Chapter 54 Future Planning
Yazhou is far away from the mainland, located in a remote area with a hot and humid climate, and frequent severe weather such as heavy rain and typhoons, making life quite difficult for the people here.
In contrast, the government office had almost no other business except for the daily reception of exiled prisoners.
Although Chu Ci and his entourage were dressed simply, they were not as depressed and haggard as the other exiles.
If they took the household registration documents and the imperial exile documents with them on their own, they would easily be treated as fat sheep.
Once you are regarded as a fat sheep in Yazhou, you will easily become a leek to be harvested, and troubles will come one after another. This is not what Chu Ci wants.
That was not the purpose of the Queen asking the Fifth Prince to follow her.
Since this was the case, they might as well use the emperor's personal approval to grant them pardons. Furthermore, with the money and money to pave the way, the Fan family settled in the relatively wealthy Jingtian Village in just a quarter of an hour.
Moreover, more than half of the people in Jingtian Village were descendants of exiled criminals from the imperial court, and most of them could speak Mandarin. This saved them the trouble of language barriers when they first arrived in the village.
Compared with those who were directly driven to the Sin Village and had to complete the task of land reclamation every month, the Fan family's start was quite smooth.
Even so, when Fan Jingrui found the village chief and wanted to rent a yard in the village for temporary use, he encountered difficulties because there were no empty houses in the village.
In desperation, the group had to go into the city again and find a pretty good inn to stay and rest.
Eighteen days was the limit of what the Purple Envoy could do. So, as soon as the Fifth Prince was settled, the Purple Envoy asked to take his leave.
The Fifth Prince understood that the Embroidered Uniform Law Enforcement Officers were only loyal to the Emperor, and was mentally prepared for this. Therefore, he did not try to persuade them to stay.
But after the Purple-Robed Envoy led his team away, he was alone, staring at the direction of the capital for a long time.
It took so long that Chu Ci felt his eyes hurt. He quickly walked to the side of the Fifth Prince and said, "Cousin, instead of wasting time here lamenting the passing of time, why not find a way to make yourself strong enough to not be afraid of being abandoned by anyone? What do you think?"
Upon hearing this, the Fifth Prince sneered and looked directly at Chu Ci and said, "My cousin's wife is quite ambitious."
Chu Ci was speechless. He was just painting a pie in the sky to cheer him up. Could this be considered ambitious?
Chu Ci immediately forced a half-smile and said, "Then you can continue to stare blankly here."
After saying that, he rolled his eyes and turned away.
She was busy. After registering her household, she would have to start all over again. From big things like building a house and buying land to small things like furnishing the house, Chu Ci wanted to arrange everything according to her own wishes.
However, Mr. Fan didn't want to stand out too much right away, as most of the houses in the village were made of adobe. He thought he could make the yard bigger and build a few more houses.
This goes against Chu Ci's idea.
Although Chu Ci was anxious, he also knew that impatience at this time would only lead to bad consequences. After thinking for a moment, Chu Ci patiently asked, "Grandpa, may I ask what the Fan family plans to do for a living in the future?"
"If you want to integrate into the village, you must get along well with the villagers. Only by benefiting others can you benefit yourself. Yesterday at the village chief's house, I inquired and learned that most of the people around here who can read and write have inherited the knowledge from their ancestors. However, it takes at least three generations of effort to transform a criminal into a good person."
Chu Ci understood what the old man meant. "Grandpa, you want to build a private school in the village so that children from all over the surrounding villages can come to study at the Fan family. That way, the Fan family can be established."
Mr. Fan hadn't expected Chu Ci to understand his intentions, and he was delighted. "My grandson's wife understands my heart."
"Then Grandpa, have you ever thought about how the Fan family will make a living in the future after the private school stops making money?"
However, to his surprise, this seemingly understanding Chu Ci suddenly poured cold water on him. "I understand your intention. The private school can be built. But since it's for the purpose of establishing a foundation, the tuition fees cannot be too high. Otherwise, the end result will likely be that the private school will not only fail to make a profit, but may even lose money."
At this point, Chu Ci looked around and asked, "Grandpa, have you ever thought about how the Fan family will make a living in the future when the private school is no longer profitable?"
This time, not only Mr. Fan, but also several younger generations of the Fan family frowned.
He reviewed all the skills he had mastered in his mind. However, without exception, in the resource-scarce Yazhou, these skills were almost impossible to convert into money.
So they are all useless?
With this realization, everyone in the Fan family looked extremely ugly.
Chu Ci quickly realized that the situation was not good. She asked this question only to achieve her own goal, not to attack the Fan family. So she hurriedly said, "I saw a large field of sugarcane outside Jingtian Village. I happen to have a recipe for making sugar from sugarcane."
Even Mr. Fan was startled by the sugar recipe. The old lady, on the other hand, objected resolutely, saying, "Even if the Fan family is in dire straits, we cannot use a woman's dowry."
Chu Ci was really anxious now: "But..."
Old Mrs. Fan sighed, took Chu Ci's hand and patted it gently: "Granddaughter-in-law, I understand your good intentions."
"When we were in exile, it was a choice we had to make in order to survive. But now, the men of the Fan family are no longer weak and incompetent."
Chu Ci had no choice but to tell the truth: "But I'm doing this not just for the Fan family. It's also for myself. You must have noticed along the way that I like fancy clothes and delicious food. If I keep feeling aggrieved just to consider the opinions of the villagers, I will get sick. Grandma, please have pity on me?"
Seeing that the old lady remained unmoved, Chu Ci continued to try: "If it really doesn't work, we can write it down in black and white. The sugar factory will be my dowry. It has nothing to do with the Fan family. Do you think this is okay?"
Now that things have come to this, what else can Mrs. Fan do? "This is just the first time, and it won't happen again."
Unfortunately, Mrs. Fan, who had been respectable her entire life, had no idea how shameless Chu Ci could be to achieve his goals. "Grandma, I have a large area of wasteland outside of Guanjingtian Village, and I'd like to purchase some. It could be considered my dowry, is that okay?"
Old Mrs. Fan gritted her teeth and nodded. Chu Ci then pressed on, "Grandma, look. I, your granddaughter-in-law, have the money to build a workshop and buy land, but I don't have the money to honor my elders. Do you think this is justified?"
When Mrs. Fan heard this, her eyes widened. She realized that she had been tricked by Chu Ci. But as an elder, words spoken were like spilled water.
In desperation, he had no choice but to throw this problem to Fan Jingrui. After all, this was the trouble he had caused, so naturally he had to solve it. "Jingrui, what do you think?"
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