"Oh, what is that? Have you thought of how to solve your brother's debt?" Lu Ming asked with a smile.
He felt more or less apologetic. Every time Li Xiang'er met him, her conversation with him was like having new and powerful evidence in court, and different store clerks had heard it.
Li Xiang'er shook her head. "No, I am going to divorce him. So, Mr. Lu, my brother is no longer valuable to you. But we will do our best to compensate Mr. Lu. We will also do our best to try our best and hope to get Mr. Lu's satisfaction and understanding..."
Lu Ming was stunned. Divorce
"Well, I've thought about it. I also know that my father will definitely not agree. I will submit the divorce application and leave here for a while. When I come back next time, he and I will automatically terminate our marriage, right, Mr. Lu?" Li Xiang'er's tone was flat, but one could hear a hint of sadness in it.
Lu Ming nodded and said, "As long as the lawyer is not too outrageous, it should be possible." This girl is actually gentle on the outside but strong on the inside, and she has a lot of ideas.
"Okay, Mr. Lu, I'll take my leave then. I will still assume responsibility for what Xiaoxuan owes you. I will write to you when I arrive at the new place, but please don't tell my address to anyone else." As she spoke, Li Xiang'er stood up.
Lu Ming nodded: "Okay, then I hope you can find a new life."
In fact, her departure really left her in a mess, and even caused Hu Dingjin to vent all his anger on her.
However, as for persuading her to stay, forget it.
He stood up and walked her to the door, then watched her get on the rickshaw.
I don't know if she will really leave, whether Hu Dingjin will let her go, or if she has a way to leave? In short, it's none of my business.
…
The moon was bright. At the west entrance of the town of Shilipu, under the ancient weeping willows, Lu Ming was sitting on a small stool, chatting with some old people.
They are all elderly people with wrinkles on their faces. After decades of hard work, they have reached the final stage of their lives. Looking back now, the hard work and sadness, as well as the occasional happiness, are all like passing clouds.
These old people never thought that one day they would meet a boss like Mr. Lu.
Just yesterday, Mr. Lu's housekeeper brought people to deliver ten kilograms of pork, ten kilograms of flour and two kilograms of soybean oil to each elderly person over the age of sixty in the village. He also promised that every month, every elderly person over the age of sixty would receive ten kilograms of rice and flour.
And the day before yesterday, Mrs. Wei, the housekeeper of Mr. Lu's family, brought the accountant and re-signed the land lease contract with all the tenant farmers in the town. The rent in the future will be calculated at 30% per quarter. In the past, when the Xu family had a good harvest, the rent would even reach 70%.
Xu Niuzi also sold all his land to Mr. Lu, and moved to the county town with his family.
In other words, the land rent of the entire Shilipu was reduced in this way.
Many people don't even believe it at all. Anyway, few people can read how the land lease contract is written, so just do it casually. Just wait and see what Mr. Lu says when the time comes. You can't let people starve to death, right
But now, all the elderly people in the town who are over 60 years old and still in good health have been invited by Mr. Lu to chat under the ancient willow tree in the town.
This young new owner indeed gives people a completely different feeling from the previous landlord.
"Third Uncle, you just said you haven't seen a movie, right? Have you heard of it? Well, I just became a citizen of Shilipu, so in a few days, I will invite the projection team to come and show movies for a few days. From now on, our town will let the projection team come to show movies for a few days every New Year." Lu Ming said with a smile to an old man with wrinkles on his face.
It was obvious that Mr. Xu San had seen the world and could answer his questions. Unlike most of the other old men, most of them were very restrained and would just smile and apologize no matter what he said.
Mr. Xu smiled, showing his black teeth, "That's great, Third Young Master. I know you are a noble from a big place and you don't care about this little rent, but if you do this, you will offend all the nearby landlords."
Lu Ming smiled and said, "Whatever. The poorest people in the five provinces of Jiangnan are the farmers. But the poorest people actually create the resources that are the basis of our survival, and they do the most tiring work. It's not normal. At your age, as long as you can work, you have to work in the fields. Otherwise, there is no guarantee. It's not right to think about it, right?"
Uncle Xu laughed and said, "It seems that people have been living this way for hundreds of years. There is nothing wrong with it. If you don't study or know how to read, you can just farm, right?"
Lu Ming nodded: "But, what's wrong with being able to read and write? Some of the positions in the city can be taken by you, Third Master. I think you can be the Commissioner of the Administrative Office!"
Third Master Xu was shocked. "Third Master, don't dare to say that! Don't dare to say that!"
Lu Ming smiled and said, "Third Master, and uncles and aunts? Are you tired? Go home and rest if you need to. You don't have to accompany me!"
"Not tired!" an old man said immediately, and the others agreed.
Although it was difficult to understand what Mr. Lu, or the "Third Young Master", said, and I didn't dare to respond, nor did I know how to respond, but sitting near him and listening to him talk made me feel proud. After returning home, the younger generations in the family would gather around him and ask questions, and even unfilial children would become much more obedient within a short period of time.
Lu Ming on the other side sneered inwardly, thinking that these old grandfathers were still quite energetic.
However, in Shilipu, there are only about a dozen people over 60 years old and in good health. The current average life expectancy in the rural areas of the five provinces in the south of the Yangtze River is much lower than that in his previous life.
Suddenly, a woman's scream pierced the night sky. It was particularly harsh in the silent night, and some birds were startled and flew away.
