156: Villager incidents

Chu Shengfan rubbed his fingers against his palm, silently calculating. He definitely didn't have enough money to buy this courtyard, and even paying ten years' rent at once was a bit much.

Just as he was considering asking for a smaller courtyard to rent, Sun Chunchen took out a paper note shimmering with golden light and handed it to the young woman.

"Then let's buy it."

Suddenly having a gold note thrust in front of her, the young woman, who had wanted to provide a more detailed introduction, was stunned. Then she snapped out of it, a truly sincere smile appearing on her face.

"Al... Alright, I'll go prepare the contract right away. But would you like to go and see the place in person?"

"No need. As long as it's the same as the images."

Even here in Thousand Spirit Prefecture City, this was the first time the young woman had seen such a wealthy and generous customer who would sign a contract without even doing a site visit.

Moreover, that gold note was something only super VIPs of Jingyuan Bank could issue. She hadn't expected this group, whose clothes didn't look like much, to be hidden nobles.

Chu Shengfan looked at the gold note, his clear eyes filled with confusion. This was truly the first time he had seen such a mode of consumption. Was that gold note money?

While Chu Shengfan was lost in confusion, the young woman and Sun Chunchen had already finished signing the contract. Once the seal was stamped, Sun Chunchen officially owned a property of his own in Thousand Spirit City.

On the way to the courtyard, escorted by people from Yunshu Trading Firm, Chu Shengfan asked in confusion, "Grandpa Sun, what was that gold note?"

"It's a type of withdrawal voucher for the Jingyuan Dynasty. The amount on that gold note is exactly 200,000 Source Spirit Stone."

Chu Shengfan seemed to remember something. "Just like the money houses used by ordinary people."

"Correct, but this bank is backed by the royal Family of the Jingyuan Dynasty, so you don't have to worry about it not being recognized within the dynasty's borders."

After turning through many streets, the group finally stopped on a street that looked very prosperous.

The staff from Yunshu Trading Firm led Chu Shengfan and the others out of the carriage pulled by a Source Beast and into the fifth shop on the street.

It was almost identical to the phantom image they had seen at Yunshu Trading Firm, except the storefront and courtyard lacked much of the necessary furniture, making it look quite empty.

After confirming with Sun Chunchen that there were no issues with the shop, the staff from Yunshu Trading Firm took their leave to return and report.

After a simple cleanup, the group of four settled in for the time being... Meanwhile, at Qixia Mountain.

Steward Fu sat in a chair, reporting the matters related to Thousand Insect Town to Chu Qinhui.

"Young Master, there are three families in Thousand Insect Town. There's the Yu Family, whose daughter married into the County Magistrate's Office; the Mo Family, which has a Spirit Rank expert and greater overall strength; and finally, the Huang Family, which only recently rose to become a Noble Family.

The Yu and Mo families have been established in Thousand Insect Town for a long time and aren't easily bought, so we set our sights on the Huang Family, which only recently became a Noble Family.

Only by standing behind this Huang Family can they allow our influence to penetrate into Thousand Insect Town."

Chu Qinhui tapped his palm. "What is the situation with this Huang Family? Have you investigated their Family values and the character of the Clan Chief?"

"I have. This Huang Clan Chief previously went by the title of Huang Daxian. The Source Beast he contracted seems to be extremely skilled in Gu poison arts, and his personality is somewhat eccentric.

However, a few months ago, he happened to obtain a Origin Artifact from somewhere and successfully established his Noble Family. Currently, the Huang Family consists only of him and his newlywed wife, so the Family is simple and unlikely to leak any information.

Moreover, since becoming a Noble Family, his flighty and eccentric personality seems to have changed quite a bit."

Steward Fu spoke in detail; clearly, he had put a lot of effort into investigating before cooperating with this Huang Daxian.

Hearing the name 'Huang Daxian', Chu Qinhui felt it was strangely familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before.

"This cooperation must be handled with caution. If the other two families find out that our Chu Family's hand has reached into their town, they will surely retaliate fiercely.

Also, we must maintain some reservations in our cooperation with this Huang Daxian; don't let anyone stab us in the back."

Steward Fu nodded. "Although the Huang Family head is eccentric, he clearly has a clever mind. If he wants to establish his Family's foundation in Thousand Insect Town, he knows he needs to rely on the help our Chu Family provides.

Betraying our Chu Family would bring more harm than good. Besides, we are currently only entrusting them to sell the Source Beasts from our shop; even if someone looked into it, there's nothing they can find fault with."

