Chapter 19
Cui Youyi has many ideas about how to make Xiaoguan Village rich, but whether these ideas can be sorted out into feasible plans depends on how today's negotiations go.
When Cui Youyi was brought to the ancestral hall in Xiaoguan Village, she was completely confused - in her understanding, ancestral halls have been places where only family members can enter since ancient times. How could she, an outsider, enter someone else's ancestral hall like this?
Don't you want her to know that there is a god above her and ask her to speak more slowly?
Cui Youyi wanted to ask countless times, but was interrupted by the village chief until he finished burning the last incense stick.
"Girl, I saw your ice fighting competition with the Zhou family." The village chief suddenly said, his back to Cui Youyi, "Two games."
There was no need to beat around the bush and they could just talk directly about topics that both parties were interested in, which saved Cui Youyi a lot of trouble.
"Village Chief?"
Cui Youyi wanted to say something, but the village chief interrupted her with a raised hand.
"Your ice battle with the Zhou family was truly spectacular. I was thinking, if someone in our village had ice carving skills comparable to yours, we wouldn't be in this situation now."
The village chief's tone was a little heavy.
Everyone living in Xiaoguan Village has the surname Chen. They are all from the same clan and are more or less related to each other. On the surface, everyone is working together.
If a series of bad things had not happened in the past, their village would not be in its current situation.
Nowadays, people are restless and it’s all because of poverty.
After the new county magistrate arrived, he observed him for a while and found that he was a good person. He discussed with several elders in the clan and decided to find a suitable opportunity to organize the villagers to find some ice sculpture-related jobs.
Their village had wanted to try its hand at the ice sculpture business before, but it turned out that the ice sculpture business was not so easy to take on.
Basically every company has fixed partners. If Xiaoguancun wants to go out and get a share of the pie, it will naturally become a thorn in the eyes and muscles of some people. Not only will they encounter obstacles everywhere, but they will also provoke retaliation from some people.
The elders of the tribe no longer dared to bother with anything related to ice sculptures in order to protect their fellow tribesmen. However, other villages were thriving, while their Xiaoguan Village was getting worse and worse. After a long time, who would be willing to live like this?
Xiaoguan Village cannot be destroyed in his hands.
Cui Youyi raised her brows slightly and felt a lot more relieved. It seemed that she didn't need to convince the village chief.
There is hope for side quests two and three!
Cui Youyi extended an olive branch: "Village Chief, we can definitely cooperate."
Isn't it just about making the people of Xiaoguan Village rich by making ice sculptures? She can do it!
"Girl, there's no point in saying more." The village chief put on a smiling face and asked, "What can you bring to our Xiaoguan Village?"
It was the first time that Cui Youyi dealt with such a cunning old fox, so she did not dare to take it lightly.
She reviewed what the old lady had said before, as well as the information she had received from Lin Yinniang and the system. After thinking for a while, she said, "Village Chief, I think the young people in the village are very resistant to ice sculptures!"
She can think of solutions and find ways to make money, but Xiaoguan Village must also give her the necessary support, right?
She couldn't just lead the way and let the people in Xiaoguan Village lose their composure and hold her back.
She needs to complete the system tasks, but she is not the ancestor of Xiaoguan Village. If she needs to take charge of everything for them, wouldn't that be asking for trouble?
Besides, who knows except herself that she needs Xiaoguancun? Now, in everyone's eyes, Xiaoguancun needs something from her. The primary and secondary positions must be made clear. If you want to cooperate, you must show sincerity!
"A few unruly young people can't cause any big trouble." The village chief smiled and didn't care.
Cui Youyi did not dare to take it lightly: "But a thousand-mile dam is destroyed by an ant's blood. It is hard not to worry."
Cui Youyi didn't want to say anything unpleasant, but a single bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. She would be tied to Xiaoguan Village in the future, and they would share the opportunities and risks.
