NOVEL NEXT Chapter 70: Before the freezing winter
This week, I chose to go to teacher’s Qing’s classes.
After finding a valid proof of the upcoming freezing winter, I understood that history was important and teacher Qin knew a lot of it. History of famous sects, famous cultivators and their skills to wars, he knew them all. I was expecting history to be boring, and it was. But teacher Qing gave us a lot of books as reference that were not available at the library so I just read them during self study time. I took his class for 2 weeks to finish reading those books.
Anyway, I could not make pills or farm at school. They were too popular among students. I heard there was even an evening shift at the alchemy pavilion and that it was fully booked.
As I could not help with winter preparations anymore, I decided to use my points to buy some winter supplies. I would ship them to some villages during winter.
As for the fake Taoist priest, I did not have to do anything. Official Hei and AnNan city lord sent a team to investigate with the approval of the Red Water city’s lord. It took a week to get his approval and only a few days to find the evidence and witnesses. Uncle Huai told me that my speech spread to that city fairly quickly and that helped get cooperation from those cultivators with a brain.
I didn’t understand why the speech of a 10 year old could make some adults distrust the ‘fake’ priest, I only tried to convince my fellow students. When I said that, uncle Huai told me that “...Sometimes, adults who hesitate to act need a little push. This time, the push came from an angry kid”.
Figures.
Eventually, the scammer confessed to being bribed by some enemies of Hei Jiang's parents. All the stakeholders were dealt with and the fake Taoist was executed. Jiang-ge refused to return to Red Water city and his family - no one expected him after how he was treated there -
We did not have the same schedule at school but he was now part of my lunch gang.
I was able to find the perfect residence 3 weeks after my first visit. The owners decided to move out to a smaller residence. Two of their 3 children died at the secret realm and they could not sustain the cost of maintaining a big residence. I moved in after paying 200 medium level spiritual stones thanks to uncle Qin’s negotiation skills. Aunt Yan, who finished most of the winter preparation for the residence and refugees, took all that time decorating my new residence and turned all the green areas into gardens. I also went there straight from school to help out. Master Kui helped me with the level 6 protection arrays. I insisted on paying him but he preferred a copy of a level 6 array book I found on the skeleton monk.
I hid the monk’s story from everyone. Even though I trusted uncle Huai with my life, I could not afford to trust him with Li-er’s. If the sect that destroyed that monk’s temple still existed, they could figure out the divine necklace location and attack the mother-son duo. I lied and told master Kui and uncle Huai that the book was from my mother’s family. I offered uncle Huai to share the books from level 7 to 12 but he refused. The highest array makers in this continent were level 7. If any powerful sect found out that AnNan, a medium level city, had a higher level of array knowledge, the city could be destroyed.
Li-er increased his cultivation and surpassed me within that time. He was already at level 7 of Qi Condensation. Aunt Sun was still nursing her roots but all her other injuries were gone. She went to seclusion early in the evening till the next morning so Li-er slept with me at night. He never wanted to be alone again. I did not mind, I slept like the dead. Having someone next to me never bothered me.
I decided to not have a moving party. I was not a party type and it was not a good idea with the upcoming catastrophe. Aunt Sun and Li-er had their own courtyard. The trio chose theirs close to the kitchen and even aunt Yan hijacked a courtyard saying that she and uncle Huai needed to be far from the noisy city lord’s residence once in a while. I think they just wanted to eat grandma Li’s food.
As for winter supplies, I had a lot thanks to uncle Qin and aunt Yan. Li Yao self proclaimed himself as the manager of all the residence gardens and made all of us work for it. He scheduled working until the night before the estimated start of the winter freeze...
With all of us, we needed more servants. Aunt Yan hired for me the housekeeper and his family that I met the day I hired the Li trio. It was the first time I had to deal with a 5 year old girl. I found her cute until she started crying loudly when she saw uncle Huai. He was the scary sort for little children.
Thankfully, her mother coaxed her well and the crying soon stopped. She had a cute smile. I really did not know what to do with crying kids, I just hoped it won’t happen again1Author: did you forget you had a crying session not too long a go?
On top of the housekeeper, his wife would help grandma Li cook. Four other servants were hired; 2 men and 2 women, all former refugees in their mid twenties. They were responsible for cleaning and taking care of the daily work of the residence and one of them was my new driver. The wages and rules were based on what I agreed with grandma Li previously but I added the rule that no one was allowed into my living quarters without my approval except for the Li trio.
Yes, I was biased. I consider the Li trio as part of my family and I did not plan to change it. I always found an hour, at least, during my rest days to check on their progress. Li Yao resumed his training with the city lord’s officers while I was at school. Li Bo would be busy with homework but always took time to cultivate and grandma Li was able to increase hers from level 4 to level 5. This would not increase her lifespan but she would stay healthier for whatever time was left
The first night at my new home, we had a small gathering where we ate well. It was then that I learned that Li-er’s father was delayed and he would be coming a few weeks after winter. That was good news, more time for aunt Sun to heal and for Li-er to regain his memories. I did not trust the father of his to protect them. He did a pretty bad job so far and based on the trashy book, he would do a worst job afterward
The auction for the joint ownership of the mine was held a bit later than usual. Some families went crazy bidding because I - a 10 year old - discovered it. They thought that I would be swayed easily. And there was a map of the mine available.
That map was shared to only those who won the bidding during the first owner’s meeting. Of course, we lied about how it was obtained. I made my conditions known fairly quickly and they were all adopted by uncle Huai - as the city lord - and uncle Qin.
Yep, I told uncle Qin my plan before the auction and mentioned the mapping of the vein. He chose to back me up and won the bid for 2 parts. With the three of us on the same side, we could decide on the direction of the mine. As promised, the villagers close to the mine were not moved away but a smaller village was created for the sake of the mine exploitation. Half the income of the auction was used to help those who needed it and the other half was used to pay for my and the city’s exploitation expenditure.
In a blink of an eye, the predicted time for the freezing winter was a few days away. It was decided to put the classes on hold during winter time but keep the school doors open for those who wanted to practice arrays, alchemy and other subjects. Most teachers gave a ton of homework and there was a plan to have individual and small group checks on students for cultivation theory once in a while. Last minute shipments were done earlier and some non essential stores decided to display their new reduced schedule. After almost 3 months of frenzied preparation, the city hit a pause button and everything calmed down the night before the due date.