Chapter 63

Chapter 63

When it came to hiring, the Shen family naturally gave first pick to folks from their own village, Shen Family Gully.

This time around, they were taking on a good number of folks, and the jobs came in all different kinds. Unlike before, when it was just two people helping with the veggie deliveries.

This time, they needed folks to run the veggie deliveries, plus people to tend the breeding pens—whether that meant chickens, fish, or pigs.

They also had to bring on hands for their own fields and vegetable patches.

Once they'd settled on what fruit trees to plant and got the saplings lined up, they'd need to hire another crew.

With the family business blowing up all at once and so many new hires, the Shens had to be even more careful and level-headed than ever. The whole family was on their toes, doing everything they could to keep from slipping up.

When it came to hiring, they went straight to Shen Gaoshan first.

The minute he got the news, Shen Gaoshan didn't even bother with his meal. He ran through the Shens' requirements and the jobs that needed doing, turning over who in the village might fit the bill.

This time, word about the hiring spread to every household in Shen Family Gully.

Over at the Liu place on the east end of the village, the whole family was at supper when a neighbor came by grinning with the news.

It was wild greens porridge.

The mountain greens were coming up nice this year, and with two seasons' worth of grain put away, they weren't about to starve.

But counting on two seasons of harvest to lift them out of their hardscrabble life just wasn't in the cards.

The neighbor had only gotten the word secondhand—just that the Shens were hiring, with no clue about the jobs, the pay, or what they were looking for.

Then Shen Gaoshan came by and laid it all out, way more detailed than anything the neighbor had passed along.

There were all kinds of openings. For straight grunt work in the grain fields and veggie patches, it paid twenty wen a day, and during the harvest rush they'd tack on extra—Shen Gaoshan said no less than fifty wen a day.

Anybody in the village could handle that kind of work, so just about everyone put their name in to labor on the Shens' land.

Folks could sign up for two jobs, and the second pick for nearly everybody was the veggie delivery run.

In the villagers' eyes, that delivery gig was a plum job through and through.

Everybody had watched how Shen Yuan and Shen He had changed since they started hauling veggies for the Shens.

Shen Yuan had always been a sturdy lad, and now he was even beefier. He still didn't say much when you ran into him, but the way he carried himself was a far cry from folks scrabbling for a meal in the dirt.

It was steady work, and running deliveries let him get out and see a bit of the world. Landing a gig like that at sixteen or seventeen, learning to handle an ox cart, and picking up know-how—it was every bit as good as getting a spot in a shop in town.

Shen He had changed even more than that.

He used to have a big, dark birthmark splashed across half his face, and he was even quieter than Shen Yuan, holed up in his own yard, too scared to step outside.

Now the birthmark had faded a good deal, and he actually talked—he'd come back to the village and greet folks on his own. His ma had even gone door-to-door over New Year's in a brand-new padded coat, telling everyone the cloth and cotton came from He'er and Shen Yuan.

Village head Shen Gaoshan had one too—him and his missus were the only two in Shen Family Gully, besides Shen Dashu's household, with new padded coats.

Seeing those warm coats had everybody green with envy.

So when word got around that the Shens were hiring, with delivery runs on the list, anybody who could sign up signed up.

Old Mrs. Liu heard Shen Gaoshan out on the requirements and pay—she was glad, sure, but mostly she was nervous. "The Shens didn't say anything about turning away folks with bad legs or arms, did they?"

Shen Gaoshan knew exactly what the Lius were dealing with.

Old Mrs. Liu meant her fourth boy.

The story behind Liu Asi's bad leg was enough to make you mad.

A couple years back, a traveling peddler rolled into Qingyun Town saying he was buying wild fruit.

Liu Asi caught wind of it and headed up into the hills to pick some. He'd filled a basket and was fixing to head back down when he heard a scream. He went to check it out and found a villager who'd stumbled onto a bear.

That villager was from Shangou Gou, a hamlet up in the hills.

The moment he spotted Liu Asi, he started hollering for help and even steered the bear right at him.

Liu Asi wasn't the type to run anyway—he meant to save the guy. At first, he figured the guy was just spooked, yelling and scrambling every which way.

