Chapter 17 Building Roads!
Xia Liu returned home and, not wanting to disturb Zhang Xiaoxue, didn't turn on the lights, but his extraordinary perception power detected someone was in his room.
It was already midnight, and pitch dark at that. Who could be in his room?
"Damn, could it be a thief!" Startled, Xia Liu silently approached the bed. Just as his fist tightened, ready to strike, he sniffed a faint fragrance.
Xia Liu was very familiar with this smell, it was the unique scent of Zhang Xiaoxue.
"Why is Zhang Xiaoxue in my room?" Xia Liu wondered. Could it be that the girl had walked into the wrong room while sleepwalking?
That seemed unlikely, as she was smarter than most people.
"Brother Xia Liu, is that you coming back?" Just as Xia Liu was imagining the possibilities, a faint light from a cellphone shone over.
"Xiaoxue, why aren't you sleeping in your own room?" Hearing this, Xia Liu breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that he hadn't acted on his impulse, or he might have caused a disaster.
Just when Xia Liu was unclear about the situation, a small hand grabbed him in the dark, followed by Zhang Xiaoxue's voice, soft as a mosquito: "Brother Xia Liu, I saw everything just now, I want to be with Brother Xia Liu too."
Xia Liu's body shivered. Zhang Xiaoxue had said she saw everything. Could it be that she had followed him to Zhang Qing's house?
Even so, nothing had happened between him and Zhang Qing at that time. What did she even see, that was nonsense...
"Xiaoxue, what did you see?"
This chapter upload first at NovelUsb.Com
"I saw her embracing you..." Zhang Xiaoxue said shyly, she had returned immediately after witnessing that.
She was a determined person. If Zhang Qing could be with Xia Liu, she couldn't lose; she wanted to be with Xia Liu too.
"My heavens, Xiaoxue, don't overthink it. I was just going to give Sister-in-law Zhang some money and also asked about some fertility issues." To prevent her from going astray, Xia Liu started explaining his and Zhang Qing's, as well as Zhang Kuang's, situation.
After hearing Xia Liu's explanation, Zhang Xiaoxue fell silent for a while, then muttered, "Who knows what you were doing..."
"Xiaoxue! Get up, you can't do this anymore!" Knowing that mere words were not enough, Xia Liu scolded her sternly.
Zhang Xiaoxue was clearly frightened. In the dark, she quickly put on her clothes, waited for Xia Liu's instructions, and even sobbed a bit, dreading Xia Liu's anger the most.
"Alright, Xiaoxue, it was my fault just now, I apologize to you. Go back and rest now." Xia Liu feared making women sad the most, especially if the woman was someone he cared about.
"Brother Xia Liu is the best, it was Xiaoxue overthinking, I'll go rest now."
Xia Liu was very grateful for the Five Elements Mantra passed down by the old man. Without this cultivation technique, he wouldn't be where he was today.
Thinking back to when he first came into contact with the Five Elements Mantra, he was very resistant, but ended up cultivating under the old man's intimidation.
Five years had passed in a blink of an eye. During this time, he had realized the enormous help the Five Elements Mantra had provided him, but the old man had already passed away...
The next morning, Xia Liu ended his cultivation. Even though he hadn't slept all night, just circulating the Five Elements Mantra and absorbing nature's spiritual energy kept him refreshed for several days, and his mental condition was still very good.
The villagers also rose early, gathering in front of Xia Liu's house before heading to harvest Atractylodes. Xia Liu had set this rule because of the abundant wild animals in the mountains that appeared unpredictably. Venturing into the mountains alone and encountering wolves was extremely dangerous, so it was safer to enter the mountains in groups.
Xia Liu joined the villagers in the mountains. Atractylodes would eventually be depleted, and the mountain-top chickens couldn't be sold off instantly, so he needed to find another way to earn money.
However, he wasn't as lucky this time. For several days, he hadn't found any ancient herbs, nor had he come across any large fields of herbs.
But a planned action was able to continue. In the past few days, Atractylodes had been sold twice, each time totaling over fifteen hundred pounds. Liu Lanxin had transferred about one hundred twenty thousand yuan into his account, and after deducting the wages for the villagers, he still had about one hundred fifty to one hundred sixty thousand left.
This money was more than enough to hire an excavator to pave the road!
The harvesting of Atractylodes continued. Currently, most families in the village had one person participating in the harvest, even those who had originally followed Zhang Tie for construction work had returned to support Xia Liu.
This made Zhang Tie hate Xia Liu to the core. After all, losing his workforce essentially doomed him as the sole commander without support.
As for Zhang Tie's feelings, Xia Liu didn't care at all. That kind of scum needed a lesson, otherwise he'd think he could control everything.
Just like Xia Liu had said before, this was only the beginning; if Zhang Tie didn't come to apologize to Zhang Xiaoxue, none of this would end!
Additionally, when the villagers heard Xia Liu was planning to dig a road to Shanyan Village, they were extremely excited.
Previously, because of Shanyan Village's stance, their village had no car access, which greatly hindered their travel. Having a road leading to the town would be a tremendous boon.
However, everyone was still worried; Shanyan Village had been hostile toward Osmanthus Village since the liberation era, and they feared Xia Liu's efforts might be in vain.
Xia Liu reassured everyone that he could handle Shanyan Village's issues and that he would cover all the expenses for the road himself.
This action immediately won the admiration of the entire village, except for Zhang Tie's family.
However, what Xia Liu hadn't anticipated was that, after he arranged for the excavator, the people from Shanyan Village blocked him at the village entrance, preventing his vehicle from passing through.