Chapter 110
Let’s talk about Li Si and his group. When they arrived at Yongchang County by passenger ship, it was already late, so they found an inn in the county to stay overnight. The next day, they went to the ferry early.
There were a lot of people, young and old from the four families, more than fifty people in total, carrying a lot of luggage. They were so numerous that they filled the ferry in an instant.
When Li Si, the key guide, went to ask for a boat, the small boat couldn't carry so many people, so they had to split up into two smaller boats. When he asked about their destination, he found out it was to the Donglin Township ferry. The boatman then asked, "Are you all going to Donglin Township to visit relatives? You don't look like that."
Li Si chuckled twice, "We're not going to Donglin Township. We're actually going to Xiaxi Village to visit my uncle!"
"So many people?"
"Hey, I can't make it in my hometown anymore. I heard that Jianzhou is a good place, so I came here."
"Oh, you're going to Xiaxi Village. Who is your uncle?"
"He works in some orange grove on some island, for a lady named Gu."
By this time, the deeds of Li Ji and Pei Liu had spread from all over the country to the county town, and many people were familiar with the names of these two people.
Just like how the number one thief Chuchu died in an internal fight in Changlai Inn, and then because of the curiosity of ordinary people looking for excitement, Changlai sold it for money. Now, Li Ji and Pei Liu's sniping of evil thieves is also a topic they must talk about after dinner.
When the boatman heard this, he took another look at the pedestrians and asked, "Is that Mr. Li your uncle?"
"Hero Li?"
Although Li Ji's reputation had already spread when Li Si came before, he came and left in a hurry, and Li Ji did not tell him about this matter, so Li Si did not know the details and was a little confused at this time.
Where did this hero Li come from? I'm afraid he's some chivalrous man with the same surname as my uncle!
"Then does your uncle work for Madam Gu from Xiaxi Village?" the boatman asked again.
"yes!"
"Hey!" The boatman looked at Li Si helplessly and dotingly, "That's your uncle. Your uncle is Hero Li. You must be back home and haven't heard of the glorious deeds of our Hero Li."
What's theirs?
This time, Lu Bo, Liang Shu, Luo San and others were all confused.
"Come on, come on, everyone, get on board!"
The two boatmen enthusiastically called them on board, and as they rowed south, they boasted to Li Daxia's family about the deeds of Li Daxia, who would become a big figure in the county. So before arriving at Donglin Township, Li Si and others finally had a general idea of the situation.
Uncle Liang and Luo San couldn't help laughing: "As expected of Brother Li!" Even though he came to Jianzhou, he is still a big shot.
"It seems that we made the right decision to come to Jianzhou!"
The Li family, including Li Si, also laughed and were quite proud of their family.
Li Si was grinning when he saw the boat slowly docking at a ferry crossing he didn't recognize. He immediately became anxious and shouted, "Hey, this isn't the Donglin Township ferry crossing we're going to!"
"This is not the Donglin Township ferry, this is the Xiaxi Village ferry!" explained the boatman.
"What?" Li Si was unconvinced. The last time he came here, he had tried to find his way to Xiaxi Village, but he had never heard of a ferry crossing.
"I'm not lying to you. You've arrived at the Xiaxi Village ferry. Just keep walking along the main road leading out of the ferry, and you'll reach Xiaxi Village," the boatman said. "This road and the ferry were built a while ago by the people of Xiaxi Village themselves. Nephew of Hero Li, if you don't trust me, you can get off the boat and ask the people at the ferry to see if I'm lying."
Li Si really got off the boat before it stopped.
At this time, the ferry that Li Si saw had gradually become popular. The jungle around the ferry had been cut down, and there was more open space and more boats moored.
Li Si was shocked. After asking a few people, they all confirmed that this was indeed the Xiaxi Village ferry. If he continued along the road ahead, he would reach Xiaxi Village. When he reached the ferry, he saw that everyone was waiting for him to express his opinion before getting off the boat. He nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, this is Xiaxi Village. There is a road that leads directly to Xiaxi Village."
Then he shouted to the other boat, "Uncle Lu, Brother Luo, we're getting off here."
"Oh, okay!"
"Hurry up and grab your things. We have to go down."
A group of people got off the boat in a noisy manner and were just asking how far it was from the ferry to Xiaxi Village when someone on the river at the ferry started shouting, "Hey, look, it's our Mr. Gu's boat!"
"Is she going to the county town again today?"
