Chapter Ninety-One: Seizing the Land

"Yet what?" Bao Mingzhi asked tensely.

"I already told you, this plot is nothing special. If you end up dissatisfied later, you cannot back out," Lin Sangqian said.

Bao Mingzhi laughed as though he had just heard a joke. After a couple of chuckles, he said, "Rest assured. This land will surely bring out its greatest value in my hands!"

With such delicious melons already within reach, and he was only selling melon juice?

Truly, she was only a little girl. No matter how clever she might be, she had no real ability.

Just wait. Once he grew the melons, he would surely make his business even more prosperous.

Then Lu Chengren could weep all he liked inside Fuman Tavern!

Cash for goods, goods for cash. Lin Sangqian took Bao Mingzhi's one hundred taels of silver and handed over the deed.

She had bought the land for only ten taels, yet now she sold it for one hundred, and the other party had even asked for it himself.

What a bargain this deal was.

Lin Sangqian was pleased, and Bao Mingzhi was even happier.

He admired the deed for a long while. Suddenly remembering something, he tucked it away carefully, rubbed his hands together, and asked Lin Sangqian ingratiatingly, "Miss Lin, why don't we collaborate as well? You could sell your fried chicken in our tavern..."

He had long since had Wanhua's cooks try frying chicken, but no matter how they experimented, they could not make fried chicken identical to McCluck Chicken.

"No need," Lin Sangqian said indifferently. "This is my own business. I think it's better if I handle it myself."

Bao Mingzhi's expression darkened.

This damned girl had just earned one hundred taels from him, and yet she showed him not the slightest courtesy.

"Fine then. But you should think it over again. Working with me will definitely not make you suffer any loss."

Lin Sangqian smiled. "Very well, Shopkeeper Bao. Then we'll be taking our leave."

"Safe travels, Miss Lin."

As soon as Lin Sangqian left, Bao Mingzhi immediately called in a few workers and told them to go to another region to buy melon seeds.

He was dreaming of fortune, his mind filled with visions of his melons selling like wildfire.

...

Once they stepped out of Wanhua Tavern, Lin Wenyan finally let out a breath of relief.

"Little Sister, you're incredible!" he exclaimed. "You really got Bao Mingzhi to buy that plot of land, and at such a high price too! But..." He looked around in all directions. Seeing no one nearby, he lowered his voice. "Aren't you afraid that once he realizes it's not a good plot, he'll come looking for trouble?"

"What is there to fear? From start to finish, I never lied to him once," Lin Sangqian said with a smile. "I stressed again and again that the land wasn't any good, and I also told him that it wasn't the place I planned to use for growing melons. But he refused to believe me."

That could not be laid at her door.

Even if they ended up in court someday, Bao Mingzhi would not be able to point out any fault of hers.

"So, what do we do next?" Lin Wenyan asked expectantly.

After doing all this, Lin Sangqian surely had not only wanted Bao Mingzhi to buy her land at an inflated price.

"Next?" Lin Sangqian smiled wickedly. "We don't need to do anything. We'll just sit back and enjoy the show."

...

That evening, at Lin Jian Tong's home, the second branch of the Lin family.

Madam Lin took a sip of hot water, exhaled deeply, and said, "Why aren't you saying anything? What are you all doing, just sitting there in silence and staring at the ground?"

"Mother, if you ask me, the land that belongs to Third Brother's family should be given to you," Li Fulan said. "You are his mother! Supporting you is his duty, but what has he done for you all these years? So it is only right that the land be given to you."

"Li Fulan, shut your mouth!" Lai Ruyu immediately flew into a rage. "Don't think I don't know what you're plotting..."

Madam Lin was living with the second branch now. If that land went to Madam Lin, wouldn't it become the second branch's property?

"Enough! Say less," Lin Shengrong snapped at her.

"Big Brother, you want that land too, don't you?" Lin Jiantong said with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"The land is in town. If you want to cultivate it, you'd have to go back and forth to town every day. It's not very worthwhile," Lin Shengrong said coolly.

Though he said that, in truth he wanted it very badly.

Even if they did not grow anything on it, they could rent it out or sell it. That would work too.

"Since Big Brother doesn't want it, then give it to us," Li Fulan said.

"On what grounds!" Lai Ruyu was not having it. "We are the eldest branch! It should be given to us..."

"Enough!" Madam Lin roared. "Look at all of you! You're already fighting over it, and you haven't even gotten the land yet?"

The others froze, embarrassed.

Yes, they had not gotten the land yet. But they had already taken it for granted that it would be theirs...

"Whatever happens, we must get that land first," Madam Lin said viciously. "In any case, we absolutely cannot leave it to the third branch! Lin Hongda does not deserve it!"

Lin Hongda and his family moving to town had already left Madam Lin deeply displeased.

Unfortunately, she was old now. No matter how nimble her legs might once have been, she could not withstand running around all day, and town was not a place she knew. So she had never gone to town to make trouble for Lin Hongda's family.

But now, they had actually bought land?

Why? What right did Lin Hongda have to buy land? He ought to be poor and miserable for the rest of his life, unable to afford a meal, ruined by poverty to the end!

Madam Lin's thoughts were vicious.

When Li Fulan saw her like that, she felt a little afraid.

At times, Li Fulan truly felt that in Madam Lin's heart, Lin Hongda was not a son at all, but more like an enemy.

What deep hatred could there be between mother and son? She had heard that Lin Hongda had been abused by Madam Lin since he was little...

Forget it. What did that have to do with her?

"Mother, then what should we do?" Lai Ruyu asked. "We don't even know where the third branch is living now! Town isn't exactly small..."

"Do you know where that land is?" Madam Lin asked.

"I know!"

"Then we'll go make trouble at that plot! They bought the land—can they just leave it there and ignore it? We'll go there every day and cause a scene, so they can't work the land. Let's see what they do then!"

"Mother, what a brilliant idea!"

"Perfect. There isn't much work in the fields right now anyway. Tomorrow, we'll all go! Then we'll say the third branch is living well in town, eating and drinking their fill, while the rest of the family suffers. Let's see how others talk about them!" Lai Ruyu said gleefully.

Li Fulan initially thought this was not quite right, but then she thought about how the third branch had always been easy to bully. Even if they had become a little tougher now, they probably had not changed all that much, so she said nothing.

What mattered was that she wanted that land too badly.

The adults were discussing matters with great fervor. Lin Shuimei shrank into a corner, and after hesitating for quite a while, she finally said timidly, "Father, Mother, I think this won't work..."

"Go on! What do you know? You don't need to worry about this! You should be thinking about how to marry some rich man as soon as possible!" Lai Ruyu said impatiently.

Lin Shuimei immediately fell silent.

And yet, ever since the last time she had been played by Lin Sangqian and Lin Hongda, she understood that that family was not so easy to deal with now.

This time, would things really go as they wished?