Cui Youyi refused to give in. She preferred to speak out the vilification upfront, pointing out all her concerns one by one and also needed the village chief's guarantee.
After many rounds of negotiations, Cui Youyi finally finalized the cooperation with Xiaoguancun.
The village chief went back to persuade the elders that during the entire period of the ice sculpture conference this year, all the labor force in Xiaoguan Village would need to be assigned tasks by Cui Youyi after completing the basic planting tasks.
Including but not limited to preliminary preparation work, such as ice harvesting, ice transportation, ice selling, etc.
In addition, Xiaoguan Village will provide basic material support to Cui Youyi's team to ensure that they have enough ice to practice ice carving techniques.
In addition, Cui Youyi will serve as the ice sculpture teacher of Xiaoguan Village. She can select some children from the village to teach and impart ice sculpture techniques to them. As for who to choose, it will be decided by Cui Youyi herself.
Cui Youyi always felt that the system would have a big task for her later. The first task she received was to carve an ice sculpture, which was very much like introductory learning.
The subsequent tasks she received made her famous in Ningguta, and she was required to participate in an ice sculpture conference.
She originally thought that the system would assign her some tasks such as winning the ice sculpture competition, but the core point of the latest system tasks was to let her inherit the ice sculpture culture in Xiaoguan Village, cultivate ice sculpture successors and lead Xiaoguan Village out of poverty and into prosperity.
Now it's Xiaoguan Village, what's the next mission? Isn't it always about moving from point to point? It's obvious that the next mission will revolve around Ningguta: cultivating successors, preserving ice sculpture culture, and improving the lives of the people of Ningguta...
Cui Youyi felt that she should prepare for the future.
Instead of being oppressed by the DDL given by the system, it is better to build a complete ice sculpture industry chain from production to sales, or at least get the road open first.
Cui Youyi didn't want to think about defeating the aristocratic families that held a monopoly in Ningguta, such as the Zhou family. Why was such a task entrusted to her? As the core figure in Ningguta's survival mission, Wang Jun had to contribute, right?
Cui Youyi assigned tasks to everyone perfectly in her mind.
Everything was finalized, and the village chief also sent people to invite several powerful elders from Xiaoguan Village. They had another intensive negotiation, which ended with the victory of Cui Youyi and the village chief.
Seeing that the upper-level resistance in Xiaoguan Village had disappeared, the village chief quickly sent people to summon the villagers to a meeting in the ancestral hall.
Cui Youyi, who was inexplicably involved in this, sat down obediently, ready to watch the village chief debate with the scholars and promote their plan in one fell swoop.
As they expected, there were still some voices of opposition in Xiaoguan Village. Many of the opponents were direct victims of the accidents. Some people asked whether they wanted to repeat the same mistakes.
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire ancestral hall suddenly fell silent, and the voices of opposition gradually grew stronger. For some families, being poor is not scary; what is scary is losing family members.
Cui Youyi looked at the suffering people and sighed in her heart.
This is a difficult matter to have both. No one has the right to persuade the injured person to let it go, but no one can pay for other people's pain for a lifetime, especially when their own life is not satisfactory.
The person who made the most noise was called Forrest Gump's mother. Her only son Forrest Gump died in that incident, and her husband passed away soon after.
What good was the ice sculpture, except that it would cause her to lose her son and husband?
She was a widow and she didn't want other people in the village to become widows too.
But the person who opposed her most fiercely was another widow.
"Mother A-Gump, I know you're suffering, but who among us isn't suffering?"
"Last year, my little grandson caught a cold. I begged every household in the village for three days and three nights before I could scrape together enough money to send him to the clinic. He can barely speak now. The doctor said if we had taken him there just one day earlier, he would have been fine. Now he's back, but he can't speak. He was delayed because of a lack of money."
"But the doctor said his disease can be cured as long as there is money! You all watched my son Acheng grow up. He has always been a good farmer, but he can't even afford my grandson's medical expenses all year round. I don't want my grandson to be called a mute or a stutterer in the future."