Only later did it hit him that the man was deliberately baiting the bear his way. The villager used the moment Liu Asi got tangled up with the bear to hightail it out of there.

By then, Liu Asi couldn't spare a thought for the guy bolting—he had to square off with the bear.

Luckily, it wasn't a full-grown bruin, or he wouldn't have had a prayer of holding his own.

Thank heaven for small mercies—he didn't end up bear chow and managed to get away.

But the bear got his right leg bad. The family shelled out for doctors and medicine for a long stretch, bleeding their savings dry. They saved the leg, but it left him with a limp.

The family he was betrothed to got scared the boy would have a rough life married to him, so they called off the engagement and said no deal. Shen Gaoshan had a boy of his own at home, so he got it—he couldn't fault the parents for choosing what they thought was best for their kid.

So there Liu Asi was, lame at twenty-five, with no marriage prospects.

Later, the Lius went over to the Shangou Gou folks, figuring that since their boy's leg was wrecked saving their kin, they ought to at least cough up some silver—or if not money, then a little gratitude.

But that family dug in and denied the whole thing, swearing the bear was after Liu Asi from the get-go, and their kin was the one trying to help, nearly getting dragged into it, and only ran off after Liu Asi steered the bear his way.

What really went down, nobody could say for sure.

At the scene, it was just the Shangou Gou villager, Liu Asi, and that middling-size bear.

Unless that bear could pipe up and testify, it was one man's word against another's.

Liu Asi was from Shen Family Gully, and folks there all knew the kind of man he was.

The Shangou Gou crew, though, had a rotten reputation in their own village. Everybody could see who was in the right.

But there was no way to prove it.

Even hauling it before the magistrate wouldn't do any good—you couldn't rule in Liu Asi's favor just because the other family had a lousy name.

Liu Asi had no choice but to eat the loss and keep quiet.

Shen Gaoshan said, "Nothing I just listed rules that out, so the Shens will take him. If your Asi wants to give it a shot, I'll put his name on the list. I can't promise he'll get picked, but getting his name down at least gives him a shot. Leave it off, and he's got nothing."

Old Mrs. Liu figured that was fair enough, then turned to her fourth boy.

"What do you say?"

Liu Asi said, low and quiet, "Then put my name down, Village Head."

Long as there was a chance, he wasn't about to throw in the towel.

Shen Gaoshan wasn't much for reading and writing. He started by drawing a circle, then wrote Asi's name next to it.

Only a few families in Shen Family Gully weren't part of the Shen clan, and Shen Gaoshan used simple marks to stand for their family names.

The circle with "Asi" meant Liu Asi.

Everyone in the Shen family was swamped, so they had Shen Gaoshan handle the first round of screening.

Shen Gaoshan took the job of picking workers for the Shen family very seriously.

Even folks who didn't get along with his family—if they were capable, decent, and hardworking—he put them on the list.

When the families who'd had run-ins with Shen Gaoshan's family signed up, they were worried he'd give them a hard time. To their surprise, they made it through the first round.

Seeing these folks open their mouths, then clam up, going back and forth like that, Shen Gaoshan just said, "I'm picking people for the Dashu family, not for my own house. If you meet the requirements, of course I'll pick you. If you do get picked, just work hard and steady for the Dashu family. That's worth more than any words."

When Shen Gaoshan said that, the villagers all chimed in one after another.

"If we really get the job, we'll bust our butts."

"Getting work right in our own village, and with the Dashu family paying this well, I'm not gonna be the one dragging everyone down."

"Don't worry, Village Head. A good job like this is hard to come by. Even a fool'd work hard."

Shen Gaoshan didn't say anything else, just told them to head home and wait to hear back.

For the first round, Shen Gaoshan was in charge and picked out thirty people.

Anyone who didn't fit or had obvious issues got cut.

He moved fast and got it done in just a day and a half.

On the third day, Shen Gaoshan, Shen Chong, and Xu Hongmei did the second round of picking in the Shen family courtyard.

Xu Hongmei had skipped the family shop on purpose that day to stay home and help pick people.

