial arts schools, etc. alone took no less than one million words. In addition to the three thousand words he wrote before it was put on the shelves, he wrote 20,000 words every day after it was put on the shelves, and occasionally there would be extra chapters. When "Sacrifice to Heaven" was finished, it had nearly ten million words.
Then, only three people subscribed.
The most outrageous thing is that on the second day after the completion, a loyal reader who Fu Wenyu once thought left a message under the article to complain that he forgot to cancel the automatic subscription function of the website and asked him if he could refund the money.
Fu Wenyu: "..."
Silently sent him a red envelope, and then turned off the computer.
Later, Fu Wenyu heard that a certain green website was full of pigeons, and as long as he wrote 10,000 words a day, he would have food to eat, so he cleaned up and changed from Fu Wenyu to "two yuan a steamed bun" big man.
The articles he wrote also changed from the serious and solemn "Sacrifice to Heaven" to "The Domineering CEO: Pregnant Wife Don't Try to Escape", which combines elements such as real and fake daughters, substitute lovers, jumping off cliffs, amnesia, running away with the baby, and chasing the wife to the crematorium.
As a result, with the bloody plot and the speed of 20,000 daily updates, it became popular.
Alas, the past is unbearable to look back on.