Ling Pingan headed north and out of the village as he held Bastet in his arms.

He came to a field by the river outside the village.

That place had transformed into vegetable fields and orchards.

It was rented by three companies.

Ling Pingan relied on his memory to find his ancestral land.

That field was big!

It was two to three hundred acres, stretching to the ca.n.a.l by the river.

That land belonged to the Ling Family and was registered under Ling Pingan's name.

There were laws and regulations in the Federal Empire.

Farmers were ent.i.tled to a fixed amount of agricultural land.

These lands were not allowed to be sold or resold and would forever belong to the farmers and their descendants.

They were exempt from all income!

That was the law of the Taizu era.

The source of agricultural land was divided into two major parts.

The first part was given to the farmers when the country was first established, and the land was recla.s.sified.

At that time, the population was greatly reduced due to decades of war.

Especially in Guangnan, Jingchu, and Shudi.

Almost all of them were crippled!

No rooster was crowing in a thousand miles, and the bones were exposed in the wild!

Therefore, there was a large amount of surplus land that was enough for the Taizu of that time to satisfy almost all the farmers in the metropolitan territory.

The second part was the land that was allocated for meritorious deeds.

The war of unification, the war of counterinsurgency, the Hundred-Year War…

The meritorious subjects of these wars wanted the land the most.

And Ling Pingan's second-generation ancestor was the hero of the Hundred-Year War!

That ancestor called Ling Baoguo was an Cla.s.s war hero who had rendered outstanding meritorious deeds!

The Federal Empire, Britannia, and the other countries carried out the cruel and b.l.o.o.d.y battle of the new Qinling Mountains in the central region of the Nanzhou in the later stages of the Hundred-Year War to liberate the Nanzhou.

The battle of the new Qinling Mountains was also known as the Battle of the Sad Mountains.

Both sides had invested hundreds of thousands of troops in the front of the new Qinling Mountains, which was 300 kilometers wide from east to west, and 700 kilometers long from north to south.

The corpses of both sides were piled up in the valleys, blocking the rivers.

The bombs fired by both sides had flattened the mountains by several meters.

That was why it was called the Sad Mountains.

It was the same for both sides.

The Hundred-Year War finally came to an end.

The colonists of the Land of Qin, who was completely crippled, had no choice but to lower their proud heads and sign the surrender letter.

From then on, they had no choice but to give up all their colonies.

They also promised to give all the nations that were oppressed and exploited by them worldwide the power to decide their destinies.

Ling Pingan's second-generation ancestor was an Cla.s.s battle hero in the Battle of the new Qinling Mountains.

He led a company to defend a mountain in the east of the new Qinling Mountains for a full eighteen days!

They fought back the enemy's attacks.

Only three of them were able to stand at the end of the entire company.

Countless corpses were lying in front of their positions.

The battle also gave rise to some folk legends.

Legend said that the enemy had formed an a.s.sault team consisting of hundreds of werewolves and vampires during the battle.

After that, they were all annihilated in front of the battlefield.

The corpses of werewolves and vampires were burned clean by the sun after daybreak.

Of course, that was a folk legend.

However, it also reflected the b.l.o.o.d.y Battle of the New Qinling Mountains!

Ling Pingan's ancestor had been severely injured in that battle. He had died less than two years after returning to the country.

However, he had left behind enough wealth for his descendants.

Apart from the treatment that an Cla.s.s war hero should receive.

A large piece of land was subsequently given to the Ling Family. The Federal had paid for the Ling Family to buy over 200 acres of the best paddy fields at that time!

They even built a special ca.n.a.l to draw water for irrigation.

Even tractors and water pumps, which were high-tech products at that time, were provided.

In short, the Ling Family was one of the richest landowners in all the villages within ten miles in the past!

However, the problem was that the development speed and technological progress of the Federal Empire were too fast!

The agriculture in the metropolitan territory had been completely transformed In just 20 years.

Smoke-belching tractors and harvesters had crushed the old small-scale peasant economy in the Beizhou and Nanzhou plains.

The metropolitan territory had also abandoned agriculture and transformed into an industrial area.

The imperial cabinet began to vigorously promote urbanization and industrialization without the threat of hunger.

One heavy industrial city after another began to rise.

The urban population quickly rose from one million to over ten million.

The countryside began to wither and go bankrupt.

Only in the last few decades did it slowly recover and become a place for retirement, vacation, and leisure.

