The Little Life of a Big Landlord

Chapter 79 Trouble

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The Yingning Hotel's branch in Qinhuangdao is located in the development zone. Including the restaurant and kitchen, it only covers an area of ​​300 square meters, so it can only be considered a small shop.

Today is October 8th, Friday. The next day is the weekend. Universities and state-owned enterprises will have a holiday in the afternoon. Enterprise employees usually have families and jobs, but it's different for college students... Every evening, college students will go out in groups to find food and drinks to improve their lives.

"Hey, sir, four crabs, please. They have to be alive, or I won't pay..." A young man in a suit walked in with three other young men dressed like students.

"Alright, almost done..." The chef immediately took out four large, icy crabs from the transparent glass box placed in the center of the room.

"Hey, sir, you've got it wrong, haven't you? I meant live crabs, not frozen ones." The young man in the suit immediately objected.

"This is alive..." the chef said with a mysterious smile.

"..." The young man in the suit blinked. "I admit, I'm not an expert on eating crabs, but I can tell if a crab is dead or alive. Your crab seems to be emitting some cold air, doesn't it?"

"This place is a scam, let's go to another one..."

"They're so blatantly scamming people, they might even be a shady business. Luckily we haven't done anything yet, let's get out of here..."

"that is……"

The three young men dressed as students also chimed in.

"How about we make a bet? If these crabs are dead, this meal is on you. Order whatever you want. If they're alive, you should bring your friends to our shop more often... How about that?" The chef smiled mysteriously.

"Okay!" The young man in the suit nodded without hesitation.

"Okay, it's a deal. Xiao Zhang, bring a basin of warm water..." the kitchen chef said loudly.

"No way? Does it come back to life after thawing?" The young man in the suit felt that this person was really unreliable. There are plenty of frozen seafoods sold in the market, and I've never seen any frozen seafood come back to life after thawing.

The three young men dressed as students also looked on incredulously.

"Just you wait and see," the chef said with a confident smile.

The warm water was brought over, and the chef threw all four large crabs into it. Seeing the chef's confident demeanor, the four young men were a little unsure and all crowded around to watch. After all, modern technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, and they never know when they might become ignorant country bumpkins.

The chill emanating from the crabs gradually dissipated, and the warm water quickly cooled down. Suddenly, one crab's eyes moved, and then its eight legs and a pair of claws also began to move, baring its teeth and claws as it rampaged wildly in the basin, just as if it had just been caught. The other three crabs also suddenly started moving, waving their claws and rampaging wildly in the basin.

"How about it? Are you convinced yet?" The chef glanced smugly at the four young men.

The four young men were completely stunned. Wasn't this too strange? How could a crab that was frozen solid come back to life after being gently placed in warm water?

"Hey! Young man, do you still want to eat? If not, I'll freeze them..." The chef nudged the young man in the suit with his elbow.

"Impossible, this doesn't conform to scientific evidence..." The young man in the suit muttered to himself, reaching out to touch the crabs in the basin. Of course, in his shock, he forgot that crabs shouldn't be touched casually, especially crabs with intact claws.

"Ouch..." The young man in the suit let out a scream.

"What happened?" At this moment, a middle-aged woman walked in from outside. She was not beautiful, but she had a lot of authority.

Then, several more women came in, one of whom was holding a little boy's hand.

"Boss... Boss?" The kitchen chef's eyes widened the moment he saw the middle-aged woman who walked in first, and he stammered in surprise.

The visitors were Zhang Shufang and Zhang Yingning, who had come to Qinhuangdao for sightseeing. Old Yang was driving, and he was fast and steady. They took the highway and arrived in Qinhuangdao by evening, which was almost as fast as a high-speed train.

"What's going on?" Zhang Yingning asked, her brows furrowed and her face frosty.

"It was this young man who insisted on touching the crab's claws and got pinched by the crab." The chef was sweating profusely.

"I heard the screams from far away. If people didn't know better, they would think we were running a shady business and beating up our customers." Zhang Yingning's face darkened.

"Yes, yes, boss, there will definitely not be a next time..." the chef assured him repeatedly.

"Okay! Arrange a table for us, pick the best banquet table, I need to entertain important guests..." Zhang Yingning said.

"Right away, right away..." The chef nodded hurriedly.

"Master, please tell me how you freeze crabs! This is a major discovery! If we use this method to freeze critically injured patients, their blood won't flow, and then we can perform surgery. The success rate will increase by at least fifty percent. This is a great deed that will bring good karma! You must support it..." The young man in the suit grabbed the chef's arm excitedly and said with great joy.

