Chapter 39: Land division controversy

“All the land is measured according to the order registered in the village book, with rich and poor soil already divided. Even within the fertile plots, there are some slightly poorer patches; and within the poor plots, there are some that are a bit richer.

Wasteland is not land that’s been well managed by anyone, so it’s impossible for every single mu and li to be perfectly even in fertility. At most, the differences are minor. If you tend the land carefully, it’ll all turn out good in the end. Whatever sort of land is measured out for everyone, that’s what it is—don’t start nitpicking.”

Chen Yushun unfolded the paper in his hand and called out, “Those who’ve acquired the wasteland and fertile land: Jiang Danian, Chen Huhu, Xu Yang…”

Before long, Kang He heard his own family’s name called among the wastelands.

Standing in the crowd, Kang He asked Fan Father, “Dad, is this order correct?”

“I remember the first name registered in the village book was Wang San’er, so there’s no mistake.”

Kang He nodded. Today, aside from seeing the important figure from the village, Chen Yushun, he also spotted three other people with quite some presence.

Ordinary farmers, whether buying land to be measured or just joining the excitement, were all dressed in rough, old clothes.

Only those three were dressed in fine cloth, their eyes especially shrewd—quite different from the usual villagers.

Kang He quietly asked Fan Jing, wanting to recognize these people.

“The one leaning on a cane is surnamed Qian. In the village, everyone calls him Qian Ye. My generation has to call him Grandpa Qian. He’s the longest-serving Xiangzhang in the village—each term is five years, and he’s served three terms, a total of fifteen years. He’s also the Li Zheng who’s held the position the longest in our village. Everyone respects him greatly. Even after stepping down, he still holds a lot of sway here. If the new Xiangzhang can’t handle something, they’ll always come to him for advice.”

Fan Jing continued, “The middle-aged man next to him, with small eyes and a high nose, is called Kong Baocheng. The Kong Family is one of the wealthiest in the village. That Qingwa Mansion in the east of the village is theirs. Not only do they have lots of farmland here, but they also own shops and houses in The Town.”

Kang He was just about to ask who the young man standing up high with his arms folded was, when—by chance—that man also looked his way.

Their eyes met, and unexpectedly, the young man jumped down from the slope and walked straight towards Kang He.

“Are you Kang from the Fan Family?”

Kang He was surprised this person recognized him and replied, “I am. You look familiar, but I don’t think we’ve met. May I ask which family you’re from in the village?”

The young man, called Xu Yang, had a proper and honest look. He glanced at Fan Jing, and seeing that Fan Jing didn’t seem inclined to introduce him, he introduced himself, “I’m Xu Yang, born and raised in this village. No wonder Kang brother hasn’t met me—on the day of Jing-ge’s wedding banquet, I was away in another village and didn’t make it back in time.”

He was quite talkative: “I should’ve met Jing-ge’s new husband earlier, but my grandfather wasn’t feeling well lately, so I had to take care of him for a few days and didn’t have much free time.”

“So that’s how it is,” Kang He said. “Da Jing and I are often up in the Mountain, not spending much time in the village. Today, I just came to join the fun and finally got to meet everyone.”

Xu Yang smiled and nodded, then turned to the silent Fan Jing. “Jing-ge, you’ve gotten married, but you’re still as quiet as ever.”

His eyes flickered mischievously. “You didn’t even let me know about your wedding. If you’d told me, I could’ve rearranged my schedule and come for the feast. After all, didn’t we play at being husband and wife when we were kids?”

As he spoke, Xu Yang put on a woeful expression: “Now you’ve really settled down, found yourself a new spouse, and don’t care about your old playmate’s tears at all~”

Kang He raised an eyebrow at those words and couldn’t help glancing at Fan Jing.

He thought to himself, Fan Jing always seems so honest and reserved, but even his ‘old sweetheart’ can joke like this.

Look at that—he’s quite the little gentleman.

Fan Jing didn’t bother with Xu Yang, letting him chatter away. When he’d said enough, he shut up on his own.

Noticing Kang He’s gaze, Fan Jing’s brows furrowed. He wondered why Xu Yang was so talkative today.

He silently reached for the knife at his waist, aiming it at the glib Xu Yang.

“Hey, hey! I was just joking, just joking!” Xu Yang cried, hurriedly darting behind Kang He, afraid Fan Jing wasn’t entirely bluffing.

