The Farming World (25)

Zhong Fu Shu knew people in the yamen. Among the local tyrants in this town, truly few dared to casually accept this job, except for Pei Gang Lin.

If that was the case, then offering fifty taels of silver as payment was not strange at all.

Pei Gang Lin even felt it was a bit too little:
"One hundred taels. You give one hundred taels, and I'll take this job."

Even if he was about to retire, risking enmity with the chief constable of the yamen was no small matter. He definitely had to demand a high price. After all, in this town, apart from him, no other local tyrant would surely take the job. Even if they did, the amount of silver they would demand would only be higher, not lower.

However, one hundred taels was not a small sum for the Zhou family. Although the Zhou family had become wealthy, they weren't at the point where they could casually spend one hundred taels just to vent their anger.

"This..."

Zhou Lao San hesitated, looking troubled.

Seeing this, Pei Gang Lin didn't say much. He simply sat casually on the chair, eating meat and drinking wine in a rough, aggressive manner, his expression a non-smile, truly wasting a handsome and upright face.

Meanwhile, the pale-faced scholar Li Qing beside him smiled cunningly, persuading:
"This gentleman, you should think carefully. Miss this opportunity, and there won't be another. In this entire town, our Third Master is the cleanest in his work. Only our Third Master would dare to accept this job from you. Today it's one hundred taels; tomorrow, if you come again, we don't know if the price will still be the same."

Raising the price was also one of Third Master Pei's styles of doing business. If they continued to talk, it might not be a hundred taels that could resolve the matter.

Zhou Lao San gritted his teeth and nodded. "Alright, one hundred taels it is!"

Having said that, he took out the fifty taels of silver Zhou Zhi Qing had given him, plus his own private money, and placed it on the table.

Pei Gang Lin glanced at the amount, confirmed there were no issues, then raised his head and drained the strong wine in his hand, signaling his subordinate, the bookkeeper, to put away the silver and prepare to go to work.

......

Qiu Qi was unaware that the Zhou family was preparing to find local tyrants for revenge.

But even if he knew, he wouldn't care. After gaining control of 444, he could freely change his body's martial prowess data. Except for the Heavenly Dao (which was also the system), no one in this world was his opponent. When soldiers came, generals blocked; when water came, earth dammed.

Currently, his greatest concern was still eating. Besides eating, he truly didn't care about anything else.

It might sound a bit embarrassing, but please forgive someone who hadn't eaten a full meal in nearly ten years. He had truly had enough of gnawing on dried rations made from unknown insects every day!

This time, the amount of vegetables and eggs he "snatched" from the Zhou family was substantial, because ever since the Zhou family's spicy hotpot and century egg businesses got on track, everyone in Dong Bai Zhuang had started raising chickens and ducks and growing vegetables as a sideline.

Although Qiu Qi's spatial storage could hold it, it still took up a considerable amount of space. He also had to stockpile other types of food and supplies, so he definitely had to plan their use.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Qiu Qi decisively spent a few dozen more taels of silver to have Zhong Fu Shu help recruit people and organize a temporary processing workshop. He turned most of the vegetables into pickled vegetables, sauces, and dried vegetables, which reduced their volume and made them easier to preserve. When disaster struck, taking them out wouldn't be too ostentatious.

For chicken and duck eggs, he selected fertilized ones for incubation, kept a small amount of fresh eggs for preservation, and turned all the rest into salted eggs, soy sauce eggs...

He didn't make century eggs. In fact, Qiu Qi knew the recipe and method, but time was urgent, and he temporarily didn't want to argue with Zhou Zhi Qing and waste time.

Because the century egg recipe was currently monopolized by the Zhou family, if he suddenly started making century eggs himself, the Zhou family would surely run to the yamen to sue him for stealing the recipe, making a court appearance unavoidable. The disaster was approaching, and he didn't have much time to waste on these trivial matters.

Such a big undertaking, and it was done by the Zhong family—the most looked down upon family—so naturally, the village was abuzz with discussion.

Some were envious and jealous of the Zhong family's turnaround, some beat their chests and sighed at Qiu Qi's boldness, some said the Zhong family's ancestors were blessing them, finally producing a capable person. Of course, there were also those who said Qiu Qi was stirring up trouble, that he had finally earned some money but wasn't bothering to repair his house or buy land, instead making a big fuss about doing business. The workshop's goods were just ordinary rural products, with no sales channels, so how could they be sold?

Zhong Fu Shu also shared the same worries.

But Qiu Qi was very calm, his expression profound and unfathomable, as if he already had a plan in mind.

Zhong Fu Shu had no choice but to accept Qiu Qi's attitude. The original host had been taciturn and stubborn since childhood, and Qiu Qi was even more unresponsive. He could only let him be, watching Qiu Qi stir up trouble. The only thing that comforted him was that Qiu Qi allowed the Zhong family members to incubate chicken and duck eggs and raise poultry, which pleased him greatly.

Although Qiu Qi didn't intend to let the Zhong family members farm, he certainly wouldn't feed them for nothing. Discipline still had to be enforced, and work could not be lacking.

Heavy farm work, these lazy people couldn't do. So, raising chickens and ducks, surely they could do that?

If they couldn't even do this, then he could only kick them out to fend for themselves. Being idle and unproductive, wasting food, was absolutely intolerable. While there were still a few months left, he would let them raise more chickens and ducks for him to stockpile. Only then would he feel at ease. He had already said he wanted to enslave these people, turn them into beasts of burden.

Regarding this, the Zhong family members dared not express any opinions, fearing that a single wrong word would bring down Qiu Qi's fist. They could only endure it, hoping that this plague god would quickly succeed in his blind date and get married and out of sight!

Qiu Qi knew their thoughts but didn't care. As long as they didn't nag him to his face, they could complain all they wanted in their hearts. After all, tasks like serving tea and pouring water, no matter how much they complained, they would still have to do for him in the end.