Chapter 33: The Fourth Temporary Worker
From Taoya to Old Man Xu, everyone had been a perfect fit. She was finally at the point where she could hire two people a day, only to hit a roadblock with Dahei.
Still, out of the six days since her return, there were two days where she had successfully hired two workers. The estate’s upgrade progress had shifted accordingly:
[1. Estate has hired temporary workers 10 times. Progress: 8/10; 2. Estate arable land area reaches 1,000 square meters. Progress: 20/1,000; 3. Estate revenue reaches 10,000 yuan. Progress: 852/10,000.]
Condition One was almost met, and the soil for Condition Two had already been tilled. All that was left was sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings, so she didn’t need Dahei’s heavy labor for the time being.
She now needed to focus on Condition Three: the estate’s revenue. Of the three conditions, this one was by far the hardest to achieve.
Jian Xingxia was just thankful that the estate only counted revenue, not savings. Otherwise, given her speed at earning and saving money, who knew how long it would take her to hoard ten thousand yuan?
Nearby, Dahei was still eating with heavy, rhythmic chomps, nursing his secret sorrow.
Jian Xingxia comforted him. “Once the estate upgrades, I’ll be able to hire more people. When the time comes, I’ll definitely look for you if there’s work!”
She was also reluctant to let go of such a high-quality, budget-friendly temporary worker.
Once Dahei left, Jian Xingxia could finally sit down and enjoy her meal in peace.
Oh my gosh, this clay-pot chicken soup is absolutely delicious. The wild chicken meat was both tender and firm, the chestnuts had been simmered until they melted in the mouth, and the golden oil floating atop the chicken broth wasn’t greasy at all. It was incredibly fragrant and paired perfectly with the noodles.
Back when she was at school, Jian Xingxia could only eat at the cafeteria and rarely ordered expensive dishes. She had never eaten over half a chicken all by herself like she had these past two days.
Life in the mountains was tough, but Jian Xingxia finally had a home of her own. She could cook, she could farm, and she could buy things she liked.
To her, this kind of life wasn’t bitter at all.
As the sun sank below the horizon, Jian Xingxia turned on the lights early, continuing to simmer chestnuts under the bright glow.
From afternoon until evening, she boiled five pots of chestnuts. Three pots were original flavor, yielding about forty catties, and two pots were rock-sugar flavor, yielding ten catties per pot.
With sixty catties of chestnuts in total, the chest freezer was just about full.
Massaging her aching arms, Jian Xingxia put the washed pots, bowls, ladles, and pans back where they belonged, then treated herself to a comfortable bath.
There was no water heater in the bathroom, but Jian Xingxia had filled a bucket with water beforehand and left it out in the yard to bake in the sun all day. It reached about thirty-odd degrees Celsius—perfectly fine for a makeshift wash in the summer.
But today was different. She had an electric kettle now. By boiling two kettles of boiling water and mixing it in, the water temperature rose instantly, making this bath vastly more comfortable.
Jian Xingxia scooped the water ladle by ladle, letting it splash over her body, practically bubbling with happiness.
After a long, exhausting day, she slept exceptionally well that night.
On her seventh day back at the old house, Jian Xingxia had already grown accustomed to waking up early in the morning before dawn had even broken.
She checked the estate management system first. Sure enough, that fellow Dahei had given her another 60-point rating. Jian Xingxia felt past the point of annoyance.
She decisively switched workers today.
[Recruiting one temporary worker. Job Description: Cooking. Working Hours: 4 hours.]
It was easy to invite a deity but hard to send them away. Jian Xingxia didn’t dare select a duration that was too long. Plus, she wanted to visit the town in the afternoon, so she chose four hours.
After posting the recruitment notice, Jian Xingxia lit the fire to continue boiling chestnuts. If she worked quickly, she could manage two more pots this morning.
Just as the first pot of chestnuts went in, Jian Xingxia noticed a thin, gaunt woman standing outside the backyard, eyeing the old house with doubt and trepidation.
Jian Xingxia was already used to this by now. She covered the pot, wiped her hands on an old towel, and stepped out the back door.
Catching sight of someone coming out, the woman panicked and tried to hide behind a stack of straw.
“Hey, don’t be afraid! I’m the owner here. Are you looking for work?” Jian Xingxia stopped in her tracks and called out clearly.
The woman turned around hesitantly, showing only half her face. “Is Miss… is Miss the Fairy Proprietress of the Estate?”
“Huh?”
Jian Xingxia had just gained another title.
