A Good Country Wife

Zhao Erhu took Lin Yue toward the valley, leading her from the cave into the depths of the valley. "How about this place? Isn’t it nice? Actually, I discovered it when I was a child, which is how I found the exit yesterday. The temperature here is much cooler compared to outside. In the future, we can even build a little cabin here and live here when the summer heat becomes unbearable."

"It is indeed beautiful. I never expected Zhao Family Village to have such a wonderful spot. It’s like a paradise here. Besides building a little house, we could plant flowers and trees, fruit trees too, and even create a pond here, covering it in lotus flowers. If I’d known, I would have called the kids over too—they would definitely love this place."

Upon hearing his young wife prioritize the children over him, Zhao Erhu felt very displeased. Especially recently, those damn brats had become even clingier to his wife than before, impossible to shoo away, which annoyed him greatly. How could he agree to let those damn kids come in and compete with him for his wife’s attention?

"Forget about those damn brats. They’re always following you around like a bad smell, they’re not babies who haven’t been weaned yet. Don’t tell them about this place. From now on, this will be a place just for the two of us. No one else is allowed to know," Zhao Erhu commanded with a rare display of authority.

In fact, there was another thing he didn’t say, ’so they won’t come and ruin our world for two’. Zhao Erhu was now firmly convinced that in the future, it would be better for him and his wife to have a soft and delicate daughter, who would not only be cute and lovable but also wouldn’t be like those damn sons who knew how to defy their father. They really needed a lesson, yet his wife still stopped him from beating them.

After visiting the valley, Lin Yue, with a spirit of grand finance, decided to buy the entire expanse of wasteland, including the valley. The Court was already encouraging land reclamation, and the policy was quite lenient. The land was cheap at only one or two taels of silver per mu, and it even came with a fifteen-year tax exemption. In Lin Yue’s estimation, it couldn’t be more cost-effective, and it would be even better if they could purchase more of the better locations.

Although the wasteland was vast, it wouldn’t exceed a hundred mu in total, and it could be bought for no more than a hundred taels of silver. Buying the valley would require a bit more money, probably two to three hundred taels of silver for the whole lot, not to mention gifts and favors for the village chief. However, those were just minor expenses. The real costs would come later. Such a vast wasteland could obviously not be cultivated by themselves; they’d have to hire others to do it, plus there were the expenses for seeds and fertilizers. Calculating all this, it was quite a sum, yet their family income was quite substantial at the moment, making the expenses manageable.

As for Lin Yue’s personal savings, she wouldn’t touch them just yet. Since Zhao Erhu had already said he would provide the silver, Lin Yue naturally wouldn’t be polite with her own husband. After all, whatever they bought was actually for both of them; it would just be registered in her name. Her private fund had to be kept intact, as the plan for the kids to enroll in school next year could not change, meaning a fixed amount of silver had to remain untouched.