Another Bargain?
This Peerless City is a no-man's-land; those who can survive here are mostly intelligent.
Zhou Wanwan nodded to him and went to the manor. She saw that the manor was indeed very large.
The courtyard wall stretches as far as the eye can see, and the courtyard covers a huge area. Looking inside, the houses, open spaces, and vegetable gardens are all close together, creating a very spacious area.
Behind Zhuangzi is a whole mountain. The mountain is not particularly steep, with a gentle slope, and some sparse miscellaneous trees and short grass grow on it.
A gust of wind can blow up fine sand, leaving the ground dry.
Fang Yazi sighed and said from the side:
"To be honest, this place is also strange. At first, the owner thought of growing medicinal herbs to make money."
The medicinal seedlings that were painstakingly planted either withered halfway through their growth or were eaten and ruined by wild animals.
Many medicinal herbs are also stolen in the middle of the night, leaving them to rot in the ground or ruined beyond repair.
Last year, the family was overconfident and planted a lot of medicinal herbs. They were busy from spring to autumn harvest, but in the end, the fields were completely barren and they didn't reap any harvest at all.
They simply couldn't hold on any longer, so the owner asked me to quickly sell the estate.
For just two thousand two hundred taels of silver, this entire estate, including the land, houses, and the hill behind it, can be completely acquired.
Zhou Wanwan raised an eyebrow and said, "You mean to say that such a large estate only costs 2200 taels?"
Isn't this another case of finding a bargain?
Even here, such a large estate would cost at least 5,000 taels of silver.
The broker sighed and said, "There's really no other way. The master has run out of money, so it's better to sell the estate."
Zhou Wanwan walked around the manor and, sure enough, saw many trampled medicinal herbs on the ground.
Many of the houses have been hollowed out; has this village been broken into by thieves?
Zhou Wanwan finally found a few medicinal herbs and a few jute plants, and said with great fear:
"We live in constant fear, no one knows if we'll live to see tomorrow. So many of our brothers and sisters were fine just a while ago, but they've all died in the last few days."
It's all the fault of those damned wild boars, and those field mice, sand rats, and ground squirrels that come from the mountains; one nest can bring out thousands of them.
They gnawed our roots to pieces, bit off our tender stems, and stripped us bare of all our leaves, leaving us no way to survive.
There are just too many rodents in this desert!
The sand ginseng in the sandy soil next to him said:
"And that's not all. There's also a gang of mountain bandits who sneak into the fields every now and then."
Regardless of whether we've grown up or not, they dig us up, seedlings and roots alike, either to sell us haphazardly for money or to waste and discard us carelessly.
Even if we can survive the barrenness of the sandy soil, we cannot survive these continuous calamities.
No matter how many medicinal herb seedlings are planted in this village, they will all die, and in the end, not a single harvest can be saved.
The owner of this estate is truly pitiful; I heard he lost over a thousand taels of silver!
The seeds of these medicinal herbs were not cheap to begin with, and the owner of the estate was quite persistent at first, planting them for a total of three years.
Three years of no harvest—the losses are unimaginable.
Zhou Wanwan sighed and looked at the housekeeper, saying, "The owner of this estate is quite skilled at cultivating medicinal herbs, isn't he?"
The broker quickly waved his hand and said:
He himself doesn't know how to grow medicinal herbs, but he has gathered together all the people who have been able to grow them over the years.
This mountain resort employs over three hundred people, all of whom are highly skilled in cultivating medicinal herbs from the surrounding area.
Otherwise, we wouldn't have lost so much money.
Zhou Wanwan nodded, and then began to communicate with the trees in the villa.
Of the more than 300 people employed at the resort, more than half were actually idle; only about 120 of them actually knew how to cultivate medicinal herbs.
Zhou Wanwan directly signed life-or-death contracts with these 120-plus people and then took over the management of the resort.
The broker said softly:
"Miss, you should be aware of the implications before taking over this manor."
If we can't grow the medicinal herbs in the future, don't blame me. I've already explained the pros and cons to you.
Zhou Wanwan smiled faintly, "Of course I can't blame you, don't worry! I have my own way."
After the broker left, Zhou Wanwan looked at the people from the mountain village and said, "From now on, you will continue to plant medicinal herbs for me. If you successfully grow them, there will be a generous reward."
Those people all sighed and said:
"Miss, it's not that we don't want to grow medicinal herbs; each of us has our own plot of land to manage."
I even slept in the fields, but as soon as I left, the herbs seemed to grow legs and disappear.
The person Zhou Wanwan hadn't hired said fiercely, "You think you can grow medicinal herbs? What a dream!"
"We're the best at growing medicinal herbs, Miss, would you like to consider us?"
Zhou Wanwan looked at them with a half-smile and said, "No, I can't afford to use you people. I'm afraid you might collude with us and destroy all the medicinal herbs I have here."
These people are in cahoots with the bandits in the mountains, and they deliberately let the bandits in the mountains take the medicine.
The bandits here are all called horse bandits, and they all ride horses.
According to the trees in the villa, these people were all accomplices of bandits.
Every time the bandits went into the mountains to dig for medicinal herbs, they would dig them up in advance and then give them to the bandits to take away. The bandits would sell them and then split the money with them.
Over the years, I've earned anywhere from a few taels to several hundred taels from this manor.
These people squinted at Zhou Wanwan and said, "Heh! Forget it then! I don't like staying here anyway!"
That group of people all left, and those who remained in the village said:
"Miss, you shouldn't talk like that. These people are no good."
They've colluded with bandits; I'm afraid our village will be targeted in the future!
Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said, "You don't need to worry about these things. Just take care of yourselves."
The broker quickly completed the formalities, and Zhou Wanwan looked at the Old Scholar Tree and said, "Let's make this bandit territory our first stop!"
After leaving here, these medicinal herbs headed straight for the bandits' den.
They entered the bandits' den and sighed, "Boss, things aren't looking good right now! A little girl has come to the stronghold and bought our entire estate."
The bandit took a sip of his drink, looked at him, and asked, "How old is this little girl?"
"A 5-year-old girl."
The bandit burst into laughter. "Really? You can't even handle a five-year-old girl?"
"But that little girl seemed to know something; she didn't want any of us and kicked us all out."
The bandit looked at them and asked, "Does this little girl have any money?"
"Of course I have the money. That estate cost 2200 taels; I paid it without even blinking."
The bandit squinted and said:
"I don't know where this little girl came from, but I guess she's from the capital."
Wealthy families like this kind of thing; these people must have bodyguards in secret.
But so what if there are guards?
We're all desperate criminals, so we killed all the guards and took everything the little girl had.
Is she still on the estate?