38: Chapter 38 Clan Chief! Clan Chief! Young Master Tiger is going to cut off the piglet's testicles!

"White!"

The child in his mother's arms, either not knowing fear or truly unafraid, blinked his big eyes, pushed away his father's hand that was trying to cover them, and insisted on staring at the skeleton.

Seeing this, the old patriarch immediately praised, "This child has courage!"

"..." Li Mingyu closed his eyes, forcefully suppressing the churning complex emotions.

As a father, he did not like this kind of test of his child's courage.

Furthermore, as a teacher, he also couldn't quite accept that in the village where he was to teach, there were... white skeletons... walking around freely in broad daylight.

And the people around them actually looked as if this was commonplace.

Was this right?

Shouldn't ordinary commoners have scattered and fled at the sight of such a scene?

Liu Shenyou had the same doubts.

"Old Patriarch, what is this Skeleton Ghost?"

"That's not a Skeleton Ghost, that's one of our clansmen," the patriarch laughed heartily and said openly. "A few of our clansmen couldn't bear to leave us, so they begged the Mountain God to let them continue living with us in one place."

"That's right! They're all righteous and kind people," the clansmen following beside him immediately chimed in.

"We just settled down here, our clan is small, and there's a lot of work to be done."

"It's only after they became like this that they can work properly."

"Exactly, aside from sleeping in the soil at night, it's no different from being alive."

"The Mountain God made them this way, and they don't need to eat, which saves a lot of food!"

The other commoners of Li Family Village around them also started speaking up one after another.

"...Hah." Liu Shenyou's eyelids couldn't help but twitch.

For no other reason than a few words in the old patriarch's sentence that were off.

What did he mean by 'a few clansmen'?

In other words, there was more than one of these white skeletons?

He glanced at Li Mingyu.

Li Mingyu shook his head slightly.

They were already here; it was too late to say anything now.

Besides, with so many commoners around, it was unlikely Li Family Village would harm them.

They would observe the situation first.

"And this gentleman is?"

He patted his wife's arm reassuringly and turned his gaze to the person who had appeared beside the old patriarch at some unknown time.

Among those who had spoken up earlier, the one who said they could save a lot of food was this person.

He didn't look like a member of the Li Clan.

"This is Village Chief Zhang from Little Zhang Village," the old patriarch said. "Today, he's here leading the neighbors from Little and Big Zhang Villages and other places to build houses for us."

They currently had people from three or four villages gathered here.

There had to be a leader who had the final say.

The people from Little and Big Zhang Villages were the most numerous, so the leaders were naturally their respective village chiefs.

"I see," Li Mingyu nodded.

In the Great Yong Dynasty, every hundred households formed a 'Li', with one 'Lizheng' (village chief) appointed.

He was considered someone among the commoners who could speak to the authorities.

Yet at this moment, this village chief was walking side by side with the old patriarch, clearly treating him as an equal in status.

Looking at it this way, the Li Clan had established their authority over the situation.

Liu Shenyou also couldn't help but think to himself, "This Li Family Village has something about it."

As the saying goes, remote, impoverished places produce unruly people.

Don't think that the countryside is full of kind, honest commoners; these people are not easy to deal with.

If you can suppress them, it's fine. If you can't, and they swarm you and rob you, what can you do?

Could Li Family Village win people's hearts just by providing three meals a day?

People's hearts are insatiably greedy.

Why let you provide three meals?

If I rob you and go back home, I can eat as many meals as I want!

Although such people are few, just a few can spoil the whole pot like a piece of mouse droppings.

Once they take action, others will follow suit, and then the situation will spiral completely out of control.

"It seems what Young Master Zhang said, that everyone in Li Family Village practices martial arts, might not be a lie," Liu Shenyou narrowed his eyes, surveying the crowd not far ahead.

He easily noticed that within every group, there was always a person in charge.

This person had at least some aura of a Martial Artist.

Seeing this, his earlier desire to turn around and leave immediately upon seeing the Skeleton Ghost began to waver.

"Patriarch Li, could these two gentlemen be the teacher and martial Instructor you invited?" Village Chief Zhang asked at this point. "Hearing that one is a scholar with literary fortune protecting him and the other is a fourth-rank Martial Artist, this humble old man wanted to come and pay his respects."

As he spoke, he was about to bow.

Liu Shenyou quickly raised his hand to stop him, and Li Mingyu also said, "Village Chief Zhang, there's no need for that."

Only then did the Li clansmen somewhat realize: were they supposed to pay their respects upon meeting these two?

Everyone looked at the old patriarch.

The old patriarch straightened his back and watched with a smile.

Bowing was out of the question; it wasn't necessary.

These were hired teachers. They should be respected, but one couldn't lower oneself too much.

Otherwise, they might not be able to maintain authority.

If they couldn't maintain authority, there would be nothing but trouble in the future.

Just like the people hired to work here now.

"Old Patriarch, may we go take a look at what that thing is?" After exchanging a few words with Village Chief Zhang, Li Mingyu turned sideways and said to the old patriarch.

"Why not?" the old patriarch laughed. "It's a treasure bestowed upon our Li Family Village by the Mountain God. Since you two will be the village's teachers from now on, you naturally can look as much as you like."

Li Mingyu: "..."

The old patriarch laughed heartily, turned around first, and led them towards the bone plow.

When they got close.

Li Mingyu examined it carefully and said, "Is this a farming plow?"

"That's right, that's right, it's a plow!" Village Chief Zhang spoke before the old patriarch could. "These are three fine treasures!"

He also coveted those three treasures greatly.

If it weren't for borrowing these three treasures to plow the fields, they wouldn't be working so hard.

"Especially this one, it's simply a divine tool," he pointed at the Snake Bone Plow. "But ordinary people can't wield it. If you want to rent it, the Li Clan still has to send one of those three ghostly attendants to help us plow."

Hearing this, both Li Mingyu and Liu Shenyou understood.

So this was what the old patriarch meant by not paying wages.

The old patriarch revealed a smile.

Pay money?

That was out of the question.

The Tiger Young Master didn't manage a household, so he didn't know the cost of firewood and rice.

Besides, how much money did commoners see in a year?

Their Li Clan, newcomers here, hiring people to work—that would be showing off their wealth, and would most likely invite trouble.

If an ordinary family didn't have enough hands, they wouldn't easily hire outsiders; they usually helped each other out among familiar households.

First, they didn't have that much money; second, they feared strangers plotting to kill for wealth.

But the Young Master was right: not hiring people and relying solely on their clansmen wouldn't work.

They needed to move into new houses quickly so the clansmen could completely settle down, practice martial arts, study, and manage their own affairs.

So, a few days ago, he had Li Feipeng and others spread the news about hiring people—not only providing meals but also paying wages, and the wages were quite decent.

Sure enough, they lured people in.

When they arrived, the Li clansmen, having received the news, were putting on a display of martial arts in the open ground.

Regardless of gender or age, after the entire clan finished a set of fist and foot techniques, these people were completely awed.

Then they had the Young Master bring down the Mountain God's tablet and the City God's letter from the ancestral shrine to show them.

And they let them inadvertently see the clansmen and the Little Leopard using the bone plow.

And just like that, the wages were saved.

Not only were the wages saved, but among those who came, there were also people who knew how to build brick kilns.

So the old patriarch immediately decided: build brick-and-tile houses!

Build large blue-brick houses with tile roofs!

This was called 'save where you should, spend where you should'!

"Patriarch! Patriarch!"

While the group was still engrossed in looking at the plow, the Little Leopard came again, shouting, "Go take a look quickly, the Tiger Young Master wants to cut the balls off the newly bought piglet!"

"What?!"