"Not only can it increase the success rate of surgery, but if some serious diseases cannot be cured by modern medicine, the patient can be frozen and then thawed for treatment when medicine develops to the point where it can overcome the problem..." a young man dressed as a student said excitedly.

"In theory, humans will never die from disease again..."

"Fantastic! We must overcome this challenge; it's a miracle in the history of human medicine..."

The other two young men also looked excited and delighted.

"Crazy..." Zhang Fenghuang glanced at the four people and gave a very fair assessment.

"He's mentally unstable." Liu Lili nodded in agreement.

"Legend has it that many scientists are mentally ill, but not everyone who is mentally ill is a scientist," Liu Yun said.

"These children are so pitiful..." Zhang Shufang shook her head and said.

The fire spread like wildfire overnight, especially in universities that emphasize academic research. The school's website and forums were filled with posts about the frozen crabs from Yingning Hotel. This led to the "Crab Gate" incident, and Yingning Hotel became a household name in Qinhuangdao overnight. Yingning Hotel became a sensation in Qinhuangdao as a result. Of course, that's another story.

The windows of the cabin were open, and a moist breeze blew in, carrying a faint floral fragrance.

A wolf-skin rug was laid on the floor. Yang Ming leaned against a quilt, lying comfortably on it, with a thin blanket draped over him. Wei Qingqing's face was flushed, and she nestled lazily in his arms like a sleeping kitten.

"Qingqing, I'm planning to expand our greenhouse a bit more. What do you think?" Yang Ming said.

"Why did you suddenly decide to expand?" Wei Qingqing asked lazily.

"I ran into Uncle Dabao when I came out of Aunt Liu's house today. Uncle Dabao said that Aunt Liu's family is not planning to farm their land anymore, and some people in the village have their eyes on it. They want him to help them ask around and see if they can lease it. I think this is a good idea. Once we expand the scale of the greenhouse to a certain extent, the source of our vegetables will not arouse suspicion. In fact, we can just sell the vegetables from the greenhouse," Yang Ming said.

"You want to lease Liu's land?"

"Sister Liu's land has probably already been leased out. I'm thinking of leasing out the land in front of our house. There's a pretty big piece of wasteland there. If we lease it out, it'll be easier to manage," Yang Ming said.

"Hmm! You're the head of the household, I'll listen to you..." Wei Qingqing said lazily.

"I'm also thinking of building a fishpond to raise fish, what do you think?" Yang Ming asked again.

"Hmm, you decide..." Wei Qingqing was a little tired, her eyes were almost closed, and she rubbed her smooth cheek against Yang Ming's chest as she spoke.

"I've already chosen the location. It's in the pool next to the hot spring. The water there is flowing. As long as we put a net at the outlet, the fish fry won't be able to escape," Yang Ming said.

"Hmm..." Wei Qingqing's voice was very soft.

"Alright, alright, go to sleep..." Yang Ming turned to his side, pulled Wei Qingqing into his arms, and pulled the thin blanket up a little.

Wei Qingqing snuggled into Yang Ming's arms and fell into a sweet sleep, while Yang Ming focused his mind on the farm space.

The farm is thriving now. All kinds of crops are growing rapidly, and the mature crops are all stored in the warehouse. The livestock are growing at a speed that can be seen with the naked eye. The fruit trees are fragrant and full of fruit. After the fruit ripens, it is also stored in the warehouse. In the fish farm, the freshwater fish and shrimp have developed to a certain scale. The various seafood that was just harvested a few days ago has grown a lot in the past few days. In particular, several sharks have grown to a meter long and are bullying other fish all day long. They look quite fierce.

Yang Ming has stored up quite a few crops, especially soybeans and wheat, which are worth a lot in the trading system. However, he doesn't plan to sell them in the trading system because even if he sells them, the gold coins he gets won't upgrade the farm space. It's better to keep the grain in his hands. He can decide whether to eat it, sell it as seeds, plant it himself, or sell it in the trading system after going around in circles. He has more autonomy in all of these options.

Yang Ming thought for a moment and realized that it would be a waste to eat all these crops. He decided to use them as seeds and plant them once he leased the land, or sell them to the people in Zhengjia Village.

goo goo...

Yang Ming was thinking about something when a cooing sound suddenly rang out. Wei Qingqing, who had just fallen asleep, opened her eyes somewhat embarrassedly.

"Hehe, are you hungry? Let's go home and cook..." Yang Ming pinched her little nose.

"It's all your fault, you made me miss lunch and I'm so hungry..." Wei Qingqing said, her face flushed.

"Just say you want to slack off, I'll make you dinner..." Yang Ming said.

"Let's do it together..." Wei Qingqing said sweetly, holding Yang Ming's arm.

So the two of them got dressed and went home to cook dinner.

