Chapter 18: Plan Comes True

After Gu Xiyue and Xiao Heng returned from Zhao Yancheng's house, they have not been idle these days.

The next day, Zhao Yancheng and Qian Fu took Xue Jun and Zhou Daying to Gu Xiyue's house.

Gu Xiyue took out his writing and drawing supplies, and asked Meixiang to grab a plate of sea salt from the cloth bag in her room and put it on the table.

The sea salt was crystal clear, and the grains were slightly larger than what they usually ate.

Zhao Yancheng and the other three stared at the plate of sea salt with some confusion.

Zhao Yancheng said, "Miss Gu, you asked me to bring someone here to discuss something, but you set out a dish of salt. What do you mean by that?"

Xiao Heng smiled silently and his gaze slowly moved to Gu Xiyue's face.

"This is sea salt." Gu Xiyue went straight to the point.

"sea salt?"

The four of them looked at each other, and Zhao Yancheng asked doubtfully, "Is this edible?"

Gu Xiyue nodded, "Of course you can eat it! You guys try it."

A few people hesitated, dipped their fingers in the bowls and dishes, and then put them in their mouths. In an instant, the four of them frowned.

“So salty!”

"Yes!" Gu Xiyue said with a smile: "Sea salt is slightly saltier than the salt we usually eat, so you should use less when cooking."

Xue Jun sighed and said, "Miss Gu asked us to come here, could it be that she wants to tell us that we can use sea salt in cooking in the future?"

He spread his hands and said helplessly, "Now you can see that we are about to run out of food. Even if we have salt, we have nowhere to use it."

Zhou Daying also looked at Gu Xiyue with confusion. He spoke less, as it was his first time to be in close contact with Miss Gu.

Zhao Yancheng and Mr. Qian remained silent, waiting for Miss Gu's next words.

In their eyes, Miss Gu is not an ordinary person.

“We can sell salt.”

As soon as Gu Xiyue said this, the four people opened their mouths wide and looked at her in disbelief.

Gu Xiyue knew their doubts and continued to talk without keeping them in suspense.

"As long as we can get out, we can find a way to sell the sea salt to people outside. We can use the money to sell food back to everyone."

Having said that, Gu Xiyue saw that they were excited at first, but then their expressions became gloomy. He smiled and continued.

"I know what you're thinking. A few days ago, I was playing at the beach and stumbled upon a lot of white frost on the thatch. I tasted it and found it salty, so I confirmed it was sea salt. Then I continued walking west along the beach and found that the thatch along the way was covered in sea salt. At the westernmost corner, I found a salt flat. I roughly estimated that there were several hundred kilograms of salt in it."

“Hundreds of pounds!”

Several people were stunned.

"After the rain stops in a few days, we can go out and look for buyers. It would be best if they were large buyers so that we can supply them with goods on a long-term basis."

"But..." Zhao Yancheng hesitated and said, "If we can really get out and find a buyer, there are only a few hundred kilograms of salt in the salt flat. Once we sell it, it will be gone."

Gu Xiyue smiled and nodded, "Brother Zhao is right, but our salt is sea salt."

Gu Xiyue bit the word "sea" very hard, and paused deliberately after speaking. Seeing that no one reacted, he said: "This salt is formed by seawater. We live by the sea, and sea salt is inexhaustible."

This time it was the four people's turn to be stunned.

Hundreds of them have lived here for several years, and the beach is just a few steps away. But how come no one has ever noticed the white frost on the thatch on the beach, let alone tasted it?

As soon as Miss Gu came here, she had mosquito repellent grass and sea salt. Now she wants to take them out to sell salt. If they can make money from selling the salt, they can buy food and other things.

Life seemed to have been revitalized by Miss Gu all of a sudden.

She could even get a chance to escape from the military commander, but why had they never tried and only obeyed him? Even after being obedient to the end, they still suffered a catastrophic disaster.

Miss Gu is their savior!

"Since we are all trapped in the Southern Wilds, as long as we can survive, everyone must want to live a good life, live in a big house, eat three meals a day, and live happily with their families. Aren't these our ultimate pursuits? Now we have a new way out. It may be difficult at first, but as long as we don't give up and work hard to find a way out, there will definitely be a better way."

Gu Xiyue's words made the people's blood boil, and they instantly saw hope in life.

Xue Jun smiled with his teeth showing. "Ms. Gu, we will listen to you. We will do whatever you ask us to do. But I have one more question."

"You say." Gu Xinyue nodded and looked at him with a smile.

"But there are nearly three hundred people in the Southern Wilds. Wouldn't it be too difficult to take care of them all?"

Gu Xiyue shook her head.

"We'll need a lot of labor next. Although sea salt is inexhaustible, it still requires manpower to do some things. The reason I only asked the four of you to come here today is because you four have some influence among the villagers. You will need to help me manage the villagers later. As long as everyone is willing to cooperate, I am confident that I can lead everyone to live a good life together."

