BXBX NOVEL Chapter 167 - 167: Making Furniture
Jiang Chuan’s words were reasonable, with the Jiang family’s people still eyeing them greedily. They needed to be careful.
“Dad, why not invite the village chief to our home tomorrow?” Jiang Xia suggested. “He’s a good man; he won’t cause any trouble.”
“That could work,” Jiang Chuan nodded, agreeing to Jiang Xia’s idea.
That night, after Zhou Lan and Jiang Chuan had finished washing up, they lay in bed discussing the events that took place in the village that day.
Not long after Jiang Chuan left, the village chief gathered everyone together and told them that relief food was on its way. He asked everyone to hold on a bit longer, promising that within a fortnight they would no longer be hungry.
He also took the opportunity to warn those who had been foraging for wild vegetables to keep quiet about the abundance of wild vegetables in their village.
“The village chief is right,” Jiang Chuan interjected when Zhou Lan brought up this point. “If word gets out about the wild vegetables, it won’t just be one person who suffers.”
Thankfully, the villagers took heed of the village chief’s warning and had not spread the news.
“I heard some rumors in town that the village chief was accused of stealing their rightful food,” Jiang Chuan told Zhou Lan about what he had heard in the past few days. “Do they mean he’s corrupt?”
“You wouldn’t believe some of the things they’re saying,” Zhou Lan sighed. “I don’t understand why, when the village chief is clearly working in the villagers’ best interest, there are still people who are ungrateful.”
Zhou Lan then relayed to Jiang Chuan some of the villagers’ negative comments about the village chief. Jiang Chuan shook his head in disbelief.
“Being a village chief is a tough job,” Jiang Chuan remarked, sighing.
“Indeed,” Zhou Lan agreed. “Good people always seem to have it hard. No matter what we do, there will always be people who might leak information.”
“Well, if they do, well just find another place to irrigate,” Zhou Lan said, determined not to let the naysayers get to them.
Without their family’s dangerous journey up the mountain to discover the land with wild vegetables, they would have nothing to eat, let alone the ability to trade vegetables for grains.
“True, I noticed many villagers planting the seeds we gave them, and they’re growing quite well,” Jiang Chuan mentioned. “We should be able to rely on our own crops soon.”
“That’s great! We’ve helped solve a major problem for the villagers. From now on, let’s just mind our own business and live our peaceful lives,” Zhou Lan concluded.
In the dark, Jiang Chuan nodded in agreement. It’s important to be kind, but it shouldn’t be to a fault. Otherwise, it would become an obligation, and failing to help would attract complaints.
After discussing these serious matters, the couple chatted casually before going to sleep.
The next morning, Jiang Chuan went to see the village chief to request his help in finding a carpenter. The village chief, being a straightforward man, immediately set off for the neighboring village and found a very capable carpenter.
The carpenter and the village chief were acquaintances, so for the village chief’s sake, he agreed to make a table for Jiang Chuan’s family for ten yuan and four stools for one yuan each, totaling fourteen yuan. Including the twenty yuan for the wood, it came to thirty-four yuan.
This was within Jiang Chuan’s budget. He asked the carpenter not to worry about complex designs and focus on finishing the table quickly.
The village chief was surprised. The Jiang family suddenly had over thirty yuan to spend? Was city money that easy to make?
After Jiang Chuan left, even the carpenter couldn’t help asking: “Is this Jiang’s family son? He’s so generous?”
This carpenter was the best in the area. Both in their village and in Copper Mountain Village, he was the first choice for any woodworking task, so he was familiar with the Jiang family’s business.