Chapter 15: Tax Collection

For the next half month, Xu Qing's routine was extremely regular.

Every morning when the rooster crowed, he would arrive at the vegetable market before the old men and women to pick the freshest eggs and the warmest pig and duck blood.

After finishing the market and returning to the shop, besides chatting with neighbors, he would occasionally exchange business intelligence. After all, the businesses on this street had long formed an industrial chain invisibly. No matter which shop received a job, other shops had a chance to benefit.

Among them, the most notable were Old Man Hu's coffin shop at the head of the street and Young Brother Xu's mortuary shop at the end of the street.

One was responsible for making coffins, and the other was responsible for encoffining and funerals. As long as either of them had business, the others, whether it was the candle shop or the paper-craft shop, would definitely be able to have a sip of salty soup!

At night, Xu Qing would go to the backyard to swallow moonlight and yin energy using the methods in the Zombie Cultivation Scripture, refining zombie yin essence. Although the progress was steady, he could clearly feel his body evolving toward an Iron-Armored Wandering Corpse bit by bit.

During this period, Old Man Hu from the coffin shop also delivered the two raw wood coffins he had made to the shop.

Xu Qing planned to use one of these enlarged and widened coffins to store the transcended corpses, and the other as a wooden bed for processing corpses.

His business was still in the starting stage. First, his reputation hadn't spread, and second, his promotion wasn't in place. Except for reaching a cooperation with the government office, business in other places was hard to open up for a while.

During these days, while maintaining his cultivation, Xu Qing also gradually began to adapt to the rhythm of life in Linhe Ward.

His neighbor Wu Yaoxing was a capable person and even introduced him to a job of looking at feng shui and moving a grave. However, that grave was an old one. Not to mention the person in the coffin, even the coffin itself had been rotted by the rainwater that had seeped into the soil layer.

Xu Qing tried to summon the soul and transcend the dry bones, but he didn't even see a shadow of a soul.

He guessed that the owner of the dry bones had either returned to the underworld or had entered the netherworld to be reincarnated!

But fortunately, he earned a few taels of silver for the trip, so it wasn't a wasted effort.

Besides that, Xu Qing also heard some news about old acquaintances.

For example, Su Hongxiu, who left the Liu residence, once topped the list of visits to the brothels with her persona as a widow, briefly becoming the most famous person in Linhe Ward.

One can only say that in this day and age, any cat or dog can jump onto the table and steal a few bites of hot food.

Xu Qing had little interest in the widow role-playing game, but he was quite interested in the flirting supplies in high-end brothels.

Of course, some people with dirty minds might think these flirting supplies were things like bells, sheep-eye rings, jade rings, or prickly ash wood.

Xu Qing was not such a vulgar person!

What he was interested in were the "Floating Life Incense" lit in the Youlan Pavilion and the high-quality bayberry wax provided by the Cuiyun Building.

The former, Floating Life Incense, was very similar to the spiritual incense consumed by zombies, both containing earth-soul grass components, belonging to a substitute product.

Xu Qing even suspected that there were practitioners of the Yin Gate trade hidden in the Youlan Pavilion, or perhaps even something that wasn't human.

The latter, bayberry wax, was a candle made from high-quality bayberry fruit oil purchased in Luojing through special channels by the Cuiyun Building. Just passing by the Cuiyun Building, Xu Qing could smell the tempting oily wax scent!

This brothel street was simply a paradise for zombies to refresh their minds and relax their bodies!

It was even more exciting than dancing on a grave!

End of the first month.

This day, Xu Qing was sitting in the shop waiting for business as usual.

At noon, two well-dressed figures suddenly came to the shop, which had been quiet for most of the day.

Both of them wore black wide-sleeved shirts with round collars, red silk belts around their waists, and brass business licenses hanging on their sides.

government office runners usually wore narrow-sleeved shirts, and only clerical personnel wore wide sleeves. Looking at the business license, it clearly had the words "Tax Collection Envoy" engraved on it.

"Is the shopkeeper trying to be an official?"

