Unlimited estates for rural beauty-Chapter 68 Pleading

The village chief finally managed to send the villagers away and then sighed in secrecy, thinking about the bitter days the people in the village were enduring. He helplessly stood up and went to the mountain villa to find Feng Xuxu.

"Uncle Tiemu, it’s been some days since we’ve seen each other, how have you been recently?" Feng Xuxu invited Feng Tiemu to sit on the sofa in the hall. Feng Tiemu curiously looked at the long sofa; it was soft beneath him and even had a backrest to lean on when tired—very comfortable. He thought to himself that this long chair must have cost quite a bit of silver.

After Feng Tiemu was seated, Xia Lan brought over tea, placing a cup on the small table in front of Feng Tiemu and another on the small table in front of her young lady.

Looking around at Feng Xuxu’s spacious and bright hall, the decor of the hall was not extravagant, yet every scene and item was exhibited to its fullest. Setting down his teacup, Feng Tiemu said with a mixture of sorrow and honor, "Xuxu girl, I’ve come today with thick skin."

Upon hearing this, Feng Xuxu’s mind turned slightly, and she understood. She pursed her lips and smiled, "Uncle Tiemu, I know why you’ve come." She paused and then added, "Uncle Tiemu, it’s not that I don’t want to employ the people of Feng Family Village. The wages I offer are not low, but I didn’t expect the villagers to want a raise because of some rumors. I don’t feel at ease using such people."

Having heard this, Feng Tiemu, embarrassed and red-faced, sat there awkwardly, not knowing whether to rise or remain seated. Then, bracing himself, he pleaded in a pitiful voice, "Xuxu girl, won’t you really give them another chance? The villagers all realize their mistake now, they are just too ashamed to come, so they asked me to make this visit."

Feng Xuxu knit her brows and thought for a moment; she urgently needed workers at present, and it wasn’t easy to reclaim those five estates. After much deliberation, she decided to take the long view.

"Uncle Tiemu, let me think about it. Once I’ve reached a decision, I will send someone to notify you." Feng Xuxu thought about it and still gave a vague answer, on one hand, to see the Feng Family Villagers’ performance, and on the other hand, because some of her ideas were not yet fully formed.

"Ah, alright then, Xuxu girl, you should rest early. I’ll go back and wait for the news." As he said this, he stood up, ready to leave.

"Uncle Tiemu, wait a moment. This is some fruit wine I’ve just brewed recently, take it with you and try it." With that, she took a small jar weighing about two kilograms from Xia Lan’s hand and handed it to Feng Tiemu.

Haha, Feng Tiemu laughed heartily several times, "Then I won’t stand on ceremony. I’ll come back after I’ve tasted it, don’t find me annoying, yeah?" Feng Tiemu said half-jokingly.

"Don’t worry, Uncle Tiemu, there’s plenty of wine, enough to go around," Feng Xuxu said, smiling until her eyes formed crescents.

After sending Feng Tiemu away, Feng Xuxu returned to her room and ordered Xia Lan and Xia Lian not to keep watch that night. She then disappeared into her special space. Wandering in the space for a while, she harvested ripe Holy Maiden fruits and crops and stored them in the warehouse, then planted new seeds. After all this work, she felt thirsty, and, picking a bunch of grapes, washed them with clear water and tossed them into her mouth. The immediate burst of a rose-like sweet fragrance enveloped her taste buds. She couldn’t help but eat more. After eating, Feng Xuxu turned her head, feeling puzzled. Where did Xiaobai go? She hadn’t seen him all day. Then she connected to Xiaobai with her thoughts. After no response, she reluctantly exited the space.

Feng Xuxu approached her writing desk, spreading out some papers and writing for a while, then frowning in thought. Again and again, she paused, but finally, her eyebrows relaxed, and she looked at her creation with satisfaction.

"Ao... Sister Feng, Xiaobai is back." Xiaobai nudged open the window with his head and leaped to Feng Xuxu’s shoulder, where he settled steadily and affectionately nuzzled against Feng Xuxu’s tender little face.

Looking at the endearing Xiaobai, Feng Xuxu felt a wave of tenderness: "Where did you go? I couldn’t contact you, you know how worried I was?"

"Sister Feng, I went to Spiritual Mountain. I didn’t expect to find a mystical serpent there. I chased after it but didn’t catch it; it got away," Xiaobai said with regret, his tiger mouth turned down. It was frustrating to spend a whole day learning that Spiritual Mountain actually had an intelligent golden serpent and to miss it after several hours of waiting.

Feng Xuxu blinked, a golden serpent with intelligence? What was that about? "Xiaobai, you’re saying there’s a mystical serpent on Spiritual Mountain, and it’s golden?"

"Right, but it’s just a small golden serpent. It must have eaten a lot of herbs to awaken its intelligence. This is very rare; it happens maybe once every few thousand years. Not all animals can awaken their intelligence; only the direct descendants of the Golden King can," Xiaobai explained to Feng Xuxu.

Confused, Feng Xuxu asked, "The Golden King? Is it a golden snake?" Based on what Xiaobai had just said, it probably was.

"Yep, exactly. Each generation of the Golden King has only one offspring. Survival is not easy because their blood is a holy antidote, capable of neutralizing a thousand poisons," Xiaobai said, yawning and half-closing his tiger eyes. "Sister Feng, I’m going to sleep now. I’ll go wait early tomorrow; I don’t believe I can’t catch it." With that, he vanished into the space, leaving Feng Xuxu disheveled in the wind.

The day was sunny and clear. Feng Xuxu had finally finished brewing three thousand kilograms of wine, with an extra three hundred kilograms to boot. Early in the morning, Feng Xuxu called a few servants and headed straight for Li Family Village, because one of the newly purchased estates was located there.

When Feng Xuxu and her party arrived at Li Family Village, they attracted a crowd. Dismounting her horse, she instructed someone to knock on the door. An elderly uncle opened the door. Seeing a group of strangers, he asked with confusion, "Who are you looking for?"

Feng Xuxu, because naming was a headache, had the men named in sequence from the beginning, given that it was her purchase, they would take the surname Feng, while the girls would be represented by names of flowers.

Feng Yi stepped forward and said to the old uncle at the door, "This estate has been bought by our young lady, and we’ve come to inspect it today."

Hearing that the estate no longer belonged to squire Xiao, the old uncle did not dare to simply open the door. Instead, he said a word to wait and closed the door to go find the butler.

The in-house butler, busily indulging in pleasure, pushed away the chubby girl in his arms when he heard the news, causing her to pout unhappily. Curling up to him like an octopus, she came at him again. The butler frowned in disgust and sharply scolded, "Get out, can’t you see the men are talking business here? Not a shred of awareness."

The butler walked back and forth in the room, then suddenly stopped and turned to Goudan, grabbing his collar, "Did you see clearly how many people came?" 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Boss Li, it’s what old man Zhang at the gate said—just two men and one woman," Goudan replied obsequiously.