Taoyuan Village went through a wave of weddings.
With only a little over a thousand people, several dozen couples were getting married!
Most of them were young men who had taken wives from outside the village.
There were two reasons for this.
The first was that everyone was now better off financially and could afford to get married.
The second was that most of Taoyuan’s residents came from the poorest families.
For a long time, the sons of these families had reached marriageable age without being able to find wives, so there was now a large number of young men who had accumulated into marriageable age.
Women, on the other hand, had never had trouble finding husbands.
No matter how poor a girl was, she could always find someone willing to marry her.
The difference was that if she was poor, the kind of marriage she could hope for wouldn’t be particularly good.
Given the situation, the village decided to provide some support.
Anyone who was sixteen or older when they got married would receive a new home and be exempt from rent for three years.
As for those under sixteen, sorry, but the village did not support marriages that happened too early and would not provide any benefits.
This policy caused several couples to postpone their weddings and decide to marry the following year.
But those who were thirteen or fourteen and wanted to get married simply couldn’t wait that long.
A notice also appeared on the village committee’s bulletin board recommending that people marry around the age of eighteen.
According to the notice, this was the most favorable age for having children and also reduced the risk of complications for both mother and child.
Everyone was willing to believe it.
After all, at the very end of the notice, it stated that this was a recommendation from Lord Zhao.
The idea took root in everyone’s hearts.
Without a doubt, it would produce good results in the future.
…
At the entrance to Taoyuan Village, three carriages entered the village.
The curtain of the carriage in front was lifted, revealing the face of a middle-aged man with a handsome beard.
“Is this Taoyuan Village, the place where Immortal’s Liquor is produced?”
The face of a beautiful middle-aged woman also appeared.
She looked around before saying:
“My lord, Taoyuan’s main street is quite well built. Even many small cities can’t compare to it. It’s just a little too deserted. There’s hardly anyone on the street.”
“That’s normal. From what I’ve heard, they’ve only been building this place for about a year. Being able to establish something like this in just one year is already quite impressive.”
The couple clearly weren’t ordinary people.
From the way they spoke, it was obvious they had tasted Immortal’s Liquor before.
At present, the starting price of Immortal’s Liquor was five hundred wen per jin.
No one knew how much it sold for outside the village.
It was certainly not something an ordinary person could afford.
“See if there’s an inn around here. Let’s find somewhere to stay.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The coachman nodded and continued driving.
When they reached an inn near the bank, the carriage stopped.
The middle-aged man got down together with his wife.
Besides the couple, there were three children, two maids, and four attendants traveling with them.
A young attendant came over to guide the coachman, directing him to take the carriages through a side alley to the inn’s rear courtyard.
The middle-aged man entered the inn first with his family and maids.
The lobby was fairly spacious, and the decorations were of decent quality, though in the eyes of the middle-aged man, there was nothing particularly remarkable about them.
The innkeeper approached and invited them to sit.
“This gentleman is from out of town, I presume? How long do you plan to stay?”
“That will depend on the circumstances. For now, prepare rooms for five days.”
The beautiful woman handled the details.
“Three superior rooms and two standard rooms.”
The couple would occupy one of the superior rooms.
Their eldest son, fourteen years old, and their youngest, five, would share another.
Their twelve-year-old daughter would stay in a third room with the two maids.
The two standard rooms would be for the remaining four attendants.
“A superior room costs three yuan, and a standard room costs one yuan. Three superior rooms and two standard rooms come to eleven yuan. Five days makes fifty-five yuan, plus thirty-three yuan in deposits. Eighty-eight yuan in total.”
“Oh. So that’s eight hundred and eighty wen.”
The middle-aged man showed some interest.
“Yuan? What kind of currency is that?”
“It’s the currency we use here. Mainly, it’s meant to make transactions more convenient.”
As he spoke, the innkeeper took some banknotes from his pocket and showed them to the man.
Seeing the banknotes for the first time, the middle-aged man frowned.
Could this be treasury paper money?
Treasury paper money wasn’t exactly a good thing.
And the people here were incredibly bold!
How dare they mint their own money?
That was a crime punishable by death!
