Mar 13, 2026
Chapter 69 — Buying Land and Livestock • A Chance Encounter with an Acquaintance
In a city, buying livestock didn’t require a guarantor—you could simply go straight to the livestock market. But in a town like Datong, neither large nor particularly small, it usually didn’t have a dedicated livestock market. Anyone wanting to buy animals had to go through a broker.
Of course, there were also private transactions between individuals, but those came with little security. If livestock or land purchased through a broker turned out to have problems, you could still hold the broker responsible even if the seller couldn’t be found. Private deals were different—once something went wrong, there was no one to answer for it.
And when money became involved, even the best friends or closest relatives could fall out. Risking a broken relationship just to save a bit of brokerage commission really wasn’t worth it.
With the Zhao and Han couple leading the way, Ling Jingxuan and the others soon arrived at a shop located at the very southern end of the town.
It was the busy farming season, and the town had also recently been dealing with an outbreak of plague. Although it had already been brought under control, the business here still seemed to have been affected. Aside from the shopkeeper and a few assistants, there wasn’t a single customer inside.
When he saw them enter, Broker Liu hurried over with a cheerful smile.
“May I ask your honored surnames? Are you here to buy land, livestock, or perhaps household servants? Please, come sit inside.”
Among the six of them, Yan Shengrui and Ling Jingxuan stood out the most in terms of bearing. And compared to Ling Jingxuan, Yan Shengrui looked even more like the one in charge. Naturally, Broker Liu’s attention settled on him.
“Don’t look at me,” Yan Shengrui said with a shrug. “He’s the one in charge.”
For most people, being flattered like that would have been pleasing. But Yan Shengrui was different. With a casual shrug, he handed over all the speaking rights to Ling Jingxuan, showing no concern whatsoever for preserving his masculine pride.
Broker Liu’s smile stiffened for a brief moment before he quickly turned his grin toward Ling Jingxuan instead.
“And your honorable surname, young master?”
After all, he was someone who had seen plenty of the world—far different from ordinary villagers when it came to handling situations.
“My surname is Ling,” Ling Jingxuan replied after everyone sat down. He didn’t bother with small talk and went straight to the point. “I want to buy a horse carriage, a dairy cow, and around one hundred mu of homestead land in Lingjia Village, near the foot of Mount Yuehua. Would Broker Liu be willing to handle this transaction?”
Once the land was settled, he still planned to meet with a construction crew for building the house. He also intended to visit Old Wang to place an order for blue bricks and small roof tiles. There was plenty to do today.
The moment he heard that the purchase involved homestead land, the warmth in Broker Liu’s enthusiasm noticeably cooled. Still, business had been slow lately, so he didn’t turn it down.
“Of course that’s no problem,” he said quickly. “But for homestead land, I’ll need to send someone to measure it first. When would it be convenient for you?”
Even a mosquito’s leg was still meat—small profit was still profit. After all, this was his trade. Having business was better than having none.
“The sooner the better,” Ling Jingxuan replied.
“Very well. You can send someone with my men to measure the land. By the way, Ling-gongzi—would you like a private deed or an official deed?”
Ling Jingxuan raised an eyebrow. “What’s the difference?”
He hadn’t realized buying land involved so many complications.
“A private deed,” Broker Liu explained, “is a contract issued personally by me. Once the land is measured, we can exchange money and finalize the document immediately. The contract itself is valid.”
“As for an official deed, it’s a bit more troublesome. You’d need to go to the county office to process it. Even at the fastest, it would take three days before you receive the official land ownership certificate. The fees are also somewhat higher.”
What he didn’t say was that if a private deed were ever lost, the land would no longer belong to Ling Jingxuan. That was because private deeds were registered with the authorities under Broker Liu’s own name. If Ling Jingxuan lost his copy and Broker Liu refused to acknowledge it, the land would effectively no longer be his.
An official deed, however, was different. It would be registered under Ling Jingxuan’s own name. Even if the document were lost or damaged, he could simply apply to the government for a replacement. It might be more troublesome, but the land would still remain his.