Ever since the shop reopened, Xu Hongmei had been watching and learning more carefully how the folks from the big households talked.

She also paid close attention to people and mulled over every day how she could do better.

Zhou Gu and Shen Ning followed her lead.

Xu Hongmei was now one of the sharpest people in the village. She didn't rub shoulders with big shots, but the people those households sent out to shop were no small potatoes themselves.

She sat on a bench, letting her eyes sweep over the crowd. She couldn't size someone up at a glance, but a couple of exchanges and she could get a read on them.

After a full day, ten more got cut, leaving twenty people set to work for the Shen family.

Shen Chong handed out the jobs according to plan.

The field work was pretty light right now, but it'd pick up soon. Three people were sent to check the wheat fields every day and keep them in shape.

Three more were sent to help out in the vegetable garden.

For the vegetable deliveries, they picked a middle-aged married man named Zhao Qingtian and a lame fellow named Liu Asi.

The other twelve all got assigned to the livestock area. Two each went to the chickens, ducks, and geese, three to the pigs, and three to the mountain lake.

The livestock area still needed cleaning. Those twelve, along with some of the Shen family, would all be working up in the mountain area—putting up fences and building little wooden cabins to get ready for the livestock.

Li Geng and Shen Erkang would tag along with the delivery crew for two more days.

Zhao Qingtian was paired with Shen He, with Li Geng showing them the ropes for two days. Liu Asi was paired with Shen Yuan, with Shen Erkang showing them the ropes for two days.

The two new guys worked their tails off.

Zhao Qingtian was in his thirties. A guy like him could barely find any work. Landing the delivery job with the Shen family was a godsend. He made twenty-five wen a day and got a free meal on top of it. You couldn't find another job this good if you searched high and low with a lantern.

Lame Liu Asi was even more earnest and put in real effort. With his bad leg, it was tough for him to find decent work in the off-season. Jobs that needed real muscle wouldn't take him either, and he got that. There were plenty of able-bodied folks around. With his limp, he just couldn't keep up.

So every off-season, Liu Asi could only find the grunt work nobody else wanted.

Basically, it was always hauling manure. Besides that, there wasn't anything else he could do or that would take him.

Two days later, Li Geng and Shen Erkang stopped going on the deliveries, leaving it all to Shen He and the other three.

One of them had to help Chi Jiu keep the books and teach Zhao Lu to read the family veterinary manual, and the other had to head up to the mountain area.

On his third day of deliveries, Zhao Qingtian was still a bit stiff.

He just copied whatever Shen He did.

When it came to talking, it was all Shen He. Zhao Qingtian barely dared to say a word, just quietly hauled the veggies.

Watching how easy Shen He was with people, not a trace of shyness, Zhao Qingtian felt a pang of envy.

On the way back, Zhao Qingtian said, straight from the heart, "He, you've changed so much I barely recognized you. You've really come into your own."

Shen He smiled. "I wasn't like this at first either. Back then, I used to deliver with Yi'an. He's the one who's really something. Whatever questions the shopkeepers threw at him, he had an answer. If someone tried to add more on the spot but the garden didn't have enough, and the customer kept pushing, Yi'an could smooth it over without burning any bridges. I just watched and learned from behind him. I didn't pick up even half of what he's got, but it's enough for me."

In Zhao Qingtian, Shen He saw a bit of his old self.

Timid, full of self-doubt, not daring to look up.

He tried to put him at ease. "Yi'an's the head manager now, so there's no way he can come teach you. From now on, Zhao, just watch me. Anything I know, I'll pass it on to you."

Zhao Qingtian blinked, a little embarrassed, and said, "You're willing to teach me, that's really something. I was thinking too small before. I figured..."

"You thought I'd shut you out and not teach you a thing?"

Zhao Qingtian nodded, his face even redder.

Shen He shook his head with a smile, his tone serious. "No, I won't. With how fast the Shen family is growing, this won't be the end of it. If you can get to the point where you can handle things on your own, that might actually be good for me too."

Shen He had his own ambitions.

Last year, the Shen family had to pause the vegetable business for a few days because of certain people.

Those few days were pure agony for him.