A man in black not far away immediately waved his hand, and someone ran quickly towards the direction of the scream.
The screams had turned into crying.
Lu Ming was stunned at first, thinking it was a fight between villagers? It was this scream that was creepy. But he saw the old people sitting around him shaking their heads and sighing.
"Uncle San, what's going on? Do your family members often quarrel like this?" Lu Ming asked Uncle Xu San.
Third Master Xu sighed and said, "The woman of the Dazhu family was originally celebrating Third Master's wedding these days, so the person who was blocking her mouth seems to have broken free. Third Master, please don't blame me."
Lu Ming glanced at Mr. Xu San and nodded without asking any more questions. "Okay, I'm a little tired. I'm going back to rest!"
Lu Ming stood up and walked a few steps, gestured with a smile to the old people who had stood up, and waved to the man in black who was following the periphery a few steps away from Yu Luan. The man in black immediately trotted over to Lu Ming with a smile on his face.
"Master!" The man in black shirt had a flattering smile on his face. He was wearing a black silk shirt with his belly open, revealing the white vest underneath, black cloth pants and cloth shoes, and a box gun holster with long straps slung over his shoulders. He had a pointed chin and monkey cheeks. In his previous life, he was the typical image of a traitor in film and television dramas.
His surname is also Xu, and he is the fourth child in the family. He was originally a distant relative of the Xu family and was also the head of the Xu family's security guards.
The dozen or so guards hired by the Xu family not only protected the peace of the house and fought against bandits, but also served as a deterrent to the tenant farmers. During special periods, they might use violent rent collection, but the tenant farmers in Shilipu had never caused collective trouble, so they were never used to collect rent.
Originally, all the guards hired by the Xu family from other places were dismissed by Lu Ming, but Xu Laosi was a native of the town, and Mrs. Wei heard that he had no bad record, was nice to the villagers, and was also a local who was familiar with the situation, so she kept him as the deputy chief of the town to maintain public order in the town.
For such villages and towns, real public power cannot enter. Local landlords are local tyrants. Not to mention ordinary disputes, even murders are handled privately.
Looking at Xu Laosi at this moment, Lu Ming asked: "What's going on?"
"She's a lunatic, sir. I've asked someone to shut her up!" said Xu Laosi with a flattering smile on his face.
"Is he really crazy? He's not a trafficked woman, is he?"
"What a lunatic!" Xu Laosi said with a wry smile, "Master, who in this village can afford to buy a kidnapped woman?"
Lu Ming sighed inwardly. Nowadays, the number of mentally ill people in the countryside is indeed a problem. No one has the money to send them to mental hospitals, so if they are crazy, they are crazy. Most of them run away and die without a trace. If their relatives are willing to stay and take care of them, the more serious ones will be tied up at home. It is normal, especially when they are having an attack.
After looking at Lu Ming's expression, Xu Laosi said cautiously, "Master, this Second Aunt Zhao was fine a few years ago. Yes, it was her daughter who was only seven or eight years old two years ago. She was raped to death by Xu Dazhong, and then Second Aunt Zhao went crazy."
Lu Ming was stunned. Xu Dazhong was originally the eldest son of the Xu family. He was also the one who organized the small shareholders to make trouble. He had met him several times, but he had never talked to him. It was always the third son of the Cao family who argued with him.
Glancing at Xu Laosi, Lu Ming nodded in his heart. It seemed that the villagers' good evaluation of him made sense. What was his intention in telling him this? It was obvious that he couldn't stand it and had been feeling guilty for a long time. Now that he could drive Xu Dazhong away, he tried to see if he would care about such things.
"This Xu Dazhong has done a lot of bad things?" Lu Ming asked casually as he walked.
Xu Laosi hesitated for a moment and said, "Yes..."
Lu Ming nodded. The Xu family moved to the city of Heishan and hated him even more.
Heishan's own intelligence station, that is, the Yellow River Trading Company, had received news a few days ago that Xu Dazhong was secretly looking for a killer to get rid of him to vent his anger, and even offered a high price of 10,000 yuan. However, he had no connections, and was instead cheated out of a deposit of 1,000 yuan by the scammer.
Also, perhaps Commander Hu wanted to show that he would not abandon the donkey after it has done its work, so he provided Xu's family with a place to live. Of course, the Xu family still had some surplus wealth. Apart from anything else, the Longgang County Office paid 50,000 yuan to redeem the land.
But at noon today, Master Gong received a call from Commander Hu, who wanted to make an appointment to talk to him.
I also received a call from Wells. Hu originally hoped that Governor Chuckson would remove the current county governor of Longgang. He said that Longgang has been in chaos recently and it was all caused by the new county governor.
But Governor Chuckson had his granddaughter-in-law whispering that the governor of Longgang County was from the imperial capital, Lady Windsor, the wife of the Grand Duke of Falkland. Even though there might be several layers of relationship between them, it would not be good to directly dismiss the governor from his post when he had not violated any laws or regulations.
Grandpa Wells was not completely ignorant. He still felt that what his granddaughter-in-law said made sense, so Hu's pillow talk had no effect.
The Governor-General was unable to drive him away, especially after many recent battles.
Hu Dingshan may have realized that it would be extremely difficult to completely drive him away, so he finally began to change his mind and see if he could coexist with him in Montenegro.
That's why I called Master Gong.
Pondering these things, Lu Ming looked up at the bright moon in the sky, as if thinking about something.