At the same time, it attracted some young people due to the rising prices of vegetables and fruits.

Ling Pingan walked to the strawberry fields covered in thin-film and began to search one shed after another.

He was looking for those big and red strawberries.

He b.u.mped into a staff member as he walked forward.

The staff member looked at him strangely.

“Sir…”

“This is the Strawberry Garden of the Green Source Company. Outsiders are not allowed to pick the strawberries…” he reminded Ling Pingan.

Ling Pingan raised his head and asked in confusion, “Really? When was that rule implied? Why don't I know about it!”

The other party suddenly laughed. “Do we have to inform you when our company makes a decision?”

“Of course!” Ling Pingan nodded seriously. “Because these lands are mine!”

The man's jaw dropped.

Ling Pingan smiled at him kindly. “However, since your company has the rules…”

“Then I won't pick them…”

One should be considerate of others.

That was something that Ling Pingan had learned from his education.

The ancient gentlemen were all like this.

One should put himself in other's shoes. Therefore, there were almost no conflicts between gentlemen.

Even if there were, they could still settle it with a debate or a compet.i.tion.

However…

Ling Pingan saw a group of people walking out of the strawberry shed in front of him when he was about to turn and leave.

They were a group of women dressed in high-end leather clothes and carrying plastic baskets filled with strawberries. They were chatting and laughing as they walked to the next strawberry shed.

Ling Pingan immediately looked at that person.

“Sir…” he said very politely, “That's not proper…”

Others can pick them. Why couldn't he?

Ling Pingan looked at him.

He immediately blushed in embarra.s.sment. “Sir… They are our company's VIP guests…”

Ling Pingan said, “then so am I…”

So, he carried his kitten and continued to walk forward.

He would defend his rights as someone who valued equality very much.

“Sir…” the staff member chased after him. “Please don't make things difficult for me!”

“Difficult?” Ling Pingan was puzzled.

What was difficult?

So he turned around and said seriously to the young man, “You, go and ask someone with authority in your company to talk to me…”

Wasn't renting this land to anyone the same?

They would have to pack up and leave next year if they provoked him.

Of course, Ling Pingan also understood that this person was just a staff member.

It was hard to work for a salary.

Therefore, he was still easy-going.

The young man also understood, so he said gratefully, “Please wait a moment…”

He picked up his phone and carefully dialed a number. After the call went through, he asked how to deal with the matter, “President Zhang… President Zhang… a customer came to the strawberry field… he said that he is the owner of this land… he wants to go in and pick strawberries…”

“Sir…”

He listened to the words on the phone… The expression on his face changed.

It seemed that he was scolded?

He put down the phone and said to Ling Pingan after a while, “Sir, our president Zhang said…”

“You can pick it if you want…”

“100 yuan per catty, and you can't eat it…”

Ling Pingan immediately laughed.

100 yuan per catty, and he can't even eat it?

Was their strawberry made of gold?

Of course, he was also reasonable.

Therefore, he walked to those rich young ladies who were picking strawberries in a strawberry shed and asked, “Everyone, may I ask how much it costs to pick strawberries here?”

They immediately giggled as if they had heard a big joke when they heard that.

“It doesn't cost us a penny for these!”A woman wearing a men's casual s.h.i.+rt with short hair said.

The others also laughed.

“Do we need to pay to pick strawberries?”

“Does Zhang Daoming dare to take our money?”

Ling Pingan smiled. He turned to the staff member and said, “Sir, please call your boss again…”

“Tell him that the contract will not be renewed next year…”

“That is the final decision!”

He picked up the phone and dialed a number in his dial list as he spoke.

The voice of an elderly man appeared on the phone after it went through.

“Young master, what's the matter?” It was the voice of Uncle Zhang, the village chief of Qilipu village.

“Uncle Zhang…” Ling Pingan smiled. “I want to tell you something…”

“It's like this…”

“My 200 acre of land will not be leased to the Green Source Company next year…”

“It's nothing…”

“It's just business. I'm not happy about it, so I don't want to rent!”

He hung up the phone and looked at the stunned staff member with a smile.

The staff member also smiled at him. Then, he gulped and whispered to Ling Pingan, “Sir…”

“You'd better think about it again…”

“Our boss has connections…”

Ling Pingan laughed. Connections?

That was a funny word!

Why wouldn't they go and find out who the owners of these lands were?

