Chapter 26: Professional, Truly Professional!
Jian Xingxia’s heart leaped into her throat.
But Fangfang was utterly oblivious, shouting with pure excitement, “The prize you won that day has arrived! It’s a whole set of solar panels! Sister Xiaxia, hurry out and receive the delivery!”
How could Jian Xingxia dare step out? She sprinted straight to the back door, spotted Da Hei, and frantically waved her hands to give him hand signals—
Hide! Go into the mountain! Don’t come out!
Seeing Da Hei project that “Master, why don’t you want me again?” look, his face a mask of grievance laced with confusion, Jian Xingxia thought fast on her feet. She yanked out two large woven sacks and stuffed them right into his bamboo basket.
“Go into the mountain and gather chestnuts! Don’t you dare come back until they are full!”
Realization suddenly dawned on Da Hei. So his master frantically waving her hands at him wasn’t telling him to scram; she was sending him into the mountain to gather chestnuts.
Joyously, Da Hei shouldered his bamboo basket and left.
Only after watching his figure completely dissolve into the wild grass did Jian Xingxia frantically sprint back to the front courtyard. The moment she arrived, she was thoroughly stunned.
The person who had come wasn’t just Fangfang; there was a small flatbed truck and practically half the village!
Leading the pack was Fangfang, who was currently explaining to the villagers with a face full of excitement, “This is what Sister Xiaxia gets for her good heart! She didn’t even want to buy that bottle of soda originally. When she bought one for my mom, my mom even wanted to return it! But when she heard about the difficulties the promotional lady faced at home, Sister Xiaxia bought two whole cases of soda right on the spot! Think about it, everyone: Sister Xiaxia couldn’t find a job in the city and couldn’t afford rent, so she had no choice but to move back to the old house. How critical must that one hundred-odd yuan be to her? Yet she was still willing to help someone else.”
Jian Xingxia: “……”
I thoroughly thank you. —Yours truly, a tragic, desolate maiden who couldn’t find a job, couldn’t afford rent, and had no choice but to move back to her old house.
Auntie Lu slapped Fangfang, looking quite self-conscious. “I didn’t know that young woman was having such a hard time at home. I just felt a single bottle of soda was terribly expensive. At my age, why would I care about drinking soda anyway…”
But no one paid attention to Auntie Lu’s defense. Everyone eagerly urged Fangfang to continue: “And then? What happened next?”
Fangfang gripped the railing of the old house’s front courtyard, standing on the half-meter-high stone foundation beneath the fence, her narration exceptionally vivid: “Sister Xiaxia didn’t even want to draw a prize originally, but that promotional lady absolutely insisted on letting her. Sister Xiaxia just casually drew one. The moment she scratched it open—boom, the grand prize!”
Fangfang reminisced, thoroughly immersed: “The network signal wasn’t great that day, so we could only see the screen display ‘solar energy something-something’ after the promotional lady scanned the code. Sister Xiaxia was pressed for time and the pickup truck was waiting, so we had to come back first. Who would have thought the prize she won would be this massive! An entire set of solar panels!”
Fangfang spoke with fervor, and the villagers listened intently, filled with both awe and envy.
“Earlier, when Hu Da and the others were promoting these photovoltaic panels, they said a set cost sixty thousand yuan! A purchase of a hundred-odd yuan ended up winning a grand prize worth over sixty thousand. This Xiaxia truly possesses some incredible luck.” The speaker’s tone was dripping with envy.
A neighboring villager chided him, “This is what you call a good person getting a good reward! Xiaxia’s grandmother accumulated blessings for her; this luck rightfully belongs to her.”
“Exactly. If it were you, would you be willing to spend over a hundred yuan on soda just to help someone?”
“Well… I wouldn’t bear to…”
While there was a touch of envy and a bit of sourness, most of the people were genuinely happy for Jian Xingxia. Humanity was simply like that: if Jian Xingxia had returned clad in gold and silver, driving a fancy car, the villagers might not have been this thrilled about her winning a prize. But Jian Xingxia’s mother was gone, her biological father didn’t want her, and she had returned alone, carrying her own luggage and bags, stumbling her way up the mountain path. They had heard that both the roof and the stairs had collapsed, and even her electricity bill had been advanced by Hu Da…
Faced with such a pitiful child, the villagers couldn’t help but feel a collective heart ache for her.
