Dao Fruit

Qiu Yan fought with the demon king Shi Jianhui in the ancestral hall deep in the Jiedushi Mansion, and finally settled the cause and effect of his grudges.

At that time, there was a young woman lying on the stage of the ancestral hall. At the last moment before his death, Shi Jianhui's broken demon pill tried to fly towards the young woman, but was stopped midway.

Earlier, Qiu Yan had separated a ray of spiritual thought and broke into the ancestral hall. At a startling glance, he saw two familiar figures. One of them was the demon king Shi Jianhui, and the other was lying on the ground. The **woman on the stage.

During the battle at the ancestral hall, the demon king died. The ancestral hall was flooded and destroyed during the battle between Tang Lai, Chen Yan and the Hengduan Mountain God. The woman on the stage disappeared among the ruins.

But what Qiu Yan didn't expect was that the woman who disappeared with the ancestral hall that day would appear in front of him now and call himself the young master.

Face to face, eye to eye, Qiu Yan finally recognized why he felt familiar with this woman.

Two years ago, when Song Qian appeared in front of Qiu Yan in an eight-carriage sedan, besides Song Nu, there was also a famous maid accompanying her. She was wearing green clothes and lowered her eyes. It was difficult for people to see her appearance clearly, but her aura and temperament Qiu Yan remembered that it was the girl on the stage of the ancestral hall who made him feel familiar.

"you……"

Qiu Yan narrowed his eyes with a cold look in his eyes. He was about to ask, but was interrupted by the sound of footsteps.

"Yan'er, are you back?"

Then, Liu Huai's voice came over.

"uncle."

Hearing this, Qiu Yan had to stop talking, gather his thoughts and step forward to salute. Then he saw Liu Huai's figure and frowned.

Compared with before, Liu Huai looked much haggard. He was still in good spirits, but now he looked a little old.

"I'm finally home. Mr. Song has already sent someone to bring you the news about your passing the examination. I heard that you are still the head of the case. You are number one, not bad! Not bad!"

When Liu Huai saw Qiu Yan, he laughed happily, and his slightly aged look disappeared.

This scene, in Qiu Yan's eyes, made his heart warm, but a little anger soon emerged in his heart.

"I left Qingchang for the Taoist test, and went directly to Wuxin City after the test. It only took two months, but my uncle showed his age in such a short period of time..."

After a thought, he guessed the reason.

"Song Nu..."

Thinking of Song Nu's face before, Qiu Yan's anger grew stronger, but Liu Huai was by his side, so he had to suppress it, otherwise with his life and cultivation level, if it was revealed, it would inevitably shock the old man.

"Your cousin has gone out to collect rent. He will be back in a while. If he knows that you are here, he will definitely be happy."

Qiu Yan was confused: "Collecting rent? How many acres of newly purchased land can we already collect rent?"

When he first came to Qingchang, Qiu Yan helped the Liu family buy a house. They also spent money to buy some farmland as a source of income for the Liu family, but those fields had been deserted for a long time and needed to be reclaimed. There has been no improvement for two years.

"It's not those pieces of land," Liu Huai shook his head and sighed. "A few days ago, the farmers in the field made trouble. I was afraid of ruining your reputation, so I sold the land."

Qiu Yan narrowed his eyes when he heard this: "Making trouble? I haven't paid any rent in the past two years, and you even subsidize it from time to time. Why are they making trouble? Besides, if there is trouble again, there is no need to sell the land, just change the people. ”

Qiu Yan said this, but he knew very well in his heart that if the servant farmers made trouble and wanted to sell the land, the price would be extremely low and the losses would be huge.

"Perhaps the land is barren and unproductive," Liu Huai smiled. "My uncle has never read a book, but he used to go to the theater and knew that famous people are most afraid of this kind of thing. If word spreads, others will not be able to tell the difference between right and wrong. I can only say that our family is taking advantage of the situation to oppress others. You have just been admitted as a scholar, and your uncle cannot cause trouble or slander you. Just sell a few pieces of land, and the money from selling the land is still kept at home, etc. I’ll get it to you.”

Qiu Yan felt warmer in his heart, but his anger was also raging. After thinking about it for a moment, he knew that there must be a driving force behind this matter. As for who that person was, he was about to reveal it.

"No wonder my uncle has become a lot more haggard in a short period of time. It turns out that he is worried too much and has hurt his mind. He will write down a prescription in two days to make up for it."

After sorting out the situation, but it was difficult to have an attack at home, Qiu Yan just asked: "Now that the land is sold, where will my cousin go to collect rent?"

Liu Huai smiled and patted Qiu Yan on the shoulder: "Your cousin is here to collect rent for you. You passed the scholar examination and the government gave you several acres of land."

"Government gives land?"

After hearing this, Qiu Yan shook his head secretly.

There is indeed a clause in the Darui law, which states that if you pass the exam and become a student, the government will give you farmland, but this was a strategy adopted to appease the scholars in the world when they conquered the world at the beginning of the year.

After more than eighty years, the imperial examinations were held every three years. Not to mention the scholars, everyone who took the exams had accumulated a lot, and big landowners emerged in endlessly. The local wealthy families annexed large tracts of land, and the rest was barren and difficult to cultivate. .

This is still the situation in border areas like Jiannan Road. As far as Qiu Yan knows, land annexation in wealthy areas such as Jiangnan is even more serious. There has long been no room for distribution to scholars, so they have all been converted into money and grain and distributed on a monthly basis. The land allocation clause exists in name only.

Some of this information was learned by Qiu Yan when he was talking to Zhusheng in the post house, and some was learned from Yan Yongjie that year.