As if he had guessed what the man was thinking, the innkeeper smiled and explained:
“This is merely a type of voucher created to make things more convenient. It can be exchanged for silver at the bank at any time.”
“Besides, our lord has established that these cannot be taken out of the village. This isn’t money!”
Establishing a rule was one thing.
Actually enforcing it was another matter entirely.
Those were two completely different things.
“What an unnecessary hassle…” the middle-aged man muttered.
Even so, he accepted the explanation.
Then he took the four denominations of banknotes the innkeeper handed him and was stunned once again.
“Wow! My lord, look how beautiful they are! Let me see them.”
His wife even snatched them out of his hands.
The children were curious as well.
Even their fourteen-year-old eldest son, who was normally quite composed, couldn’t resist turning around to take a look. This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
Who wouldn’t be curious?
Even the middle-aged man found himself leaning over to get a better look.
“These banknotes are beautiful. Innkeeper, could you exchange some newer ones for me? I’d like to keep them as a collection.”
“This… our lord doesn’t allow that…”
“Innkeeper, you say nothing, and I say nothing. How would our lord ever find out? Isn’t that right?”
“Besides, everyone here uses these things, don’t they? If not, I can just ask someone else to exchange them for me.”
“Madam, please don’t put me in a difficult position. If you really like them, you can exchange them at the bank next door. As long as you don’t tell them what you intend to do with them, they won’t know. You can even ask for some newer ones.”
“All right, then. Innkeeper, prepare our rooms first.”
The woman handed him a one-liang silver ingot and said:
“Give me the change in the currency you use here.”
“All right.”
The innkeeper nodded and returned twelve yuan: one ten-yuan banknote and two one-yuan banknotes.
“Ha! Now they’re mine!”
The woman happily took the banknotes and examined them.
They really were beautiful.
The innkeeper took out a ledger and began writing in it.
The middle-aged man glanced at what he had written and was surprised once again.
“Innkeeper, what kind of writing is that? I’ve never seen it before.”
“Oh, this is a script invented by our lord. It’s simple and practical, clear and easy to understand. Ever since I learned to write this way, keeping accounts has been much easier than before.”
The middle-aged man had wanted to ask how those characters were used, but he was no ordinary man.
He was a juren, a successful candidate in the imperial examinations.
Asking a mere innkeeper from a small inn for advice was simply too difficult for him to accept.
So he could only conceal his curiosity by saying:
“Your lord is an extraordinary person. I would truly like to meet him.”
The innkeeper replied proudly:
“Our lord really is incredible. He’s practically a divine man. However, if you want to meet him, I’m afraid it’ll be quite difficult. Our lord normally doesn’t receive visitors.”
“He can leave everything in the hands of his maids. They can handle everything perfectly. Our village chief, Miss Jinyi, was also a maid whom our lord bought back in the day.”
“Miss Jinxiu was one as well. Just look at how large this street is, and we even have a bank now. Miss Jinxiu takes care of everything, and she does an impeccable job.”
“Oh, and there are also Miss Jinwen and Miss Jinyuan. They’re all extraordinary. They’re the four golden flowers of our village. And our lord… well, he has the ability to turn stone into gold.”
The middle-aged man nodded.
Although he felt that the innkeeper was exaggerating somewhat, that mysterious lord was still clearly an extraordinary person.
He didn’t dare ask the innkeeper himself, but his son took the initiative.
“Innkeeper, could you teach me how to write those characters?”
“Uh… Young Master, are you joking?”
“No. Could you really teach me? Has your lord said that this can’t be taught to other people?”
“Not at all. Our lord doesn’t mind. Besides, our village chief has also said that whenever possible, we should spread the good things from the village. Helping more people benefit from them is also a way of doing good.”
For the first time, the middle-aged man showed genuine respect.
“Your village chief is truly a great benefactor, and she knows how to see the bigger picture. I really want to meet her.”
“Meeting our lord isn’t easy, but meeting the village chief is.”
“Let’s leave that for later. First, I’ll take our distinguished guests to their rooms. Young Master, if you’re interested in this writing system, you can come with me and I’ll teach you in a little while. It’s not too difficult to learn enough of it to keep accounts.”