Chapter 170: The Many Faces of Human Nature
The fertilizer had been purchased by Wen Yao from her space for five achievement points per catty, which, in their current currency, translated to exactly five wen per catty.
Upon hearing that it only cost five wen a catty, Old Man Wen and Old Madam Luo did not feel it was expensive at all.
“Then we will sell it to them for ten wen a catty. If they want it, they take it; if not, forget it. Eldest went through so much trouble and even rented horse carriages—does none of that cost money?” Old Madam Luo said.
Wen Xiuyi had no objections. He was only responsible for hauling the goods back. As for how it would be distributed and managed, he happily left that to the two elders.
“You all wait here for a moment. I’ll go speak to the village chief,” Old Madam Luo said, brushing the dust off her clothes before turning to head out.
Although the village chief had followed them back, he hadn’t gone inside. He was simply sitting in the courtyard. The moment he saw Old Madam Luo and Old Man Wen come out, he hurried forward to greet them.
“Uncle, Auntie, about this…” The village chief rubbed his hands together and offered a placating smile. He knew that the economic lifeblood of the entire village was currently resting in the hands of these two elders.
Old Madam Luo didn’t beat around the bush with him either, stating the price directly.
“Fifty catties is more than enough for one mu. If someone uses it sparingly, it might even stretch to a mu and a half, though we won’t guarantee the yield then. Pass the word along to everyone. Those who are willing can come to my house tomorrow to haul the fertilizer. As for those who aren’t, we won’t force them.”
The village chief blanked for a moment. The villagers had never paid money for fertilizer before; after all, everyone usually just scraped by using whatever night soil they could gather. Now that they actually had to buy fertilizer, the village chief felt a bit hesitant.
Old Madam Luo was instantly exasperated into a laugh. “Don’t tell me our family is supposed to give it to you all for free? Use it or don’t. We barely have enough for ourselves as it is.”
Seeing that Old Madam Luo was about to shoo him away, the village chief hurriedly said, “Auntie, that’s not what I meant. How about this? Ten wen a catty is truly rather expensive. This… I’m just afraid the folks won’t be able to accept it right away.”
Old Madam Luo shot him a sideways glance and said flatly, “Eight wen, that’s the absolute lowest price. I’m not taking advantage of a crisis to extort you all. The money to buy this fertilizer was paid out of my eldest son’s own pocket. Charging you eight wen means my eldest son still has to absorb the cost of the labor and the horse carriages. That’s more than fair.”
The village chief nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes, absolutely.” At least she had dropped the price by two wen.
“Then I shall go inform the folks right away. Uncle, Auntie, I’ll take my leave now.”
After seeing the village chief out, Old Madam Luo grumbled as she walked back inside, “Always thinking of turning a profit at our expense. As if our family owes them anything.”
Old Man Wen walked beside her, hesitating and stammering under his breath.
Old Madam Luo took one look at him and knew exactly what was on his mind.
“How many mu of land do those few households even have combined? If you want to give it to them for free, then give it. Stop pulling a miserable face in front of me. Do I owe you something?”
After snapping at Old Man Wen, Old Madam Luo returned to the storehouse and said to Wen Xiuyi:
“Save some for your aunt’s family. Your father’s old companions don’t have much money either; your father and I will cover the cost for them. Once night falls and there’s no one around, you boys deliver it to their houses.”
Wen Xiuyi chuckled. “Mom, we brought an extra five hundred catties precisely for this. You and Dad can distribute it however you see fit. Don’t go mentioning money to me again next time.”
“Business is business. Alright, let’s leave it at that. I reckon not many households will actually come to buy it anyway, so we’ll just save the rest for our own family’s use.” Old Madam Luo settled the matter firmly, and Wen Xiuyi didn’t dare say another word. Worst comes to worst, he could always compensate the two elders in some other way later.
While things were neatly settled on the Wen family’s side, a massive uproar had broken out in the village.
