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  In the afternoon, the courtyard of Listening to the Waves was quiet and peaceful. Old Master Lin asked Lin Dajie, who was standing beside him with his hands clasped together, "What's going on?"

  Lin Rumin carefully carried a cup of tea up and smiled apologetically: "There have been some rumors outside these past few days. Third Brother and Third Sister-in-law bought over a hundred hectares of salt-alkali land in the west of the city, and people are all laughing at them for being crazy, saying they have too much money and nowhere to spend it. Such a big matter, and not a word was mentioned beforehand."

  "What's it to you how much makeup a woman wears?" Old Master Lin put down his teacup and said calmly, "You're asking if this land is worth buying or not, aren't you?"

  Lin Rumin was pierced by his words, and couldn't help but feel extremely embarrassed, stuttering: "That land isn't expensive, if it can really become good farmland, our family will also be more prosperous in the future. But if we really want to buy it, it's not a small sum of money either."

  "If it can't be done, it's like throwing money into the water."

  Old Master Lin said slowly: "You're over 40 years old, can't always come ask me about everything."

  "It's not that you're not lucky enough to read good books, but it's not like you don't even know how to handle such a small matter."

  "Father is right." Lin Rumin had been afraid of him since he came, and when he heard this, he was a little embarrassed and didn't dare to ask again, and retreated in a hurry.

  Mr. Lin sighed as he watched his eldest son's back disappear into the distance.

  He disagreed with the idea of pursuing wealth in everything, and in his opinion, becoming an official through imperial examination was the right path. However, among so many scholars, only a few could make it into officialdom. Nowadays, marriage is all about money, and without some family property, even children's marriages become a problem. Not to mention the extravagant funerals that have become popular, adding unnecessary burdens to people. Therefore, he turned a blind eye to his sons' and daughters-in-law's minor actions, as long as they were passable. But his eldest son not only failed to achieve anything in the imperial examination but also managed the family business so stingily, which was disappointing to him.

  Lin Shenzhi, who was writing at the window, heard the sound and turned his head back, putting down the pen in his hand: "Why did grandfather sigh?"

  Old Master Lin opened his eyes wide and looked at his grandson in a low voice, saying: "Xiao Lao Qi, you must remember that entering the imperial examination is the right path. You must study hard and not disappoint my expectations!"

  Lin Shen straightened his body and replied: "Yes!"

  Lin Rumin returned home with a dusty face and disheveled hair, and as soon as she entered the door, she pulled at her collar and said: "Make tea, fan me, I'm dying of heat."

  Zhou hurriedly held up the tea and went upstairs, kindly took a fan for him to fan, and whispered: "How is it?"

  Lin Rumin's face sank as she said, "The old master told me to take charge myself."

  "What's good to do? Whether to buy or not?" Zhou sighed in disappointment.

  If we don't buy it, we might miss the opportunity to make a fortune; if we use her dowry to buy it, we're afraid of losing everything and don't dare take the risk. It's best to use the public money to buy it, so that if there are losses, everyone shares them, and individual losses can be minimized. However, if we make a profit, everyone benefits, but if we lose, the eldest son-in-law takes responsibility, and it's not worth it even if we get criticized by others. It would be best if the old master speaks up, so that even if we lose, the second son-in-law won't take advantage of us. But unexpectedly, the old master doesn't say a word.

  The old man let him take charge and didn't say anything against buying. Lin Rumin was silent for a long time, gritting her teeth and saying: "Buy! Just use the public middle school money to buy it!"

  "How many would you like to buy?"

  Also buy a hundred shares! Just use the several thousand taels of silver sent by Luo's family to make up for it.

  Lin Rumin stretched out a thumb and shook it: "Tonight, let the kitchen prepare some good dishes, get some good wine, I'll invite Lao Er and Lao San to dinner."

  This meal is about discussing the purchase of land. Sanfang must insist on buying land, and Erfang will not object. If something goes wrong, Dafang will not only not be held responsible but also leave a good name. Zhou Shi smiled: "Good."

