Qin Yao successfully guided the villagers to vent their dissatisfaction by passing the buck.

Once the villagers were soothed, the tax collection work proceeded smoothly.

In fact, for the common folks, as long as the court’s decrees weren’t excessive to the point of making life unliveable, they never dared to resist.

So, even with a lot of resentment and grievances, under the powerful pressure of the imperial authority, they still paid their taxes.

At most, each village would have a few rebellious individuals causing minor troubles for the village chiefs.

For example, those who short-weighted, mixed inferior products, or pretended not to understand human language and refused to comply.

In short, every year, those with a lucky mentality would make a scene.

In previous years, the old village chief was in charge, and due to his age, he didn’t have much energy, so he had to let them make a fuss first and deal with them after most of the grain taxes were collected.

But this approach yielded too random results.

Qin Yao absolutely did not allow anyone to cause trouble while she handled affairs.

Thus, from the very first day of official tax collection, she went straight to the disobedient households from last year, and after half a day of explaining with emotions and reasoning, she completed the task.

With the troublemakers taken care of, everything else proceeded much more smoothly.

The village ancestral hall had to serve as a warehouse during tax collection, and Qin Yao set up tables and scales at the hall entrance, being the first to arrive every day and the last to leave.

After guarding for three consecutive days, Qin Yao realized this was not a solution; she couldn’t let herself suffer heatstroke as the entire village still awaited her leadership.

So, after dinner in the evening, she strolled around the village with her hands behind her back.

Successfully, she caught five villagers who were following in Liu Ji’s footsteps and pressed them at the ancestral hall entrance, demanding good work for the village chief!

What?

Can’t write, can’t read scales, can’t do math?

"Do you want to see how big the village chief’s fists are?" Qin Yao leaned on the bamboo chair with a wicked smile, twisting her wrist.

The five unemployed youths were so frightened that they dared not utter a single no, and learned hard! Learn to death right now!

In the midst of busyness, the Mid-Autumn Festival arrived.

In the village, ninety percent of the rice in the fields had been harvested, leaving only some in remote fields yet to be brought back.

During this time, the weather had been very cooperative, with no heavy rains.

This was a rare year of good harvest with favorable weather for the common folks.

On the Mid-Autumn Festival day, every household paused for a day off, and the stationery factory also took a day’s vacation.

People brought out the best food and drinks in their homes, gathering together to celebrate this rare joyous moment.

The old house invited Qin Yao’s family to celebrate the festival together, but she refused, choosing to celebrate this Mid-Autumn Festival well at her home this year.

"Let’s make mooncakes!" Qin Yao said enthusiastically.

Sanlang immediately responded, "Mother, I want to eat mooncakes!"

Si Niang glanced disdainfully at her little brother, "You’ll eat until you burst."

But when she turned to her mother, her expression turned to one of anticipation, "Mother, do you know how to make mooncakes?"

Seeing Da Lang, Second Lang, and Yin Le all looking curiously, Qin Yao spread her hands, "I don’t."

The crowd: "..."

"But someone surely does." Qin Yao went to the kitchen door, clapping her hands to catch the attention of Mrs. Li, who was busy kneading dough.

Mrs. Li wasn’t deaf; she had long heard the mother and sons chatting in the courtyard.

Turning and smiling, she said, "Wash your hands, and once I get the dough and filling ready, I’ll bring it to the main room, and everyone can make them together."

The children were immediately excited, rushing to line up at the sink to clean their hands before running to the main room to wait.

Qin Yao and Yin Le happily asked, "Can we help with anything?"

Mrs. Li unceremoniously instructed, "Madam, prepare the oven; Miss Le, clear the table in the main room; I’ll be done soon."

Teacher and pupil gave a firm nod, understanding their orders!

Once the main room and oven were ready, Mrs. Li had also prepared the ingredients.

Everyone gathered in the main room, learning to wrap mooncakes with Mrs. Li.

When using the family’s molds, Da Lang and Si Niang excitedly picked up the molds to introduce them:

"These are the plum flower and blessing character molds we made with Uncle Ah Wang last year!"

Suddenly, their mood turned low.

Qin Yao looked up and saw the four siblings plus Little Lai Fu, all showing longing expressions.

"What’s wrong? Missing Ah Wang?" she asked with a smile.

The five children nodded, Ah Wang had been gone for a long time.

Qin Yao smiled lightly, "If we count the days, they should be back next month, very soon."

Si Niang suddenly remembered her troublesome dad, worriedly muttering, "I wonder if father can manage to be second to last this time."

Second Lang was speechless.

Sanlang whispered, "Sister, you could hope for father to be second to last."

"Stop mumbling, Mrs. Li is about to make all the mooncakes herself." Da Lang reminded helplessly.

As for mother and Senior Sister Le, both were useless, judging by the plum blossom mooncakes that looked ready to burst from their pastry, Da Lang sighed deeply.

The young lad specifically set aside a small bowl of filling in front of the two, "Mother, Senior Sister Le, you two go play on your own."

Yin Le was delighted, "Really?"

Qin Yao glared at her pupil, pointing at the burst pastry mooncake, "Look at your creations, don’t you know how precious fine grain is? When these are baked, you’re going to eat them all!"

Yin Le widened her eyes in disbelief, teacher, do you not notice how messy your own mooncakes are?

Of course, she didn’t dare say this.

The teacher is everything, whatever the teacher says goes, it’s an honor for the disciple to take the blame for the teacher!

After fooling herself, Yin Le nodded heavily, "Teacher, rest assured, I will eat it all."

Qin Yao nodded in satisfaction, the disciple could be taught.

Putting down the mold in her hand, "There’s not much left, I’ll leave it to you youngsters to practice more."

With that, she retreated to her room, openly lying down.

Pulled out her abacus, calculating this year’s harvest for the family.

Yin Le, along with the four children, went to collect rent, bringing back 12,500 jin of rice and 1,100 jin of soybeans. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

The family’s five mu of watermelon fields sold for seventy-two taels of silver, producing 2,300 jin of rice from five mu of paddy fields.

With grain taxes reduced, the remainder was theirs.

The surplus grain from the past six months was combined with an additional amount, making up a total of 10,000 jin for storage, and the remaining 8,000 jin of rice was sold for 24 taels of silver at three cents per jin.

All the soybeans were kept for personal consumption; Mrs. Li, being skilled in cooking, alternated between making soy milk, tofu pudding, and tofu.

The soybeans could also be hulled and consumed as fresh vegetables in winter.

Alternatively, they could produce more tofu and process it into different types of dried bean curd.

Qin Yao considered adding another business direction, like selling Mrs. Li’s dried bean curd to restaurants.

However, after calculating the costs and profits, with high spice prices and the long production time for dried bean curd, labor was also limited, not to mention there were already businesses in town and in the county doing this, making competition fierce, and exhausting Mrs. Li wouldn’t yield much profit—she decisively gave up.

It’s better to keep making it for the family.

After making the last entry in the accounts, the abacus held the current total amount of silver Qin Yao had on hand: one thousand one hundred ninety-six taels.