"It's Liujiawan Village, a little over twenty li from us. There were only a few dozen households left in the village to begin with.
"Over these past two months, they've also run into a major retreat of the tide. Normally, they spent half their time at home farming.
"During the slack farming season, they went out to sea to fish. Fishing accounted for around sixty percent of their household income.
"But the tide has kept retreating for over a hundred li. The exposed seabed is slippery, and there aren't any roads.
"In fact, the high spots are dozens of meters above the low ones. Getting to the water's edge is far too difficult.
"By the time they carry their catch back, it's all rotten. Who would buy it?
"So another dozen or so households moved away over these two months. Only around fifty households remain, about three hundred people.
"More than half of them are tenant farmers, while the smaller remaining portion own their own land.
"They're too close to the sea, and the farmland is poor, with extremely low yields. After paying their rent, they can't even feed their families.
"And seeing the poor harvests and the fields lying fallow, the wealthy landowners have lost much of their interest in Liu Family Village.
"So I first looked into the situation. When they heard that you wanted to buy land, Master,
"and that you were offering a good price, they all came to me, planning to sell their land and move away to find another livelihood."
Ge Ziyun had only gotten this far when Luo Yiwu could not help cutting in. "So you took the opportunity to spread the word that the Master wanted to buy people too?"
"Don't be so impatient. Hear me out first. Seeing the situation, I