"Village chief, if there's anything that can earn you money, our Ah Cheng will go, and my wife will go too."
…
The more Cui Youyi listened, the more uncomfortable she felt. Hemp ropes are always short at the thinnest parts, and fate always picks on the unfortunate. Everyone opened up their own scars, as if just to prove whether the ice sculptures were useful or not.
It shouldn't be like this!
Why is all this blamed on the ice sculpture? Shouldn't it be the fault of those evil people?
Cui Youyi thought so and asked this question, as if she had lifted the last layer of fig leaf.
In the end, this village-wide negotiation ended with voluntary participation.
The village chief will make arrangements for those who are willing to take on ice sculpture work.
For those who are unwilling, except for those whose family members had accidents many years ago, the villagers will try to take care of them. Others who have concerns will be responsible for their own lives.
They tried their best.
In order to show his support for ice sculpture, the village chief's grandson Lin Erwen joined Cui Youyi's ice sculpture team after being selected by Cui Youyi, and together they prepared for this year's ice sculpture conference.
The five-man team is still short of one person.
*
After Cui Youyi finished talking with the village chief that day, she hurried to the county government office and "conspired" with Wang Jun for a long time.
The ice required for the ice sculpture competition needs to be more than 30 centimeters thick. It must not only be transparent and free of impurities, but also fresh and unmelted.
Ningguta would start preparing for ice harvesting in November every year, leaving Cui Youyi and others with few opportunities.
She needs to find a piece of land for the people of Xiaoguan Village to harvest ice before the ice harvesting begins.
Nowadays, several of Ningguta’s more famous rivers and lakes for ice harvesting have long been occupied by wealthy families.
Everyone divided the territory into different areas, and the rest of the people who wanted to collect ice could only pick up ice here and there, searching for "slippery ice". The ice collected in this way either had too many impurities to be carved, or had strange shapes that made it difficult to carve.
If ordinary people want to harvest ice, some of them need to walk a long way. After harvesting the ice and transporting it back, the cost is not only high, but also the manpower consumption is huge.
In recent years, as the land enclosed by wealthy families has become increasingly larger, the areas left for ordinary people to mine have become fewer and more remote.
Since the county government was hosting the ice sculpture festival, it could naturally find a good place to harvest ice early. This kind of work, which required the hard work of ordinary people, couldn't be contracted out to Xiaoguan Village this year? Cui Youyi had a wonderful idea!
*
Amidst the busyness, the ice sculpture competition also entered the preparation period. Cui Youyi took Lin Yinniang to stay in the inn prepared by the ice sculpture competition for the contestants in advance.
Through unremitting efforts, she, Hou Yi, Lin Yinniang and Lin Erwen finally recruited another teammate - Zhou Sheng.
Zhou Sheng came from a poor family. He was inspired by Cui Youyi and the Zhou family's ice fighting competition. After returning home, he practiced in seclusion and improved his ice carving skills a lot. When he was about to sign up for the competition, he suddenly heard about the reform of the competition system.
He is a skilled but aloof man. He looks down on ordinary people and often offends them. He simply cannot find the right person to form a team with.
He was rejected when he tried to invite people to form a team and was about to withdraw from the team competition. At this time, Cui Youyi came to him with Hou Yi, Lin Yinniang and Lin Erwen and invited him to form a team.
To be honest, he was a little hesitant at first. It was unheard of to form a team with women to participate in an ice sculpture competition, and he was also afraid of being criticized.
But then he thought, how could this not be another way to go down in history? He recognized Cui Youyi's ice carving skills, and if he could use this to slap those arrogant ice sculptors from aristocratic families in the face, Zhou Sheng felt relieved just thinking about it.
After hesitating for a while, he quickly accepted the invitation from Cui Youyi and others.
From then on, Cui Youyi's five-person ice sculpture team was completed.
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