  As Lin Rumin wished, at the banquet, Old Master Lin San indeed strongly advocated for buying land and boasted that Tao Shunqin was so clever and capable that he had never lost money, and even suggested buying more, so everyone could get rich together. Second Master just smiled and said whatever his brothers decided was fine, he had no opinion.

  Lin Rumin finally made a decision to buy 100 acres of land, and he reported this news to Old Master Lin. He specifically picked out a few words from Third Master Lin's speech to tell him. Old Master Lin just smiled faintly and said: "It's not that big of a deal, why make such a fuss."

  Lin Rumin's face turned bright red, but he couldn't defend himself. He knew that the old master had seen through his fear of taking responsibility and wanting to make money, yet he was also full of grievances. Since childhood, he had devoted himself to reading books, but unfortunately didn't have the luck, easily gave up, managed the family business poorly, and the old lady doted on the second wife, Luo Shi was not at peace, waiting for an opportunity to stab the first wife in the back, this eldest son really worked hard.

  Mr. Lin saw him standing there pitifully and felt increasingly annoyed, waving his hand: "Whatever you do is fine. Remember that you are the eldest son, the elder brother."

  Lin Rumin felt relieved after hearing this. He had originally planned to buy land on the second day, but Zhou Mai sent a servant to say that Mr. Zhu was celebrating his birthday and asked for his help in preparing some gifts. As a member of the scholarly family, respecting teachers and morality was a big deal, so he had to put aside his current tasks and personally rush over to celebrate Mr. Zhu's birthday. Mr. Zhu gave him great face and kept him there for two days.

  When he returned, four days had passed. After slowly inspecting the land and consulting with the yamen officials, he discovered that the price of salt alkaline land had risen again to 160 wen per mu. Moreover, the land he had set his sights on already had an owner, so if he wanted to buy it, he would have to go further afield to look anew. Upon inquiry, he learned that in just these few days, the second house of the Luo family had secretly purchased several dozen qing, while the Wu family had bought over 200 qing of land to hold onto. Old Master Lu had also caught wind of this and swooped in to grab over 200 qing. The price of the land was being driven up by these speculators, and the good land was being snatched up by them first.

  As for the three families of Wu, Lin and Lu in Pingzhou, the poorest one is currently the Lin family. The other two families have money to spare, casually throwing away a few thousand taels of silver without batting an eyelid. Where does the Lin family have so much idle money to squander? Lin Rumin was furious to the point of vomiting blood, first hating Lin Sanlao for his big mouth, and then hating Lin Er's couple for being cunning, selfish and cold-blooded, only thinking of taking advantage of themselves without considering saving some for the family.

  Is there a more useless and selfish brother than this?

  "Qì guī qì" still have to buy, Lu and Wu families all bought the land, what's wrong with that? Must be profitable.

  He also felt that the second and third houses had secretly bought some, they didn't buy too much to lose out, in the future when the family was divided, being surpassed by the other two houses was a small matter, the key was that his sons and grandsons would have no place to stand, so he discussed with Madame Zhou, gritting his teeth and also swept away several tens of thousands of taels to buy some.

  Mrs. Zhou regretted it afterwards, the more she looked at the account book, the more regretful she became. The more she looked, the more distressed she felt. If only she had known earlier, she should have made a decisive move and bought it first when others didn't know about it yet. As for the location, she could choose freely, not to mention that the price wouldn't be as high as Old Master Lin's foolishness, which was comparable to Tian Wen's.

  Now it's all well and good, but they've paid double the price for a piece of land with poor feng shui. Madame Zhou clutched at her chest, too heartbroken to speak.

  Mr. Lin comforted her: "Don't be sad, don't be sad, if it weren't for this, we wouldn't know whether the land was worth buying or not. Although we spent a bit more money, at least our hearts are at peace..." At this point, he himself couldn't continue speaking. This would have to be reported to Old Master Lin, and it would serve as another piece of evidence that he wasn't capable of handling things.

  Lin Jiren learned about this matter nearly a month later.