Look at the stamps on the land owners.h.i.+p certificates that were issued.

The official seal of the Federal Empire's royal family.

The official seal of the committee of Meritorious officials of the Federal Empire's Ministry Council.

The official seal of the Empire's Ministry of Land, and the official seal of agricultural land.

There was also the halo of an Cla.s.s meritorious service orphan on Ling Pingan's head.

Come on!

They could just go on with that!

What kind of relations.h.i.+p could be more tenacious than those halos on Ling Pingan's body?

A phone call and his connections wouldn't work!

“Thank you for your good intentions!” Ling Pingan nodded at the staff member. “As for me, you don't have to worry about me…”

He knew that the young man was trying to give him kind advice.

After all, many agricultural companies were local tyrants!

Why were vegetables and fruits so expensive?

It was these people who monopolized the market and raised the prices.

Of course, it couldn't be separated from the credit of their control and noisy public opinion.

The purely natural and pollution-free.

The green and healthy…

Then, the middle cla.s.s went after them.

All of that was business!

Just like a piece of news that Ling Pingan had seen not long ago, the newly rich people in the capital who relied on information technology developed a trend of raising chickens in their yards. The reason was that they could eat natural, pollution-free eggs without worry.

Thus, they spent a lot of money to renovate their yards.

They built a natural and pressure-free chicken coop that even guaranteed the rights of every hen.

Guess how much a chicken coop cost?

200,000 yuan!

Ling Pingan almost spat out the rice in his mouth when he saw the news.

200,000 yuan for a chicken coop?

The people in this world were easily tricked!

However, he found out that this business was not the new rich and stupid after he checked the news and information.

It was because they were too smart.

Think about it, in the center of the city, where every inch of land was worth a fortune, building a chicken coop that cost a lot of money.

What was this?

That was the rich.

Did that person have a chicken coop in their house?

No?

Then it was outdated, really outdated.

They would not mix around with that person anymore. They were outdated!

So, the chicken coop was not the point. The point was the circle of people that they mix around with.

And the company that brought that trend, of course, was making a lot of money.

Similarly, it was fas.h.i.+onable to eat pollution-free pure natural vegetables and fruits that even the market only sold these expensive vegetables and fruits. That was also business.

They could achieve the motive of harvesting the money of the middle-cla.s.s people by scaring them.

Of course, what they said was reasonable.

But the point was that it was reasonable for people to want to eat cheap vegetables and fruits.

Cabbages were more expensive than meat, and fruits were more expensive than cabbages.

What was that?

Could it be that the cost of growing cabbages was more expensive than the cost of meat that was transported from the Beizhou and Nanzhou to the Metropolitan Territory after processing?

That was ridiculous!

Ling Pingan had long had his opinion about these guys who monopolized vegetables and fruits.

Now, they had even provoked him.

Then, he would teach them a lesson!

All the fields and facilities there would have to be demolished.

Most importantly, that land would not be rented to him.

He would teach that owner a lesson!

He could not be arrogant and despotic just because he had some stinky money and some connections!

The staff member looked at Ling Pingan in a daze.

He was conflicted.

He felt uneasy and guilty, on the other hand.

He didn't dare to remind his boss again, or else he might lose his job.

The young man had already carried his kitten and walked out when he was in a dilemma.

He hummed a tune and slowly walked towards the village.

The tune slowly floated over.

“There is a little white boat in the blue sky in the galaxy.”

“A white rabbit is playing in the sweet-scented osmanthus in the boat…”

It was a simple and catchy children's song.

But…

The staff member only felt a chill run down his spine for some reason.

He suddenly realized that he seemed to have forgotten the appearance of the young man who claimed to be the owner of this piece of land just now.

He had just left.

However, he only remembered that he was wearing a pair of cheap gla.s.ses and holding a kitten.

What made him even more afraid was…

He finally remembered.

This piece of land belonged to the Ling Family.

The Ling family of Qilipu…

One legend after another surfaced from the bottom of his heart.

“The members of the Ling Family know magic…”

“The members of the Ling family are all demons…”

“The ancestors of the Ling family are very fierce!”

The things that the adults whispered to each other surfaced in his mind when he was young.

He picked up the phone with a trembling hand and dialed.

“Director Zhang…”

“Our land belongs to the Ling Family?”

“I advise you…” he said with a trembling voice, “Don't provoke them…”

“You can't provoke them!”

“The Ling Family has demons!”