Upon hearing this, Li Si asked, "Mrs. Gu? Is she the second mother from Xiaxi Village?"
"Yes! You don't know him? Oh, you are not from our Xiaxi Village!"
Upon hearing this, Li Si hurried to the ferry and waved towards the brand new cargo ship, hoping that Gu Er Niang would notice him.
Gu Ran actually noticed the person waving desperately at the ferry. He looked closely and saw that it was Li Si.
She was planning to go to the county town today just to see if Li Ji and his family had arrived. They had already come to the Xiaxi Village ferry!
However, there are so many people around Li Si, are they all Li Ji’s family members?
The Li family is really a big family!
"Li Si, you're finally here!" Gu Ran had the cargo ship driven to the Xiaxi Village ferry, and then shouted to the people on the boat: "Go back to the island and inform Uncle Li that his family is here!"
"My uncle is in the orange grove today!"
"Of course, I'm usually in the orange grove and have to work!" Gu Ran smiled and looked at the people around Li Zhou. He soon felt that someone looked familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was. He thought it was Li Ji's family. They looked similar. After seeing Li Ji so many times, it was normal to feel familiar when seeing a few of his family members.
In fact, Uncle Liang and Luo San were both the escorts who escorted the exiled officials who met Gu Ran that time. However, it had been more than two years since the incident, and Gu Ran had not had any in-depth dealings with them, so it was normal that he did not remember them.
As for Uncle Liang and Luo San, they had already heard about Gu Ran and his family from Li Si. They were shocked before coming to Jianzhou, and now that they saw him in person, they did not show much surprise.
Seeing that they were carrying a lot of bags, Gu Ran kindly rented three donkey carts and took them to Xiaxi Village.
Li Ji's newly built big house is just to the right of Gu Ran's small house. Of course, like other houses in the village, there is still a distance between them. Behind that distance is the Shen family's mansion.
The Li family members saw that they had settled down here and had a newly built big house to live in. They cried with joy and felt that all the hardships along the way were worth it.
Village chief Wu naturally noticed the sudden arrival of such a large group of people in the village. When she found out that they were Li Ji's family members who had migrated to Xiaxi Village, she was overjoyed. She hoped that the village would prosper, and the more people came to Xiaxi Village, the better.
When they later learned that there were four families in total, they were overjoyed and were very enthusiastic about registering their household registration at the county government.
After Li Ji returned to Xiaxi Village and entered his own mansion, he was also stunned when he saw so many people.
When he held Song Ge'er, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, and listened to Li Si, Lu Bo and others talking about the reasons why they came to him, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.
Although his house was big, it could not accommodate so many people, so Li Ji went to find Village Chief Wu.
After hearing this, Village Chief Wu offered him an idea: "Why don't you ask the Shen family's steward? His mansion is empty, and the side rooms are unoccupied. You could probably arrange for someone to stay there for a night or two."
That makes sense.
So Li Ji went to find the manager of the Shen family, and the matter was actually settled.
So, everyone finally had a place to stay.
Li Ji gave Li Si some money and told him to go to Donglin Township to buy food. He also arranged to greet his old colleagues, and the next day he brought his son to find Gu Ran.
It happened that Mrs. Lin brought Qi Ge'er to the small house to play with the cat brothers and sisters. When Song Ge'er, who was brought by Li Ji, saw the adorable furry ball, his eyes lit up immediately.
"Second Mother, this is my son, Song Ge'er." Li Ji showed a fatherly smile on his face and rubbed Song Ge'er's head while he was hugging his thigh. "Song Ge'er, call me Auntie. This is your Auntie Gu."
"Hello, auntie." Song Ge'er has been in a good mood since he saw his father yesterday. He has become much more cheerful. When he heard his father say this, he called out to Gu Ran sweetly.
"Hello, Brother Song. Oh, you are more handsome than your father." Gu Ran squatted down and said to the little kid with a smile.
Song Ge'er looked up at his father, giggled, and said excitedly: "Auntie Gu, is this your cat?"
"Yes, does Songge like cats?"
When Gu Ran asked this, Qi Ge'er, who was playing with the furry balls in the courtyard, heard it and looked over with a little ball in his arms.
Song Ge'er nodded vigorously, impatiently: "I like it. Can I play with them?"
"Sure!" Gu Ran said, pointing at Qi Ge'er, "That's Qi Ge'er from our village. He also likes cats, and cats like him too. Go make friends with Qi Ge'er."
