Chapter 203

The agricultural-to-non-agricultural conversion of Laoyingzui Village was surprisingly smooth. Zhao Dequan was treating this matter as a great thing.

He, Zhao Dequan, could become a person who changed the history of Laoyingzui! This was what he loudly announced at the village meeting.

Historically, Laoyingzui had never had a person who ate imperial grain. This history would end in his, Zhao Dequan's, hands. From now on, Laoyingzui Village would not only have people who ate imperial grain, but every household would have one.

No one in Laoyingzui Village raised any objections. Having someone in the family who would soon eat state grain—for the people of Laoyingzui Village who had envied the status of city people for dozens of generations, this was the greatest happy event, an epoch-making happy event, a happy event of ancestors accumulating virtue. Some families even sent out wedding invitations, widely inviting relatives and friends to come home to drink wedding wine.

Yue Bai's status was no longer envied. Now every household had someone with the same status as her. Even so, the people of Laoyingzui Village showed even more respect to Yue Bai.

I was invited by Yuebai to drink wedding wine at Zhao the Half-Immortal's house in Laoyingzui.

Zhao the Half-Immortal could be considered a knowledgeable person. High officials and noble lords, commoners—he had seen all kinds of people and fooled all kinds of people. For thirty years, he had been the one looking at the geomancy for the people buried in the Laoyingzui cemetery, and for thirty years, he had been the one choosing the dates for families getting married in Laoyingzui Village.

Such a person, after seeing me, showed a humble smile for the first time and stretched out his trembling hands to shake mine.

Zhao the Half-Immortal had no sons at home, and his daughter was married outside the village. In this agricultural-to-non-agricultural conversion, according to age, neither of the couple was qualified to convert. Even if they were qualified, the nearly seventy-year-old Zhao the Half-Immortal didn't have the heart. He just wanted to convert his daughter's household registration, but the indicators were only for Laoyingzui villagers, and others were strictly forbidden to convert. Just as Zhao the Half-Immortal said his thoughts, Zhao Dequan waved his hand and refused righteously: "Uncle the Half-Immortal, matters of policy are politics. I am the village head and must be responsible for politics. Your daughter does not meet the requirements, so it is absolutely impossible."

Zhao the Half-Immortal was speechless with grief, so he had to lean on his crutches and lead his old wife to the township government to find me. After listening to his trembling narration, I called Yuebai over and instructed her to take Zhao the Half-Immortal to find Liu Hongyan, saying to use the surplus indicators in my hands to solve the household registration for Zhao the Half-Immortal's daughter.

After the indicators were implemented, the township Party committee held a meeting and distributed some of the indicators to township cadres as a benefit. Guo Wei and I each had five, and other cadres were distributed one to three according to their rank.

The surplus indicators I mentioned were the benefits distributed to me by the township government.

Zhao the Half-Immortal thanked me profusely and returned happily with his old wife. Looking at the backs of the two old people, a wave of sorrow surged in my heart. Could these agricultural-to-non-agricultural indicators really be considered eating state grain?

Yuebai said Zhao the Half-Immortal wanted to treat me to a meal and entrusted her to invite me.

I couldn't refuse, not because of Yue Bai, but because of the guilt hidden in the bottom of my heart.

As soon as I entered the village, I met fellow villagers along the way. Seeing me, they all nodded and bowed to say hello, and enthusiastically wanted to pull me to their homes to sit for a while, drink a cup of water, and chat.

I smiled and refused one by one, following Yuebai to Zhao the Half-Immortal's house.

Zhao the Half-Immortal used to tell fortunes in his early years, served as a village cadre in his middle years, and returned to his old profession in his later years. His family background was clearly better than others. But people who did his kind of work were called the "lower nine classes" in the world. People of the lower nine classes could support their families but could not make a fortune. This was a rule passed down by the ancestors of the industry. If this rule was broken, the light would be destitute, and the heavy would be extinct.

I didn't know if Zhao the Half-Immortal had broken the rules, but judging from the layout of his house, he was clearly not in the destitute category.

Zhao the Half-Immortal's house had a lot of cured chicken and fish, which was due to his geomancy work. There was a rule passed down by the ancestors of geomancy: any chicken, duck, fish, or meat used for sacrifice must be given to the geomancy master by the host. Zhao the Half-Immortal was the only one within fifty miles, so business was naturally prosperous. With so much chicken, duck, fish, and meat, the couple couldn't finish eating it, and even if they gave it to their daughter's family, they couldn't eat half of it, so they had to cure it. Under the eaves and on the beams, black cured meat was hanging everywhere.

A table full of cured meat and fish, but I had no appetite at all. I had been in Suxi Township for five years, did I not know his business?

I had to eat, even if it made me sick, I had to pretend to pick up chopsticks, taste each dish lightly, and concentrate on the white rice in the bowl.

Zhao the Half-Immortal and his wife called their daughter back. She was a round-waisted and fat woman. Her face was chubby, almost unable to see her eyes. Her mouth revealed buck teeth, and her thick lips couldn't cover her upper lip no matter what. However, she had a good head of hair, floating and elegant, hanging down to her waist.