This was an open secret in their line of work. Anyone with even a little knowledge would choose an official deed. Only ignorant country bumpkins or newly rich villagers would go for the quicker and more convenient private deed.
“Jingxuan,” Yan Shengrui said from beside him, “get the official deed.”
Ling Jingxuan and the others might not understand these things, but that didn’t mean Yan Shengrui didn’t. Even he himself didn’t know why he understood them. The knowledge simply surfaced in his mind instinctively, as though it had always been there.
Of course, Ling Jingxuan wasn’t foolish either. Even if Yan Shengrui hadn’t spoken, he would still have chosen the official deed. Higher cost always had its reasons. Broker Liu appeared warm and welcoming, but the sharp calculation and cunning in his eyes were impossible to miss. When dealing with someone like that, it was better to go through a bit more trouble than to risk being careless. Anything with the word “official” attached was far more reliable than something merely “private.”
“Let’s do the official deed,” Ling Jingxuan said.
“Very well. I’ll have someone go measure the land in Lingjia Village right away.”
Broker Liu waved over a shop assistant. Ling Jingxuan also nodded toward Ling Jingpeng. Before leaving home, he had already explained which plots of land he wanted to buy, so there was no need for him to return personally.
“Then, Ling-gongzi, shall we take a look at the carriage and the dairy cow first?”
Once the two men drove off in the carriage waiting outside, Broker Liu stood up again and led them into the back courtyard.
From the front, the shop didn’t look particularly large, but the space behind it was surprisingly big. It was divided into two sections. On the left stood a long row of livestock sheds—horses, cattle, sheep, and more. On the right was a line of small houses, with quite a few people moving back and forth.
Inside those rooms were people—people waiting to be sold.
Those with good fortune might be purchased by wealthy households to work as maids or servants. Those less fortunate could end up in brothels. Some particularly cruel noble families would even buy people under the pretense of hiring servants, only to poison them with drugs or bury them alive to accompany the dead in burial rituals.
In this era, where human rights barely existed, the lives of the poor were painfully cheap.
But none of that had anything to do with Ling Jingxuan. He wasn’t a saint; he couldn’t save them.
“Benefactor? Divine doctor!”
Just as they were turning toward the livestock sheds on the left, a startled cry suddenly rang out. Before anyone could react, everyone only saw a blur flash before their eyes. In the next moment, a sturdy man in his thirties or forties was already kneeling in front of Ling Jingxuan.
“What’s going on? How did he get out?”
Broker Liu’s face darkened with anger, and he barked in a low voice toward the men behind him.
Ling Jingxuan lowered his gaze and looked at the man. After a moment, he finally remembered where he had seen him before.
“Your child recovered, right?”
Because he suddenly spoke, the assistants who were about to drag the man away had no choice but to stop for the moment.
Tears streamed down the man’s face as he said, “Thank you for remembering, benefactor. Huzi’s illness is cured… but we…”
His voice broke into choking sobs. Yes, the child had recovered—but because of that incident, his entire family had ended up imprisoned here. Even now, he didn’t know whether making such a scene back then had been the right choice. If they hadn’t stirred things up, perhaps their master wouldn’t have sold them all.
Broker Liu was a shrewd man. Seeing that they seemed to know each other, he hurried forward with a placating smile.
“His name is Song Gengniu. He used to guard an estate for a wealthy household. A while ago, his youngest son caught the plague. The family feared they might infect others, so they sold the entire family. It’s pitiful—the boy is only seven years old, and he had just recovered from a serious illness. After all this turmoil, he’s become so thin he’s nearly unrecognizable.”
Although Broker Liu spoke with apparent pity, his real intention was simply to encourage Ling Jingxuan to buy them.
Most people might feel some sympathy hearing such a story. But the person standing before them was Ling Jingxuan. If someone had nothing to do with him, no matter how pitiful their circumstances were, he wouldn’t interfere. The last time he saved the child had been pure coincidence—this time, he had no intention of helping again.
“I saved your son by chance,” Ling Jingxuan said coolly, glancing briefly at Broker Liu. “You don’t need to call me benefactor, and there’s no need to kneel.”