As soon as the leading tax collector entered the shop, he saw Xu Qing sitting on a coffin and couldn't help but tease.

He didn't know that inside the coffin Xu Qing was sitting on, there was a corpse that had been treated with preservatives!

"I'm not sitting on a coffin, but suppressing it." Xu Qing smiled and stood up to welcome the guests, "What do the two guests need? I have funeral and burial services, encoffining and grave-moving, and..."

Before he could finish, the other tax collector frowned and said, "We are not here for those things. I ask you, have you paid the taxes from last year?"

"Last year? Taxes?" Xu Qing was surprised, "My small shop just opened. Where would there be taxes from last year to pay?"

"Don't play dumb with me. Before coming, I already inquired. You opened the shop here in the twelfth lunar month of last year, so you naturally have to make up the taxes for last year!"

"According to the quota, one business per person, everyone has to pay every year, so you need to make up two and a half taels of silver or two shi of rice in taxes."

As he spoke, the tax collector pointed outside the shop and reminded, "Prepare immediately. If you have rice, the carriage is outside. If you don't have rice right now, use two and a half taels of silver to pay."

Xu Qing was immediately unhappy when he heard this.

Commercial taxes had existed since ancient times. Taxes like rent, levies, and even mountain and swamp taxes, as well as miscellaneous taxes, were all within the scope of commercial tax collection.

Xu Qing knew this was the rule, and he had no opinion on the Tax Department coming to collect commercial taxes.

As the saying goes, follow the customs of the place. If the Tax Department asked him to pay taxes this year, he wouldn't say an extra word.

But the key was that these two tax collectors were not here to collect this year's taxes, but to demand last year's taxes from him...

"My lord, you just said it yourself. My shop only started operating in the twelfth lunar month of last year, which is only a month and a half ago. Is it a bit inappropriate for you to ask me for the taxes for the whole of last year?"

"If you think it's inappropriate, you don't have to pay. But if your shop is sealed later, don't regret it!"

No sooner had the other party finished speaking than the government office runners guarding outside the shop made a move to enter.

Seeing this, Xu Qing was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled, "I was just joking with the two lords. I am a good citizen of the Great Yong Dynasty, how could I evade taxes!"

"But I remember that the tax is only one shi of rice. Why is it two shi this time?"

The leading tax collector's expression softened slightly, and he explained, "There are many disaster victims fleeing here. The magistrate of Baisha County has ordered every household in Linhe Ward to share half a shi of rice to help the victims."

"What about the other half shi?"

"Where did the other half shi come from? Do you think there is no loss in transporting and distributing grain?"

Xu Qing understood instantly when he heard this.

This kind of door-to-door tax collection would directly tell you why they were collecting more. If it were at a fixed time and place, with a large number of people going to pay grain, there would be no explanation, and there would naturally be people checking the grain who would "sprinkle the top and kick the bucket" to make up for the so-called loss.

Taking a light breath, Xu Qing didn't say anything more and reached into his money bag to take out two and a half taels of silver.

Two taels were Green-Winged Cicada coins, and half a tael was ordinary silver fragments.

The Green-Winged Cicada coins were to make up for last year's taxes, and the half tael of silver was for the disaster victims who had fled here.

Watching the tax collectors leave, Xu Qing stood at the shop entrance, speechless for a long time.

His neighbor Wu Yaoxing walked over sighing and patted his shoulder, saying, "Don't take it too much to heart. If the money is gone, we can earn it again. If you want to blame someone, blame this world; it doesn't understand human nature!"

Xu Qing shook his head and said, "I don't feel bad. As long as the half tael of silver for the disaster victims can be put to real use, letting them have a hot meal and survive this cold month, that's fine."

Wu Yaoxing nodded, his brow relaxing, and said, "That's not bad. Speaking of which, you are still young. If you could be like my son, study hard, and don't need to be too powerful in the future, just pass the Licentiate exam. At that time, not only will you be exempt from taxes, but you won't have to kneel when you see those officials, and you'll have face when you speak..."

Licentiate?

Xu Qing's heart moved. Speaking of this, it seemed he could really do it!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 16 =====