“It’s all because they want to get a reduction on the back rent they owe! They live in our house, and when they die, they’ll be buried on our land. The rent Mother set is already the lowest in the whole village, only sixty percent of what others charge, yet they keep coming back again and again, pestering and pleading! Anyone who didn’t know better would think they were truly living in hardship—one’s a hopeless gambler; the other is already penniless but still goes out womanizing, and has even been beaten up and dragged home several times! These past two years have been good, with no disasters. In years of famine, don’t all the big landowners in our Songmingshan village reduce the rent? Of our family’s three tenant households, only one is truly reliable. Mother’s been far too kind to them!”

“They’re all just lazy good-for-nothings, Second Aunt, why get angry over them? Besides, if you scold them now, and later you need their help and they make excuses, wouldn’t that be even more infuriating?”

Frank Warren hadn’t spoken yet when suddenly a voice came from outside, and right after, someone entered uninvited through the main gate—it was none other than Jinbao’s own brother, Autumn Warren.

Autumn Warren showed not the slightest awareness of being an uninvited guest. He greeted them with a beaming smile, then called out “Uncle” to Frank Warren. Seeing both Frank Warren and Second Lady Warren frown in displeasure as soon as he entered the courtyard, as if they might throw him out at any moment, he hurried to offer a smiling apology: “Uncle, I wouldn’t come to the temple for nothing. I know you’re recovering from an injury, so I wouldn’t dare disturb you without reason. But the summer tax is about to be collected, and the authorities are about to appoint new grain chiefs. I hear there’s a lot of commotion at the county yamen’s household office—some say they’re going to re-examine the household rankings and select the real top households to serve as grain chiefs.”

Just as with those tenant farmers who came before, whom Frank Warren left to Second Lady Warren to handle, he was equally clueless about this business of grain chiefs and household rankings, so he simply kept silent. Noticing Second Lady Warren’s slight frown and the confusion in her eyes, he suddenly realized that, as an unmarried woman, Second Lady Warren clearly didn’t know about this grain chief business either!

It made sense—managing tenants could be explained by years of learning from their mother, but even Madam Wu herself might not know the ins and outs of being a grain chief!

Autumn Warren had been quietly watching the siblings’ reactions, and seeing their expressions, he was secretly delighted. He immediately continued, “Things aren’t like they were at the start of the dynasty. Back then, our She County had fifteen grain districts, each with eleven li, and the chief grain officers were always passed down from father to son or between brothers. In our Qianqiu li, we only had to listen to the chief grain officer above us. But now, none of the big households want to be chief grain officer, so each li has to appoint minor grain chiefs, with two households assisting. I’m not trying to alarm you, but in our village, nine out of ten families are surnamed Wang, and there are only a handful with over a hundred mu of good land. Among them, Uncle, your family’s hundred-plus mu is the largest.”

At this point, Frank Warren felt as if ten thousand mythical beasts were stampeding through his mind. Even though he hadn’t visited those wealthy clan members with their picturesque gardens and grand mansions lately, it was obvious they were a hundred times richer than his own family—even the clan head’s household was far more prosperous! Besides, he was a licentiate, a xiucai—wasn’t it true that those with scholarly titles were exempt from corvée and taxes these days? What did being a grain chief have to do with him!

It was as if Autumn Warren could read Frank Warren’s mind, and he fanned the flames: “Uncle is probably thinking that with the likes of Mr. Nanming and the other grand uncles above, it would never fall to you. But Uncle, you’ve always been focused on your studies and may not know the details. In your family, your grand uncle was in the salt business in Huguang, and Mr. Nanming’s brothers and even elders are salt merchants in the Lianghuai region. Their family wealth is all in salt, not in land. Even if they own land, it’s in Lianghuai or even Jiangnan, and they have very little in Huizhou Prefecture, so of course it won’t fall to them. And although you’ve now passed the exam and become a licentiate, aren’t there all sorts of rumors swirling outside?”

Second Lady Warren immediately flared up: “Autumn Warren, what do you mean by that?”

By exposing the fact that Frank Warren’s scholarly status was on shaky ground, Autumn Warren was only trying to strengthen his argument. He quickly apologized repeatedly, then lowered his voice and said, “That’s not what I meant. I’m saying that even if Uncle is a licentiate and exempt from corvée, according to the old rules, only miscellaneous corvée is exempt—main household duties are not.”

Though he still only half understood, Frank Warren had long since mastered the art of pretending to know what he didn’t, both in school and in society. So now, in front of Autumn Warren, how could he show any weakness? He simply asked calmly, “So, what good idea do you have?”

Autumn Warren had been waiting for this question! He did his best to suppress his excitement, then said mysteriously, “To be honest, Uncle, I stayed in Huizhou city a few days ago and happened to get in good with Liu the clerk at the household office, who promised to make me an assistant scribe. So I’ve learned quite a bit from him. Traditionally, as soon as someone earns a scholarly title and is exempt from taxes and corvée, clan members will bring their land to be registered under his name—this is called ‘donation,’ and it’s done to avoid paying taxes. That’s why gentlemen like Uncle, or even juren and jinshi, often end up with more and more land under their names. But there are exceptions.”

He paused meaningfully, then said, “That’s when, to avoid being classified as a top household, paying more taxes, and being forced to serve as grain chief—which could ruin the family—they transfer the land under their name to relatives or tenants, turning a big household into a medium or even a small one. This is called ‘flying dispersal!’”