When I got home, a bunch of puppies wagged their tails and snorted as they came to greet me.

"Mom and Dad, you don't know, today when I told my friends about our trip at school, they were all so envious! So many kids surrounded me, asking if it was fun. Wang Pingping was almost driven crazy!" Xiao Bao was watching TV in the house when he saw his godparents come back. He immediately greeted them excitedly, gesturing with a big smile as he told them about the fun things that happened at school.

As the saying goes, wherever there are people, there is a world of its own, and the elementary school campus is no exception. Wang Pingping is Xiao Bao'er's rival at school.

"Really? Our little treasure is so amazing, but you can't bully your classmates..." Wei Qingqing bent down and pinched the little guy's nose.

"Bao'er is a good child, she doesn't bully others," Bao'er said with a beaming smile.

Dinner was rather light, since we'd been eating seafood for several days, and it was time to eat something light to cleanse our system.

Xiao Bao'er also planned to eat here, but just as they were about to start eating, Aunt Liu came over to call Bao'er home for dinner. Aunt Liu had let her daughter eat at her godfather's house because she was rushing to finish her clothes, but now that she wasn't in a hurry, she couldn't let her daughter keep bothering her. After all... she hadn't seen her daughter for several days and missed her terribly, so she wanted to have a good talk with her.

"Baby, come home for dinner. Mom made your favorite dishes..." Aunt Liu greeted Yang Ming and Wei Qingqing, pinching her daughter's little cheek.

"I want to eat at my godfather's house. Or, Mom, can you bring the dishes over and we can eat together?" Little Bao looked at the table full of light yet tempting dishes and found it hard to choose.

"Sister Liu, hurry up and bring out the dishes. Let us see what Xiao Bao'er's favorite dishes are. You mustn't be stingy, okay? You're rich now, you can't be stingy the richer you are, can you?" Wei Qingqing said with a smile.

"Exactly," Yang Ming added.

"You... okay, okay, I'll go get them right now..." Aunt Liu shook her head with a wry smile and turned to go back to her own home to get the dishes.

Aunt Liu and Liu Nannan brought over the food. It was Xiaobao's favorite dish, nothing special, just stir-fried eggs with wood ear mushrooms. The tender yellow eggs paired with the dark black wood ear mushrooms looked very appetizing.

"Aunt Liu, whose land is that wasteland in front of our house?" Yang Ming picked up a piece of stir-fried wood ear mushrooms and eggs; they were tender, crunchy, and perfectly seasoned.

"It belongs to the brigade. It used to belong to my former uncle's family. When he left, he returned the land to the brigade, and it's been lying fallow ever since," said Aunt Liu.

"Why hand over our own land?" Wei Qingqing asked, puzzled.

"Don't you understand? Back then, it wasn't like it is now. Farmers received government subsidies for planting crops. Back then, we had to pay grain taxes, and later there were three levies and five unified taxes," said Aunt Liu.

"So that's how it is?" Wei Qingqing nodded. "If that's the case, then it makes sense. The land is lying fallow, yet we have to pay taxes. It's really better to just hand over the land."

"By the way, why are you asking this? You're not interested in that piece of land, are you?" Aunt Liu asked.

"We want to lease that land and grow crops in greenhouses..." Yang Ming said.

"My land is idle. If you want to farm it, you can take it, but you'll have to give me the government compensation," said Aunt Liu.

"Your land hasn't been leased out?" Yang Ming asked, somewhat surprised.

"Don't you understand? You can't lease land to villagers, otherwise, they'll grow it and it'll be hard to explain later. It's fine if you don't have your household registration in the village, but if you dare to cheat me, Uncle Da Bao will fight you to the death," said Aunt Liu.

"That's right, this kind of thing always happens when land is leased out in the village. Something like this happened in our village before, and those two people were cousins," Liu Nannan added.

"Well, it's not really appropriate for us to lease your land, is it? After all, you refused the villagers..." Wei Qingqing said with some concern.

"What's the big deal? It's my land, I can lease it to whomever I want, why should I have to worry about what others think? I'm a widow, if I always have to look after what others think, how am I supposed to live?" Aunt Liu rolled her eyes.

"Alright, I'll lease your land then. However, I still want to lease this piece of wasteland in front of my house. After all, it's close to home and easy to manage," Yang Ming said.

"Nobody wants this land, otherwise it wouldn't be lying fallow. If you talk to Uncle Dabao about it, it'll definitely be settled," said Aunt Liu.

And so, the land lease was agreed upon.

