"My fields, my wheat seedlings..."
Johan moved like a walking corpse, his eyes brimming with pain, as he headed for a steam train station.
His family had originally signed a long-term contract with the noble Viscount Xinsi, leasing a plot of land from the old lord to cultivate. They would hand over half of their harvest each year, and life was fairly decent.
Since his grandfather's time, they had accumulated farming tools one by one. By his father's generation, they had three small houses—not very sturdy but good enough to shelter from the wind and cold—and they had some livestock.
He had thought that life would continue this way.
As the eldest son in the family, he would inherit most of the property. His younger brothers, if they didn't go out to find their own food, would have to work themselves to death tilling the fields for him, in exchange for some grain.