Lin Sanniang felt incredibly anxious. When her eldest daughter, Taoya, came home, the girl had been all over the place. At one moment, she claimed the employer was a fairy of boundless magical power who could light up a room out of thin air with a wave of her hand. The next moment, she claimed the employer was a wealthy estate owner who possessed several mountains, with more wild vegetables and fruits than anyone could ever finish eating.
Before coming here, Lin Sanniang had resolved to be proper and well-behaved, making sure not to offend. Yet, now that she was actually facing the person, she found herself stuttering, momentarily unsure how to address her.
Looking at the woman’s face, which bore a striking resemblance to Taoya’s, and piecing it together with the title she used, Jian Xingxia guessed, “Do you know Taoya?”
It really is this place!
Lin Sanniang felt a mixture of joy and trepidation. She bowed deeply. “In reply to Miss, Taoya is this humble woman’s daughter.”
So it really is Taoya’s mother!
Jian Xingxia waved her over. “Don’t be afraid. Come a bit closer.”
Seeing that Jian Xingxia was indeed gentle and approachable just as Taoya had described, Lin Sanniang plucked up her courage and took a few steps forward. She stopped right near the backyard gate, allowing Jian Xingxia to look her over.
Jian Xingxia noticed that she didn’t cough when she spoke. Although she had a fragile build, her spine was straight and proud, which brought considerable relief.
She opened the backyard gate. “Is your illness better? Are you still coughing? Your fever should have broken, right?”
Lin Sanniang noticed that Jian Xingxia’s accent was different from hers. It sounded somewhat like the official dialect of the Daliang Dynasty. Having frequently washed clothes and cooked for official and wealthy households in the past, it wasn’t difficult for her to understand.
Imitating the official dialect, she replied carefully, “In reply to Miss, this humble woman’s illness is fully cured.”
At this point, Lin Sanniang knelt flat on the ground and sincerely kowtowed three times to Jian Xingxia.
“This humble woman is deeply grateful for Miss’s great kindness in bestowing the miracle medicine, saving my life and keeping my three children from wandering the streets as beggars. I will forever remember your benevolence, Miss, and will pray for you day and night…”
Standing a few paces away, Jian Xingxia couldn’t stop her in time and bore the brunt of the grand gesture.
Jian Xingxia wept silently in her heart: Oh heavens, oh heavens… I really didn’t make them kowtow. Please don’t count this debt against my cosmic karma, okay?
As a model youth of the modern era, she absolutely couldn’t handle the sheer weight of someone kneeling to her.
Jian Xingxia helped Lin Sanniang up, her tone rather helpless. “Didn’t Taoya tell you? We don’t do kneeling and bowing here.”
Lin Sanniang grew flustered. “Taoya did mention it, but I… I thought…”
To her, Jian Xingxia had saved her life. Let alone kowtowing, even a grander gesture wouldn’t be enough to repay such kindness!
Jian Xingxia instructed her, “Don’t do these empty formalities in the future. Here with me, just focus on doing a good job… uh, I mean, just work hard, and that’ll be enough.”
Lin Sanniang nodded solemnly, then asked carefully, “May I ask what tasks Miss has for me?”
Jian Xingxia brought Lin Sanniang into the kitchen and said, “Do you know how to cook? I plan to make some chestnut snacks to sell for money. The work isn’t hard, but it needs to be clean, hygienic, and quick.”
Saying this, she explained the cooking steps for the two types of chestnuts to Lin Sanniang. “How about it? Think you can do it?”
She put down the spatula and turned around, only to see that the shock on Lin Sanniang’s face was even heavier than when she had first arrived.
“What’s wrong? Is it too hard?” Jian Xingxia was a bit uncertain. “That shouldn’t be the case. I listed requirements when hiring…”
Someone who knew how to cook shouldn’t find boiling chestnuts too difficult, right?
Lin Sanniang was profoundly shaken. As a woman who had spent her life doing odd jobs and manual labor for others, her worldly experience far exceeded Taoya’s.
Yet, she had never seen an employer like Jian Xingxia.
At this moment, the last trace of anxiety in Lin Sanniang’s heart was crushed by her astonishment. She was finally convinced that the employer before her possessed a magnanimous heart and a pure, innocent nature, exactly as Taoya had said.
After a moment of thought, Jian Xingxia said indulgently, “If you don’t know how, just watch for now. I’ll make a batch, and you can just copy what I do.”
If she were to suddenly time-travel hundreds or thousands of years into the future and face a world full of virtual screens and AI robots, she would probably be dazed too.
Faced with Jian Xingxia’s questions and arrangements, Lin Sanniang nodded hurriedly, then quickly shook her head.
“In reply to Miss, this humble woman knows how to do all these tasks. I was merely surprised… that Miss would reveal your secret recipe to me just like that.”
