The disciple in charge of the "Sinong Hall" who collects rent has arrived.
However, the way this serving disciple appeared was different from what Xu Ke had imagined.
Xu Ke originally thought that this rent-collecting disciple should have flown through the sky and floated over. With his robe sleeves flying, he looked like a solitary figure on a cliff.
Now……
Under the scorching sun, at the intersection ahead, a wild bull pulled a cart, carrying billowing smoke and dust, and galloped all the way.
"Xu..."
As the driver approached, the driver of the cart shouted and pulled the reins fiercely.
The speeding cart suddenly stopped, its wheels scraping up a layer of dirt on the ground, drifting, and the smoke and dust rolled up along the way swept over like a wave.
Damn it! Can an oxcart drift?
Xu Ke covered his mouth and nose with his hand and backed away to avoid the dust blast attack.
"It's my first time to drive this kind of car. I'm not very experienced yet. I'm laughing. I'm laughing."
The driver of the bullock cart jumped down with a "dong" sound, held his clothes with one hand to fan him, and wiped sweat with the other hand, and walked up to Xu Ke.
You can actually do oxcart drifting, but you're still not good at it? Once you become proficient, won’t you go to heaven?
Xu Ke looked at this "rent collector" who was slightly fat and round, and looked a bit honest, smiled politely, and did not answer.
"Brother, is there any water? Get a bowl of water and drink it. It's so hot."
This man walked up with a smile and greeted Xu Ke in a "familiar" manner.
"Drink water? Yes. Yes."
Xu Ke nodded, "Come on, senior brother, please come in."
With that said, Xu Ke led the rent collector into the house, picked up the pottery bowl, scooped out a bowl of well water, and handed it over, "My family is poor and we don't have tea to entertain guests. I hope senior brother won't dislike it."
"What do you dislike?"
This slightly fat rent collector, with no airs at all and no "stinky taste", reached out and took the pottery bowl and drank it down in one gulp.
Xu Ke smiled. It seemed that the rent collector of Sinong Palace was quite easy to talk to.
"Ha... cool and refreshing! Thank you!"
Putting down the bowl, the rent collector thanked Xu Ke and started talking about business, "Are you Junior Brother Xu Ke? My name is Gao Zhengzheng, and I am the deacon disciple sent by Sinong Palace to collect rent. This is my deacon." Token, please check it."
With that said, the rent collector Gao Zhengzheng handed Xu Ke a waist badge.
"Senior brother is joking, why is there any need to check?"
Saying this, Xu Ke picked up the waist badge without hesitation, checked it carefully, and only returned it to Gao Zhengyi after confirming that it was correct.
"Junior Brother Xu, according to the records in the field records, you have planted a total of ten acres of lower-grade spiritual fields this year, and the crop you planted is silver-leaf jute."
Gao Zheng directly passed his belt, took another volume of book, opened the book and checked the record, "Is there anything wrong with this record?"
"No problem." Xu Ke nodded.
"That's good."
Gao Zhengzheng put away Tian Bo's book, smiled at Xu Ke, and said, "Junior Brother Xu, let's talk first. There are always some unwritten rules in rent collection."
Unwritten rules? Isn't it an unspoken rule of exploitation?
Xu Ke frowned and sighed secretly in his heart. From ancient times to the present, no matter which dynasty or generation, farmers have always been the target of exploitation, even in the world of immortality.
How annoying! Am I going to have a "struggle for the truth"?
"Junior Brother Xu, don't worry."
Gao Zhengzheng saw Xu Ke's ugly face and said with a smile: "I, Gao Zhengzheng, am upright by nature. I can't do anything to exploit you. I won't deliberately lower the grade of your silver leaf jute, nor will I deliberately raise the rent quota." .”
"Thank you, senior brother! Senior brother is indeed upright!"
Xu Ke breathed a sigh of relief and developed some affection for this senior brother named "Zheng Zheng".
No wonder people have longed for honest officials since ancient times. Those who act according to the rules without intentionally exploiting are already rare and honest officials.
"Haha, that's ridiculous!"
Gao Zhengzheng nodded with a smile and gestured to Xu Ke, "Junior Brother Xu, let's get started!"
"Okay, senior brother, please!"
Xu Ke quickly led Gao Zhengzheng to the floor outside and stood next to the stacks of silver-leaf jute.
Gao Zhengzheng took out a needle-shaped instrument and carefully tested each bundle of silver-leaf jute to determine the grade of the silver-leaf jute.
"Junior Brother Xu, after testing, the quality of your silver leaf jute is good. There are no inferior products, but there are very few excellent products. Most of them are good products. Let's classify them as good products. How about it?"
"It's all up to senior brother to make the decision."
Xu Ke smiled and cupped his hands, having no objection to this grade determination.
Gao Zhengzheng nodded, and took out a weighing instrument and placed it on the ground.
Then, Gao Zhengzheng took out an animal skin bag, activated the magical weapon, and waved his hand, a burst of magical power swept through, and the whole stack of silver leaf jute flew up and fell into the palm-sized bag.
"Is this... a storage bag?"
Xu Ke's face was full of surprise. This thing... With Xu Ke's financial resources, he couldn't even think about it. It was too expensive and he couldn't afford it.
"It's indeed a storage bag."
Gao Zhengzheng smiled, and then sighed again: "This is a sect artifact. We ordinary disciples want storage bags... Hehe, I can't even afford the cheapest storage bags. We are so poor! Cultivation is too expensive!"
"yes!"
Xu Ke feels sad and feels the same way.
Storage bags store items and only reduce the weight of stored items according to a fixed ratio, so they are very suitable for weighing.
Gao Zhengzheng put the storage bag on the scale and weighed it, then gestured to Xu Ke: "Junior Brother Xu, take a look, the total weight is nine thousand four hundred kilograms."
"Okay." Xu Ke nodded.
"Junior Brother Xu, according to the sect's rules, you have to pay 70% of the rent. Logically speaking, you only need to pay 70% of the 9,400 kilograms. But..."
Gao Zhengzheng smiled and said, "This involves the 'unwritten rules' I told you. The rules of Sinong Palace are that based on the quota of one thousand jin per mu, you have to pay a tenant of 7,000 jin." Rent. I can’t change this rule, can you understand?”
"I can understand."
Xu Ke smiled helplessly and thanked Gao Zhengzheng, "Thank you for your care, senior brother."
There is no additional exploitation, no deliberate suppression during quality inspection, it is already high integrity and "personal integrity".
As for the quota of one thousand kilograms and so on, how can Sinong Palace collect rent and not get benefits?
"Excluding the 7,000 jins of rent, you still have 2,400 jins of silver leaf jute left."
Gao Zhengzheng glanced at Xu Ke and said: "What do you plan to do with these two thousand four hundred kilograms of jute? If the sect purchases it, at the current purchase price, one hundred kilograms of silver leaf jute and one spiritual stone can be exchanged for a total of twenty Four low-grade spiritual stones.”
So... I have worked so hard for half a year and my income is only twenty-four low-grade spiritual stones?
At this moment, Xu Ke had deeply felt what poverty meant.
Twenty-four low-grade spiritual stones were all used to buy spiritual rice, which was not even enough to eat during the autumn harvest, let alone what was needed to maintain practice.
Farming is a dead end!