He figured the Shen family wouldn't make it, that he'd be out of work and back to how things used to be.

At home, feeling like his very breath was a waste of space.

But the Shen family not only hung on, they handled it perfectly.

Not only did he keep his job, now he was even leading Zhao Qingtian.

And because he was put in charge of training someone, his monthly pay went up by a hundred wen.

His nephew was the same.

Shen He was thrilled.

In his view, this round of hiring by the Shen family, along with the business ventures they planned to pursue, were all opportunities.

He had to work hard, train himself well, and be ready to seize any chance that came his way.

By then, if Zhao the husband could also stand on his own, the Shen family would feel more at ease reassigning him elsewhere.

Shen He had clear plans for his future.

His parents supported him as much as they could.

Earlier, quite a few matchmakers had come to Shen Family Gully, and some had even proposed matches for him.

Now that the birthmark on his face had faded considerably, it was only visible up close.

And since he had a good job, there was no shortage of marriage proposals.

But Shen He didn't want to get married for now.

Even if he did, he wouldn't marry outside the village—he wanted to stay in Shen Family Gully and keep working for the Shen family.

Shen Gaoshan and his wife, for one thing, couldn't sway Shen He, who now had his own plans and ambitions; for another, staying with the Shen family was indeed a better way to earn money. And thirdly, he contributed money to the household every month, so none of his sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law minded having him around.

Shortly after he decided to postpone marriage, Shen He's monthly wage went up, along with a stipend.

That made him even less willing to leave Shen Family Gully.

The Shen family provided lunch for all their workers.

Originally, only Shen Yuan and Shen He ate with the family.

Now that there were more people, San Qiu couldn't handle cooking that much food.

So the Shen family gave the workers a choice: either the family provided meals, or they got an extra 150 wen per month as a food allowance.

Everyone chose the 150 wen.

So the Shen family stopped providing meals, only adding the food money when they settled up at month's end.

Shen Yuan and his nephew Shen He, already getting an extra 100 wen for leading others, plus the 150 wen food allowance, now earned a full tael of silver a month.

That was as good as a store manager's wages in town!

Shen Gaoshan's family was over the moon and became even more careful and devoted to the Shen family's business.

Shen Gaoshan went to the mountain land whenever he had free time to help oversee things.

One day, when Shen Gaoshan was halfway up, he saw someone running down—a Shen family worker.

Shen Gaoshan frowned and called out, "Shen Dao, why aren't you working up on the mountain? What the heck are you running around for?"

Hearing his voice, Shen Dao spotted Shen Gaoshan and immediately changed direction, running toward him.

As he ran, he shouted, "Oh, Third Uncle! I'm not slacking—I'd love to work. I was just coming to find you. Come on, let's go—there's trouble up on the mountain."

Shen Gaoshan's face turned grave, and he quickly asked what was wrong.

Shen Dao panted, "That mountain land the Shen family bought—it's got a lake on it, right? Today, when we went to fence off the lake, people from Shanwago showed up. They said it's the lake they use for drinking and cooking, and they won't let us fence it off. We told them the Shen family already bought it, but they wouldn't budge. They even called a bunch of people to stand guard by the lake and keep us away."

Shen Gaoshan said without hesitation, "I'll go up myself. You hurry down and round up more people."

That was just what Shen Dao was thinking. Without stopping, he kept running downhill, calling back, "Watch your step, Third Uncle!"

"Hurry and get the folks—don't worry about me!"

By the time Shen Gaoshan got there, the two sides were about to come to blows.

Shen Zhun, Zhao Lu, and the burliest workers stood at the front, squaring off against the Shanwago folks.

Since the Shen family was busy with the mountain land, at the vegetable shop, besides Shen Yian keeping the books, only Xu Hongmei was left to wait on customers.

Zhou Gu, Shen Ning, and Chi Jiu had all come back to help out on the mountain.

Shen Song also cut back his time at Xie Zhiyu's—he didn't even eat lunch there anymore, just stayed half an hour and left.

As for the rest of the Shen family, except for Shen Chong who had to go to school and Shen Sanqiu who stayed home with the younger kids, even Shen Jing had come up to help.