Kang He felt a sense of déjà vu, like he’d seen this behavior in someone before. Suddenly, he recalled Fan Jing’s cousin, Fan Xin.

He’d heard from Chen Shi that Fan Jing used to beat up Fan Xin so much that, even as a grown man, Fan Xin still had to avoid him.

Seeing Xu Yang act the same way, Kang He couldn’t help but find it amusing. He reached out and grabbed Fan Jing’s arm.

“Even if you were ‘husband and wife’ once, how can you raise your hand against your own family?”

Xu Yang heard Kang He say this, widened his eyes at him, and thought, Just shut up—if you get beaten, it’ll be your own fault.

But then he saw Fan Jing frown, put the knife back in its sheath, and explain, “Nothing happened.”

“It’s nothing, I don’t feel jealous at all.”

Xu Yang gave Kang He a thumbs-up. “A real man! Truly magnanimous!”

“Who’s been eating bewitching soup?”

Kang He laughed, “Maybe we’ve all had a little taste.”

Xu Yang thought Kang He wasn’t just good-looking, but also unexpectedly easy to get along with.

He’d never met the Fan Family’s new son-in-law before—Fan Jing had always kept him under wraps.

In these times, for a man to marry into another family was rare, especially for the Fan Family, who weren’t well-off. Xu Yang had figured Fan Jing’s husband probably wouldn’t be anything special.

He’d expected the newcomer to be dull and clumsy. When he saw Fan Jing, he’d wanted to say hello, but then he spotted the unfamiliar but strikingly handsome man beside him. For a moment, he wasn’t sure if this was Fan Jing’s chosen husband.

But seeing how close the two were, always talking together, he secretly observed them for a while. They hadn’t stopped chatting.

Fan Jing was usually so taciturn he could barely utter a word, yet now he was chatting so amiably—it was almost unrecognizable.

After a few words, Xu Yang could tell they were truly affectionate. He was happy for Fan Jing, but also felt an indescribable sense of surprise.

He’d always thought Fan Jing would never harbor feelings for another man.

Back when he and Fan Xin studied together in the Shuxue, every time Fan Xin got beaten by Fan Jing, he didn’t dare cry at home—he’d sneak over to Xu Yang’s house to cry it out.

If he cried at home, his family would ask questions, and if they found out it was Fan Jing who hit him, there’d be another fight.

Once, because of their scuffle, the two branches of the Fan Family had a big falling out and ended up splitting the family. Fan Xin always felt it was his fault for causing the rift, and it weighed on him.

He was afraid his mother and aunt would argue if they found out Fan Jing hit him.

Xu Yang remembered Fan Xin crying with snot and tears, a big lump on his head. Xu Yang felt bad and promised to get revenge for him.

After class, the two of them marched off to confront Fan Jing, but the result was Fan Xin getting another lump on his head and Xu Yang going home with a bloody nose.

They never dared provoke Fan Jing again, but still held a grudge.

During class, while others napped, the two of them would gossip about Fan Jing, saying he was so fierce and domineering that no man would ever want him, and he’d have to spend his life as an old bachelor.

But as they grew up, Fan Jing really didn’t get married, and his cold temperament kept everyone at arm’s length. They worried he’d be alone forever.

He and Fan Xin started to feel guilty, wondering if their childhood curses had come true, so they even made offerings at the temple, praying that Fan Jing wouldn’t end up alone.

They panicked and tried matchmaking for him, even bringing a dashing classmate to parade in front of Fan Jing, hoping to catch his eye.

But Fan Jing seemed completely uninterested, never even lifting his eyelids, only fussing over his bow.

Later, there was a match with someone surnamed Qin—a fellow hunter, which should’ve been a good match, but Fan Jing didn’t seem any warmer to him.

Xu Yang thought, Maybe Fan Jing just wouldn’t ever get close to a man.

Maybe he was meant to be born a man, but the goddess of childbirth made a mistake and he ended up as a little brother instead.

But, just like when they were kids and he thought he could take on Fan Jing and ended up getting beaten, he was wrong again.

“Eat more, Da Jing. Always beating people up isn’t the way.”

Kang He chuckled.

He was about to say more when someone called out, “Xu Yang, it’s time to measure your land! Come over and have a look!”

“Alright, coming!” Xu Yang hadn’t finished chatting with the two, but turned to Kang He and said, “Kang brother, I’ll go now. Come to my place for a drink sometime.”

