254 Land Rental Crisis (1)

It was almost the end of the year, and the young people who had gone out to work had returned one after another.

Many young people returned earlier than in previous years.

It was only because of the rental of land in the village.

The village committee was involved in the matter of renting land, but because of the villagers’ wishes, this matter was delayed until the end of the year. They would discuss it when the young people returned one after another.

As such, the negotiations could only be completed at the beginning of spring.

Gu Qingming took her uncle’s method. She could rent 200 acres of land separately and use 50 acres as a large shed. She needed to hire someone to build four large sheds for 200 acres of land.

This had to be done before spring. Otherwise, it would delay the spring seed.

The 200 acres of land were not in the same village but it was relatively simple to fix it.

These villagers’ land was not all in one piece. Gu Qingming’s uncles chose a piece of land that was 1.5 acres as the center. The surrounding 50 acres of land could be rented.

Basically, every family had some of these 50 acres of land. Some parcels were more than an acre of land like his uncles’, while the rest only had a couple of plots.

This way, the villagers would not need to rent all the land to Gu Qingming and hence, they would have less resistance.

In any case, there was not much land there. Renting it to the Shi family would not offend the Shi family. In the future, when the Shi family hired people to do odd jobs, they would definitely not be excluded. Similarly, they would continue to farm what they should.

Hence, the matter of renting land suddenly went quite smoothly, not only in Stoneback Village, but even the negotiations at the surrounding villages, Dazhu Village, Zhangshu Village, and Linshi Village were relatively smooth!

At the end of the year, nearing the Spring Festival, the matter of renting land was about to be completed!

“Mingming, these four villages have rented out a total of 246 acres of land. Our Stoneback Village has 72 acres of land, Dazhi Village has 61 acres, Zhangshu Village has 52 acres, and Linshi Village has 61 acres. These are the rental contracts. Take a look!” Shi Lichun handed a few contracts in black and white to Gu Qingming.

Shi Liqiu smiled and said, “Renting land is easier than we thought.”

Shi Lidong nodded and said, “At the beginning, the villagers thought that we were renting all the land in each family, so they were naturally unwilling. However, now that we’re renting out the nearby fields, their thoughts have changed.”

“Speaking of which, in the entire village, only the families of Shi Bangqing, Shi Banghua, and Shi Bangjian are unwilling to rent the land to us,” Shi Liqiu said. “Their paddy field happens to be next to our land.”

The families of Shi Bangqing and Shi Banghua had some grudges against the Shi Family, so it was reasonable that they were unwilling to rent it.

On the other hand, Shi Bangjian wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to ask for more rent. Oh, not just some, but a lot; he was even asking for an exorbitant price.

Shi Bangqing and Shi Banghua’s farmland was slightly off to the side. If they did not want to rent it, so the Shi family just had to work around it.

However, Shi Bangjian’s farmland was close to Eldest Uncle’s farmland.

The original plan was to use Eldest Uncle’s paddy field as the radiation center and merge the surrounding land. Be it paddy fields or drylands, they would rent whatever they could.

“We can bypass Shi Bangqing and Shi Banghua’s land and not rent it, but Shi Bangjian’s land is in the center. There’s no way to bypass it.” Speaking of this, Shi Yaoqing said angrily, “The most infuriating thing is that it’s not that he’s unwilling to rent it, but he’s asking for high rent. Can we give him this rent casually? What will others think?”

Although she had handed the matter of renting land to her uncles and the village committee, Gu Qingming knew the progress. At the same time, she knew what had happened clearly.

Gu Qingming thought for a moment and said, “It’s fine if he’s unwilling to rent it!”

“Huh? How do we work around it?” Shi Yaoqing was a little confused. He continued to ask, “Are we not renting the land anymore?”

Gu Qingming shook her head and said, “Previously, we used our own fields as the radiation center, but that’s not the only way.”

When Shi Hangyu heard this, his eyes lit up. He asked, “Mingming, do you mean that we should adjust the entire radiation center of the rented land and go past Shi Bangjian’s land?”

Gu Qingming nodded and said, “That’s right. I’ve observed that place. Extending to the west, there’s a small river. To the south, it’s mostly dry land. To the east and north, it’s mostly paddy fields, and it’s a high-grade fertile land. Therefore, we can set aside the west and south. What’s left is the east and north. I’ve observed the land owned by Shi Bangjian. Bypassing his family’s land, we can rent it to the north.”

Eldest Uncle asked, “Why north?”

“There’s a road that can be used by cars to the north. If it’s close, it’ll be easier for us to transport our produce!” Gu Qingming said. “Only if we rent this piece of land will it be much less troublesome when it comes to transportation in the future. There won’t be a situation like Shi Bangjian.”

When they heard this, they thought for a moment and said, “That’s true. Then let’s change our direction.”

“But if that’s the case, wouldn’t we end up not renting the land we negotiated? Wouldn’t we have to return it?”

“There’s no need. We’ll just bypass those three families,” Gu Qingming said. “At that time, they’ll plant their land, and we’ll plant ours. We’ll mind our own business. If something crops up, hehe, just wait and see.”

Since these people could make things difficult for her on this matter, she was not a magnanimous person. At that time, it would depend on who was making things difficult for whom.