“Benefactor, you saved my son’s life. Kneeling to you is only right,” the man replied through tears. “I never expected you to buy our whole family. It’s just that when we came to our senses that day, you had already gone. We’ve carried this gratitude in our hearts ever since. Now that fate has allowed us to meet again today, please let me kowtow a few times to thank you properly.”
As he spoke, Song Gengniu really did begin bang, bang, bang, knocking his head against the ground several times in a row in a kowtow. Ling Jingxuan’s brows creased almost imperceptibly. He had just started to shift aside when a hand suddenly settled around his waist. His gaze instinctively turned to Yan Shengrui beside him.
The latter shot him a roguish grin and leaned close to his ear, whispering softly,
“This man doesn’t look like the scheming sort. If you’ve got enough silver, you might as well buy him. Judging by how Shopkeeper Zhang looked today, the amount of jam he’ll want will probably keep increasing. With just you and Jingpeng, sooner or later you won’t be able to keep up. Even if you add the Zhao and Han couple, plus our Father, it’ll still wear everyone out. It’s rare to run into someone this straightforward—if you’re going to buy people sooner or later anyway, you might as well buy him now.”
To outsiders, it might have looked like they were flirting—after all, their exchanged glances carried the playful warmth and ambiguity unique to lovers. Only the two of them knew what was really being said.
After hearing him out, Ling Jingxuan’s expression decisively changed. He couldn’t help but begin calculating the possibility of buying them in his mind.
For the next two months or so they would certainly be busy making jam. By the beginning of the ninth month at the latest, he had to save enough money to buy land. After that, he would need to hire people to clear the wasteland and get all the newly bought fields ready before the seawater tides flooded in again. From the tenth month onward he had other plans as well, and by the start of spring next year things would only grow busier.
Indeed, relying solely on the few people in the household wouldn’t be enough. And on top of that, someone had to escort the little buns to and from school every day.
“How many people are there in your family?”
With that thought, Ling Jingxuan asked quietly. The man in front of him seemed decent enough. In his memory, the woman he had seen earlier didn’t look like trouble either. As long as the rest of the family were reasonable people, buying them wouldn’t be a problem. Just as Shengrui had said—sooner or later he would have to buy servants anyway. Since he had come across a family that seemed acceptable, bringing them home earlier might actually be better.
Only… when he thought about the three thatched huts at home, Ling Jingxuan couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on. It seemed the plan to build a proper house could no longer be delayed.
“Huh?”
Song Gengniu looked up in surprise, momentarily too stunned to react.
Beside him, Broker Liu quickly nudged his back with a knee. “What do you mean ‘huh’? Ling-gongzi is asking you a question.”
“Replying to benefactor… there are five of us. Besides my wife and me, there’s our eldest son, fifteen; our daughter, thirteen; and the youngest boy you’ve already seen, seven this year. My wife and the boys can all work the fields. Any kind of farm animal—we know how to handle them. My daughter’s embroidery is passable. As for Huzi… he’s still small, but he can do some simple farm chores.”
Snapping back to his senses, Song Gengniu hurried to answer. It wasn’t the first time he had been bought and sold; he could more or less guess that Ling Jingxuan was considering purchasing them. Inevitably, hope rose in his chest.
For one thing, Ling Jingxuan was already their benefactor—serving him would be something they would do willingly. For another, among the whole family he was the only strong laborer. It was unrealistic to expect a buyer to take the entire family together. If they were sold separately… their small family would likely be scattered forever.
“Mm. Broker Liu—how much are you planning to sell this family for? Don’t quote me some inflated price. Just give me a single figure. If I think it’s reasonable, I’ll buy them all.”
After a brief evaluation, Ling Jingxuan shifted his gaze to Broker Liu. Though the family didn’t have much labor power, his household happened to be lacking women. The wife and daughter could keep his mother company and also help with sewing and mending for the men. The two boys could be assigned as study attendants to Jinghan and the little buns.
As for Song Gengniu—naturally he would follow them to pick fruit, make jam, and help with various chores.
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Translator: LazyHermitGal
Author: LazyHermitGal
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