The villagers chattered incessantly, their hands moving just as quickly.
"Before, we were so lazy and idle, always envious of Village Chief Li's family who got rich. Our words were unpleasant then…"
"Team Leader Tian, that is, Village Chief Li's wife, got angry and stopped selling seedlings to us…"
"Later on, Village Chief Li was directly appointed village chief by Magistrate Ji…"
"...Haha, our laziness was cured by Village Chief Li. Actually, we were cured by Village Chief Li's punishments."
"For the smallest things, he just kept punishing us. We were scared into being honest."
"See how busy and tired we are? But we're happy. See the little Western-style houses in the village? Two per household, all built uniformly for us by Village Chief Li. More will be built in the future."
"They said the old courtyard would be demolished later, but after Team Leader Tian and her people worked on it, we're reluctant to tear it down now."
"It holds the experiences of several generations of us, our childhood memories."
A man asked curiously, "Listening to you speak, you sound quite cultured?"
"Hahahaha."
The villagers laughed, wiping tears from the corners of their eyes. "Speaking of which, this brings us back to Village Chief Li's punishment system."
"You've heard of the village holding literacy classes, but have you ever heard of a law class? Our village has one."
"Before Village Chief Li became village chief, through his and his wife's hands, five villagers were sent to prison, three were eating free prison meals, and two were already executed."
"As soon as he became village chief, he immediately started a law class, saying we shouldn't be ignorant of the law, and shouldn't waste our precious time in jail…"
"…Us, who couldn't recognize a single character, held notebooks and memorized them by rote. We had no choice but to memorize, or we'd be punished for failing."
"…Village Chief Li said that after memorizing, over time, we'd be able to apply it flexibly."
"See how we speak now, using all sorts of vocabulary and idioms so fluently? It's all a result of Village Chief Li's punishments."
"For the past two months, he's been preparing for your arrival, but because outsiders were investigating a case in the back mountain, he gave up using the loudspeaker to lecture us."
"Every evening, he personally visited our homes, tirelessly praising the unyielding integrity of soldiers."
"Therefore, your differences, in our eyes, are the same as ours. You're just missing some non-essential parts."
"Can a bicycle still ride without a back seat? Can a tractor still plow without a carriage?"
"As long as you find the right direction, anyone can forge their own golden path."
"So, you don't need to overthink, nor worry about the missing parts. You are normal people, heroes who have protected our peace."
"We welcome your arrival, and even more so, we welcome you to move in."
Being so directly pointed out their physical deficiencies by the villager, the man felt no repulsion. Instead, he felt that this was how they should interact.
However, they had further questions.
"You and the children are all urging us to move in, but something feels off when I listen to you?"
"Hehehehe."
The villager chuckled dryly, glanced outside the greenhouse, and said in a low voice, "Village Chief Li is decisive. Before he even announced he was village chief, he had already fixed sixty-eight households for us with Magistrate Ji."
"Heh, we know the reason. Because the former village chief, now Deputy Village Chief Ou, kept urging us to split our households, and we refused."
"In Kushan, for hundreds of years, there were only sixty-eight households. Village Chief Li just made a sweeping decision and fixed us at sixty-eight households."
"The longer time goes on, the greater the disparity between the per capita share within each household becomes."
"Households with many people look forward to the next household split, and households with few people also look forward to splitting. Because welfare is distributed according to households."
"If you move in, the fixed sixty-eight households will cease to exist, and there will be hope for household splits."
The men chuckled. Mulling over the Village Chief Li described by the villagers.
"So, what are your true feelings and opinions about Village Chief Li?"
"Hahahaha."
The villager burst into laughter. "You don't think we're afraid of him, do you? He's actually just a paper tiger. All this punishing, in the end, it's all recorded on the village's public ledger."
"This is what Accountant Zhou secretly told us. You must not tell anyone."
"Before, we both feared and hated him. Later, we felt both love and hate. Now, we feel both love and respect."
"He truly works wholeheartedly for the village's development. If he worked for himself, he would have amassed mountains of gold by now."
The villager glanced at the outside of the plastic sheeting and waved at the man, "Shhh, let's not talk about it anymore. You'll understand later."
Saying this, she looked up. "Team Leader Guihua."
Sister Guihua, with a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other, said, "Huang Lao San's wife, I heard your loud voice from afar. Have you been talking nonsense to the new comrades?"
"No, no, absolutely not."
Huang Lao San's wife shook her head repeatedly. "Village Chief Li and Secretary Yang's ideological and political lessons are so headache-inducing and sleep-inducing, I would never dare."
"Dare not?"
Sister Guihua's penmanship was swift. "What you just said is speaking ill of Village Chief Li and Secretary Yang. I've noted it down."
"Remember, you've already been noted down twice. If I catch you again, you'll be on the village committee's blacklist."
"Team Leader Guihua~"
"Go, go, go. Get away from here. Calling ancestors won't help. I'm leaving."
Sister Guihua turned to leave, then turned back to the man and said, "Oh, right, new comrade, take what she says with a pinch of salt."
"She can't keep secrets. Don't tell her too much. Be careful she doesn't spread it around."
Huang Lao San was so angry at Sister Guihua's proud, erect back that he almost snapped the vine in his hand.
"New comrade, don't listen to Team Leader Guihua. She's like a petty official wielding authority. She's always looking for people's faults."
The man felt a little embarrassed. "It's my fault. You're trying to enlighten me."
"It's alright, it's alright."
Huang Lao San's wife waved her hand. "Didn't I tell you that even if punished, it would be secretly entered into the public ledger? We all know it in secret."
"But we still maintain our previous respect. Not only for Village Chief Li's respect, but also for the respect of those team leaders and members who work tirelessly, they are all volunteers."
The men finished touring all the greenhouses and returned to their dormitories.
The temporary dorm chiefs of the two dormitories convened all forty people for a meeting.
First, they consolidated all the information each person had gathered.
Then, they set a goal for future work.
Of course, the issue of bringing families would need to be decided after some time.
As they were discussing, the voices of children could be heard from outside.
"Uncle, we brought water for you."
Water?
The men with good mobility were quick. They hurried out of the courtyard gate and saw the children's scooters with small water buckets on them.
Those small water buckets probably held only a little more than a washbasin of water.
Using scooters, it wasn't strenuous.
Even so, the men couldn't bear to let the children get tired.
They wanted to follow the children to fetch water.
The children refused, "The guards at the bridge will help. We are just pushing the carts, it's not tiring."
The men were unwilling to accept favors. They took their large scooters and used the large water buckets from the kitchen to fetch water.