Chapter 78 When will the school construction begin?

After another seven or eight days, most of the farmers in the village had finished their farm work.

Normally, after working at such high intensity for a long time, everyone should have a good rest.

But the villagers have long been accustomed to being busy and cannot sit still. Many people have come to the village chief to ask when Gu Jiayue will start building the house.

Seeing that most families had finished their farm work, the village chief asked everyone to be patient and said he would go and ask.

He put his hands behind his back and walked slowly towards the Gu family.

At this time, Gu Jiayue was teaching in the main hall. The Gu family members were busy with their work, but they tried not to make any noise for fear of disturbing the children's studies.

Ever since the Gu family saw the usefulness of Gu's father's mats, they had cut a lot of bamboo and brought it back. Now that the busy farming season was over, it was a good time to weave mats at home.

When the weather gets hot, you can spread it on the bed to relieve the heat.

After a discussion, the three generations of grandparents and grandchildren quickly decided on a plan, dividing the bamboo, separating the bamboo strips, and weaving it. Soon, an exquisite round fan appeared before their eyes.

Grandpa Gu tried it and said with a smile, "Hey, you know what, it really works."

Uncle Gu took it and fanned it, saying, "Not bad, but a little rough. The bamboo strips are a bit too big. It could be finer."

"Well, let's try cutting the bamboo strips thinner. I'll trim the burrs on this one first and then give it to Jiayue to try." Grandpa Gu made the final decision, and everyone lowered their heads and got busy again.

When the village chief came, he saw this scene and was very satisfied.

He felt that he was doing a good job as the village chief.

Although the village has a large population and there are occasional minor frictions, there has never been any major trouble.

Look at the villages next door; they're in chaos. Some are behaving indecently and fooling around with widows, others are abandoning their wives and children, selling them off, and even locking their parents in pig pens and making them eat pig food.

Listen, this is not something a human would do.

And Xinghua Village was even more bustling. It was said that a family had ganged up on the honest and kind Old Third Family, not only snatching their daughter's marriage but also pushing her off a cliff, hoping to end it all by killing her.

Fortunately, the little girl was lucky and climbed out of the mountain by herself.

But later on, I heard that the little girl's personality changed drastically. She changed from her previous timid appearance to become more aggressive. She even separated from her grandparents on behalf of her parents. Now the family lives in a dilapidated house not far from Taohua Village.

Alas, their village is still the best, without all those troubles. Everyone works together and lives in harmony, and life will definitely get better and better.

"Uncle and aunt, are you busy?"

When the village chief called out, Grandma Gu, who was sitting under the eaves mending shoe soles, was the first to see him. She quickly stood up with a smile on her face and said, "Village chief, are you here? Please take a seat. Chunyan, bring some water."

The village chief waved his hand and said, "Don't bother, Auntie. I'm here to look for Jiayue. Is she here?" As he spoke, he reached out and picked up a stool and sat down next to Grandpa Gu. He then asked, "What is your uncle doing?"

Grandpa Gu picked up the fan he had just made and handed it to the village chief, saying, "Now that we've finished our farm work, the whole family is idle at home. The weather is getting hotter, so I thought of making some fans to help us keep cool."

The village chief took the fan and fanned himself with it, saying, "Wow, it's really good. It has much stronger wind than a palm leaf fan. You must teach me how to make one someday."

As they were talking, Gu Jiayue was in the main room. She heard the village chief as soon as he said he was looking for her.

But she didn't leave immediately. Instead, she arranged for the four children to write big characters, and then came out. "Uncle Village Chief, what do you want to talk to me about?"

The village chief quickly put down his tea and said, "Look, these past two days, many villagers have come to ask me when you're going to start construction so they can arrange time to help. If it's late, they'll go to the county town to find work first."

Gu Jiayue immediately smiled happily. The school she had been longing for was finally going to be built.

"How about we start tomorrow?"

The village chief nodded and asked, "Okay, then how many workers do we need? How will the wages be calculated? Jiayue, do you have a plan in mind?"

Gu Jiayue nodded quickly. "Uncle Village Chief, you know I bought a lot of land, so naturally I have to clear it all. But the most important thing right now is to build a house. It doesn't matter how many people in the village are willing to do it. The more the better. Women are also welcome. But the pay for men is 20 wen a day, and for women 15 wen a day, with lunch and dinner included. Uncle Village Chief, do you think this is okay?"

