Expansion of The House; A Deal Was Made (3)
What. The. Hell?
While this might be the truth, Cheng Xiao Xiao still felt unjust. The words came only from An Hungniang, but judging from the looks of the other da niang and aunties, they all had the same idea!
It was after a long while before Cheng Xiao Xiao finally calmed down and said to them, “Fellow da niang and aunties. Maybe we should be upfront about how things will be handled. As each family might have different thoughts, I will treat each case differently. Why don’t we do this? Why don’t you all go home and discuss with your family members how long will your kids be staying at the Cheng’s. Once we have that settled, we will provide each of you different benefits!
“For example, we can divide them into long-term and short-term. Long-term and short-term naturally will not have the same benefit, and they will learn different things at the Cheng’s. I will bring these items up in front of the patriarch in a couple of days so get it all cleared out. What do you think?”
“Well….”
The few village women exchanged their looks. They knew full well that what Cheng Xiao Xiao said was the truth. Except for An Hung niang, who straight up said, “Why in the next couple of days? Why can’t we get it all settled right now? You want me to feed her for two more days? Seriously!”
“An da niang, if you don’t like this arrangement, feel free to go talk to the patriarch!”
After saying that, Cheng Xiao Xiao ignored her and went back into the field to pick her vegetables.
“You!!” An Hung niang was so angry that her face was beet red and said to the ones next to her, “Shidi niang, look at that attitude of hers! That’s no way to treat one’s elders! This is outrageous!”
“Alright, alright, An Hung niang, why don’t you stop shouting for the time being and follow Xiao Xiao’s arrangement. Let’s go home first today!”
“Hrm! I should never have came. Now I am even more pissed that I was before!”
The village women took their daughters and left.
After dinner she brought this up to her parents briefly before entering into the dimension.
After entering the dimension, Cheng Xiao Xiao did not resume the position and start cultivating right away. Since she was already a martial apprentice, she could spare a few moments.
“Young mistress, you are in a foul mood eh?”
Smiling, little Yuteng flew down from the crystal fruit tree and sat on her shoulder.
Cheng Xiao Xiao glanced at her quickly and said, “You saw everything that happened today! How can I be in a good mood!”
“Hehe, it’s your fault for being too nice. Someone like An Hung niang, you should just kick her out straight away. Why did you bother to engage with her?”
“Kick her out! She will shout till your ears fall off!” Cheng Xiao Xiao shook her head, “What we need to do now is figure out what to do with these ‘diners’ under the false pretense as ‘maids’!”
“Young mistress. That’s your business, I am not sure what to do with them. If you ask me, it’s simple. Everybody will come here everyday and help out with household chores and be fed till they turn 14. Once they turn 14, they can go home if they so choose. We will take in the loyal ones who want to stay. And that will be that!”
“Yeah, but then we will definitely be the morons!”
“Yeah, but so what? It’s not like we can’t afford to feed them. Besides, it will give you a good opportunity to learn about them. It’s better than taking them all in at once then finding out that only a handful of them are reliable. Wouldn’t that be worse?”
“Okay, I guess you made a good point there!”
“Hehe, young mistress. You really should cultivate. It take you three months to go from the preparatory stage to become a martial apprentice. Even though that’s like a genius in the eyes of a commoner. But it’s laughable to just be a martial apprentice at your age!”
“What’s so laughable about it?” Cheng Xiao Xiao lifted her hand and flicked her little forehead with her fingers. Not so happily, she said, “You knew I have only been doing it for three months! What’s the big deal?”
“Ow! Why did you flick me?” Little Yuteng rubbed her forehead and asked again, “Young mistress, would you like a snow ginseng? I can give you one!”
“Nah, I am already progressing fast enough cultivating in here rather than outside. If I use snow ginseng on top of that, it’d be like taking off in a shuttle. That’s not necessarily a good thing!”
“Up to you. Young mistress hurry up and cultivate. Don’t embarrass me!”
“Damn you!” Cheng Xiao Xiao picked up little Yuteng and tossed her up into the crystal fruit tree before she sat down crossed legs, prepared to start cultivating.
“OH, Oh, Oh!!” Little Yuteng did several somersaults in midair to stabilize her small body before she flew back toward Cheng Xiao Xiao shouting, “Young mistress, wait!!”
“What now?” Cheng Xiao Xiao opened her eyes and asked.
“Young mistress, you have been too overly occupied by stuff that has been going on around the house lately. When will you have time to look for new items to upgrade the dimension. Look around, we have been at level 25 for a long time. There are simply too much limits. We have many more mouths to feed now. Even though food is not an issue, we still need to inventory to convert to money. Otherwise, we won’t have enough money for the construction of the house!”
When little Yuteng brought it up, Cheng Xiao Xiao realized she had been overlooking this issue for too long.
Surely, food planted in the dimension and mystical animals all grow faster than the outside world. If all they need was to feed all the mouths, that would be enough. But if they want to acquire large quantify of food and mystical animals for sale, they were a bit short of that. Right now the family needed lots of money. She would need to figure something out.
“Yuteng. With the exception of looking for new species in the mountains, what else can make the dimension level up?
“Lots of things! Any rare plants or animals, or any mystical stones will work!”
“Ugh, you made it sounds so easy. All of these items are hard to come by!”
“Hehe, young mistress. Just leak the words out so those who wanted to buy our mystical animals can look for you. No need to go look for them yourselves.”
“I have thought about this before as well, but I don’t think very many people will possess these items. But you are right, if we get the words out, we might get some hits. Then we can collect the ones of use to us into the dimension. We’ve got to upgrade the dimension!”
“Yeah, the level is way too low! Look, young mistress, our crystal fruit tree has yet to blossom. I think this is because the dimension’s level is too low; otherwise, it should have bloomed already!”
“Okay, when I meet up with Innkeeper Zhu tomorrow, I will let them know to look for these items for us!”
“Young mistress, don’t you worry. Even though these are rare items, that doesn’t mean nobody will have them. Once the words got it, no matter how rare the items are, somebody will find it!”
“Let’s give it a try!”
“Yes, let’s give it a try!”
Cheng Xiao Xiao got much happier after their chat. After calming down, she started cultivating. Little Yuteng fly back onto the crystal fruit tree. Reaching out her arm she picked a leave from the tree and started munching on it like it was some kind of delicacy.
Shortly after breakfast the next day, Liu Danhuang brought a few visitors to the Cheng’s. A few of them the Cheng’s were already familiar with. The other one was a classy, middle-age man in a brocade robe that the Cheng’s had never met before.
“Grettings, master Cheng, I am Zhu Bo of the Green Mountain Manor!” Zhu Bo cupped his hands at Cheng Biyuan and greeted him respectfully.