Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside-Chapter 174: Ingratiating

Gu Jinli glanced at He Sanlai and said, "Not too bad."

He Guangcai and his group were originally pounding on the door forcefully, but were scared off by a tirade of filthy language from He Sanlai who had rushed over.

To deal with someone as troublesome, someone like He Sanlai was needed, someone who could dare to fight and didn’t care about ripping into others.

Receiving affirmation, He Sanlai laughed, revealing his yellow teeth, and tactfully left to continue digging and carrying mud at the foot of the mountain.

After He Sanlai left, Qin San Lang asked Gu Jinli, "Why did you stop me from driving He Guangcai and the others away?"

Gu Jinli replied, "We aren’t home every day. If they don’t get work this time, they will come again in the future. What if they come to bother us next time when we’re not around? It’s better to let them make a scene this time until the village chief He steps in to deal with them himself."

Only she and Gu Jin’an knew some martial arts at home. Gu Jinxiu was learning, but her skills were very average. Moreover, as a young girl, Gu Jinxiu couldn’t handle so many villagers by herself. It was necessary for Village Chief He to step in, so the He family would deal with their own, to prevent those He family members looking for work from holding a grudge against the Gu Family.

If there were grudges, they should be directed towards Village Chief He.

Don’t say she’s cunning. Her goals since reincarnation were clear: to protect her family and ensure that she and her family could live comfortably and simply. She would push those troublesome and annoying matters to others whenever possible. She wouldn’t trouble herself with managing them.

Qin San Lang understood; she was leveraging power against power, using Village Chief He’s hands to suppress those who dared to come and bother them.

And her suppression was just beginning.

The next day when He Dacang and others came to get tofu, the Gu Family cut down their supply to only two hundred and fifty catties, a full one hundred and fifty catties less than yesterday’s four hundred catties.

Seeing this, Village Chief He immediately understood Gu Jinli’s intention.

He did not blame the Gu Family; it was his own He family members who were causing too much trouble. Therefore, after leaving the Gu Family, he only let He Wanli and the others go out to sell tofu, keeping He Dacang at home to beat the drum and gather the He family members at the ancestral hall. He beat He Guangcai and several of the most troublesome He family members from yesterday with thirty heavy strikes each.

Feeling extremely wronged, He Guangcai and the others cried out, "Uncle Chief, we haven’t done anything bad, why are you beating us?"

Village Chief He scolded, "You haven’t done anything bad? Weren’t you the ones who made a ruckus at the Gu Family’s place asking for work yesterday?"

"We just went to ask for work, we didn’t smash or destroy anything, is that wrong too?" He Guangcai truly felt wronged to death.

"Rubbish! You haven’t done anything wrong? If your family were to open a workshop and, before putting out word to hire, a big group of people surrounded your home, banging on the door, yelling to work for you, what would you think? Would you hire those who came knocking?"

Pointing at them, Village Chief He cursed, "You bunch of bandits, relying on the fact the Gu Family is new here and looking down on them, dared to go and demand work. The Lu Family has workshops and shops too, why don’t you go there in groups to ask for work? A bunch of bullies who are cowards at heart!"

After Village Chief He tired from scolding, he rested for a while then continued, "Do you know that the Gu Family has already promised me that if they open a workshop and need people, they will first consider hiring our He family members? Your ruckus yesterday, if it ruins this deal, I will drive you out of the village."

Hearing this, the other He family members were all shocked, "The Gu Family promised you to hire us for work? Oh, why didn’t you say so earlier? Now, with this commotion caused by He Guangcai and the others, it’s likely to fall through."

They scolded He Guangcai and his lot: "It’s all your ruckus that ruined what was a perfectly good thing. Now, this job is bound to be spoiled."

Village Chief He said: "If this job really goes south, don’t come begging me. Just take your families and leave the village. Keeping you here will only bring disaster upon the entire He family."

He took the opportunity to warn the He family members present: "If you want to be in the tofu business, if you want work and to earn money, you need to behave yourselves. Don’t go bothering the Gu Family with a whole crowd. Whoever dares to do that again, ruining the livelihood of the entire He family, I won’t let them off easily!"

"Yes, yes, Village Chief, rest assured, we’ve learned our lesson and wouldn’t dare go to the Gu Family in groups to ask for work again."

Hearing their promises calmed Village Chief He down a bit.

After the beating of He Guangcai and his lot, even if the He family members were anxious and wanted to work at the Gu Family’s workshop, no one dared to harass the Gu Family anymore.

When Gu Jinli heard about Village Chief He beating He Guangcai and the others, the next day, he increased the tofu order for He Dacang and the others to four hundred jin.

And after three days of repairs, the mud house that was being converted into a workshop was almost fixed up.

Gu Jinli, worried that the rainy season would bring leaks in the thatched roofs and damage the spices, asked Gu Dashan to tell He Laoguo and his people to collect old tiles from ten miles and eight villages.

New tiles were expensive, costing two cents each, but collecting old ones from the surrounding villages, two would cost only one cent. Although each had chips and cracks, they were still usable and better than thatch roofs.

After three days of collection, they finally amassed one thousand five hundred old tiles. They replaced the roofs of three houses with tiles, while the remaining two houses continued using thatch tops. Those two were used for grinding and filtering soy milk, which wasn’t an issue.

After the roofs were finished, the house floors were also tamped down and sprinkled with white lime.

Scholar Shang knew that they were opening a workshop and needed stone mills and mortars. As it happened, there were people in the Shang Family Village who dealt in these, so he took Gu Dashan and Gu Jin’an to Manager Shang at the stone material workshop. They bought three stone mills and eight mortars, along with other stone tools for grinding spices, at twenty percent less than the market price.

These items were very heavy, and it took Manager Shang and his workers two whole days to transport everything.

In the meantime, Gu Jinli visited Xuanhu Fang and spoke with Doctor Wu about increasing the purchase of spice ingredients.

Several of the spice ingredients she used were medicinal herbs, and she trusted Doctor Wu, always buying her spice ingredients from Xuanhu Fang.

However, she needed a large quantity this time, so she had to wait a few days.

Gu Jinli was not in a hurry, as their families were still busy with spring farming, and they would only start the workshop after the spring farming was over.

However, while she was not in a rush, the people of Da Feng Village certainly were.

With Village Chief He’s warning, the He family members didn’t dare to pester the Gu Family anymore. Instead, they went to the Tian Family, the Gu brothers Gu Damu and Gu Dalin, and the Gu brothers Gu Dafu and Gu Dagui, trying to ingratiate themselves with them, hoping they would relent and let their own families work in the workshop.

They knew that while the Gu Family had bought the houses for the workshop, the business involved multiple families - Qin, Gu, Luo, and Tian. Thinking they couldn’t bother the Gu Family anymore, they decided to suck up to the other families involved.

Aunt Tian and Uncle Tian were honest folks, unable to cope with the villagers’ flattery. They would avoid the villagers whenever they saw them, and wouldn’t even dare to answer the door when someone knocked.

With Old Mrs. Yan at the helm, the Gu brothers Damu and Dalin’s family were not swayed by the villagers’ flattery. However, the Gu brothers Dafu and Dagui were struggling to stand firm, especially Gu Yumei, who was so buoyed by the flattery from the village’s young ladies and married women that she was practically walking on air.