Rebirth of a Farmer's Dad

The matter between Zhugan and Xiaocui finally reached a satisfactory conclusion. After friendly negotiations, both parties decided to set their wedding for the end of this year. This left more than half a year, enough time for Zhugan to learn his skills. However, Wang Dana's conditions were very harsh; basically, Zhugan had to obey his every command from now until the wedding. In other words, during this period, if he was told to go east, he couldn't go west; if he was told to catch a dog, he couldn't catch a chicken.

Although Luo Feng felt that these were completely unequal treaties, for some reason, Zhu Gan agreed to them all without a second thought and solemnly assured Wang Dana that he would definitely do a good job.

Since both of them were willing to give and take, Luo Feng decided not to say anything. After all, they chose their own path, and they couldn't blame anyone else if they regretted it later.

It's worth mentioning that Tiger, for the first time ever, asked Luo Feng for leave, saying that he planned to go back to the village next month to tear down his old house and try to build a brand new brick house before the snow. Building a house is always a big deal, no matter when, so Luo Feng readily agreed and told Tiger not to worry, that he would take care of everything at the shop while he was away.

Tiger's actions made everyone envious, and they seemed to see in him the hope of following Luo Feng in their struggle.

These days, people don't ask for much. Rural people hope to build a big brick house, cultivate a few acres of land, get married, have children, and live a comfortable life. City dwellers have higher aspirations, but they only hope to live in an apartment building and have a decent, stable job. Ideally, they'd have a secure job that can support their entire family.

So from this perspective, when Hu Zi said he wanted to build a big brick house, he had already achieved half of his life's success, at least that's what everyone thought. Of course, this doesn't include Luo Feng, who, having seen the world, wouldn't be so unambitious.

Because Tiger is going home next month, and considering that no one else in the shop can handle things independently besides him, Ruofeng decided to start strengthening Shunzi's training. This would relieve a lot of his own pressure, and besides, they are cousins ​​after all, so he should help him out whenever possible.

When Shunzi was told about this, he naturally had no objections. Right now, he couldn't wait to learn Luo Feng's skills so that, like Hu Zi, he could build a big brick house back home.

Counting the days, Tiger had been with him for over a year now. With his regular salary and bonuses, he should have saved quite a bit of money. Judging from Tiger's appearance, Luo Feng knew he couldn't have had much savings before; the money for building the house was probably what he'd saved up recently. But no matter how Luo Feng calculated it, it was impossible for him to have saved seven or eight thousand yuan in such a short time. Never mind, Train was like family; if he had some extra money, he'd help him out.

Luo Feng didn't plan to tell Hu Zi about this, fearing she wouldn't be able to accept it. After all, Hu Zi had been with him for so long, and he knew Hu Zi's personality better than anyone else.

With the house construction finished, just as Luo Feng was about to tell everyone to get back to work and not let business be delayed, he saw two old acquaintances appear at the shop entrance.

The village chief arrived sometime earlier, accompanied by Luo Laoshuan. In fact, among all the people in the village who were quite familiar with Luo Feng, Laoshuan was undoubtedly the only one.

"Isn't this the village chief? What brings you here again? Come on in, have a seat, let me pour you some water to soothe your throat." Upon seeing an old acquaintance, Luo Feng naturally greeted him warmly. Although he had always been at odds with the village chief, he couldn't openly admit it.

"Hey Luo Feng, you're really riding high these days, the whole village's talking about it. You seem to be having a pretty good time." The village chief's words were sarcastic from the start, and Luo Feng had no idea when he'd offended him. If it was about debt, hadn't they settled their accounts long ago? Aside from that, he didn't think he'd really offended him; he even occasionally sent him things.

Not expecting to get answers from the village chief, Luo Feng turned his gaze to Lao Shuan, who was standing to the side.

"It's like this, Fengzi, we came here specifically to see you. We have some things to discuss with you," Lao Shuan quickly explained when he saw Luo Feng looking at him with a puzzled expression.

"Come in and talk about what's going on. It's terribly hot outside." Although Luo Feng was very reluctant to see the village chief's face, he couldn't help but save face.

