Chapter 186
A gentle night breeze caused the fire to sway from side to side.
With a blank expression, Village Chief Fu repeated Fan Xiaoxiao's words: "Yes, and no?"
What exactly do you mean?
Fan Xiaoxiao slowly flipped through the skewers in her hand, answering leisurely, "It means exactly what it says. What do you think of my meat skewers, Village Chief?"
Village Chief Fu didn't understand the purpose of Fan Xiaoxiao's question. Although he was somewhat unwilling, the meat skewers he ate tonight were indeed the most novel and delicious he had ever tasted.
He gritted his teeth, turned his face away, and whispered, "So-so! At least edible!"
Fan Xiaoxiao chuckled at his reluctant expression, but seeing the village chief's face turn pale and then red after hearing her laughter, she quickly stopped laughing and continued, "After finishing this, Village Chief Fu, would you like something to drink?"
"What would you like to drink?"
Village Chief Fu smacked his lips, wondering what kind of seasoning had been added to the kebabs he'd just eaten. Although the meat was undeniably fragrant and flavorful, Fan Xiaoxiao's reminder made his mouth feel a bit dry.
He picked up the water beside him and took a sip; the rustic tea was rather bitter. Moreover, once it entered his mouth, the tea immediately masked the taste of the meat skewers he had just eaten.
That's not it.
Village Chief Fu frowned, somewhat understanding what Fan Xiaoxiao was about to do.
"You want to make something to drink?"
Fan Xiaoxiao nodded and snapped her fingers.
“That’s right, Village Chief Fu, you know that the Celestial Venerable is a heavy drinker, right? My unique skill is brewing wine! Moreover, I guarantee that the wine I brew will be unique to our Ginkgo Village within a ten-mile radius.”
The village chief was swayed by her words, thinking that the girl's cooking was indeed delicious, and if it were wine instead... he might be able to trust her this time.
Moreover, the Celestial Venerable did indeed enjoy drinking; there was even an incident where he went to wipe out a bandit stronghold for a few jars of fine wine.
If what this woman said is true, then it seems to make sense that she received special treatment from the Heavenly Venerable.
But then he immediately thought that since the girl hadn't shown him anything, what if she was just trying to trick him?
Thinking of this, Village Chief Fu hesitated again, frowned, stroked his goatee, and asked, "You've said so much, but I haven't seen what you're talking about. How can you expect me to believe you?"
Hearing this, Fan Xiaoxiao sighed heavily: "I do want to produce something, but as you can see from the village chief, we're new here and haven't even built a house yet. How can I possibly make anything?"
“Once the house is built, I can do this without any worries.”
Village Chief Fu finally realized what was going on. It turned out that Fan Xiaoxiao had gone around in circles, only to bring up the topic of building houses again. His face darkened, and he nearly slapped Fan Xiaoxiao across the face with his long sleeve.
"Hmph! I think all you're really doing is trying to trick us into building your house faster!"
“Village Chief Fu, what I said is not wrong. Autumn is short, and building houses can ensure that we can get through the winter. Besides, I'm not letting you do this work for free.”
Fan Xiaoxiao's words caught the attention of Village Chief Fu, who, who was about to get up, sat back down: "Not working for free? You're going to pay us?!"
There's still some time before the autumn harvest. If building a house for Fan Xiaoxiao can earn some money, it will help supplement the villagers' household income.
Most importantly, if Fan Xiaoxiao is willing to pay the money, it will allow him to give an explanation to the families of the clan members he has summoned, and at least prevent others from thinking that he, as the village chief, is using the Heavenly Venerable's order to suppress the people in the village.
"Of course, I need to be paid! Although the Heavenly Venerable asked everyone to build me a house to live in, I would never do something like making everyone work for free."
After all, we'll all be from the same village soon, we'll see each other all the time. I think we should follow our local customs. Give them whatever amount is due. What does Village Chief Fu think?
"Ahem, if the Celestial Venerable were to inquire..."
Fan Xiaoxiao sensed the hesitation in Village Chief Fu's words, and she smiled slightly: "How could the Heavenly Venerable know about this? This is something only you and I know. Besides, the reason I'm paying everyone this money is so that you can work with me with peace of mind after next spring, isn't it?"
Village Chief Fu glanced at Fan Xiaoxiao's smile and found her much more pleasing to the eye now than when he first met her. However, he didn't rush to respond to Fan Xiaoxiao's suggestion of making money together in the spring.
"Well then, we'll build the house for you first, my wife. We can start the actual work next spring anyway, so there's no rush."
"Alright, oh right, there's one more thing I'd like to trouble the village chief with."
"What is it?"
"We're building a house here, and we're still short of some blue bricks. To be honest, we went to buy bricks yesterday. An old man said he had some in his village and asked me to go and get them. But I thought that place was a bit far. That's why I remembered this and wanted to ask if we had any blue bricks in our village. That way, I won't let people from other villages make money off me."
Village Chief Fu was quite satisfied with Fan Xiaoxiao's performance that evening, and he became much more patient with her. Hearing Fan Xiaoxiao speak so politely, repeatedly referring to her village, Village Chief Fu's impression of her improved considerably.
“I still have some blue bricks at home, I think it’s about a hundred pieces. If you want them, we’ll have them brought over tomorrow when they’re doing the work, at a price of one tael and eight mace.”
The price wasn't much different from the market price, and the wealthy village chief even offered to deliver it to her door, so Fan Xiaoxiao knew she was getting a good deal. She immediately asked the village chief for the hundred or so bricks, agreeing to settle the payment the next day.
After a satisfying meal, Fan Xiaoxiao and Uncle Wang escorted the villagers of Ginkgo Village to the bridge. Before leaving, Village Chief Fu told Fan Xiaoxiao the amount of wages for everyone building houses in Ginkgo Village and instructed her to inform the villagers who came to help the next day if possible.
“Village chief, you’re being too polite. Since I’ve already spoken, why would I question your price? Let’s go with this price. Tomorrow, we’ll notify everyone to come and build my house. Breakfast won’t be provided, but we’ll provide dinner. I’ve noted down today’s payment. We’ll make sure the villagers are paid the full amount for the next two days. We can’t shortchange our fellow villagers on their wages.”
Fan Xiaoxiao knew that the wealthy village chief was worried she wasn't confident about the prices and wanted her to go to town early the next morning to inquire about them. But if she actually did that, he would probably hesitate even more about what she was going to discuss with that old fox tonight.
Sure enough, after Fan Xiaoxiao finished speaking, a hint of satisfaction appeared on Village Chief Fu's face. He then informed the villagers who had come to help that day, and Fan Xiaoxiao tactfully wrote down everyone's names.
On the way back, Master Lu glanced at Fan Xiaoxiao several times, and finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Xiaoxiao, is it true that you're talking about doing business with them? You mean the brewing business?"
Fan Xiaoxiao walked a few steps forward quickly, her hands behind her back. Hearing Master Lu's question, she smiled slightly and gave the two people behind her a meaningful look.
"real."
(End of this chapter)
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