Kang He replied, “Sure thing. Go ahead, Xu-ge, we’ll catch up when you’re free.”

There were quite a few families buying land—some three mu, some five, and with fertile and poor land divided, everyone wanted to get their share quickly. Chen Yushun called for some strong laborers to help measure and divide the land.

Kang He had wanted to ask Fan Jing who exactly Xu Yang was, but soon enough, the Fan Family’s plot was being measured among the poor land, so he just went to watch.

The ones measuring were two men from the village, both dark and robust.

One was called Ma Zi, whose face was pockmarked as his name suggested; the other was called Da Zhuang, wearing a cross-collared long hemp robe that didn’t seem to fit him, hanging loose and baggy.

Kang He recognized them from the day in the Mountain when they helped carry Sun Dadan—Chen Yushun had called on these two, and they’d always been quick to help, almost like Chen Yushun’s house servants.

The wasteland was measured using a rope. They’d pull a section taut, mark it, and then measure from the mark.

Several pairs of eyes watched closely the whole time. Ma Zi and Da Zhuang measured carefully, strictly following the marks, not pulling the rope too tight or too loose.

The measuring rope had been prepared ahead of time—a roll exactly one zhang long.

If the rope was pulled too tight, you’d end up measuring less land; if too loose, you’d measure more. With so many elders and Yiren present, and everyone watching, no one dared be obvious about cheating.

If you weren’t blatant about it, you couldn’t really cheat much anyway—the margin of error was tiny.

The rope wasn’t very long, so measuring one mu and five fen of land took a while.

One measurement didn’t count—they had to measure again. If the second round’s final position was more than two fingers’ width off from the first, they’d measure a third time.

Once the measurements matched, they’d set up the boundary marker.

During this, Fan Father paced back and forth over the newly marked land.

Kang He saw Fan Father frowning deeply and, walking over with Fan Jing, quietly asked, “Dad, is something wrong?”

“I just feel it’s too narrow.”

Kang He frowned at this. “You mean they measured our land short? But both times, the difference was less than two fingers, and we watched the whole time—nothing seemed off.”

Fan Father was uneasy too, but as Kang He said, they’d watched the whole process and seen no issues.

He said, “I can’t say for sure, but after so many years farming, my eyes are pretty accurate. I can tell how much land there is at a glance. I’d say we’re short by at least six li.”

One mu is ten fen, one fen is ten li. Those six li were more than half a fen.

At the price for poor land—eight strings of cash per mu—being short six li meant losing 480 coins!

Kang He did a quick calculation and realized it was a big deal.

“How about we measure it again?”

Fan Father had the same idea, so the two were about to call Ma Zi and Da Zhuang to remeasure, but just as they were about to step forward, Kang He stopped Fan Father.

He whispered a few words to him, and Fan Father nodded and walked away, leaving Kang He to call Ma Zi and Da Zhuang to measure again.

“What’s wrong?” Ma Zi asked, showing some impatience at Kang He’s request.

Kang He stayed polite. “Measuring and marking land is a big deal. Our family just wants to be extra sure—it’d put our minds at ease to measure once more.”

Ma Zi cut straight to the point, slurring his words, “Every family wishes they could get a bit more land. Just looking with the naked eye, everyone thinks their plot is too small! If there’s a real difference, I’ll measure it three or five times for you, but twice now and not even a chi of difference—others had a bigger difference the first two times and didn’t complain. Only your family keeps making a fuss even with no difference! Why not just take a whole day and measure only your land!” @无限好文，尽在晋江文学城

Kang He listened to Ma Zi’s words—he wasn’t entirely wrong.

A mu of land is over 400 square meters. It’s hard to spot a few li’s difference by eye. Maybe Fan Father just loved the new land and thought it should be more.

If Ma Zi had spoken kindly, saying both times were fine and measuring again would be a hassle, Kang He might’ve just thought Fan Father was overthinking it.

But Ma Zi’s scolding made Kang He feel something was wrong.

He wasn’t close to Ma Zi or Da Zhuang, but on the day they’d carried Sun Dadan from the Mountain, they’d been polite to each other.

He and Fan Jing hadn’t offended them, and even if measuring again was a bother, he could understand—but this was more than just impatience.

Seeing their rudeness, Kang He dropped his polite tone and toughened up, “If there’s no problem, what’s the harm in measuring again?”

Chen Shi saw Kang He insist and didn’t know what was wrong, but still spoke up for her family, “That’s right. If you’re tired of it, we can measure ourselves with you watching!”