The next morning, just as the sun was rising, the little rooster crowed loudly in its hoarse voice, which was still going through a vocal transition. Then, several little roosters led a group of little hens to the fields to catch insects to eat. The ducks and geese walked in a neat long line, waddling towards the village river. It is said that there are also duck and goose farmers in the village. Yang Ming's ducks and geese are the most robust and have now become the leaders of the duck and goose world in the village.

The puppies stretched and crawled out of their sleeping place, then wandered around the front and back of the house. After surveying their territory, the puppies scattered to find food. These puppies no longer needed to be fed; they would catch mice and moles in the fields and mountains to eat, but they never strayed too far from home.

The pigeons have already started incubating their second brood. The male pigeon flaps its wings, flies out of the east wing, and flies to the big depression to find food. Around eight or nine o'clock in the morning, the male pigeon will take over from the female pigeon and lie in the nest to incubate the eggs until four or five o'clock in the afternoon when the female pigeon takes over again.

Mimi led her six kittens and strolled leisurely in from outside the courtyard. They went into the west wing to sleep. Cats are nocturnal creatures, full of energy at night, but become lazy during the day.

Just as Mimi led the children into the west wing, Wangcai and his wife leisurely emerged from the east wing, climbed to the base of the fence, dug a large pit at the soft, damp base, and then squatted there to defecate. Glistening, emerald-green balls rolled into the pit, piling up. After they finished, the couple kicked their hind legs to fill the pit completely, then wriggled back into the east wing.

On the spacious earthen bed, a man and a woman slept in a large quilt. Beside them was a large black cat, completely black without a single stray hair. It was Miaomiao. Unlike Mimi, Miaomiao was more attached to home. Every night, it would curl up on the kang in the east room and sleep soundly. At most, it would go to the yard to catch a couple of mice to satisfy its craving.

"What are we doing today? Are we going to talk to Uncle Dabao about leasing land, or are we going to the county to register a clothing company?" Yang Ming asked.

"Go talk to Uncle Dabao about leasing the land. The clothing company thing isn't urgent..." Wei Qingqing shrank further into the quilt. In the morning, the quilt is the most memorable place; it's so comfortable to sleep in.

"That's right. A company can't be registered in a day or two, but time waits for no one. Let's quickly lease the land and plant the crops so we can catch the first winter wheat crop," Yang Ming said.

"You go cook first, then go find Uncle Dabao. I'm going to sleep a little longer. It's so comfortable in bed, I don't want to get up," Wei Qingqing said with a blissful expression.

"Okay, okay, okay."

Yang Ming quickly got dressed and went to the outer room to start washing the pot and cooking. The large pot was lit, and the heat entered the kang (heated brick bed), making Wei Qingqing sleep even more comfortably.

The land lease went smoothly. When Yang Ming arrived at Zheng Dabao's house, he told Zheng Dabao about his idea to lease land to expand the greenhouse. Before Zheng Dabao could even say anything, Aunt Dabao immediately agreed. "If the greenhouse expands, we'll definitely need to hire people, right? I'll put my son in there, and I'm sure Yang Ming will accept him. It's not about the 800 yuan a month salary; just the thought of 'earning a salary' makes it easier to find a wife."

The wasteland in front of Yang Ming's house was a good 10 mu (approximately 1.65 acres). On the other side was a small river that ran through the village and served as the village's irrigation source. Years ago, Zheng Yu pushed Zheng Da's son into the river in this very spot. Therefore, although the land in this area was quite fertile, no one wanted to lease it, especially families with children, who were strictly forbidden from playing there. It is said that in the countryside, there are certain beliefs about those who drown; the ghost of a drowned person will not be reincarnated unless it finds a substitute…

"This field is full of weeds, what should we do? Burn it or pull it up?" Standing at the edge of the field, looking at the endless yellow-green weeds, Wei Qingqing asked.

"We can't burn this. If we do, and it gets out of control, it'll spread and burn down the whole area. Burning down the village's fields is a minor issue; if we burn down the old forest, we'll be in jail," Yang Ming said.

"That makes sense? But I can't pull it out, I don't have that much stamina," Wei Qingqing said, trying to be cheeky.

"I won't pull them out either. Do you know what a machine is called a seed planter?" Yang Ming smiled mysteriously.

"A seed planter? Isn't it for planting seeds? Can it also pull weeds?" Wei Qingqing naturally thought of her own seed planter.

"Of course it can. When the planter is planting, it loosens the soil, which makes weeding much easier. We can even use a rake to scoop it up," Yang Ming said.

"Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up and install the seeder and plow the field." Wei Qingqing said, yawning, "I'm going back to my room for another nap."

"You're too lazy. Be careful your belly doesn't grow into a swimming ring," Yang Ming laughed.

"How annoying..." Wei Qingqing said, and went back to her room.

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(End of this chapter)