Chu Qinhui nodded in relief. "That is for the best."

Taking a sip of tea, Chu Qinhui seemed to remember something. "How is that Jiang Yan performing?"

Hearing Chu Qinhui specifically ask about Jiang Yan, Steward Fu paid extra attention. "He is quite steady-minded and has his own ideas when handling matters. If he is nurtured well, he will be a rare talent."

Upon hearing this, a few more smiles appeared on Chu Qinhui's face. "This kid... please look after him more, Steward Fu. Give him as much training as possible."

Steward Fu was sharp-witted. Jiang Yan and Young Mistress Jiang Nian... there was likely some blood relation there. Even if it was a distant relative, since he had received the Young Master's special instructions, he needed to take it seriously.

His smile remained unchanged. "Don't worry, Young Master, I will certainly nurture him well."

Seeing that Chu Qinhui had no other matters to arrange, Steward Fu stood up to take his leave. He still needed to keep a constant eye on Thousand Insect Town.

Not long after Steward Fu left, another servant stepped outside Chu Qinhui's study. After steadying his breath, he knocked and reported,

"Young Master, there's a problem with the herb collection today. Do you want to go and see for yourself?"

Chu Qinhui frowned slightly. If it were an ordinary problem that a steward could solve, it definitely wouldn't have reached him.

So he immediately stood up and walked out of the courtyard, telling the servant to explain the situation to him as they walked.

"This afternoon, when Steward Li went down the mountain to collect herbs, everything was fine at first. But when he reached the original Chen Family Village, the roots of their herbs were all rotten. Nearly a dozen acres of herbs suddenly became low-quality.

The people of Chen Family Village weren't happy. Someone among them claimed to have accidentally seen villagers from Tuwozi Village quietly scattering black medicinal powder in their fields under the cover of night, causing their months of harvest to be destroyed overnight.

Naturally, the villagers of Tuwozi Village were unhappy about the accusation. The villagers from both villages are now in an uproar over this. Steward Li can't quite control them, so he sent me to fetch you."

From the servant's clear description, Chu Qinhui learned the general overview of the entire matter.

Leading the servant, Chu Qinhui quickly arrived at the scene and saw the noisy scene at the foot of the mountain.

The villagers were split into three groups. Two of them were holding various farming tools, divided into a large group and a small group, glaring at each other like tigers watching their prey.

Steward Li, whom the servant had mentioned, stood in the center of the villagers, trying to stop both sides with great anger. As for the third group, they were villagers from the other two villages who were watching the commotion or trying to intervene.

Seeing this scene, Chu Qinhui felt a surge of anger involuntarily rushing to his head.

Standing outside the crowd, he gave a cold, low shout, "Go ahead, fight until you all perish together."

A Different-rank Contract Master was already capable of releasing their Aura from their body. The Aura of someone at his Realm might not affect fellow Contract Masters,

But for these Mortals, it was like a heavy hammer striking their chests, making their breathing feel labored.

The crowd fell into a dead silence. Someone finally reacted and shouted respectfully, "Young Master of the Main Family."

Then more and more voices followed, "Young Master of the Main Family."

The crowded masses split to both sides, revealing a path leading to the very center.

Chu Qinhui paced to the center of the crowd, his eyes coldly scanning the two village chiefs involved in the conflict. He stared until both chiefs looked everywhere—at the sky, at the ground—anywhere but at Chu Qinhui.

Steward Li breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Chu Qinhui, as if he had seen a savior.

"Young Master, the villagers of these two villages are making a scene over those herbs."

Chu Qinhui nodded. "I already know the general situation."

He first went to the edge of the field and picked up a herb stacked there to inspect. The leaves were green and the growth was vigorous; it looked like a good specimen,

But at the root, there were many black burn marks, as if it had been corroded by something.

The Ginseng Doll jumped into the field and searched carefully. As if it had discovered something, it stomped its feet on the ground in anger and pointed at some black granules among the brown soil, gesturing something to Chu Qinhui.

Through their mental connection, Chu Qinhui understood what the Ginseng Doll wanted to express. He nodded to the Ginseng Doll and then turned to look at Steward Li.

"Collect these herbs at the normal price. Someone indeed maliciously scattered something in the fields."

Since the master of the house had spoken, Steward Li naturally had no objections.