Hearing the argument, other villagers came over to watch.

Ma Zi raised his voice, “Let you measure it yourself? You sure know how to scheme. I just ask: if it turns out there’s no problem, who’s responsible for the wasted time?”

Kang He replied, “If there’s no issue, I’ll treat you both and the others who were delayed to tea and apologize.”

“We don’t need your cup of tea. Fine, measure again—let everyone see how troublesome you are!” Ma Zi said coldly, then he and Da Zhuang started to measure again.

The villagers craned their necks to watch.

Someone muttered, “The Fan Family just bought a bit more land, what’s the big deal? Afraid we won’t know they bought land, making such a fuss.”

Kang He heard it but didn’t argue or keep a close eye on Ma Zi and Da Zhuang this time. With so many watching, they wouldn’t dare cheat.

He just waited for Fan Father to return.

Fan Shoushan came running back as the land was almost finished being measured. He told Fan Jing and Kang He, “All the other plots measured by them are fine—only ours isn’t right!”

Kang He exchanged a glance with Fan Jing. Neither said anything, just watched the measuring.

Fan Father’s brow was so tight it could catch flies. He knew saying this would make people think he was being difficult.

All the other plots were fine—only theirs had a problem. Wasn’t that just a case of ‘parental bias’? But he was just telling the truth.

Under a dozen pairs of eyes, Ma Zi and Da Zhuang measured carefully again, and the final position was less than a finger’s width different from before.

Ma Zi called out, “Everyone, come and see—did I and Da Zhuang measure even a finger’s worth wrong?

We did it right, but they still accuse us of cheating them. If the whole village can’t be trusted, then I don’t dare work for their family again!

What else do you want? Wasting everyone’s time like this!”

“Fan Family, you’re being unreasonable. Da Zhuang and Ma Zi did it right—making them measure over and over in this weather, sweating buckets.”

“Yeah, why would they measure it wrong for you? It’s not like they get to keep the extra.”

Everyone chimed in, making Fan Father blush with embarrassment. Chen Shi, feeling guilty, wanted to argue but didn’t have the energy.

“Alright, now I’m going to set the boundary stone. If you keep arguing, I won’t agree to it anymore.”

At this moment, everyone’s attention was on Ma Zi. Suddenly, Fan Jing stepped forward and grabbed Da Zhuang, who had been fidgeting.

“Fan Jing, have you no shame, sticking your hand into my clothes!”

Everyone turned to look and saw Fan Jing pull a roll of measuring rope out from Da Zhuang’s loose robe.

Da Zhuang panicked and tried to grab it back, but Fan Jing snatched the other rope from his hand and tripped him to the ground.

Fan Jing coldly said, “Get lost,” and handed the ropes to Kang He.

“What’s going on?” someone asked.

Kang He didn’t rush to answer. He unrolled the two ropes and compared them—one was clearly shorter.

The shorter one was the one Da Zhuang had just used for measuring, while the longer one had been hidden in his clothes.

“Villagers, I don’t know why Da Zhuang brought two ropes to measure land today. If it was in case one broke, that’s fine, but why use one and hide the other? And why are the two ropes different lengths? Did one break and he didn’t notice?”

“If it broke, why use the broken one instead of the normal one?”

Even the usually sharp-tongued Ma Zi was speechless. Da Zhuang stammered, “It was… just a mix-up.”

“Three times, and you mixed it up every time?”

Fan Father’s eyes widened. He’d only paid attention to the boundary marks, never thinking about the ropes.

The ropes belonged to the village, distributed by Chen Yushun. He’d seen everyone using the same rope at first, so he hadn’t thought they’d switch ropes at his family’s turn.

“They’re cheating us! Using a fake rope to measure our land!” Chen Sanfang, finally having the upper hand, slapped her thigh and called out for Grandpa Qian and Kong Baocheng to stand up for her family.

The other measuring teams stopped and rushed over to see what happened.

Chen Yushun also came over.

Hearing the whole story, Xu Yang brought over the rope used for measuring the fertile land and compared it with Da Zhuang’s two ropes—one matched, the other was clearly shorter.

The families whose land had already been measured were shocked, never expecting this kind of trick. They clamored to remeasure with the correct rope, and sure enough, as Fan Shoushan had said, all the other plots were fine—only the Fan Family’s was off by seven li.

Xu Yang looked at Chen Yushun and said, “This was intentional.”