  Lin Jinyan laughed and said, "I was wondering why Auntie has been looking so pale and weak lately. It turns out that Uncle has been picking on the second wife's shortcomings all year round, while Father just ignores him. Who would have thought it was because of this? This is called 'carrying a stone to knock one's own foot'. Looking left and right, not willing to suffer any loss at all, yet wanting to take advantage of everything - where in the world is that possible?"

  Lin Jianrong couldn't help but smile slightly "Perhaps, this matter of bringing water from the river to the fields will be brought forward, or maybe not."

  In the past, only she had this land, and could only wait obediently for good fortune to arrive, naturally becoming a good field. But now it's different, most of the wealthy households in Pingzhou City have bought salt alkali land, who would be willing to let their money go down the drain? And Tao Shunqin, who can say whether he will also stir up a wave of buying and selling salt alkali land in Qingzhou? If the salt alkali land all falls into the hands of Pingzhou and Qingzhou's wealthy households, perhaps before that time comes, someone will already have prompted this big event.

  Before long, autumn arrived. The Tao family had packed their things early and informed Old Master Lin and Old Lady Lin that after the Mid-Autumn Festival, they would set off with Third Master Lin to Qingzhou to celebrate the birth of Wu's child, bringing Lin Jingrong and Lin Shenzi along.

  Huang Niangniang learned from Lin Sanlao that Tao Shi's trip was also to arrange a blind date for Lin Yizhi, and she became anxious. She wanted to follow Tao Shi but knew it was impossible, so she had no choice but to beg Lin Jirong to put in a good word for her.

  Lin Jinrong readily agreed. She would certainly help the Tao family choose a good daughter-in-law for Lin Yizhi. In his previous life, it was not the Tao family who had arranged Lin Yizhi's marriage, but rather the Zhou family had chosen someone with the surname Fan, from Qingzhou. After passing through Old Lady Lin's screening, they directly notified the Tao family to prepare the betrothal gifts and bring the bride into the household.

  Fan and Lin Yizhen are both illegitimate children, with gloomy personalities, rarely smiling on their faces. On the surface, they serve Tao's family without any flaws, but behind their backs, they often plot against Lin Shen. In short, it's a kind of discomfort that can't be put into words. As long as she is around, Fan won't be able to enter the Lin family!

  It's been just over the 15th of August, and Ta Ming Fu has already sent news that Lu Jian and Wu Xiang have both passed the imperial examination. Wu Xiang became a jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination), while Lu Jian was ranked below him. Lin San Shao, who also went to take the exam, barely managed to pass with a low ranking, while Si Shao's name fell off the list.

  The Wu and Lu families set off firecrackers, overjoyed beyond self-control. The Lin family, however, was eerily silent, with even the servants not daring to make a sound while walking.

  Mr. Lin was very angry and disappointed, among several sons, the eldest son Chang cut off his studies early, the second son Ke had taken the exam several times before barely passing as a Juren, which was already the limit, he had long given up hope. The third son had finally passed the exam after taking it twice, but with such an ugly ranking, and the fourth grandson made him even more furious. Hmm, in his younger years, how could he have endured such humiliation?

  So on this day, Lin Shenzhi was locked up until the evening lamp time before being released from the Listening Wave House, and he still wanted to add two bowls of rice after dinner. Mrs. Tao was afraid that he would eat too much and be uncomfortable, so she pressed him not to eat more, feeling heartbroken and couldn't help but complain softly.

  Lin Shen's eyes twinkled with a smile: "I will be like Wu Erge in the future, and I will take the imperial examination to become a scholar-official. What's the big deal about suffering a bit?"

  "Alright, I'll be waiting for you to top the imperial examination." Mrs. Tao affectionately pinched his nose and called over Old Mother Kong to discuss: "We can't help but prepare a generous gift for the Wu family, then go ask the other two branches what they plan to do about the Lu family; we'll follow their lead, not sending too much or too little." She also whispered to her two daughters: "Don't mention it, your aunt really has good luck."

  Lin Jinyong was taken aback for a moment on the side.

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  Pink 540 is typing under the firework-like situation of Huā's response, it's a maddening thing to do. If there are any errors, please let me correct them later.

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