Rebirth of a Farmer's Dad

In order to minimize his losses and to prevent the villagers from taking advantage of him, Luo Feng racked his brains for a solution.

Luo Feng didn't want to contribute the bulk of the money; the majority would have to come from the villagers. But he knew their living conditions, and it wasn't realistic to expect them to raise such a large sum on their own. However, given Luo Feng's experience from two lifetimes, this wasn't a problem for him. Since ancient times, the two most effective methods of accumulating wealth have been increasing revenue and reducing expenditure. Looking at the villagers' tight budgets, like those on Wind Island, he knew that withholding money was out of the question. Therefore, the only option now was to increase revenue.

The village didn't have any special products. Most of its output consisted of agricultural byproducts and grains that the villagers dug out of the soil. These weren't even enough to feed themselves, let alone sell for money. However, Luo Feng suddenly remembered that there were many fruit trees on the nearby mountains, all growing naturally without anyone tending to them.

This is indeed a good way to make money. Although expecting to make a fortune from it is wishful thinking, it's not impossible to transfer the money meant for building the ancestral hall in the village out of it. People these days have the same bad habit: even if they have good stuff, they can't sell it for a good price. But this is no problem for Luo Feng at all. He's seen plenty of product packaging and advertising planning in his previous life; there's no reason he can't handle such a small matter.

Then Luo Feng began to devise a detailed plan for Penguin. This was something he definitely couldn't do alone; he would need everyone's help. As the saying goes, many hands make light work, but too many people can also lead to problems. If he couldn't come up with a management method in advance, he would definitely suffer the consequences.

The contemplative Luo Feng remained silent until the village chief began smoking his third pipe, at which point he finally spoke:

“Village chief, my shop has only been open for a short time. Don’t be fooled by how much I earn; my expenses are just as high. I don’t actually have much money on hand. I’m having some difficulties getting all this money out at once.”

“Fengzi, we didn’t expect you to come up with so much money all at once. Anyway, the ancestral hall will take time to build. We can just repair it gradually. Take what you have, okay?” The village chief said, taking a puff of his pipe. He was afraid of pushing Luo Feng too far.

"Village chief, no matter what, this is everyone's business. It wouldn't be right for me to pay for it all myself. I can't steal everyone's thunder, or people will gossip about me behind my back! Here's what I'm thinking: I'll show everyone a way to make money, and then we can all contribute. How about we use the money we earn as the repair fee for the ancestral hall?" Luo Feng said with a forced smile. He was very disdainful of the village chief's words. What did he mean by "slowly taking money"? Did he really think he was a fool, only interested in ripping people off by himself?

"What do you mean? Tell me in detail." The village chief perked up immediately upon hearing this. Nobody wants to constantly beg others for money. Besides, this is a way to make money; if it really works, it might even earn some extra income to supplement their household expenses.

"Yes, Fengzi, what new way have you thought of to make money? Tell us quickly. If it really works, it can earn some money for the family and make life a little easier for your wife and kids." Lao Shuan's thoughts were basically the same as the village chief's at this time.

"Here's the thing, there are a few orchards on the mountain next to our village. I'm planning to have the villagers pick some fruit when they have time to make dried fruit, and then we can try selling it in the county town." Luo Feng explained his idea in detail.

“Making dried fruit isn’t that complicated. Almost every household knows how to make dried fruit and jam. There’s nothing good in this remote mountain village, so this is the only thing that can satisfy the children’s cravings. But can this really work?” The village chief raised his doubts. In his opinion, these things were nothing special, something that anyone could make, and there was no way to make money from them.

"Old Shuan, what do you think?"

"Fengzi, to be honest, I also think this is unreliable. How about we try another method?" After hesitating for a long time, Lao Shuan finally voiced his thoughts. He didn't really believe that Luo Feng could succeed by doing this.

Looking at the village chief and Lao Shuan, their eyes filled with doubt and confusion, Luo Feng suddenly felt a strange mix of emotions. Perspective, oh perspective. Two people who had never left the mountains their entire lives—how much perspective could you expect from them? In their eyes, perhaps the whole world was the same as theirs; in other words, they believed that if they knew something, there was no reason why others couldn't.

This suddenly reminded Luo Feng of a little story he had heard before. A peasant couple was sitting on the edge of a field, imagining what the emperor and empress's daily lives were like. The farmer opened his mouth, thinking the emperor worked in the fields every day carrying a golden hoe. The farmer's wife chimed in, thinking the empress ate pancakes with scallions every day.

How ridiculous it is to view the life of an emperor through the eyes of a farmer! Yet, as one laughs, one feels a deep sadness. A broad perspective isn't something one is born with; it's something cultivated over time. Their lack of perspective is, frankly, a deficiency acquired later in life. And the root cause of this deficiency is the most terrifying aspect.

The scene Luo Feng was facing now was so similar to this story. You could say the village chief and Lao Shuan were a carbon copy of that peasant couple. In their subconscious, the only way to obtain money was perhaps to exploit their own land. They always fantasized about digging everything they needed from the land, but how ridiculous that seemed to Luo Feng! Didn't they ever consider that what could be obtained from the soil was finite?

Shortsightedness, extreme shortsightedness—that's one of their worst flaws. They always want to believe what their eyes can see, what they can actually see, and they wish someone could just put everything they need right in front of them. Perhaps they don't realize how ridiculous their thinking is; they might even smugly consider it their cleverness, passing on these so-called pieces of experience to the next generation, perpetuating this shortsightedness in other ways.

Thinking this through, Luo Feng dared not conceive of further. If this flawed thinking were to be passed down from generation to generation, the consequences would be terrifying. A person may not be able to choose their birth, but they should do their best to give the next generation the best, rather than using their own will to bind them, thus creating a mere replication between generations. Such a life would be utterly devoid of interest and utterly predictable.

"Maybe I should think of a way to build a primary school in the village." This thought suddenly popped into Luo Feng's mind. This was probably the only contribution he could make to those poor children in the village. However, he would have to wait until he had the money. Although building a school didn't require too much money now, Luo Feng didn't have the ability to come up with that much money all at once.

Finding the conversation unproductive, Luo Feng decided against continuing. He simply instructed the village chief to return and organize the villagers. They were to follow his orders, and whether it succeeded or not, he would give it a try. How could one amass wealth quickly without taking some drastic measures? Sadly, few had the courage to be the first to try something new. Perhaps this is why success always belongs to the few.