Qian Ye and Kong Baocheng said nothing. Though both were influential in the village, with the official Xiangzhang Chen Yushun present, it wasn’t their place to speak.

Everyone looked to Chen Yushun. Under their gaze, Chen Yushun put on a stern face and said with authority:

“How could you two do such a thing! So careless—mixing up the measuring ropes! You weren’t careful at all. Even if you measured wrong, it’s not like you’d get the land yourselves. Hurry up and apologize to Brother Fan and his family, and bring gifts to their home to make amends!”

Kang He smiled quietly. By saying this, Chen Yushun was trying to frame it as an accident.

Seeing Chen Yushun’s expression, Kang He was even more certain he was behind this.

He’d originally listened to Fan Father and didn’t want to offend Chen Yushun, thinking the Xiangzhang was a fair man and you had to bow your head under someone else’s roof.

But bowing hadn’t brought peace—just made them easier to bully, suffering loss after loss.

If it’s come to this, there’s no point in just swallowing the insult.

Kang He said, “If it was just carelessness, Da Zhuang is usually so quick and capable with his work. Yet today, running around the fields, he wore a loose robe that didn’t fit, which doesn’t seem like someone who’d just mix up the ropes by accident. @无限好文，尽在晋江文学城

But the Li Zheng is right—if Da Zhuang and Ma Zi purposely measured wrong, it’s not like the land would end up in their own hands. Why would they go out of their way to do something that hurts others but doesn’t benefit themselves?

Unless we’ve offended the two of you somehow, but our Fan Family is honest and upright—we’ve never wronged you~”

As Kang He spoke, Chen Yushun’s face turned blue.

Everyone in the village knew how, earlier that month, Ren Shi had driven the Fan Family away from Sun Dadan’s mourning hall.

After Kang He’s words, everyone couldn’t help but wonder who had put Ma Zi and Da Zhuang up to this.

Everyone knew those two were close to Chen Yushun, always in and out of his house like adopted sons.

Da Zhuang, seeing how things were going, stubbornly said, “It has nothing to do with the Xiangzhang! I just don’t like your family—why should you get so much land!”

As soon as he said this, everyone fell silent.

Xu Yang, half-smiling, fanned the flames, “Da Zhuang, no one said it was the Xiangzhang’s doing. If you’re upset about the Fan Family buying so much land, there are plenty of others who bought more—why didn’t you have a problem with them?”

Da Zhuang was left speechless. Ma Zi just shut his mouth, thinking, How could anyone be so stupid as to say that out loud?

Chen Yushun had tried to smooth things over, but now it had all blown up in his face.

Suppressing his anger, he pretended not to hear what was just said and made a firm decision, “Da Zhuang is not to measure land for the villagers anymore, nor handle any village affairs in the future! As fellow villagers, we should be united, not doing things that benefit outsiders!”

“I’ll personally remeasure the Fan Family’s land,” Chen Yushun said, putting on a friendly face to the Fan Family. “This almost caused your family a loss, and as Li Zheng, it’s my fault for not assigning the right people. I’ll make it up to you—one of my fertile plots at Zao’er Water will be given to your family to farm!”

Kang He would never accept this. If his family took Chen Yushun’s land, what was originally their grievance would turn into a favor, and people would start saying they’d profited.

Then everyone would praise Chen Yushun as fair and just.

“How could we accept that? It was just a mistake—remeasure and it’ll be fine. It’s not like the Li Zheng told Da Zhuang to do this. If we take your land, people might think it was your fault.”

Chen Yushun looked at Kang He, holding his gaze for a moment, then forced a smile. “You’re right, Xiao Kang. I meant no harm, just didn’t want you to suffer a loss.”

“With a just Xiangzhang like you, how could we suffer?” Kang He said. “Let the two brothers explain in front of the elders and villagers why there were two ropes, why they measured wrong, and apologize. Then the matter can be put to rest.”

Everyone was stunned.

Apologizing in front of the whole village was already humiliating enough, but having to explain the whole thing? That was like putting them on the spot.

Fan Shoushan thought this was a bit much and tugged at Kang He.

But Kang He refused to back down. Qian Ye thought it was a good chance to set an example and nodded in agreement.

Chen Yushun, with no other choice, had to preside over the matter.

After this incident, everyone in the village said the Fan Family’s new son-in-law was really tough—not someone who’d let things slide.

If Fan Jing was domineering, his husband was even more so!