His leg couldn't handle too much strain, so he helped with things like putting up fences.

Pretty much the entire Shen family was there.

Shen Gaoshan hurried forward in a rush, and at a glance, he saw a big crowd from Shanwago.

With fewer people on their side, if it came to a fight, they'd definitely come out worse.

He quickly called out, "People of Shen Family Gully, don't move yet!"

This time, when the Shen family was hiring, Shen Gaoshan didn't bring in any of his own family. As Shen He had said, the Shen family's growth wouldn't stop here—there'd be more opportunities later.

So this time, he had other villagers come work.

Precisely because Shen Gaoshan's family had qualified members but none of them came, and he even let in families they weren't on good terms with as long as they met the requirements, his reputation in the village rose even higher.

Folks were happy to follow his lead.

The Shen family also gave Shen Gaoshan face—he'd been working hard for their benefit all this time.

So the villagers of Shen Family Gully all stepped back and made way for Shen Gaoshan.

Shen Gaoshan breathed a sigh of relief. As he walked forward, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of the fifth son's husband crying.

He thought for a moment.

Oh shoot—Li Maizi came from Shanwago when he married in, didn't he?

This just got a lot more complicated.

Shen Gaoshan's heart sank.

But the problem had to be solved—being hard didn't mean it could be ignored.

His face grew even more stern, his brow furrowed, as he walked to the front.

Only when he got closer did he see that the Shanwago people were all holding farm tools, glaring fiercely at the Shen Family Gully folks, looking ready to strike at any moment.

Leading them was none other than Li Dayou, the village chief of Shanwago.

When he saw Shen Gaoshan, Li Dayou gave a cold snort. "So you finally showed up, Shen. I thought your Shen Family Gully had done something shameful and you, as village head, were hiding like a scared turtle, afraid to face us folks from Shanwa Gully."

Shen Gaoshan shot back, just as annoyed, "You shameless old liar, you're the one who should be ashamed. Who's the one who's done something wrong here?"

Li Dayou's neck turned red with anger, and he opened his mouth to retort, but Shen Gaoshan cut him off directly, "Hold your tongue. I just got here and don't know the whole story yet. You can't just say whatever you want and have it be the truth. If you don't want to talk things out properly between the two villages, then forget it—let's just take this to the magistrate."

These folks, who'd farmed all their lives, would never want to go to the magistrate. Even when they had disputes, they usually settled things within the clan.

At the mention of the magistrate, Li Dayou went quiet for a moment, just glaring over at the Shen Family Gully folks.

Shen Gaoshan didn't care about the glaring and turned to ask his own people.

Asking Shen Zhun would get him nowhere—that second son of the Shen family was a quiet type—so Shen Gaoshan asked Zhao Lu, "I heard from Shen Dao it's about the lake. What's the real story?"

Zhao Lu furrowed his brow and said, "It's because of the mountain lake. We came today to put up the fence and ran into folks from Shanwa Gully coming to get water."

The rest didn't need much detail to figure out what happened.

What Shen Dao had said earlier in a few words was already clear enough.

Shen Gaoshan kept pressing for details, deliberately dragging things out, figuring Shen Dao should have brought the people by now.

Only when he heard movement behind him did Shen Gaoshan tell Zhao Lu to stop and say no more.

Shen Dao had arrived with the Shen Family Gully folks.

With more people on their side now, the Shanwa Gully folks weren't as aggressive as before.

But they didn't give ground either.

Shen Song had been wanting to step forward and speak for a while, but earlier, when their side had fewer people, his mother had held him back. Now that they had more people, Liu Chunxia didn't stop him anymore.

He walked forward, and just as he was about to reach the front row and speak up, Shen Zhun grabbed his arm and pulled him behind him, saying, "Talk from behind your second brother."

Zhao Lu also stepped in front of Shen Song, shielding him.

Shen Song then squeezed his head out through the gap between his second brother and his fourth brother-in-law, and said to the Shanwa Gully folks, "I've looked at the maps. There are plenty of small streams and mountain springs around here. You can use that water too."

There were indeed plenty of streams and mountain springs in the mountains—how could the Shanwa Gully folks not know that?