Hundreds of acres of land, if you want to finish it quickly, the more people the better. Men are responsible for building houses and digging stones, while women help with moving and lifting.

There is strength in numbers. If the tools cannot keep up, we can rely on manpower.

"Twenty wen? Are you sure?" The village chief was stunned. Could it be that this girl didn't know the market? Carrying sandbags at the county dock only made twelve wen a day.

"Don't worry, village chief. I understand everything clearly. It is indeed 20 cents a day for male workers and 15 cents a day for female workers. But I also have requirements. You can't cheat after taking the money. I don't want such people." Gu Jiayue naturally had her own considerations.

Her job is not easy.

The land they bought was not flat at all. It was full of all kinds of strange-shaped stones. Although there were no tall trees, there were quite a lot of thatch, vines and the like.

It is not easy to build a house or a school on it.

Digging the foundation alone was a huge undertaking. That's why she wanted to offer high wages and free meals. This way, everyone would be well fed and well paid, and they would naturally work harder.

There is only less than a month and a half left in the time given by the system, and she is really afraid of not being able to complete the task.

"Okay, okay, since you have your own rules, I won't say much. Leave the recruitment to me, don't worry. I'll go back and tell everyone to sign up if they want to work." After the village chief said this, he stood up and was about to leave.

Grandpa Gu quickly tried to persuade him to stay: "What are you busy with? Come on after dinner."

"No, it's still early. I'll go tell the villagers about the job openings." How could the village chief not hear that this was a polite remark? After all, it was not long after breakfast, and during the slack season, people generally didn't eat lunch.

After another round of polite exchanges, the village chief was finally about to leave. Gu Jiayue hurried to see him off and said, "Thank you for your help, village chief. I'll have Hu Zi come over to help you right away."

The village chief walked to the gate of the yard and suddenly seemed to remember something. He slapped his forehead and turned back and said, "Jiayue, do you still remember the man I found on the land you bought some time ago?"

After hearing this, Gu Jiayue was confused for a moment, then reacted and said, "Oh, oh, I remember. What happened? Dead? Oh, how pitiful."

The village chief looked at Gu Jiayue helplessly. This girl usually seemed quite smart, so why did she act stupid sometimes?

"He's not dead. He's recovered from his injuries. When he said goodbye to me today, he said he wanted to see you."

"Ah, village chief, you didn't hand the person over to the government?" Gu Jiayue was very puzzled. How could the village chief dare to keep a person of unknown origin who was seriously injured at home?

We went to arrest people at that time. No, when we rescued people, didn’t we tell the village chief that we would hand them over to the government?

"When I saw him at that time, the wounds on his body were just scratches, probably caused by rolling down the mountain. He didn't have any weapons on him, so he shouldn't be a bad guy. So I..." The village chief touched his nose, feeling a little embarrassed.

In fact, there was another reason he didn't say. He thought the man was very handsome and was dressed in silk and other things. He was obviously a rich man, so he thought of keeping him at home to recuperate and get some compensation when he recovered.

Hey, he guessed it right. The man was very generous. Not only did he give him ten taels of silver this morning, he also gave him a letter, saying that if he had any trouble in the future, he could go to Li's house on the north street of the county town to find him.

The village chief's little trick was not difficult to guess, so Gu Jiayue didn't expose him and asked, "Then what? Why did he want to see me?"

"Well, he said that after he rolled down the hill, he vaguely saw two women, and it was an old man like me who saved him. I said it was you who reported the incident. He wanted to thank you."

Before Gu Jiayue could say anything, the village chief continued, "But I rejected you. I told you it was inconvenient. He didn't say anything, but gave me a jade pendant and asked me to pass it on to you. He said that if you have any problems in the future, you can use this jade pendant to go to the Li family in the county to find him."

Seeing the village chief take out the jade pendant from his arms, Gu Jiayue nimbly took two steps back and said, "No, no, I didn't do anything. Village chief, you can keep it yourself. I don't want it."

There are two major taboos in time travel - don't be tempted by money and don't be tempted by beauty.