"Okay!" Song Ge'er agreed immediately and looked up at his father: "Dad?"
Li Ji didn't say anything, rubbed Song Ge'er's head, and released his hand.
Song Ge'er flew over.
Gu Ran stood up and saw the two little guys quickly playing together. He asked, "Why don't you see your wife?"
This hurt Li Ji. A cloud crossed his originally bright face, but it quickly disappeared. "I heard that after I was exiled, she abandoned Song Ge'er and remarried."
Gu Ran couldn't help but look at Li Ji with sympathy.
"Let's not talk about this. I'm looking for you for something else."
Naturally, this is for the purpose of settling the remaining three families in the future.
It was impossible for so many people to stay in the Shen family mansion forever, but the big house built by Li Ji could not accommodate them either. After thinking about it, Li Ji thought of the new houses built by Gu Ran and Uncle Wu San on Dunzi Island.
After constructing four more small houses outside the orange grove, Gu Ran built a few more, originally intending to use them to entertain guests or provide temporary shelter for customers who came to pick up goods.
Li Ji planned to rent another small house and settle the elderly, the weak, women and children in Xiaxi Village. As for the strong men from several families, he would bring them to the orange grove to work for Gu Ran.
"Not counting the guards at the ferry and the gate, the only guards in the orange grove are me, half of Pei Liuniang, and half of Grandpa Lu. Before, not many people dared to come to the island without permission, so I could handle it alone. Now that the orange grove has expanded, more outsiders are being arrested from time to time. Plus, the ferry is getting more and more busy, so we need more manpower." Li Ji explained, "Uncle Lu, Liang Er, Luo San, and my nephew are all officials. They have many strong men in their families, so this job is perfect for them."
Gu Ran was quite surprised. Only then did he realize that not all of the people in that large group were members of the Li family.
However, she knew that Li Si was a police officer just like Li Ji. Was there anyone else among them who had been a police officer?
"Yes, Uncle Lu was originally a clerk in the Ministry of Personnel at the government office. When I was just a hanger-on, he was the one who recommended me to work for the government. As for Liang Er and Luo San, you've seen them too. They were the officers who helped me to release you and we even hunted wolves together. Have you forgotten?"
Gu Ran suddenly realized that it was no wonder that she saw some familiar faces. So this was what was going on.
Since the guards are people who used to be officials, that would be even better. In the first life, there were people who specifically hired retired military personnel to do security because they were capable.
"As for the Orange Grove guards, I've already agreed to let you choose the men. Just look at the areas on the island where guards are needed and determine the number. I'll allocate the money to you based on the budget. There's no more."
"Okay." Li Ji nodded, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Then the orange grove will expand, so we'll need some odd jobs, right? Besides, the oranges will soon be ripe and ready to be picked. If the guards are full, can the remaining few be hired to do work in the orange grove?"
"If they can handle the work in the orange grove, of course."
"Several of us, including my brother, make a living from the land. But whether we take the land back or buy more land for them to farm, they have to learn the local methods of planting and cultivating rice and crops first, but it takes time to learn. However, we can't do that for the time being. They have to learn slowly. The work in the orange grove is not as delicate as farming. They are all practical people. You don't have to worry about the work, Second Mother." Li Ji said.
Gu Ran thought for a moment and asked tentatively, "Well, Uncle Li, actually, I'm still short of a manager for my orange grove."
Lin Erlang is still in charge of the chores in the orange grove, but Gu Ran and Pei Liu are still following up on some personnel transfers.
The orange grove has grown bigger, more houses have been built, and there are more and more servants. Everything is on the right track. Gu Ran doesn't want to be the one who calls the shots every day. He wants to be like Master Shen, staying behind the scenes and hiring a few more managers to be responsible for the details of the house, the money coming in and out, the land and property management, etc. Let them be busy while he rests. He only needs to deal with the managers in normal times and deal with problems when they arise, or concentrate on taking care of and improving the orange tree varieties, so that he doesn't have to worry about mundane affairs all the time.
"Well, Uncle Lu, I think you can give it a try." Li Ji recommended without any hesitation.
Gu Ran asked this question because he had heard that Uncle Lu, who came to seek refuge with Li Ji, used to be a clerk in the Ministry of Personnel of the government office.
In addition to officials of all ranks, the government office also has many clerks who have the same staffing as officials, but their treatment is naturally much worse than that of officials, and it is generally difficult for them to be promoted.