As the thought passed through his mind, Qiu Yan asked again: "Who sent this land given by the government?"

"The Master of the Song family sent it in person. He is a good man. You don't know that since the land was sold half a month ago, your cousin's shop has also been in trouble. Our family is almost in dire straits. Unexpectedly, the Master of the Song family has taken care of everything. The land that was supposed to be released in a few months was obtained in advance, otherwise..."

Liu Huai shook his head and did not continue.

"The terms of the government granting land to scholars have long been in vain. No matter how hard Song Nu tries, it will be useless. This land deed was definitely not given by the government! Previously, my uncle's family was forced to sell their land, and even my cousin's shop was in trouble. It was obvious that Others did it deliberately, and Song Nu and I were at odds with each other. He was most likely the one to do these things, which caused great harm to my uncle, but he later gave away land to make up for it, being arrogant at first and respectful at the end..."

Thinking of this, Qiu Yan sneered secretly.

At this time, I heard Liu Huai say again: "By the way, let your aunt go out to buy some food and help you catch the wind..."

As soon as he finished speaking, a crisp voice came from next to him——

"Just leave this kind of thing to the little maid, why bother the boss and the old mistress?"

The person who spoke was the woman who opened the door for Qiu Yan.

Previously, because of Liu Huai's haggard look, Qiu Yan could not care about anything else. He wanted to understand the situation first. Now that he had a general grasp of the situation, his attention returned to the woman.

Unexpectedly, this woman was already familiar with Liu Huai, exchanged a few words, and left home with a vegetable basket, while Qiu Yan was pulled into the house by Liu Huai.

"This maid of yours is very hard-working," Liu Huai smiled, and before Qiu Yan could speak, he took the initiative and said, "A few days ago, she suddenly came to the door and said that she was the maid you took in Wuxin City, and she was of poor origin. Why? ? "Is there something fishy?"

After all, Liu Huai had been in charge of Pan Mansion for many years. Now he was older, but he still had the ability to observe people's emotions. He noticed Qiu Yan's expression and already had a guess, so he took the initiative to speak without waiting for questioning.

"Since the news came that you were selected as a scholar, many people wanted to sell themselves and seek refuge, but I didn't agree. I was afraid that if I didn't check it for a while, it would ruin your reputation. However, this girl brought a letter from the Jiedu Envoy's daughter and it was reviewed by the county magistrate. He even talked about a lot of things about you in Wuxin City, and took out a volume of your book as a token..."

After listening to these words, Qiu Yan roughly understood the matter and gradually came up with ideas.

"Uncle, I'm sorry. Those who sell themselves to seek refuge are mostly idle and attached to evade taxes and evade labor. They really shouldn't be taken in. As for Biying, you don't need to worry about it. I have my own ideas." With a countermeasure, he then He spoke to comfort Liu Huai.

Not long after, the woman named "Bi Ying" came back from shopping and took the initiative to enter the kitchen and cook.

After a while, Qiu Yan's cousin Liu Yue also came back from collecting rent. The brothers met and had some pleasantries. Afterwards, the female relatives of the family set up tables and chairs, and the whole family sat around.

"Last month, your aunt and cousin were picked up by people from the Pan Mansion. Those people were very polite. I heard it was because of your name. It seems that some of the words you wrote before were spread in Yuanning Mansion. , was popular among people, and the Pan family had heard about it, regretted their original behavior, and wanted to make amends." During the dinner, Liu Huai introduced the changes in the family, looking very relieved.

But these words made Qiu Yan suspicious.

"The calligraphy I wrote? I made some achievements in calligraphy in the Taoist examination, but I didn't leave any ink marks in Yuanning Mansion. If there are any, they are the ones that Zhang Zhen took away when I was concentrating my soul. I heard that the copybook was taken to Yuan Ning City. I don’t know what it was involved in.”

Nowadays, most households in Yuanning Prefecture have invited the Kitchen God and are enveloped by the jurisdiction of Qiu Yan. However, ordinary people do not have much contact with the calligraphy and literary circles. Even for wealthy families, most of the people who worship the Kitchen God are the kitchen cooks and the real powerful people. How many wealthy businessmen care about cooking?

Different circles, different horizons, and different knowledge. For example, if Lu Jing's soul had not entered the underworld, it would be difficult for Qiu Yan to know about the battle between demons.

Therefore, even though stoves are spread throughout the city, the legal system for collecting information is still not perfect.

After eating and bidding farewell to Liu Huai and others, Qiu Yan got up and returned home. Behind him, a woman followed.

When they entered the courtyard, it was getting late. Qiu Yan didn't say much and went straight to the study.

After being away from home for several months, there was not much dust in the study, so it seemed that someone had cleaned it.

Glancing at the spotless desk, Qiu Yan's mind flashed with Pan Rongniang's voice.

With a sigh, Qiu Yan sat down, put down the package and sword, and turned his eyes to look at the woman "Bi Ying".

"Tell me, what are your plans?"

After hearing this, Biying calmly bowed her head in a respectful manner. There was no trace of ripples on her delicate face: "Biying sincerely wants to be a maid for the young master to thank him for saving his life."

As she said that, she raised her head and stared at Qiu Yan with her watery eyes: "I will explain the reason to the young master, but before that, there is still something to do." After saying this, she clapped her hands.

Crunch.

There was a sudden noise outside, and then the door of the study was pushed open, and Song Nu walked in tremblingly. He had his upper body naked, his hands tied behind his back, and a bamboo on his back. As soon as he walked in, he fell to his knees with a thump. On the ground. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature. The novels will be better and updated faster!