It was just...

Li Dayou's gaze landed on the Shen family members.

He'd heard before that Shen Dashu's family in Shen Family Gully had made it big—bought dozens of acres of wasteland, built new houses, and even had a shop in the county town, and did business with all sorts of restaurants and eateries.

The Shen family hadn't hidden any of this, and they couldn't have even if they'd tried.

With intermarriages between villages, word spread through all the villages for miles around.

Shanwa Gully naturally knew about it as well.

Li Dayou knew that Li Laojiu's son, Li Maizi, had married into the Shen family. At first, he'd urged Li Laojiu's family to go ask the Shens for some benefits.

But Li Laojiu's family was so scared of the Shens that they didn't dare go at all.

He, Li Dayou, was indeed the village head of Shanwa Gully, but he couldn't just use Li Maizi to demand benefits from the Shens.

His branch of the family and Li Laojiu's were quite distantly related by blood.

On the night of the Tiger Head Mountain fire, the Shanwa Gully villagers had seen it too. Later, when they heard how dangerous that night had been, Li Dayou was glad he hadn't tried to use Li Maizi to get close to the Shens back then.

Later, when the Shen family hit trouble and their business was cut off, he gave up any thought of getting chummy with them.

Who knew that not long after, the Shens bounced back.

And then they just kept getting better and better.

Now they'd even bought mountain land right next to their Shanwa village.

Li Dayou had also gotten wind of the Shen family's hiring. The more he thought about those people working up in the mountains for all those days, the more he felt he was missing out by not getting something out of it.

Wasn't it a waste of the marriage tie between Shanwa Gully and Shen Family Gully?

Li Dayou had gone to Li Laojiu's house again and again, pleading and persuading, but Li Laojiu flat-out refused.

But this time, when they came to the mountain lake, Li Laojiu's family had still come along.

The whole family huddled at the back with their heads down, not daring to look toward Shen Family Gully.

Back then, they hadn't hesitated to take little advantages from the Shen family in Li Maizi's name.

Back then, the Shens were poor, so there wasn't much to take.

But they didn't care how much—as long as they could take something.

Later, the usually quiet Li Maizi threatened to kill himself to make them stop, and when they didn't listen, he actually cut himself. Then the Shen family member who'd never refused them went crazy and came to their house, smashing everything in sight.

Everyone in Shanwa Gully knew about it.

But the Shens had nothing to lose, so even though the village knew, no one dared to do anything.

They even had to talk Li Laojiu's family into not provoking the Shens.

Li Laojiu had never forgotten it.

He remembered even more clearly the day his son-in-law, grim-faced, said in all seriousness that they might as well die together.

Li Laojiu's family was truly scared stiff of the Shens.

From behind the crowd, Li Laojiu tried his best to hide, secretly sizing up the other side.

If it weren't for the village head saying they could all band together to force the Shens to give some benefits, using the mountain lake as an excuse, and that it was sure to work, he wouldn't have come.

And if they got some money, he could use it to fix up a marriage for his grandson—otherwise, he wouldn't be here at all.

At that moment, Li Dayou answered Shen Song, saying fiercely, "What do you folks from Shen Family Gully know? This lake is called Immortal Lake—immortals have come here. It's a lake that protects our Shanwa Gully, a lake we can't live without. The immortals in the lake have watched over our Shanwa Gully for over a hundred years. You say you bought it, so that makes it yours?"

Hearing this, Shen Song's gaze turned to the lake.

He focused and sensed carefully, but didn't feel any unusual energy fluctuations.

At the earth god's shrine, thanks to the incense offerings, the energy of faith was strong, and he could now sense that energy fluctuation more clearly than before.

But in this lake, he couldn't sense anything like that at all.

Zhao Lu, who had a quick temper, was already arguing, "You say there are immortals? Then call one out and let me see it with my own eyes. I'll believe it when I see it."

"Why would the immortals of our Shanwa Village show themselves to you? They're immortals—do you think they'll come out just because you ask?"

"There's nothing there, and you know it. What's with all this fake ghost-and-god nonsense?"