Officials are generally selected from among the local people. Some are recruited as officials because of their talents, while others start out as hangers-on and are promoted to officials because of their outstanding performance.
People like Li Ji and Li Si were officials, and Lu Shu was also an official.
In many government offices or county offices, since the prefects and county magistrates only work for a few years and then leave, they often rely on this group of officials in actual operations.
Officials in the local affairs under the jurisdiction of prefects and county magistrates mostly do practical work, so they are quite capable.
I heard that Uncle Lu did this, so I asked Li Ji about it. Li Ji said that Uncle Lu had actually handled various miscellaneous affairs in Zhengzhou. Although he was mainly responsible for the political affairs of two neighborhoods, he rarely made mistakes. So I met Uncle Lu again.
When Lu Bo learned that Gu Ran wanted to hire him as the manager of the orange grove, he was very excited and immediately wanted to show off his skills to Gu Ran. Gu Ran waved his hand and told him to go to the orange grove to try it first.
In this way, Li Ji not only helped the young men from these four families find jobs as soon as they arrived, but also helped them find a place to live.
As expected, Uncle Lu did not disappoint Gu Ran. As soon as he took office at the Orange Grove, he spent three days figuring out the operation scale, system, and staffing of the Orange Grove, and then managed things in an orderly manner.
Then, based on their performance and expertise, he recommended the promotion of two managers. One was responsible for miscellaneous tasks in the orange grove during normal times, and for picking and storing oranges during the harvest season. The other was in charge of the food, clothing, housing and transportation of the workers outside the grove during normal times, and was responsible for handling the shipment of oranges during the harvest season.
Gu Ran was very happy.
Finally, we found a capable manager who sorted out all the miscellaneous matters at hand.
In the end, she still filled in one item, which was naturally the production of orange marmalade, canned oranges and tangerine peel food series, which promoted Yang Jinling.
Because the sisters Jinling and Yinling had become familiar with the craftsmanship and steps after following her and Pei Liuniang in making these orange products. If they wanted to expand the mass production of these foods, they certainly couldn't just do it with Pei Liuniang and herself. After the orange harvest, they also hired someone else to do the job temporarily.
After all, the orange series products are seasonal. As long as we increase the staff during a certain period, there is no need to hire so many people at other times and pay extra salaries.
Just like the Liu and Zhu families' orange groves, during the harvest season they would hire outsiders to pick the fruit at a daily wage.
Yang Jinling was very excited when she learned that she had been promoted from the kitchen to the manager with a raise. "Second Mother, no, Gu, Sister Gu, don't worry, I will definitely do my best for you."
Gu Ran nodded.
This Yang Jinling really doesn't have any great abilities, but she is down-to-earth in her work. I feel at ease letting her be in charge. The only thing I'm worried about is that she will be less trapped by love in the future and not be impulsive, because once she's impulsive, she loses her brain.
As for the person in charge of the island's security, the responsibility naturally fell to Li Ji.
Originally, Gu Ran was very relieved that Li Ji was the only one guarding the forest. Now that Li Ji had hired so many people who had served as officials to serve as guards, Gu Ran felt even more relieved.
These days, Li Ji has more smiles on his face because his family has been reunited after settling down his fellow villagers who came to seek refuge there.
Tsk tsk, it turns out that people who have family around them are extraordinary.
Speaking of family, Gu Ran couldn't help but glance at Pei Liu again.
Pei Liu noticed:?
"Sixth Lady, it seems like you haven't had a rest in a long time, right?"
Pei Liuniang also has a lost sister, right? Why haven't we seen her looking for someone in the past two years?
"If there's nothing else, there's no need to take a rest."
"What about your sister? Aren't you going to look for her?" Gu Ran was surprised.
Pei Liu pursed his lips and said, "It's not that I won't go, but the situation is a bit complicated now."
complex?
Gu Ran didn't quite understand. In order to find her elder sister, Liu Niang often took days off and went out, and even searched all the orange groves in Jianzhou. Why did she seem to be less anxious later?
However, thinking about the accident that happened to the Liu and Zhu families' orange orchards a few years ago, it seems that several users' orange trees had the same problem and were pulled out later. Could it be that this made it more difficult for Liu Niang to find her sister?
but……
Gu Ran glanced at Pei Liu quickly, then looked away.
Pei Liu didn't care.