Living well alone is not a good life. When you eat meat alone, your neighbors around you will not be able to make ends meet. It is not a pleasant thought to think about such a life. Only when everyone becomes rich can things be more fun. When everyone becomes rich, business will develop. When everyone has money, they will benefit from each other and become richer and richer.

From the very beginning, Gu Xiyue had no selfish motives.

Gu Xiyue gave everyone a blueprint for their future life. She was in high spirits and her eyes were shining when she spoke. Her focused and serious expression was very touching. Xiao Heng listened silently and stared at her, and was completely stunned.

Meixiang and Wei Lin were pouring water for everyone and listening with longing looks on their faces.

Seeing that the plan was almost complete, Gu Xiyue asked, "Do you have the confidence to work with me?"

The four people's minds have been completely revitalized, and they are even more confident than ever before. They believe that as long as they follow Miss Gu, their future life will definitely not be bad.

“Have faith!”

The four of them said in unison, "As long as Miss Gu doesn't think we are stupid, we are willing to work for her."

After the four of them finished speaking, they stood up at the same time, lined up in a row, and bowed to Miss Gu.

"Mrs. Gu, please accept our greetings no matter what. From now on, no matter if we have to endure hardships or dangers, as long as you say the word, we will not hesitate to die!"

The expressions of the few people were solemn, and they didn't seem to be joking at all. Just as Gu Xiyue was about to stand up to stop them, Xiao Heng reached out from behind and tugged at her sleeve.

Gu Xiyue glanced sideways and saw Xiao Heng shaking his head slightly at her, signaling her not to refuse.

She waited until everyone had finished bowing, then stood up, nodded in front of everyone, and said, "From now on, we will share both our success and failure. As long as I have a bite to eat, I won't let you go hungry."

The whole scene was like an alliance. In order to add a sense of ceremony, Xiao Heng also wrote an agreement and asked Gu Xiyue and four people to put their fingerprints on it.

This agreement provided Gu Xiyue with a loyal partner, and provided security for the other four people.

The best of both worlds!

Gu Xiyue felt warm in her heart. To use modern terms, she was now about to start a business, and the four of them were the first batch of loyal partners of her entrepreneurial team. In the future, she would work with them to lead the people of Southern Wilderness to live a good life. Just thinking about it made her blood boil.

Before they left, Gu Xiyue asked them to bring their wives with them when they came tomorrow, as they were also very important.

Day 3, Four

Everyone's wife came. Meixiang and Wei Lin brought their children to play in the west room, while Miss Gu brought everyone to hold a meeting in the east room. Xiao Heng acted as a clerk and wrote down Gu Xiyue's plans and arrangements one by one.

This went on for several days.

On the seventh day, Granny Liu also came.

In the past few days, Meixiang brought meals to Grandma Liu every day. She lay down every day to heal the wound on her arm. After these few days of recuperation, not only was the wound almost healed, but her face also became rounder.

She came with Zhao Yancheng and the others. Gu Xiyue was relieved to see that the wound on her arm had scabbed over and was almost healed.

Granny Liu saw that Zhao Yancheng's family and Qian Fu's family were not at home every day these days, and guessed that they had come to Miss Gu's house. Now that her wound had healed, she could no longer lie down, so she followed them.

Without waiting for Gu Xiyue to persuade her to rest, she hurriedly said: "Miss Gu, I hope you don't mind that I'm young and old. I'm a good cook. If you don't mind, I will help you cook in the future. You can do whatever you want!"

Gu Xiyue couldn't bear to see her tired, so Madam Li nodded and said, "Madam Gu, Granny Liu is right. She is a great cook. When we're too busy, she takes our children over to look after them and cooks for them. She also cooks for us, and the food tastes really good!"

Madam Liu also said, "Grandma Liu is still strong enough. She would be happy to help."

Gu Xiyue thought about it and agreed.

After several days of meetings and discussions, the final plan was finalized. After Gu Xiyue carefully read the plan and arrangements written by Xiao Heng, he suddenly realized that there was one aspect that had not been taken into consideration.

"We have to do things later, and we must keep up with public security issues. We haven't discussed this in the past few days..."

Before she could finish her words, Xiao Heng said, "Madam, leave the security to Wei Lin and me. In two days, we will select some people from the villagers to be responsible for security and escort you."

Gu Xiyue felt relieved when Xiao Heng mentioned this. A few days ago, on the night when Meixiang and Wei Lin went shopping, the store caught fire. Wei Lin and Xiao Heng had secretly caught the arsonist, tied his hands and feet, and put him in the woodshed behind the house.

Originally, Gu Xiyue was still thinking about how to persuade General Tong to open the east gate, but now with this arsonist, she already had an idea in her mind.

In the past few days, she has seen the villagers' desperate mentality. She has been holding meetings with Zhao Yancheng and others in a hurry just to save time and help everyone get out of their predicament as soon as possible.

The next day after the weather cleared up, she learned that everyone had gathered in the big square in the center of the village, and she knew the time had come.