"Just tell me what's wrong. We're all from the same village. I'll definitely help if I can, but don't blame me if I can't. Luo Feng, I'm just being upfront about this so I won't get blamed later when I help you."

"The ancestral hall in the village hasn't been repaired for a long time, and now it's dilapidated everywhere. I'm planning to ask everyone to chip in some money to repair the ancestral hall." Seeing Luo Feng speak like this, the village chief didn't beat around the bush and went straight to the point, stating his purpose.

"That's a good thing, I agree too. You're here to collect your wedding gifts, aren't you?" Luo Feng said with a smile.

"Almost there. Everyone chipped in some money, but it's still not enough. Now we're just missing your share." The village chief said, taking out his large pipe and preparing to take a couple of puffs.

"How much did everyone contribute as a gift? I can't make an exception for everyone, let's just follow the usual practice," Luo Feng asked the village chief.

“Fengzi, you know everyone’s life isn’t very well-off, so even if we pool our money, it won’t be much. Besides, the ancestral hall is the face of the village; the ancestral halls in the neighboring villages are all better built than ours. As the old saying goes, we can’t lose face, can we? Even if we don’t make steamed buns, we still have to show our pride.” The village chief earnestly persuaded Luo Feng. At this point, even a fool could see what he was up to.

"Village chief, what do you mean? Do you expect me to pay for the repair of the village ancestral hall all by myself?" Upon hearing this, Luo Feng immediately became unhappy. The ancestral hall is the common property of the villagers, not his own. Why should he be the one to pay for it?

"This is a village matter, everyone will naturally help you, and of course you won't have to pay for it all yourself." The village chief was a shrewd man and naturally wouldn't go too far. Right now, Luo Feng was the only wealthy person in the entire Luo Family Village. If he was pushed too far, who would he turn to for the money to repair the ancestral hall?

“My family is doing a little better than Da Guo’s, so it shouldn’t be a big deal for me to contribute a little more money to help out. But you should at least give me a breakdown of the situation.” Luo Feng wasn’t stupid. He planned to sound out the village chief first and see what the final decision would be.

“I’ve calculated it; repairing an ancestral hall will cost around 1500 yuan. Even with everyone pooling their money, we’ve only managed to scrape together less than 500 yuan. Look at the remaining shortfall…” The village chief didn’t finish his sentence, but Luo Feng already understood what he meant.

"In other words, I paid twice as much money myself as the villagers combined for this. Isn't this blatant extortion? This is outrageous!" Luo Feng thought to himself, his anger finally showing.

"Village chief, do you think I'm easy to bully? The money everyone chipped in isn't even a fraction of what I owe. You're clearly making me, Luo Feng, a sucker. Do you think I'm that stupid?" Luo Feng said, slamming his fist on the table at the village chief.

"That's right, this is no way you do things! This is clearly bullying people!" Tiger, who was standing to the side, couldn't stand it anymore either. This was a matter in his own village, and he had the right to say something.

"That's right, Tiger, we almost forgot about you. You've saved up quite a bit of money following Luo Feng these past few days, you should contribute too," the village chief said, pointing at Tiger. The meaning was clear: he couldn't escape it either.

"What if we don't pay? What can you do to us?" Tiger was furious at this point, shouting with his neck stiff.

"Alright, nurse, say less. We're all from the same village, this is everyone's business!" Seeing that things were getting out of hand, Lao Shuan immediately stepped in to smooth things over. He didn't want the two sides to start fighting here, otherwise things would get really messy.

"No, I'm just helping out. But is this how you help? Isn't this blatant bullying?" Luo Feng wanted to argue his point, while Hu Zi had long wanted to grab a broom and chase them away.

"Isn't this because everyone really had no other choice? Otherwise, we wouldn't have come to you two," the village chief sighed, looking preoccupied. Whether his expression was genuine or feigned, no one could tell.

Luo Feng fell into deep thought. To be honest, he didn't want to help, but he had no choice. However, there had to be a limit to how much he could help; otherwise, everyone would think he was easy to bully. Once that happened, they would all gang up on him whenever he encountered difficulties. Once that door was opened, it would be very difficult to close it again. The only way forward was to find a solution that would allow the village ancestral hall to be repaired while also saving him from future troubles.