The villagers openly discussed this at the entrance without any reservation, leaving Jian Xingxia almost afraid that if she, the “tragic heroine of a melodrama,” stepped out, she might ruin everyone’s fun.
She noticed that while Fangfang and the villagers were talking, the people on the truck hadn’t disembarked. Jian Xingxia walked over to open the gate, and Fangfang let out a loud shout, “Sister Xiaxia is here! The prize winner is here!”
A man disembarked from the truck, holding a document to verify Jian Xingxia’s information. “Are you Ms. Jian Xingxia?”
Jian Xingxia nodded. “Yes, that’s me.”
For some inexplicable reason, she felt the people on the truck were a bit peculiar; their presence and aura felt strikingly similar to Taoya and Da Hei.
After the man verified the information, he indicated everything was correct. “Your prize has arrived: a solar power generation system totaling one hundred square meters. We will install it for you free of charge. Please specify the installation location.”
Where else could solar panels be installed? Dazed, Jian Xingxia pointed toward the roof of the second floor.
“Install them up there. Install half, roughly sixty square meters. As for the remaining forty square meters, help me install half in the front courtyard and half in the back courtyard as awnings, if that’s alright?”
Jian Xingxia saw that the large truck carried aluminum alloy support beams. The installation of solar panels followed a similar principle to color steel tiles; they could be propped up using pillars, serving as handy sheds while they were at it.
The man nodded. “Understood. As long as you specify the location, it’s fine.”
With that, another five men disembarked from the truck—six people in total. Without uttering a word, they began unloading the materials in an orderly and disciplined fashion.
The villagers crowded around the truck, letting out appreciative clicks of their tongues. A few enthusiastic locals wanted to help, but the men from the truck politely declined, “No need, thank you. We have specialized equipment and don’t require extra labor.”
As they spoke, they lowered a miniature crane from the truck, using a pulley system to hoist the stacked photovoltaic panels straight up.
“Wait, hold on. How did they get up to the roof?”
Jian Xingxia had just remembered: wasn’t the staircase leading to the second floor broken? Last time the electrician went to the second floor to install the wiring, he had to climb up using a makeshift tower of tables and chairs.
She hurriedly ran to the small hall to take a look. Holy smokes—this crew had directly dismantled her old, rotted wooden steps and bolted down aluminum alloy stairs. Although it was a temporary structure built with vertical support pillars and was much narrower than a normal staircase, every single step was firmly secured and ready. Now, she could go up too.
The second floor was completely empty, and at the exact same location on the second floor, there was another set of stairs leading to the roof. At this moment, several workers on top had already begun drilling screws and installing the panels.
The nosy villagers followed her up to look. “Professional, truly professional!”
Naturally, watching solar panels being installed wasn’t particularly exciting, so the villagers began exploring all around the old house. This inspection left everyone genuinely surprised.
“She only moved here a few days ago, yet she’s already cleared out such a massive plot of land?”
“She even went into the mountain? These chestnuts are tiny; they must be wild ones from the mountains, right?”
“She’s already planted vegetables too? Ai, but planting vegetables at this time of year means they probably won’t grow well. It’s too late to turn the soil to plant grain now anyway.”
Some of the villagers offered guidance, while others merely pointed fingers. Jian Xingxia knew they harbored no ill intent, so she simply let them be.
She carried out the freshly boiled chestnuts, letting everyone grab a handful to eat. “Yes, I took a brief stroll into the mountain yesterday. I didn’t dare venture too far, but I spotted the chestnuts near the base of the mountain, so I gathered some back.”
An elderly villager nodded. “There is indeed a patch of wild chestnut trees at the foot of the mountain.”
The villagers munched on the chestnuts, envying her ability to harvest from the mountain, yet none of them voiced a desire to join her. Most of them were far more curious about an entirely different matter—
“Xiaxia, living in this old house all by yourself, have you ever run into any… strange or peculiar things?”
