The Little Lucky Girl

When Old Man Ming saw him like that, he knew what he was thinking. He sighed, "When the weather gets cooler and the miasma in the forest is not so severe, I will take people there again and bring back as many people as I can. I think the current county magistrate is a good person. We can ask around. If the government is more relaxed, we will bring everyone to register; if not," he gritted his teeth, "my family will take care of them first."

Village Chief Shi disagreed, "We are all related, how can we let your family be responsible for everything? If there is any problem, our village will bear the responsibility together."

He rubbed his hands and said flatteringly: "Our village is still short of money, and we have to find ways to make more money. I heard from Lao Guo that Master Cao from the escort agency is particularly fond of the plaster, and he hinted that he wanted to buy a large number of them, saying that everyone in their escort agency can use them. What do you think if we do this business..."

Old Man Ming shook his head. "I can't make the decision on this matter. You have to ask my in-laws."

Village chief Shi was depressed. Grandpa Yang was a capable man, and he was afraid of him having any intentions towards others. Besides, it was others who brought good things to their village, so he didn't dare to ask for anything more.

After thinking about it, he decided that he had to find Ming Youyou and ask her to test Grandpa Yang's attitude first.

"And what do you think about learning martial arts?" Village Chief Shi continued.

"Why bother looking at it? Of course it's a good thing. Send all the children from our village over there. If they choose us, we can go and learn. If we knew some martial arts, we wouldn't be bullied like that when we were escaping."

Old Man Ming's voice deepened, and he said slowly, "If you ask me, don't just learn martial arts, you have to read books as well. In the past, because there were few children in our village, it was not cost-effective to invite teachers to give lectures. Now if the two villages are combined, the burden will be much smaller."

Village Chief Shi thought the same and said, "Okay, I'll call all the villagers over in a while and we'll discuss this."

The importance of studying does not need to be explained by the village chief; the villagers all understand it very well, especially those with children, who all have happy faces and keep nodding their heads.

"But where should this school be built?" asked a villager.

Village Chief Shi glanced at him and said, "The number of children in Xiaguan Village is at least twice as much as ours, and they pay twice as much as we do. Where do you think we should build it?"

The villagers said embarrassedly: "We understand this. I just think that if the school is opened in our village, everyone can go there to listen during the slack season, and learn a few more words. I heard that everyone in Xiaguan Village can read now, so the business is better than that of other villages."

"If what you said is true, then the scholars are the best at doing business, but I don't see them thinking about this." Everyone laughed.

The villagers were not convinced, "That's because they can earn enough just by studying. Isn't it said that books are the source of gold and silver?"

The villagers thought about it and agreed. Regardless of whether it makes money or not, reading can enlighten people and help them understand reason, which is a truth that everyone understands.

Everyone's minds became active, and they said to the village chief: "Why don't you go and discuss it with Xiaguan Village, and let our village pay a little more money, so that the school can be built here?"

Village Chief Shi couldn't help but look forward to it, "Okay, I'll risk my reputation and give it a try."

Thinking that his old face was actually not worth much, he persuaded Old Man Ming and Grandpa Yang to go to Village Chief Guo's house.

The group received a warm welcome from Xiaguan Village.

Naturally, there was no objection to the proposal to build a school. There were already several families in the village who wanted to send their children to study in the town, so this would make it even more convenient.

As for the location of the school, Village Chief Guo saw that Village Chief Shi, who was known for being thick-skinned, was embarrassed, so he did not refuse his face. He discussed with the elders and said, "How about this, we build schools in both villages and rotate them once a month? This way, the children of only one village will not suffer too much."

Village Chief Shi's eyes lit up. He had thought that there was no hope after watching them discuss for so long, but he didn't expect them to be so generous. He immediately grabbed Village Chief Guo's hand and said, "That's good, that's good. You are really thoughtful."

"But the mountain road is rugged. It's okay now. If the days are shorter in winter, it will be worrying for the children to climb the mountains sooner or later." Village chief Guo lit his pipe.

"So what you mean is that we send someone to escort the children back and forth?"

"Escort is definitely necessary, but one or two adults can't take care of so many children." Village Chief Guo handed him some tobacco and helped him light the fire. "How about this, we work together to build a road to connect the two villages, so that it will be convenient for travel in the future."

Village chief Shi took a few puffs of his pipe without saying anything.

When they came to settle in Yuqing County, they deliberately chose the most remote place marked by the county government to build a village.

One reason is that they are outsiders and are afraid of being bullied by the locals; the other reason is that they are thinking of bringing people over in the future, or waiting until Da Qi is stable before going back, so they choose a quiet place where no one will notice if there are more or fewer people in the village.

The only way in and out of the village now is a narrow road that comes down from the mountain. Not to mention people, even if a cat enters the village, everyone will notice it immediately.

If a road is really opened, it means that the possibility of outsiders entering the village will be greatly increased. If they find that there are many more people in the village, some things may not be kept secret...

Old Man Ming went over and squatted with Village Chief Shi. "How about this, let's not build the school at the entrance of the village. Find a location close to the village. I think the riverside is good. The scenery is nice and quiet. Let's build a road there later."

Village Chief Shi thought about it and felt that this was a safer approach. He nodded and said, "Okay, let's do it."

After eating and drinking to their heart's content, the cooperative education deal was also agreed upon. Seeing that Grandpa Yang was being forced to drink by the people from Xiaguan Village, Village Chief Shi quietly left the table, dragged over the eldest grandson of the Guo family, and asked him to take him to the official road to wait for Ming Youyou to finish school.

After listening to Village Chief Shi's roundabout way of explaining his intentions, Ming Youyou finally understood and nodded, "Okay, I'll go ask Grandpa."

She took out a pen and paper, frowned and thought, then wrote down a prescription, ran to the village and handed it to Grandpa Yang, and said, "The academy asked me to prepare a zither, but I don't have enough money, so I want to use this to make some medicine to sell."

"A guitar is very expensive." She didn't say that it could actually be rented.

Grandpa Yang didn't think too much about it. He read the prescription and saw that she had reduced the dosage of several medicines, and the effect of the medicine became milder. He nodded approvingly and said, "Okay, let's do it this way."

Ming Youyou winked at the two village chiefs in the distance, and the two old men immediately laughed happily. That was great, there was one more way to make money.