Hearing Chu Qinhui's words, the villagers of the original Chen Family Village couldn't help but look joyful. The villagers of Tuwozi Village didn't show much change, seemingly still indignant over the false accusations from the Chen Family Village.

"These herbs can be collected normally, but the fact that your two villages almost started a riot cannot be easily overlooked."

Chu Qinhui's words caused the joy on the faces of the Chen Family Village villagers to fade.

"Right now, you both have your own stories. I cannot distinguish who is right, and I don't have that much time to determine the rights and wrongs.

Next quarter, the taxes for both Chen Family Village and Tuwozi Village will be increased by twenty percent."

Hearing the punishment he announced, the villagers of both villages widened their eyes. Increasing taxes undoubtedly hit them where it hurt most. Even though the taxes the Chu Family collected were very low in the entire Heyu Town, who would ever think they had too much money left for themselves?

Seeing some people silently showing dissatisfied expressions, Chu Qinhui didn't care. "This time it's just a tax penalty. If there is another conflict like this instead of reporting it in time...

Those who provoke disputes will be expelled from Qixia Village."

When Chu Qinhui said this, his tone was icy, letting the surrounding villagers know he was absolutely not joking.

No one dared to look up and meet Chu Qinhui's gaze again, fearing he would find any excuse to expel them from Qixia Village, even though they believed in their hearts that Chu Qinhui was not such a person.

"The village chiefs, come with me for a moment." After saying this, Chu Qinhui walked up the mountain.

The village chiefs, including the Fuhe Village Chief and Qingsha Village Chief who had been acting as background characters, looked at each other, seemingly not expecting that they would be involved today.

The village chiefs dispersed the villagers gathered there. The Chen Family Village Chief asked several clan elders to watch the trade for him, and then he followed the other village chiefs up the mountain.

Half an hour later, in the front hall of the Chu Family Residence.

The village chiefs sat in their seats tremblingly because Chu Qinhui's expression was currently cold and hard. It was clear he was in a bad mood, and they didn't know what arrangements awaited them next.

"Now that everyone is here, I'll speak plainly."

Chu Qinhui looked around and then said coldly, "Now that the four villages have merged into one, I was mindful of your past sentiments and allowed you to continue living according to your original villages for the time being.

But the current situation is not what I expected. Instead of the sentiments between villages growing stronger, you are working together to exclude others, turning a perfectly good Qixia Village into four small cliques.

This makes me very displeased."

Hearing Chu Qinhui's words, the village chiefs felt even more like they were sitting on pins and needles.

Chen Yuwen, the village chief of Chen Family Village, cupped his hands and said apologetically, "Today's fault lies with me for not properly soothing my villagers' emotions. Please do not be angry because of this, Young Master. After I return, I will certainly advocate for reason and make them set aside their village differences."

Although the four villages had merged into one Qixia Village, for the sake of management, the four village chiefs still managed their original villagers.

So until now, Qixia Village still had four small cliques, with a faint tendency to exclude each other.

Today it was because of the location of field allocations; tomorrow it would be because of whether the distributed seedlings were the best. This often led to many petty grievances.

Hearing Chen Yuwen's words, the other three village chiefs also echoed, "We will also go back and teach them well; such a thing will definitely not happen again."

Chu Qinhui slowly shook his head, his voice somewhat cold. "I thought I had been gentle enough with you, yet I still got this result.

Tomorrow, every household will redraw lots to reallocate housing. Furthermore, for families with more than two sons who are all married, they must split the household and live separately."

Split the household? This news instantly stunned the village chiefs.

They suddenly realized that this time, Chu Qinhui was clearly playing for keeps.

Although they had a thousand words of refusal in their hearts, at this moment, the village chiefs did not dare to say more.

Chu Qinhui did not ask the village chiefs if they had any opinions on this as he had before; instead, he directly began discussing the next matter.

"The foot of the mountain is quite unstable. This herb root rot incident might not necessarily have been done by villagers out of jealousy; it could also have come from outside the village, just to affect our stability.

Therefore, I have decided to draw able-bodied men from the village to form a patrol team. They will regularly patrol the herb fields and the village to discover any saboteurs in time and safeguard the village's stability."

The village chiefs looked at each other. "This proposal is excellent; we support it."

Chu Qinhui gave a cold smile; they had no choice but to support it. "For now, we will set up six teams, patrolling and guarding at different times and locations."

"Yes."

As for the selection of personnel, it would have to wait until after the housing allocation tomorrow.