Someone immediately yelled on the spot, “Eight wen a catty! What kind of fertilizer costs that much money? I say the Wen family has struck it rich now and grown too capable, so much so that they even want to bleed their fellow villagers of their hard-earned money. Do they have a shred of humanity left?”
“Exactly, exactly!”
A fair number of people chimed in around him.
However, there were also reasonable households who spoke up.
“They bought it themselves in the first place, so selling it to us at cost is only natural. Besides, Scholar Wen went to all the trouble to search for it just to help everyone find a solution. As human beings, we shouldn’t be ungrateful.”
The village chief glanced at the speakers. A few old men around Old Man Wen’s age were crouching together, and the remarks had come from their direction.
Wen Second Grandpa was among them. He stood up, dusted off the dirt he had just picked up from the ground, and swept a glance across the crowd—particularly targeting those who were clamoring about the Wen family stealing their hard-earned money. He said flatly, “Discuss it among yourselves then. I’ll be heading back first.”
After taking a few steps, Wen Second Grandpa halted again, looking back at the crowd. The thought of the crops in his eldest brother’s fields, and his brother’s words about how everyone would be able to live a good life and eat their fill in the future, made his heart feel incredibly tight. He felt it was truly a waste of his brother and sister-in-law’s good intentions.
He added, “My sister-in-law made it perfectly clear the day they left that the goods brought back definitely wouldn’t be given away for free. You all agreed to it yourselves back then. If you think it’s too expensive now, then simply don’t buy it. From what I saw of the amount Xiuyi hauled back, it might not even be enough for our own families anyway. Humph.”
With that, he walked away with his hands behind his back, thoroughly vexed by their chatter.
Seeing Wen Second Grandpa depart, a good number of villagers followed suit, discussing among themselves as they walked that they needed to quickly confer with their families on how much to buy, lest the supply genuinely run out.
With this shift, more than half the crowd dispersed, leaving only those who were still indignant or hoping to fish in troubled waters to get something for nothing.
The village chief was also driven to wits’ end by these remaining people.
“Forget it. Do whatever you want, I wash my hands of this.” With that, he turned to leave as well.
But some people refused to let him go.
“Village Chief, you can’t just wash your hands of this! The Wen family was the one who told us to pull up the seedlings in our fields before, and now they’re leaving us in the lurch? How can that be allowed? Then haven’t we pulled up those seedlings for nothing?”
“Exactly!”
“Yes, indeed! The Wen family is being far too underhanded. Aren’t they just harming everyone?”
The village chief actually laughed. He finally understood why Old Man Wen and Old Madam Luo had repeatedly emphasized that they wouldn’t force anyone and that it was entirely voluntary. Because these people were simply beyond reason.
“They told you right from the very start that it was completely voluntary. Since you chose to listen, you can’t go pinning the blame on them now. You claim they made you pull them up—did they personally step into your fields to rip them out, or did they hold a knife to your throats to force you?”
Pausing, the village chief pointed a finger at the crowd. “Don’t think I don’t know exactly what you’re plotting. You want to pressure the Wen family into giving you the fertilizer for free, so that once the grain yield increases, the harvest and all the benefits will belong entirely to yourselves. Every single one of you certainly knows how to calculate to your own advantage! Since that’s the case, don’t buy it. Exactly how much grain you can harvest in the future will depend entirely on the heavens.”
The crowd was instantly left speechless.
“Well… we were just worried that we’d spend the money to buy the stuff only for it to turn out useless,” someone tried to smooth things over.
The village chief sneered. “Then don’t believe it. This whole endeavor was a gamble from the very beginning.”
With that, the village chief departed without looking back. he had to hurry home to fetch his money; his family owned quite a significant amount of land.
As for what the remaining people behind him were scheming, he couldn’t care less. They had spent their entire lives at the mercy of the weather for food. Now that a method to increase yields had suddenly appeared, whether it worked or not, one had to at least try. What if it actually succeeded?