Ever since becoming a partner with Gu Erniang and jointly managing the orange grove, Pei Liu has quickly adapted to and is satisfied with his current life.
As for my elder sister, I could have looked for her according to the clues she left behind before, but now it seems that the situation is really complicated, and it is not convenient to talk about this with my second mother.
Because even he was a little confused about his sister's affairs, and had to reconsider the clues his sister provided him.
It's a bit unbelievable, but it's something I experienced personally. I can only wait until the time is right before telling Er Niang about it.
Er Niang, will you believe him?
Pei Liu also quickly glanced at Gu Ran and looked away.
Gu Ran noticed: ...
Oh!
In fact, she had begun to be suspicious of Pei Liu ever since that time when Mr. Jia went to Xiaxi Village to cause trouble for Mr. Shen.
From the beginning, no, I should say, from the very beginning, when she saw Pei Liuniang decisively killing people, she had some doubts. Even later, she had doubts, but when she saw that Pei Liuniang did not have any suspicious behavior and even got along very well with her, she was relieved again and again.
Pei Liuniang, is she really the lady from the Pei Mansion in Zhengzhou?
If so, how did she acquire such martial arts skills?
If not, then who is she?
Originally, she could explain it by saying that she slept on straw and tasted gall, secretly practicing martial arts to avenge her parents, but what about the fact that she acted quite familiar with the affairs of the number one thief in the world?
He knew that among the assassins who attacked the Shen family, Mr. Jia was the one with the strongest martial arts, ranked sixth in the A-rank, and he also predicted the behavior pattern of the number one thief, who wanted to kill all the Shen family members and destroy the village.
These should be information that outsiders cannot obtain, right?
But Liu Niang knew it, so, in fact, Liu Niang is also an assassin?
When this thought first came to his mind, Gu Ran broke out in a cold sweat.
At the beginning, she asked Xu San and Manager Xu for help, and asked Xu San to use Fu Sheng's connections to help find the eldest sister of the Pei family. What Xu San told her also surprised her.
"Where did Pei Liuniang get her sister from? Didn't her parents only have her as a daughter?"
"But Liu Niang said that her sister did end up in Minzhou!"
"Then, I'm afraid she's not my biological daughter, my cousin?"
She didn't think much about it at the time, but now she thinks that she might not have any cousin at all. Maybe Pei Liuniang was not Pei Liuniang at all. What if she was one of the assassins in the Pei family's massacre, and after sneaking into the Pei family, she disguised herself as Pei Liuniang?
Thinking of this, Gu Ran couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.
No way, no way?
But, if the current Pei Liuniang is fake, and was forged by an assassin, then why would she kill Master Jia and these evil villains?
They are both members of the same party.
There was the incident of Pei Liu looking for his elder sister the day before yesterday, and then when he learned that the number one thief in the world was arrested one after another, more news came out about the various evil deeds of this assassin organization. He knew that there was a crime of abducting or kidnapping young boys into the organization and training them to be assassins from an early age. Gu Ran had some vague guesses.
She was afraid that Pei Liu was also abducted into the Tianzi No. 1 Thief when he was young, and was unwilling to do so, so she took advantage of the Pei family murder case to change her identity and became Pei Liuniang, thus escaping from the Tianzi No. 1 Thief. She also got the news that her elder sister who was lost in childhood was in Minzhou, so she went to Minzhou and embarked on the journey to find her biological sister.
Unfortunately, the road was tortuous and I still hadn’t found my sister even after almost three years in Jianzhou.
Gu Ran imagined a tragic story of sisters being separated, and felt even more sympathy for Liu Niang.
It's so pitiful. If this is true, then Liu Niang is even more miserable than the real Pei Liu Niang.
Although the real Liu Niang of the Pei family had her parents killed by her enemies, she still managed to survive in the cracks of the oppression. Liu Niang was abducted into the devil's cave at a young age. God knows how much suffering she went through in order to cultivate such skills!
She only saw Liu Niang kill the villain Feng Duojin, and she never saw Liu Niang use violence to kill anyone since then. In their daily interactions, she also found that Liu Niang did not have any tendency to be violent and murderous, which showed that Liu Niang was not a bad woman.
Well, this is a good lady who was forced to go astray, but finally saved herself successfully and turned over a new leaf!
So Gu Ran felt relieved about Pei Liu, but he didn't expect that because of Pei Liu's true identity, the biggest crisis was approaching step by step.
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