"Who's pretending? It's you Shen folks with your dirty money, ruining our Shanwa Village's feng shui!"

"This land isn't even part of Shanwa Village's territory. What feng shui could we possibly be ruining?"

Zhao Lu and Li Dayou went at it, trading barbs, while Shen Song had already carefully sensed the area several times. Seizing a lull in their shouting, he said with certainty, "There are no immortals in this Immortal Lake. You're lying to us."

Zhao Lu immediately wore a "see, I told you so" look. "See? I told you there were no immortals!"

Li Dayou barked out an angry "Hey!" and said, "What gives a young punk like you the right to talk? And who says your word means anything?"

The argument went round and round, with no end in sight.

At that moment, Shen Gaoshan frowned and asked, "The mountain land belongs to the Shen family now—that's a fact. Even the authorities can't dispute that. The lake falls within those boundaries, so no matter what, it's the Shen family's."

"Then go ahead and kill every last one of the few hundred people in Shanwa Village!" Li Dayou roared.

The Shanwa villagers were stunned at first, but after Li Dayou smacked the two people on either side of him, they snapped out of it and chimed in, "That's right, kill us all, then!"

"Exactly! Otherwise, there's no way we're handing over Immortal Lake."

"Go on, kill us if you've got the guts!"

The Shen family side, held in check by Shen Gaoshan, stayed quiet for now.

Once the Shanwa side had yelled themselves hoarse, Shen Gaoshan asked again, "What'll it take for you to give up the lake?"

Li Dayou let out a laugh. "Immortal Lake has blessed Shanwa Village for generations, protecting our children and grandchildren. If you want our Immortal Lake, you'll have to pay us for it."

"Are you out of your mind?" Shen Gaoshan shot that down flat.

Li Dayou's face turned cold. "For us to hand over the Immortal Lake that protects us without getting a single cent—not unless every last one of us in Shanwa Village is dead. For the sake of our future generations, I'm going to make sure Shanwa Village gets compensated for losing the Immortal Lake's protection."

Zhao Lu wanted to just punch the guy into silence. He saw right through their game.

Immortal Lake, protection, future descendants—it was all a load of crap.

All they wanted was money.

Zhou Gu had been biting his tongue for a while. He'd dealt with all kinds of people at the vegetable shop, and with all Li Dayou's beating around the bush, how could he not know what scheme he was cooking up?

He might as well have been shouting his scheme out loud.

Zhou Gu, comforting the crying Li Maizi, shouted, "You Shanwa folks are just robbing us outright! I'm telling you, forget about it. Even if the Shen family threw money into the gutter, we wouldn't give you a single cent!"

Li Dayou couldn't see who was shouting, but he knew it was one of the Shen folks.

And none of the Shen family objected.

Li Dayou had run out of patience. "Then don't you dare lay a finger on Immortal Lake!"

"It's our lake—why shouldn't we do what we want with it!" Zhao Lu stepped up and grabbed Li Dayou by the collar.

With that, the villagers from both sides broke into a full-on brawl.

Farm tools clashed against farm tools, clanging and banging away. Soon, cries of pain, screams, and battle shouts filled the air, growing louder and louder.

Shen Song jumped into the chaos, throwing punches and kicks while keeping an eye out to make sure no one got seriously hurt or killed by the farm tools.

The two groups of villagers went at it for a while.

The grass underfoot was trampled flat.

The Shen family side had been eating well lately, but the Shanwa side hadn't. They quickly fell behind and couldn't keep up with the Shen family.

The Shen family folks saw the Shanwa side couldn't match them, and luckily, they didn't get too carried away.

This wasn't like fighting over water during planting season.

Back then, without water, they really couldn't survive. So when they fought for water, they had to go all out, risking everything to get it.

Now, though, seeing the Shanwa side couldn't hold up, they gradually stopped, not wanting anyone to die.

The Shanwa villagers lay groaning on the ground, and Li Dayou, one hand clutching his bleeding head, pointed the other at the Shen family and shouted angrily, "Over my dead body will you touch Immortal Lake!"

At that moment, Li Maizi, his eyes and face swollen, shouted loudly, "Since when did Shanwa Village ever have an Immortal Lake? Back in the village, I never heard a single word about immortals in this lake."