Zhao the Half-Immortal asked his daughter to toast me, saying that he was the biological parent, and I was the reborn parent.

I was very embarrassed and didn't dare to speak. Zhao the Half-Immortal's daughter was clearly much older than me. How could she say I was the reborn parent?

I hurriedly stood up to take the wine from the woman's hand, held it with both hands, and said sincerely: "Big sister, I will drink your wine, but you must not listen to your father. I am younger than you, so logically speaking, I count as your younger brother. If big sister wants me to live a few more years, you must never mention these words again. It's killing me."

Just as my words fell, the woman very nimbly took over the conversation and said: "Township Head Chen, as long as you don't mind, I will be your big sister, and you will be my brother from now on. Whenever you need big sister, just say the word, I dare to climb a mountain of knives and enter a sea of fire."

I was extremely embarrassed. Eating a meal, I ended up with a big sister, and such an honorable big sister at that.

Looking sideways at Yue Bai, she was giggling, stepped on my foot lightly under the table, and a blush flew onto her face.

Before half the meal was eaten, Zhao Dequan rushed in and shouted at Zhao the Half-Immortal: "Uncle the Half-Immortal, you are not kind, treating people to dinner without calling me."

As he spoke, he found a place to sit down and loudly asked the Half-Immortal's daughter to bring wine.

Zhao the Half-Immortal had a dark face and didn't speak. Zhao Dequan pretended not to see it and still smiled and asked the woman for wine: "Sister, bring the wine, I'm here to accompany Township Head Chen."

Zhao the Half-Immortal finally couldn't help it and said: "Dequan, you can't drink this wine. This wine of mine is to entertain noble people. Are you a noble person to me now? Every household in the village has someone eating state grain. You bully your uncle and don't give me a government job quota. Your families all have state people, can't my Zhao family have one?"

Zhao Dequan giggled and said: "Uncle Half-Immortal, I've explained it to you. This is policy, it's politics, how can you play with it casually? It's not like a three-year-old child, peeing and mixing mud to build a house."

Zhao the Half-Immortal tapped the table with his chopsticks and said: "Dequan, in this world, good people get good rewards. I, old Zhao, don't take half a government job quota from your Laoyingzui Village, my girl can still eat state grain! You did this thing too ruthlessly. In the future, if I look at a grave site for you, I'm afraid I'll have to be careful."

Zhao Dequan was unhappy and said with a dark face: "Uncle Half-Immortal, you are cursing me to die. You still look at a grave site for me, will I die before you?"

Zhao the Half-Immortal squinted his eyes unfathomably and said slowly: "Man proposes, God disposes. Some things are heavenly secrets. Heavenly secrets cannot be leaked, right? If you break it, it may not be a good thing."

Zhao Dequan felt a numbness on his back and stopped shouting for wine. He turned to me and said: "Township Head Chen, I want to discuss something with you, see if it works?"

I smiled and said: "You speak."

Zhao Dequan touched his head and asked: "Everyone says that after eating state grain, the state will arrange work. If there is no work, what will you rely on to eat?"

I looked at him and didn't answer directly.

"Tell me, can these people who converted their status still be allocated land? If there is no work and no land, what will these people rely on?"

I said: "After agricultural-to-non-agricultural conversion, according to policy, there can be no more land."

Zhao Dequan looked at me in surprise: "Without land, will the state give work?"

I shook my head.

"Then converting status, isn't it converting oneself to death?"

"The status has changed, of course life has to change accordingly?"

"How to change? Change to not eating or drinking?"

I laughed. This question raised by Zhao Dequan was exactly the problem I was most worried about. The policy of agricultural-to-non-agricultural conversion was actually a policy that hurt heaven and reason, driving farmers away from the land and taking the land from the hands of farmers, regardless of whether they lived or died!

"Don't be anxious, finish the procedures first. In this world, there is no problem that cannot be solved, right?" I comforted him and handed him a piece of pig head meat, urging him to eat.

Zhao Dequan had no intention of eating at all. He thought for a long time and said: "It's better to solve this problem for us first, otherwise, when the time comes, there will be no land, and no one will care about work. How will these people live?"

I couldn't speak. Zhao Dequan didn't come to eat a free meal; he came with a purpose.

I looked at Yue Bai, and Yue Bai cleverly took over the conversation: "Dequan, since the government wants everyone to convert, there must be arrangements. After converting, at least you don't have to pay agricultural tax every year. Such a good thing, what else do you want?"

"Agricultural tax doesn't need to be paid, but the agricultural tax indicators set by the county haven't decreased. Won't others have to pay more to fill the hole?"

Zhao Dequan knew about the policy. His worry was exactly the thing that Guo Wei and I had discussed for several days without reaching a result.

"So, Laoyingzui doesn't want this opportunity?" Yue Bai pondered and said.

"It's not that, it's just that I have no bottom in my heart." Zhao Dequan didn't want to give up this opportunity.

"If you want to have a bottom, you have to do it first. If you feel it's not good later, it's not difficult to convert back to being a farmer." Yue Bai induced him: "In the future, when the government recruits workers, they will all look at the nature of the household registration first."