“The Village Head doesn’t care to help us, right?” Chen Xiao Mi asked Lu Lin.
Lu Lin nodded: “That’s right. But I’m not angry or anything, I’ve actually seen it coming. Let’s get some help from other villages, and we also need to buy some black bricks, I don’t mind giving up the current floor renovation while we build new rooms.”
Chen Xiao Mi frowned: “Why bother?”
Lu Lin smiled: “We’re building a new room, why not make our own room more comfortable too?”
‘What a fussy rich kid!’ Chen Xiao Mi rolled his eyes inwardly, but he did not reject Lu Lin’s suggestion.
Soon the villagers heard the news that Lu Lin went to the Village Chief to seek help in building a new room. And they were stunned, they couldn’t believe how rich Chen Xiao Mi was! He was able to build a new room as soon as he bought the donkey cart. But some villagers consoled themselves by way of sour grapes: “I’d rather stay poor than be unpopular, no one wants to work for him in our entire village!”
Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi went to town the next day again. They went straight to the labor market to look for strong and healthy freelancers.
They chose a team of five people who were experienced in building houses. The team leader was called Liu Gui Yong, he was a man in his mid-thirties, his two sons and two young disciples were also in the team.
Liu Gui Yong and his team were always looking for work in the off-season on the farm, they hadn’t done any work for days when Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi were interested in hiring them. Liu Gui Yong really hated the feeling of going home empty-handed.
Chen Xiao Mi and Liu Gui Yong talked about wages quietly.
“Is it really 40 cents per day?” Liu Gui Yong felt that it was too good to be true.
“Only you are paid that high, your two sons will be paid 35 cents per day, and the two young disciples 20 cents per day, but I will provide one meal per day.” Chen Xiao Mi added.
It was a very generous offer. Liu Gui Yong made the quotation with the mindset that Chen Xiao Mi would definitely bargain, he was surprised to hear Chen Xiao Mi take the quotation without bargaining at all. But he knew why Chen Xiao Mi did not haggle once Chen Xiao Mi introduced himself, Liu Gui Yong had heard about Chen Xiao Mi’s story.
‘He must have had a hard time finding help, so he is willing to pay me and my team a fair price.’ Liu Gui Yong thought.
Liu Gui Yong was a great worker with a lot of experience, but he was used to people haggling with him because he was disabled from an accident a few years ago, and he had experienced discrimination ever since.
Disability was a big problem in that time and space, people would discriminate against you and you couldn’t even pursue a political career if you were disabled.
Liu Gui Yong was even more surprised when he found out that Chen Xiao Mi was from Big Stone Village, he wondered why Chen Xiao Mi would go to the trouble of going to the city and looking for workers from other villages.
Normally, your villagers would charge you less and they would work longer as they did not need to commute. But Liu Gui Yong did not ask Chen Xiao Mi, he just appreciated this job opportunity. The last thing he wanted Chen Xiao Mi to feel was that he actually did not want to work for him.
Liu Gui Yong and his team followed Chen Xiao Mi back to Big Stone Village, many villagers had seen them. They did not know who the strangers were, so they wondered, they could not believe Chen Xiao Mi had actually found workers from another village.
Liu Gui Yong and his team were stunned when they saw the kang in Chen Xiao Mi’s house, but they did not bother Chen Xiao Mi or Lu Lin with questions.
Liu Gui Yong looks around Chen Xiao Mi’s house, he is confident that Chen Xiao Mi can afford to pay them as he promised.
Lu Lin cooked lunch for them, yam porridge with minced meat and pickled vegetables made by Grandma Shen.
It was not a luxurious meal, but Liu Gui Yong and his team found the food quite delicious, they ate the porridge happily.
Rice was expensive in that time and place, Liu Gui Yong’s team had never met a boss who promised that they could eat as much as they wanted. Everyone was very grateful, the two young disciples’ eyes lit up when they saw the minced meat in the bowl. Lu Lin cooked a pot of porridge for them, and they finished it all.
They had seen Lu Lin use ‘muddy sticks’ as the main ingredient of the porridge, they found it surprising.
Lu Lin was very generous with the yam because they had money to buy real food now.
Lu Lin’s generosity paid off. Liu Gui Yong’s team worked extremely hard all day, none of them slacking off in the slightest. Lu Lin called it a day at dusk because he knew they all lived far away, he had even drove them to the exit of the village in his donkey cart.
T/N: What do you guys think? Would you rather be unpopular and rich or popular and poor? me personally I’d rather be rich im an introvert so I hate people to begin with lol. Comment below what you think of this chapter!!
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