Unlimited estates for rural beauty-Chapter 67: Regretting the Past
Feng Xuxu’s mouth twitched as she picked up the cup of water and gently sipped the tea, finally understanding why this person hadn’t been sold for such a long time. However, if he truly possessed talents, then an annual salary of 500 taels might be worth it. If he only had appearances, then that would be another matter.
Setting down the teacup, she smiled faintly, "I do wish to see if this person is indeed as... unusual as you claim."
The man from the Jiang Family looked at Feng Xuxu in surprise, uttered a "wait a moment," turned around, and went to fetch someone. After a little while, he returned alone, speaking haltingly, "Miss Feng, he is in the backyard washing up. He asked me to tell you to wait for him for a moment." After saying this, he quietly observed Feng Xuxu, and upon seeing no sign of anger, he finally felt at ease. In business, what matters is profit, and if it hadn’t been for the kindness she showed him at the beginning, he would have sold the man long ago.
Feng Xuxu nodded her head, contentedly drinking her tea. Before she knew it, half an hour had passed. She had already replenished the tea twice, but still had not seen the man. The Jiang Family man was anxious on the side, constantly craning his neck to look toward the back.
Mi Yan walked into the hall at a leisurely pace, dressed in a silver-white robe. After standing still, he sized up Feng Xuxu, who was sitting in the chair. To the side, the Jiang Family man was tugging at Mi Yan’s sleeve while sending him meaningful glances. Mi Yan remained motionless and silent until after a long pause, he lifted his robe and sat opposite Feng Xuxu, "I am Mi Yan. Presumably, Brother Wang has already told you about the conditions for buying me."
Feng Xuxu hooked the corner of her mouth faintly upon hearing this, "Yes, but on you, I seem to see no value of 500 taels per year."
Mi Yan smiled and shook his sleeves leisurely, "I also see no way out for myself in the presence of the young lady!"
Feng Xuxu raised an eyebrow; he was mocking her for not being able to afford his annual wage of 500 taels.
Hehehe, Feng Xuxu revealed a shallow smile, "Good, I hope my annual wage of 500 taels is well spent."
"I will not disappoint your expectations," Mi Yan said, also smiling.
After briefly packing some clothes, Mi Yan left with Feng Xuxu to return to the villa. Feng Xuxu led Mi Yan to the newly constructed Mandala Villa, "This is the newly built ’Mandala Villa.’ Only the courtyards have been built so far, with just some odds and ends left to finish."
Seeing the villa before him so different, Mi Yan couldn’t help but admire his own decision, "I will familiarize myself with the place as quickly as possible."
Feng Xuxu nodded, instructing Xia Lan to lead Butler Mi to a separate small courtyard reserved for the butler’s quarters.
It took a little under five days for the more than 300 people to complete the seventeen-acre distillery. Feng Xuxu marveled at the strength in numbers. Feng Xuxu took a tour around the distillery, noting the large warehouse, fermentation rooms, blending areas... it had everything that was needed, satisfying her as she nodded in approval. She then sent someone to the Luo family village to inform the village chief Luo that people could come up the mountain to pick fruits the next day.
Early the next morning, Chief Luo led the villagers to the entrance of the distillery. Feng Xuxu hurried to meet them, leading everyone straight into Spiritual Mountain. While directing, she warned to only pick the fruits that were in good condition. No spoiled or rotten ones. Groups of four or five people, or in threes and fives, were gathering fruits, all with smiles on their faces, "Miss Feng, don’t worry. We all know."
Once a floor of bamboo baskets was filled with fruit, it was sent down to the distillery. There, the staff weighed the fruit and recorded how much each person had brought in. Then, several women began to peel the fruit, "Right, peel off the lychee skins and put them in a basin for washing, then set them aside."
"Sister, I’m back," Feng Xi arrived, dusty and hurried, with several ox-carts behind him, loaded with large, custom-made wine vats.
"These are the ones I ordered. Each vat can hold about a hundred jin. This time, they’ve delivered twenty, and the rest will come early tomorrow," Feng Xi said as he finished drinking water, pointing to the workers unloading the vats outside and speaking to Feng Xuxu.
"Okay, big brother, you rest for a while. I’ll get them to clean out the vats and get them ready for wine making," Feng Xuxu turned and went out, instructing several women and her own family’s servants to clean all the vats and neatly arrange them in the warehouse.
Feng Xuxu weighed the rock sugar in the blending room, divided it into thirty bags, then took out a barrel of Spiritual Spring Water from her space and had it moved to the warehouse for later use.
Time flies; it was evening in no time. Each villager eagerly awaited to see how much they had picked during the day and how many copper coins they would receive, seemingly forgetting their fatigue.
"Luo Fei, one hundred and seventy jin, gets eighty-five copper coins."
"Luo Lin, two hundred and nine jin, gets one hundred and five copper coins."
"Luo Xu, one hundred and eighty-five jin, gets ninety-three copper coins."
"...ninety-nine copper coins."
"All of today’s wages have been distributed. If there’s work like this again in the future, I will still call on everyone." As the last villager’s wages were paid and the ledger closed, he scanned the crowd with a calm demeanor and announced.
The villagers of Luo Village happily took their wages, their smiles so wide they could hardly close their mouths, holding a day’s pay equivalent to more than three times what they would make elsewhere.
Some were happy, some were worried. While the people of Luo Village were happy, those from Feng Village were not, and they went to the village head’s house in droves. "Village head, why don’t you manage Feng Xuxu? She doesn’t hire people from our own village but goes to another village to hire," complained Feng Jia, Feng Xi’s wife, pouting and leaning against the door frame of the village head’s main room, looking unhappy as if someone owed her a colossal debt.
Along with Feng Jia, Feng Zhu’s wife, Feng Niu, also stood hands on hips, grumbling discontentedly: "Exactly, I heard today that people from Luo Village made a good sum of copper coins. Feng Xuxu is openly slighting our villagers." She finished speaking and spat in the direction of Nameless Mountain.
"Yes, village head, we’ve rented out all our land to the wealthy Xiao, leaving us with very little to work and still having to pay taxes and rent. With what’s left, getting a full stomach is hard, let alone finding work in town these days." One after another, the villagers expressed their discontent, not realizing that it was their own past credulity in harmful rumors that had forced Feng Xuxu to raise labor costs, resulting in the current scarcity of work.
The village head, vexed by their complaints, furrowed his brow and looked at each twisted face distorted by jealousy: "Hmph, now you realize the wages are high. When I called you to work, everyone agreed okay but the very next day you backed out. Slap your chest and tell me, did she not use you, or did you look down upon her? Now you regret, but it’s too late." Eyes red with anger, he surveyed the crowd and spoke loudly.
"Village head, it was all because we were incited by Feng Youcai that we believed it was true. Now it’s too late to know better; we came to ask you what we can do next to make amends," Feng Zhu squatted on the ground, with his head bowed, sighing. As soon as Feng Zhu finished speaking, it caused a wave of agreement.
"Hmph, if you ask me, driving Feng Youcai out of the village was too easy on him, he should have been handed over to the authorities," Feng Jiang’s wife said indignantly.
After hearing what Feng Jiang’s wife said, the village head reminisced about the time when Feng Youcai left the village with his family, carrying their bundles, leaving quietly in the middle of the night. By the time he found out, they had vanished without a trace.
