Widow Li knew that the owners were taking care of her and her son, so she gratefully took the money but didn’t say any extra words. There were a lot of widows in the world and she was afraid the people who did more work than her would start gossiping. However, she made sure to engrave the masters’ kindness deep within her heart. Forty copper coins was enough money to feed her and son for several days. Her son, who had starved into a bag of bones and only had a large head on his shoulders, would finally be able to eat a filling meal!

The speed and quality of their work was closely tied with how much money they made. All of the tenant farmers were in good spirits. Every day they enthusiastically started working before the sun rose and reluctantly left when the sun finally set. Thus, all a hundred and seventy or so mu were very quickly plowed, fertilized, and sowed with seeds. Afterwards, the tenant farmers became nervous. All farmers knew that the busiest times of the year were spring plowing and the fall harvest. The rest of the time they mostly weeded the fields and watered the crops. The owners had said that corn was a type of plant that could endure droughts but not floods, so it didn’t require a lot of water. They weren’t sure if they would still receive a wage during the idle time of the year.

Before they could fret for too long, new work arrived. Royal Prince Yang had bought...