Li Dayou snapped, "You married into the Shen family, so now you're siding with outsiders. Even if there were one, you'd swear there wasn't!"

Li Maizi was so angry his vision went dark, and his whole body trembled. "I'm telling the truth!"

But at that moment, the other Shanwa villagers shouted in unison, "You're lying!"

Li Maizi opened his mouth to speak but found no sound would come out.

He wasn't lying, not one bit.

The mountain lake was just an ordinary lake.

But the moment he saw the familiar faces of the Shanwa villagers staring at him—those resentful looks that wished he'd just shut up, and their unified twisting of the truth—he couldn't bear to look at them anymore.

Li Maizi found it horrifying.

The Shanwa villagers, unable to beat the Shen family in a fight, shamelessly lay on the ground, saying that if the Shen family wanted to reach the lake, they'd have to walk over their bodies.

It was a petty, shameless move, truly disgusting.

The Shen family villagers couldn't very well step over people.

The situation was at a deadlock.

Liu Chunxia glanced at the Shen family villagers—everyone had some injuries, and Maizi wasn't in a good state—so she suggested they head down the mountain first to tend to their wounds.

Staying up on the mountain wasn't going to solve anything.

If it came down to it, they could take the matter to the authorities.

Let's see whether Shanwa Village's encroachment on someone else's mountain land was justified or not.

The Shen family folks hoisted their farm tools and headed down the mountain.

Zhou Gu carried Li Maizi, who couldn't walk, and cussed the whole way.

He was cussing out Shanwa Village for being shameless, for making up stories about the sacred lake just to squeeze money out of the Shen family.

After cursing, he said to Li Maizi on his back, "Maizi, you're the exception—you're the only decent one in that village."

After Maizi nodded, he asked if he was feeling any worse anywhere, and Maizi shook his head.

Shen Chong, who knew the full story, went to the yamen the next day.

He didn't go to report it right away—he went to see Liu Xiaoping first.

Liu Xiaoping handled land division, so he knew a thing or two about this kind of stuff.

When Liu Xiaoping heard the story, he figured this wasn't going to be easy to deal with.

"Obviously, the whole village has banded together, threatening to die unless you pay them silver."

Shen Chong knew it. "We don't want to pay."

Liu Xiaoping said, "Even if you wanted to pay just to get some peace, you can't. They're greedy—once they get a taste, they'll want more. Unless your Shen family is rich enough to support the whole village."

Which, of course, they weren't.

Shen Chong asked Liu Xiaoping if there was any way to handle it that they could try.

Liu Xiaoping thought it over and said, "Even if you take this to the yamen, it won't do any good. They can't arrest a whole village, and usually, if you do report it, the most likely outcome is they take the land back and that's that."

That was Liu Xiaoping's take, based on every similar case he'd ever heard of.

"The tricky part is that the whole village is united. If you can find a way to split them up, it'll be a lot easier to deal with after that," Liu Xiaoping suggested.

Shen Chong had an idea forming. He thanked Liu Xiaoping for the advice and started mulling over a plan.

Meanwhile, Shen Song was still on vegetable delivery duty for the restaurants and taverns in Qingyun Town and Yunxi County.

After finishing his deliveries for the day, he went to the Xie residence.

When You An saw the bruise on Shen Song's mouth, his eyes went wide in shock.

He said nervously, "Song Geer, who hit you?"

If the adults saw a bruise like that, they'd definitely be upset.

He was fine just yesterday—how did he end up with a bruise on his face overnight?

Shen Song told him straight: "I got into a fight in the village yesterday. I think someone caught me with an elbow by accident."

It didn't hurt when it happened, but when he woke up this morning, the corner of his mouth was sore—especially when he ate, it'd sting a little when he moved his mouth.

It was uncomfortable.

You An wanted to put some medicine on it, but he couldn't waste time, so he just took Shen Song to the study first and planned to send the medicine over later.

When they got to the study, before Shen Song could even say anything, Xie Zhiyu was already staring at the bruise on his mouth. He frowned and said coldly, "Who hit you?"